Monday, May 29, 2006
The Great Indian Cricket Circus
THE GREAT INDIAN CRICKET CIRCUS
Lalit Modi
Full name Lalit Kumar Modi
Born November 29, 1963, Delhi, India
Current age 42 years 247 days
Born in Delhi, living in Mumbai and originally from Rajasthan, Lalit Kumar Modi has been in the forefront of all the Indian Cricket Board's commercial activities since the Sharad Pawar-led group ousted Jagmohan Dalmiya in the 2005 elections. Modi, president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association and vice-president of the Punjab Cricket Association, where he has spent many years watching Inderjit Bindra, his mentor, work, emerged as one of the youngest vice-presidents of the BCCI.
His single-minded drive to fully monetise every aspect of Indian cricket set the alarm bells ringing, and his confrontational, cocky manner have caused people to sit up and take notice. There is no doubting his business acumen - the BCCI's revenues have increased seven-fold since he took office - but his lack of restraint when dealing with organisations like the International Cricket Council, his grandstanding, and his seemingly arrogant manner have not endeared him equally to all. "If Dalmiya does not give a proper answer to the show cause notice, we will put him in jail and throw away the keys," Modi thundered in typical fashion after the new regime went after Dalmiya for alleged financial irregularities. Modi comes from a business background - he is the scion of Modi Enterprises a 4000-crore group, and sits on the board of Godfrey Philips, one of
Anand Vasu March 2006
RSS Feeds| SMS CRI to 8888 for latest updates
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, July 12: The Indian Cricket Board has issued a show cause notice to Lalit Kumar Modi of Rajasthan Cricket Association on the basis of a complaint that he had been convicted by a Court in the
In the notice issued on July 11, the Board asked Modi why disciplinary action should not be initiated against him including expulsion and monetary fines as dealing with drugs was a serious offence under the BCCI code of conduct, a BCCI release said here today.
The notice was issued as per the BCCI rules on the basis of a complaint that Modi had been convicted by the court in the
Posted on 21 June, 2006 # PTI
HC issues notice to BCCI on PIL seeking Lalit Modi's removal
Mumbai:
The direction was given by a bench on a Public Interest Litigation filed by Chandravardhan Parekh seeking a direction to remove Modi as BCCI's office bearer on the ground that he was convicted by a
The PIL alleged that Modi was convicted by a foreign court for possessing 400 grams cocaine.
As possession of drugs was a serious offence, Modi should not be allowed to hold a responsible position in BCCI since it would tarnish its image in international circles, the PIL contended.
The court decided to hear the matter after four weeks after directing BCCI to file its response.
BCCI issues show cause notice to Lalit Modi
PTI
News: Front Page | National | Tamil Nadu | Andhra Pradesh | Karnataka | Kerala | New Delhi | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous | Engagements |
Advts: Classifieds | Jobs | Obituary |
National 
Notice to BCCI on appointment of Lalit Modi
Mumbai: The
In the petition, a cricket fan — Chandervardhan Parekh — alleged that Mr. Modi was found guilty of possessing 400 gm of cocaine by a district court in
Showcause, at least, on RCA chief
- BCCI MEETING
- Kamal Morarka on the offensive; Jagmohan Dalmiya tears into TNCA
LOKENDRA PRATAP SAHI
Calcutta: The Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) president, Lalit Modi, is set to at least be showcaused by the Board of Control for Cricket in
What happens thereafter should largely be determined by Modi’s reply. However, the possibility of his being suspended straightaway is being explored by the parent body.
Modi is accused of “suppressing” details of his conviction in the
With senior-most BCCI vice-president Kamal Morarka (a former Union minister and an old RCA hand) taking the initiative, the Modi issue was deliberated upon at some length on the first day of the working committee meeting at a new resort near Kovalam.
The meeting concludes on Friday and an official announcement is expected before the members disperse. Morarka, of course, wants Modi suspended immediately.
That action (under rule 38-IV) awaits Modi was first reported by The Telegraph on Tuesday.
Modi had pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of cocaine and false imprisonment coupled with simple assault of one Alexander van Dyne.
Documents placed before the working committee showed he entered into a “plea arrangement” and got a reduced sentence of two years which was executed through five years of “supervised probation.”
Besides the ethical aspect, the RCA’s own ‘constitution’ (amended after an ordinance which is now an act) debars anybody convicted from contesting/holding office.
In fact, according to sources, Morarka even asked the working committee whether it’s desirable to have a “drug-trafficker” at the head of an affiliated unit.
While nobody defended Modi (the RCA isn’t on the working committee), a couple of members opposed to the present dispensation did raise “technical points.”
One being Morarka had, through an affidavit in an ongoing case, also moved the Supreme Court. He then clarified that had nothing to do with the BCCI acting against the head of an affiliate
Boria demands apology from Lalit Modi
Kolkata | March 09, 2006
Cricket historian Boria Mazumdar today demanded an ''unconditional'' and ''unqualified'' apology from Board vice-president Lalit Modi for allegedly casting aspersions on his credibility as an author among other things.
Strongly reacting to Mr Modi's allegation that Mr Mazumdar's book ''22 Yards to Freedom'' was ''not a social history of Indian cricket, but in reality is a history of Dalmiya and that Mr Boria was given Rs 52 lakh for this assignment'', the latter told UNI, '' It is blatant lie to say the least. '' . '' It is not only a scar on my intellectual credibility as a scholar of history but also a black mark on BCCI itself, '' Mr Mazumdar stated.
He further said, ''I was given a fee of 15,000 pound which comes to little more than 10 lakhs in Indian currency.'' He has also written this in a letter addressed to Mr Lalit Modi that was made available to the press.
He further said that the claims made by Mr Modi has ''damaged his intellectual credibility and subjected him to public ridicule with a malicious intent''.
Copy of the letter has also been sent to BCCI president Sharad Pawar and BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah.
UNI BA TJP AY RK2028
Home -> News -> India -> Full Story
New Delhi: In a jolt to Modi Entertainment Networks Ltd (MEN) over a contractual dispute, a
Rejecting Lalit Modi-controlled MEN's claim for advertising revenues, the Supreme Court of
"The letter of agreement clearly and unambiguously bases the amount owed to MEN on account of revenue received. But even if parole evidence could be considered to vary, the unambiguous terms of the contracts, the evidence on which MEN relies, fails to support its contention," the jury said in its order passed recently.
MEN's claim was based on the 1995 "side agreement" it had with the ESPN to distribute the sports channel in the country which ended in December 2000.
According to the agreement, ESPN
However, ESPN's counter claim was based on the "distribution agreement" and it was undisputed that MEN stopped paying the broadcaster during the last four months.
The jury declined to accept MEN's plea that the sum owed by it was to be paid in Indian Rupees.
When contacted, an MEN official confirmed the jury's order but declined to comment on it and Lalit Modi was not available for comment despite several attempts.
PTI
Zee to sue Lalit Modi for Rs 50 crore
By a correspondent
Mumbai,
Zee Group under Subhash Chandra's leadership will sue the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) new Vice President Lalit Modi for using "Abusive and foul language" against its sports channel CEO Himanshu Modi.
"We will be filing a defamation suit against Lalit Modi for Rs 50 crore for using filthy and abusive language against Zee Sports CEO Himanshu Modi", Zee Group Executive Vice President and spokesperson Ashish Kaul said last night.
It is understood that Lalit Modi had a heated exchange with Himanshu during the bidding for the overseas media rights for a minimum of 25 games to played by
FTV to press civil, criminal charges against MEN
From http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k3/june/june94.htm
MUMBAI: Fashion TV has finally decided to act. In a statement issued yesterday in
According to the statement, the move to press charges was triggered when the fashion channel was informed that Modi Entertainment Network, which had a distribution agreement with FTV, 'was entering into agreements selling the 'Fashion Bars' concept to third parties'.
According to the release, FTV has been informed that 'MEN is collecting substantial advance payments of as much as $100 000 even though the agreement between MEN and Fashion TV has been terminated'.
While MEN, which has maintained a stoic silence these past two weeks after pressing charges against FTV for having entered into parallel ad sales agreement with the Worldwide Channel and starting a FTA feed on Asiasat 2, FTV now seems determined to get even with its former ally.
'Even during the validity of the agreement, Modi needed the express written permission to engage Fashion TV in long term partnerships or franchising agreements such as Fashion Bars. Legal counsels in Paris consider this act by Modi as fraud as Modi has never and does not have in the present day the right to sign such agreements and take deposit, advance payments and royalties,' the statement says.
MEN and Fashion TV had launched the Fashion Bar in
Fashion TV is now appealing the stay order form
The channel has openly declared war with MEN, advising 'all interested parties to verify their commercial relationship between MODI Group and Fashion TV with their legal counsels.'
The ball now seems to be back in the Modis' court.
Ten distributor cries foul
M. RAJENDRAN
Modi, who has the distribution rights for Ten Sports in India through Modi Entertainment Network (MEN), says he has signed a deal with Taj Television — the Abdul Rahman Bukhatir-run holding company that owns the Dubai-based sports channel — and will claim damages of over Rs 208 crore arising from the Supreme Court’s order to provide the telecast feed to Doordarshan.
“We have already signed a deal with Ten Sports under which we have undertaken to pay a minimum distribution guarantee amount of Rs 110 crore (Rs 9 crore a month as part of the 30-month contract). We have now assessed the damages as a result of the court order at Rs 208 crore. This is just the damages and not the loss; the losses would be higher. The details will be submitted to the court on April 15,” Modi said.
Industry experts were a little puzzled by Modi’s statement — and unable to fathom how he arrived at the figure.
Modi is cagey about the details.
He has already signed deals with most of the leading cable operators that would commit them to make payments on the basis of a revised subscriber base, the experts said.
According to industry estimates, Ten Sports is viewed by around 27 million cable households.
MEN has already tied up with the four big cable operators in the east, west, north and south who account for more than 60-70 per cent of the total subscribers.
“If the contract has already been signed with the cable operators, then the amount will have to be paid to the distributor,” an industry expert said.
MEN signed the contract with the cable operators at a rate of Rs 14 per subscriber.
The company was expecting to make a huge profit from the telecast of the cricket matches between
However, Modi feels the court ruling violates the “telecast rights” he enjoyed under an exclusive contract with Taj Television.
He said: “The contract does not allow any hike in advertising revenues due to higher viewership (Ten Sports and DD combined command 80 million subscribers).”
Jaitley steps in
Vajpayee, Jaswant Singh and Arun Jaitley had to step in, the other day, to ensure the telecast of the Indo-Pak cricket matches on DD after Prasar Bharati evinced no interest in getting the telecast rights. With a determined Ten Sports channel at the other end, there were doubts about Indian people getting to watch matches at all. It was then that I & B Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad rushed to the Prime MInister for his intervention. Prasad pleaded for an Ordinance declaring the matches as national events in order to acquire telecasting rights.
On the other hand, the Dubai-based Ten Sports was lobbying to impose its terms through one Lalit Modi, who has influential friends in the BJP. Besides, it also hired Kapil Sibbal to fight its case in the courts.
Neverthless, Arun Jaitley rang up channel owner Sheikh Bukhathir in
Jaitley was conscious that any coercion by
(
MEN set to launch online lottery, hires Marico CEO
Our Mumbai Bureau: LALIT Modi's Modi Entertainment Network (MEN) is set to foray into the online lottery business through its 100% subsidiary MWC Market Services.
The Company has already arranged for an investment of Rs.350 crores and hired Marico's CEO Shrikant Gupte to head the new venture. Over the next one year, MWC plans to install a fully computerised network of 7000 to 9000 terminals countrywide to put its lottery business into operation. The company plans to sign a foreign joint venture partner to fund its backbone infrastructure on a 50:50 basis.
MWC's formal entry into the online lottery business follows the settlement of its litigation with the Manipur state online lottery last Friday, according to MEN Vice-Chairman Lalit Modi. The company will launch its lottery business with the Manipur state lottery.
EssNet Signs A Contract With Modi Enterprises in
EssNet recently entered into a partnership with IBM, the world’s largest supplier of retail point of sale (POS) equipment, and this is the first common project where IBM terminals will operate with EssNet’s ELOS terminal software.
"We are very pleased to start this new, long-term co-operation. The Indian lottery market is huge and we have great expectations," said Hans Vigmostad, EssNet President & CEO.
"The reason we chose EssNet is that their system is flexible and offers a variety of options, including fully integrated mobile gaming," said Lalit Modi, President & Managing Director of Modi Enterprises. "We hope to be the biggest lottery in
This amicable settlement means Walt Disney Television will have no further road blocks to invest in the latter's subsidiary in
Disney which has been around in the form of movies, TV shows and merchandise in
"
"We have settled the issue amicably. Disney will now be on their own in
Both the companies signed pact to dissolve the joint business partnership after expiration of 10-year arrangement.
"We were able to make significant and lasting contributions towards raising the salience of the Disney brand and in popularising Disney characters and television programming in
In October 2001, Disney had moved the Foreign Investment Promotion Board seeking permission to set up a wholly owned subsidiary company for the purposes of launching `The Disney Channel' in
Though an initial go-ahead was received from the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion in January 2002, the Modi's had protested on the grounds that the businesses of the existing joint venture company and the proposed wholly-owned subsidiary were similar.
Disney and Modi's are working together to formalise transition plans and ensure a smooth continuity of Disney's business in
Posted on 16 July, 2006 # PTI
Microsoft for umpiring solutions in
"The deal is not finalised yet, but we are in the final stages of negotiations with Microsoft," BCCI Marketing Sub-committee Chairman Lalit Modi told reporters here today.
"We zeroed in on Microsoft after looking at several technological solutions," Modi, also a Vice-President of the BCCI, said.
Microsoft's task will be to provide a software that will help evaluate the performances of the men in white coat whose every decision in the domestic circuit will be under scrutiny from the next season.
Based on the recommendations of the Umpires Committee, the BCCI had earlier decided to record all domestic championship matches - from the Ranji Trophy league level to the championship final and the Challenger Series.
