I am a bit fazed and confused by this whole Lalit Modi drama. The issue seems to be simple - there was pots of money being made from the IPL - some legal and some below the radar. There might have been match fixing and teams being allocated to friends . Lalit Modi may have used his private aircraft and billed it to IPL. IPL may also have been paying out large sums of money for his four seasons suite. And so on and so forth.
My point is - what is new? Is that not what everyone in this country and every other country do the same? Where there is money, pots of it to be made, do these things not occur? Look at our holier than thou politicians. In this very generation, most of them have become super duper rich. They own vast tracts of land, they have business interests in everything.And they don't even deliver value. When was the last time, a politician acknowledged and said 'I am not sorry to have stolen your money. I am arrogant about it too.This country is my personal fiefdom and I use the money to further my family's interests .I really see no reason why I should give you anything in return. If you act smart with me, i will bump you off. '
The story about Praful Patel's daughter 'chartering' out planes and about Pawar's daughter's stake in one of the franchisees has been quietly buried.Tharoor has been told to resign and cool off.
Atleast Lalit Modi delivered - and how. IPL is big, brash , over the top and great fun. It makes one optimistic that in the coming years, the sports infrastructure will improve so that Indians can perform better. A whole new generation of young indians got an opportunity to play with the big wigs of International and Indian Cricket.
The fuddy duddies of BCCI have been fuming for a while. But they really need to look within their hearts and ask themselves if they could have pulled off an IPL like Lalit Modi?
Politicians with all their foul money and bureaucrats with all their power cannot have done this. This required a person like Modi who is widely travelled, has a taste for good things and a vision to have executed this project impeccably.
So lets not hang him!
