I called the waiter to place our order.

"I will have Black Dog whisky with ice. No soda," APE told the bearer. I was surprised. APE is normally a fish in a beer bowl. I ordered Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher for myself; chicken tikka and salted peanuts as accompaniments completed the orchestra.

After couple of sips, I asked APE: "Who do you think will win this election?"

APE took a swig from the second glass of whisky, thought for a while and said, "It's got to be Congress this time. Yuvraj, sorry Rahul, himself came and campaigned this time. If you add that to Rs 60,000 crore announced by Chidambaram and factor in Ambika Soni's promise of classical status for Karnataka, it's Congress all the way. No doubt about this."

I was amazed at the power of his acumen---the power to see through and connect seemingly unrelated events.

The waiter sauntered along. Before I could bark "repeat", APE ordered XXX rum, double. I asked for Kingfisher again, keeping in mind the losses incurred by Mallya through his Royal Challengers. I didn't want him to sack the UB CEO after Charu Sharma.

Fish fingers and Raja's special was what APE wanted along with the drinks.

"What about the BJP? How will they fare this time?" I asked.

APE lifted his glass, considered my question from all angles, chewed the fish stick with satisfaction and after a carefully measured small sip said: "Now that you ask me, yes, I would say. Advaniji's biography, no matter what Murli Manohar Joshi thinks of it, that and the new found camaraderie between Ananth Kumar and Yediyurappa, makes them hot favourites. If you add the great injustice done to them by JDS, and a "mini-Modi wave" among the upper castes, I should think BJP will form a government all by themselves," he banged the table emphatically.

This brought the attention of the waiter for the next order.

APE went to the toilet and I noticed he didn’t exactly walk in a straight line when he came back to his chair.

"I will have chilled white wine and Dutch cheese, if you have it. I don't want any more hard liquor."

His words were also like his walk and the little liquor league which APE had embarked on, looked like a cross between Mallya’s Royal Challengers and Deccan Chronicle's Deccan Chargers. Only God knows what they were up to, how they would get along, and where they were going.

"Do you feel JDS has any chance at all," I asked APE who was holding the wine glass in one hand and the chair next to him for support.

"Nobody in their shenses would ever ignore JD(eSh)," he slushed. "The phather-son combo is the bhest phor all thims. Their pujas and homas and 30 per shent reservation in IT, BT and bitty sectors might yet make them a dark horse. They may still make the government both here and at the Centre!"

By now it was clear the APE had lost all the marbles in his head. I grabbed a jug of water from the passing waiter poured it into his glass and asked him to drink that.

After he drank two glasses of water, he put the glass down. His eyes shone as he made a gesture with his hand.

"It's all clear now. Nobody will get a majority. I think all the three parties will come together and form a regional government. It will be called the Government of United Farmers and IT. In other words, an UNFIT Government."

With that APE collapsed on his chair. I carried him with the help of a bearer, put him in the back seat, and started the car.

ARVIND SWAMINATHAN writes from Madras: With the Yuvi team trouncing the UB® team in the Indian Premier League last night, there is one more reason for Vijay Mallya to get smashed tonight and tell his accountants to "stop payment" on the cheques of the players.

The poor little rich boy¤ can blame the horses, he can blame the jockey, he can blame the trainer, he can even blame the vaastu of the cheer girls. But, here's a point to ponder: is the Bangalore team's revival beyond Rahul Dravid, beyond Charu Sharma, beyond the players, beyond the redskins, beyond Mallya?

In short, to take a fatalistic view, is the pathetic performance of "Team Bangalore" just a reflection of the pathetic condition of "Brand Bangalore"?

Is it beyond cricket?

One of my pet theories is that the success of a City spurs success on other fronts and in other spheres, which then gets reflected in countless other ways. And to me, the plight of the Royal Challengers is only the most outward sporting manifestation of all that is wrong with the City they seemingly represent.

