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Distasteful exercise?
Mark Marqusee raises valid questions about IPL 20/20 (“Cashing in on cricket, March 9) . Greed is the sole criterion behind the huge deals done by the BCCI. The author needs to be complimented for raising a contrarian view at this point in time when the mood in the media and cricketing circles is upbeat.
Saurabh Sinha,
Bhilai
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It is said that in sports and education, commercialisation is a bane, not a boon. But this does not seem to hold true any longer. Today, every successful person comes with a price tag. With so much money being thrown around, sportsman spirit will soon be a thing of the past. Who will bother to ‘walk’ when he knows that a big score can fetch him the big bucks? It is not as if only the players are in it for money. So is the board, which makes the players play even in the searing heat of summer for commercial reasons. It would, however, be quite wrong to think that the commercial success of cricket is helping the Indian economy. For, the country is losing man-hours as people are busy watching cricket.
Mahesh Kapasi,
New Delhi
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What made the entire process distasteful was the auctioning of cricketers, the way they were ‘sold’, which reminds one of the age old practice of auctioning animals, trafficked women and bride grooms as well. Can the IPL succeed in getting the best of out of players from varied countries, especially given the recent ugly incidents in Australia?
Ushadevi Suddapalli and
Dr. S.B. Rao
Muscat, Oman
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When people are pawned and auctioned, we can only lament the loss of self respect and the values of the social system. The IPL player auction was one such instance. It almost made one feel that the slave trade was back. Our value system definitely does not allow us to rejoice the auctioning of players like commodities.
With the 20/20 format increasingly becoming popular, the class of the likes of Tendulkar when the ball meets the sweetest part of the willow, will gradually lose its significance. Aggression and taunt in the field, mostly by the new generation of players, is being celebrated in place of gentleness and composure. Cricket will no longer be a gentleman’s game.
Dipu Shaw,
Delhi
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I would like to mention that with the introduction of IPL/ICL, Indian players (and foreign players) will be getting huge amounts of money, which should be taken in a positive spirit. During our childhood days (25 years back), our parents never encouraged us to play seriously. They encouraged games and sports only for relaxation. They used to tell us that a career can not be built by neglecting studies. Now the situation has changed. If anyone pays handsome money to the players then more and more youth would be inspired to take up games and sports as a career. In our country there is no dearth of talented players so IPL/ICL type of competition may be initiated in all the games and sports.
Dr. Shankar Chatterjee,
Hyderabad
Nothing to be proud of
Apropos of Kalpana Sharma’s ‘Sad Sunday’ (March 09), we Indians celebrate ‘Nag-Panchami’ when we feed snakes with milk and for the remaining 364 days of the year we kill the poor reptile wherever we find it. Is it not identical with celebrating ‘Women’s Empowerment Day’? The only difference is that instead of killing her, we suppress and exploit her in all possible ways for failing to produce a male child. We don’t need speeches, nor even the laws enacted by our legislatures. The only thing that matters is the change of our feudal male mind-set. Like charity the respect and freedom for our women folk must begin at home – with me and you.
Ved K. Guliani,
Bangalore.
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I found the article really inspirational. We are talking about making India a developed country, but can a country be really developed without the actual development of women?
Megha Chaturvedi
Noida
Secular heritage
Anupama Chopra deserves commendation for her excellent write up “Bollywood princess, Hollywood hopefuls” (March 9). The team is excellent and poised to win a great laurels through the English version of movie. The movie is bound to promote the secular principles of India whose foundation was laid centuries ago in a composite culture.
G. Azeemoddin,
Anantapur
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