SOS

This has been Season Of Scams(SOS). Not that there weren't scams earlier. But I don't know if it's coincidence but last few weeks have exposed scams of varying scales. Starting with the Common Wealth Games mess in Delhi ( which incidentally have actually helped Indians wake up to the games). Then there is the fixing fiasco in cricket. There is a movie coming up called 'The Social Network' which apparently shows the facebook founder Zuckerberg as having stolen the idea for his venture (fakebook?). There is this new ad of a bike featuring MS Dhoni and a cricket team which is a copy of an older Adidas Ad (to the last scene). Closer home, a leading jewellery brand unveiled his new identity with much fanfare. As it turns out, the logo was a straight lift from a ready-made logo website. And the jewellery brand in question positions itself on the premise of 'trust is everything'. The icing on the cake has been the new ambitious 3 minute film of Kerala tourism which has striking similarity to a 3 minute film of Mexico tourism (Cheetah become Elephant, Mexico becomes Kerala). Phew! And today I see the trailer of a new film of Hrithik Roshan. The scenes remind me of a lovely Thai insurance ad. Am I imagining? But then the movie 'Kites' had straight lifts of scenes from 'Road to Perdition'. It's a Season Of Shams. A Season Of Shame.

As good as 'Maa'

ICC in ICU & Love All on Tennis Court

Cricket is going through a crisis once again. There is smoke and there is fire. Pakistan might have become the 'butt' of all betting jokes - but to assume that it's Pakistan alone in this seems highly unlikely. Betting is more rampant than we think it is. And there seems to be a quite a few people batting for betting. Bowling no balls is the just the tip of the iceberg. Asif would would have got just a tip for that. The sad thing is not that there is betting and fixing spot and spot on. The sad and alarming thing is there is no idea who all are playing the game. As a result, it's causing a serious aspersion on the game. Now, all matches, all dropped catches, all run-outs would be doubted. How many times have we seen greed and money killing the spirit of things - be it business or cricket. These incident have come at a time when much of cricket being played everywhere is below par. The declining Aussies have meant that the bar has come lower. English have been going through highs and lows amidst the fixing. India has been playing way below par and it was very poor show at Sri Lanka. There are no great rivalries, no great moments, no great duels and champions league and IPL are being seen as the hope to revive the game. How unfortunate. There was more news on politicians Pawar and Howard than about quality of cricket. Cricket right now looks fragmented and in disarray. 20-20 world cups are adding to the woe. It's becoming a classic business school case study. I won't be surprised if viewership comes down for cricket matches. The focus has become money and not the game, and unless that changes - there will be no more money to be made. Cricket is losing its soul. Common Wealth Games again have become Wealth games.

Amidst all this dollar-grabbing, there is one sports story that's heart-warming. An Indo-Pak pair reaching the finals of the US Open tennis. Bopanna and Quereshi. Why is the idea of love so difficult when it is so simple? Hats off to the boys.

The thought today

"The right answers evade us when we fail to ask the right questions."