Who Will Be Relegated From the FA Premier League in 2011?

I predict the following teams will finish in this order in the league. What do you think?

18 - West Brom

Under Roberto Di Matteo West Brom have bounced back to the premier league in style, missing out from winning the championship by Newcastle. Despite bolstering their squad with the Spanish Centre back Pablo Ibanez from Athletico Madrid and the Romania defender Gabriel Tamas from Auxerre, expect West Brom to struggle this season. They will have some notable scalps this season but consistency will be an issue.

Transfer rumours: Callum Davenport, Phil Bardsley, Jimmy Bullard

19 - Wolves

Despite managing to stay up last season Wolves will find life hard in the league this term. It's a measure of a newly promoted team if they can maintain their status, and Wolves did just that, though they have to sign Chelsea loanee Michael Mancienne if they are to stand a chance. They have brought in Hull's talisman from last season, Hunt, and a premier league goal-scorer in Burnley's Steve Fletcher, but even with these players their strength in depth will still be lacking for the top flight. Wolves can ill afford losing two of their stars, Ebanks-blake and Kevin Doyle, who are both rumoured for either Villa or Blackpool.

Transfer rumours: Robbie Keane, Tommy Smith, Andre Bikey

20 - Blackpool

So far Ian Holloway has not made any signings, though that will surely change. Despite this lack of activity Blackpool, who made it through the play-offs last season will be the Premier League whipping boys. Holloway will give them a never say die attitude and for some teams they will be hard to beat, but expect them to be propping up the table come the end of the season.

Transfer rumours: Frederic Piquionne, Aruna Dindane, Robert Lewandowski

Other teams who will need to be looking down the league closely will be Sunderland, Newcastle and Wigan.c Without Roy Hodgson Fulham will have to be careful they don't drop down also.

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IPL Revelry and Cricketing Tragedy!

If big money has been a big element of Indian Cricket the Indian Premier League (IPL) made it plain and complicated in its third avatar. And a cricketing tragedy was repeated in a more powerful way.

It is plain because of the transparent purchase deals with the cricketers. All the stars and players of Team India, all retired icons and ex players got sums that put test and one day cricket money to mockery. It is plain because of the transparency of the purchase deals of the eight franchises.

It is complicated when it comes to recovering the money spent or invested by the franchisees. The revenues in terms of gate money, television rights sales, ads in the stadiums, branding or co-branding and all are supposed to be split between them and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and there are no written rules about such deals. It got more complicated in 2010 when two more franchises or teams, Pune and Kochi, were purchased with astronomical sums which almost doubled the sum that seemed 'practical'. Even the former IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi found it 'unexpected'. The buyers termed them as 'prestige' deals. Of course, they all want a ride of glamour, attention, hype and sleaze, but they will never prefer losing their hard earned money. So, the hidden agenda.

The hidden agenda remained hidden till the third version of the IPL. Involvement of a minister of the Indian Government who was forced to resign later blew the lid this time. A barrage of invectives between Modi and the minister followed, the BCCI promptly separated itself from Modi, crucial papers and files got missing, former cricketers were implicated and things got so murky that the moment the final of IPL-3 ended, Lalit Modi was sacked by the BCCI.

The side deals, payoffs, kick backs, betting and all came to the fore. Very naturally so, in a business that involved billions.

It is complicated due to the high pressure and politics. The players have to perform to justify sums spent on them and yield returns to owners, the owners have to motivate the players to perform, team selections matters need to be handled, batting order and bowling order must be adjusted depending on performance, fitness problems sorted out and the cricket revelers must be hooked continuously to the 'shows'.

And big money comes to rule absolutely. Big money corrupts and spoils as we have already seen. Matters of genuine cricket and cricket lovers get relegated to the back burner. Since the dawn of the IPL in 2008 a cricketing tragedy loomed on the horizon and now it is extremely large. More of it later.

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