Saturday, May 17, 2008

Of Vijay Mallya and his 'Royal' Challengers!

My respect for this flamboyant entreprenuer was as high as any Indian youth especially an MBA would have had, a little more than that probably too given his forays into the sporting arena with his investments first with the West-Indian cricketing outfit and more recently with the Formula One Racing team of 'FORCE INDIA' and with the 'Royal Challengers of Bangalore' in the IPL. I always looked up to him as a person who could play a vital role in turning around India's fortunes on the worlds sporting scenario with his financial might and keen interest in the area.
Its a bit hard to say though that his behavior in the recent times in response to his teams showing in the IPL has been disappointing at best, and not worthy of the charismatic character that he is; expected to lead from the front and help his boys out of the rut. He has infact came down cracking the whip on his CEO Charu Sharma and the iconic captain Rahul Dravid, blaming their selectorial blunders for the poor performance that has the RCB languishing at the bottom of the table.
I am not here to defend either Charu Sharma or Dravid, and I wud rather agree to the general beleif that they erred bigtime in their team selections. What I would like to say here though is that it was Vijay Mallya who in the first place appointed them as the CEO and the captain respectively and hence saying that 'the CEO didnt have proper understanding of the game' midway into the tournament that too after he has been fired doesnt serve any purpose. In Dravid's case, if one looks at his performances in the tmt he hasnt been all that bad, especially if you compare him with the other 'ICONS', he has been at par if not better than them. Even if we decide to take a look at the players Mallya himself was looking to buy had he got his way then, we see that the list consists of both Dhoni and McCullum, the inclusion of two high-profile wicketkeepers defying any cricketing logic. A look at the performance of Misbah-Ul-Haq, who Mallya forced Charu Sharma to bid for, gives a pale shadow of the player that he was for Pakistan in the T-20 world cup!
In fact looking at the performance of the RCB, they havent performed any worse as compared to what FORCE INDIA has been doing in the F1 circuit, so it should be interesting to see if the Fisichella-Sutil combo meets the same fate as Dravid and his men. I would only say here that its not winning or losing that matters as much as your behavior in each of the circumstances.......Wishing the Royal Challengers all the best in the reminder of the tournament and hoping that they spring up a few surprise results on the way!

5 comments:

Peace said...

nice post man.
2 views:

1) Vijay Mallya is flamboyant and hence he 'picks' flashy and attention-driven sports. This might come to him naturally as his business demands is like that.

2) His aggression is not quite matching with his passion. This just proves that successful businessmen don't have hobbies!!

But i would agree completely with what you said about Rahul Dravid making blunders in his team selection. Well hasn't that been his tendency even in International version of the game as well?

#ETHEN# said...

MOHABBAT MAN ROCKS!!!!!

Test said...

Hey...

Interesting post and i havta say i agree with most of the stuff posted thr. I dont really really think the RCs are all that bad a team..Kallis..Kohli..Misbah...they all are interesting players just that they havent been able to fire...as simple as it sounds...means how many runs did jaysurya make before he got back into his form....

Barda looking forward to hear your comments on Mumbai Indians man

Keep writing

Unknown said...

well said tapan.. but u need to look at this game from mallaya'

perspective.. he has always been nominated as a tough task

master.. at least in d business.. whether it was shaw wallace

deal or deccan air take over.. he has always proved his business acumen.. but look at the way royal

challengers have performed.. on the field they look like bunch

of looser, u take any match.. they do meek surrender even

before the match starts.. suppposedly they will make a record

on maximum no of dropped catches in the tournament.. now u tell me.. when its supporters r deserting their own team, what u expect from a person like mallaya.. no frachisee has entered IPL for service of cricket.. everybody is there to harvest fame n over all Mullah from their teams... no wonder, to reach his goals, he is applyin his "perform or perish" strategy he learnt in his corporate world. i dont blame him for anything. Its business honey.

SRK said...

I agree with you totally. Mr.Mallya needs to patient with his team.He has good players but lacks the spark that is needed in T20.

Next year maybe with some little changes can turn their fortunes.