Friday, January 28, 2011

Mamta launches dharna against ICC

The ICC has decided to move the India-England match scheduled to be held at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata to the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore. The ICC said that the delay in the stadium renovation work forced them to take the decision. Following this announcement, Mamta Banerji, called for a press conference and announced that the Trinamool Congress will hold a dharna to protest the decision as it affects the employment opportunities of the people of Kolkata.

She said "This decision of the ICC has taken because Vijay Mallya gave the Sharad Pawar and ICC peoples free beer. It is not the right! If match is not here, many people have no work. Parking boys, policeman, groundnut shop, popcorn shop, pickpockets, beggars - all peoples have no work. Central government, state government should answer."[sic]

She also added that the scheduled dharna would be peaceful and no CPI party members or offices would be harmed.

Friday, January 14, 2011

PM acts to reduce food prices in India

Despite food prices in India rapidly leading to a crisis situation, there appeared to be no attempt by the Government to tackle the situation. Not even a press release was forthcoming from either the Agriculture or the Finance ministries; nor did the PM's office speak.

However, it has come to light that the PM's silence on the issue was intentional and the PM was not sitting inactive. Inspired by the likes of Irom Sharmila, Dr Manmohan Singh had undertaken the "Vow of Silence" or maunvrat till the prices of food items reduces. The silence which was mistaken for inaction appears to be the action itself.

However, the maunvrat was not without its share of issues. The SGPC Sikh religious governing body excluded meetings from the vow allowing the PM to speak. However the PM insisted on no-exclusions vow leading to a standoff. This conflict of interest between duty and austerity was resolved when leaders explained that duty is also a part of religion and the PM relented to speak for 5 minutes in every meeting to put forth his views and vote on resolutions.

Saturday, January 08, 2011

BCCI puts Lalit Modi on IPL auction

The player auctions for IPL 4 are scheduled today and as few as 12 players are being retained by their current franchisees. Add to that is the introduction of 2 new franchisees - Pune and Kochi. As the auction action heats up, the BCCI today entered the fray by placing its best "player", Lalit Modi, in the auction pool.

At a base price of 22 crores, Modi is the most expensive player. However, BCCI Treasurer N Srinivasan said that the price would not deter buyers. He said "1 Modi is equivalent to 100 other players (think Rajnikanth in Basha). Sachin and Dhoni are at a price of 1.8 cr each. We calculated 2 cr * 11 players would be a reasonable price for Modi. With his match fixing and betting contacts, you can win the IPL 4 without taking the field even. 22 cr is a small price to pay for the glory of winning IPL 4".

All 8 franchisees are reportedly considering the offer seriously.

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Sreesanth gets Australia bowling coach offer

After witnessing the performance of India's maverick bowler in the test series against South Africa, Australia has approached S. Sreesanth for the role of bowling coach for the short time between the end of India's tour of the Proteas and the start of the 2011 World cup. The Cricket Australia (CA) spokesperson Peter Young, addressing a conference yesterday said "We realise that this is a short time frame, but after his impressive performance in the series we decided that his services would help the Australian ODI squad." Australia has been going through a bad run in the recent times with England retaining the Ashes after winning the Boxing day test. Another important factor that influenced CA's decision was James Anderson statement that the tricks he learnt from Zaheer Khan helped his bowling in the ongoing test series.

S. Sreesanth initially declined to comment, but later confirmed the offer after Andre Nel wished him over the phone and requested that he break the news to the press. It is also learnt that seeing the Aussie batsmen struggle against Graeme Swann, CA approached Murali Kartik to bowl to the team at the nets and expect to hear from him in the next couple of days.