Bengaluru, March 28 -- Bengaluru has always had a way of dressing up cricket as theatre, but this season the theatre has spilled out of the pavilion and into the corridors of power, where the cast is less athletic and more accustomed to entitlement.
The IPL arrives under a shadow that refuses to lift easily - the memory of 11 lives lost in a stampede last year, a tragedy that turned celebration into sorrow in a matter of minutes. There were the expected expressions of regret, a few earnest promises, and the usual bureaucratic resolve to "learn lessons." Ceremonies were trimmed, the noise reduced, and for a brief moment, one almost believed that restraint had finally found a place in our public life.
But restraint, like honesty in politics...