Harsha Bhogle in The Indian Express:
“Intentionally or otherwise, Vijay Mallya has unleashed a wonderful, but hitherto unknown, word into Indian cricket. We have always plodded along in Indian cricket and accountability was this word from another language that occasionally filtered through our barriers. We knew it existed, as we did at various times achtung and détente and glasnost or even shiraz and tom yum.”
Meanwhile excerpts from Vijay Mallya‘s diary:
“Another loss. Got piss drunk. Broke some bottles of competitors’ booze and had a few swigs of RC. Blanked out. I hate cheap whiskey. Awoke to Rahul‘s sms. Says he’s not going to play the game anymore. What a relief. Finally, I can replace that white elephant…. More bad news, I looked at Rahul’s sms again. He said he’s not going to play the blame game anymore. I hate cheap whiskey.”
Read the full diary: Excerpts from Vijay Mallya’s diary
Photograph: Mangalorean.com
There are people who poke fun at Mallya for his out bursts and I know that tribe is quite large in number. But what HB has said in this column is what every cricketer needs to understand.
A game is a game is a game. Agreed. Winning and losing are the constants in any game (ties are quite rare in cricket, you see). Having said that, one should also look at the margin of victory or defeat. VVS Lakshman, defending RD, has said that couple of matches Bangalore lost were close and the result could have gone either way and hence it is not correct to blame the team. Like hell. The only two matches we have won were so narrow that it was only sheer luck which prevented the team the ignominy of having lost ALL the matches they played!!!
In a scenario like this, why shouldn’t Mallya question the commitment of this team to fight and win???
if its any consolation, warnie’s been guilty for a few misdemeanours of his own via sms – in the past. he learned & moved on!
What Mallya is demanding is not accountability? It is just whining like a small boy!! What right did he have to go spend shareholders’ money on cricket? What “expertise” did he have in picking a captain or a CEO or the players or the name or the promotion song, etc. If most things about RCB suck and even Bengaloorigas dont care about the team, then there is only one person responsible – that is Vijay Mallya!!
Stop whining Mallya. Ask Rahul, Brijesh and Prasad how to turn the team fortunes around and wait till end of year. LEarn from Ambani how to take defeats in stride and what investments mean. MI lost the first three matches and we didnt hear any whining. Patience, pls.
Perfect photo for the article. Mallya is a tough boss not like the cheerful over optimistic, blowing kisses in the air, SRK
The IPL is teaching a lesson to our cricketers. Apart from RC team every other cricketer should now have understood what the cricket lovers across the country wanted from them. Atleast now let them show the commitment nd accountability to the game which their earlier bosses the BCCI never asked them and they too do not needed the same. The cricketers should disown players like Harbhajan Sreeshanth and others who relish in bad antics on the field than their prowess in the game. The investors to the teams in IPL should also understand this is not just their commercial business. They are investing in sport where there cannot be only one winner. Win/lose is the spirit of the game. They should encouage their teams to show commitment and not washing the dirty linen in public as Mallya is doing. Even tennis masters like Sampras, Federer and others have a break in their winning streaks.
pathetic match ….. Royally Challenged b@$t@rd$ representing Bengaluru … Rahul is royally screwing up brand bangalore. We should disown these royal f&*(ers when they play in bangalore.
I have said it before and I will ay it again–Sack that dull donkey Rahul. He is a total misfit!
Mallaiah please get high on IMFL. All your sins are coming back to haunt you!
I am a snob and knew I would never like this 20-20 thing played by boorish riffraff like Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Sehwag and even Tendulkar etc. What I find so strangely attractive is a blueblooded thoroughbred like Dravid finding his feet as an individual batsman in this new stupid format of wham bam thankyou maam. pradox is while this proves his thoery that a good test player can play at any format- his team proves quite the opposite. Poor Mallya he wouldnt know whether to laugh or cry- His ballz and purse are caught in a velveteen vice.
gaby,
Robin uthappa a boorish riffraff? In what way? Obviously you are not just a snob :)
Cant mallya sack dravid, joshi, kumble and zaheer. i.e. the geratrics in the team and get back uthappa and ppl like mcgrath? He might be able to put together a decent team next year at least…
I am a t-totaler, hope the licker produced by Vijay Mallya is better than his cricket team!!
Poli Hudga’s mail is in bad taste. It shouldn’t have appeared on the Churumri site.
Using such words like donkey to one of the all time greatest player of india is in extremely bad taste.
For the Records Rahul has scored 273 runs from 10 matches at a strike rate of 128
where as Robin has scored 243 runes from 10 matches at a strike rate of 110.
Saurav has scored 229 runs from 10 matches at a strike rate 108.
SAchin has scored 45 runs from 3 matches at a strike rate of 70
RC woes cannot blind you to put all the blame at Rahul ‘s personal performance as a batsman.
Rathnajeevi,
Once again you are parading inane statistics to prove your point:) Lets do a simple calculation: 273/10 = 27.3 runs per match!! Dravid is a dull donkey to many but a few like Gaby find this Katthey Mari’ cute:) That’s OK.
If Mallya has any balls he should send this donkey home now!
One cannot argue with people who do not know how to express decently
haha @ “Royally Challenged”. BTW nice blog and I just added you on my blogroll :)
The perspective of a CEO is always making profit out of the money he has invested, it is quite obvious that VM is aiming for the profit for the crores of money he spent to get the franchise and the money he is paying to get the players through the auction, Once cricket is commercialized, the captain, coach, manager and team members are bound to fulfill the expectation of the franchise owner and the franchiee owners are having the right to ask so.
Hi ,
I was reading ur blog posts and found some of them to be wow.. u write well.. Why don’t you popularize it more.. ur post on rahul dravid took my particular attention as it is an interesting topic of mine too ;)
BTW I help out some ex-IIMA guys who with another batch mate run http://www.rambhai.com where you can post links to your most loved blog-posts. Rambhai was the chaiwala at IIMA and it is a site where users can themselves share links to blog posts etc and other can find and vote on them. The best make it to the homepage!
This way you can reach out to rambhai readers some of whom could become your ardent fans.. who knows.. :)
Cheers,
Doddi Buddi Says,
has done a simple calculation: 273/10 = 27.3 runs per match of rahul…but i think he forgot to do this simple calculation for other icons ilke saurav and sachin…so buddy i strongly request you to plz do the cal n show the result…n gv a luvly epithet like donkey which u hve given to a player like rahul dravid…we all will wait for ur reply…
mallya is mad, dravid is great, mally dont no any thing about cricket.
dravid is a great player he is a wall . he is alway play good in all cricket format.
If you call Dravid a Donkey, then you need to talk to Ricky Ponting or Symonds..!
Lee: “If you can’t get along with Dravid, you’re struggling in life”