ASHWINI A. writes from Bangalore: There is good news and bad news for cricket fans in Mysore. The good news first: the Board of Control for Cricket in India is to hold a five-day camp for bowlers from June 4 in preparation for the upcoming tours of England and Ireland.
Followers of the game in the City of Palaces can look forward to seeing in flesh and blood their sultans of swing, and the wizards of the wobble and weave: 14 of them including Zaheer Khan and Irfan Pathan, S. Sreesanth and Munaf Patel, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.
Well, dream on.
The bad news is that the camp is to be held at a fortress that rivals a nearby nuclear establishment in its impenetrable security: namely, the Infosys Global Training Centre in Hebbal Industrial Area.
Timely note: this piece is not about Infosys. It is about BCCI. Yes, not about Infosys, about BCCI.
The bowlers’ camp may be great education for the hundreds of Infosys trainees living on the campus, if they are allowed to go out and see, that is. But for Mysore’s cricket fans, fanatics and followers, the camp is a letdown because a camp at Infosys is a case of so near and yet so far.
Why, you wonder, is the richest cricket body in the world so openly obliged to a private software company for hospitality and facilities? When the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) has leased the Gangothri Glades stadium from the University of Mysore for a pittance in the heart of the City, why does BCCI want to conduct the camp in a secluded place?
Maybe there are good reasons for both those questions. In Baroda, for instance, BCCI makes use of the hospitality of IPCL, the Reliance-owned petrochemical company. And in Jameshedpur, it banks on the Tatas. If that is OK, what is wrong in using Infosys’ help, you may ask.
The problem is two-fold.
Problem One: Infosys bought those hundreds of acres for a song to build a training centre that is quickly morphing into a software centre. Its cricket stadium is magnificent, yes, but it is a white elephant trampling on farmers’ land. How morally right is that?
Problem Two: The Infosys stadium is inaccessible and spectator-unfriendly as the only two matches of note held there (women’s World Cup and a Ranji Trophy tie between Karnataka and Bengal) showed.
It’s not at a distance where a young boy interested can cycle up to. Worse, ordinary fans are not allowed to go inside. Matches and events held there are open only to a select few who could pull the right strings in Bangalore and Mysore.
When a great and very public game is kept alive by fans, why should matches or practice be held in private as if it were some club event of the rich and the privileged?
Maybe, the Infosys campus has facilities. And, by jove, they would. But what has prevented BCCI or KSCA from developing those facilities in Mysore (or anytown India)? What have they done with all the crores they have minted from television rights and matches?
Infosys’s cricket stadium is not open to local sportspersons wanting to conduct a camp or hold a match. Why does it open it to the KSCA or BCCI, if it isn’t currying favour with cricket’s big bosses—besides extracting some more free publicity on television and in the newspapers?
Maybe (although it is unlikely) Infosys is providing the ground, the boarding and lodging facilities for a price. But is this legal? Maybe the inaccessibility will allow the bowlers to concentrate. But aren’t they eventually going to play before mammoth crowds baying for their blood?
To me, the shame of it all lies with BCCI. Despite its riches, it wants to to take its players to a City where it has no created no facilities that its players can use, and has to depend on infrastructure built by an organisation that has nothing to do with cricket.
What can be a bigger epitaph to the current state of Indian cricket than that?
churumuri 
Infosys and BCCI conspire to destroy Indian cricket??!!!
By the above logic, all non-sports brands must NOT be allowed to sponsor cricket or fund cricket. By that same logic, no sport must be funded by any non-sporting brand, which means bye bye sports.
Given that the Government’s main objective is not the promotion of sports it should have nothing to do with sports, all Government funding for sport must be instantly stopped. Which would be a good thing actually.
