In other news

Where, like some in the BJP I will pretend that Varun Gandhi did not shoot his mouth off like a 'psychopath' (in the words of one senior leader) - well Varun Gandhi does have a crazy gene set, so why was I not surprised. That said, as one person told me recently, this sort of vitriol comes from personal hurt and/or anger - a grievance against someone which manifests itself as anger against the community.
You know Hitler started this way, though I will not call VG close to being Hitler. But the kid, and he is a kid, should have known better than to shoot his mouth off - every fourth person in India owns a mobile with a videography device. This will be India's first sort-of internet election - broadband numbers have swelled since 2004 and shit like this will swim back and forth over fibre-optic cables. Well, I do have better things to download though. Of course, the media, at least the poorer bits of the English media will climb all over this and tactfully ignore the vitriol that gets preached every Friday and try to bully the majority into a sense of guilt. Instead of leaving the matter to the EC where it should be acted on. And it is being acted on.
But VG is the son of the man who did come very close to being India's 'Dear Leader'. Instead we will probably get his cousin Rahul Baba who will take world leaders in cowsheds in Amethi, tell them that they're in 'Real India', so that like with David Milliband - and while it feels painful to talk like this about an Arsenal supporter - is a complete twat. Next time, Rahul Baba, keep them in the cowshed - or keep them away from toilet paper for a day or so.
Anyway, the news I wanted to get to was UndieTV's extraordinary bid for the IPL rights.
Now, the background to the case is simple. BCCI/IPL issued a termination letter to WSG India which owned the broadcast rights for IPL and had sub-leased them to Sony. Sony rushed to the Bombay High Court, which has reserved its judgement. Now WSG Mauritius gave the IPL 30% more dosh for the telly rights - believed to be around $1.3 billion. OK, doesn't make sense at all, but makes even less sense when you consider that the 'samdhi' of a very rich Indian politician (who aspires to be PM) is a part-owner of SET. The SET fiasco has been going on for a while, the stopping of AXN a few years ago, makes a lot more sense now. This is a case of cutting off the nose to spite the face.
Back to the story, now before SET could go to court, WSG Mauritius called for telecast bids. Now it appears that UndieTV has bid $1.45 billion for the rights to broadcast the IPL. The irony of the bid doesn't have anything to do with the fact that the company is broke, the money for the bid is not coming from India. But this is a company, at least a sister company of a channel which chopped salaries 20% last week. Not as bad as the salary cuts at Bennett, which are in the 30% range, but more on that fiasco later.
Will UndieTV broadcast the IPL? Will cricket save the News? Will the cricket happen in the first place? Keep watching for more.