What is common between Chak De Girls and KKR Boys?

No prizes for guessing! SRK, who played the role of coach of India women’s Hockey team in the Bollywood movie Chak De India, is the franchisee owner of Kolkatta Knight Riders team in IPL Cricket league. While Chak De.. became a superhit film a couple of years ago, KKR, SRK's sports cum business venture is fast heading towards failure.

The chak De team had at least three players with strong egos. Two brilliant forwards trying to hog the limelight and therefore at loggerheads with each other, and a senior pro deeply hurt because of being sidelined by the coach. SRK repeated the act with KKR by preferring MuCCullum to Dada for the captaincy. (Incidentally, in the film, the goalkeeper was made the captain whereas for IPL SRK has chosen wicketkeeper as the captain!) The Knight riders are a bunch of extremely talented international and local players. But the lack of common purpose is quite evident.

Shah Rukh Khan won lot of accolades for his portrayal of Kabir Khan, the Chak De coach. Why has SRK bought IPL franchise? Has the Kabir Khan role inspired him? Does he treat it as a pure business proposition or is it his passion for the game? I think he is pretending to be passionate in order to further his business interests. Mukesh Ambani and Vijay Mallya have made it clear in no uncertain terms that they are into IPL purely for the sake of business. What irritates most people is SRK’s pretension of being a great thinker of the game and thereby ridiculing some of Cricketing icons of India.

The film depicts how a former player becomes coach to erase personal ignominy of having been held responsible for team’s loss. His maverick ways don’t go down well with most of the members of the team and a rebellion irrupts. The coach is on the verge of resigning but a dramatic non-sporting incident unites the team together. The KKR team is similarly placed. Atrocious decisions of the owner and coach (Buchanan) have divided the team vertically. The captain has offered to resign. The owner is contemplating selling away the franchise. To add to the woes, a mysterious blogger, the fake IPL player, claiming to be a part of KKR squad, is washing the dirty linen in full public view. Unless something dramatic (as dramatic as attack on Chak De girls in the Hotel) happens Riders are sure to be thrown off their Knights.

SRK Plays Villain - Stabs Dada in Back

An overhyped 'star' and an overrated coach have combined well to finally get rid of an equally overvalued captain. When the news of multiple captain theory first broke, one wondered if it was SRK's move to eliminate Ganguly from the scheme of things at KKR. The fears of many of Dada's supporters came true just a day before Knight Riders' opening match in IPL-SA.

I have always maintained that Shahrukh Khan has given respectability to mediocrity. It is a pity that Indian film watchers have to grant him superstardom in absence of any worthy superb actor. But, nothing succeeds like success, and the success he has got, seems to have made him believe that he can take dig at anybody, contemporaries, seniors or some of the most respected personalities too.

John Buchanan too likes to make everybody believe that he is a genius when it comes to Cricket coaching. He likes to claim credit for Australia's dominance over the Cricketing world in the past decade. But everybody realises that a phenomenal bunch of players - the likes of McGrath and Warne among others - were equally, if not less, responsible for the golden Age of Aussie Cricket. Was he trying to grab perverse attention by propagating his 'rotating captain theory'?

But now it is amply clear that the 'theory' was an attractive gimmick to overthrow Ganguly. There were a host of Cricketing Pundits talking vehemently for and against BuchananTheory that was never going to be put in practice. In one of the most shrewdly executed plans, SRK has managed to knock out the Dada. The point to be noted is that this talk of multiple captains was muted as soon as it was clear that the IPL might be played outside India. What a classical case of opportunism that might put the likes of LaluPrasad or Mulayam Yadav to shame!

I am not a big fan of Ganguly too. Like SRK and Buchanan, he too is overrated by many. True, he is the most successful Indian captain. But his success was built around personal exploits of Rahul Dravid, Tendulkar, Kumble and Harbhajan. But I do admire him for the graceful exit from international Cricket he chose for himself. Going by the press reports, Ganguly was keen to do well in this IPL. But this unceremonious boot from captaincy, I wont be surprised if he repeats his graceful act once again!

Siddhu to Campaign Against Azhar!

Indian Cricketers and film personalities enjoy tumultuous following. Many film stars have successfully encashed their popularity to make foray into politics. But very few Cricketers, and sportspersons in general, have ventured into the trouble waters of electoral politics. Only three former Cricketers and one former Olympian Hockey player have reached Indian Parliament so far. This time a few more are trying their hand.

Although, former skipper MAK Pataudi, the Nawab, who became first to win a series overseas, twice tried is luck at the elections, he could not become the first Cricketer to win an election. The credit goes to Chetan Chauhan, opening partner of Sunny Gavaskar in the Seventies. Chauhan has won Loksabha elections from Amroha in UP, twice – in 1991 and 1998 – and losing thrice. This time too, he is in the fray from East Delhi Constituency representing BJP. Also representing BJP is Kirti Azad, who is trying to regain Darbhanga seat to return to parliament for the second term. Kirti, member of World Cup winning team of 1983, has politics in his genes, as his father was the Chief Minister of Bihar in the Eighties.

The third Cricketer turned MP, Navjot singh Siddhu is a colourful personality. A flamboyant batsman of his time is also known as firebrand commentator and a popular TV show judge on reality laughter programs. Due to his inimitable Siddhuisms, he is a star campaigner for his party, and is eyeing for third term from Amritsar seat for the parliament. Avid Cricket followers will remember how Siddhu angrily abandoned the England tour when Azhar was the captain. Siddhu is all set to take on his former captain in the election rally in Moradabad from where Azhar is contesting.

Azharuddin’s entry into politics is very surprising. But even more surprising is the decision of congress party to field him, considering his tainted image because of his alleged involvement in match-fixing scandal. Madan Lal, another member of Kapil’s Devils seems to have taken his candidature for elections too seriously. Soon after being nominated, he suffered a heart attack. Hopefully he has recovered well enough to jump head on into the political arena. Chetan Sharma is also in the fray. May be he is trying to wipe off the ignominy of getting hit for six on the last ball of the match by Miandad at Sharjah in 1986.

Aslam sher Khan, member of India’s world cup winning hockey team of 1975, became MP as early as in 1984, and again 1991. After losing a couple of elections, he is again contesting this time from Sagar in Madhya Pradesh. He is also a member of Indian Olympic Association's (IOA) ad-hoc committee for hockey.

Ace shooter Jaspal Rana, son of former minister in Uttarakhand, and Ranjib Biswal, former Orissa Cricketer who represented India at U19 level, currently OCA president, also having family background in politics are also contesting this year’s elections.

The number of sportsmen, vying for a seat in parliament is very small compared to film stars. But never mind. There is whole lot of politicians who are ready to interfere in sports. The list is topped by Suresh Kalmadi, the present IOA president, followed by Sharad Pawar, the ICC president elect, and many more. Is there any hope for better days for Indian sports?