'Dosas Will Inherit the Earth'

These were the wonderfully witty Knife’s words after last night’s IPL Finals, not mine. I couldn’t stop laughing for a good ten minutes after having read them, the reason for which I would rather not expound on here.

But seriously, why couldn’t the Mumbai Indians see what the whole world could during last night’s game? 165 isn’t an impossible total to chase. This IPL has seen scores well above 170 having been made a number of times.

I think Mumbai was done in by two poor decisions on their part. One, they left the runs for too late and by the time they started going after the bowlers, the required run-rate had climbed so high it was practically impossible to score such a large number of runs without batsmen of the caliber of Sachin Tendulkar or Adam Gilchrist. Or Chris Gayle on a good day. And second, they sent Keiron Pollard in too late. That guy can hit. He can loft the ball effortlessly into the stands. But he can't win the match for you if he has no balls to play!! I wonder who was taking the decisions on the field for the Mumbai Indians last night.

I haven’t written anything about the IPL controversy yet. Too uninspiring. Neither the moustached, pot-bellied BCCI officials nor Lalit Modi with his pink & purple suits turns me on. Seriously, the guy (Modi) looks sleazy. Particularly with that smile of his that he has plastered on 24x7.

Well, he has already been suspended from the IPL by the BCCI. Poor guy - or not so poor guy depending on whose side you’re on - he created the IPL monster, fed it, grew it into the “paisa (money) league” that the media is calling it these days, and he has been ousted from his own creation!

I think he should've got a fair trial before being ousted, and I'm not playing the devil's advocate here. I think everyone deserves a fair trial and should be convicted of the charges against them, before being punished. By all means Modi should be ousted if he is found guilty of rigging/ manipulating the team bids, betting and the other charges against him, but until the charges are proved in court I don’t think it was fair to suspend him.

The bigger issue, however, is to find the right guy to replace Lalit Modi. There's no denying that he is enterprising, gutsy, an astute businessman and a visionary. Only someone with a vision, big ideas and who can look into the future could have come up with something as big and money-spinning - for the franchisees, the sponsors, the economy - as the IPL. It will be a challenge to find someone as dynamic as Lalit Modi to head the IPL. There is no dearth of intelligent, smart entrepreneurs in India - or so I'd like to believe - but dynamism and vision are qualitites that are still rare in this country. For the IPL, in its current form, doesn’t need an uninspiring BCCI official and definitely not a corrupt, lazy politician to head it!!