Six cameras will be employed at every match and the video footage will be analysed by the software.
Indian team's cricket analyst Ramakrishnan's expertise has also been sought in this regard, M P Pandove, another member of Marketing Committee, said.
BCCI's efforts come in the wake of the recent observation by ICC General Manager-Cricket Dave Richards that Indian umpires were not up to international standards.
No Indian has been on the ICC Elite Panel of Umpires since former Test captain
BCCI's anti-Ganguly orders
By ICF Staff - May 12 2006
BCCI issues gag orders on yet another player -- Virender Sehwag -- after he says something mildly positive about ex-captain Ganguly who has been treated unfairly by the unscrupulous Pawar/More/Chappell combine.
A few weeks back it was Yuvraj Singh, now it is Virender Sehwag. One is the vice-captain, the other is the stand-in vice-captain, and both are in line for captaincy after the retirement of 34-year old Rahul Dravid.
Anything positive said about ex-captain Sourav Ganguly, who has received a raw deal due to animosity from controversial coach Greg Chappell and the new BCCI setup with Pawar/Modi/More combine, has been met by gag orders.
Pawar and Modi, who have been going after ex-BCCI chief Jagmohan Dalmiya with a vengeance despite being admonished by the High Court, do not seem to have the interests of Indian cricket at heart. Their agenda seems to be two-fold: (a) make as much money as possible in as many ways as possible, (b) destroy the legacy of a fellow Indian who has taken cricket to a new level as a sport.
The small-mindedness of Pawar/Modi/More is disgusting to say the least. They should be content with the massive revenue they are taking in thanks to the players, rather than criticizing the players publicly or gagging them or giving them a schedule guaranteed to burn them out.
The ICPA (Indian Cricket Players Association) needs to step in and prevent the BCCI from exploiting the Indian players, but their attitude has been cowardly at best. Asked to comment on the burnout issue and the gag order, an ICPA representative said, "The ICPA has no comment to make on these subjects."
Meanwhile, ex-players have spoken up on Sehwag's behalf.
Former Test cricketer Chetan Chauhan said BCCI was "overdoing" it by restricting players from talking to the press while former
"It is a democratic country, you cannot throttle players," Chauhan said. "Sehwag has not said anything against the Board. He did not say anything which is detrimental to the game or to the Board. He has just given his personal opinion, and he should have the right to do so. The Board can accept it or ignore it."
But democracy seems to be a concept that's alien to the new setup at the BCCI. Sharad Pawar, a full-time Cabinet Minister of India, is the BCCI President. It is unthinkable that one of the top government officials in the country has the time to run the cricket body, and vindictively tries to manipulate the justice system to spite his predecessor. This is the stuff of banana republics, not a democracy.
Ganguly, Dalmiya, and Wright took Indian cricket to new highs. With Pawar, Chappel and More, ugly politics has made a comeback.
| Latest Cricket news on mobile: sms CRI to 7333 |
Home > Cricket > PTI > Report
CCI to host Champions Trophy final
Big time cricket would return to Brabourne Stadium with Cricket Club of
The Mumbai club is now gearing up to host the summit clash and has decided to install floodlights as per ICC requirements, a top source in BCCI said on Saturday.
"CCI has been selected to host the final. They will install floodlights for hosting the final of the Champions Trophy one-day tournament," the source said.
Kolkata will not get to host any of the Champions Trophy matches with Ahmedabad's Motera Stadium set to take its place.
"Ahmedabad has replaced Kolkata as one of the four venues to host matches and an official confirmation would come after the International Cricket Council's Executive Board meeting in Dubai later this month," he said.
The BCCI office bearers had a meeting with the representatives of the ICC last evening and decided not to allot any matches of the tournament to the
"They wanted to know which matches they would be hosting before deciding whether to do so or not and they also wanted to host matches only after October 23, implying they wanted to host only the semi-finals and final," Modi told reporters yesterday.
Kolkata's loss would be CCI's gain as Brabourne Stadium had stopped hosting international matches, barring a few ODIs once in a while, since 1972.
All the Tests and ODIs in Mumbai are held at Mumbai Cricket Association's Wankhede Stadium, a stone's throw away from the CCI.
A bizarre decision
- Jadeja to lead in warm-up tie vs
LOKENDRA PRATAP SAHI
Mumbai: Ajay Jadeja, who was banned by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for being involved with match-fixing, has been named the Rajasthan Cricket Association President’s XI captain for the limited overs match against England, in Jaipur, on Saturday.
That’s going to be the visitors’ only exposure to limited overs cricket before the seven ODIs get underway on March 28.
The Rajasthan body (headed by Lalit Modi) can, of course, argue Jadeja captained the state team in this about-to-end season. However, retaining him for such a high-profile match is nothing short of bizarre.
The national selectors, it seems, had “no role” except possibly recommending eight players — Parthiv Patel, Gautam Gambhir, Ramesh Powar, Yalaka Venugopal Rao, Suresh Raina, Rudra Pratap Singh, Piyush Chawla and Vikram Rajvir Singh — to those who made the selection.
All are in the 17-strong squad.
Asked by The Telegraph (on Tuesday evening) whether the
The Board’s executive secretary in-charge, Prof. Ratnakar Shetty, who issued the Media release, had nothing to say apart from “I’ve just passed on the squad forwarded to me by Rajasthan...”
Inside Story - Virendra Kapoor
Corporates call the shots in Indian politics
VIRENDRA KAPOOR |
“ …. Graduating from sports to politics
NCP leader and Food, Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Minister Sharad Pawar was in politics long before he became the country’s top cricket administrator. But Lalit Modi wants to reverse that order. Having become the Vice-President of the Board for Control of Cricket in
Apparently, in the last biennial election, Raje is said to have made a rather weak attempt to send her Man Friday to the Rajya Sabha but the proposal was summarily shot down by the leadership. Per force, he would have to wait for the next round of elections to become an hon’ble member. …… “
Jayant (ZA) :
IT IS OK FOR SACHIN TO EARN 180CR. ONLY WORRY FOR SACHIN IS THAT, HE HAS TO HIDE IT SAFE FROM THE EYES OF LALIT MODI, ELSE MODI WOULD WANT HIS POUND OF FLESH. AFTER ALL SACHIN IS BCCI CONTRACTED PLAYER AND MODI FEELS BCCI MUST HAVE ITS SHARE IN ALL AND FROM ALL. SO SACHIN PLS BEWARE OF LALIT MODI HE IS TRACKING YOU.
Vimal (IN) :
Actually the way the tours/itinerary are planned by the Boards that is demanding. Just take the last 2 series India is part of, Pakistan and England, on sub continent weather conditions back to back test matches and ODIs, which is bad for players. Especially for those players who play in both form of games like Dravid, Irfan, Dhoni, Sehwag, Yuvraj, Harbhajan, etc. Of course they would be jaded, even if they keep a happy face. But then players like Raina, Powar, Uthhapa would not complain as these matches are vital to their careers and in fact would like to play more games. Ask them if would play a 3rd game in
February 2006: Features
Of money and muscle
Lalit Modi and Co are turning the game's power structure on its head. But how far is too far, Ashok Malik asks
|
|
|
For two decades now, ever since the bitter wrangling for the 1987 World Cup, there has been one recurring battle in the boardrooms of international cricket: BCCI versus ICC. As the rising cricket economy,
The contours of this conflict are well known. India fought for the right to stage the 1987 and 1996 World Cups, pressed the ICC to award every third World Cup to Asia, and insisted the ICC presidency couldn't stay an Anglo-Australian preserve. This led to, eventually, Jagmohan Dalmiya becoming ICC chief, and the policy of rotating the presidency between the various member countries taking hold. As such, the ICC today has a Pakistani president, Ehsan Mani, something unimaginable in, say, 1986.
Modern diplomacy is increasingly driven by economic compulsions such as trade. Cricket has not been immune to this. In recent years the BCCI's differences with the ICC have tended to focus less on emotional and interpersonal issues and more on money. This manifested itself, most famously, right before the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, when individual sponsorship deals signed by Indian players clashed with those signed by tournament organisers. What was a skirmish then is today a full-fledged war.
In January 2006, the new management at the BCCI - particularly Shashank Manohar, Inderjit Singh Bindra and the pugnacious Lalit Modi - began cricket's second World War. They essentially told the ICC that they weren't interested in the Champions Trophy - a month-long waste of time that, for the most part, sees such meaningless contests as
What Modi was saying was that he wanted changes in the ICC calendar to accommodate
To the uninitiated, cricket's endless backroom cloak-and-dagger deals must seem infuriatingly complex. This need not be so. In effect, it comes down to the primary motivation of wanting to make more money. Breaking up the current controversy into its three ingredient capsules will help us understand it better.
From council to cartel
In a sense, what Modi is proposing is the evolution of the ICC from cricket's United Nations General Assembly to its World Trade Organisation. In the 1990s, with Dalmiya in the thick of things, the battle lines in the ICC were, roughly, influenced by colour: white
The desire to sideline the Anglo-Australian twosome and win Dalmiya and the Asian contingent more allies was all-consuming. It caused, for instance, the ICC to award full Test rights to
Now that era is over. As one official puts it, "This is no longer about the ICC vote bank." Cricket's stakeholders have refined their perceptions, learning to differentiate between valuable matches and cut-price ones. The 2004
As such, from the old "black versus white" war zone, the ICC is moving towards a cartelisation of cricket's "mature markets" -
The calendar wars
One of Dalmiya's gifts to cricket was the five-year international cricket calendar. Till the early 1990s, cricket matches were negotiated bilaterally. The Indian cricket board met the Pakistani board and agreed to tour in month X; then it met the New Zealand board and agreed to host their team in month Y. Gaps were filled in with ad hoc tournaments, and tours conceived or cancelled at short notice. A certainly hierarchy was built into this. England, for instance, toured the subcontinent on sufferance.
Now the power wheel has done a full circle. It is
Just how unfair the ICC calendar could be became clear when the draft fixtures schedule for 2006-12 was presented to the ICC in
In any case, the Champion's Trophy - like the World Cup - is a property "owned" by the ICC. The bulk of the earnings from it go to the ICC. This was Dalmiya's idea and it suited the BCCI fine as long as Jagguda ran the Indian board and his friends managed the ICC. Now Modi and his friends see no reason why Indian sponsors should subsidise the ICC. They want to stem this "drain of wealth".
So what will replace the Champions Trophy? Since matches involving
In effect, the "
The mind of the marketing man
The BCCI's new business approach has a domestic component and also a strategy for the rest of the world. Both have a common DNA - selling disaggregated properties rather than doing one blockbuster deal, whether for television or sponsorship. As the Sharad Pawar-run board perceives it, since the cream of cricket-related advertising and sponsorship comes from
The BCCI will market the television and sponsorship rights of these tournaments, thus keeping the lion's share for itself. Ironically, Dalmiya provided the model for this by masterminding the India-Pakistan-Australia tri-series in
Second, when the BCCI plays, for example, a CBFS tournament in Tangiers or travels to
At home the same principle is being followed. The Indian team now has not one sponsor but a plethora - one for the forearm of the players' uniforms, the other for hospitality and so on. As for television rights, as Modi plans it, the BCCI will hire a camera crew and commentators. It will then sell the visuals and audio, case by case, series by series, to separate television stations in separate geographical markets. Surprisingly, not all television channel executives are unhappy. "This is very sensible," says one such, "it will make life easier for the broadcasters, allowing productions to be planned further in advance. It should also allow Lalit Modi to announce a much higher rights offer because the broadcaster doesn't need to deduct production costs."
Modi takes the Brand BCCI project further. Like
That final idea seems a trifle radical. Taken to its logical absurdity, it could mean cricket reporters being asked to write a limited number of words in match dispatches and putting the BCCI logo right next to their bylines.
It would be perilous to play the futures market in a monopoly commodity.
To subscribe to Cricinfo Magazine, click here
Ashok Malik is a journalist based in Delhi
© Cricinfo
MADE TO FIT: BCCI, after roping in sporting giants for official apparel, have begun to accept bids for Team
Press Trust Of
Posted
Mumbai: BCCI has invited bids for appointment of an official provider for the Indian team's formal wear and accessories for a four-year period commencing this September and running up to August 2010.
The tender notice, appearing on Wednesday’s newspapers, has also invited bids from event management company to produce and execute the board's ratings and awards for a five-year period ending August 2011.
The third bid invited by the BCCI through the tender is for marketing and selling - on its behalf - the ground rights for overseas neutral venue matches of the seven ODI tri-series featuring India, Australia and the West Indies who, incidentally, have yet to confirm their participation in the matches to be played next month at Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
The bid documents are available at the board's office in Mumbai from Thursday and all the bidding parties need to fulfill the eligibility criteria and other requirements as specified in the documents, as per the notice.
The deadline for submitting the bids to the BCCI office is 1700 hrs on August 11.
The BCCI has already announced that the submitted bids would be opened and winners announced during its marketing sub committee meeting in Chennai on August 14.
The board has also reserved the right to cancel or amend the entire bidding process at any stage and to reject the bids without providing any reason for doing so, the notice added.
The Indian cricket board has signed a kit sponsorship deal with Nike, worth around £25m over five years. Nike outbid rivals such as Adidas, Reebok and Slazenger to land the contract, which begins on 1 January. Vice-president Lalit Modi said
BCCI game for weekend Twenty20
INDRANIL BASU
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
RSS Feeds| SMS CRI to 8888 for latest updates
NEW DELHI, July 17: It may be the latest kid on the block for BCCI, but the board wants to give it an attitude quite its own. Plans for a Twenty20 domestic league are already on the drawing board and if BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi has his way, the league - likely to start in April next year - will have the unmistakable imprint of the hugely popular English football Premiership.
According to Modi, BCCI will ask all 27 state associations to form Twenty20 teams. Each team will be allowed to hire four foreign players. "Like the Premiership, our Twenty20 league will create team rivalries to generate interest. We would ask all associations to install floodlights as the matches will be played only in the evenings," Modi told TOI.
