IPL Bidding Fiasco

Well, It was a week where some people from the sidelines made it to the center stage.

I'm talking about the IPL (Indian Premier League) bidding fiasco starring Shashi Tharoor, Lalit Modi and Sunanda Pushkar.  

The plot was cast a few days back when a completely unknown consortium - calling itself Rendezvous Sports - won the bid for the Kochi IPL team.

The name itself sounded fishy to me. And considering that they had paid almost 350 Million $ for a team in the South Indian state of Kerala (which has sent just one cricketer to the Indian national team) did raise my eyebrows - if not many more across the country!!

Shashi Tharoor claimed that he had mentored the group to bring IPL to Kochi - and that is where the trouble began.

What makes me say this?

Well, In India, a politician helping someone - without expecting something in return is a rarity. And considering that Tharoor has an ability to put his own foot in his mouth, something exceptional was bound to happen.

With all this attention around Tharoor, some enterprising journalist digged up some facts on Tharoor's personal life. News was that he was married twice and going onto the third!!

The third lady in Tharoor's life was identified as Sunanda Pushkar. 

A week back you would have asked - Sunanda Who?

The news claimed that she was a Kashmiri beautician!! Made me think what made Tharoor take interest in her. A diplomat and a beautician do make an weird couple!!

I thought this was just a tidbit on his personal life and would die soon. How wrong I was.

A few days later - the IPL commissioner - Lalit Modi decided to express some facts he was privy to on Twitter. 

He revealed that Sunanda Pushkar was a equity stake holder in the Kochi consortium. What made things complex was the revelation that she was given free equity!!

Suspecting people thought this was an indirect benefit to Tharoor. Politician's called for his resignation - though nothing was proven. Tax authorities started raids on the IPL offices putting Modi under tremendous strain.

All of this for the free "sweat equity" given to Sunanda. Overnight she went from being a beautician to a branding and a management expert.

The poor lady was in a bind  - between holding on to the equity  or causing trouble for her love.

Love they say is stronger than money - and looks like this is what made her give up the sweat equity today evening.

For the last seven days, these 3 people made headlines of all the national newspapers. Making me realize how ordinary people who are better placed on the sidelines make it to the center stage.

Hope Cricket takes over in the next week. After all, it's the last week of IPL3!!