WHOA...WHOA...An Indian Sports Minister suddenly talking sense....

[Vikas Bhatt]

M S Gill in a sudden 'seeing logic' shock....... IPL running business, BCCI promoting it: MS Gill Lashing out at Indian Premier League for using "cricket as an instrument of business", sports minister MS Gill has accused the BCCI of changing the rules of the game to allow the cash-awash Twenty20 league run a commercial venture. Gill said the rules of cricket had been changed by the IPL, and acquiesced by the BCCI, by way of giving batsman advantage over bowlers to promote entertainment, allowing mongoose bat and shortening boundaries, all to earn profit. "What the IPL is doing, the bowler is only the victim and the bat, now you have a mongoose bat (and) I look forward to a cobra bat. The boundaries have been shortened ... the whole thing is to entertain the masses. And the bowler is just an instrument for this promotion. IPL is fundamentally business..." Gill said. "Its focus is earning money. Now two new teams have been bought and one of the gentlemen who has bought ... said look this is business, we bought it for business and our job is to earn from it. Cricket is an instrument of business," he added. The minister dared to touch upon the controversial issue of some IPL stakeholders holding powerful posts in the BCCI and said those involved in the Twenty20 league should not be part of the Board to avoid conflict of interest. "Those who control the game, that is BCCI, they have a direct interest as owners of teams, as people who have a direct benefit from it and this is something very dangerous. What I have noticed, and I am sure everybody else has, (that) major office bearers are on both sides," Gill said. "Those who are to make rules for everyone, for all aspects of the game and keeping in view the interest of the game and the country and the long term, have to be totally apart from being involved in IPL in any way," he said. "Obviously I think so," he added when asked whether there was any conflict of interest with BCCI members on both sides of the Board and IPL. Gill said the IPL was not only detrimental to the health of other longer formats of the game but it has also damaged the sportsmanship of the cricketers and their urge to play for the country. "The five-day Test is under challenge and you see nobody turns up for it, crowds have already been moved away. Even the 50-over is reduced to T20 and I sometimes say jokingly that we'll go to T5 and then T1 and then half an over," he said. "Sportsmanship in what way I can't say but the fact of the matter is the attitude, the mental attitude of the players is obviously modified by the requirements and by the enticements of the game," he said. Gill felt that the huge sum of money cricket attracts and its skewed coverage in the media has retarded the development of other sports. "There is something happening which is adverse to the rest of them (other sports). Most of newspapers or even the television channels, they give three pages of the newspaper or most of the time to cricket, cricket, cricket. Hockey mein do anything, football mein do anything ... they don't get a word. And whether you have a World Cup going on here of hockey or anything (there's no coverage)," he said.

[patriot]

LOL...sounds like the bitter Sanjay Jha of the Walchand group. Aaku na matata ..having sev poori batata. :yay: :yay: :yay: :yay:

[Vikas Bhatt]