He said matches would be held every week on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. There will be three back-to-back matches on all three evenings - from 3 to 6, 6 to 9, 9 to 12. "We are planning to create a carnival atmosphere," he added. BCCI will sell in-stadia and TV rights for the matches while the jersey logo issue will be thrashed out separately with state units.
Even as many observers have raised doubts about the financial viability of a Twenty20 domestic league, Modi insisted it could generate substantial money - "as much as $50 million every year."
Estb: 2003 www.adityeah.com Late Life Edition Price: Free
by @
So, the BCCI is finally considering having its own channel. Old readers might recall, this is exactly what I had mentioned here, in a post written in 2004.
BCCI, now wants to promote “Brand” BCCI. The channel is a step in that direction. What does the channel mean to the common man? Will it be available free-to-air? You gotta be kidding if you think that would be the case, how will the BCCI earn money then? So stupid of me to even think on those lines. After all, BCCI is the richest of all cricket boards in the world (and also was once stupid enough to suggest that ‘Team India’ is actually not representing India, but BCCI…and I think that was one of the early signs of success and money going into BCCI’s head)
Let’s take a closer look on how does the cricket television rights war hits the “common man”.
For a cricket fan, the only question that matters is — Will s/he be able to watch cricket on a free-to-air channel (read DD) or not. Whether the cricket is on at Ten Sports, Zee Sports, ESPN or Sony - it does not make a difference.
In the cases when cricket can be viewed on Doordarshan, it is usually a “sharing” arrangement between the Cable Channel and DD. When that doesn’t happen, it is the common man’s cricket that looses.
What will BCCI’s new channel add to this? Fuel to the fire.
BCCI will just retain the allocation of the cricket feed rights to itself. Whether it would be available for Prasar Bharti (DD’s momma company) is going to be decided, most probably, in one of the courts in our country, a few days before each tour begins. Back to square one. I hope I am proved wrong.
Cricket, in
” ‘We’re not free in October in 2007, 2008 or 2009,” BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi told reporters on Monday. “We have made our position clear to the ICC many times. If others want to play, they can, but why should we play in October?’ ”
So the Governing Body of the Game can go to hell. I believe that ICC has always been a very weak body. But BCCI has made a mockery of what remained of The ICC.
Want more? BCCI shall not host
More here
It’s a clear case of making money at the cost of Cricket. The BCCI has decided that it does not need to venture into anything that doesn’t bring them money. Money is the name of the game. (BCCI’s former president prefers to call it “Professionalism”) So, by that logic, they should stop organising first class matches altogether. After all, first class cricket is not known for generating revenue.
Where does the money go? Our first class cricketers play to empty stands and still travel by train you know. Uhh.. there was some talk about “transparency” too, when Mr Pawar came to hold the BCCI reigns, err…what about it?
Young bloods test old order
Kevin Mitchell
Sunday January 1, 2006
The Observer
Kerry Packer walked loudly through life, from the gambling rooms of
Now, the richest Australian of them all is gone, leaving behind (albeit unintentionally) a legacy of vastly improved wages for players, technical innovations, coloured clothing, night games and all the showbiz trimmings of modern sports entertainment. We owe him a debt of gratitude.
But, before the old scoundrel was cold in his grave, new predators who have been lurking on cricket's boundary set their own coup in motion. The young bloods now running cricket in India are not as brash as Packer but just as uncompromising, and, in the first of several bilateral meetings, have recently cut a deal with Cricket Australia to play more games, home and away, between their national teams. Most of them will be hugely lucrative one-day fixtures, watched by millions on the subcontinent and generating enormous sponsorship revenue and television fees.
Bypassing the International Cricket Council, the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) plan to reduce their commitment to low-key fixtures against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, who have full Test status but are woefully uncompetitive, as well as other teams who do not generate top dollar.
In a series of one-to-one meetings in the coming months - starting with the England and Wales Cricket Board tomorrow week - the BCCI will encourage the other top countries to join them in restructuring the programme for Tests and one-day internationals.
The ECB refused to comment when asked about the meeting, but it is understood that the plan has its supporters at Lord's.
Nevertheless, the strategy of the new Indian board is a direct challenge to the ICC's authority - although James Sutherland, chief executive of Cricket Australia, denies there is a split between the bodies - and key members of the council have been in crisis talks at their Dubai headquarters over the past few days. The ICC executive meet formally on 11 January, two days after
The chances of a total rift are slim, but, according to informed sources, the leaders of the ICC are livid at the unsubtle hints that have been coming out of Mumbai. There have been several heated telephone conversations in recent weeks.
"They [the ICC] are very, very angry about this," a source told The Observer. "They see it as a challenge to their authority and reckon it will undermine the whole structure of the game if individual countries act like this. It is a very disturbing development."
India have had an inconsistent relationship with the smaller countries, even neighbouring
Unlike
India, clearly the modern powerhouse of cricket, has put profit ahead of developing the game - but they will not be alone. There are vast sums at stake, thanks to the astonishing rise in popularity of the one-day game, one of the biggest commercial successes in sport over the past decade.
These are determined, clever and persuasive negotiators, many of them educated in the
Dalmiya, who once headed the ICC as well as the BCCI, resigned his presidencies of the Asian Cricket Council and the Afro-Asian Cricket Cooperation after his ally, Ranbir Singh Mahendra, lost the BCCI presidency to Sharad Pawar. Dalmiya, effectively, no longer has a power base - a towering irony given it was he who did most to modernise the game in India, putting in place many of the commercial initiatives now claimed as their own by the new regime.
Pawar, whose sporting background is in the arcane game of kabaddi, came to cricket administration only four years ago. He is a 65-year-old government minister and surrounded by much younger aides. Given his ministerial responsibilities, he is considered by some a mouthpiece leader. The most powerful member of his clique is his deputy, Lalit Modi.
Modi, a suave, high powered TV executive and president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association, spoke candidly to The Observer last week about the BCCI's plans.
"We have already had bi-lateral meetings with
"We hope to make an announcement in the next few days. We are meeting
"We will be having bilateral talks also with
The reason the new BCCI raiders are confident they can get away with what appears to their critics as gross selfishness is the power of
Modi claimed last week that Indian cricket was the number-one sports brand in the world. Some claim - but the figures are impressive. The BCCI's annual return for the Indian shirt alone is $27.12million (£16.5m) - outstripping even the biggest names in football, including
The BCCI have completed several major deals in recent weeks. Nike have committed to a $43m deal over five years, pipping rival Reebok. Air
"With Nike and
Crucially, Modi took on Dalmiya over TV rights - and won. The rights for the recent series against
When Packer made his move during the Centenary Test in
These corporate raiders move more quietly. They are fixers of the old kind, garnering favours, settling old scores, working the boardroom. They don't need to spend the millions that Packer did; they just have to make numbers add up. And, on the evidence so far, they do.
Feb 2006: Editorial
The need for balance
Sambit Bal
|
|
|
The world of cricket is agog: the new masters of the game in
The question is, how far will
But despite the blatantly predatory ring there is a veneer of legitimacy to the Indian position, and despite the unilateralism it smacks of, there is a possibility that some good will emerge out of it. Allowing for the bluster and posturing normally associated with hard bargains, a compromise of sorts is inevitable; if everyone plays their cards right, world cricket just might benefit.
The ICC's Future
But at the same time, to be taken seriously as a leader,
To subscribe to Cricinfo Magazine, click here
Sambit Bal is the editor of Cricinfo and Cricinfo Magazine
© Cricinfo
Anger over
Kevin Mitchell
The Observer
Only days after cricket's great revolutionary Kerry Packer died, the game's leaders are trying to head off another major upheaval.
Key members of the International Cricket Council (ICC) have been meeting at their Dubai headquarters discussing a veiled threat from India to run their own international programme if the Test and one-day schedule is not radically altered.
The new regime of the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) say they have cut a bilateral deal with Cricket Australia to play more games between their national teams, at the expense of the minnows - Zimbabwe and Bangladesh - though the Australians deny this.
The Indian negotiators, who want their team to play more one-day games, have a meeting with the
It is an open secret that the leading cricket nations are unhappy having to play so many one-sided, and unprofitable, matches against the weaker of the 10 Test-playing countries.
The ICC executive meet on 11 January to work out a compromise deal before their full meeting in March. At the October meeting of the ICC in
The decision on who will host the 2011 World Cup is expected in June. Australia, whose turn it is to host the tournament, have yet to make up their minds and
The BCCI deny they are holding the ICC to ransom, but sources told The Observer that there have been heated telephone exchanges between
A key figure in the showdown is the new vice-president of the BCCI, Lalit Modi, a thrusting young television executive and skilled cricket administrator. Modi told The Observer: "We have already had bilateral meetings with
"We are meeting
"We will be having bilateral talks also with
James Sutherland, the chief executive of Cricket Australia, denied there was a split between the BCCI and the ICC but said: "It is a well documented fact that more than half of international cricket's revenue has its source out of
It is this fiscal buoyancy - thanks largely to the phenomenal success of one-day cricket on the subcontinent - that has encouraged the new young bloods who have moved into the BCCI leadership to chance their arm. Modi claimed last week that Indian cricket was the number-one sports brand in the world. It is some claim, but the figures are impressive.
Sponsorship of the
It is estimated Indian cricket generates £90m a year overall.
Reasons for WICB to shiver
By Tony Cozier
Noise out of
If anyone there was listening and, more to the point, if anyone recognised the implications, the West Indies Cricket Board
Malcolm Speed (WICB) had even more reason to be trembling in its threadbare
boots.
In the space of a few days, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) told the ICC it was butting out of the bi-annual Champions' Trophy following the conclusion of the tournament next October (which it hosts), as well as proclaiming that it intended to arrange more frequent series with Australia, England and Pakistan.
It has announced that
In addition, the BCCI revealed that it would produce its own television coverage of all cricket in
The messages were loud and clear. India, with its gynormous, cricket-crazy population and its voracious television networks, has become the financial centre of the cricket universe and is now flexing its considerable muscle. It was, said BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi redundantly, "all about extracting the most value for the board".
This equates to more contact with strong opponents who attract the crowds and, more especially, lucrative contracts for its new television plan.
After that, the Indians have, in effect, said let the devil take the hindmost - and the West Indies' record of the past decade, reflected in its position, of eighth out of 10 in the ICC rankings, reveals just how hindmost we are at present.
ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed was quick to point out in a terse letter to BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah, that its proposed, bilateral decisions are "contrary to ICC policy".
The ICC's executive board, he stressed, had, as recently as March 2004, resolved to adopt its future tours programme and its commercial arm had decided last October that the ICC would stage one major event each year up to 2015.
The future tours programme was initiated specifically to ensure that all 10 full ICC members, regardless of rankings, play each other, home and away, over a ten-year period. The Champions Trophy, started in 1998 in
After itemising the priority for scheduling matches, as agreed by the ICC's executive board in
Judged by last week's reports from Mumbai, Speed's pleas are likely to go unheeded. And
Hear BCCI vice-president Modi on the Champions' Trophy: "We're not free in October in 2007, 2008 or 2009. We've made our position clear to the ICC many times. If others want to play, they can, but why should we play in October. We've not signed any agreement to play in future editions."
And Inderjit Singh Bindra, another vice-president, on whether
"We've always wanted to develop closer ties with
"This was on our wish list that we gave to the ICC.
"They have a middle class which is as big as the entire population of the
The
The more
Already, under the ICC's programme, the gap between England tours to the Caribbean was increased from four to six years, as huge a dent on the coffers of the WICB as it is on the region's tourism.
The
For the
The effect of Clive Lloyd's conquerors in Packer's World Series Cricket was the same. Once WSC ended in 1979, the Australians saw to it that the
How dramatically and depressingly times have changed.
If we didn't already appreciate the real distinction between success and failure, the Indians have reminded us.
The next thing you, know, they'll be telling us that our
It's as serious as that.
Mani bashes BCCI
Ehsan Mani, the ICC president, called for a thorough overhaul of India’s cricketing administration yesterday after meetings that have dispelled a potential crisis over future ICC events and removed the threat of a power struggle between India, with its unique financial muscle, and the game’s official governing body.
"They have no permanent administrative office, an honorary secretary and no chief executive, yet they run the biggest cricket country in the world. I fail to understand how they can do that,” Mani told The Times.
"They badly need to set up a professional management and we have told them that. I said the same to Jagmohan Dalmiya (the former BCCI president), but now there is a board with a completely different mandate and I think that they are beginning to understand better how the ICC works.”
Mani also confirmed that the threat to the future of the Champions Trophy has been averted despite a public statement last week by Lalit Modi, the BCCI vice-president, that India would refuse to play in it after hosting this year’s tournament in October.
____________________________________________________________________
Dear Sanjay,
I also understood the futility of pursuing BCCI. Anyway, it gave me personal satisfaction for protesting against a wrong.
Thanks for your suggestion.
Regards,
Manojda
________________________________________________________________
Sanjay Agarwal wrote :
Dear Manojda,
Even I feel, BCCI will not change, like a dog' tail. How can BCCI change until it gets out of the clutches of politicians and the like (whether it is Dalmiya or Pawar). In Hindi we have a saying-'sab ek hi theli ke chatte batte hain' which means 'all are members of same tribe'. Its best leaving them alone. Let them go to hell.
Best regards,
Sanjay
________________________________________________________________
Dear All,
I think my son is absolutely correct and I have utmost respect for his observations.
I also think that I have been fighting this battle almost single-handedly for far too long now and except for a handful of encouragements, it appears all are watching from the sidelines (and ridiculing me ?).
I would like to apologise to all whom I may have bored with my outbursts.
Good-bye BCCI and cricket.
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
To my son :
Accepted. From yesterday, I have decided I have enough of cricket.
Thanks.
