IPL...International Productivity Loss

Just wrapped up watching my former home town's team Chennai Super Kings win their first IPL with a rather comfortable victory over Mumbai Indians on YouTube. This was YouTube's first foray into live streaming and I believe they comfortably beat their viewership estimates of about 10million by 5 times. People from about 200 countries watched the game. Now, that is the power of the Internet, not cricket.

I came to know of IPL on YouTube when an American friend of mine IM'ed me at work saying he was watching IPL on YouTube. He had no clue what IPL was, no interest in cricket. He had been on the Internet (Youtube, possibly) and saw an advertisment for IPL. So, there he was ...at work watching IPL, its cheerleaders, the "strategic timeout" and as he put it "a full six."

According to Google the number one viewership was from India and the US came second. I wondered who in India would watch IPL on YouTube rather than on TV. Of course, the folks in the call centers, BPO, KPO and in general folks who then to be at work late into the night, have access to a good internet connection and computer. As for the US, it has to be folks at work or school since the games are played during US work hours.

Imagine a conversation between a customer in the US and the support center person in India, both watching IPL

Customer: So, when can I get the refund for the order

Suport person: As soon as the IPL controversy surrounding Lalit Modi and Shashi Tharoor has been sorted out.

Two scarifices... one "progressive", other ancient

This weekend there were two stories about India that I ran into... both related to sacrifices.

The first one was the story of a alleged human sacrifice in a temple in West Bengal (Kingdom of Kalii, I can almost hear a Hollywood movie or Game with that name). I read about it first on the BBC and in the coming days was picked up by all and sundry in the Western world. Now, for the "progressive" sacrifice.

The other one was the Indian Premier League (IPL. Think NFL for Cricket) ownership controversy that involved Shashi Tharoor, Indian Minister of State for External Affairs. Tharoor has been one of the well known indian faces in the West - as part of the Indian UN mission, as deputy to Kofi Annan, and a reasonably successful author. Tharoor started this one off by saying something to the effect that the powers to be wanted the new IPL franchise to go to some other city, not Cochin. Now, this was not the first time that he had suffered from "tweet in mouth" disease. Somehow, this might be his last. Turns out that the Congress party, his party, feels he is an embarrasment by his actions and the fact that he does not deny his association with part owner of the Cochin franchise. So, they want him to "resign voluntarily." Now, for Congress party to feel embarrased must be a great deal for this is the party that did not feel any embarrasement about the Shah Bano case, or the Bofors arms scandal or its ministers involvement in the riots and killing that followed the assasination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Cricket, I guess is more important than all of that.

I have no sympathy for Tharoor's state (or, the state that he represents in the Parliament). Tharoor turned out be a bureacrat turned politician with great education but very little street smartness - an embarrasment to the Great Indian Political Establishment. Tharoor can go back to writing. That might be a better way to serve India. BTW, Indian foreign service establishment (not specifically, IFS) seems to be better at producing authors than statesman. I know of three decent ones - Shashi Tharoor, Pavan Varma and Vikas Swarup. As for Tharoor, I hope I get a chance to run into him in the state that I call "God's own hell's hole."