IPL

so, the IPL auction was quite a surprise for everyone, huh? for once we wielded the power & the whole circus has been fun. who'd have imagined a day when newbie ishant sharma would command 9,50,000 while mcgrath would have to wait till the end of the bidding & only recover his base price. never before have i witnessed a more flagrant disregard for merit & its sacrifice in the interests of commercial gain. not that i'm complaining. merely bemused. i've heard enough number of people express every conceivable emotion one witnesses in the daily balaji serials. it's especially bugging that we are so wont to drag 'patriotism' into every debate that our society is faced with. i mean, there has to be a greater yardstick than that, considering the fact that india ranks alarmingly high on the corruption index, the only thought that assails & obsesses us when we travel to the u.k, u.s is the fastest way to gain citizenship& most of us spend our lifetime plotting ways to shirk the tax burden. hell, we even make it sound as if we're doing a favor by paying them!

however, given the high premium that is attached to patriotism here, i'm so glad that players like dada, sachin & dravid have been granted 'iconic' status whereby they are exempted from bidding & can only play for their home states/teams. i shudder to imagine cheering for the kolkata team led by dravid, playing against the chennai tigers led under the aegis of our very own maharaj. actually, its a disconcerting choice & i'm still not sure what i'd do.