I agree about the part of IPL and all BCCI tournaments now being pure business with corporates owning teams all that. It's entertainment sure. It's sad that the Govt still plays politics and taxes us citizens to death in everything and 'exempts' such events from tax and revenue. At a time when old single screen theatres are closing down under the burden of unfair 'entertainment taxes', the Govt. is busy giving 5 year tax breaks to glitzy shopping malls and mega expensive Multiplexes who even overcharge food and drinks a 1000 times. Now even a private moneybags event like the IPL is tax free. Now you can watch IPL in multiplexes and still it is sports and not entertainment. But the idiot Minister forgot the most important part about other sports being ignored by media. That it is Govt. and proxy ministers like him who killed other sports playing politics and due to their unprofessional interference. Which other country would have host a hockey world cup with their administration frozen and in limbo pending elections or where players were not paid a whole year leading to a strike? Who chooses players in these teams? Paid professional selectors or sarkari babus depending on who is a favourite or who can pay for a berth in the team to get a Govt job? Who ensures that ministers, babus and useless tourist observers from Govt departments go on foreign tours in 5 star hotel stays with the team while the team itself is holed up in a third class down the dumps motels and dormitories? Who ensures that athletes get only 10 dollars paltry pocket money for a day in countries where a proper tea and breakfast itself costs 20 dollars and where athletes eat only bananas for preparatory camps? Who decides that hockey players don't deserve professional fees and secure contracts even when sponsors like Sahara dole out crores in sponsorship fees? Who ensures that India's best players and legends like Ashish Ballal, Mukesh Kumar and Dhanraj Pillai are dropped for demanding just fees for professional performance after winning an Asian games Gold? Could Sachin Tendulkar, Dhoni and Zaheer be dropped in cricket after winning an Asia Cup because they demanded professional fees meritorious of performance? How many Astro Turfs did Govt build that was completed before 10 years on starting without corruption and kickbacks? How many completed astro turfs were maintained? How many shooting galleries were constructed hiring proper international experts without contracting the whole built up to a local builder mafia? Who ensures that players conveyance and money for buying training kits is paid on time and saving the players from spending form their own pockets, sometimes even a whole tour representing India? Who in your ministry and various other ministries pays cricketers rich rewards and free plots for some statistic achieved while your very own sportsmen are denied their rewards when they do well or dropped if they seek their rights? How many promises of cash rewards, home or plots made to various gold medalists, cup winners and the like in other sports run by the Government made on time? How many even got what was promised even late? Even the likes of Dhanraj and PT Usha were made to run pillar to post for their rewards and still haven't got what they were promised? Who decides that an Olympic Gold Medalist like Abhinav Bindra can't be chosen for commonwealth games because he didn't give 'trials' in India when he in fact was winning gold medals in international world cups? You don't see Sachin Tendulkar giving selection trials before idiots to prove his fitness and class when he is scoring good runs in domestic cricket. In the end, who is responsible when a PT Usha is not recognized at a preparatory camp where she has been officially invited or when someone like P Gopichand an All England Badminton Trophy winner is not recognized by someone like you sitting in a sports ministry because he is now a badminton coach after retirement? Imagine if the likes of you ran BCCI then where would our cricket team be? Below Bangladesh in the rankings and not on the top surely?

[saneindian]

The same minister used to attend IPL matches during season 1 and if I am not wrong "happened" to be in South Africa last year when IPL 2 was being played there!! Maybe Lalit Modi hasn't yet sent the bagful of notes to the minister and thats why this sudden hate for IPL.

[DomainK]

It's better to have a BCCI and IPl for cricket than to have a KPS Gill and the federation for Hockey (or the respective bodies for any other sports in India).

[b555]

hehe domain :P well federation for hockey isnt that bad ...

[Zap_Brannigan]

To make IPL legitimate means to get all international players(including Indian international players) and play up to their potential. To get all the players, IPL needs bags of money. To get bags of money, IPL needs rich businessmen. To get Rich businessmen interested, IPL needs to turn in profits. To turn in profit on a huge investment, they need it to run as a business first and foremost. You take away anything from this, IPL will be equivalent to the domestic competition we already have.

[TheWall]

whats this Gill's contribution as a sports miniter to other sports? Only press statements.

[Roshanrocks]

Maybe Lalit Modi hasn't yet sent the bagful of notes to the minister and thats why this sudden hate for IPL.

korrrekt :D MS Gill ko Modi ne peti nahi bheja isliye.......

[akshayxyz]

This is - evolution, survival of the fittest. If people want to watch T20, that is what is going to survive. You cant - take money from people and make them watch test cricket against their wishes. As long as there are viewers willing to watch, players willing to play, organizers willing to organize (with enough money) - we will get to see t20, ODI, or test cricket. In fact, with all the cash collected from IPL, T20 kind of stuff, organizers would get enough cash cushion to hold Test series ( if they are willing enough). Every other businessman breaks head, burns midnight oil and what not - to figure out what people want, whats going to sell. Here its clear enough what people are willing to pay for. I would say collect all the cash, and then decide what you want to do with it - further expand the business, invest in other sports or keep alive certain forms / legacy of cricket. Remember the charity matches that are played to help certain old sportsmen ? there is some analogy here.

[Vikas Bhatt]

The same minister used to attend IPL matches during season 1 and if I am not wrong "happened" to be in South Africa last year when IPL 2 was being played there!! Maybe Lalit Modi hasn't yet sent the bagful of notes to the minister and thats why this sudden hate for IPL.

B->