IPL and Elections – The Pros and Cons

I think it is a good middle path to shift IPL out of India. But are security concerns addressed? Probably yes… the terrorists may get less time to prepare for attack in a seemingly more secured environment of a developed country. But for sure it’s a bad news for people who wanted to enjoy live games in phenomenal stadium atmosphere. However, they do not even form 1% of the viewers. So all in all it’s a good decision although some local businesses, small and big, would be deprived of their much awaited revenues. 

However, I think India's image has been tarnished beyond doubt. Such a big country cannot provide security to an event? Many foreigners also must be thinking why Indian elections need such a huge security that other event is not conducted on security grounds alone. Probably that should be bigger concern for Indians and the government and the politicians (if they are sensitive enough). We surely have reflected a tarnished image to the world in that sense. 

But I feel happy because in this kind of an arrangement, it is less likely that the IPL grounds (now in foreign country) would be used for promoting nonsense stuff. Some bollywood stars tried to promote their movies by being on television and exhibiting how phony they look when it comes to live telecast. This time around I expected politicians to use this platform to promote their candidates as campaigning part in elections.

 It would now be interesting to see how many of those players who had decided to quit the event on security grounds would agree to play in the IPL. Many other cricket boards were probably enjoying the threat IPL was facing. It feels good at some level to see the event going through. It’s great to see Lalit Modi and team not giving up and the world taking its notice. However, the organisers should be grounded enough to concentrate on solving mammoth logistic problem the competition posts. 

It would have been great had Lalit Modi/BCCI been sensitive to Indian democracy and schedule afternoon matches on non-election days so that at least some more youngsters could have cast their votes. Probably this would have earned them more respect.