 Salams, welcome to another episode of Playthings of Alien Forces. With me in the studio as always is Leslie Xavier, I'm Siddhanthani. And today we're talking about three fairly important stories. First up, of course, is the sacking of India's ODI skipper, Virat Kohli. Then we're talking about the BCCI's latest balance sheet and how the profits of the world's richest cricket board are on the up despite the COVID-19 pandemic. And finally, the latest of all these stories. Yesterday's dramatic finale to the F1 season. Lewis Hamilton there losing out to Max Verstappen in terms of the driver's title. Leslie jumping straight into the first story, man, keeping the energy high this Monday afternoon. What is the logic behind removing Virat Kohli, the, I suppose, poster boy for Indian cricket for the past 10 years or so, as captain of the ODI team, the one day international team? We should understand first that poster boys needn't be leaders. So it starts from there. So yeah, Virat Kohli had a decent run as the test captain. Possibly aided by the fact that we had a very long home season. And beyond that, if you look at it, is stint as the limited overs captain, both T20i and ODIs, he has had no major success in the ICC tournaments. And that's key because when we look at it now, the earlier it was important, the performances in the bilateral series because it had some level of, I mean, gravitas in a way because the rivalries and many other things at stake. But now with the ICC pushing in their global events, every second year you have the T20 World Cup. Almost every year it seems like a World Cup. Yeah, almost every year it's there. And then the Monday World Cup. And then on the other side of the spectrum, the world test championship is also happening. So ICCI as more or less, I mean, not same as FIFA because FIFA goes by one major tournament. This has, they have five, I mean, multiple three flagship tournaments and they are keen on pushing that. So what is happening off late is that all the bilateral series that happens are basically planned to act as warm-up towards the major event. So the last season, if you look at it, most of the series that India played were test series they played. And beyond that, after the IPL, it was all T20 matches. And so that's one reason why there were a lot of critics and Miraculi fans who were coming up to saying that why remove him now as the ODI skipper because he didn't captain the, I mean, he didn't play an ODI, lead an ODI side since March. And it's been quite a long time. And but the point given is that we have to look backwards and look at a little forward also as to why this decision is important now. And again, Ravi Sharma is the same age as Miraculi. So are we looking at the future that way? That's also a question. But who's a leader that's capable of doing it? So, board has a lot of dilemma at hand and that dilemma has come because of the Miraculi era. And so when we talk about Koli's captaincy and all that, whatever the fault that may lie, because it's very evident that even leading a star-straded side like the Bangalore side or challenges Bangalore in the IPL, he has had no success. And leading the Indian side, he has had limited success. He has always failed in crunch matches. And so we can easily question Koli's credentials or his style of captaining because the hyper-aggressive style, maybe it's not suitable for a lot of players in the mix. And it works for Virat individually as a batter, but it's not probably working for the team. And if you look at the style of the previous captain which Virat Koli replaced, we can understand that, I mean, he's the most successful Indian captain at MS Dhoni. So we can understand that difference. So, but I'm not getting into that, but I'm getting into the part where Virat, Shastri, Ira, what legacy did they leave? They didn't plan the structure of the team or the players' inclusion or the team composition or mingling in or mixing in of youngsters, letting in of youngsters into the mix quite seriously at all. It seems that they went by retaining players and promoting players who happen to be... Right, a sort of sense of maintaining the status quo, keeping things as they are, a general sense of well-being in any case surrounds the Indian cricket fraternity. So you keep going. And also, there was this... For instance, Kuldi Pyadav, he suddenly came into prominence. He was doing well in the IPL. He had some great match-winning knocks as well and also with the ball. And suddenly he went off the radar. And sources and... I was talking to one of them yesterday, a senior journalist who is privy of this. Apparently, it was a fallout with Virat Koli for some internal dynamics that's happening and that happened. And Koli ensured that he's not in the mix. I mean, this is... For me, this is the USA. I'm not saying it as a fact, but these things happen within the team. Historically, when we look at Indian cricket history, captains and their players and their senior team and all that, all these games have happened. So it is a possibility that this happened. For almost five years, Ravi Chandranashwin, India's premier off-spinner, he was not there in the T20 side and he's a great T20 bowler. And when he was given a chance at the World Cup recently, he played extremely well. So... And he's a senior player. So when we look at the mix of players that are there currently, there's not even one barring Rohit Sharma who can be a good leader. So when we say, why Rohit Sharma then? Because he's also old. This is the point that we radically didn't do what he was supposed to do on the side. The other big responsibility that he had, which is to hand over the bait into the next side, ensure that that next person is there in line. Continuity. And so that's not there. No player as emerged who is a leader. So this happens in politics also when in a state. For instance, I'll give you a direct example from Chennai. After Jailaltha, second in line, nobody. So the splintering, things like that are happening. So there is a void and being Koli larger than life, he has created a void and it's now... So David coming in, the first steps that has been taken and it's good to see that they're looking at the team rather than a personality and they're ensuring that the void is filled so that team's momentum, team's stature in the hierarchy of the world, cricket remains intact. So I completely agree with the decision. And whatever the, of course, the means by which it was executed, there is a game behind that also again. It's