Cricket T20: Now The King Khan Controversy Dogs IPL-5!

By -

As the heat and humidity increase the cricket T20 Indian Premiere League-Season Five (IPL-5) is increasingly getting most of the heat from reasons other than nature. It has already earned the distinction of having the most number of nail-biting matches of all IPLs including a record ten last-ball finishes so far. On the flip side there is the spot fixing menace unearthed by a television channel sting operation recently. Now, Hindi movie mega star Shahrukh King Khan adds to it by one more display of alleged rowdy behavior.

It was a crucial match between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Mumbai Indians (MI) at the latter’s ‘home’ ground, the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai—the venue of the World Cup-2011 final. Shahrukh Khan, the co-owner of KKR, had been very much visible in the crowd waving to the galleries with television cameras catching him every now and then in between the ‘cricket’ action. King Khan, known for his exemplary ‘love’ for cricket, always made it a point to attend matches where KKR figured. In Kolkata, the ‘home’ ground for KKR, a few days back KKR did everything right to win the match and just about sealed it with the rivals Chennai Super Kings (CSK) needing 5 runs of the last ball. But alas! To the utterly-bitterly disappointment of King Khan the CSK batsman Bravo sent the last ball towering over the ropes for a huge six and CSK won by 5 wickets. Mercifully, the cameras could not find a possibly devastated Shahrukh then!

At the Mumbai match on May 16, 2012 KKR posted only a moderate total of 140 runs and nobody gave them a real chance including, maybe, a pensive Shahrukh considering MI’s formidable batting strength. But led by an intense skipper Gautam Gambhir KKR bowled out MI winning convincingly by 32 runs. Understandably, the celebrity star must have been in the highest of spirits for the incredible win and also for the fact that KKR had now almost ensured its place in the last four.

Reports say that an excited Khan, possibly in an inebriated state, went to the dressing room with his posse of bodyguards and congratulated his team players. Then he supposedly tried to walk into the ground perhaps to celebrate with the crowds with his invincible star appeal that  could have cheered up the depressed MI ‘supporters’.

At this point the stadium security personnel and the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) officials objected and an ugly scuffle followed. The reports further say that an angry Khan abused all the MCA officials including their president and even supposedly manhandled them. Furious MCA officials held an emergency meeting and decided to ban the superstar from entering the Wankhede Stadium for life. A complaint against the movie star was also lodged at the nearby Marine Drive police station. The officials maintained that the IPL authorities witnessed the incident and that they would also represent the case with the Indian cricket Board (BCCI).

The problem here is that if King Khan really gets banned a huge percentage of IPL glamor is bound to be rudely curtailed. The point seemed to be very well understood by the IPL Chairman who told reporters that all the sides and all the versions of the story would be taken up and discussed before endorsing the MCA decision or arriving at a new verdict. 

Perhaps the energetic and the sentimental mega star could not strike the right or desired balance between agony and ecstasy! 

Meanwhile, King Khan had hit back making the same allegations of abuse against MCA officials and security personnel. He charged them with alleged ‘abuse’ and ‘manhandling’ of his children at the end of the match when he went to the stadium only to pick them up. He further said he was not under the influence of alcohol and he refused to apologize demanding apology from MCA people instead. Mumbai Police had also registered a non-cognizable offence against Shahrukh. The confusing scenario is expected to clear up when the police examines the CCTV footage.

At the moment the SRK mystery thickens! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Raghu Krishna: Adieu!

By -
Image
The man in the blue suit He was more of a dear friend than a boss. Raghu Krishna , the former Chief Producer of Films Division, Mumbai and Director of MIFF (Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films) for 2004 and 2006 versions, passed away today following a brain stroke and coma. I first knew him as a film director in Films Division, Mumbai. As we became close we started playing table tennis. He was an attacking player specializing in smashes. Once I was defeated by a colleague and next game Raghu defeated him. Later, Raghu came over to my room for a fag and told me proudly, ‘I wanted to beat him because he beat you!’ I sensed his love for me instantly. Raghu appeared for an interview for the top post and finally got selected. He joined as Chief Producer in January 2004 and immediately took charge of MIFF 2004 as Festival Director. Till MIFF 2006 I worked under him and enjoyed every bit of it. He showed tremendous faith in me in the role of
Read more

Local Instability!

By -
Image
The two had not been in a stable state since the outbreak of the pandemic or positively longer perhaps. The problem was they had always been extremely close to each other like next door neighbors; however, the problem was exacerbated by their close physical proximity. Well, neighbors can be next door, but they have separate entrances and independent four-wall habitable units. In this case of the two there was no such personal space, they are almost joined together with separation impossible unless in the extreme case of physical elimination; no social distancing possible even if they wanted which in fact they did want on many occasions. But they had been under a mortal dread of a new entity forcing in its entry if one of them were eliminated. This situation exists even now.   They need each other very frequently on jobs that they have to perform together. For those kinds of jobs they indeed cooperate as much as each one is personally capable of. However, perhaps because of the exis
Read more

KK Demise: Bollywood Vs Regional!

