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Sunday, September 29, 2013

BCCI, Cricket and the Soul of India


“Sport has the power to change the world…it has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.” 
Nelson Mandela 

I am acutely aware that there are far more serious and weighty issues that plague our country. Not for a moment do I believe that poverty, hunger, education, healthcare or a myriad other problems measure in the same breath as the recent Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) corruption scandal. I also understand where my critics are coming from when they argue that we should not distract ourselves or spend time bothering about some rich corrupt private league of old men. They say that the harm they do is limited. This is largely true but here is the thing that makes everything that has transpired within the ranks of the BCCI so important: nothing unites our country like cricket. We have a many religions, dozens of languages and dialects. Our cuisines and climates are totally different, as is our dress code from east to west and north to south. Even our cinema is split between Bollywood, Tollywood and regional films. The ONLY thing that unites every Indian is the Indian Cricket team. The boys in blue are a great symbol of national unity and international pride. They help us fight proxy wars with Pakistan, on the pitch, and defeat racism in Australia by beating the hosts handily. They help us hold our heads up high on the world stage, time and again, based on their conduct both on and off the field. Cricket is the fabric of India and it is bigger than religion. We hold our cricketers in higher esteem than Bollywood superstars, doyens of industry and even Nobel Prize winners.

Every young boy has imagined becoming a Vijay Hazare or Nawab Pataudi to Sachin Tendulkar and M.S. Dhoni. Every boy has played cricket growing up and dreamed of representing his country. From the fields of every village to the back gully in every city in India you can hear the screams of a child’s delight; from Azad Maidan to Kanyakumari, only cricket is the great leveler. Any Indian with the skill, talent and determination used to be able to play for and represent India. Our cricket pitches were the only places where caste, religion, language, education and wealth did not matter. Such was the power of cricket, and that is why, what has transpired should matter to all of us. 

The conduct of the current BCCI President, N. Srinivasan, with his refusal to step aside, or even apologize is abhorrent. Mr. Srinivasan is also the owner one of the most successful franchises in the Indian Premier League (IPL) – the Chennai Super Kings. This fact alone should have been sufficient ground to disqualify him from holding the post of President of BCCI (he is also President of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association). His son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyappan (the CEO of Chennai Super Kings), has been charged in an illegal betting and match fixing investigation. Naturally, this should make Mr. Srinivasan’s position even more untenable and one would expect him to have tendered his resignation. Instead he has dug in his heels, unabashedly proclaimed himself King and openly challenged anyone to oust him. He has deftly removed anyone on the board who might have stood up to him or opposed him and clearly seems to have the rest of the board in his pocket. It is quite clear that Mr. Srinivasan has been absolutely corrupted by his absolute power over the wealthiest cricket board in the world. He cares nothing for the sport he was once selected to steward. I wonder if he even remembers that the BBCI logo is derived from the emblem of the Order of the Star of India; India's highest order of chivalry during the British Raj.

This is about much more than a few corrupt old men. It is about the demise of a national sport, and with it the shattering of the dreams of every child, in every village and city gully in India. This is why we need to raise our voices and ensure that we give cricket back to the children of India. It is about restoring honour, responsibility, and integrity to the game we all loved and respected. We need to tell the BCCI that their conduct, even as non-elected representatives of Indian cricket, is incredibly important in preserving this sport’s and our nations, reputation. We must demand that these men are worthy of upholding the historic principles and values of cricket, and that they are able to discharge their duties with humility, integrity and honour, always putting the good of the game ahead of their own personal ambitions. It seems the men of the BCCI have forgotten their purpose. So drunk on power have they become that they believe they can operate with complete impunity and function in an opaque manner with zero external scrutiny or governance. A few wealthy men have hijacked our great love and turned it into their personal fiefdom.  

If cricket is India’s soul then the BCCI have morally bankrupted it. It is time to remind the BCCI who they are here to serve; the game of cricket. Only we can rejuvenate India’s soul - by raising our voices in protest and expressing our indignation, and we must because that is the only way we will give back the dream to every child in India.


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Sunday, September 8, 2013

Time Warner Cable (@TWC) and CBS (@CBS): Time To Cut The Chord!


"It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages.” 
Henry Ford 

Below is the email I received from Time Warner Cable, appeasement if not kudos (because it sure does not sound like an apology) for their more than month long squabble with CBS that led to a number of channels being blacked out for millions of customers, across eight markets that included New York City. 