________________________________________________________________
My son wrote :
Papa,
Rule #1. if you want to fight the BCCI, thats a great idea. BUT do not forward your emails to 50 other people, unless :
- you are requesting their co-operation or
- you want to share certain concrete results that you have obtained or
- your emails mean something more than mere words on a paper, such as a
public interest litigation filed by you in a court of law.
And if you really believe that cricket related issues are inconsequential, your efforts would be better directed if you picked up a more deserving issue.
________________________________________________________________
Secretary
BCCI
Dear Sir,
May I congratulate all the office bearers and “the bunch of jokers” of BCCI and the obnoxious coach of world-beating Indian team for their extraordinary series win against a resurging West Indies cricket team ?
The obnoxious coach was so right in proclaiming that West Indies has forgotten to win. How prophetic !!
My hearty congratulations are for the Indian captain for admitting that the Indian bowlers need to learn where to pitch the ball. My hearty congratulations are for the Indian vice-captain for his superlative batting & fielding and for our second spinner for his excellent sliding technique. Certainly we need to appoint one (or two ?) more obnoxious coach(es) in order to continue our world record of winning.
All the Indians are proud for maintaining Team India’s winning streak against (now) lowly Sri Lanka and a depleted English side at home.
Congratulations are also due to our cricketer-cum-commentator-cum politician for admitting that cricketers are not athletes when confronted with the fact that on any given day, they do not even run 3 km.
Incidentally, do you miss the most successful ex-Captain ? I only hope you do not.
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
Secretary
BCCI
Dear Sir,
CONGRATULATIONS for administering cricket, the worst possible game ever designed by a human, through police stations and judiciary. PLEASE KEEP THE FLAG FLYING.
HEARTIEST CONGRATULATIONS to you all including the OBNOXIOUS coach, the “bunch of jokers”, the “wall” captain, and the world-beating (as if the world consists of a handful of countries) players for showing superlative performance against a second-string English side. YOU ALL MUST THANK GOD FOR A DRAWN SERIES INSTEAD OF LOSING THE SERIES 2-0. May GOD always be with you all.
May I remind you all including the OBNOXIOUS coach and the “bunch of jokers” that a follower can aspire to be a leader, but almost always, a leader is born and not made.
Lastly, may I advise YOU ALL to DONATE ALL the money that Mr. Lalit Modi claims that you all have earned for the BCCI to our Shooters, Table Tennis Players and the Athletes who are earning medals for the country by competing against more than 10 countries and making us proud Indians ? THEY ARE STARVED OF FUNDS.
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
Secretary
BCCI
Dear Sir,
Heartiest congratulations for :
- Creating a condition for charging “lathi” on innocent paying public, that too a kid and a woman. Surely, you would earn millions by selling the video rights of the incident. After all, it was connected with Indian cricket administered by you.
- Harbouring the business duo of the “chief joker” & the “obnoxious coach”. It is a pity that they are robbing you of a possible revenue source. After all, you are running a business.
- Nurturing the top 5 in your Indian cricket team for their superlative performances. Are they also revenue sources for the BCCI ?
Please keep the flag flying.
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
Secretary
BCCI
Dear Sir,
Further to my mail of today reproduced below, I would like to ask a few questions to you which eventually would never be acknowledged even :
- What role does your president who can not fend off onions thrown at him in his home state (and the only state of his influence) play in BCCI ?
- Your president left congress party on the issue of the origin of Ms. Sonia Gandhi and formed a regional party. Ironically, as widely reported in the media, he won the election in BCCI because of her reported diktat to all the ruling CMs of her party. Coalition politics for survival ?
- It was reported in the media that fighting MP election requires anything between 2 – 4 crores per candidate. Fighting MLA, MLC and Councillor Electrons are to be suitably scaled down. Almost all candidates while filing their nominations declare that they do not have much of an asset and we have to assume that their parties fund their election expenses. Would his party care to explain what are the sources of their election fund ?
- Has his party ever published their audited Balance Sheets & P/L Accounts supported by all relevant schedules in their website, for ordinary mortals like us to see them ?
- Where politicians are caught red-handed for accepting money for raising mundane questions in the Parliament, what right does he have to take a moral stand on any issue ?
Whereas our electronic media is happy with the fashion shows and many other mundane issues, it is surprising that the media of all varieties and shades in our country are silent on the issue of wide publication of audited Balance Sheets & P/L Accounts supported by all relevant schedules by all political parties for common people like us to rate all our political parties in order of degree of corruption. Business of serving news of their choice ?
By marking a copy of this mail to the Hon’ble Chief Election Commissioner, I would expect some stern action from the Commission on this issue. The Commission, without any discrimination, must disqualify all the political parties for not widely publishing their audited Balance Sheets & P/L Accounts supported by all relevant schedules.
I also hope the media of our country would also show at least some concern on this grave issue polluting our polity.
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
Secretary
BCCI
Dear Sir,
Following is the extract of cricketing news by TOI :
"Undue haste (to lodge a police complaint against Dalmiya) is writ large in this case." remarked Justice V M Kanade.
"Why did you wait for 10 long years to file a complaint when you were all along on the board of BCCI," the judge asked Shah.
"His counsel Shirish Gupte's explanation that Dalmiya controlled everything at the BCCI failed to impress the judge."
May the ordinary mortals like us, therefore, assume that the gang of crooks is now after their past leader ?
May we also now onwards assume that cricket is a game "by the crooks, of the crooks and for the crooks" ?
Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
Secretary
BCCI
Dear Sir,
Now that it is quite obvious that BCCI does not have a rule book and even if it does, the rules are applied selectively for selective people, the assertion of the "Chief Joker" that he did not make any controversial statement (after the recent obnoxious Greg episode) to crickinfo.com was quite amusing. It was heartening to learn that like all wise men after the incident, he has decided to shun the media.
To us, common people it never became clear why he did not have the guts to sue crickinfo.com for damages. Is he a liar ?
No wonder, the worst possible game ever designed by a man (who must have possessed an absolutely idle brain) is by the idle brains, of the idle brains and for the idle brains.
Please keep up the good work & may Goddess Laksmi bless you all while all the other sports persons bringing laurels for the country competing with many other nations (NOT a handful) starve of funds & sponsorship.
Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
Greg Chappell’s interview to The Guardian
Chappell rides bumps on road paved with passion and pop-star idolatry Mike Selvey in Nagpur Wednesday March 01 2006 The Guardian
It must have taken 20 minutes or more to get from the entrance of Bangalore Golf Club to the terrace at the rear. Everyone wanted a slice. "Congratulations, Mr Chappell . . . Please sign this, sir . . . You are doing a marvellous job for us. . . A photograph please . . . Hats off after your wonderful win, Mr Chappell . . ." Greg Chappell obliged them all courteously. It goes with the territory.
That same morning, back at the bungalow in the stunning grounds of the Taj West End hotel, which is the India coach's base, his wife Judy had taken delivery of a new DVD player and furniture that had been promised a while since. Neither put it down to pure coincidence of timing.
After a disappointing end to the recent Test series in Pakistan and a defeat in the first of the five one-day internationals that followed, India came good in resounding fashion, winning all of the remaining four games and sending a billion people into raptures. "It is astounding, isn't it?" said Chappell, before observing wryly: "The hats will be back on soon enough if we start losing. We'll come back home here one day and be sitting on the floor."
It is nine months since Chappell, one of the game's great batsmen in his time, gave a presentation to the Indian board's selection panel on the theme of "commitment to excellence" and was appointed unanimously as the man to succeed John Wright and take the side through to the end of the 2007 World Cup. Thus far it has not been the easiest of rides, with battles to be fought with an often aggressive media and, by no means least, a vastly publicised and unsettling spat with the former India captain Sourav Ganguly that has divided sections of the nation, and which rumbles on still.
That side of things has proved a disappointment to Chappell, an unwelcome distraction from the task of taking the side onwards from the level to which Wright took them during his five years in charge before he became wearied by the relentless and onerous nature of the task.
For a while, the Ganguly issue - the captaincy passed to Rahul Dravid after it all came to a head during the tour of Zimbabwe - became all consuming. For the good of all, Chappell is keen to move it on from it now. Some years back, Ganguly had come to him for coaching. "I helped him with his batting then," said Chappell, "so maybe he thought I would be his mate and support him now.
Certainly there is no way I would have got the job here without his influence. I'm sure he thought he would be able to run me as he did John in the latter part of his time as coach. But we clashed because his needs as a struggling player and captain and those of the team were different.
"I'm not the hard-nosed control freak that I have been portrayed. I'm thorough, a realist, a pragmatist and I'm honest. Much has been written and said, a lot of it misleading, but in essence I told Sourav that if he wanted to save his career he should consider giving up the captaincy. He was just hanging in there. Modest innings were draining him. He had no energy to give to the team, which was helping neither him nor us. It was in his own interest to give himself mind space to work on his batting so that it could be resurrected. He was not prepared to do that. What I didn't realise at that stage was how utterly important to his life and finances being captain was.
"The controversy will carry on but I have learned if I can't be totally impervious to it then it is beyond my control. I have to let it wash by and say 'people have their reasons for saying what they do and I can't be distracted by that' and do what I believe in. At the end of my time, whenever that might be, the team and therefore I will be judged ultimately on the results we achieve, not whether I have been able to convince this or that member of the media that what we are doing is in the best interests of Indian cricket."
The showcase existence, even for the coach, is something for which no outsider can be truly prepared. In the hotel lobby after golf, Chappell sat and looked around at the numerous staff watching his every move, waiting on a whim, and shook his head. A teenage girl walked by and did a double-take. "Greg Chappell, oh my God, I don't believe it." Then, beaming, she just stood and stared, transfixed.
"I don't think anyone can imagine just how much of a goldfish bowl it is until you are in it," Chappell said. "I have travelled here before and been conscious of it but once you are inside that bowl it is quite amazing. The job I do carries with it an enormous responsibility, not so much to my employers but to a cricket-mad nation. I genuinely feel that, while I am being paid by the BCCI, I am working for the people of India, those who support the team, and they are many and varied and from all walks of life. I am lucky that I have been exposed to many different aspects of this country.
"We have played in the big metros of course but we have also played in some of the smaller cities and it is quite eye-opening to see how the average person responds to the Indian cricket team. When we arrive at airports, large crowds accrue. They want to see the high-profile players, they want to touch them, get a photograph of them. The most intrusive invention in modern times has to be the mobile phone-camera because everyone has a phone, everyone wants an autograph or a snap.
"It is an unnerving experience to drive out of stadiums after we have won games or lost them and see the streets lined with people from all walks of life, particularly those from poorer communities whose only glimpse of the team would be as the bus flashes past and to see their faces light up. The only thing I can liken it to is the Beatles motorcade when they arrived in Australia in the 1960s. People lining the streets from the airport to the city. That happens here every day with this team.
"These guys have the status of pop stars and the response is very much like that. I am constantly amazed and impressed by the way the players cope with it. For a while I wondered why some of them didn't respond to all these waving people and smiling faces and I realised they can't afford to. Just to give a little bit of emotion to each person would drain them. So they really do just have to live in their own private little world as they are carried from hotel to ground, from ground to airport, from airport to plane, to the next airport and the next horde of waiting people all wanting a touch, a glimpse of their heroes.
"Players oblige as much as is humanly possible. Sachin Tendulkar, for example, is still the one who is most in demand and the way in which he just copes serenely with it is a lesson to us all. You know he gives what he can but he has learned that there is a limit. So he gives that much and then has to shut himself down. But we do realise our responsibility to a billion people, most of whom follow avidly the fortunes of the side. The passion we receive has no middle ground, no grey area. It teeters from one extreme to the other.
"There was a very poignant photograph in the paper one day recently just before we played in Lahore. A lot of Indian supporters wanted to come to the match. Now they can cross the border but you have to drive there, then leave the car and walk across and get a car or bus the other side. It is a huge effort for many to support the team.
"The picture was of a woman, elderly, scrambling through the border. It is for people such as her that we are playing the game and the players and I realise that. We pinned the picture on the dressing room wall to remind us. We drew a lot of inspiration from that."
________________________________________________________________
Dear Mr. Banerjee,
I knew Mr. Victor Banerjee as an actor. Now I find that he writes quite well. Being a democratic, I appreciate his views to which he is entitled.
If your mail was in response to my tirade against BCCI, in that case like all modern day journalists, you have missed the point.
I was never and am not a supporter of Sourav and for that matter, of the most idiotic game called cricket, though I played both soccer and cricket up to the age of around 42.
As pointed out to the Editor of a leading English Language National Daily, the entire journalistic community including the electronic variety has missed the point.
Sourav was "nimitta matra" - the public protest was for transparency, probity and accountability in all spheres of public life including cricket and journalism.
To me it papers that true democracy has just started setting in India and I am happy to watch its birth.
I also consider that the nascent child has to be cared and nurtured and I as a mere mortal would be happy the day the child becomes a toddler. Beyond that, I don't think I'd live.
As for Mr. Victor Banerjee, I know he earns his living by acting and most of the movies he acted, I would not spend my heard earned money to watch. I pity him for his feelings regarding Bengalis and I am not surprised by these pseudo-antels. Perhaps he is aware that Bengalis are excelling in all spheres of Indian life much to his consternation. By the way, more than 50 % of the young Scientists award winners were Bengalis even this year.
After living so many years in Theatre Road (now Shakespeare Sarani) he should have known that like Maggi sauce, Kolkata is different and not run-of-the-mill.
God did not give me any option when I was born. Once born a Bengali as per divine wish, I AM AND WOULD REMAIN PROUD OF ITS HERITAGE & CULTURE.
However, as true democrat, I am forwarding his views to all my contacts.
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
Dipendra Nath Banerjee wrote :
Attached is an article I though I should share. May be you have read the article in the Indian Express.
