About snubbing and making sound financial decisions

IPL auctioned its players yesterday. As we all know, after the event everyone cried foul that none of the 11 Pakistani players was bought by any of the franchises. The Pakistani media has described this as an insult to their country and players. I found it really funny that the sports ministry of Pakistan has sent a notice to the Pakistani Cricket Board asking them as to why none of the players were bought, event hinting that the PCB is responsible for the fiasco ! It was the Pakistani govt that issued a security warning to Pakistani players for travelling against India for IPL2. The net result was the franchises that had Pakistani players suffered. KKR and their superb performance can vouch for that. :-) This has cascaded to the current scenario.

Our news channels really know how to rub it on an already furious Pakistan. They used the word “snubbed” in every sentence they used to tell this story. The Times of India went one step further and said that they suspect the Government of India asking the teams not to buy Pakistani Players. Ya rite ! Now why on earth would the GoI even bother about IPL, after all the security arrangements for players is handled by the IPL and not by the government. If anything, the govt would earn more revenue from tax in the event of greater success of the IPL. And when poor Mr Chidambaram and team are busy tacking the Naxals, they are dragged into a needless issue. Barkha Dutt of NDTV tweeted that Pakistani players should not have been invited in the first place instead of insulting them in such manner. I believe that such an action would have been very wrong on the part of the IPL. At least now, the players have a chance to being a part of the event. And if we understand the policy of IPL, the players sign a contract with IPL for which they earn a certain sum and then IPL sells them to Franchises. So in the current scenario, every player associated with the event would earn a certain base sum. Why snatch that away?

People who understand the event and the sport have rightly said that the entire event was a case people making financially sound decisions. Why invest on a player who is not sure to play? It is for the same reason that the Aussies who also are unavailable for most of the games, were not taken by any franchise. Because of immature reporting by sections of the Indian media , I am sure the Pakistani media would be printing statements such as “ The Indian media also suspect foulplay…. Sections of the Indian media have also sympathized with the ill treatment to our players….Our suspicion has been vindicated by reports in the Indian media that this was a well planned…” etc

I am pasting below one of the very few sensible tweets I read regarding this issue.

Suhasini Haidar of CNN-IBN tweeted – “I know many are upset with the IPL rejection of Pak players- but isn't that giving cricket too much leadership role in bilateral relns? “ This turned out to be one of the very few sensible opinions from the media.