MUMBAI: The controversy kicked up over the exclusion of Pakistani players from the third edition of the Indian Premier League does not seem to die and, perhaps, will not settle down so easily. And that is because of the sensitive nature of the issue. Everyone has spoken on it, politically, diplomatically, and in the interest of sporting relations between the two countries. And yet the last word has not been had on the matter.
The development, strange as it has been, has left a lot of people terribly disappointed and not all of them in Pakistan. In India, what was just a murmur at the start has blown into a huge controversy. What has made people unhappy, if not angry, is the kind of blame game that some of the votaries of the IPL have indulged in.
The Union Home Minister, who is an avid cricket fan himself, has humbugged the suggestion that the government had any hand in turning down any player from Pakistan. “We have issued 17 visas to prospective players and were willing to issue more,” he said and added “I am myself disappointed that we cannot see the best T20 players in the world in action.
The IPL chairman and chief commissioner, Lalit Modi, the man in the centre of the controversy, has spoken in many voices. He first said that the decision to withhold bidding for the Pakistani players at the auction was collectively taken by the franchisees. And when each team owner denied that it was not so, he quickly submitted that so many other players from Australia, England and South Africa were also not bid for.
This statement of his not only offered a poor explanation, but also made little cricketing sense, as the Pakistani players on the anvil were some of the best in the world. Matinee idol Shah Rukh Khan, owner of the Kolkatta Knight Ridiers, nailed the lie when he said “ I was interested in a couple of Pakistani players and had stated this to the media a few days before the auction. What happened after that I do not know.” It may be recalled that Shah Rukh was not present at the auction.
Who then was responsible for the mess that will now take some clearing and something that has put the future sporting relations between the two countries in such a jeopardy ? Under tremendous pressure, Lalit Modi had to clarify that the government had nothing to do with it, as it never interfered with any IPL matter.
The truth lies between what Modi is saying and what he is hiding. We could gather from the franchisees that the main concern was the players’ security. Being a private corporate venture, the entire responsibility of the players’ security is that of the IPL organizers. The IPL has to spend an enormous sum of money to appoint personal security cover for each team. Modi had on previous occasion given the contract to South African firms. The Indian government can only scrutinize and oversee the arrangement.
It is understood that it was on this issue, the personalization and the tremendous cost of security that Modi and his IPL chickened out. A game of buck-passing was then set in motion. Now slowly the pieces are falling in place. But the great disappointment remains. There is no denying the fact that the BCCI, as much as the IPL, is answerable for the big mess, as it has allowed the latter too much of an unbridled freedom to function.
