When sugar is bitter, why blame cricket?

The Bombay High Court ruled that all IPL cricket matches, scheduled to be played after 30 April, must be moved out of Maharashtra even though BCCI, Board of Control for Cricket in India, promised to use only treated sewage to water the grounds. India is cursed with an abundance of activists who file Public Interest Litigation at the slightest pretext and judges are happy to pronounce judgement on matters outside their jurisdiction, while other cases with genuine grievances are kept hanging for decades. In response to another PIL, the Supreme Court is deciding on whether to publish the names of people who have defaulted on bank loans, against the objections of the RBI. The RBI is a regulator of banks and is independent of the government. Its board consists of economists entrusted with looking after the wealth of the nation so interfering with its decisions can have serious consequences. The decision to move IPL matches seems short sighted at best. The court has not banned washing of cars or watering of lawns, including their own. The biggest irony is that sugarcane, a very water intensive crop, is grown in the driest areas of Maharashtra. "....it needs just over 2000 liters of water to produce 1 kg of sugar, which means 2 million liters to produce 1 tonne. The estimated water usage of all the 20 IPL matches in Maharashtra is 6 million liters. That's three tonnes of sugar. Maharashtra produces in excess of 10 million tonnes of sugar per year," says an article. If the court really wants to remedy the sugar scarcity it would take up the irrigation scam of the previous government, in which an estimated Rs 350 billion were stolen, and punish the guilty expeditiously. Is it a big deal? Indeed. One of the driest places in India, Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, has grown Rs 3 billion worth of crops this year, thanks to an irrigation canal. The IPL is also serious business. It allows younger players, who are not picked to play for India, to show their quality, allows young players to earn a lot of money, provides an incentive to players to be fit and definitely improves standard of play. Politicians and civil servants have been against it from the beginning probably because the teams are owned privately and they are unable to cream the tournament for private gain. Faced with constant assaults the BCCI is thinking of moving the IPL abroad which will be an enormous loss in taxes. India is totally dependent on the southwesterly monsoon. After 2 failed monsoons the government must plan long term on storing water. Las Vegas, a city in the desert, uses 7.5 million gallons, that is around 29 million liters of water, everyday for its hotels and casinos. It gets just 4 inches of rain a year and has suffered from drought for 16 years. Still it manages. How? We need to learn. Socialists are always howling about redistribution to the poor. How will they get Mother Nature to redistribute water? If they really want to help the poor bring down the population. Then we will be able to watch the IPL on screens while splashing around in swimming pools. Else wait for Mother Nature to do it.