Stop the Hype: Terminate CSK contract and Rajiv Shukla’s mail lists Gurunath as team owner

A colleague sent this email:
 

From: …

Sent: Saturday, May 25, 2013 1:04 AM

Subject: Terminate CSK contract
 

(bcc intentional)
 

As per rule 11.3 clause C of the BCCI-IPL constitution, a franchise can be terminated with immediate effect by written notice if “the Franchisee, any Franchisee Group Company and/or any Owner acts in any way which has a material adverse effect upon the reputation or standing of the League, BCCI-IPL, BCCI, the Franchisee, the Team (or any other team in the League) and/or the game of cricket.”
 

With the arrest of Gurunath Meiyappan, CEO of CSK, CSK should be scrapped.
 

Use the power of social media, get these cheaters scrapped.

Put as much pressure as you can to get CSK scrapped.
 

Contribute to clean the Indian Cricket.

These are criminals and not gentlemen.
 

Take this message forward.

Indian Cricket needs your support.
 

Regards

…
 

I replied to him:
 

I think “arrest” by itself does not prove anyone guilty. Otherwise starting from Mahatma Gandhi to present day’s Anna Hazare and Medha Patekar and all would be considered guilty. Many of us think that this tirade against Srinivasan and CSK is politically motivated. Therefore there is no question of we demanding ban on any team. Ideally any activist should have been demanding a ban on RR team, if any team had to be banned.
 

Secondly, this clause is a vague one. So if any franchise causes an adverse effect on reputation of any other team; should its contract be terminated? Suppose Mukesh Ambanis says, “Mumbai Indian is the best team in IPL and no one can defeat it.” This statement can be claimed to be harming the reputation of a team like DD team as it is putting question mark on its competence (saying it can’ defeat MI). So we very well understand such fictitious allegations and politics of seeking bans based on vague clauses in the fine-print.
 

In his reply, he forwards an email from Rajiv Shukla which shows one of the email receipients to have email ID similar to the name of Gurunath Meiyappan. In fact he forwarded an article from Times of India, titled “Rajiv Shukla’s mail lists Gurunath as team owner”.
 

I sent below reply to him:
 

It can be a type error. I want to send an email to my project group members and by mistake include your email ID also. That does not become a proof that you were in my team as a member. This is all media hype – the need to cook up things to raise TRP.
 

He replies again and this time sends me a scanned copy of access/ ID Card of IPL showing Gurunath’s photo and “Owner” written in big letters. Same picture of ID card is also being aired on so many TV Channels.
 

Then I send below reply to him:
 

See, all it can mean is that he was using some of the privileges meant for the owners. It is very much possible in case of “deputies”.  The photo ID only tells that the authorities issued him a gate pass which was meant for owners. Why did they do so? They can only answer. Only on the basis of such evidences we can’t say he was the owner. If you ask me what is the proof needed for me (or people like me) to get convinced that he was the owner. Show me the contract between team and BCCI – did he sign there as owner? Did he sign some bank cheques as owner? Media is only bringing out such small petty evidences. It is like showing a train ticket in my name as a proof that I visited a place. Anyone can book a railway ticket in my name! A piece of paper or a card or an email sent (where is Gurunath’s reply to Rajiv Shukla’s email?) these are only to add fuel to the mess to sustain a media generated hype.
 

After this, my friend gives up the argument and never replies back on this thread :)