We’ve arrived, folks!

Our First Rich, Juicy Scandal

It’s a bit puzzling. This brouhaha about franchisees and who owns what in the IPL. Why can’t people look at it in its proper perspective, which is that we have well and truly arrived on the international scene? A scintillating show of the confluence of big money, sport, spectacle and politics leading to a scandal is what can firmly put us on the global scene. That’s the way really prosperous nations grab eyeballs. Time was what’d really shock us was the bureaucrat or politician sitting in the sarkari office, that mysterious towel firmly draped over the back of the sarkari chair, piles of files on the table gently being dusted off by the periodically groaning overhead fan, asking for a bribe. Then, we progressed a bit. Scandals meant ripping off from howitzers and chow for cows. We were still at the jawan-kisan stage, but things were moving on from socialist origins. With the odd stamp paper ghotala thrown in for good measure. That didn’t quite measure up to global standards. Every great nation, it is averred, must have equally good scandals. Ones that really represent them. Look, offhand, at the Berlusconi-Sarkozy stuff, isn’t it so like them Italians and French? Thus, we must pause our chatter. For, have we ever have such a plot: juicy, ripe with speculation, salacious gossip, involving at least a couple of rich or powerful chaps, a suitable ‘woman-in-the-picture’, possible political fallout, and last, but not least, loads of money?
    
The IPL, remember, is really big. Have we ever been this big — except our population — in anything else? An event that involves money and glitz to match the big sporting leagues we’d watch with awe when cable TV first arrived. And here we are, getting stuffy about some alleged impropriety, shady deals and whatnot. Hello? Have we forgotten we liberalised? We wanted to be rich, isn’t it, and get a slice of that high-class action and gawk at the sums involved? It wasn’t going to happen without some burps. Don’t you get it? We’ve arrived!