The late 1990s was what journalists (and only journalists!) call the halcyon period of Karnataka cricket which is really Bangalore cricket.

There were six, sometimes seven, players in the Indian team: Dravid and Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad regularly, and Sunil Joshi, Dodda Ganesh, Sujith Somasunder, David Johnson, Vijay Bharadwaj off and on.

The Karnataka team itself was top of the heap in the Ranji Trophy, and other domestic tournaments. Brijesh Patel was chief selector before a heart condition felled him. Talents like Yere Gowd couldn't get in, so they had to go to Railways to chase their fortune. Dharmichand had to flee to Singapore.

There was, it seems, nothing that Karnataka could do wrong on the cricket field at the time.

Almost a decade later, they seem to do so twice a week.

The point I am trying to make---hypothetical as it is---is that Karnataka's cricketing success was a small speck in a larger success story involving the State if not the City-State of Bangalore.

For starters, this was roughly the time the City was making "I" and "T" the two most important letters of the Indian alphabet. This was the time H.D. Deve Gowda was shedding his farming humility to become prime minister. This was the time Amitabh Bachchan was putting up the "Miss World" show. This was the time S.M. Krishna was coming in and jumbled up letters like BATF seemed like a manna from Mavalli.

Ergo: in the late '90s, there was a buzz about Bangalore, a positive buzz which the team seemed to carry on to the cricket field. There was spunk in the Bangalore air, and a spring in everybody's toes.

Swing into 2008 and the contrast is obvious.

When Mallya complains that he was constantly told that the practice facilities for the IPL team were bad, it seems like an echo of the general infrastructure complaint that is on everybody's lips in Bangalore!

Of course, this is a debatable point but that is the whole point of this piece: debate.

You could run this theory to other cities and States too with some luck. When a delicate saboteur called V.V. S. Laxman was setting fire to the turf, Chandrababu Naidu was "hot". Pullela Gopichand was winning the all-England tournament. Sania Mirza was breaking on to the scene.

When Tinu Yohanan was making his debut, Kerala was just coming off a high of Arundhati Roy winning a Booker prize, of K.R. Narayanan becoming the first Dalit president, of the State marketing itself as "God's Own Country", prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was taking a holiday there.

Cut to Calcutta, and when Saurav Ganguly was looking skywards and imperiously gesturing to the planets to move squarer, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was the in-thing in the small universe that is bhadralok.

Etcetera.

The short point is, when cities, states and City-States do well, there seems to be a sudden burst of creative output, sporting, literary, political, intellectual, etc. It is a massively osmotic process: everybody feeds off each other's success/ image.

The afterglow is collective.

But when things go wrong, like ring a ring o' roses, all fall down.

Of course, there are hundreds of other examples which can be offered to establish just the exact opposite. That's why there's a "Comment" button below! So, fire.

Photograph: courtesy Vijay Padiyar

Few things are more moving in public life than a billionaire businessman wailing over some loose change that has trickled out of a hole in his hip pocket. And Vijay Mallya---booze baron, airline ace, racing raja, party pasha, stud farm stud, calendar czar, super showman, and yes, once Janata Party president---presents that amazing snapshot today.

The owner of the Bangalore team in the Indian Premier League (IPL), who spent over Rs 400 crore to procure the franchise, is blaming the team's former CEO Charu Sharma and the team's current captain Rahul Dravid for the plight of the Royal Challengers. He says the duo ignored his list of players at the IPL auction, that Sharma was only giving excuses for the team's poor performances, etc.

What is the one question you would like to ask the honourable "doctorate of philosophy in business administration from the University of Southern California"?

Photograph: courtesy Trak

Also read: What Mallya's team says about Mallya's mind

CHURUMURI POLL: Twenty20 to promote 60-30?

