Monday, February 1, 2010

OSTRACIZED!!!








I first heard this word called “Ostracized” when I was in 9th Standard from my English teacher. She would separate few talkative or mischievous boys from the rest of the class and make them sit in one corner bench .She used to term this punishment as ostracizing.
I felt that this term can also be used to describe a recent event in the field of sports. In fact I will use this term to describe the recent IPL 3 Auction, in which the listed 11 Pakistani players were ignored completely.

I am not a supporter of Pakistan’s Govt Policies, but I do feel sad when sports suffer in the hand of few individuals. To be frank, I do not feel that there was a single reason to exclude all the Pakistani players from the mega event.

The event is getting bigger each year. Now the number of venues has also suppressed the number of Franchises. The enthusiasm is getting bigger and better with the coming back of this T20 extravaganza to the nation where it belongs. With each passing years, the expectations of the spectators have gone up by leaps and bounds, which increases the responsibilities of the organizers.

In the midst of all these, an abysmal decision by the IPL authorities has let open controversies and unnecessary speculations. The Home Minister, Mr Chidambaram has clearly stated that Government had no role to play and they had issued visas for all the Pakistani players slated to take part in this edition of the IPL, as promised earlier. The blame game then shifted to the IPL auction committee who gave a very absurd excuse of  player’s availability. If we can go back a year later, we can find n number of players bought in last year’s auction, could only play as few as 3 matches for their respective Franchise’s. Andrew Flintoff  is a classic example of the aforesaid  case.
Naturally, The Cricket Board of Pakistan is smelling politics . They would have directly blamed the Indian Government, if  our Home Minister would not have made his stance clear. Now they are pointing their finger towards the IPL Commissioner , Mr Lalit Modi. Modi has been always taking  support from the opposition ( in this case,NDA) and  changing his statement every week to add fuel to the controversy which could possibly  been avoided by his authority over the IPL.

Shocking!!! people try to cut off the only sweet link left between two countries even when all other connections have turned bitter and try to ostracize some good moments even before their commencement!!!