The merry mix of Mallya’s men

In today's day and time, democracy seems to be the in thing, even when it comes to corporate decisions and responsibilities. Many a corporate honcho has gushed eloquent about how he is "one of the men". "You are the experts," they thunder, "you have a free hand in running the show. I'm just the man who signs the cheques."That's exactly what happened with the Bangalore Royal Challengers and Dr. Vijay Mallya. He thought he had hired the best in the business, and given them a free hand when it comes to creating the Bangalore team, brand, and ensuing success.Well, 'hired' may not be quite the right word. It was more like he told his UB head honchos, "ok boys, I'm pumping in the money, you go in and find the best in the business, and make this look good". He thought, and with some justification, that he had done the right thing.But the irony about cricket is, that everyone in this country thinks he knows it the best, and sadly, not even 10 per cent of these believers actually have the faintest clue about the game, or who the experts are. So when the UB big guns were posed with this problem, they turned to the people they know, from a game they know - golf.Charu Sharma, over the past few years, has been consistently more visible on the golf course than any cricket field. In any case, he never was an 'expert' in cricket, he was an anchor, and by definition, the anchor is the person who knows the least about the game, and depends largely on his earpiece and teleprompter to know what to ask, and who to ask.But the UB boys had seen Sharma on TV, even in a cricket programme! So they caught him (ten-to-one, on a golf course), and asked him, "boss, what to do?" Sharma's answer must have been predictable - "hire me, I'll sort things out." Sharma is a pretty decent Master of Ceremonies for a golf tournament, and an anchor for cricket. He is not an 'expert'.Also, given that Rahul Dravid was the icon player for Bangalore, do you seriously think Sharma would go against the former India skipper when it came to choosing players? Did Mallya overrule Dravid? As we understand, Mallya sacked Sharma as the CEO (that was what he was) did not convey the team owner's ire about team selection to the captain, coach and others. Basically, he wanted Sharma to go and yell at Dravid.What Mallya didn't realise, is that Sharma didn't have the credentials to question Dravid or Martin Crowe (the Chief Cricket Officer).Also, Mallya is now complaining about how Dravid and Sharma ignored him about what players to hire. Please. Mallya owns the company, and as far as we understand, he gave them total freedom about choosing the players. It was only after his friends called it a Test team, did Mallya realise that he didn't have the best team. So basically, he didn't know whom to choose, when they were chosen.So it was a merry mix. Mallya deputised his big guns to hire the best, since he didn't really know. They hired Sharma, since they didn't really know. Sharma didn't challenge Rahul Dravid, since he didn't really know. Mallya didn't get the players he wanted, but he didn't know who they were, did he?The sum total of it all is there for all to see. We can almost see Mallya fuming, but not being able to do much when Dravid pouts. We have already seen Sharma doing the martyr act. What we didn't actually see is the UB boys getting their ears pinned back by the boss, in his plush office. They actually are the real culprits. But they run a business much larger than cricket.So someone had to be the fall guy. And Charu Sharma was perfect.