Why would India Win?

I had written this article just before the start of the Border Gavaskar Trophy and this was expected to be published in bcci.tv which didn't happen for some reason. As we head to close the series, find out how close I was on my predictions :)

Over the years the significance of an India Australia test series has risen dramatically for the sheer level of competition between the two teams and the huge attention it generates among the followers. In the age of Twenty20 and One Day internationals, a test match between India and Australia is followed with equal interest because of the intensity with which games are played. Every series has witnessed magical and historical turnarounds and those who perform have gone on to become bigger stars in their careers.

The upcoming four match test series between India and Australia (Border Gavaskar Trophy) is not going to be any different if the pre-series talks are anything to indicate. Sachin Tendulkar has already termed this series as bigger than the India-Pakistan series with Adam Gilchrist also claiming that the India-Australia contest has grown its iconic status over time. Players would be looking forward to perform in this series as much as the viewers are thinking about managing their own office routines so that they can witness another great contest. Everyone will have the same question in one’s mind: Who would win the Test series this time?

There is no doubt that Australia is the number 1 ranked test team in the world right now and it would take some planned and strategic effort on the part of India to beat them, however my own statistical analysis coupled with a close look on the composition of two teams gives India advantage over Australia.

Statistically, India has been a good test side in the last couple of years. Starting 2007, they have won against Bangladesh in Bangladesh (1-0 off 2), England in England (1-0 off 3), Pakistan in India (1-0 off 3) drawn against South Africa in India (1-1 off 3) and only lost to Srilanka in Srilanka recently (1-2 off 3) thanks largely to Mendis and Murali magic. In addition to this, India have lost a test series last time only in 2004-05 against Australia and before that only in 1999-00 against South Africa. This indicates that India have been a formidable side at home during the last decade and since the core of the team has not changed much in the last few years they have a better chance of regrouping themselves as a team and perform.

Many would argue that the recent loss in Sri Lanka puts India slightly at a disadvantage. However make no mistake as India would be playing this time in home conditions where they are completely different and Australia doesn’t have either a Mendis or a Murali who could pose the same kind of threat to India. In fact the loss in Sri Lanka would in fact have allowed India to think about their game and they would come better prepared to tackle Australia. Test side is an experienced side and the loss should have increased their hunger for victory rather than demoralizing them.

If you look at the composition of the teams, Australia lands in India this time with a team that is completely different from the ones in the past. There is no Langer, no Gilchrist, no Mcgrath, no Shane Warne and no Jason Gillespie. It is a completely different side with as many as 5 players (Jason Kreza, Bryce Mcgain, Doug Bollinger, Phil Jaques and Peter Slide) with little experience behind them. India is a fort of spin and Australia is coming up with two inexperienced spinners Bryce McGain, legbreak googly bowler (Only 19 first class games), and Jason Creza, off break bowler (only 23 first class games). It remains to be seen how effective they would be and with the team lacking on this front, it is also going to be interesting to see whether the fast bowlers mainly comprising of Brett Lee, Stuart Clark and Mitchell Johnson would be effective enough to get the Indian team all out twice in a test match.

On the contrary, India will have two world class spinners with them, Harbhajan Singh and Skipper Kumble who are even more dangerous when it comes to bowling in their home country. India’s fast bowlers mainly in the form of Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma have not done badly recently.

Batting wise, Australia has been a formidable size mainly because of its openers. When India toured Australia in the beginning of the year, the fragility of the openers putting up a decent start was exposed severely and it also had its impact on the middle order. A lot of responsibility would thus lay on the able shoulder of Ricky Ponting the skipper, who still has to play a good series in India as his last outings have not been as great as he would like them to be. This puts him under pressure as he would have a good chance to prove that there are no bunnies in cricket. With India’s nemesis Andrew Symonds not getting the India flight this time around, the middle order does not look to its glorious past on the paper and even though Hussey, Clark and Katich are all experienced and competitive players, they would certainly need to play at their best skill level to match up to Australia’s past. India at the same time would draw confidence from Missing Symonds, Gilchrist and other key players who have been proven match winners in the past.

India’s batting on the other hand looks settled with Virendra Sehwag and Gambhir in great forms recently. Even though Dravid has not been in the best of forms, but he would like to change things this time around and with Sachin and Laxman coming in the middle order, India’s batting order definitely looks more settled especially at home conditions.

If India starts the series well and puts Australia under pressure, they would have a big advantage. India’s good records at home, Australia’s little inexperienced and new side missing key players coupled with India’s far settled team composition thus give India a better chance to compete at home if they can play to their potential. If I had to predict the series outcome, I would give it India’s favour with 2-1 or even 2-0 with India winning the games in Mohali and Delhi. India will only have to save the Bangalore test where they have not done good for many years. Since Bangalore test if the first test, India must do reasonably well over there and a draw if not a win would be ideal to set the platform for the series.

