Wednesday, June 11, 2008

IPL

Work, health and other commitments took turns to ensure I stayed away from my blog. But I am back now.

IPL - Was a grand success and I have to admit that it defied my prediction. What I made of the various outfits that competed and also their constituent members including the so called icon players however remains unchanged. A few words on IPL -
Pawar exacted his revenge on Punter as only the wily Maratha strongman could. He also managed to clip the high flying Turbanators wings. Lalit Modi ensured the tournament was a grand success. Shahrukh Khan sold KKR so wonderfully that it has more suppporters that any other team and money as well. Sean Marsh with the maximum number of runs in the IPL hinted that perhaps T20 is not vastly different from normal cricket (Test and ODI). IPL also proved that Australlians still rule the world of cricket - Shane Warne doing a Lagaan with Rajasthan Royals and Shane Watson winning the top cricketers tag at IPL. For Indian cricketers - including those who did not get selected in the national side - the IPL seems to have been a big boost of confidence and bank balance as well. Indeed this confidence reflects in the win over Pakistan in Mirpur by our first eleven yesterday. A record margin at that. Some new names have come to the fore for India because of IPL - Asnodkar, Yusuf Pathan, Manpreet Gony.
On the flip side -
The 'cheer leader' concept is ghastly. I will say no more about it. The fact that two highly successful teams (Mohali and Jaipur) are owned in part by Lalit Modi's relatives needs to be investigated. There were more than a few administrative glitches that need to be fixed before the next IPL event. Gaps between Indian talent and the overseas talent is immense. Asnodkars, Pathans, Jadejas, Gonys are nowhere near the class of Shane Watson or Sean Marsh. Balaji, Nehra, Zaheer, Agarkar are spent forces. Same applies to Ganguly, Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman. Owners of certain teams need to be sober in their actions and words. Case in point is the King of Booze. It was sad to see a few cricketers like Ranadeb Bose get completly shunted out. Some cricketers need to demonstrate some humility - India U19 captain (whatsisname?), Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh amongst many other over rated individuals. Others need to prove that they were born with a brain and still have it - Bhajji, Sreesanth, Nehra. Then those like Jadeja, Asnodkar, Ojha, Saha, Laxmi Ratan Shukla will need a reality check. They may never get beyond IPL unless they improve drastically. I am tempted to add to the last list the names of Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman.....in that order.
Dravid perhaps already has done the check himself given his teams performance and his recent comments about T20. Tendulkar continues to play a few matches, despite his injuries and duly gets his stumps cleaned up by ordinary bowlers. His range of shots has gone down dramatically. If Sachin is a lame cow then what can one make of Dada? His repeated assertions about his batting form can fool only himself. He may have chosen to go out screaming, feet first and all that but will need to ensure that his pants dont get pulled off in the process. Laxaman is Laxativeman. Our selectors really need to find a replacement for him in tests as wells. This despite his performance down under.
Well to sum up, nothing succeeds like success and IPL has been a success. Not all owners may have made money ....certainly not the owners of Deccan Chargers who were left holding the wooden spoon despite individual heroics from Rohit Sharma, Gilchrist, R P Singh. It remains to be seen as to what impact this will have on first class tourneys like Ranji Trophy, other competitions like zonal cricket and even local tournaments like Kanga League in Mumbai. History has been made and perhaps the game itself is at crossroads. Where IPL will lead it to only time can tell.

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