India will win World Cup -- Pramod Mahajan
Faisal Shariff
Pramod Mahajan has figured out a foolproof way for India to win the World Cup -- the first ever World Cup for Parliamentarians, that is.
The Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Information Technology, now in Mumbai to participate in a cricket match between MPs and members of the Cricket Club of India, said that the government has given the go-ahead to organise the first ever World Cup for Parliamentarians.
To be modelled closely on the asli World Cup, this one will feature teams of Parliamentarians from all Test-playing nations. Except, that is, Pakistan.
"We would have invited Pakistan as well," Mahajan said, conveniently ignoring the fact that it is his own government that recently took a stand against India playing in that country. "Minister for External Affairs Jaswant Singh told me that there would be no problem -- except for the fact that Pakistan is a military dictatorship and, at this point, does not have a Parliament."
The tournament, to be staged in India, is tentatively slated for March 2001. "Letters of invitation have gone out to the various Test-playing nations, and we have already begun getting a positive response," Mahajan said. "Any person who has spent at least one day as a Parliamentarian is eligible to play."
The minister is most sanguine about India's chances. "After all," Mahajan points out, "we have had some very good cricketers in Parliament."
Will team selection will be on a zonal basis? Will the politics that plagues Indian cricket come into play here as well? "All that is a part and parcel of politics, you don't worry about all that," the minister laughs. "We are used to dealing with politics."
In an aside, Mahajan said that it was time the match-fixing controversy was buried. "It has hurt cricket very much, it is now time to stop talking about match-fixing and start talking about cricket again," the minister said, adding, "The media has a big role to play in this."
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