Dravid, the captain, is already under severe pressure. His team has not performed to its potential. He himself has done quite well, considering that just some months ago, he declined to play the T20 World Cup in South Africa, saying the format was meant for younger legs. His foreign "mercenaries" - Kallis, Boucher, Steyn, Chanderpaul, Cameron White, Misbah ul Haq et al have not performed as well as Dravid, or indeed, most of us cricket fans living in Bangalore, might have expected. This is in stark contrast to say Shaun Marsh or Shane Watson, who have delivered.

Mr Mallya should have kept his frustration under wraps for some more time, and even better, chosen to expose it in the dressing room or behind closed doors. And though he has today said that he has asked Dravid to focus on the game and forget the unseemly controversy around which players to have picked, the damage has been done. In case you are wondering what I am talking about- Mr Mallya reportedly said yesterday that he had given Dravid and Charu Sharma a free hand, but that the team that was finaly put together was more suitable for test cricket than it was for T20.

Looking ahead, Mr Mallya's unfortunate comments might well have the following impact:

1. Dravid's international cricket career may come to a premature end.
2. Dravid may choose to resign as captain of the Royal Challengers. If that happens, who takes over? Boucher? Kallis? Kumble? Zaheer?
3. The franchise will lose its sheen for next season, as few players will be willing to countenance a franchise owner who shoots his mouth off to the media.
4. Foreign players may have second thoughts about signing up for the franchise.
5. Other teams may start worrying about what their franchise owners may or may not say and do.

All in all, a distresing time for the Royal Challengers. And given the bad news for Team Force India on the Formula One circuit, little wonder that Vijay Mallya is fulminating.

As fellow blogger Apurv notes, there seems to be very little sympathy for Dravid, and that after a desperate yet scintillating, classical-cricket knock against Kings XI Punjab (which is btw, the most uninspired name). After seeing all the nothing-shots and slogs going for four and getting applause, it was a goose-bump moment to see Dravid almost effortlessly cut and drive so beautifully. That 66 off 50-odd balls was a treat to watch and would have been worth its weight in gold if only the other batsmen chipped in. So dismal was the showing of the Bangalore team against Mohali, that apart from Dravid's 66 and Kohli's 30-odd, the 10 extras conceded was the next highest and the third double-digit score. They were in soup - duck soup (pun intended).

Most bloggers and media folk seem to be baying for Dravid's blood with every loss. Granted, he got some of team selection wrong and is not the most inspired captains; but he would have expected a bit more support from the Test greats. Kallis has been a flop with the bat and ball and Boucher as unpredictable as the weather. Of the entire lot, Praveen Kumar and Zaheer Khan have given most bang for the buck.

In hindsight, it is fairly easy to speculate on the droopy-shouldered Bangalore team. Perhaps the knife had hanging at their throats for sometime now. One could almost sense that from Dravid and Zaheer's desperate efforts. When the chips are down, nothing inspires more that trust and nothing deflates more that threats: a simple management principle that most people learn only when it's too late.

Maybe this just goes to prove that people should stick to what they know best. Like I had mentioned before Cricket run by business men is like Tech companies run by those who don't know more than a few buzzwords (and look for returns just as team is formed).

With such being the state of affairs, one can only feel sorry for the never-say-die man Rahul Dravid. :(

Charu finally has a good place on television.

Also I never fully understood why exactly some suave MBA types of likes of Harsha Bhogle and Charu Sharma become the ultimate presenter and the masala artist or even worse the CEO of one of the teams. Equally mysterious is the fact that he gets fired when his test team from the past fails to perform in a 'perform-through-the-ass' 20-20 tournament. I still remember the days of my yonder years when cricket was cricket, not a masala show of major Mandira boobage(not to mention the cheerleaders) run by some IIM grads.This is what wikipedia says about the boobage :

She is also very glamorous Television Presenter, widely known in India for her interesting dressing senses.

The mere presence of the yum-bee-yeas indicates that cricket in this generation is no more the gentleman’s game. It’s a business. Again name a religion which doesn't have the glitter of business!