Christ, Buddha and Krishna… Can Infosys do nothing right unless it involves firing all its employees, winding up the company, selling off all its campuses and giving the money to charity? Why is the same mala fide intent not read into every other human activity that involves money? Where is this evidence of enormous malpractice that keeps being thrown up specifically in the context of Infosys, but never when it comes to the expansion of cities by building new layouts? I’m sure 99% of Bangalore was built on farm land that was illegally taken from farmers by British and the Indian Government… shall we therefore destroy and abandon Bangalore??
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If N R N and company were to come across this piece, they will make special arrangements for the author to visit their campus to watch the camp for bowlers in flesh and blood. They will be bowled by this “yorker” of an article.
But, I also think they are entitled to a defence. They have put in money and expertise to build a world-class centre. Why only Infosys campus, even the hundreds of houses being built on residential layouts created by the MUDA are on the lands of farmers bought for a song. Will anybody living in houses built on land acquired by farmers allow free access ?
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1) Infosys is a private body. BCCI is a private body. Both are allowed to do whatever deals they want to. They could do it for a price, they could do it for a fee, it’s their business, not churumuri’s or Ms Ashwini’s although both are entitled to enter any question they wish to.
2) If Infosys is sitting on land procured for a song, it has paid the price asked for from it by KIADB. If KIADB had asked for more, it may have paid it. If KIADB had asked for less, it may have paid that too. It isn’t Infosys’ fault. It is of the KIADB, the government presiding over it, and the lawmakers who made the law.
3) A few months ago, under Greg Chappell, a military-style conditioning camp was held at a resort which was closed to the public and indeed to the media. If that was OK, why should a camp at Infosys be a problem as long as it fetches the results BCCI is looking for from the bowlers.
4) BCCI is a conglomeration of private clubs. It is not a government of India body. They can hold a camp, a match or a meeting whereever they want to. They are not answerable to the public or the media, although both believe they have an inherent right. They don’t, we don’t.
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Dear Desi Homosapien,
I think Infosys and NRN by now know that Churumuri is out to do a hatchet job on them for whatever reason. If wise counsel prevails,as I
am sure it will, they will just ignore the rantings.
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What absolute crap article!! For God’s sake, BCCI is having a training camp, not a match.
I would have appreciated this article if it had been written w.r.t the Kar-WB Ranji match, not a training camp. Next if BCCI wants to have a indoor gym session for its players, it should keep it open for the public to gawk , is it??
>>Its cricket stadium is magnificent, yes, but it is a white elephant >>trampling on farmers’ land. How morally right is that?
Just because you have a friendly “anti-Infosys” forum to write, you are making unfounded accusations against Infosys. How morally right is this? You and KP and the whole Churumuri writers have the RTI now… go after Infosys. Bring out facts… who is stopping you?
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I believe this arrangement stems from security considerations and no need to read more into it. Now that Mysore is also terrorists’ haven it is better to err on the side of caution than give in to some other sentiments.
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the line ‘Timely note: this piece is not about Infosys. It is about BCCI. Yes, not about Infosys, about BCCI…’ itself makes it self evident on the agenda for this post.
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Would infosys grounds be more useful for Commando training, anti-terrorists operation,Spy vs. Spy games etc.. going by the secrecy of operatons and the prescribed ‘Off-limits’ there?
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this is another PR promotional ploy by NRN. after criminal complaint was registered and summons issued against him, he desperately wants publicity, so he has volunteered the facilities in his campus to bcci.
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Don’t worry. BCCI always makes decisions which are wise. They know very well that it will rain daily in Mysore and Bangalore in june first week (you know Monsoon has already hit Kerala coast). So none of these camps will be effective (bowlers camp in Mysore, Batsman camp in Bangalore and Afro-Asia cup in Bangalore) due to rain – unless some indoor exercises happen.
May be they thought that Ireland and England are rainy locales and therefore it is best for the team to acclimatise in Mysore/Bangalore in rainy weather :-)
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I dont think so
dr ramesh Says:
May 29th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
this is another PR promotional ploy by NRN. after criminal complaint was registered and summons issued against him, he desperately wants publicity, so he has volunteered the facilities in his campus to bcci.
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