Steyn rubs salt on Mallaya, apologizes later

As if the embarrassing 7/8 was not enough for the Bangalore Royal challengers, Dale Steyn the South African fast bowler and a front line bowler for the Bangalore Royal Challengers in the IPL, remarked that "the IPL was only four overs a game and it was like a paid holiday; you only had to work hard if you felt like it, which is probably why we finished second-last."

This perhaps tells the story about the loyalty of the players to their respective franchise as such and why the players are playing in the IPL. It proves further money to be a big factor and perhaps it would be a while before IPL can see the team loyalty among the players. At the time when we have been talking about whether IPL would be able to induce the loyalty for the local teams among the viewers and whether the viewers would be able to switch loyalties within months to support their national heroes once again who might have played opposite their local team in the IPL, this revelation by Dale Steyn has been an eye opener.

Later on, however, Steyn apologized for his comments saying "I was trying to be funny and just ended up being stupid - I was an idiot." and he reiterated his commitment to the Bangalore team by saying "I have written to the franchise to express my unreserved regret and apologies and tried to explain the circumstances of my comments. Sometimes, when you lose, you try to make a joke of it to lessen the disappointment. It was a stupid thing to say and a painful lesson for me to learn. I desperately regret my naivety and look forward to the opportunity of helping the franchise reach the semi-finals next year".

If you are ready to believe what Dale Steyn said later, I believe you are a big fool. The change of statement might have come after he realized how severely he might have damaged his future holiday plans in India, or it might have also come from the pressure created by already dejected and wounded lion in the form of beerwalah. Well, you never know..

Buying a cricket bat online

Buying a bat online can be risky and at times you might not get what you want. We always want to feel the bat before we buy it as we used to do as a kid. But unfortunately, here in Arizona, we do not have many choices to go to the shop, see everything and buy a bat. We only have a shop run by Paul ward in Mesa. You can visit his website to get more details about that. If you find something fitting your choice and budget, Great. Go and buy it locally.

However, you would always like to do research to get better and cheaper things. Choice wise, you would only be limited to Gray Nicolls at Paul’s Shop. Basic thing is we need to do a bit of research, probably spend half an hour to 1 hour on a few websites. For example, let us say I like the below mentioned BAT.

Reebok Bat at Amazon

I would go and search the same bat on different cricket equipment website. Some of them are:

1. www.cricmart.com (KCC member gets up to 15% discount and free shipping)
2. www.desiSport.com
3. http://www.bigbluecricket.com/ (Currently 10% discount and free shipping)
4. http://shop.dreamcricket.com/dreamcricket/pavilion/pavhome.asp

Search for the same bat on the above websites, read its specifications, see the pictures and you would get a good idea about blade, curve and weight. Some of them specifically mention the weight etc. 2lbs 10 Oz is the weight of my bat and its medium weight. I am sure most bats that we have in the team are in that range. You can get a fare idea about the bat specification from this article. If you are still not sure you can contact the website owner and shoot your questions.

So spend sometime and order it as soon as you want to play. You would need 1-2 week to prepare it.

Summary: If you spend an hour or so, minimal risk is involved :)

Cricket Bat Maintenance:

Sometime back, I had collected a few articles on this and posted them to 123kings.com. Please click here to visit the page. You can also Google and get many related articles.

Incessant Rain ends Knight Riders’ Hopes

Unfortunately Kolkata Knight Riders’ worst nightmare came out true as they have been kicked out of IPL not by one of the IPL teams but by the Incessant Delhi rain even without a single ball being bowled.

Interesting Equations:

IPL in its last phase is getting interesting as the cricketing equations are changing to some extent at the end of everyday. Since Kolkata Knight Riders are out now, this confirms a semi final spot for Punjab Kings XI. With this, Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings XI are confirmed semi finalists.

This washout means Delhi must win their last game of IPL against the Mumbai Indians at the same Ground. Rain permitting, if Delhi beats Mumbai, they would have 15 points, 3 more than Mumbai Indians. Mumbai Indians in that case will have to win their last two games against the Rajasthan Royals and Bangalore Royal challengers to get 16 points and beat Delhi for the semi final spot. In case the rain doesn’t show any mercy and the weather forecast is definitely not with Delhi, Delhi would only have 14 points and Mumbai would only need to win one of their remaining games to qualify for semi-finals.

Chennai on the other hand must be cursing themselves for losing the game against the Bangalore Royal Challengers. Had they won, they could have qualified for semi finals by now. They also need to win at least one of their remaining two games against Rajasthan Royals and Deccan chargers respectively. In the worst case scenario, if they lose both, and Delhi also lose to Mumbai, they will tie at 14 points with Delhi and NRR will decide their fate. As for now, Delhi has a much better run rate (+0.350) than Chennai has (-0.209). So Chennai Super Kings would definitely not like to leave it to the NRR. However if Chennai loses both the remaining games and Delhi beat’s Mumbai and Mumbai in turn beats both Rajasthan Royals and Bangalore, Chennai would be kicked out.

