The Pakistanis are upset with us and I can’t blame them either. This entire episode involving the (non) auction of 11 Pakistani players, many from the last year’s world cup winning team has left a bitter taste in everyone’s mouth. That none of the teams bid for a single Pakistani player is ridiculous and the reasons appear to be all non cricketing.
Cricket is a religion in our part of the world and apart from our shared language and culture is the most potent unifying force in the subcontinent. Indian Premier League, which is now in its third year is an eagerly awaited extravaganza involving franchised city based teams with fancy names competing for the trophy. Each team has local players as well as foreign ones and it is through open auctions that the teams vie to buy the players they fancy. Thus for players especially the emerging ones, it is a big ticket opportunity to display their talents on a global stage and make pots of money.
In all this commercial hoopla one expects IPL organisers to play by the rules. By keeping the Pakistani players out of the IPL and in the manner this has been done reflects very poorly of the IPL as well as Indian cricketing establishment. As an Indian my head hangs in shame at the machinations of the IPL czar Lalit Modi. Apparently what happened is simple enough. There were 11 Pakistani players participating in player auctions and none of the teams bid for anyone of them. It seems that Mr. Modi leaned on the team owners and all of them deliberately boycotted Pakistani players. This after these 11 players had been cleared by both the Pakistani and the Indian government to play in India.
The Pakistanis believe this is deliberate humiliation not only of their players but also of their entire cricketing establishment. I would tend to agree. If the Pakistani players were not welcome to play in India (for whatever reason), it would have been perfectly alright to inform their board accordingly and not have these players available for the auctions. This may have caused a furore, however the IPL/BCCI would well have been in their rights not to invite Pakistani players to participate in the IPL. Having invited these players for the auctions and than not bidding for them on dubious grounds is shameful sleight of hand and must be condemned in the harshest of terms.
To make matters worse IPL and some of the franchise owners have trotted out lame excuses for their conduct. Lalit Modi wants all of us to believe that he and his colleagues in the BCCI did not push the franchise owners in keeping away from the Pakistani players. He would also like us to believe that all the competing teams on their own decided that having Pakistani players in their ranks makes no sense and each of them individually steered clear of these palyers!And surely butter won’t melt in Mr. Modi’s mouth.
I believe that by excluding Pakistani players IPL teams have made a mistake. And the manner this has been done is downright disgraceful.
It is time we got rid of him as the IPL chief. That is perhaps the least we can do to make amends.
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