Anant's Blog: Of Manchester United and Liverpool

For reasons I don’t quite know, I’ve never been good at picking winners. For years, when Ferrari ruled, I was a McLaren fan. 'I' lost for so many seasons, I lost interest in F1 racing itself.

Then I jumped onto the Barclay’s English Premier League bandwagon, backing, godknowswhy, Liverpool. And year after year, Liverpool does OK till December and then the game falls apart. Never worse than this year, ahead of Manchester United by a country mile and then a series of bizarre draws and, last weekend, a loss to the-team-that-should-not-be-named.

Rafa Benitez, Mister Calmness, finally admits that it is over; the premiership if now for Manchester United to lose, not for Liverpool (or Chelsea, or Aston Villa, or Arsenal) to win.

And we come to the Indian Premier League. As with last year, television general entertainment channels have given up, with no big-ticket show launching during the IPL.

And no blockbuster Hindi movies scheduled to launch during that period. (Last year, the only movie to make a dent was Jannat, based on match-fixing. The movie probably complemented, rather than fought, the IPL).

But Liverpool might still win, and the IPL might bomb – by self-destructing.

In the IPL’s case, there’s the ongoing sponsorship mess with SET MAX (there’s still a SET MAX, thankfully), all the teams have a problem finding sponsors, the Pakistani cricketers won’t be there, India’s lost the Twenty20 series against New Zealand, Lalit Modi lost the election battle in the Rajasthan Cricket Association.

And the election dates have been announced.

Will Liverpoool win and the IPL bomb?

Stranger things have happened.