IPL 6: Let the controversies abound

April 2, 2013 – The 2nd anniversary of the India’s World Cup victory. Also the day before the entire nation goes jumping japang, as the Sony marketing people would like us to believe. It might sound totally ridiculous but it is a bit catchy.

A new edition of IPL is here. And where there is IPL, controversies can’t be too far away. And this year has already had more than its fair share.

First, the non-participation of the Sri Lankan players in games in Chennai. Personally, I don’t believe that sports should be mixed up with politics but then that would be living in an utopian world. The politicians would like to try taking advantage of any issue. But barring the Sri Lankan players from playing in Chennai just doesn’t make any sense. Previously, when the IPL faced some city/association specific issue, they moved out from the place e.g. shifting of games out of Hyderabad during the Telengana agitation or even shifting the entire tournament to South Africa during national elections. But somehow, any issue related to CSK seems to be handled differently. This ban actually increases the home advantage for CSK. They don’t have to face Malinga or Murali or Mahela or Matthews or Sanga now. Totally unfair to the other teams.

Then there is the ever-growing Facebook activism about 60,000 litres of water being wasted (?) per day on maintaining the stadiums when most of Maharastra is facing a drought situation. I agree the drought is severe and relief measures should be undertaken to counter the calamity but is IPL the problem here? In that case, why just IPL, all sporting activities can be considered “wasteful” in nature.

Now, coming to the owners. There seems to be some jinx on IPL team ownership. Deccan Chronicle group has gone bankrupt and sold off the team. Vijay Mallya and Subroto Roy are both in financial and legal troubles. And Shahrukh Khan continues to remain banned from Wankhede stadium.

The opening ceremony is being conducted by one of the team owners. And there has been much-publicised publicity stunt involving Jennife Lopez’s presence/absence from the opening ceremony.

Participation of English players continues to be a bone of contention between the players, the counties and ECB. After all the brouhaha last year and the re-integration talk, there can’t be anything more ironic than Kevin Pietersen picking an injury while playing for England which would lead him to missing the IPL.

And all this before even the first ball has been bowled. Enough of the off-field controversies. Now lets get the on-field drama going. What am I most looking forward to? In pure cricketing terms, the performance of the Indian fast bowlers and the Jharkhand players.

But what am I most eagerly awaiting for? To find out what will be the replacement for the DLF Maximums. And whether the “marvel of technology” that was the MRF blimp will make an appearance or not?Emjoy the IPL madness.