Thursday Titbits

So some interesting news items on this Thursday:

1. So Cricket Australia (CA) have announced the punishment to be given to tainted cricketers who were involved in ball tempering case-                  Steve Smith (Captain)- He is banned for 12 months for playing Domestic & International Cricket, can only play club level cricket. He can not lead any team after the ban is over, for at least 12 months.        David Warner (Vice Captain)   – banned for 12 months from Domestic & International Cricket, can play only club level cricket. Can not become captain of any team even after the ban is lifted.                      Cameron Bancroft– banned for nine months from playing Domestic & International Cricket, can not lead any side for 12 months  after ban period is over, permitted to play club cricket.                                                  After CA announced the punishment, Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) also banned Steve Smith and David Warner from playing IPL for one year. Steve Smith was slated to lead Rajasthan Royals (RR), he has earlier played for Rising Pune Supergiant(RPS) and he led RPS last year when they reached the finals. David Warner was slated to lead Sunrisers Hyderabad (SH), he earlier led SH to victory in 2016. Both these players are likely to lose over Rs 20 Cr each from the loss as per Australian and IPL contracts plus losses from sponsorship deals.                 In my personal opinion, these players should have been banned for life time from playing domestic and international cricket, because as Captain and his deputy allowed the illegal ball tempering  to be carried out by team member, and the team member knowingly carried out the ball tempering.
2. Congress could lose Deputy Chairperson post in Rajya Sabha. Since 1977 all Deputy Chairpersons (DC) have been nominees of Congress party, even when Vajpayee’s govt was in power, the DC’s post was held by Congress nominee. The term of present DC will get over in July this year, there is possibility that this post will go to non Congress nominee. This may be the first time when the top four posts (President, Vice President, Loksabha Speaker  and Deputy Chairperson of Rajyasabha will not have person of Congress lineage. The usual practice has been that while the ruling party gets its nominee for Loksabha Speaker and Rajyasabha  Chairperson (actually VP of the country), nominees from the opposition camp were generally given the post of Deputy Speaker in Loksabha and Deputy Cahairperson in Rajyasabha. It has so happened that Congress has frequently opted to keep both the posts in Rajyasabha. It has been hinted in political circle that BJP would try to cement with allies and friendly parties ahead of 2019 elections may offer the post of DC of Rajyasabha to the nominee from one of these parties.They adopted the same practice while selecting the person for Deputy Speaker of Loksabha, and this post was offered to M Thambidurai of AIADMK, as they were not part of the govt but giving issue based from outside, this way denied the post to main opposition party Congress. So there is a strong possibility that BJP will negotiate with other parties to put Non Congress ,Non BJP candidate.
3. Now this week Mamata Banerjee’s is trying to meet all opposition leaders in Delhi , trying to forge opposition unity. She is talking to SP, BSP, RJD, TDP, Telangana Rashtriya Samithi(TSP). She is making all the efforts to project herself as accepted Opposition Candidate for PM’s post during 2019 general elections. Will the Congress accept Mamata as possible PM nominee, that is a million dollar question. All the regional parties have their state specific demands and how she is going to align with them. She even met Udhav Thackrey recently when she visited Mumbai recently, but does she and Udhav have common ideology, Sena has ideology which is closer to BJP’s ideology. Can Mamata ally with CPM  as well Congress with whom she has a fight in Bengal, all three (Congress, Mamata & CPM) want a common front in Delhi but battling each other in Bengal.Unless leadership issues and contradictions on the ground are sorted out, Mamata’s efforts to unite the opposition parties will falter.

So friends what are your views on these matters, please give your feed backs, review and comments.