Dipen Banerjee
Posted online: Saturday, December 24, 2005
Victor Banerjee offers himself as a case study in understanding a very inscrutable people
Bullshit is unavoidable whenever circumstances require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about. Thus the production of bullshit is stimulated whenever a person's obligations or opportunities to write (speak) about some topic exceed his knowledge of the facts that are relevant to that topic." I felt it necessary to preface this essay on the Bengali psyche and its attitude towards "heroes" with an erudite quote from a professor at Princeton University who generally knows what he is talking about and may resolve the substance of my rendition.
There is no denying the fact that when the chips are down, we Bengalis are an extremely parochial bunch. And pompously proud to remain so. For instance, I strangled my vocal chords screaming when Chuni Goswami (a Bong) instead of Jarnail Singh scored for India; walked on air when Mihir Sen and Bula Chowdhury swam the channels; put gold rims on my bifocals when Dibyendu Baruah challenged Viswanath Anand; and when Sourav scored one more run than Sachin I waxed eloquent on the greatness of Pankaj Roy and how he could have given a few tips to Sunny Gavaskar too. These are special men and women in our lives. Adulation, worship, call it what you will, the psychology of a victim (and we have been a victimised people forever and, God willing, shall remain so forever - to not be deprived of our strength to wallow in our miseries) is to carry our heroes on our shoulders, wear them on our sleeves and even breathe life into relics so they may live on, thriving in what only we have the ability to interpret as great successes.
That is why I will not tolerate any threats to my heroes' places in the firmament and beware anyone who has the temerity to try and topple them from the pedestals I have set them on. This admission will make it easier for you to comprehend my tacit support for Jyoti Basu (till he almost became dependent on a cardio-vascular incubator for babies) to rule over Bengal for over a quarter of a century, no matter what he didn't achieve and did destroy. And once he decided to leave office, after a contemptuous bungling by non-Bengalis to bestow prime ministership on him, I coolly replaced him with the only politician on the planet who had a genius of an uncle for poet and who, for years, and still, has supreme control over the policing of the state (that includes industrial unrest, mob violence and its control as well as caring for the rights of under trials languishing in jails for years for having picked my pocket outside a cinema) while, as minister of culture, he simultaneously looks after the cultural evolution of the state and nurtures a film industry that is only allegedly dependent on Tamil and Telugu inspiration. Today, I can proudly proclaim that Buddhadev babu has put the icing on my proletariat cake (if you permit the feudal jest), as a visionary chief minister, by giving away vast tracts of land, on the Eastern Bypass, in Salt Lake and Rajarhat, to entrepreneurs I had been taught to despise, annihilate and wipe off the industrial map of Bengal.
It is it? We are the only ones who knew and understood that computers were a dangerous toy to introduce into industry in the '70s because only we knew that a dotcom era would appear, collapse, and then make way for the unemployed brain bank we had stockpiled in Bengal. A win win situation - all the way.
Now let's shift focus to the turn of the 19th century almost a hundred years ago.
It is quite a different matter that Sri Sri Ramkrishna for most of his life had just one staunch drunk playwright and actor as his true devotee and it was only after his great disciple, Swami Vivekananda's trip to America and the twist our creative marketing geniuses gave to his famous speech in Chicago, that two more heroes entered our lives. That Vivekananda's trip to the US was funded by a Tamil prince and that he sat on the rock off Kanya Kumari contemplating a Vedantic future for his own people in Bengal, is something we glorify and grapple with every day in our personal lives. In our devotion, after a hundred years of preserving his home in Calcutta and worshipping its decay, we decided to dedicate our renaming of the city to 'Kolkata' by doing a marvelous mortar and plaster job to reverentially resurrect the ruin. As a staunch believer in Ramkrishna's condemnation of kamini, kanchon, and chakuri, I have kept my eyes averted from Mallika Sherawat's physiognomy, shunned the acquisition of wealth and invested only in traditionally Bengali-approved Unit Trust Schemes (that failed me) and surreptitiously put money into certain Chit Funds (some condemned by the government and some encouraged) that wiped out all the Provident Fund savings I had after quitting my non-prescription chakuri (service).
Rabindranath Tagore too was someone who some unbelievers thought had robbed the limelight from Michael Madhusudan Dutt whose Meghnadbod Kabya is considered by divergent intellectuals to be the greatest work in our literature. That said, our Nobel laureate was a poet within a family of touted geniuses in painting and music like Abanindranath and Gaganendranath and Jyotindranath. But, frankly, Gurudev Rabindranath has honestly contributed much more to Bengali ethos, pathos and melancholic joie de vivre than the awkwardly scripted national anthem that agnostics believe should have been picked from either D.L. Roy's Dhana, Dhanne, Pushpe bhara... or Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's Bande Mataram that even has Generation X rocking today. And like Vivekananda, if it weren't for Rothenstein, Thompson and Andrews (non-Tamilian this time, but in our terms foreigners all the same) who revealed Gurudev's genius to the world, and brought him to the notice of the Nobel Committee, another of our legends may have remained just a prolific bard who lived in the Jorasanko palace, surrounded by an expanding ghetto of a growing community of immigrant merchants.
Let us move on to the great Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Sri Aurobindo who were rejected by Gandhi because he couldn't tolerate the volatility of the former and the terrorism of the latter. That hardly any Bengali joined the INA is not what drove Subhas to an anonymous death. But his passing has titillated the imagination of those of us who refused to believe he could ever die so unsensationally, although the thought of a furtive flight in a Japanese aircraft, through the smoke of the world war and crashing in search of freedom for a nation, does conjure up some romance. The fact that a park in North Calcutta named after Subhas had become a public urinal can be attributed to the necessary distractions of an industrial or peasant's revolt that we had running through our veins. But all that has been remedied and the park is now a beautiful place to walk past.
As a man who has earned notoriety from celluloid, I have to touch on Satyajit Ray and Uttam Kumar and gloss over Pramathesh Baruah and Prithviraj Kapoor who are also very much a part of our star studded ''heroic'' past. While the contrary always dwelled on the genius of Ritwik Ghatak and Uttam's peers took fluidly to the Bengali penchant of factionalism and dividing actors' forums and notwithstanding the fact that it took another foreigner (Ismail Merchant) to, at the last minute, open the eyes of the Oscar Committee to the unheard of genius of Ray, our Bharat Ratna, Uttam Kumar, is perhaps the only one of our immortal heroes who made it entirely on his own on home ground and is alive and stirring in our psyches, and hearts, as much today as he ever was when he lived.
I have, per force, to end my unlearned ''bullshit'' with our crestfallen hero Sourav. I admire the fact the public have been outraged and have voiced their vehement objection to the injustice, but I fail to see why politicians, actors and parliamentarians can't simply mind their own business instead of gathering bodies of people to form committees for the protection of someone who has, in his time, proven that he was the best captain in our cricketing history and realise that absolutely nothing can ever change that. All that is left is for us to see is painters and sculptors and Class 4 railway and government employees' unions also gathering in halls, sitting at podiums, screaming boring repetitive speeches that make you sick to the stomach, to voice their voiceless protests and inspire Mamata Banerjee to declare yet another all India bandh that only we, in Bengal, shall observe in honour of “Shourabh”.
We Bengalis are one of a kind, and shall remain "self-seeking as always before, selfish and purblind as ever before", often halting, loitering, straying, delaying, returning, yet always resuming our march on the way that was lit by the light cast by the great heroes we adore.
________________________________________________________________
Thanks.
________________________________________________________________
Subrata Gangopadhyay wrote :
Your message to BCCI on the mess made by our great Manager Indian Cricket Team Raj Singh Dugarpur is great. I wish they would have dared to reply. Keep on hammering like this.
Gang
________________________________________________________________
Secretary
BCCI
Dear Sir,
This refers to the allegations made by the BCCI appointed Manager of the Indian Team visiting Pakistan regarding the most successful captain of Indian Cricket.
Now that the voices of the likes of the “Chief Joker” & the obnoxious “Coach” has been silenced by Sourav’s performances in domestic cricket, it appears that the politician led BCCI has found new methods of denigrating him.
I demand to know how long this avoidable persecution by BCCI office bearers would continue ?
In this connection, I also demand answers to my following questions :
- Who appointed the self-styled cricket expert whose only qualification appears to be Sourav baiting & “energetic chamchagiri” of the politician chief of the BCCI, as the Manager of the Indian Team ?
- Did BCCI verify that he is senile ?
- Was he aware that he was denigrating the most successful Indian Captain in a foreign soil ?
- Was he aware that by his heinous act he was furthering the cause of the opponent team ?
- Was he aware that by his idiotic act he may bring down the morale of the entire team, let alone Sourav’s ?
- Why his act should not be considered as ANTI-NATIONAL & TREASON ?
- WHY HE SHOULD NOT BE SACKED & BROUGHT BACK TO INDIA IMMEDIATELY ?
Incidentally, I am yet to receive answers to the 15 questions I asked you though I received a rather funny acknowledgement by way of forwarding my mail to me. Is the new-look & transparent BCCI still clueless ?
I believe and maintain that cricket “is by the idle brains, of the idle brains and for the idle brains“ only. No wonder it has ceased to be a sport and has turned out to be a multi-crore business attracting money-loving people from all walks of life.
Do you dare disagree ?
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
To Mr. G. M. Lahiri
Dear Sir,
I am unfortunate by not knowing you personally. However, I am glad that I could touch many responsive nerves in many quarters.
Please note, my fight is not for Mr. Sourav Ganguly only but for transparency, probity and accountability in all spheres of public life. After all, I as a conscious citizen of this country should try to handover a better world for our children from whom we have borrowed our today.
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
_______________________________________________________________
Mr. G. M. Lahiri’s message forwarded :
Thanks for this mail. I don't know personally Mr. Manojendra Gupta, but his
observation and efforts are really excellent. I hope that his effort will be
heeded by the authority of sense and Ganguli will be again reinstated Indian
Cricket Team Captain in Test as well as One day version.
Regards
G.M.Lahiri
________________________________________________________________
Subrata Choudhuri wrote :
Dear Manojda,
I am very happy that you have finally managed to have the address of the "Bunch of Jokers", the determinants of the cricket industry of our country. But I do not understand as to how would you take the course of your actions against them.
Are they really reasonable and sufficient responsive about the responsibilities of the development of the game? I think they ideally suited in the dustbins of the dirty politics rather than the clean green fields of sports.
I am interested to get in touch with the next course of your war ageist them.
Regards,
Subrata.
________________________________________________________________
Dear Sanjay,
Let us wait and watch.
Best Regards,
Manojda
________________________________________________________________
Sanjay Agarwal wrote :
Dear Manojda,
at least a start..is BCCI pawarising itself.
regards,
sanjay
________________________________________________________________
The Editor
The Telegraph
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your brilliant consecutive editorials “Exit Pursued by Fans” and “Gratuitous Interference”.
I am grateful for your reminding us, ordinary mortals that only the Editors / Anchors and / or Journalists of Print and Electronic media have common sense and the rest are prone to over-the-top reactions.
With due respect to your common sense may I seek your expert guidance as to what ordinary mortals like us are supposed to do when repeated requests for righting the wrong to elites like you go unheeded ? May I have the audacity to ask you that in a democratic country do I have the right to voice my concern and seek redress from whosoever is prepared to give it to me ?
In this context, may I be allowed to observe that these days the print media faced with the twin pressure of keeping their publication business afloat and the competition from plethora of visual (and talkative) electronic media has become irrelevant except for the tender notices for the business community ?
Since you raised the issue of common sense, may I venture asking you how many issues (like Mr. Greg Chappell’s obscene behaviours – it appeared only once in your publication after it happened) do you follow up to its logical conclusion ? You blame ordinary mortals like us of having a very short memory and would you please care to clarify how capacious a memory you have ?
In this context, may I ask your fraternity including both the print and electronic media why so far no sting operation has been carried out on any Journalist ? Do all of you think that you do not have any black-sheep and news is never planted / distorted in your publications / presentations ? Being ordinary mortals, are we expected to be so gullible as to treat whatever you know-alls decide to tell us like gospel ?
In my childhood days, my parents and grand-parents, in the 50s, taught us that newspaper publications are opinion leaders and a powerful medium for venting of public complaints / grievances / angers and forced us to read them regularly. I am sorry to say to you all elites that in today’s yellow (and business) journalism I can not allow the cycle to perpetuation and would rather like it to stop permanently.
I was also told during my childhood that Journalists are trained to correctly assess the public mood. If that is so, how come they failed so miserably to pre-judge the storm that was brewing on the Indian cricket horizon in spite of having access to modern tools like forecasting ? If you elites thought that it is a simple issue of selecting and dropping of Sourav Ganguly, you failed miserably. To a man devoid of common sense, it appears to be the awakening of the commoners like me, who are yarning for transparency, probity and accountability in all spheres of public life. And I thought, you all elites would understand the real issue and guide it to its logical and effective conclusion. Big dreams of an old (and insane ?) man !
Coming back to “The Great Indian Cricket Circus”, I have the following questions for you elites, some of which I asked the BCCI who for the first time have kindly acknowledged the receipt :
Do you think that Mr. Greg Chappell, the hero of the under-arm bowling episode in an official match and who hails from a country famous for on and off the field indecent behaviours, alleged match-fixing and drug abuses, behaved indecently in public ? If yes, what follow-up action you took so that punishment is meted out to him ? If not, why ? Do you think that Indian public sentiment is dirt cheap ?
Do you think he is also responsible for bringing back politics in Indian cricket ? If yes, why should he not be packed off to where he belongs ?
Do we not have enough cricketing experts in our beloved country to be a coach ? Or do we need the fingers of Mr. Chappell in intended space of our anatomy to be motivated and perform ?
Do you think the Media Manager of BCCI lied on camera ? If yes, why did you not raise your voice ?
Media reports suggest that BCCI is about to finalise a deal with Mr. Greg Chappell for USD 175,000 pa. Since he is going on harping on the theme of building a team for the 2007 World Cup (as if a handful of countries constitute the world) presumably for winning it, is there any clause in the agreement which states that he would return all the money with interest if India fails to win it ? If not, why ? Moreover, if not, who gave BCCI the authority to waste hard earned foreign exchange ?