Now heres the nasty trend that has flashed its ugly pimply ass for once outside the IT world. I am talking about 'retrenchment' boys, to put it in sugar coated terms. ReTRENCHMENT so far an IT-only word until Vijay Malya brought up the topic to the masses. I seriously do not think that you really can bleed performance from your ass with a gun pointed on your head.I have seen this tendency across the IT corporate world. First time its beyond. No matter which Havard, Kellogs or ISB you graduated from, that’s simply not the way. It does more harm to the talent pool than actually helping it. Again that’s just me. Until you seriously break some policies and all you don't deserve a 'bang-in-the-a$$' treatment. Again that’s just me......

Had an unpolished wave of thought about how the entertainment scenario is changing by the day and how everything bad about the IT world is becoming a de-facto on talent based jobs across the job board. We may soon have circus monkeys performing with an 'in-the-a$$' contraption (as shown here) with some more racism victims cheering all along....spreading a very happy feeling all around.....

Dr. (?) Mallya true to his spend thrift image purchased ( or assembled) the second costliest team ($111.6 millions) of Indian cricketers in the IPL T20 tournament. It seems that the business baron who proudly acclaims (when you board the Kingfisher aircraft and switch on the mini TV set) that every airhostess in his Kingfisher Airlines has been personally selected by him to treat the passengers as his personal guests was a bit indiscreet this time since his golden team did not display similar devotion to the cause of it's master and seems to be gravitating towards the bottom of the pit under it's weight . Mallya reacted promptly and sacked Charu Sharma "CEO" of the team- a commentator whose adornment with this corporate style assignment was decision of Vijay Bhai himself. Dr. Mallya as expected is trying salvage some part of his reputation as producer of world famous liquor brands and breeder of winner race horses with the information that he had left the selection to Chru and Rahul Dravid who selected a test team instead of a team suited for the abbreviated version of the game. Later when another team member Anil Kumble came out in defence of captain Rahul Dravid, Mallya further backtracked and came out to defend team coach.The team despite the changes and fire fighting efforts continues to loose.

Mallya watchers would however contest his contention and recall that he is a man who is inconsistent even while reporting his family roots .While the Wilkipedia reports his place of birth as some obscure town in Karnataka and Calcutta as his place of education, Mallya in an interview to journo Anjali Rao given at his Kingfisher Villa (is it not encroaching on Coastal Regulatory Zone ???) at Goa keenly painted himself as a Goan apparently to reinforce his colorful image. Mallya hardly known for any philanthropic projects, once reported to have spent Rs.1.5 Crs. to purchase a sword belonging to Karnataka warrior king Tipu Sultan in a Sotheby auction at London , for restoring the sword to the motherland. However strangely his wife and family contrary to his patriotic leanings remain ensconced in USA as their home place . About the doctorate which adorns his name, there are apprehensions that it is from a disputed source.

While the blogs promoted by his group rightly praise his genius as a business man , there is a only a subdued reference to his disastrous performance at another sunken ship -the long forgotten Janata Dal of which Mallya is president apparently even now. Having taken over the mantle of Janata Dal President from Subramaniam Swami in the year 2003 he fielded candidates for 20 (unlucky no. for him?) seats for Karntaka Assembly elections. Unfortunately his choice of candidates at that time was total failure since every one from his party lost.

What Dr. Mallya perhaps needs to understand is that while the selection of horses , hostesses and hot calendar models can be made on visual appreciation of certain features , selection of a sports team or political representatives for an election campaign requires tactical skills and intellectual proficiency of a different nature. There are other investors also whose teams are not that successful but they are not complaining because a good businessman should also have a good shock absorption mechanism and in difficult times should wait for the tide to turn.

Freehit - as my blogname mentions - is not restricted to cricket and IPL (Indian Premier League), but I thought my first post should be dedicated to the same. Reason: IPL's popularity and because two of my icons (Dr. Vijay Mallya and Charu Sharma) are in the news.

