Cheap money

Vote bank or logic
This is regarding the statement of Bal Thackeray in the context of Chhat puja and making Hindi as one of the official transaction medium in the BMC (‘Thackeray bats for Uddhav on Marathi manoos plank’ DNA, February 22). While challenging Lalu Prasad Yadav the senior Thackeray should have kept the boundary of his talk within Maharashtra. Throwing the gauntlet at Lalu by challenging him to perform Chhat puja in Chennai is uncalled for as till now politicians from Tamil Nadu have taken a neutral stand on the  attacks against north Indians. Bal Thackeray should have respected this gesture from leaders from the south and should not have dragged them into the picture. The problem at best is that of the state and not of the  nation at large. Everyone knows Shiv Sena is doing all these gimmicks to retain its Marathi votebank which it fears may have been usurped by Raj Thackeray’s MNS. Thus the ugly fire created by Raj is kept smouldering by other members of the clan.
—PV Prasad, Mumbai 

Sold to the highest bidder
The usual Indian way of thinking is to forgive and forget. But one Indian whom Indians should never forgive is Lalit Modi who has single-handedly ‘killed’ world cricket. I feel he has ruined the game and all the lovely nuances which come with it by putting it under the auctioneer’s hammer.

It was pathetic to see Rahul Dravid sitting next to Vijay Mallya like his secretary. Cricket was a simple game which gave millions of Indians living under the poverty line some respite from their misery. Where does it leave us — millions of Indians with not much regard for money? Our cricketers have become slaves as they now need their bosses’ permission to play for our country? Cash before country — is it the
future of Indian cricket? The actual loss and  betrayal has not yet been comprehended.
—Gayathri Panicker via email
II
The auction of cricketers for the Indian Premier League (IPL) has been a very huge money spinner. It is like the recent IPO of Reliance Power! I am a great lover of the game but I must say that in no other game in India does money play such a dominant part as in cricket. Indeed, cricket in India is everything — religion, vocation, profession, and a very lucrative business. All other games are given a step-motherly treatment. One wonders whether a developing country like India can afford such colossal money transactions in the name of a game! There are thousands of families unable to get two square meals a day, debt-ridden farmers committing suicide, parents selling their children for money and on the other hand, here is IPL rolling in crores.
—Prem K Menon,  Mumbai.
III
No doubt the forthcoming Twenty20 matches could be a visual feast for the eyes but will they have the same emotional effect? The mixed composition of teams has removed
the emotional attachment of the audience. The public too will have no real attachment in the same manner as the football leagues where members of the public are members of the clubs and hence the emotional support. There is adequate proof of this phenomenon. No matter who plays for which club and which team wins the various premier leagues in football, it is the World Cup, held once in four years where you play for your country, which still reigns supreme in terms of  the emotional response of the audience. This emotional attachment is stuff that money cannot buy.    
—TR Ramaswami, Mumbai

Cheap money  
The auction of cricketers was nothing but a cheap show of money. It does not bode well for the future of the game and domestic cricket in India. I fail to understand that if the BCCI was getting so much money then why don’t they improve the status of cricket at the grassroots level which is so vital for the future of the game? After all, with such huge amounts of money up for grabs, why would anybody waste their time playing Ranji cricket anymore?                          

—Sandeep Ghiya, Mumbai