Now that all opinion polls conducted by media of all types and hypes ascertained that dropping Sourav was the most rotten joke, how many editorials you wrote in voicing your protest against the “Biggest Jokers of the Great Indian Circus” for bungling the selection process ? None of them had even a fraction of the capability Sourav still possesses. If you have not written, why ?
All the office bearers of BCCI who dared facing the camera admitted that dropping Sourav in Ahmedabad Test was unjust. If that is so, what action was taken against all the seven persons who took that “unanimous” decision ? President, BCCI, in an interview said that all the seven persons took that “unanimous” decision. Since when seven selectors have been appointed ?
Do you think selecting five selectors from five regions give rise to regionalism and politicking ? If yes, what is your view on the subject ?
BCCI boasts of transparency in all its decision making processes and I am sure it includes the team selection process also. If it is as transparent as they claim, why is it not published so that all of us lacking common sense know their method of evaluation and selection ? Do they evaluate a player’s performance over a sufficiently long period and does the evaluation method include any non-quantifiable parameter which is subject to bias like that of Mr. Raj Singh Dungarpur’s ?
It has been reported that BCCI is planning to sell every available space on the grounds, media and sporting gears to be used by the players to corporate sponsors who spend a huge amount of their share holders’ money on Indian cricket without any tangible benefit to their businesses. By wearing the sponsorship logos on their apparel and cricketing gears, are our players going to play for our country or for the sponsoring corporate ?
If our corporate houses are eager to promote sports in our country why they pour their share holders’ money for cricket only without any tangible benefit to their businesses while other sports whose toiling sports persons bring laurels to this country, starve of basic infrastructure ?
Do you believe that spectators (devoid of common sense) who, I am told, pay Rs. 800 on an average to watch a one day cricket match unlike you who sermonise on the game from the press gallery free of any charge (and subsidised by those ordinary mortals), have a right to demand transparency, probity and accountability in all spheres of Indian cricket ? After all, 50,000 multiplied by Rs. 800 make Rs. 40 million in one day !
Why do you think politicians want to control cash rich sports bodies like BCCI ?
In view of what is happening in “The Great Indian Cricket Circus”, do you think autonomous sports bodies like BCCI should be disbanded ?
Do you sincerely believe that cricket is a game to be played and patronised in a relatively poor country like India ? Do you agree that a huge amount of one of our precious national resource is being put to unproductive use on the most idiotic game ever designed by humans ?
I, as a commoner, devoid of any common sense, would now expect you to sermonise on above points in your next editorials. Lastly, may I be allowed to remind you that we commoners devoid of any common sense pay for you to survive in this competitive world ?
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
_______________________________________________________________
Dear Rajat,
Some of the issues you raised, I raised earlier. I have been pursuing the case for almost 3 months now almost single handedly. I am very happy now that many more souls have awakened and are demanding transparency, probity and accountability in all spheres of public life.
Please see my mail to the Editor of The Telegraph being sent today.
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
Rajat Sengupta wrote :
I am in agreement with to the various questionnaires to you have raised to the buffoons of Indian cricket. You may also add the following:
- Greg was a good batsman during his days but not a good sportsman. A player who cannot take defeat in his stride cannot be expected to be a good coach. It was this stupid Greg who instructed his brother Trevor(if the name I remember is correct ) to bowl underarm to avoid a defeat. He took advantage of the law book but in the process killed the sporting spirit. Do we expect him to bring back fighting and team spirit in Indian cricket. Rather he is ideally suited to destroy Indian cricket which our politically motivated buffoons are encouraging for their self interest.
- The present President of the BCCI said that he was not informed of the non inclusion of Sourav. Assuming but not accepting that his statement is correct, it simply proves he is most incompetent to sit on that chair where important declarations are made to the press without even the knowledge of the highest authority, and that too by jokers holding so called honourable positions.
- The President of the Board also expressed concern about the matter to be discussed in the Parliament . If a politician can get himself involved in the sporting body where does he expect the matter to be discussed ?The members of the Parliament are representing the common public and they are dutifully bound to raise the public concern in the Parliament.
- It took the new Board few hours to reconstitute the selection committee, possibly the first step after election and still the Board President claims that there is no Politics. Its really unheard of that during an ongoing series the selectors have been changed. A great management capability and skill of the President and his buffoons.
- The President of BCCI is also accountable to the nation to answer as to how he is expected to deliver holding such important and sensitive posts besides being the important Union Minister.
- The Chief Joker the less said the better. This dwarf needs to first attend a school to smoothen his vocabulary strength before opening his dirty mouth in front of the public.
- Mr. Raj Singh- a self proclaimed cricketer, represented the state of Rajasthan, used to open the bowling with little success and the claim to prominence was more because of his Royalty, now boasts of knowing everything about cricket under the sky. Unfortunately could never understand his own cricketing skills.
Well the mission of Greg is successful, to bring division in Indian cricket, a great achiever in his own right. But Mr. Greg should also share his success with the so called buffoons and jokers of Indian cricket for his success.
________________________________________________________________
Dear Sanjay,
Wonder of wonders, for the first time, my mail has been acknowledged (not replied yet) by Secy, BCCI's office.
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
Sanjay Agarwal wrote :
Dear Manojda,
I hope these bunch of jokers are courteous enough to answer your queries. I hope media takes up the matter.
Regards,
Sanjay
________________________________________________________________
The Secretary
BCCI
Dear Sir,
Further to my questionnaire sent to you earlier and reproduced below, I would like to ask you a few more minor questions and would expect you to show enough courage and courtesy to answer all of them. They are as below :
- All the office bearers of BCCI who dared facing the camera admitted that dropping Sourav in Ahmedabad Test was unjust. If that is so, what action is being taken against all the seven persons who took that “unanimous” decision ? (Your President in an interview said that all the seven persons took that “unanimous” decision).
- Incidentally, who is Mr. Raj Singh Dungarpur ? Was he a capable cricketer ? If he is an office bearer of BCCI, how dare he openly show his bias against a particular player on camera repeatedly based solely on his judgement ? If he is an office bearer of BCCI, what action you propose to take against him ?
- The new Board boasts of transparency in all its decision making processes and I am sure it includes the team selection process also. If it is as transparent as you claim, why is it not published so that all of us know your method of evaluation and selection ? I presume, you evaluate a player’s performance over a sufficiently long period and it does not include any non-quantifiable parameter which is subject to bias like Mr. Raj Singh Dungarpur.
- As an extension of the above question, I would like to ask you what is your method of appointing national selectors for “The Great Indian Cricket Circus” ?
- What are the email addresses of all the affiliate organisations of BCCI ? Suddenly, many of them vanished from cricinfo.com. Out of fear of accountability ? And why mails sent to Mr. I. S. Bindra at his mohali address always bounces back as his mail box always remains full ?
I am prepared to grant you three more days to answer all my questions.
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
The Secretary
BCCI
Dear Sir,
I have been sending you mails on the recent happenings in “The Great Indian Cricket Circus”. I have neither received any acknowledgements nor any replies. It is time, you be accountable to the sports lovers of this country and answer the following questions :
- What punishment you have meted out to Mr. Greg Chappell, the hero of the under-arm bowling episode in an official match and who hails from a country famous for on or off the field indecent behaviours, alleged match-fixing and drug abuses, for his obnoxious behaviours in Bangalore and Kolkata ? If not, why ? Do you think that Indian public sentiment comes cheap ?
- Why should he not be packed off to where he belongs for bringing back politics to “The Great Indian Cricket Circus” ?
- What action you have taken against your Media Manager for lying on camera ? If not why ? Do I have to assume that BCCI is run by liars and liars only ?
- Media reports suggest that you are about to finalise a deal with Mr. Greg Chappell for USD 175,000 pa. Is there any clause in the agreement which states that he would return all the money with interest if India fails to win the so called World Cup (as if a handful of countries constitute the world) ? If not, why ? Moreover, if not, who gave you the authority to waste hard earned foreign exchange ?
- Now that all opinion polls ascertained that dropping Sourav was the most rotten joke, what actions you have taken against the “BIGGEST JOKERS OF THE GREAT INDIAN CIRCUS” for bungling the selection process ? None of them had even a fraction of the capability Sourav still possesses. If not, why ?
- In view of what is happening in “The Great Indian Cricket Circus”, why autonomous sports bodies like yours should not be disbanded ?
- It has been reported that you are planning to sell every available space on the grounds, media and sporting gears to be used by the players to INDIAN AND OVERSEAS CORPORATE SPONSORS WHO WASTE A HUGE AMOUNT OF THEIR SHARE HOLDERS’ MONEY WITHOUT ANY TANGIBLE OR INTANGIBLE BENEFIT TO THEIR BUSINESS FOR THIS IDIOTIC GAME. Are our players going to play for our country or for the sponsoring Corporates ?
I expect answers to all my 7 questions within a week.
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
Secretary
BCCI
Dear Sir,
It appears from media reports that the “Chief Joker” of the Indian Cricket Circus was prepared to swear by his (!) daughter that dropping Sourav was a unanimous decision of the “BIGGEST BUNCH OF JOKERS OF THE INDIAN CRICKET CIRCUS”.
How dare he think that he could swear by anybody else’s daughter ?
Moreover, as now all the opinion polls show that the “JOKE” was rotten, why this bunch does not resign immediately before they are thrown out ? Which Joker in the bunch has even a fraction of capability Sourav still has ?
Do I have to assume that the fingers of Greg Chappell who comes from a country famous for on and off the field indecent behaviour and drug abuse by its cricketers, and responsible for bringing back politics in Indian Cricket Circus were enjoyed by them ?
What a game and what a CIRCUS !!!
Keep it up BCCI, may Greg bless you.
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
Dear Sanjay,
Thanks for your observations.
I have been fighting this battle almost single handedly till one of the news channels picked up my appeal.
I am now happy that KOLKATA, which like Maggi sauce is different, has reacted. I would be happier if people like you all start registering your protests like I am doing.
Best Regards,
Manojda
________________________________________________________________
Sanjay Agarwal wrote :
Dear Manojda,
I fail to understand, if Saurav was to be dropped, why did the bunch of jokers pick him up in the first place. Are they not answerable to anybody? We all know that reasons other than cricket have been responsible for his ouster. I would not have blamed the selectors, if he was not selected in the first place and asked to perform more at 1st class cricket. This is ridiculous for being dropped for a reasonably good performance at the 2nd test, where he gets complimented by the captain himself. So the new mantra is ' Get sacked for good performance'.
Regards,
Sanjay
________________________________________________________________
To all I knew :
Gentlemen,
Would any one of you be kind enough to forward me the email addresses of the Cricket Associations of India ?
I have been searching the net without much success.
Moreover, my mails to Mr. I. S. Bindra at his mohali address, Mumbai Cricket Association, Kerala Cricket Association, Rajasthan Cricket Association, All India Congress Committee are being returned for either their mail boxes being full or for their email addresses suddenly disappearing from cricinfo.com.
After the formation of the new BCCI, I heard and read so much about transparency, but alas they do not publish the email addresses of their own affiliates. TRANSPARENCY ????
The present BCCI is bent upon raising and distributing more funds and in the process, they are going to offer various options to several corporates who have so far been lucky not to have faced any questions from their shareholders regarding sponsoring only one sport in India.
I would like to ask BCCI, are they asking the cricket players to play for their country or for the money making (and wasting) corporates ?
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
Secretary
BCCI
Dear Sir,
I have enjoyed the joke of the year delivered by the “Best Bunch of Jokers” of Indian Cricket first by including and then dropping Sourav Ganguly from the test squad and I would like to thank all of them particularly the “Chief Joker” for showing his loyalty and delivering such a wonderful joke.
I presume he has been dropped for a very transparent reason of performing poorest in last two tests and obviously the “Jokers”, like Umpires, know best.
The joke removed all misconceptions from my mind that cricket, the worst possible game ever designed and played anywhere in the world, is played in and administered from Mumbai only. After all, the boring game has to be beamed to millions of unsuspecting viewers through a Mumbai controlled channel selected through a very transparent process at lightening speed.
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
Editor
The Hindu
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your editorial attached below. And thank you for praising Mr. Pawar, the person who left a party as he did not like to be dominated upon by a "foreigner" but now finds so much virtue in not one but TWO foreigners, and who does not know how to control the price of only one agricultural product "onion".
Mr. Pawar has promised transparency. And he showed it by finalising the TV rights with such alacrity and transparency. Remarkable achievement indeed. One is inclined to believe that it was finalised with speed of light as it concerned revenues.
I don't know whether you watch TV and that to Hindi Version of NDTV and English version of Star News. If you don't see them, how would you know what Mr. Yashpal Sharma, the sacked selector, Mr. Navjot Singh Sidhu, former test player and current MP and Mr. Sandip Patil, former test player and coach said exactly the opposite ? Even Mr. Ajit Wadekar, while respecting the likings of the
incumbent BCCI Members said today that it should not be left to the coach to select the team. And did I forget Mr. Wasim Akram ? He wondered how can the coach who has hardly known the players, can select a team ?
By a remote chance, you may perhaps know that Mr. Kiran More, the Chief Selector still maintains that none should speak out. One can safely assume that there are skeletons only in the cupboards.
Most likely, you are not aware that Mr. I. S. Bindra, Mr. Pawar's left (or right ?) hand, whose mail box overflows as he does not care to read mails related to cricket administration, threatened Mr. Harbhajan Singh but publicly says "... chhote bachche ... " etc.
Transparency in BCCI, my foot.
Thank you for believing that politicians who do not follow their proclaimed principles and can not run their own parties / ministries well, would bring about sea changes in sports administration. And that too by a politician who till last year did not have time for cricket, and who suddenly woke up to find out that he has ample spare time. One is inclined to believe that elections in 5 states are ringing bells in the ears of all politicians.