interesting because again it's to show that who is the boss, who the boss is. Because there was a feeling that Koli announced himself, excused himself from the captaincy of T20 rather than DCCI and the selection committee deciding. Deciding on someone, the captain. So captain, I am Koli and I will select myself or deselect myself in that case. That's not probably done. And DCCI is also setting the protocol right. Okay, fair enough. We'll of course be keeping a close eye on the new era because like we were saying last time, at least whatever these changes are, change is also important and it brings a new sort of impetus and a new angle or new angle of approach at least towards looking at how what is happening with Indian Cricket. So we'll be following that closely but we're sticking with the sport though, Indian Cricket because you just get exclusive access to the DCCI as balance sheet for the financial year 2020-21. This was of course accessed by our veteran cricket reporter, Kezir Muhammad Ali who published a story on the website. You can check that story out on newsclick.in. Essentially, there are a lot of figures in the story because of course we are looking at the balance sheet so there's no getting around that part but essentially the DCCI has made a overall revenue of over 18,000 crore rupees. Net worth has increased. Sorry, the DCCI's balance sheet net worth has increased to over 18,000 crore rupees as per the latest balance sheet which is up quite significantly. Despite the fact that most domestic events, tournaments almost all of women's cricket was cancelled, has not happened in India for close to two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Leslie, key findings from this balance sheet examination it's not that profits have gone up or it's not that revenue has gone up, revenue has fallen but profits have increased because it seems the DCCI has spent a lot less, not even 50% of what it has spent in previous years on cricketing activities and which includes sort of payments to its affiliate boards in the state boards, hosting tournaments of course and all of these things. Would you imagine firstly that during the time of a pandemic your expenses should go up because you are trying to use all this wealth that you have accumulated to look after the fraternity from which or based on whose work all of this is created? In the initial months of the pandemic, there were stories coming out of how many states have not played their NG players, contracted players also. There was a delay for money coming in and later it was cited that it's because I mean the administrative problems that COVID-19 lockdowns created and it has created so slowly the clearing and all happened but at the same time, restarting of tournaments have been on the eyes, the main domestic tournaments. Of course they conducted the Saïd-Mustaghalli tournament in 2020 before the, I mean last month and yeah, before the New Zealand series and also they're planning their NG season next year and but the women's cricket scene is not being sorted out yet. And also there are many state level, lower level tournaments that's not been, I mean restart of those have not been planned. So BCJ's priorities, what we have to question here firstly to start with because it's on paper a non-profit organization. So if profits are increasing they should devise ways to at least to maintain that image because it's important now because a lot of things are happening in courts and income tax tribunals where the authorities have started questioning whether board is really a non-profit organization meant to promote cricket. Which means that a certain amount of their revenues need to be or their profits need to be plowed back into the sport. Into the system and we are talking about right from grassroots. So if at all, but it's going back to the story of Kaiser and Kaiser's previous, the story prior to this was on BCJ's budgetary allocation for legal cases. So that's more than 800 crore. It's not something that's pumping in back into the game for promotion of the game. There needs to fight cases of Western interest. Most of the cases, I mean, they have lawyers appealing to Supreme Court to go back to the old ways and revoke whatever Lodha panel recommendations that has been implemented. That is one case. So yeah, a lot of money is pumped into that. And so BCJ on one hand is doing that and on the other hand they're fighting a case saying that we need tax exemption for IPL revenue. And the income tax tribunal agreed to that saying that it's been used for promoting the sport. But IPL's expense this year for staging itself was drastically down because it's been staged in the UAE, previous season also in the UAE. I mean, the second half of this year's season in the UAE. And so venues are less, only three venues in the UAE. So expenses come down because travel, if you are staging it in India, of course, air travel, other logistics, all these things come into play. But there it's all set, three stadiums, two centralized hotels and that's it. So they managed quite a bit of profit from there simply because expenses was not there. But now that this has come out via us that there is a substantial profit there. Let's see how the board is gonna plan dispersing this amount, whether it would give a larger share to the state units for them to implement whatever programs that they need. Because we have seen this in various other sport as well, including football, where COVID-19 has completely disrupted the supply chain altogether. And so again, going back to the same Koli story that we discussed a little while back, it's about the future now. If the current players are not getting paid and also there are no funding to fuel age group cricket, then where will the players come for someone like a rabbit to have a larger pool to work with? So these questions, so my first impression or my first reaction when such stories come out is that why is it that the books are in a better shape as far as the sport is concerned. The books should reflect sport and where it's heading. It doesn't, there is a clear disconnect and that disconnect is because the leadership has different idea of how to run the sport. I would implore now to the former skipper who is the head of PCCI and that he should look at not running the board like a company, like a limited company. It's not, you're not trying to, or should they run it like a club? So I don't know the philosophical problem. If it's a philosophical problem or if it's clearly lack of commitment to the