And Dhoni goes to....

And Dhoni goes to.......Chennai!!(slam!)
And thus was ushered in a new era in cricket, or so it seems!! Well, love it, hate it, but the fat cash cows of BCCI have made sure that no one on this earth remotely interested in cricket will be able to ignore whats going on in IPL.
Every expert worth his salt has a view on the recent happenings, and there is no doubt whatsoever that the world of cricket has been shaken up from its very roots. Cricket, since its inception, has been a slow game compared to its peers like football and hockey, infinitely faster and more physically demanding. Perhaps in keeping pace with that, even ICC has generally been a rather slow, geriatric and reactive kind of a body, mostly manned by some old men wiht stubborn mindsets, and it takes, from time to time, a revolution of the sorts of Kerry Packer and now, the IPL to shake it out of its slumber, and redefine the rules of the game, so to say.
I'm by no means suggesting that IPL is the panacea that will change everything for the better, it comes with its own downfalls, like putting further strain on the already bloated international calendar, forcing(sometimes) players to choose between city(IPL) and country, however there is no missing the fact that there is already a buzz that has been created around the cricketing world, and everyone is waiting with bated breath to see what course the events take.
Indeed, images of an alien-looking SRK or glam doll Preity Zinta lapping up Gilchrist and Dhoni like they were blue-chip stocks in a bullish market (its difficult to miss the India connection here) has taken commoditisation of cricketers to a new level, hitherto unforeseen or unheard of, and I cant help but feel that there would be a heartburn or tw among retired greats of he game seeing the obscene amounts of money the players are being bought for.
I was reading an interesting article by Allan Border about how India has too much say in world cricket at the moment, and how we are acting like 'imperial' rulers (couldnt help but chuckle at this:), and there will be a lot written about and spoken about this entire episode, but one thig can be said for certain, cricket as we knew it, will never be the same again. For better or for worse, only time will tell!
So till then, pass the popcorn, and start the show!

Games we play!

I had thought of writing a blog many times, once I had even started one, but somehow the enthusiasm didn’t last. But today, when after coming back from office, I was seated in front of the television, greeted by visuals of some vandals beating up people owing to regional sentiments, and most of all, people playing dirty politics and using it to foment poison in the minds of followers, I really thought restarting this blog could be the best way to give vent to my anger and frustration at all this.
These are dangerous games being played, no doubts about that, and poisoning the minds of the common man is nothing short of a heinous crime being committed here. The more we advance as a nation towards world dominance and superpower status, the more we are given towards sensationalisation and dramatization of smaller issues on the one hand, and sheer public apathy towards more critical issues on the other. Sample these news items over the past few days: divisive politics at its best (or worst) in Maharashtra, an alleged kidney kingpin who reportedly carried on his business for a long time with the connivance of the police, one of our brightest young tennis stars Sania being forced to think of not playing in her own country because of some hyper-imaginative elements.
Can you see a trend in all this? All this happening not in the rural areas, no, but in the heart of some of our major and supposedly most progressive cities. So what is the issue? Where does the problem lie?
A country is only as good or bad as its people, and the way we react to situations often defines us and our country. We Indians have always been apathetic by nature, it really doesn’t bother us if something wrong is going on around us, the common mentality being, as long as I don’t get affected, its ok. But the problem is, its not ok. It is this very apathy that is so often taken advantage of, and before we realize, we would be the ones getting affected as well. It’s a dangerous mindset to have, this i- me- myself thing, because if everyone starts thinking like that, can we imagine what our society is gonna be like?
Nothing ever changes, nothing ever will, that’s what we always tell ourselves, right? And why do we need anything to change, we all have enough issues of our own- at our workplace, with our girlfriends/ boyfriends, parents and many more- the sweaty polluted drive to work, the irritating colleague, I could go on and on. But in the midst of all this, we just need to ask ourselves once: are we really happy and satisfied at being so apathetic to everything? At shrugging our shoulders to everything? I bet the answer would be in the negative, well, at least I hope it will be!
That day some one of our generation mentioned to me she doesn’t want to vote, because whoever comes to power would be the same. But tell me honestly guys, how will someone good ever come to power if we don’t cast our votes at all?
Anyways, I am not a social reformer, and even I am trying to find answers to many questions life is posing currently, but I did feel very strongly seeing whats happening, and that’s why this long tirade! All I want to say is, there are many things that are good with our country, and there are things that can be better, and it is nobody but us who can make them better. And that I am sure of!