Gentleman's Game or new Circus in Town !!

India is a nation which breathes sports and the mother of all sports here is Cricket. Well thats wrong on some levels. If cricket is introduced as a religion, people wont think twice to jump across and adopt it in the same way how Dhoni has adopted Ravindra Jadeja. Even the most minute of any cricketing activity takes place, people sit and take notice. Just no mere noticing facts, but we will take those couple of steps ahead and chew and ruminate these facts. Finally spit the by product, sometimes its a piece of news or moral while some other time its a whole individual. Now I feel how Aditya Pancholi feels. Bollywood is so cruel !!

So when India witnessed one of its precursors to another Cricket-esque circus i.e. IPL auction, the excitement of the commoners knew no bounds. For a country where the movie heroes take oaths of being above any kind of money and lust, these cricketers go under the hammer as easy as taking candy away from a baby. Are these cricketers mere puppets in this entire glamour show ? Lets ask Mr. Manmohan Singh ... ... ... ... Ok .. so moving on !! *Awkward*

So even if the world at large seems to struggle in terms of economic conditions, here at the IPL auction there were some deep pockets being emptied on the table and everyone was all in !! This being the sixth auction, the nine teams which were a part of this gala event spent a combined total of $11.89 million (Rs.64 crore approximately) on purchasing 37 players, as against 25 players at last year's event. So the usual suspects were there, the MIs and the CSKs but apart from that there was one major change. The Deccan's charge no more existed and was replaced by Sun TV channel sponsored Sun Risers - A new team from Hyderabad.

The story of the entire auction was Aussie Aussie Aussie !! Yay Yay Yay !! The major coup being Glenn Max (All is) Well. The Victorian all rounder fetched a massive $1 million from Mumbai Indians. The biggest price in the auction. Melbourne just witnessed the Maxwell family doing a series of cartwheels and standing sommersaults on the streets. Also there were big paydays for some of the little heard Aussie boys like Kane Richardson, Coulter-Nile and Ben Laughlin. Not to forget Mr. Punter - Ricky Ponting who will be seen sharing tele space with the Little Master Sachin Tendulkar himself when they open the innings for Mumbai Indians in the coming season. Some of the other prominent players to go under the hammer where Michael Clarke, Darren Sammy and Ajantha Mendis. Abhishek Nayar was the top grossing Indian with almost 7 times the base amount. The comic relief of the day went to Sun RISERS when they signed Quinton De KOCK .. quite a match this !!

Setting up this grand affair only cost millions of bucks plus the hospitality of the bidders. And taking a leaf out of this money spinning book, people are setting up their own versions for every sport. There is already a Hockey League in place based on this. iLeague (football)was already there, trust me it was. Now we have Badminton and Boxing planning competitions and leagues on similar business model. Even our Bollywood celebrities are not far behind. They have their own cricket variation - Celebrity Cricket League with the Veer Marathis & Bhojpuri Dabangs. Time will come when there will be Kite Flying Super League or Marbles Champions League. 

The names or the players that were auctioned were not surprising. After all they are talented individuals who have done well for club or country. However the money spent on them and the manner in which it is spent. Phenomenal amount of money is spent sometimes even on unproven talent. Even Ted Mosby's kids have a better probability of knowing their mother than some of these franchisees knowing how their players can deliver. Gone are the days when the Dames & the Sires were sitting in the pavilions at Lords and appreciating each master cricket shot with an applause set of three claps. Now its all cheer leaders, DJs and vuvuzelas. But life comes a full circle and yours truly is pretty sure that those days will come again. And yes Mr. W.G. Grace is waiting for you !!

The Gold and the Loans !!

With the recent surge in the markets, we saw a big impetus in the books of Gold Loan Financing companies ... The big Ms - Mannapuram n Muthoot finance especially. Even the markets are going ga-ga over the performance. So what exactly is the business model of these Gold Loan financing companies ? 

Many of these companies have been quoting astronomical growth figures, supported by unrelenting demand from a public increasingly looking at gold more as an investment than as a piece of jewellery. Something which has proved to be a big deviation from the otherwise socially conservative Indian culture and the 'whole family jewels need to be safeguarded' issue. Its as strange as Nirupa Roy with extravagant makeup and short skirt partying in Hard Rock Cafe. 

So basically the model works in a very simple manner. Gold jewellery as well as gold in other forms is collected and taken to one of these Gold loan financing companies and kept as collateral for small term say 6 months to one year. In return loan amount upto as high as 10-15 lakhs is transacted to the investor and the gold is kept safe with the organization. The gold is returned once the payment is made. So yeah .. no rocket science.

One more fact to ponder is that what do these organizations do with the gold jewellery in the mean time? Well it just stays with them in the safe lockers and no, it is neither showcased on their public mannequin Bappi Lahiri's body nor invested further to cover the opportunity cost.

Conveniently speaking, these gold loan financing companies are working more on the lines of probability of default. With the yellow metal in sight, they will obviously look towards the investors to default so that the 'Precious' can be there's to keep. Thats why all the terms and conditions are super lucrative which make the risk averse of all drool away in greed. As opposed to 12-15% interest rate on personal loans, people are still opting for 20-24% gold loan rate as it is still better than 35 odd % offered by the unorganized moneylenders. Enough of the numbers coz numbers do not justify anything, ask poor Wasim Jaffer !! Bad Bad Srini uncle !!

Another thing which acts in the favour of these gold loans is that you get the loan with the minimum of fuss and that too in a jiffy. It is said that the loan amount is said to be transferred in just an hour. Some gold loan financing institutions guarantee transfer of money in 6 minutes flat. Thats a laymen equivalent of 6 cups of ready to eat noodles. Phenomenal !!

Secondly, minimal paperwork is what is asked for. Just a photo ID and one pan card copy here or passport copy there should do the trick. No credit history is asked. Infact there is a huge advantage if the investor defaults. It works well for those people to whom regulated banks and NBFC wont give loans. Again a win-win for the parties involved.

The next and one of the decisive fact about these Gold loan financing companies is the penetration of the same across India. Each nook and corner seems to be having an office of a gold loan company. There might not be a convenience store but gold loan finance we have !! No wonder the market share of the Big Ms has risen to almost 1/3rd of the organized market. Let the celebrations begin !!

Finally these companies are leaving no stone unturned. Roping in celebrities, regional or even the Tees Maar Khan of Bollywood for promotions is like the ultimate step. And yes, in this celebrity inspired innocent India its working. So we leave you with one glimpse of the brand ambassador of a gold loan company, telling you what to do to the worries once you are their member - A big Bye Bye !!