When it took off, the Indian Premier League (IPL) was supposed to be, among other things, about building strong city-based local identities. In other words, what the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers do to residents of those cities, the Delhi Daredevils and Mumbai Indians were supposed to do to Delhi-ites and Bombay-ites.
But has the Royal Challengers Bangalore kissed that “strong city-based local identity” goodbye? There is no Anil Kumble in the squad for IPL-4. Rahul Dravid has been “bought out” by Rajasthan Royals. Robin Utthappa, who had been procured from Bombay, has gone off to Poona.
“Market forces” may be behind the departure of the foreign attractions in the Bangalore team—Jacques Kallis, Kevin Pietersen, Dale Steyn and Ross Taylor—and their Indian counterparts like Praveen Kumar, but the flight of topnotch “local talent” puts a big question mark on the Bangalore team’s local connect.
Maybe, this is just as it should be in a purely commercial auction; there is no place for emotion and sentiment. Maybe, in the new cosmopolitan Bangalore, it takes players from all over to represent Bangalore.
Still, does a “Bangalore team” which comprises Zaheer Khan, Saurabh Tiwary, Cheteshwar Poojara et al evoke the same “connect” with fans and followers, presuming of course there was such a connect in the first three seasons?
On the other hand, how have teams like Bombay and Madras retained a strong local component while Bangalore has squandered it lock, stock and barrel? Or does it not matter as long as Royal Challengers Bangalore serves as a vehicle to peddle “Dr” Vijay Mallya‘s booze, whether it is local or Indian Made Foreign Liquor?
Also read: What Mallya‘s team says about Mallya‘s mind
churumuri 
The IPL was never about “connect” or the fans. It was and is, a mere tool for advertising Mallya’s liquor.
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well, I never felt IPL had anything to do with local identity. It is all about $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
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It is a shame KSCA President has mentored a team which is devoid of Karnataka Players except Mithun and speaks of Team Dynamics !
Government should ban holding of IPL matches at Chinnaswamy stadium. If RCB want let them build a stadium at Kunigal
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@ Alok, I totally agree. Right from team’s name ..
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We should not allow any match to be played in Chinnaswamy stadium. Dravid, Utappa and Vinay Kumar should play for Karnataka. Mally’s team just wanted to make money and glamor. Nothing of cricket or sports.
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Maga, chillax. It’s a stupid 3 week hit-and-giggle. Albeit played with real $.
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Why do you expect loyalty from a self proclaimed shameless guy who sells liquor?
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RCB has the gorgeous Katrina Kaif as its mascot!
As if you need anything else. God, these people are never satisfied. :) :)
***
cha-ching!
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Instead of this time waste IPL , how abt a poll on Kapil Sibal’s trashing of the CAG …thats interesting, as Alok says , VM is least bother abt Blore pride
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@Chris….
From when did selling liquor become a shameless act??? Get your act right dude, there is nothing shameless about it…
Rahul Dravid, with all the glory behind him, is a waning player as far as the T20 format is concerned. Same goes for VVS too. That is the reason why they were given only about a 100,000 dollars more than their base price as compared to the kind of bumper the Pathan brothers hit!! Dont crib fellas, most important thing is to keep winning.
And I was watching the bidding live when Vinay’s name came up for auction. Mallya did bid for him very earnestly. But the fact was Kochi had a lot more money than Bangalore and in the end he had to let Vinay go beacuse beyond a point, there is no economical justification for his price. Same went with Uthappa. Pune had lot more money than Bangalore and they wanted to pick the big hitter at any cost.
Assuming that RCB will have about 22 players, we will still have a large chunk of local players. Manish Pandey, in all probability will be in RCB team and so will be a host of other Karnataka players.
It was not only RCB, a lot of other teams let go of the players who were with them in the earlier edition. Deccan Chargerers did not take VVS and Venugopal Rao. Kings XI did not take Yuvraj Singh, Delhi let go of Gautam Gambhir, Kolkata did the same to Sourav. So why point out RCB alone???
And for those of who have criticised Kumble for his role in not picking the Karnataka players, take a break. He probably knows more about the players and their techniques and who can be used under what circumstances much much better than you and me.
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While the other IPL teams have adopted local names, Chennai S K, Mumbai I, Kolkata KR, Pune W, RCB has used the name Bangalore. It would have moved up the ladder in achieving the local connect had the name Bengaluru been used.
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You need good business balls to succeed with local talent.
Apparently alcohol is deleterious to those business balls.
Explains why Dr Mallya is unable to dare and unearth really precious talent that lay within in the Royal Soils of Bengaluru.
There’s no challenge left in the RCB anymore.
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The question mark in the headline says it all !
