Suneer Chowdhary
( Cricket Writer)
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Dr. Vijay Mallya is usually not known to mince words, and his statement a few days back, proved just that. In interviews to a couple of separate media entities, he said, "My biggest mistake was to abstain from the selection of the team." He also goes on to accept that he does not know too much about the `sport` of cricket, and hence he could not control the whole affair.

Now, with a glance at the team, one knows that this is not a lineup that can consistently produce results – positive ones at that – in this format of the game. Consisting of a Jaffer, Kallis, Dravid and Chanderpaul in the top four is at best, blasphemy to this format of the game. Unfortunately, for Dravid and more so, for Charu Sharma, their wildest nightmare came true, far earlier than they would have liked. The Royal Challengers have struggled to win a few matches and in the rest, have looked as listless as possible. Rahul Dravid’s captaincy has been anything but inspiring, and he seems to have barely any answers at the post match press conferences.

However, getting back to Mallya, he too makes a pertinent point on IPL as being not only about the sport of cricket, but also about its corporate and commercial side. He seems to have hit the nail on its head, by the above statement on corporatization of cricket. In contrast to the BCCI structure, the players in the IPL are now ‘employed’ by the private owners. So unlike before, when accountability was always an issue in Indian cricket, all of a sudden it assumes a different dimension altogether. An ‘employment’ in one of the teams not only comes with a sense of monetary security, but also with an expectation of consistent performance.

Charu Sharma’s firing may have been a token gesture by Mallya indicating that he means business – both literally and figuratively – but his statement that Dravid needs to play well and produce results, has underlined that fact with red ink.

A review of Mallya’s business history, further stamp the reasons behind his agitation. With a net worth of over $1.2 billion and the ownership of many successful conglomerates, Mallya would not have settled for a bottom finish in the very first season of the Indian Premier League. For that matter, his Formula One team, Force India, is also languishing at the bottom of the pile, adding to his frustration. The culmination of the two may have come down to the sacking of Sharma.

The questions that arise are not really about the corporate side of cricket as being unhealthy for the sport, but whether the same rules and parameters apply in the business of sports as that of lets say, an airlines company. Should results – this early since its inception – be the only parameter of evaluation? Should the delivery of such pink slips occur so early in the company’s chronology?

Truck loads of questions, and there is a feeling that one has not heard the last of this matter. Bollywood stars, Shahrukh Khan and Preity Zinta, who could be termed as being from a relatively similar industry – entertainment – may be able to accept the unexpected failures of their teams, but would they be able to digest, say, a couple of consecutive years of bottom four finishes? There, another question, the answer for which would be known in the times to come. But one thing is for sure, IPL has proved that the back office management of the team is accountable for the performance like never before and in Sharmas case, the executive is always in the line of `fire`.