As Charu Packs his bags...

It is not surprising that the sack came. The more surprising thing is that it took nearly three weeks for the first KO blow to come!

Poor Charu. only if he had watched the telecast of few Bangalore matches, he would have seen the ‘clinched teeth smile (!)’ of owner Vijay Mallya with his team perennially occupying seventh or eighth place.

But he is not likely to be alone. Prasad is already inching towards the exit door and the way this Premier League is shaping up, expect few more dismissals (from some other franchisees too) by the time the winners jump atop the podium.

From purely the business point of view, the main reason for the success of top shots like Mallya and Mukesh Ambani is that they are much more concerned with the overall policy making and efficient delegation. They select top pros and expect them to deliver. Take as much resources as you want, but deliver: That is their mantra, time-tested and sureshot roadmap to success.

Charu (along with Dravid) failed to deliver a team which could succeed. It looked more suited to 120-120 format, than 20-20! That diluted the Brand Royal Challenge beyond permissible limit, which could never be acceptable to Mallya. Even the replacement choice, Brijesh Patel, shows the vengeance of a seething Mallya, than some well thought out plan. After all what can Brijesh Patel do as CEO, which Charu could not have done! If Royal Challengers start winning after this shocking change of guard, it will more be incidental!

Mumbai are in a smiliar state of dismay and despair. Now, if one of pre-tournament favourites lose few more, one can expect some similar turmoil among their ranks. After all, did not a big Reliance functionary on cricket controversies programme on NDTV, say that their target was at least reaching the final. As of now, even a semifinal spot looks woefully out of reach. The richest Indian in India will certainly not like it.

In fact, one can expect more and more bad blood between the owners and the players/management as tournament gets into the business end. As Shahrukh famously said a few days back ‘’failure is not an option for me, or my team.’’ Though the evergreen hero might still take it sportingly if Nightriders fail to deliver, same can not be said of many other franchises who have too much pride, or money at stake.