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According to Cricinfo, two of the leading experts in Cricket, Harsha Bhogle and Sanjay Manjrekar, think that Chennai and Blore have got the best teams in the IPL.
While watching the analysis of team picks in NDTV, Ajay Jadeja said the same too.
Harsha Bhogle, from whatever I have seen him on TV, seems to recollect the performances of almost all the current cricketers!! If he says that we have a good team, then we have a good team.
People writing here are probably suffering from something like “Mallya selling liquore = he is bad” syndrome!!!
@Priyank,
It is very easy to interchange Bangalore with Bengaluru. Though I dont know we have our city’s name officially changed yet!!!
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Kelu,
Learn to read before you wrie some BS.
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I was a hardcore fan of RCB. But not anymore.
Without our own players Dravid ,Utttappa or Vinay Kumar, we dont feel any connect with RCB
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Kelu – lighten up :) It’s only IPL.
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The point to consider is, if RCB does well in this edition of IPL even with so called outsiders, would we fans still cheer them or not? In all probability most of us would still continue to do so. Conversely even if the team is filled with local players, yet does not do well would we be more accepting of them? I do not think so.
So yes, we would feel less connected and sad that the the Vinay Kumars and Uttappas are missing but would still be glad if they won their matches!
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The joker says with a poker face that he has a very young
side ! Dilshan -34 Zaheer-32 Daniel Vettori-31 Dirk Nannes-34 Charl
Langeveldt-36 Johan van der Wath-33 Mohammad Kaif-30 Who is he
fooling ?
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Maisuru!
Don’t you know 30 is the new 20? :)
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The Indian Premier League a.k.a massive money-laundering enterprise is another major scam that is waiting to get exposed. Despite the open secret that it is one of the biggest commercial vehicles (IPL Franchisee!) in the country for swiftly siphoning-off unaccounted black money into white, the Govt has been turning a blind eye, partly because of the close involvement of some of the senior most politicians in this lucrative business.
The Shashi Tharoor and Lalith Modi ‘incidents’ of the past, were a clear proof that matters revealed so far in the media are a mere tip of a gigantic ice berg. With Billions of dollars being transacted, many with the help of offshore tax-free channels in Dubai and Mauritius, at zero transparency levels, with many film stars and crooked politicians involved, with unknown stake holders, with some shady sweat equity deals, unknown amount of money received from the sponsors and events, obscene amounts of betting, match fixing charges, money laundering , all night drug induced partying… etc. God alone knows how many bookie Mazhar Majeed’s are thriving in India.
Talking about ‘scotch and cricket business’, one will recall that the woman caught on camera leaving the IPL commissioner Lalit Modi’s office with the most crucial laptop, just minutes before the IT authorities reached there for inspection last year was identified as Laila Mahmood, step-daughter of the Royal Challengers liquor baron. No wonder there were no skeletons out of the cupboard and Lalit Modi is a free man today, enjoying his scotch in London while having the last laugh!
Praful Patel’s daughter Poorna cancelled normal flights of IA in order to accommodate her IPL teams travel across the country while Sharad Pawar’s (Prez of ICC) son-in-law Sadanand Sule huge stake in an IPL broadcaster was exposed. During the Modi affair, the finance minister had assured the citizens of India that the UPA-2 Govt will make sure that everything in and out of IPL will be thoroughly investigated and the culprits will be punished. That promise went up in smoke a long time back, thanks to a lot of other ‘attractive’ scams. Many politicians, celebrities, black money kings, corporate heads and fixers who then sensed trouble have now had a major relief and are of course back in action!
While officially Modi was alleged to have ‘personally’ offered US$ 75 million to the Kochi franchisee to go back and give the Franchisee to Ahmedabad, the media is silent on the how much money each Franchisee is actually spending (forget about earning) while everyone is aware that every Franchise is actually making a huge loss! Is the most convenient, attractive loss, one of the key reasons for the increased interest in grabbing a new franchise or unknown Aussie cricketers are crazy prices?
Black money has long been considered the lifeblood of politics and big business in India. As we have seen with other extraordinarily big scams including the ‘Raja and Radhiya scam’, politicians, film stars and businessmen can be expected to close ranks and ensure that the IT investigations reach nowhere. While the country grapples with mass poverty and inflation, the IPL, is sadly the latest and slickest way to launder black money stashed away by film stars, politicians and big wigs in tax havens abroad.
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Thanks, VM. I save a lot of precious time by not watching this year;s RCB matches – I get to keep my wife happy as well. YO!
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BTW, I just saw that Manish Pandey will not signup for RCB because of his tussle – good for Pune Warriors, but what will happen to his future in Karnataka Ranji Team? Will the vengence be carried over?
Somehow, I thought it was fair on Manish Pandey’s part to ask for a better deal from RCB and reject it if it was not to his liking.
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