IPL and Fixing

I am still alive!!
   Turns out that all those running sessions I had with my rowing crew helps a lot while letting me escape from the white van threat (Refer to the last post).

I know that I am bit late with this blog post, But there weren't any better time than this to write about IPL (for me). I was too busy with watching IPL during the IPL days, so I didnt want to waste my time on this post during those days. I could've written it after the end of IPL, but I couldnt because  I was so busy with doing nothing (and NOTHING is more important than my 'doing nothing' time). Now I am here tired and bored by doing nothing!! So here comes my blog post about IPL rigging!!

Is IPL fixed or not?? Million dollar question for many of us ardent cricket followers!! Are we being fooled by the BCCI and IPL governing council?? This wont be an investigative piece on this IPL fiasco (I am too lazy to come up with the investigative pieces). But this will comprise of my ideas and the reasoning on this matter.
  We all say IPL is fixed whenever the team we support loses a game. If our favourite team loses a game then we all say we lost because of the fixing. And if our team wins a game we say we won it despite the fixing. So I thought I would discuss the matter in length rationally. My dear friend Kenthira wanted me to write a post on this matter, hence the post and I am dedicating the post to him!!

There is an old saying in Tamil which says "There wont be any smoke without Fire". No one is going to talk about fixing without having their reasons. Let me start with the arguments for why IPL is rigged.

If you look at the past champions thus far you would see a pattern in it. Rajastan Royals came out on top in the first edition of IPL. And who would have thought Rajastan would win the first season with that paltry squad. Rajastan was the clear underdogs in the first season and still won the trophy. And who doesnt like an underdog winning the trophy and it clearly gave IPL some recognition and love from the audience.
And in the second edition the team (Deccan Chargers) which came last in the first edition got the trophy. Another underdog story. Third and forth edition went to Chennai Super Kings (the team to have greatest fan base (You can divide IPL fans into two: CSK lovers and CSK haters, there isnt anything in between)). And in the third season Mumbai Indians played in the final and lost (God knows why Pollard was sent as late as possible into a chase and they want us to believe IPL isnt rigged). Final was held in Mumbai and Mumbai playing the final would definitely have boosted the ticket sales.
And in the fifth season Kolkata Knight Riders won the title and played in the final with Chennai. And I knew from the start of the season that CSK wont win this season!! CSK winning the title for 3 consecutive years is bad for IPL in the long run. Fans of other franchises would lose interest (Eventually same thing will happen to Deccan Chargers fans) in IPL.

So all the winners so far have made IPL more likable! Maybe Co-Incidence or Maybe not!!

Most of all the arguments, Lalit Modi (If you dont know him, What the hell are you doing in an IPL post) himself accepted that he was "arm twisted" in to rigging the 2009 auction so that CSK could buy Flintoff in the auction. He said that he worked a lot to persuade Rajastan Royals to retain Sohail Tanvir so they would not have enough money left in the purse* to buy Andrew Flintoff. No investigations or whatsoever were there on this accusation. For some reason the new administration chose not to probe on that accusation.

Lalit Modi and his famous Pink tie

Those who know about the IPL auction skip this paragraph, this one is for those who still live in the caves. In IPL auctions every franchisee would get a money purse of certain amount and they can spend only the money in their money purse. This was introduced so the rich teams wouldn't get all the players. If in the auction bids went more than that purse all the interested teams would place a bid on the player and the team to bid the highest would get the player. And the bid amount would be undisclosed too. Why it is undisclosed?? No one knows!!

Lalit Modi himself was dethroned from his position for money swindling and other frauds. So does that mean first 3 seasons were rigged, No one knows the answer.

And in the just concluded season, stupidity went into another league. Loads of people are talking that this season had lot more last over finishes than any other season.But if you look at it more closely most of those matches could have been finished much earlier with much ease. But yet those matches were taken to the last over deliberately. No one could argue with that.

Why cant you all believe we genuinely bowl slow fulltosses for the final delivery

Take a scenario, you are playing in a slow pitch and you have to score 6 runs off the last ball to win. What kind of a ball you would ask for in that kind of a situation. Any one would want a slow fulltoss at the knee height and that is the same thing Bravo got in a match against KKR from Bhatia. And he dealt with it in a way it should be dealt. And they want us to believe IPL is not rigged. This is just an example of the tomfooleries happened in this season.
 And there is that playing Ross Taylor again and again, Not playing Morkel in the playoff and playing an unknown spinner in that same playoff. All this happened in the same 'Not rigged' IPL.

 But there are also arguments against the IPL is fixed arguments.
IPL has some of the honest personalities you could find in cricket. Rahul Dravid, Sangakkaara, Murali, Sachin, Clarke to name a few. With them playing in IPL how can you expect it to be fixed. There is no way IPL could make them fraudsters. So if there is any fixing it has to be done without these people's consent. And most of these people are captains of their respective teams, How can you fix a match without the consent of your captain.
And some could argue that fulltoss from Bhatia to Bravo could be a missed yorker (If so, he missed it by a mile and he shouldn't have attempted a yorker at all). And Sehwag justified not playing Morkel and playing Ross Taylor in that playoff match. He said he wanted to increase his team's batting power by including Ross (How you can improve the team's batting by including a player in Ross Taylor's form is beyond my comprehension). These all mistakes could be genuine, We are never gonna know about it.
"Not guilty until proven otherwise" is too a valid argument here.
So whether the IPL is fixed or not is totally your decision. Or you could use my way and use it whenever your team loses a game.

But there comes another big question, Does it even matter if it is rigged??
 Loads of people watch WWE, WWF and Wrestlemania and all other shits knowing that it is fake and just acting!! They watch it for the entertainment factor of the sport. The same thing could be applied for IPL too.

We all can be sure at least this part of IPL is not rigged!!
This is enough for me to watch IPL!!

If the people want to watch real cricket they could have watched it in the WI vs Australia test series! IPL is not a place for them and it is there for us to be entertained. No one wants to watch those matches where a team completely dominates the other team. People want to watch close matches, last over finishes and all. IPL is like a festival for the audience, where you can forget all other things and get immersed in the fun. So in short IPL is for fun and not for cricket.

If IPL is Beer, Cricket is the alcohol in it. Only 5%.

This tweet I saw says it all in a few words. Alcohol maybe just  5%, But we still drink Beer ( Amma I am just kidding I dont drink Beer, I prefer Vodka, Kidding again).

IPL is not for the purists, But fortunately I am not a Purist.