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“Wherever there is autocracy, there are dissenters asking for democratic rights. Where there is capitalism, socialists will rise to oppose it.” – Ramachandra Guha
It is a funny world in which we live. Believe me, a very funny one. This is a world in which a solution to a problem is another problem in itself, yet, we’re surviving.
The world is going through a period in which every individual is pondering over why economists failed to spot the problems that would eventually lead to the financial crisis we find ourselves in. Some questioned their ability, some questioned economics itself.
When one lamented “the profession’s blindness to the very possibility of catastrophic failures in a market economy,” a curious capitalist, in another world all together, was counting bills that amounted to sums greater than the organization to which he was affiliated possessed.
When one spoke economics, the other raised the issue of freakonomics. When one was trying to restore his shaken faith in economics, the other was getting ready for an invasion that would invade realms dominated by Imperialists.
The Tiger wanting to eat the Camel threatens to become a central metaphor these days. Being at loggerheads over the WADA Whereabouts Clause issue, this would appear to be the optimal moment to strike a dramatic initiative. This would also make good fiction wouldn’t it?
The current odious regime of the Tiger has gone to the extent to question world authorities, in their unstated attitude: What right do you have imposing your paradigm on us? Perhaps I’m nostalgic for a bygone era, where all was fair in glove and war. And I’m not referring to squash balls here.
A disconnect between the Camel’s global ambitions and its available resources, which is no match to the Tiger’s, has probably undermined its strength. Since the start of the IPL, the Camel has been even more tightly tethered to the Tiger than it was earlier.
What was once the Imperial Cricket Council, days when England, Australia and South Africa were the only countries that had the power to take decisions, ceases to exist. The Imperialist’s myopic self-interest, over the years, could be yet another cause for its inability to dominate.
A few voices said that the Tiger was striving to buff away the patina of Englishness in the game, an anti-colonial sentiment that most of us consider outdated. Yet, these voices claim that such feelings are still mordant around the subcontinent. Like it or not, the Tiger’s new found ascendancy remains precarious.
Figuring out the story of when it all began is like assembling a huge, complicated jigsaw puzzle that has lost most of its pieces.
But that isn’t where the fulcrum of the problem lies. It lies in the hands of the curious capitalist I’d referred to earlier—a group of individuals who’d probably never heard of The Great Depression. These capitalists have ended up becoming an important prop to the bubble-prone BCCI. In the end, it was a shame it had to happen the way it did.
WADA’s Whereabouts clause requires athletes to select one hour per day, seven days a week (modified from five on January 1, 2009) to be available for no-notice drug tests. The move received commendable vocal support from sporting organizations and athletes like Roger Federer, but faced opposition from the likes of FIFA, UEFA, and our own BCCI.
The Tiger expressed security concerns over the players revealing their locations, and the players themselves feeling that it would intrude into their privacy-a very logical statement provided Roger Federer has never come across the word encroachment.
To add to the Camel’s unrelenting drumbeat of bad news, other cricketing boards found the Tiger’s reasoning behind opposing the clause sensible and voiced their own concerns over it. That zeroes down to getting run out off a free hit. With hopes of the sport entering the Commonwealth games, and possibly, in the long run the Olympics, the Camel is left to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea.
If in case the Indian cricketers are successful in paving an inert path for this clause, what message would it send to other Indian athletes who abide by WADA regulations without batting an eyelid?
As it is, the BCCI’s power has dominated debates for years together with the non-cricketing athletes from India earning pennies when compared to the stardom enjoyed by Dhoni and his boys. Such a move would only add insult to injury, making the other athletes seem like WADA POWs (for all vada pav lovers, let me assure you that I absolutely adore the snack too. I just thought this would fit in well here).
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