Indian Premier League For Cricket

Vijay Mallaya’s team is at the bottom of the heap in the IPL T20 Tournament. Nothing seems to be working for the team.

Mallaya had staked his company’s entire marketing effort behind the IPL, even naming his team after his flagship brand the Royal Challenger. The first inkling of how the future would unfold came on the opening day of the tournament when Brendon McCullum of the Kolkata Knight Riders smashed his way to a record breaking score, leaving the Bangalore Royal Challengers in complete disarray.

Vijay Mallaya went into firefighting mode and asked his team to perform or face consequences. He couldn’t afford his flagship brand to be associated with a losing team.  The Royal Challengers recovered somewhat and beat the other laggard in the IPL the Mumbai Indians to save some pride. But the performance after that has been going downhill and they have managed just one other win beating the Deccan Chargers - another chronic underperfomer of the series despite the presence of some big names in the team.

Something had to give seeing the amount of money and personal pride that was invested into the Royal Challengers by its group chairman. The first to go was Charu Sharma the CEO of the Bangalore Royal Challengers team. He was uncermoniously dumped and the poor man can’t seem to understand why he was dumped for the team’s non-performance.

In the classic passing the parcel fashion - Charu blames its on the captain and owner saying it was laughable to think he even had any role in decision making, buying the players or team composistion. If that was the case then pray, what is the Charu Sharma’s role in the Bangalore Royal Challengers team management? What was he drawing a paypacket for as a CEO?

In yet another example of passing the parcel, Mallaya in a recent interview has blamed the Captain, saying he has trusted Dravid completely during the auctions and team selection and has landed with a team of players past their prime who can’t bat or bowl in the shorter form of cricket leave along the shortest form of cricket - the T20.

So, Mallaya has ended up blaming his captain for the fiasco that is Bangalore Royal Challengers campaign.

The Bangalore Royal Challengers has many people in important positions with lofty titles. There is a Chief Cricketing officer - Martin Crowe a former captain of New Zealand and considered a great strategist, then there is a chief coach Venkatesh Prasad who turned the bowling fortunes for India around during the series down-under,  there is the omnipotent, omnipresent Vijaya Mallaya team owner, then there is the captain Rahul Dravid.

So, who is responsible?

It is typical to blame the captain once the ship has started sinking.  I know Rahul Dravid is a true gentleman and will unhesitatingly accept responsibility for his team’s poor performance, but it the other’s who are abandoning the ship mid-way and claiming innocence, that deserve no respect what so ever.

Ultimately Cricket is a game and you win some and lose some. Will the owners stand-up and accept responsibilty for their teams?

Uhmmmm……..Is it too much to ask?