👮The Last Godfather!
Gear up for a women's cricketing bonanza and brush up on your mafia trivia in RoundOp 51.0...
📦 What’s inside?
The Women’s IPL is here!
Italian mobsters and the mafia…
Catchup on RoundOp
🐬 Deep Dive
Our top stories of the week
#1 The Women’s IPL is here!
Who are the bidders? What is the auction purse? Here are all the answers
The Women’s Indian Premier League will begin in India in March 2023 under the auspices of the BCCI governing body. The regulations and game structure will be identical to those used in the men’s Indian Premier League. The BCCI’s strategy for the WIPL is for the competition to include 22 matches with five teams participating. WIPL has huge potential but most of the legacy teams would like to mix optimism with pragmatism…
The BCCI is all set to get richer by at least Rs 4000 crore with some of the top business houses set to bid aggressively for the five Women's IPL (WIPL) teams that would be auctioned. According to market experts, the teams are expected to shell out in the "range of 500 to 600 crore INR" per team in the closed-bid auction.
Here’s the good part…
Finally a reality - There were several rounds of talks held between the top BCCI officials amid rising pressure from the cricket fans to organize the Women’s Indian Premier League (IPL).
The women’s version of the Indian Premier League (W-IPL) will include five different teams, each representing a different one of India’s six zones. The BCCI will send bid invitations for all five tournament franchises.
The teams can field five overseas players in the final eleven at a time, with the fifth player being from an associate member nation.
The tournament is expected to begin on March 4 and would be played across two venues in Maharashtra.
The Guessing game!
Seven franchises - Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Delhi Capitals, Punjab Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders - have confirmed that they have submitted the bids.
Ray of Hope?
Having another form of IPL would make a lot of difference because one thing that the Indian women’s cricket team lacks in terms of performance is playing in pressure moments.
Despite reaching the finals of the Women’s Cricket World Cup, Indian women cricketers had to struggle financially to make a living. However, following their heroic achievements, it is past time for our country to develop a franchise-based league for female cricketers.
🔴 Bottomline: Any T-20 league held in India would attract the top female cricketers from across the world. It would be a thrilling chance for someone like Deepti Sharma or Rajeshwari Gayakwad to bowl against Meg Lanning and Sarah Taylor on a daily basis. It is frequently stated that in order to become the greatest, you must compete against the best.
📺 In for a thriller?
The White Whale of Cosa Nostra
Mafia Boss Arrested in Italy After Eluding Capture for 30 Years …
Matteo Messina Denaro, who was sentenced in absentia for the 1992 murders of two prosecutors and other crimes, was apprehended recently at a Sicilian hospital.
Even by mafia standards, his crimes curdled the blood.
Authorities linked him to dozens of murders in the 1990s, including the kidnapping and strangling of a mafia turncoat’s 12-year-old son, whose body was dissolved in acid.
He played a role in the murders of Italy’s two leading anti-mafia prosecutors, in deadly bombings in Milan, Rome and Florence, and in the strangulation of a pregnant woman.
But this Monday, after 30 years on the runand achieving infamy as Italy’s most wanted fugitive, Matteo Messina Denaro, 60, the last Italian mobster linked to a savage period in which Sicily’s “black hand” declared war on the Italian state, was quietly arrested outside a clinic in Palermo after he showed up under an alias for a medical appointment.
He is suspected of being a member of Cosa Nostra, as the Sicilian Mafia is known, to carry out his role as a major mob boss.
What is the Cosa Nostra?
Cosa Nostra is a crime syndicate that began in Sicily in the mid nineteenth century. A "Made Man" is a man that has become a member of Cosa Nostra. According to original Cosa Nostra rules, you had to be of Sicilian descent to be a member, you couldn't have a close relative that was a police officer, etc. Many political leaders have been murdered by Cosa Nostra.
How was he not arrested before?
Nobody knows for sure, but there have long been suspicions that Messina Denaro had his back covered by politicians and other establishment connections. A retired prosecutor who chased him for years blames unspecified “influential” circles.
His arrest finally brings closure to that dark era, shatters a symbol of resistance to the Italian state and could reveal Mafia secrets in the unlikely event that Messina Denaro agrees to talk to investigators.
Messina Denaro was the last godfather, he represented all the secrets of Cosa Nostra. It is the end of a myth and the organisation will have to cope with this.
🔴 What’s next? :The mobster has now been flown to a high-security prison in central Italy to be subjected to the regime under which prisoners are held alone in small cells, with video surveillance in operation at all times. From prison, Messina Denaro will continue to receive cancer treatment and might be called to testify in other Mafia trials, in the unlikely case he breaks Cosa Nostra's "omerta," or code of silence.
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Looking forward to the Women's IPL :')
Hope it'll be as hit as the IPL. 🚀