The interesting gutter leaks on the Indian Premier League

Well the finals are scheduled today between the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) tonight at 8 p.m. IST and the mad.madrasi take has been posted in the Preview of the IPL 5 finals.
As today is the last day of the IPL which has been in the news for unsavoury reasons too -

• the on-field tantrum and gross violation of Code of Conduct by (who else) Mumbai players Harbhajan Singh and Munaf Patel;
• the sting operation by a TV channel which exposed willingness (at least) to spot fix matches;
• the sting also exposed the alleged underhand payments and suspected money laundering by (at least) 2 IPL franchises;
• the boorish  behaviour of (who else) a Bollywood star and KKR team owner, Shah Rukh Khan;
• the ugly and frightening molestation charge on Luke Pomersbach,
• alleged threats on his behalf, and,
• its surprisingly mute withdrawal;
• the arrogant and abhorrent  behaviour of Siddharth Mallya (who else), the anointed heir of liquor empire and RCB team owner who also abused journalists;
• alleged and refuted participation of IPL players in drug use and Rave party;

Keeping up with the old saying, ‘Never miss an opportunity (to kick) when someone is down’, here are some more rumours on the IPL.  Mind you these are not or have not been confirmed like the controversies above.  These are all gossips doing the rounds in the Chennai Cricket Circles, including the circles close to team and cricket association managements.

1. One leading IPL player has stolen the affections of a brother IPL player’s wife.  Here is an interesting mind game.  If you pick one name each from both the players and combine, it results in the name of another (uninvolved) 3rd player.  For example, if you take ‘Austin’ from Kurt Austin and ‘Powers’ from Gary Powers, don’t we end up with Austin Powers?
2. Two leading IPL teams, if not their team management and owners, started enumerating the view that they should boycott finals in Chennai, in protest, if CSK should make it thus far.  Their argument reportedly was ‘Why should it be CSK win all the time?’.  Suffice to say both the teams didn’t get a chance to play at Chennai.  They were eliminated without having to trouble their charterers for a flight to Chennai.
3. :-P
4. The brown tickets - that is the tickets which are given (free or at hugely discounted price) to each voting member of the state cricket association - is being flogged at mind boggling rates.  Last heard was that Rs. 500/- face value brown tickets for the  Qualifier-2, where CSK annihilated DD were scalped at Rs. 3,000/-.  Good value for voting the present association management.
5. The reported obstruction by highest offices in the land to opening the 3 new stands in the rebuilt Chepauk stadium had disappeared about 2 weeks back.  Instead it was the intransigence of the highest bureaucratic offices of the land which forced the cricket association to approach the courts for temporary relief.
6. Ten of the highest offices in the land have asked the association ‘in writing’ for complimentary passes for today’s finals.  Officials were aghast at the peremptory request on official stationary for such requests.
7. The 3 Gods (reportedly) in the Cricket stadium premises have been ‘appeased’ every morning and evening with ‘sweets’ and ‘savouries’ for last couple of weeks to ensure a CSK entry to the playoffs.
8. Over the last few days the Ganesh, Krishna and the Goddess have been inundated with special pujas and incense for success in the first and second Qualifiers, which seem to have worked.
9. At least one special puja has been conducted with (or indicated) the aim of ‘letting’ the other team, which is the KKR, win this time around in the final match.
10. 8-0

And for the record, I am not putting up this gutter snipe because of any angst at not getting tickets - many tickets passed through my hands for the Qualifier and the Finals at Chennai.  As I’ve mentioned earlier it is only hospitality box tickets which would interest me to go to the stadium; the tickets for non-air-conditioned, no-free-food and no-free-booze seats, certainly not.


BTW don’t bother with the bar codes - all the bar codes have been blurred to protect privacy.
:-)

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