Remaining games now don't deter the semi final chances for Punjab and Rajasthan, but they would certainly love to go into the semi finals with the momentum in their side. Cricket at times is all about momentum.

Stay Away Shahrukh, this is Cricket after all

IPL is not purely cricket in its traditional sense. Recent developments have proved it adequately. As we have masala movies in Bollywood, it seems to be masala cricket . IPL has business tycoons owning the teams, red skin cheerleaders, and Bollywood as its integral part. Every part has already injected some spice into IPL so far. For example: Cheerleaders are making news about racial allegations, Vijay Mallaya made headlines by revealing how he was not given importance during the selection of his own team and Shahrukh khan made headlines by declaring his team as the best one to be followed and worshipped by every cricket fan. He further did everything to remain in the news and before the camera. Of course he is the master of all this, after all he is a big Bollywood star. Camera by default follows him and he knows what it takes to grab the attention everywhere he goes.

IPL at its core is all about business and everyone involved is naturally concerned about money, fame or advertisement. The movie “Jannat” has already got its due profit from the IPL if the reports are to be believed. Did we see Imran Hashmi roaming all over the places talking about the film? Having said that, trust me, if business Corporates and Bollywood have to walk along with Cricket, this is all but natural and should be accepted. No objection till this point.

However it would be most disappointing for many cricketers and cricket lovers when someone would try to bend the rules and encroach into the privacy of cricket and its rules savoured for many years. What would be even more disappointing is, if such rules are bent for a specific case or a specific personality. This is neither good for the game nor for the audience. This doesn’t leave a good message for which people are so passionate about cricket or any sport in general.

In this light, I believe Shahrukh Khan’s over involvement with his team was adequately incorrect. Agreed that he is the owner of the team, but that doesn’t mean he should be allowed to do anything he sees fit. I find many reasons to mention why Shahrukh khan should not been allowed into the private dressing rooms or the dugouts which are exclusively meant for the players, manager and the coach of the team (As per the ICC rules):

1. By definition: The dug outs and the dressing room are exclusively meant for the players, manager and the coach of the team. He is none of them.
2. Businessmen Vs Sportsmen: SRK is after all the owner of the team and has invested 80 million dollars to buy Kolkata Knight Riders. That is a big money. Anyone who invests such a big money is a businessman. A businessman would do anything it takes to see his returns multiplying. Did we not learn a big lesson out of match fixing controversies already that you get millions of bucks to lose a game? If a businessman is making millions by losing the game, I wonder why he would not do it. SRK might claim to be a sportsman himself, he might go on record saying he own the kids of his team and they are like his own kids, but at the end of the day we all know, IPL is all about business more than anything else. Why take a chance and out the game’s honors on jeopardy? ICC’s Anti Corruption unit has its existence for some valuable reasons after all. If ICC is allowing all such people in those private areas, it is basically opening a chance for messages from the bookies to be passed right on time.
3. When would we start respecting the laws? We talk about India getting developed and all that, but tell me one developed country where you find such laws by the book are bent to favor someone just because he is a movie super star? Will we ever learn the basics that everyone is equal before the laws?
4. For the sake of ICC’s existence: ICC is the supreme body of Cricket and every sport has its equivalent. It is of paramount importance that ICC has its place and say. If today the rules are bent for SRK, tomorrow it would demand a similar change from another personality. By allowing all this, where would ICC land up?

From a person who claim’s to be a sportsman, such things are not expected and it is indeed a demoralizing things for all youngsters to see and follow. At the same time, it could equally be possible that he was not briefed about the actual rules by the officials and he was doing all this for the lack of information. In that case, I would blame it to Lalit Modi and Co. who could also be seen in the dugouts and in the players’ private areas. He himself should refrain from doing this. Did we ever see any cricket board’s officials visiting the dressing rooms before in a test match or one day match?

What was more disappointing was Shahrukh’s statement that he would do anything to see his players and no one can stop him. WOW. He needs to be reminded that he is not acting in one of the Bollywood flicks and he has the freedom to tweak the dialogues, this is live sports called Cricket and rules of the game are completely different here. No tweaks are allowed. Owning a team, doesn’t give him rights to do anything he sees fit. And if you observe the happenings clearly, now probably that he realizes this mistake, he issued a statement saying “He would not meet his players in the dugouts etc until he has reviewed the ICC rules”. For me it simply sounds like a emotional dialogue from Veer Zara. Or is the reason more practical now since the beloved Kolkata Knight Riders is virtually out of the IPL?

