UB or not to UB

Vijay Mallya is pulling out his wonderfully styled hair as Bangalore stumbles from defeat to defeat to defeat to defeat (you get the point)...Charu Sharma has already borne the brunt of, perhaps the most debt ridden man in India's, anger, and is now looking for a job. As Mallya shoots his mouth right, left and centre about how disappointed he is and how cricket has a corporate element to it, Rahul Dravid and company may sson be looking for new franchisees in the transfer window (wonder if after these perfromances, there are going to be any takers!).

But the point is that corporatization is rearing its very ugly head in cricket and an out of form player is now under the same kind of threat as any other employee in India - the very real threat of being fired and losing out on 'maximizing' income during playing days. As a lawyer, it irks me that the same kind of labour legislations that protect each of us employed in India from complete arbitrariness and high handedness does not appear to protect the sons of Indian cricket. From what one hears from people who have actually seen the employment contracts, all rights under these contracts have been waived and the players are completely at the mercy of the employers - perhaps we need a challenge to these contracts in the higher echelons of our judiciary and for some of the more arbitrary clauses to be struck down! No longer is class permanent and form temporary - ask Dravid or Kallis how conventional wisdom lays bleeding at the alter of money.