aditya kumar's weblog

Two bombs went off yesterday at the Bangalore cricket stadium, minutes before the Bangalore-Mumbai IPL match. 15 were injured, several among them in a serious condition. Despite all this happening at the match venue, the match went on. A 30 minute delay was all that these bombs managed, apart from the 15 injured. The match went on, Bangalore eventually lost the cricket too while DNA, the day after, has this headline: “Cricket wins over safety”.

And if all this was not enough, rediff and timesofindia.com have reported, here and here, the discovery of another live bomb, at the Mahatama Gandhi Statue just outside the stadium.

My question to the IPL commissioner and the Police commissioner of the city would be why was the match allowed to go on, despite two bombs going on within a few meters of the stadium. With the bomb that was discovered on Sunday, it appears the match went on with a live, yet to be discovered bomb in its vicinity.

Lalit Modi is a greedy man and it is high time he is made to realize the repercussions of his deeds.

Contrary to what DNA said, I do not think that it was cricket that won yesterday but it was eventually the money.

What surprises me further is that everyone, including some of the most admired Cricket commentators involved in the event look like they have sold themselves off. While they could admire the MRF balloon all they want while discussing its virtues and influences on humanity (not to forget the karbonn kamaal catches), I think it is a disservice to cricket that these individuals have started to advocate everything, good or bad, that the IPL stands for. Well, it is the bad that hurts.

It would also be interesting to see if any of the senior cricketers, of the likes of Anil Kumble and Sachin Tendulkar, come out in the open, questioning the decision of continuing the event in a scenario such as this.

The BCCI should ask itself questions, retrospect and take ownership. Or has this madness of money which is often confused with cricket, overcome us all?

Years back, when rediff.com was yet to be degraded and more often than not carried articles of substance, I remember reading a detailed story about Shoaib Malik’s Indian wife on the website. Of course, as we all know, Shoaib Malik has been in a state of denial since then but it is a strange cover-up (if it is one), especially since the whole Pakistani team had been treated to a gala dinner in Hyderabad. What adds more credibility to the rediff article is that it claims the source of the news to be Reuters.

The article is still online. If you are interested, it can be found here.

Then today evening, I read the news on another news portal that hits a new low every now and then. Timesofindia.com has Bal Thackeray fuming over Sania’s wedding plans — “Had her heart been Indian, it wouldn’t have beaten for a Pakistani”. I read that and wondered for a moment. What is wrong with Sania marrying a Pakistani? Would the supremo had said that if her prospective husband was of any other nationality or religion? Her heart is human and it is beating for a fellow human but then again, how can one expect Thackeray to understand things that involve human nature?

I am not a fan of Sania Mirza and I would be happy if she went ahead and proved me wrong because I believe that her best is behind her. And personally, I think there is a chance that she may miss the freedom she enjoys as a Muslim lady in India but these matters, I think, should be left for the individual to decide upon.

How very unreasonable we all have been in quietly discarding her choice of a beau. Who are we to judge and who gave us that right? Would there be such noise if Shoaib Malik was not from our hostile western neighbour?