Originally posted by Mumbai Mirror
Modi?s formula for WC success: Have 4 Indian players in each team
Anupam Mukherji
Church Street, Bangalore. Wednesday, 7.30 pm. There was a nip in the air and the crowd at the roadside pubs comprising bankers, advertising executives and open source techies was spilling over on to the pavement.
As I walked down my favourite haunt, a face so familiar and yet so unfamiliar caught my attention. In retrospect, the khakis, corduroy jacket, dark glasses, fake beard and moustache should never have been disguise enough.
The good boy haircut, fidgety hand movements and over excitement at being photographed by a group of Japanese tourists should have immediately given away that he was none other than Lalit K Modi. ?Sir, aap??? I uttered in a mix of disbelief and anxiety.
For the next sixty minutes, he spoke to me like a man who loves to talk but can?t find too many people listening to him anymore. Excerpts from the freewheeling chat given below.
Me: Sir, do you think the World Cup will be as exciting as the IPL?
LKM: No chance, yaar. In IPL, a tournament I created if you remember, each and every match is exciting. That?s why public loves it. But World Cup? Tell me, who wants to watch Bangladesh vs Ireland or Canada vs Zimbabwe?
Me: But sir, this is the World Cup.
LKM: Arrey yaar, so what? You can change some of the rules for the improvement of the sport, na. Why can?t we have 4 Indian players in each team? If I was in-charge, I would have got teams like Ireland and Canada to pick Dravid, Ganguly and Shahrukh Khan.
Me: But sir, he?s not a player?
LKM: Don?t insult a legend like Ganguly.
Me: Sir, what about the format?
LKM: Haha! You call this format? One month of boredom just to ensure India stays in the tournament for at least one month? I would have had a smaller group stage followed by Super Six, which would have top 5 teams plus India.
And, if India doesn?t progress beyond that, the champions would play a match against India and the winner of that match will be the World Champions. See? In my format, even if India doesn?t win any match, it still stays in the tournament right till the end. In IPL, the tournament I created if you remember?
Me: Sir, what about ICC?s stipulation of 12 minutes of ads per 60 minutes?
LKM: Hah! ICC? they are going to kill the sport. 48 minutes of cricket in one hour? No wonder public is complaining about cricket overkill. But despite that, there are other ways to commercialise the sport.
What are the commentators doing sitting in air conditioned boxes drinking coffee for? Use them, na. Ravi Shastri can always say ?Just what Dr. Reddy?s ordered? or ?Yusuf Pathan believes Impossible is Nothing?. These are the innovations I brought in IPL, the tournament I created if you remember.
Me: Sir, I hear there are no cheerleaders in the World Cup.
LKM: They are so old fashioned yaar. Actually, why only cheerleaders, each country should have some famous actress from that country as mascot, who would also bring drinks and gives massages to players on the field. Like Canada can have Pamela Anderson, Australia can have Nathan Bracken.
Me: Sir, any other innovations from IPL, the tournament you created I remember, that can be used during World Cup?
LKM: Haan. Like in IPL, we had a Modi Cam, where one cameraperson was only following me. Public wants to see famous people, na. Here also they should have something like that. But? (thinks hard for 8 seconds)? World Cup has nobody famous.
It?s ok. They can use me. And since I am an honorary commissioner who works for nothing other than commissions, I will do it for free.