game. So that's the question of the book. My first reaction when I saw the story was what are these numbers, boss? We just don't understand this, because 18,000. So yeah, we understand 18,000. And the rest of it, it's like a blur. All right. And finally we're taking Leslie back to his motorsport roots today after quite a gap, I think. At least I don't know if we brought up any motorsport on play things before. But there's always a first time. A dramatic end to the F1 season in Abu Dhabi, was it? Yesterday? Yeah. What happened and yeah, why is half the sport watching audience a little bit pissed off that Lewis Hamilton didn't end up with the drivers championship? I think Formula One would be very happy with this. What happened because it's keeping the conversation alive and that's what they wanted because boring season, boring season is always criticized. We have seen quite a lot of, so you mentioned my formula, I mean motorsport covering day. So one reason why I am not very keenly following a season unless something major like this happened is because F1 has lost that edge as far as porting competition is concerned. It's always, there is always a monopoly and monopoly belongs to the larger well funded teams. And it's all about money in that game, so in that sport. So on that regard, on the track, we were seeing two drivers, West Open and Hamilton and they were representing big teams, Red Bull and Mercedes. Just that Hamilton and the season was running quite tight and it almost felt like it's been staged like a WWE match because Luis Hamilton getting penalties and losing points and then coming back with the surge and then the final race of the season. You have these two drivers on equal points and what will happen, what will happen next and all these things and then it went into race day. And I feel for Hamilton because he had a beautiful race. He started behind West Open and drove well to take the lead. He was hindered by West Open's teammate, Sergio Perez who slowed it down so that West Open can catch up with him. And but still Hamilton held the lead and I don't know how this happened, an accident happened and Latifi, he had a crash and the four laps from race finish and Hamilton's eighth title, that's very significant. A black driver, we don't see black drivers in F1. We rarely see black drivers in motorsport also. That's a different discussion that we can have at some point by this, I mean, very big gap, clear, clear gap. But yeah, so eighth title that means he would have overtook Schumacher's record, Michael Schumacher's record. They bought in the safety car, West Open came close and the last lap they removed the safety car, which I mean, shouldn't have happened, they should have ended the race in safety car because it's so unfair because on Hamilton, the lead that is created was lost because the safety car came in. Of course, the stewards, the FIS stewards stood, appeal was given, I mean, done by Mercedes and the stewards took, I mean, stood by their decision, noting down, I mean, saying all those sub-closes in their rule books, saying that this is correct, this is correct and all that. But sporting sense-wise, general, I mean, justice-wise, it was a race that needed to have been ended behind safety car and that has happened previously. They didn't want to, maybe if it was a management decision that yeah, let's end this competitive season on a dramatic, let's race and finish the dramatic season. Maybe that's the decision. Maybe that's all that it's unfair on West Appan that this happens because, I mean, you have two sets of fans also, right? So if it had finished behind safety car, then West Appan didn't have the chance to push. And so criticizing FIA and the Formula One organization would be, I mean, in the sense it comes with its baggage, you can't clearly say, but as far as I am concerned, I'm a neutral, not an Hamilton fan, but I respect the man. I've had interactions with him, I've interviewed him and he's quite a sweet chap also. But yes, let's just see that, let's also know, and it's easy to brush his success by saying that he was, I mean, in a great team, he happened to be in the great team, but to be there, imagine the odds, no black driver around. So to be there, whatever it took. So I respect the man and to be there in that final lap leading and just two minutes away from his record title, that also is something. And considering all that factors, I think, I mean, I would say that title was robbed from him. And beyond that, Hamilton in the sport, within the sport drivers and everybody's fine, I guess, Hamilton went and congratulated West Appan, they were fine, and West Appan happens to be a very promising talent. We can see Aneera, we can see, next season, obviously there'll be five days. I'm thinking in Tom, that's the beauty again. So Formula One wins with this, not just with the continuing conversation, but it's like a Ali versus Fraser, in that sense that, or in motorsport terms, Senna versus Frost. So that bad blood is there and I, of course, if it was 80s, then probably Senna would have, sorry, Hamilton would have gone and punched West Appan, but yeah, now I guess the drivers are more politically correct because TV endorsements, all these things happen, so they have to always be politically correct, yeah. So again, I still, knowing motorsport, I still doubt whether it's artificially created, so, or whether it could have been avoided. The sport has ceased to be this dramatic. That's one of the reasons why I stopped watching it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, fair, fair. But eventually it comes back to the point that, we are all playthings of aliens. Yeah, there are forces that control you, which, yeah. All right, so from Leslie and me, that's a wrap for today. You can get more on all of these stories and the rest of the work that NewsClick does on the sports desk and otherwise from our website, newsclick.in. We're also on social media platforms, so pick and choose what you like. We'll be back again next Monday with I think what might be our final show of the year before we take a short break for the end of the year. But until then, stay safe. Thank you for watching. Let us know if you, actually, this is a suggestion that someone had made that we should go the talk show route and get a little band playing. Let us know if that's something that might be of interest to you. Yeah, producer can bring his band friends. Yeah. So, but yeah, until then, we'll be back next week. So thank you for watching. Stay safe. Goodbye.