Scams, Scandals and Controversies

As another season of IPL draws to a close, Santosh Desai in the crest edition of the Times of India reviews a year of controversies and questions IPL's sustainability as an entertainment product.

Given its nature, it is natural for the IPL to become a lightning rod for everything else that happens outside it. It acts as a heightened stage on which middle-class consumerist society plays out its fantasies, anxieties and conflicts. Every popular activity is a text of sorts in which the prevailing concerns of the day find expression but the IPL by virtue of the heightened nature of the stimulation it provides, is a particularly articulate site of expression. Some of the key 'highlights' of this season give evidence of this;each in its own way shedding light on some larger issues.

NR Krishnan in the Business Line argues that BCCI is being unduly criticised for the controversies that have cropped up during the IPL this season.

No one, in all seriousness, can accuse the BCCI of being even remotely responsible for the unsavoury events that took place lately involving some players in hotel rooms and some owners of team franchises on the grounds. These were acts of individuals, and barring one, where a franchise owner remonstrated with the umpires over a decision that went against her team, they were unconnected with the game itself.