Congratulations to Chennai on achieving victory over Mumbai to lift the IPL title for the first time. The perfect remedy for the side after losing out to Rajasthan in the final two years ago. Tendulkar top scored for Mumbai with 48 and had a great campaign but his team was simply not good enough to chase a fairly tame target of 168, largely thanks to the bowling of Shadab Jakati, who took 3-31 including the wicket of the little master.
This years tournament was one of the best and heralded some great play from some of cricket’s biggest names but also some of the smaller ones too. This is a topic we will look at later.
However, while all that was going on the in-fighting and rumours of corruption continued to swell round the corridors of power at the IPL headquarters. An emergency meeting of the board has now seen Lalit Modi suspended as chairman.
After the investigation of Lalit Modi, which included alleged franchise bid rigging and broadcasting rights irregularities, the whole integrity of the IPL has been put at stake. Something tells me that this thing is going to get bigger and far worse before it gets better. There is simply too much money at stake to allow it to be swept under the carpet and sponsors and T.V companies who have paid a lot money towards the competition will undoubtedly want answers. So will the general public both in India and overseas. And that is the problem. Too much money, too much glitz with a hint of politics thrown in and you have a recipe for disaster.
This scandal, now being dubbed ‘IPL gate’ by some, will be music to the ears of the cricketing purists who believe the IPL is a threat to the origins, history and mostly the traditions of the game. While most cricket fans want to see Test Cricket upheld. those fans will also want to see this scandal resolved and the integrity of the IPL restored so we can carry on enjoying what we have witnessed over the past three years.
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