IPL 7 is over … KKR is
basking in glory …. For the third time in 7 seasons, Yusuf Pathan was part of
the Champion team. He had little role in
earlier matches, played one good knock which was instrumental in team qualifying
and in the finals, struck four sixes during his 22-ball 36-run cameo in the
71-run partnership for the third wicket with Manish Pandey. In the dying stages Piyush Chawla hit a six
and later said, ‘I was prepared for the short ball because he had bowled a
couple of balls, which came up to me. I was prepared and thought that he might
bowl a bouncer to get a dot-ball. So, I was prepared for the pull shot and knew
that even if I hit the ball in the gap, with this kind of outfield, I will get
a four. But luckily, I middled the ball so well, it went for a six.’
The Kolkata Knight Riders
landed in Kolkata for their grand post IPL felicitation. Unlike 2012 they
didn’t parade through the city in an open truck with the trophy and bring the
city to a choking standstill. But nonetheless there was no shortage of chaos.
Shah Rukh Khan was hours late. He apparently had not even left Mumbai by the
time he was supposed to be on his way to the stadium. Meanwhile state sports
minister Madan Mitra said a “tsunami” of people had shown up at Eden Gardens
far in excess of its 60,000 capacity. The government had tried to organise the
grand party in a day and it had clearly bitten off way more than it could chew.
It had to call for more riot helmets as thousands, with and without passes,
showed up at the event.
IPL is not all about playing
it is about partying too, that a team like Delhi which lost all of its games
after the Dubai leg of the IPL too perhaps partied. The culture was highlighted by the Govt
celebrations in West Bengal and by the tweet of a West Bengal minister tweaking a famous
Shahrukh Khan movie dialogue to dismiss as a "petty matter" the
injury to seven people in a stampede outside the Eden Gardens during Tuesday's
felicitation. Chaos reigned supreme outside the stadium as thousands of people
struggled to get inside, often breaking barricades and giving a harrowing time
to the vastly outnumbered police force. The
security personnel resorted to frequent pushing and shoving and even cane
charged the crowds to disperse them. Reacting to the incident, Urban
Development Minister Firhad Hakim urged the media to focus on the grand
spectacle inside rather than the "petty matter" that happened
outside. "Badi-badi events mein chhoti-chhoti baatein hoti rehti hain (in
big events, minor things do happen)," Hakim said, "Our own team KKR has won. Lakhs of
people are happy watching this felicitation ceremony, you should focus on the
grand spectacle, so what if 10 people fell down," Hakim told media
persons. A TV grab, however, showed one of the stampedes happened after the
minister standing outside the stadium instructed police to remove the
barricades and let the people into the ground. Sports Minister Madan Mitra defended
the strict police action. "What can police do if there is a tsunami of
people? If police didn't take action, then there could have been a
stampede," Mitra said, claiming over two lakh people came for the event.
Incidentally, the stampede occurred a little after Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee, who presided over the ceremony, directed police to allow entry to the
spectators waiting outside. Condemning the police action, the Congress and the
BJP demanded a probe into the cane-charging on the crowds. ‘yatha Raja thatha praja’ – they say……
Indian politics had earlier
touched a newer low when people tried belittling someone for their (non)educational
qualification. It is history that best
ministers were not necessarily Oxford educated – but hard-working people from humble background. Today, I have posted on the newly created
Telengana, its logo and more and also circulating the first CM of Andhra
Pradesh.
Congress today termed as
"very significant" Sonia Gandhi's letter to Prime Minister Narendra
Modi for assistance to Seemandhra, saying the UPA government made many
commitments for the residual state and now it was for the NDA to implement
them. " Jairam Ramesh stated that
Polavaram project was a commitment made by the Congress as part of the Andhra
Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014. Polavaram is a national project. There are
about 50,000 families who have to be resettled. Out of 50,000 families, roughly
30,000 families are in Khammam district alone. We expect that the resettlement
will be done before the project is commissioned. He said that the Congress party is fully
committed to the implementation of the Polavaram Project because it will
benefit both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. …. Well, how the parties earlier had
reacted and how they viewed the commitments of their predecessors does not need
any lengthy explanation… many of us feel, that bifurcation itself is a blunder
still !!!!
Concluding Sunil Narine will
not be playing the forthcoming home tests against New Zealand. Cricinfo writes that there are striking
similarities in the West Indies Cricket Board's suspension of Sunil Narine and
that of Desmond Haynes 19 years ago, prior to the 1995 series against
Australia.Both involve the players' failure to meet a deadline for returning to
the Caribbean, in Narine's case for the squad's preparatory training camp, in
Haynes' for all matches in the domestic first-class tournament. Narine had chosen to remain
with the Kolkata Knight Riders for final of the Indian Premier League; WICB's
director of cricket, Richard Pybus, asserted that Narine's ineligibility for the three New
Zealand Tests was in keeping with the "West Indies First" policy
approved by its directors in March.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
3rd June 2014.
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