Raj Kundra, Gurunath Meiyappan cricket ban: Two gentlemen and a game

Like the gentleman's magazine or the gentleman's club, the gentleman's game also was always open to how one interpreted 'gentleman'. By virtue of being Mr Shilpa Shetty, Raj Kundra was gentleman aplenty for the then IPL ringmaster when the couple bought about 12 per cent stake in Rajasthan Royals in 2009, just before the commencement of IPL's second season. The man credited of having brought the Pashmina shawl into the designer-wear of his home country Britain, Kundra was a successful businessman. And a successful British-Indian has only two big ticket desires: to marry into Bollywood, and to get ones toe into cricket. Check, check.
There's a story of how Kundra and Shetty, during the 2009 IPL that was shifted to South Africa, the couple insisted on being ferried to the match ground from their hotel in a Lamborghini. Unfortunately, no one seemed to find a Lamborghini to flag down. With temperatures rising, a car was finally driven down from somewhere out of town. If Kundra wanted to cheer his Royals after getting down from a purring luxury sports car, by the whiskers of Jam Saheb Shri Ranjitsinhji, he would have that.

Fancy cars were not far from the scheme of things for Gurunath Meiyappan, who, depending on his father-in-law N Srinivisan's mood , was 'team principal' of Chennai Super Kings, a 'cricket enthusiast', a 'patron' or 'promotor' of CSK, but never quite 'owner'. Married to Srini's daughter Rupa, Guru insisted on driving his car from his home in Chennai to the India Cement factory in "16 minutes flat".

IPL legend has it that as CSK 'well-wisher', he was super keen to acquire Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan for CSK during the 2011 bids. At the auction, damaad reportedly kept looking at his dad-in-law for a sign. Finally, a text arrived from Srinivasan across the room. Unfortunately, for Guru, Murali was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore just when he looked down to read sasur's text message.

Both these gentlemen, now banned from things cricket beyond the ordinary avatar of spectators, can now go back to their holes. And perhaps look for another hobby, another interest to latch on to.