Lord Harris, governor general of colonial Bombay (1890-1895) and co-founder of what was then the Imperial Cricket Council, captured for posterity the centrality of cricket in the British Empire when he declared that to play “cricket is more remote than anything sordid, anything dishonourable than any game in the world. To play it... is a moral lesson in itself and the classroom is god’s air and sunshine.” Had he been alive today, Lord Harris would have found that the “god’s air” of cricket now smells of Indian rupees, and, yes, the heat and dust of the Indian elections. The IPL’s decision to move overseas, and the heated debate around it, is highly revealing on several counts. First and foremost, we have the BCCI behaving like a petulant child whose favourite piece of chocolate has just been snatched away. Shashank Manohar’s direct attack on the governments of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra and his apology to Indian fans is simply the apogee of a month-long campaign to portray the IPL as a key marker of Indian nationalism and a signpost of the Indian state’s readiness, post-Mumbai, to get on with life-as-usual. With TV channels berating the government for forcing the “Indian” out of the Indian Premier League, it is important to reiterate that the IPL is a private league. It is supported by the BCCI, no doubt, but this is primarily a privately promoted tournament — it is not an international series, nor a domestic one like the Ranji Trophy. Even it were, to suggest that the hosting of a cricket tournament in the middle of the most massive election the  world has ever known — make no mistake, that is what the Indian election is, in sheer numbers — should take precedence, is utter nonsense. Cricket can not be seen outside of its social context.  Even at the best of times, security can never be foolproof and after Mumbai, prudence and preparation should be paramount, not jingoist muscle-flexing.  

... contd.