Just to give an introduction as to how all those 3 in the title of my blog are related: Mr. Mallya owns the Royal Challengers Bangalore team, Charu 'was' the CEO of the team in IPL. The stress on the word 'was' because, Charu was fired from his post, due to Bangalore's non-performance. Till date, they have won just 2 of the 8 matches they have played - a stunning 25% win record. For a team full of quality players, this result does not convey the entire story.

I've a few concerns/questions at this junture:

1) The role of CEO:  We have known the corporate world for their 'Perform or Perish' mantra. But, at the end of the day, your 11 players have to perform. And those eleven players are decided by the captain and/or coach. So, what has a CEO got to play on the losses?

2) 'Individual' franshisee owners more affected: I think Mr. Mallya, a person who's worth is $1.2 bn, and who owns 42 homes, 250 vintage cars, a customized Boeing 727 and two other corporate jets, and three yachts-including the Kalizma, took ownership of Bangalore franchisee ($ 0.1 bn) for something more than business intentions. A small calculation suggests the franchisee is worth ~8% of his personal wealth (although the franchisee was not bought out of his money). So, when comparatively (as compared to individual owners like SRK and Preity) you know that you wouldn't lose much and you would break-even in a few years, why should you fire someone who is remotely related for the losses?

3) Fire himself/Dravid: They chose a very good team which was more suited for a H100 cricket (my terminology for 100 overs-a-side match :) ) rather than T20. So, it should have been Dravid/Mallya who should have raised their hand and accounted for the bad patch the team is undergoing.

4) No questioning Charu's credentials: There have been just 2 Indian sports presenters that i have known and grown up with: Harsha Bhogle and Charu Sharma. A person who started his career in 1982 in the Asian games and whose career has been blemishless should have been treated with a bit more respect.

In just the half way stage (7 out of 14 for every team), Charu was fired. This would certainly affect the team's morale and they would always be under the influence of pressure, which could affect them further. I still have great respect for Mallya, for his flamboyance and charisma, but i feel he was wronged in the way he handled this incident.

The team has played 1 match under the new CEO and has lost it. But, it would be interesting to see how many matches does Team Bangalore win after the new CEO has taken charge. I'm just hoping that cricket would not be influenced more by commercialization and would continue to be played as a sport, for the interest of the audience and the sport itself.

Cricket has become truly professional!!!!!

"I am not a quitter, especially when the chips are down," Sharma said in a statement. "The company has every right to hire and fire personnel. For details of why I was summarily dismissed from my duties, three hours before I was to board a flight to Kolkata for the next match, please contact representatives of the company."

Sharma, whose father died soon after the IPL started, said he'd taken the briefest of breaks at the time. Only the team owners can explain why he was sacked, he said, adding that he could "understand their disappointment at the team not being the fastest off the block".

The choice of Brijesh Patel as CEO was largely motivated by the fact that he is an accomplished cricketer and understands local conditions with the depth that is required, Vijay Mallya, the franchise owner, said in a statement. He also squashed speculation over the future of Venkatesh Prasad, the coach of the side, and said he was fully supportive of his role in the side.

Bangalore, currently at the bottom of the IPL table with two wins from seven games, issued a press release on Tuesday night, which said Sharma "stepped down due to personal reasons" and had been replaced by Brijesh Patel, the former India Test player and secretary of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), which runs the game in the franchise's home city.

Sources close to Sharma confirmed that he was asked to quit on Tuesday afternoon by a senior official from United Spirits Limited (USL), the liquor company that bought the team. USL is owned by Vijay Mallya, the Bangalore-based industrialist who also owns Force India, a Formula 1 team.

However, sources in the franchise told Cricinfo that the decision to sack the chief executive was the result of growing discontent at the highest level ever since Bangalore suffered a humiliating defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders in the inaugural IPL match in front of a record television audience and a capacity home crowd, including top ICC and BCCI officials, Bollywood actors and corporate leaders.

