Good article by Gurumurthy

Yet another gem from him.

"Known as ‘Mappillai’ in Tamil and ‘Damad’ in Hindi, all sons-in-law have high standing in Indian families -- religion, caste, region and language regardless.

No surprise therefore that sons-in-law of wealthy, powerful families make news, mostly for wrong reasons. Some months ago, Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Sonia Gandhi, was in the news for building, in just four years, real estate empire worth couple of billion Dollars [Rs 11,000 crore], according to California’s Celebritynetworth.com, which even the media that adores Sonia Gandhi had to confess as reeking of corruption.

When Arvind Kejriwal exposed the shenanigans of Vadra, for the first time therefore even Sonia-friendly media raised eyebrows about her. But within hours of the exposure, she certified Vadra as honest, directed her party to defend her son-in-law. Yet the media did manage to keep the issue alive.

In April last Haryana Government cleared Vadra of wrong doing. Before the media could scrutinise the fake clearance, the CBI and Law Minister Ashwini Kumar were shockingly caught fabricating CBI report to Supreme Court followed by the CBI catching Railway Minister Pawan Bansal’s nephew selling top posts in the Railways. Vadra went out of the radar even as both ministers made noisy exit. 

When the Prime Minister’s head was the next, came the news of spot fixing in Indian Premier League [IPL] cricket matches. All previous scams of lakhs of crores of rupees moved out of the radar as another son-in-law, who held himself out as the owner of Chennai Super Kings team, was caught punting on matches.

Gurunath Meiyappan, the hitherto unknown son-in-law of N Srinivasan who heads the high profile Board of Control for Cricket of India [BCCI] has virtually saved the UPA Government that was being chased by the media and the Supreme Court.

"

Link here

I will have to agree with him totally here. It will be UPA, Sonia and Manmohan Singh that will be laughing all the way to the Parliament. To consider that all the news and print media have fallen lock stock and barrel to move to cricket is deplorable.

Personally, I would rather have a corrupt cricket team than a corrupt government. 

Will CSK [and IPL] crumble?

Finally, some light at the end of the tunnel.
David [Police] winning over Goliath [BCCI and all evil in general].

Interesting few days. First the cricketers were caught. Then the bookies. Then a few more bookies and a few more fringe players. Then Bollywood evidence. Next one big fish. The CEO of the CSK with apparently insatiable greed for money or stupidity. Start the usual stone walling but need to appreciate the police depts perseverance and ensuring that he is arrested. Good job!

However, India Cements claims that Gurunath Meiyappan is only a horny honorary member of the board and not the team principal or owner or CEO as he claims. Then, how is it that he had access to the team and how is it that he was part of auctions. How is it that he was seen amongst the team very frequently and the team called him the boss. He was the designated SPOC for CSK for player transfers and such. He was also the one who called the shots and raised the paddle during auctions [the privilege thats given only to owners].

When teams like Kochi Elephants (or was it Tuskers?) and Deccan Chargers were reprimanded for unclear ownership [now its the turn of Pune Warriors to be hounded]... wouldnt this be unethical too - to have unclear ownership if Meiyappan is just a honorary member?

There are clear conflicts of interest and time [and the police] will answer. Srinivasans time at the top of the organisation that controls and mismanages world cricket BCCI is counted... in minutes rather than days.

Interesting days. Lets remember... if the boss is unclean, it raises lots of questions about the players too.

But a few interesting stats from what I remember:
a. Why is it that RR has always been hounded with match fixing claims ever since early seasons. [Season 1 was fixed so RR can win was also alleged. They also claimed it was Lalit Modi's front team]
b. How is it that only CSK makes it to 5 out of 6 finals. [Agreed that they have a good team. But even Mumbai has been having a good team and they make it only 2 times to finals incl this year]
c. There were allegations that CSK got the best players [Flintoof in 2k9 is a good case in pt. They moved strings so that they could pick him]. Wouldnt that amount to unethical practices too? What about  cases that happen outside the field that influences matches inside the ground.
d. Most importantly, what about the conflict of interest? There were allegations that Dhoni was saved as captain, by the skin of his teeth, because Srinivasan intervened and vetoed. Every other member of the board was against his continuing after 2 disastrous tours where BCCI team lost 4-0. Whitewashed. Kaput. No other Indian captain since we started playing test cricket was allowed to lord over the team after 2 disastrous whitewashes. And we were No 1 when we got whitewashed and ended up becoming No 4 after the whitewashes. Which is where we still are... even after a token whitewash of Aus at home. [We lost 2-1 to England. At home. Before the 4-0 home win against Aus]

About time truth came out. CSK were dismantled or atleast changed owners and hands. About time BCCI came under some scrutiny and also has proper laws and regulations.

This is from what I read from earlier: BCCI claim to be a not for profit charitable institution and so pay exorbitantly low rates of taxes. And the players are charged about 10% of their earnings as taxes as they come under the entertainment sector. Shameful. Disgraceful.
The richest body in world cricket and its totally opaque and its about time things are one right. And if CSK loses out for the greater good of the game, so be it.