Earlier, I wrote that cricket is the worst possible game ever designed by humankind of the idle and unproductive type to be played and supported / enjoyed by even more idle and unproductive types. And I stand by my statement. Moreover, I believe that in view of rampant mal-administration in all sports bodies / federations, all of them must be disbanded. If at all they are allowed to function, they must be made accountable to all sports loving people of India by a suitable
legislation.
I also demand the ouster of Mr. Greg Chappell for his obnoxious behaviour both in Bangalore and Kolkata. Can you imagine such behaviours tolerated by an Indian in a foreign country ?
If you believe that he should be spared, I shall have to assume that you enjoy such gestures, more so, if it comes from a foreigner, assuming it to be a token of appreciation for your editorial.
Please keep it up.
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
Editorial of The Hindu, 01 Dec 2005
Union Agriculture Minister and Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) president Sharad Pawar's emphatic victory in the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) election has ushered in a liberating change. His nine-vote margin of victory over Haryana's Ranbir Singh Mahendra ends Kolkata businessman Jagmohan Dalmiya's stranglehold on India's cricket administration. The winning team campaigned on a promise to be different from the previous regime, essentially by turning professional. After becoming President, the experienced politician who has an impressive track record of promoting kabbadi, wrestling, kho-kho, and cricket in western India reiterated the need to remodel the BCCI's constitution, strengthen the Board's foundation, and bring transparency to its working. Mr. Pawar also underscored the need to maintain excellent relations with all of Indian cricket's stakeholders and build modern stadiums round the country. Most heartening was his promise of non-interference in matters relating to cricket, particularly team selection. Cricket administration in India has been plagued by power struggles and a culture of sycophancy and factionalism. A rotation policy is used to determine the venues for international matches; while this can be justified on the ground that every part of India needs a chance, there is no logic behind the quirkish scheduling of matches during monsoons.
It will be a disservice not to recognise Mr. Dalmiya's contributions as a sports administrator: he ventured out in new directions and helped make the BCCI financially strong. But the later Dalmiya reign was noted for its autocratic style of management, its divisiveness and manipulation, and its non-transparency. Mr. Pawar's style of functioning promises to be quite different: taking colleagues in the BCCI committee into confidence, respecting cricket expertise, and delegating
authority while keeping an eye on the big picture. As MCA chief, Mr. Pawar is credited with solving, in less than half a decade, a boxful of troubles and taking major initiatives to develop infrastructure. His dream project is a state-of-the-art cricketing facility at the Bandra-Kurla Complex, which will be ready by the first quarter of 2007. The three areas that need the new BCCI chief's immediate attention are (i) the question of five-year television rights, which is complicated by a slew of court cases, (ii) player contracts, and (iii) team sponsorship. The longer-term challenges are development at the grassroots, improving pitches for domestic competition, and modernising facilities in cricket stadiums for players, the public, and the media. Mr. Dalmiya saw to it that the Board's coffers overflowed; it's up to Mr. Pawar to ensure the money is well spent. The new BCCI regime is fortunate in having an opportunity to implement its agenda for change at a time Indian cricket is on the upswing. It has an upstanding captain of
great cricketing character and a splendid coach with original ideas to team up with. It must seize the moment.
________________________________________________________________
To Editors of National Dailies :
Dear Sirs,
I have been crying hoarse for punishment to be given to Mr. Greg Chappell for his obscene behaviours both in Bangalore & Kolkata.
The print media, for reasons best known to them, have avoided publishing all my correspondences on the subject.
Inspired by Tagore's famous song "Jadi tor daak sune keu naa aase tabe ekla chalo re ...", I have been pursuing the issue almost single-handedly for which I do not have any regrets. Today, I was forced to believe, that help comes from unexpected quarters, obviously by the grace of GOD.
Star TV today presented glimpse of the case for which I am fighting.
Mr. Sidhu, in his inimitable style, Mr. Sandip Patil & Mr. Yashpal Sharma narrated for all the viewers what is BCCI, how it is run & why people who dot have any idea of cricket want to control it.
Isn't it time that BCCI and similar useless Boards, controlling various sports in our country be disbanded ? If that is not possible, why not they be made accountable to the sporting public ?
In spite of my best efforts, I could not find out email addresses of many State Cricket Associations. Could somebody help me please ?
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
P.S.
Out of all the people, my mail to the following persons / agencies would be returned back as either their mail-boxes are full which means nobody attends to their mails or they do not like me
:
AICC
ICC
Kerala Cricket Association
Mr. I. S. Bindra
________________________________________________________________
Secretary,
BCCI
I now have the second signature to register our protest & anger.
Through a copy of this mail, I am requesting all the people who are proud of this country and its great heritage, to forward this mail to their contacts so that whosoever feels, may register their protest.
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
Secretary,
BCCI
I now have the second signature to register our protest & anger.
Through a copy of this mail, I am requesting all the people who are proud of this country and its great heritage, to forward this mail to their contacts so that whosoever feels, may register their protest.
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
Secretary
BCCI
Dear Sir,
I now have at least one supporter to the cause of my fight. I hope, it grows, if at all.
I shall be forwarding you the protests as and when I receive them.
Through a copy of this mail, I am requesting all right thinking persons of this country to register their protests directly to Secretary, BCCI and with copies to all national dailies who for unknown reasons do not want to take up the issue, and me.
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
RECEIVED FROM A FRIEND
I have said this before on my bog and I will say it now again. The Sourav Ganguly issue makes me more acutely aware of my identity than any other thing simply because anti-Gangliest is strongly followed by and often driven by anti-Bengalis----a surprisingly powerful and undeniably perceptible sentiment I have felt more than once in my life in the company of fellow Indians.
Let's look at it logically. Who is Sourav to me? A rich man's son who had many privileges growing up I didn’t have---by common consent arrogant, abrasive and petulant. Not my favorite kind of person. I have never been parochial, have no problems in making fun of other Bengali heroes (Method), do not hero-worship Netaji and do not feel that the Hilda is the last thing in cuisine. And yet the mere mention of Dada makes me acutely conscious of my linguistic identity which is ironical in that Sourav Gingili’s greatest legacy is his lack of parochialism and his hard-nosed objectivity when dealing with Indian cricket players.
Here's a simple test. Go through a few articles about Sourav. The word "Bengal" or "Kolkata" is going to be present in the article with a high probability. Now go through a few articles about Sachin. Check out "Maharashtra" or "Mumbai". Just to confirm that go to articles about Rahul Dravid and check out "Karnataka" or "Bangalore".
Go through the Orkut discussion on Ganguly. The people who abuse Ganguly also use abusive words against Bengalis ---mostly concerning our paternities and the characters of our women. In Stony Brook where I was a PhD student for 5 years, the guy who used to rain abuse at Ganguly happened to be someone who stayed in Kolkata when he was a child and hated it. Just a coincidence. Whenever Ganguly got out, eyes would turn towards me....some people would tell me " Ki Arnab-da....when is Dada going to make runs?" as if somehow me being Bong made me answerable for Sourav's performance. No Bangalorean or Marathi was ever made accountable for Sachin's or Rahul Dravid's failures with the bat----and there have been several over the past 5 years.
So let me pre-empt Mr Anonymous commenter. Yes sir, I support Ganguly because he is Bengali. Because you have left me no other choice. If I was Bangalorean and took out a procession burning effigies of Ganguly and shouting slogans for Rahul Dravid, I would not be considered parochial. But with me being a Bengali Kolkatan, I have already been labelled. So now let me live up to it.
Unapologetically.
Now the parochial , third-eye blind Greatbong speaks.
I strongly feel for Sourav. The powers in admininstration (Dalmiya) have sold him out to Pawar and Bindra as a peace offering---Dravid as captain in exchange for a truce. Vision for 2007 World Cup yeah right. Which just goes to show the Dalmiya never supported Ganguly because he was a fellow Bong (incidentally Dalmiya isn’t a Bong but he is a Kolkatan) but because it was politically expedient to do so.
Greg Chappell, with the aid of his friends in the Press (more about that later) have savaged Ganguly's legacy----Greg underarm Chappell rightfully understands that in order to get rid of Ganguly the person, he first needs to kill Ganguly the legend. Canards were spread that Ganguly faked injury, spread discontent in the team----accusations intended to undermine Ganguly's reputation of never playing politics in the team based on personal equations (a charge Ganguly's predecessors in the captains seat cannot deflect off easily). The investigation of the board cleared Ganguly of the charges of faking an injury, yet the coach, who had been proved to be a liar, was not taken to task. Instead it was Ganguly who was out of the team despite having successfully defended himself against all accusations.
But what was the unkindest cut of all was that Rahul Dravid actively worked, in collusion with Greg Chappell, to prevent Sourav from coming back into the team. Since he is now the blue-eyed boy of the press, this behavior was considered to be "okey". If it was Sourav doing it to Dravid, then the press would have been beating their chest----pointing out how dastardly Bengali Ganguly was, lusting for captaincy and backstabbing a "friend".
However since it's Rahul Dravid, Cricinfo (which has emerged as a beacon light for aggressive, anti-Ganguly biased reporting in recent times-----putting it one
notch above the anti-Ganguly hate sight for undiluted vitriol) finds it "natural" that Dravid is aggrieved that he has not been given the captaincy for so long----somehow the underlying assumption being that captaincy is a cookie you get for being a good boy.
I seem to recollect in late 90s groaning the moment one of Sourav or Sachin got out because that meant clueless Dravid would come into bat and the scoring rate would go down. Yet none ever felt then that Dravid should not be part of long term World Cup plans. It was once Dravid became wicketkeeper (and thus assured of his place in the team) that he began to flourish with deft placements, soft hands and clinical hits-----a move that was the brainchild of the same man whom he argued to kick out a day or two ago.
Note to self: When Dravid and More work together to ease out someone it is progressive thinking, the moment Dalmiya is involved it is dirty politics. Doublespeak anyone?
Now we come to the central argument against Ganguly. Who does Ganguly replace in the current team? How about a 31 year old trundler who bowls laughable military medium and cannot read Muralidharan's doosra and calls himself an all rounder mainly because he doesn’t know which he does worse ?
How about an 18 year old whose only bullet in the resume is that he can field well? Are these people part of Vision 2007 because they are more capable than Sourav Ganguly or because they are yes-men of the More-Chappell-Dravid combine?
Another point of view: Okay Ganguly has proven his form and his fitness. But these young players haven’t yet had the opportunity to prove their mettle---how can they be dropped? Beautiful.....now please explain how come Balaji who gave 48 runs in 10 over in Sri Lanka never made it to the side subsequently? Where was the sense of fairness then? If one match did it for Balaji, then how come Venugopal Rao, who had a dreadful run in Sri Lanka, is still in the 14 as a prospect? What happened to Nehra? How come Zaheer is not good to be in the India team but gets Man of the Series in the Afro-Asia Cup? How come Sreesanth bowled well in one Challenger trophy match and made it to the Indian team ? How does the great Chappell-Dravid combine understand talent in such blindingly brief displays ?
How come Superduck (apologies to Samit Basu) Agarkar, whose " economy" rate is over 5, is considered to be a World Cup prospect------maybe it is because he and More come from the same part of the country? Perhaps? Will Cricinfo suggest that? No it won’t in spite of the fact that they did not hesitate to repeat Ganguly and Dalmiya's connection ad nausuem.
Ganguly has been dropped because he will not play ball with Chappell, since he has his own ways of going about things. This makes it purely a power struggle between coach and captain and the captain has been defeated and replaced by a coach's stooge. Simple. It happens in the corporate world---it happens elsewhere. But pleeze let's not apply "Fair and Handsome" onto this mess and
pretend that it has anything to do with "vision".
If the team is happy without Sourav as press reports indicate, why were some of the same players so eager to speak out in his favour till the Board had to forcibly stop them from speaking to the Press? Harbhajan came out strongly in favor of Ganguly, Yuvraj gave a more political correct statement of support. Sehwag also wanted to come out. Now Sourav must have done something right to warrant players coming out in support of him------even at the cost of upsetting their equations with a coach who has shown that he does not welcome democratic dissent.
And Cricinfo. Man I used to really like these guys---unlike the guys at TOI they understand their cricket. They still do I think but in the Ganguly issue have totally lost their objectivity.
Ever since I read that Ganguly does not give them quotable quotes and instead pampers to a select coterie of journalists ---I knew that the staffers were waiting with their knives out ready to plunge it in when he slipped up. And slip up he did and out came the daggers. A picture of Cricinfo staffers with Rahul Dravid and Mohammed Kaif, who had dropped in for a casual visit, kind of hinted which way the PR river was flowing.
________________________________________________________________
The Secretary
BCCI
Dear Sir,
Thank you for finalising the TV rights issue with a speed faster than light in favour of Zee Sports @ approximately Rs. 3.5 crores per test match in an absolutely transparent fashion, perhaps because it was a revenue earning issue for the cash rich BCCI.
I have been requesting BCCI for quite some time now for disciplinary action against Mr. Greg Chappell. Obviously, none of you have the time and inclination for such an action.
I wonder whether the re-incarnations of the Mirzafars and Jagat Seths would now invite more such uncivilised foreigners in whose countries such obnoxious behaviours are commonplace so that they continue to display the middle fingers of their right hands to hapless Indians at the mercy of these re-incarnations.
Now that you have decided to take no action on Mr. Greg Chappell and the media for reasons best known to them, have become quiet on the issue, I as a conscious and righteous citizen of our great country, am going to appeal to all I know to register their protest, if like me, they also felt hurt by the indecent gesture of Mr. Greg Chappell.
I shall be happy if I get support, even from unexpected corners. One and one sometimes, unlike arithmetic, make eleven.
If nobody decides to support, I shall continue to register my protest single handedly as long time ago a great poet of this country once said “jadi tor daak sune keu naa ase tabe ekla chalo re …”
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
Secretary
BCCI
Dear Sir,
A friend pointed out to me that you have awarded the contract to Zee Sports @ approximately Rs. 6.5 crores per test match.
