Frankly one of the most exciting times for India. Its all happening here; you name it and that’s here. On one hand country needs to stand up to its reputation of providing secured environment compared to the country in neighborhood. On other we all are celebrating our No.1 Test Status and above all fantastic feet achieved by the only great in the game; that is climbing the mountain of 200* in One-day match. Surely this is the beginning and there are lots of others who would follow him in future but the Sachin is the first one to open the doors. He is in remarkable touch, 4 centuries in last 4 test and 200*; There is no further debate on his greatness – Story ends he is best batsmen to ever set foot on playing field.
While I write this Organizers of two major sporting events in India currently have to live up to the standards expected of them. It is the matter of building a reputation, which becomes the benchmark. Accordingly the IPL is surrounded with a variety of issues, from threats of disruption to threats to life. We all know let it be EPL or Champions league – Man U would play Chelsea or Liverpool would play to AC Milan in 2011-12 season. But people down there in Europe don’t realize how blessed they are to have reached this benchmark that no one can threaten to cancel these scheduled events. Less than 10 days before the IPL opener there could still be changes to the schedule as political turmoil and the inevitable whiff of terrorism come calling. It is an unhappy situation and calls for different approaches.
Even as you read this, a terror outfits is probably planning to target a Soccer World Cup in South Africa or Football in the United States. Once you face up to that reality, then it's easy to see why the Indian Premier League won't be moved out of India this year. These threats cannot be taken seriously as it may be one outfit threatening to disrupt the events today or it may be another sleeper cell targeting another sporting event tomorrow; we cannot surrender to these threats and eventually succumb to them. But we can do here is to learn out of this and try and have Plan B or Plan C or even Plan D if required to counter these threats. The idea is as simple like a T-20 game; Think on your feet and get something working out of this. In a way I like Mr. Lalit Modi my first impression was that he was acting as a Dictator during his days of conflict with ICL. But I do respect him a lot today because of his Management Skills, Financial Acumen and above all he is the man to look up to in the times of Crises. He did prove his Crisis Management skills when Indian government wasn’t able to guarantee security to IPL and he within no time moved the whole tourney to South Africa; just too- good that’s the definition to Modi’s Heroics; no body matches him on this front of Administration.
Indian Government should think of hiring Mr. Modi & Mr. Shahrukh Khan to revive Indian Hockey; whereas former is a fantastic Administrator (unarguably the Sachin of Sports Administration) and later is good at mentoring and motivating players; this killer Combo would bring Hockey back to its Old Glory days.
First, Modi correctly points out that "Nobody in the world can safeguard the safety of the players in any tournament. All we have to do is ensure we are putting on the best security". Indeed, there might be arguments over this but there can be no guarantees about the player’s ultimate safety. Unless Mussad from Israel is there to guarantee one for the visiting players. Secondly foreign community needs to realize that it is an Indian Tournament and needs to be staged here. If you look at the advertising promos for the third season of the IPL which starts on 12 March, the emphasis is very much on the Indianness of the event. Modi mentions very correctly that the replacement list with IPL is long in case any of these players plan to drop out. Modi has done all he could do. Burning Midnight oil to make sure everything is in place. One should look at out for Late night tweets from Lalit Modi & Sudar Raman (CEO of IPL) shows how committed these guys are to make this whole event a hassle free affair. Behind the scenes, negotiations over the player’s security demands will carry on.
In spite of it all, sport needs to exist, to flourish because it is one of the few things that bring a smile through honest efforts; The IPL seeks to entertain, and that is why it needs to be strong. Cricket must evolve and the IPL, and the Indian consumer, is at the heart of this evolution. As a part of this evolution I do like the innovative strategy breaks and different nomenclature assigned to boundaries to name a few. But eventually it brings a smile. I hope it is not disturbed, for the sake of Game, Humanity & greater feel-good factor in the world we are in, and are heading into.
Threat perceptions are different from individual to individual. If a player decides not leaving a young family behind him so be it and I am sure lot of us would respect this gesture. On the other hand if we all gave up to these threats and danced on their tunes it would be unfair and injustice to sporting community and fans across the Globe. As its rightly mentioned in Holy Gita that “it’s a sin to commit Terror, Injustice and Violence on the innocent but it’s a bigger sin to accept these atrocities and do nothing about it”. I would want to follow this and so is Mr. Modi following it. More importantly if something does go wrong with IPL this year then the belief of international community would be vindicated but above all most importantly Innocent individuals would lose their lives. We as a country are ready to take this risk as we are brave enough to face it.
Last but not the least; Please save paper and save trees. This is my contribution towards the environment we live in. All these efforts of IPL to be staged in India would go in vain if we don’t protect our nature. We need good pollution free environment to apprecaite sports as the game would be more visible in Pollution free environment.
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