Ecstasy will replace agony

The World T20 has come as a major setback to the Men in Blue, as the Bombay High Court has called for shifting of Indian Premier League (IPL) to reschedule matches slated to be held in water crisis-hit Maharashtra, and the Supreme Court has slammed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for doing everything except promoting the game.

These put together can unnerve the most sober minds and break the toughest of the lot but none can deny the fact that as soon as the ninth edition of IPL begins on Saturday, the cricketing world gets transported to a new zenith. The pain and trauma will be a thing of the past, as a vibrant atmosphere will breathe in fresh air. An overdose of excitement will grip the nation all over and the failure to win the World Cup on home soil will be passé.

Such is the craze for IPL action that the villains-of-the-piece until the other day will suddenly turn superheroes much to the delight of the followers. The fans, or fanatics, become oblivious to the shocking semifinal exit, as a sense of forgiveness gets ingrained in the mindset and will prevail until May 29 when curtains will be drawn on the extravaganza in Mumbai. Agony will make way for euphoria and ecstasy.

Thankfully, the Court’s green signal to the opener at Mumbai will remove any possible negative thoughts that must be running in the minds of the IPL bosses. That is welcome news for the cricket fans who stay loyal to the game irrespective of the highs and lows it has touched because of on-field and off-field corruption.

The question that is on the minds of everyone is how the most controversial tournament in the Indian cricketing history has survived all odds. The menace of the possible return of match and spot-fixing looms large even though this will be the first championship without Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR). One thing that stands out is that the Governing Council has replaced them with Rising Pune Supergiants and Gujarat Lions, who have been inducted as the new teams for the next two seasons of the cash-rich Twenty20 extravaganza.

Somehow, one wonders how the championship has survived despite the strictures passed by the apex court, which took serious note of the obnoxious functioning of the BCCI administrators. The fact is that the recommendations of the three-member Lodha Committee have not been taken seriously by the BCCI bigwigs.

Politicians call the shots in both BCCI and IPL which is headed by veteran Congress leader Rajiv Shukla. It could have been wiser if the ninth edition of the IPL was deferred and the cleansing operation was set in motion. Once the IPL is midway through, the BCCI will get support from the fans, a tribe that is forever hungry for more and more excitement, which is best guaranteed in IPL where players from all over the world will play alongside or against each other while promising top grade cricket. That is a charm only IPL promises and that is what matters to the die-hard fans.