By -
Image
There was an ugly kind of mad expression just the day before the Kolkata concert of the famous Bollywood playback singer Krishnakumar Kunnath (KK) who succumbed to a heart attack immediately after that fateful concert, held in a jammed auditorium in extreme humid heat conditions. Due to the lack of space we couldn’t mention it and discuss about this particular madness, obviously a pandemic-induced one to a large extent, in our earlier piece . It came from a well-known Bangla artiste-singer in the form of an enraged expression. He questioned as to who is KK indeed, that why should there be so much craze for such Bollywood singers like him and that there are more talented singers than him available locally in Bengal. No doubt, his comments were condemned in all quarters including the social media. The artiste himself apologized for his behavior and later expressed his terrible shock over the tragedy that followed the concert.   However, this kind of ugly conduct cannot be wished away
Read more

Kamalananda Bhattacharyya: Life and Works. And His Beautiful Songs!

By -
Image
Respectful tributes to my grandfather whom I never met in this life, but his music kept him alive in me all my life. January 4, 1951. Assam lost a great poet, composer-lyricist, playwright, actor and freedom fighter Bauli Kavi Kamalananda Bhattacharyya. On his 61 st death anniversary he is remembered fondly by Assam’s intelligentsia, artistes and music lovers. Born in 1894 at Nagaon, Kamalananda Bhattacharyya did not have an easy life. Brought up in a musical ambience he lost his father at a tender age of 15 and being the eldest son the full burden of seven brothers and family fell on him. Fighting against odds he went to Cotton College at Guwahati and passed the pre-university course. But he had to come back home before pursuing higher studies. Again he tried for graduation and went to Calcutta, but could not complete and had to join a secondary school as a teacher back home to meet the growing domestic needs. But even that was not for long. Sensitive and a patriot at heart,
Read more

The Pandemic-Driven Desperation Is Worrying!

By -
Image
The two-year long COVID-19 pandemic (no signal that it’s ended) has jolted the Indian economy almost out of its roots, heightened by the fact that the economy had been under a lot of strain for at least two years prior the outbreak. The normal demand-supply equation has gone bizarre—the supply chain not yet being able to resume its normal course, with some of the key sectors suffering maximum damage, in light of insufficient demand as the common people now want to hold on to their savings fearing an uncertain future. Normally, with less demand and normal supply the prices should fall and this has led many experts to expect a recession soon or already in the process. However, prices only kept on rising, crossing a whopping level of 7% in the recent quarter that’s made the Reserve Bank of India increase the Repo rate twice in two weeks. With some knowledge of economics I feel that while the customers are not spending their money enough the suppliers not still getting the normal booming t
Read more

Movie Heropanti-2: The Pinnacle of Insanity!

By -
Image
I had the misfortune of going for a movie in 2019 in a big theatre before the Pandemic put a stop to it, titled Pagalpanti (Madness) and was nearly driven mad. It was not my fault as the movie was having a lot of superstars and we went particularly because of Anil Kapoor. But now, after watching the new movie Heropanti-2 (heroism or hero antics) the previous movie seemed to have at least some kind of a method. The question arises then as to why I’ve made the mistake again! Well, firstly it was streaming free where I can ruthlessly go forward at will. And most importantly because I love the kid Tiger Shroff, son of my beloved Jackie Shroff, and ironically, Heropanti (2014) was Tiger’s debut film where his athletic and gymnastic skills plus his lithe, dancing and almost flying body were noticed. I watched only parts of that film some of which seemed a bit sensible, giving Tiger some scope to showcase his acting skills too, perhaps because it was a remake of a Telugu film. Of course, th
Read more

Maharashtra Political Thriller: A Shiv Sena without the Thackerays?

By -
Image
We’ve been liberally treated with political thrillers like that is happening in Maharashtra at the moment across the country since the last few years, thanks to the aggressive power-politics of the national ruling dispensation (BJP) which fittingly matches its aggressive Hindutva nationalism. However, the present game has been inevitable since the year 2019 when Shiv Sena (SS) parted ways with the BJP after jointly fighting and winning the assembly elections, and after a landslide victory for the alliance in 2014, on the CM post issue, and forming a coalition government Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (Maharashtra Development Front or MVA) with the Congress and the nationalist Congress (NCP). For the last two and half years the state BJP has been a grumpy lot, alleging a great betrayal by the SS and wanting desperately to avenge it; in fact, they’d tried at least three times to derail the coalition so far. This last one, even though the party has continued to be in denial about any involvemen
Read more