If reports are to be believed, the former president of the
International Cricket Council (ICC), Mr Sharad Pawar, is planning to
organise a series of cricket matches in the drought-affected areas of
the country. The ex-chief of the Board of Control for Cricket in India
(BCCI) who, incidentally, is also the agriculture minister of the Union
of India responsible for feeding a sixth of the world population is
reported to have expressed his desire to conduct a cricket tournament in
the rural areas of the country to a top official in the agriculture
ministry.
An undersecretary-level officer in the ministry of agriculture spoke to Jest Kidding on condition of anonymity. This is what he had to say: “The minister has a long association with cricket. Also, he has been holding additional charge of agriculture ministry for quite sometime. The minister has been dejected ever since he stepped down as the president of the International Cricket Council a couple of months back. To make matters worse, he is currently not even the head of the cash-rich Indian board that runs the sport in the country. The minister is going through a phase of depression and is skipping meals because of this, unlike many farmers who starve because they can’t afford to buy food. To overcome his depression, the minister has come up with an innovative idea that brings his passion and profession together. The ministry of agriculture would organise a countrywide cricket tournament. The matches would happen in almost every village across the country. Special focus would be on drought-affected areas as we strongly believe that this tournament would help the farmers forget their woes. The scale of the planned event is unprecedented.”
When asked if the ministry was disappointed with the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) for getting its predictions of the southwest monsoon miserably wrong, the officer said with a smirk on his face: “Only journalists, columnists and editorial writers take these predictions seriously. We, in the agriculture ministry never pay much attention to the IMD forecast. In fact, we would have been quite surprised if they got it right. Their track record speaks for itself. That reminds me. The IMD would also be an integral part of the tournament. We are also planning to invite and felicitate the head of the IMD during the tournament for making sure that the organisation lives up to its reputation. But one cannot help but admire the tenacity and steadfastness of the IMD even as late as the end of June. The odds clearly favoured a monsoon with seasonal rainfall below 96 per cent of the long period average, with the possibility of a drought. But the IMD declared in its updated June forecast that the monsoon was ‘most likely’ to be in the ‘normal’ category with rainfall between 96 per cent and 104 per cent.”
There has been a huge surge in the number of applicants for various posts in the Indian Meteorological Department over the past few weeks. Thousands of illiterate farmers were among the applicants. “We can do a better job at predicting monsoons than this,” wryly noted a farmer. “We thought only the post of the President of India is ceremonial. But now we know which is the ceremonial organisation of India,” said another.
Farmers in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra have welcomed the decision of the Union agriculture minister. Nandu Lal, a debt-ridden Vidarbha farmer said: “Many of us were planning to take the extreme step. With this cricket tournament planned, we can defer the decision by a few weeks.”
Link: http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=419399&catid=39
An undersecretary-level officer in the ministry of agriculture spoke to Jest Kidding on condition of anonymity. This is what he had to say: “The minister has a long association with cricket. Also, he has been holding additional charge of agriculture ministry for quite sometime. The minister has been dejected ever since he stepped down as the president of the International Cricket Council a couple of months back. To make matters worse, he is currently not even the head of the cash-rich Indian board that runs the sport in the country. The minister is going through a phase of depression and is skipping meals because of this, unlike many farmers who starve because they can’t afford to buy food. To overcome his depression, the minister has come up with an innovative idea that brings his passion and profession together. The ministry of agriculture would organise a countrywide cricket tournament. The matches would happen in almost every village across the country. Special focus would be on drought-affected areas as we strongly believe that this tournament would help the farmers forget their woes. The scale of the planned event is unprecedented.”
When asked if the ministry was disappointed with the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) for getting its predictions of the southwest monsoon miserably wrong, the officer said with a smirk on his face: “Only journalists, columnists and editorial writers take these predictions seriously. We, in the agriculture ministry never pay much attention to the IMD forecast. In fact, we would have been quite surprised if they got it right. Their track record speaks for itself. That reminds me. The IMD would also be an integral part of the tournament. We are also planning to invite and felicitate the head of the IMD during the tournament for making sure that the organisation lives up to its reputation. But one cannot help but admire the tenacity and steadfastness of the IMD even as late as the end of June. The odds clearly favoured a monsoon with seasonal rainfall below 96 per cent of the long period average, with the possibility of a drought. But the IMD declared in its updated June forecast that the monsoon was ‘most likely’ to be in the ‘normal’ category with rainfall between 96 per cent and 104 per cent.”
There has been a huge surge in the number of applicants for various posts in the Indian Meteorological Department over the past few weeks. Thousands of illiterate farmers were among the applicants. “We can do a better job at predicting monsoons than this,” wryly noted a farmer. “We thought only the post of the President of India is ceremonial. But now we know which is the ceremonial organisation of India,” said another.
Farmers in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra have welcomed the decision of the Union agriculture minister. Nandu Lal, a debt-ridden Vidarbha farmer said: “Many of us were planning to take the extreme step. With this cricket tournament planned, we can defer the decision by a few weeks.”
Link: http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=419399&catid=39
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