"Quite a few harsh words were used that night to describe the team's performance. And ever since then, serious questions were being asked at the top level within the franchise about the team's composition and performance. Things turned nasty as the team continued to lose and there was even talk about whether the players were under-performing, and making a laughing stock of the owner," the sources said.

"In such a scenario, the franchise wanted to send a strong message that it was in control of the situation and the CEO was the obvious target. Sacking the players would have generated a wave of negative publicity, considering their iconic status," the sources said.

Mallya bought the franchise from the IPL council with a bid of US$ 111.6 million and then faced a barrage of criticism after the players' auction where Rahul Dravid took the lead in picking the squad - including South Africa's Jacques Kallis and India's Wasim Jaffer - that has since been tagged as a Test XI.

On Monday night, after the team's fifth loss, Mallya is learnt to have been extremely upset and had a "very serious chat" with Sharma, before the franchise owner was "persuaded" to give the team "a small pep talk" during a party that followed the match against Kings XI Punjab.

"The team was assembled and were told by Mallya he was still backing them. But it was clear that a major decision was around the corner," the sources said. Around 3 pm the next day, Sharma was asked to leave by the franchise.

On Wednesday morning, a senior player told Cricinfo that the team was rattled by the development, which he described as "a knee-jerk reaction" to the defeats with seven matches still left in the tournament. Bangalore take on Kolkata in the eighth of their 14 league matches, at the Eden Gardens on Thursday.

"My role, as I saw it, was to constantly motivate, encourage, facilitate and respect the efforts of the cricket professionals in the team. And that is what I tried to do, sincerely, day after day - win or lose - in the true spirit of sportsmanship," Sharma said.

© Cricinfo

Unfortunately hiring him in the first place was a mistake... I mean just because he anchored the program on Set Max... does it make him the Cricket Officianado?  Anyway its unfortunate.. we created jobs but the guys can't keep them.

Wonder who the next target is....

I am glad that we at the BCCI are not accountable like this. Else a lot of us would have been out on our sorry asses a long time ago.

The first man to be sacked is CEO Charu Sharma who has been asked to leave his position. His place will be taken by Brijesh Patel who is the secretary of the Karnataka State Cricket Association and a former India batsman.

The next man to go is Venkatesh Prasad, who is also the bowling coach of the Indian team.

The drastic steps were taken by Mallya after Tuesday's game against Kings XI Punjab when they were bowled out for a mere 126 at home.

]]> http://loveforthegame.wordpress.com/?p=541 Tue, 06 May 2008 15:21:22 +0000 techtwist http://loveforthegame.wordpress.com/?p=541 After their dismal performance during this first few weeks of the IPL tournament, the Bangalore Royal Challengers have come up with a few changes with a view that this would turn the tide. Surprisingly, it has been made to the line up of their support staffs.

Brijesh Patel will replace Charu Sharma as the new CEO of the Bangalore Royal Challengers. Not only this, even Venkatesh Prasad is on the verge of being dropped as the Coach of the team and they are looking for a proper replacement. This comes as a surprise for me. I'm not sure how this is going to help the team. The players must put in their best to get the results. The problem with this team is that no one is firing. All the other teams have been playing well together and its time that they turn the tide around.

I say it is also creating jobs for people who would otherwise be unemployed or underemployed. Take Charu Sharma... I mean the only job he had was conducting that horrible show on Doordarshan. Look at him now... working with Mallya, selecting teams, playing selector, free tickets and all... would all this have happened if it were not for the IPL? Tell me !! Have you seen the new video of the Royal C's where Charu Sharma is exhorting his troops?

Kris Srikkant is brand ambassador for the Chennai Sooper Kings...Seenu is paying him quite well. Only thing is that uniform looks like a Pyjama on Cheeka...

So before you point fingers and talk all rubbish, please think of these fellows... the trainers, coaches, managers etc etc

P.S: As I am writing this post, there is some disturbing news that some of the Punjab Kings players have been asked to leave the hotel so that Preity Zinta's friends can stay there....