I disdain people who mix politics and cricket. People who protest by hurling slippers onto sportspeople should be banned for life from the stadium. I am originally from Bangalore. I was in Bangalore when the Cauvery riots broke out. I am sensitive to the sentiments of all the parties involved. Like it or not there is no easy answer to the water sharing problem. Rajnikanth and Kamal Hassan are two actors who I really like but his statements are absolutely uncalled for. Chennai Super Kings are back in the IPL after a two-year hiatus. The people in Tamil Nadu and Chennai should be given something to celebrate. CSK has had two great wins against Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders. I support the idea of wearing a black. Andy Flower and Henry Olango did it successfully. They did give up their cricketing career too because of that. The question then is what can be gained if the CSK players wear black armbands. Will it make any difference to them? How many players are actually affected by this issue? How many players are from Tamil Nadu who can make it to the playing XI of CSK? Will RCB and their fans be safe or will there be a bloodbath? Understandably the IPL decided to move CSK home games. I feel sorry for the people in Chennai. The timing though was bad. As always Cauvery has become a hot topic in the forthcoming elections, The BJP does not want to do anything lest they upset the apple cart. South India is important for the BJP because they have found it difficult to form the government there, The North-South divide is clearly felt. The enforcement of Hindi by the centre does not help. The sad truth though is people love Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan more than they do CSK. The Tweets by CSK clearly shows how saddened they feel. The fans deserve more and I am certain they would have got it this season.

I hope better sense prevails. That seems to be in short supply though after Shahid Afridi’s and Shoaib Akhtar’s tweets on Kashmir. The Australian Prime Minister should not have made statements about the ball tampering issue. My wife’s father fought in the Indo-Pak wars. He drove a tank. Some of the stories he told me made Saving Private Ryan look like a Disney movie. The other stories I heard are those that made my heart melt. During the ceasefire, they were very cordial with each other. Cricket is a game that should strive to unite people and not divide. The ICC has appointed a panel to hear the dispute between the Pakistan Cricket Board and BCCI. The best way to settle the dispute would be to start playing the bilateral series once again. Due to politics, it will be hard to play the games in India and Pakistan, I would propose having Pakistan play their home games in Sharjah and India host Pakistan in Afghanistan. That will be something to look forward to.