I stand corrected AND APOLOGISE FOR DERATING BCCI's FUND RAISING CAPABILITIES AT LIGHTNING SPEED.
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
Secretary
BCCI
Dear Sir,
I APOLOGISE FOR MY MISTAKE AND STAND CORRECETED AS REGARDS THE COMPOSITION OF THE SELECTORS. YOU HAVE KINDLY ACCOMODATED ONE FROM THE EAST AND THERE ARE 2 (INCLUDING THE CHIEF SELECTOR) FROM THE WEST. ONCE AGAIN I APOLOGISE AS I HEARD THE NEWS WRONGLY.
IT WAS HEARTENING TO SEE ICC CONDUCT RULES BEING APPLIED TO NEL FOR HIS ON-FIELD BEHAVIOUR.
I HAVE BEEN DEMANDING ACTION AGAINST GREG CHAPPELL FOR HIS INSULT TO INDIANS AND IT SEEMS BCCI THINKS THAT ICC CONDUCT RULES ARE NOT MEANT FOR HIM AND HE IS BEYOND ANY RULES.
ONCE AGAIN I DEMAND ACTION AGAINST HIM AND THE PROCESS SHOULD BE TRANSPARANT TO US ALL.
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
Secretary
BCCI
Dear Sir,
I have watched Mr. Greg Chappell’s sordid episode in the TV and read his interview with an English Language Daily. My observations are as follows :
I agree that over the years KOLKATANs have turned out to be fanatics as far as sports go but one should also bear in mind that most of them who really understand and watch the game are poor and can ill-afford the price of the tickets
(Rs. 500 - Rs. 1,200, I am told) for one day matches. They buy their tickets through their hard earned money and go to watch a match where their heroes who are earning tens of crores a year, perform. They feel they have a right to
protest when their team loses without a semblance of a fight as appeared to them in the World Cup Semifinal against Sri Lanka. Of course, I do not subscribe to their way of protesting by hurling water bottles to the playing arena and possibly hurting the players. A better way perhaps could have been to leave the arena peacefully and boycott the idiotic game which has turned into a million dollar business (including match-fixing & betting) now which everyone including our very busy politicians are trying to control. (Do I sense elections in 5 states are
approaching ?)
I feel the Kolkatans behaved remarkably well under extreme provocation and supported a team who played well in all departments of the game. THAT MUST BE THE NATURE OF TRUE SPORTS LOVERS. BETTER PLAYERS MUST BE APPLAUDED. However, I agree that they must not be fanatics like the “Burmy Army”. I also believe that if they were disgusted by the performances of their national team, they should not have booed the home team players and registered their protests by quietly leaving the stadium after garlanding each of them. I think, Kolkatans were not upset because Sourav was dropped but the way he was dropped. It was not fair. In most other playing centers of India the pitch would have been dug, why blame the Kolkatans only ?
I am NOT a fan of Sourav and for that matter, I am not a fan of any of the players of this useless game turned into a business. I heard many commenting on his waiving of his shirt at Lords. To them, I say “I DO SUPPORT HIS WAIVING OF HIS SHIRT AT LORDS”. How many eyebrows were raised when Andrew Flintoff, who claimed that he was shot at Delhi while fielding, went round an Indian stadium without his shirt on ? All of us kept quiet as we suffer from “foreign phobia”. I thought it was a fitting reply and Flintoff would dare not do the same in future. A general has to appear to be a leader in the opponent's eyes also.
Many people have blamed Sourav for disclosing the dressing room discussions. Sourav, on his own did not talk about the dressing room episode in SA. Ravi Shastri, a well known Sourav baiter asked him a very pointed question. Nobody till date tried to find out where from Ravi Shastri came to know what happened in the dressing room. As per media reports, there were only a select few during the discussion. Why the name of the culprit who leaked the information to Ravi Shastri has not been unearthed? In whose interest ?
I believe that he should be out of the team when he is not performing. But what about other 3 stalwarts ? Would our selectors, “the bunch of jokers”, aptly coined by Mr. Mohinder Amarnath long back, care to look through their last 10 performances ? If their performances are also equally bad, why should they be in the team ? On one hand they are preaching that nobody is above the game and are practising something else. Nobody, however fool he is, is going to accept it. I DO NOT. They are also preaching to forget the past and if that is so, what about current non-performances of the heroes ? Moreover, after dropping Sourav, why bring him back for one test only ? To carry water to the field, as Ravi Shastri has wondered ? Why add insult to the injury ? Surely he deserves a decent burial.
Many people complained about the nature of the pitch. What was wrong with it ? After all, the South Africans scored 192 without loss in 36 overs on the same wicket batting second. S. M. Gavaskar in his column mentioned that the Indian Team was also given a "bushy" pitch in Nagpur in 2004. How does Greg Chappell dream of winning the next World Cup (as if a handful of countries constitute the world) when the front line batsmen of his team are to be shielded on a sporting pitch ? Are our heroes capable of performing on crumbling slow turners only ?
Sourav was ridiculed enough in his early life - being treated almost like a ball boy by the so called stalwarts of the then Indian cricket team and he was given only one chance before being dropped for quite a long time. He was given the captaincy after Azhar was removed for alleged match-fixing and Sachin found the going too tough. It would be a gross injustice to deny that he built the team from
scratch by persisting with the youngsters. Because of his persistence only, today one sees so many stalwarts and they know it but only one dared to accept.
Nobody can ever take away from him the glory of being the most successful Indian Captain so far. Many people do not like Kolkata, but Kolkata would not shed its value system just because a few people think that it is a dying (or dead) city. For that matter, the intrinsic characters of none of our cities are going to change in the near future. Yes, Kolkata is different (like Maggi Tomato
sauce) - sorry, many do not like it.
Coming back to Greg Chappell, at an impressionable age I read about him that as a captain, he asked his brother Trevor to bowl underarm in a test match. It made me shudder think that up to what level he can go to win a match. In
order to either condemn or appreciate him the sporting fraternity first of all, has to answer whether sports is for winning ONLY as it is made out these days ?
I condemn Greg Chappell both for his obsession for winning only and his obscene gestures both in Bangalore and in Kolkata. Being so knowledgeable, was he not aware that ICC has a conduct rule for team officials also ? If he was not, then he is not fit to be a coach of a national team. Moreover, if he is such a great coach why ACB did not make him their national coach and why did Steve Waugh warn about him in his columns ?
I also condemn the office bearers of BCCI for justifying Greg Chappell’s obnoxious behaviours by way of ridiculous denials which even a child can see through. If the present set of BCCI officials does not take action against him then
they should make way for an entirely new set who would be taking him to task (A VERY BIG HOPE).
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
Secretary
BCCI
Dear Sir,
CONGRATULATIONS FOR WINNING THE ELECTIONS AND TAKING OVER THE REIGNS OF BCCI.
MORE CONGRATULATIONS FOR OUR VERY BUSY POLITICIANS TAKING SUCH ACTIVE INTEREST IN THE GAME OF CRICKET. IS IT BECAUSE ELECTIONS IN 5 STATES ARE GOING TO BE HELD SOON ?
FURTHER CONGRATULATIONS FOR SELECTING 3 (INCLUDING THE CHIEF SELECTOR) FROM THE WESTERN ZONE FROM WHERE THE NEW PRESIDENT COMES AND SACKING THE SELECTOR FROM THE EAST ZONE.
WE SHOULD NOT HAVE FORGOTTEN THAT CRICKET IS NOT PLAYED IN THIS PART OF THE COUNTRY AND ONLY IN THE WESTERN AND CENTRAL ZONES. A BIG THANK YOU.
IT IS A PITY THAT A GREAT CRICKET PLAYING STATE CALLED MAHARASTRA VERY RECENTLY LOST TO A NON-CRICKET PLAYING STATE LIKE WEST BENGAL AND WE MUST FORGET THAT A MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY UNFIT PERSON CALLED SOURAV GANGULY TOOK 5 WICKETS IN THE 1ST INNINGS (HE DIDN'T BOWL IN THE SECOND) AND SCORED 159 RUNS. WHAT A PITY.
I AM WRITING TO YOU TO KNOW WHAT PUNISHMENT YOU INTEND GIVING TO Mr. GREG CHAPPELL, A PAID EMPLOYEE (?) OF BCCI FOR INSULTING US, INDIANS, IN HIS MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY FIT STATE.
I HAVE BEEN WRITING TO THE PREVIOUS SECRETARY (SHOWN BELOW) FOR AN ANSWER FOR QUITE SOME TIME AND THIS TIME I DEFINITELY WANT AN ANSWER.
I AM ATTACHING A VERY INTERESTING PRESENTATION FOR YOU. I HOPE YOU WOULD ENJOY THE SAME.
BEST REGARDS,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
Secretary
BCCI
Dear Sir,
The Board should be ashamed to defend the obnoxious Greg Chappell. I presume it is possible only in India where we accept such behaviours even from foreigners. Would ACB tolerate such behaviour from an Indian Coach ?
I would once again urge to promptly send him back to his own country. Any more defense of that obnoxious man may make the existence of BCCI doubtful, election or no election.
The people of this country still believe that there is a judicial system better than the BCCI system in place.
So act immediately and show that BCCI is capable of taking action on erring individuals and nobody Repeat NOBODY is above law.
Best Regards,
Manojendra Gupta
_______________________________________________________________
Secretary
BCCI
Dear Sir,
Now that Mr. Greg Chappell has admitted that he made the obscene gesture, I am sure you would not dare making any more silly statements on the subject.
What action the BCCI is contemplating against him ? I am sure you are aware of ICC Rules of Conduct for Officials also.
Please be informed that I have brought the incident to the notice of ICC and have received an acknowledgement for my complaint from the Australian PM's Office.
It would be a pity if our own country does not react to the ugly incident.
Wishing a speedy action against him,
Yours faithfully,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
Secretary
BCCI
Dear Sir,
I consider that the obscene gestures made by the “hero of the underarm bowling episode” and currently Team India’s Coach in Captain Cool’s home town Bangalore and the sports loving city of Kolkata, to be gross misconducts by a foreigner AND AN INSULT TO INDIANS.
I appreciate the calm the KOLKATANS showed even after the nauseating incident.
I DEMAND THAT GREG CHAPPELL, A PAID EMPLOYEE OF BCCI, BE SACKED IMMEDIATELY AND BE SENT HOME.
If the current BCCI Management fails to send him back to his own country where such behaviours may be common, IT MUST ALSO GO AND THE NEW MANAGEMENT THEN MUST SHOW HIM THE DOOR.
In this connection, I demand an unconditional apology from the Prime Minister of Australia, famous for on and off the field sledging, who is very fond of issuing statements on cricket.
Yours faithfully,
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
To all I knew :
Dear All,
Through late night news, I came to know that team India’s new coach, “the hero of the underarm bowling episode”, its “world beater” Mr. Sachin Tendulkar and its new Captain “cool” got the drubbings of their lives from the South African Team.
During the same news telecast, I saw Mr. Greg Chappell’s obscene hand gestures towards the true sports loving people of Kolkata.
I demand his unconditional public apology.
I would expect you also to ask for the same.
Manojendra Gupta
________________________________________________________________
Editors
All News Papers
Dear Sir,
In response to your unrestrained coverage of the worst possible game ever designed by humankind of the idle and unproductive type to be played and supported / enjoyed by even more idle and unproductive types, the following are my observations:
This most awful game is popular because of uninhibited coverage by media of all types, possibly because, in between overs the sports journalists can write at least one sentence, TV channels can show more than one advertisement and the excitement-seeking spectators can look around, gossip and refresh themselves.
It is most popular in poor countries having abundant supplies of idle and unproductive souls in search of excitement and glamour.
How did you assume that you had the right to take all your readers for granted and waste precious column centimeters on such an idiotic game when there are millions of thought provoking subjects for exercising our brains? After all, I pay to read what is published in your paper. If you decide what I should read, I may as well look out for some other publication which interests me.
May I ask you how many column centimeters you spent on recent Santosh Trophy or the victory of Bengal under-21 over under-18 A. C. Milan? Or for that matter, how many column centimeters you spend on Viswanathan Anand or Soma Biswas who bring laurels to this country? Do your sports journalists understand only cricket and nothing else?
Our corporate houses are quite fond of sponsoring cricket and its players. Millions of unproductive Rupees are spent on this funny game under the garb of brand promotion. I would like to know the exact amounts of additional surpluses these sponsoring generate for those establishments. I pity the share holders of those companies who dare not ask their CEOs to publish the figures. If they are sports loving and caring types, why don’t they spend even a fraction of that unproductive money in developing sports infrustructure in villages / small towns, spot and nurture abundant sporting talents who never get the opportunities to blossom?
Coming back to the so called glamour game named cricket, that too as played in our beloved country, I certainly believe that time moves in forward direction unless one travels at a speed exceeding that of light and everything decays with its passage. However, as we are very often reminded that cricket is a gentlemanly game, which it is not, particularly as demonstrated by the players of the Australian variety famous for their on and off field sledging, one can legitimately expect that the most successful captain of the country is retired gracefully.
In view of the recent controversy raging the country and occupying extensive space in your paper, may I ask the “hero of underarm bowling in an official game” and “captain cool” to answer why a player failing in three consecutive matches is not sidelined and replaced? We were informed by the hero that players of certain precious variety can not be replaced. If that is so, we still have such precious varieties as S. M. Gavaskar, Kapil Dev et al. Why aren’t they included? The result may not be radically different. The hero of the underarm episode is busy in brand building for the ensuing World (as if around a dozen countries constitute the world) Cup. Would he care to refund all our hard earned foreign currencies which he and his cronies are accepting, with interest, if our beloved country fails to lift the “World (!!) Cup” ?
Lastly, would the “bunch of jokers” aptly coined by Mr. Mohinder Amarnath, care to answer whether they have forgotten their parents as they are also past? Would the chosen few also elaborate what were their individual performances so that we can evaluate their joking abilities?
Yours faithfully,
Manojendra Gupta