Subject: CBS/Showtime Channels Return to Time Warner Cable lineup! 
We're pleased to announce that we've reached an agreement with CBS that will return their blacked out channels to our lineup immediately (including Showtime, TMC, Flix, Smithsonian, and the CBS broadcast stations in NY, LA, Dallas, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Denver, and Pittsburgh). 

As in all of our negotiations, our main goal was to hold down costs and retain our ability to deliver a great video experience for our customers. We're pleased that we successfully achieved both. 

We hate that these fights have to happen—and that our customers get caught in the middle—but they do allow us to negotiate deals that provide better outcomes for our customers. We appreciate your patience during this time.

Thank you, 
Time Warner Cable 

Time Warner’s email almost makes it sound like we should all be grateful to them; that we should be rejoicing and jumping up and down with joy for their seemingly valiant effort that to resolve this matter in our best interest. Forgive me, but I am neither grateful and the emotion that is fills me is not joy. They go on to say that their goals were always to hold down costs and to deliver better experiences for their customers - really? Because my experience over this past month, and frankly for a number of years before that, has been nothing short of abysmal. In fact, the only reason I am still a Time Warner Cable customer is purely due to lethargy. And about holding down those costs; I already pay through the nose for basic cable; which includes hundreds of channels I have no desire to and will never watch. Finally, the email mentions that sometimes “customers get caught in the middle.” If you read the entire paragraph, it sounds like Time Warner is not only admitting to willfully and purposefully placing their customers in the middle of their mess but they actually are trying to justify this by saying that it allowed them to negotiate a better outcome (for their customers!). In effect, they are saying they have absolutely no problem with holding us hostage, and inconveniencing us, just to help their own bottom-line. Of course, if I am mistaken about this I expect to see some savings in my next cable bill. Forgive me for not holding my breath.

By no means is CBS blameless in this whole matter. In my book, they are equally to blame. Leaving their loyal viewers to suffer while they negotiated healthier profits for themselves, which will no doubt lead to even bigger bonuses for their executives this year. If you have any doubt about their love for we the customers, who provide the ratings that allow them to charge premiums to advertisers, you need look no further than the first few lines of CBS CEO Les Moonves’ letter to his employees. He talks about the “pain it caused to all of us;” a fact he feels more important to mention ahead of the tremendous inconvenience it caused millions of CBS’s viewers. Viewers who were not able to watch live sports or any other programming for more than four weeks (Read full letter: “CBS and Time Warner Cable kiss and make-up...” - Business Insider).

If a company truly cares about its customers, they always strive to put their customers’ needs ahead of their own. And they go out of their way to ensure that customers are not inconvenienced or harassed, even if it sometimes mean making less money in the process. Quite honestly, this is a decision senior management makes in every company.  About whether they want to focus on their customers or simply pay lip service to them. It is a choice. It is not something driven by circumstance or extraneous situations because even when these situations arise, if you decided your customer is the most important asset, then you proceed and resolve the matter accordingly. Customer service is demonstrated through actions not words. Talk is cheap. CBS and Time Warner could have continued their negotiations without holding their customers hostage. But they realised it was much easier to do that to achieve their means than not.

It is truly amazing that in a world where every company on the planet is clamoring to build deeper relationships with customers, because they have fundamentally understood that brand loyalty comes from trust and delivering great products and services (and not competing on price), CBS and Time Warner seem to be taking bold strides in the opposite direction. Their myopia is even more amazing given that they operate in an industry that is badly in need of a massive transformation in the way they do business. Many of their non-traditional competitors are rapidly decimating the old, top-down and one-way street minded ways of delivering programming and closed-minded ways of doing business. These new companies are re-defining the entertainment model by following one fundamental principle – give customers quality and value, and they will even pay a premium for it. Give them the same old shit and turn a deaf ear to their cries, and face the dire consequences. For now, the sheer size and monopoly that these companies have, along with general consumer apathy, will keep their coffers ticking. But their window for changing their ways is rapidly closing. Just ask the music and publishing industries, which also chose to ignore the prevailing winds; and we all know how well that turned out. 

At a time when more and more people are looking to cut the (cable) chord, Time Warner and CBS just gave us another great reason to shake our apathy and go ahead…