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| Laxshmipathy Balaji |
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| Saurav Ganguly |
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| Mohammed Kaif |
Can we blame the football and cricket players for all the bad things in EPL and IPL? They are only trying to maximize their earning capacity. We had the case of the Sri Lankan cricketers giving up on an English tour and playing in the IPL. Big players like Gilchrist, Hayden, Shane Warne have retied prematurely so that they can extend their careers and play in the lucrative IPL. The case of travel weary Australians landing up in various Indian cities to represent their franchises is reflecting the way things will shape out in the future.
The first match of the IPL series four had an interesting side light. Harsha Bogle was interviewing Anirudha the Chennai Super Kings player and asked him whether the word traitor was mentioned when Laxmipathy Balaji was seen by CSK players. Why traitor? Poor Balaji played for CSK for three years and later went on to Kolkata Knight Riders for the fourth season.
Harsha was insinuating that Balaji being a local player has betrayed Chennai by playing for Kolkata. Come on Harsha you should know better. Poor Balaji I am sure did have a choice and had to take what was offered to him. We are not privy to any information as to whether it was Balaji who opted out or if was CSK who opted not to retain him. I am betting my bottom dollar that it was CSK who let Balaji go and not the other way round.
The players are very small pawns in the entire IPL game. A player like Saurav Ganguly did not get a bid and Mohammed Kaif was only taken up only in the last minute. Pakistani players not even considered. They were not considered even when they won the 20 20 world cup! There were no instructions from BCCI but mysteriously none of the franchisees bid for even one Pakistani cricket player. And all the franchisees say that they are independent. Their functioning certainly does not merit such a claim.
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