The IPL malaise

In the Times of India, Mukul Kesavan rips into the IPL - its decadence, its unabashed celebration of team owners, its use of cheerleaders and the many conflicts of interest.

The tournament is historically interesting because it is republican India's first public celebration of decadence. One charac- teristic feature of decadence is a contempt for convention and procedural scruple. Indians are familiar with this in everyday life, but the IPL is a departure in that the people involved with it legitimise and defend conflicts of interest explicitly and in full public view.