BCCI’s action has also been very disappointing. They seem to be inching towards supremacy in cricket but this phenomenon should get its due respect. It should not make them arrogant. Anything to dishonor the rules and spirit of the game would certainly fire them in the long run. I would also expect ICC to be more strict when handling such matters if they really plan to exist in the future otherwise they would be galloped by BCCI soon. Issuing a statement today and changing it the other day, doesn’t convince anyone in the public, it just proves that you have no power whatsoever.

PS:- The views expressed are completely personal and are not inteded to hurt sentiments and the loyalty of the fans of anyone or anything.

IPL Observes Chocker's Day

IPL saw a day which can aptly be termed as "Chokers Day". First, Mumbai Indians collapsed from a winning position, thereby denting their semi-final chances to some extent, and in the second game, the Chennai Super Kings collapsed from a similar position chasing a modest total against a team that had lost 5 of its previous games.

The loss of Chennai Super Kings would surprise many pundits given the modest total they had to chase, but more surprisingly it is going to surprise even the Bangalore Royal challengers. They hardly did anything extra ordinary, but it was CSK that created a panic situation out of nowhere. Kumble was the main bowler with 3/14 and was ably supported by Styne towards the end. This game has further exposed the frailty of Chennai's batting line up and it is a definite cause of concern for them as their bowling attack is not one of the best when we are talking about the semi finalists. As their captain put things aptly at the end, rash shot selections and perhaps the over confidence was the key to a shameful loss, which seem to have dented their chances for semi final a bit. After all this was a game, they should have won easily.

Mumbai Indians, on the other hand were equally big chokers. After the brilliance of Shaun Marsh and LA Pomersbach saw Punjab put a big total of 189 runs, Tendulkar and Jaysurya provided a perfect start to Mumbai Indians adding 36 runs in the first three overs. DR Smith later joined Tendulkar and continued from where Jaysurya had left and it looked as if the Mumbai were all set for their 7th record consecutive win in IPL. But a tight spell from Chawla changed the things as Mumbai indian's completely panicked and collapsed once Tendulkar was run out in the 17th over. As many as 6 run outs in the Mumbai Indian innings confirms the panic in the Mumbai camp, not to foget the last one of Yeligati outdone by a brilliant Yuvraj.

Chennai would like to remember this loss when they meet another joker in Hyderabad next time. Playing an underdog at times is really tricky because the underdogs have nothing to lose and hence they are under no pressure.

Mumbai Indians on the other hand, still have three games and the confidence of 6 straight wins prior to this game. This should make them positive for the next three games.

Semi Final Gate slightly opened : With two top teams, Chennai and Mumbai, losing their games today, it has slightly opened the semi final gate for Delhi Daredevils. Delhi's only way for a semi final spot remains the same- win both the games, however they would be helped a bit from the panic created in the camps of Chennai and Mumbai after today's loss. As it was seen today, both Mumbai and Chennai failed under pressure and panicked at the time they should have maintained their calm. Delhi Daredevils, would hope CSK and Mumbai Indians continue in the same vein for the games to come.

Analysis : IPL Semi Finals Spots Nearly Fixed

With today's match, (May 20th, 44th match - Kolkata Knight Riders v Rajasthan Royals) where Rajasthan Royal's thrashed the Kolkata Knight Riders by 6 wickets, the Semi Final spots in the DLF IPL seems to be nearly fixed. At least we are in a position to know which teams are not going to make it. Below chart shows the current standings and it follows my own analysis:

Jaipur: They certainly have emerged as the Royals. Topping the chart with 9 out of 11 wins so far, they have sealed the semi final spot without any doubt now. Even if they lose their remaining three games (worst case scenario), they are going to comfortably make it to semis.

Mohali: They are number 2 right now and the good news for them is they still have 4 matches to go namely against Mumbai Indians, Deccan Chargers, Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals. They would certainly like to win against the Deccan Chargers as it might be their easiest game of all. They would also like to win against the KKR, since that would eliminate all possibilities of KKR advancing into semis. Only with these two wins, they should command the number 2 or 3 position.

Chennai Supper Kings: They have three games left against Bangalore, Rajasthan and Hyderabad. They need to win at least one of them. Given the performance of Bangalore and Hyderabad in the tournament so far, I believe it is going to be easy for them. 2 wins would make them comfortable at number 2 or 3.

Mumbai Indians: This team has been the biggest surprise so far given the way they started in the tournament. It seems ouster of Harbhajan Singh has motivated them to the same extent as the return of Sachin Tendulkar who is yet to play a valuable knock in this shorter version. With 4 games remaining for them, namely against Punjab, Delhi, Rajasthan and Bangalore, they have time in their stride. Having said that, they at least need to win 2 of their remaining four games to be comfortable. They are now tied with Delhi, so they must beat Delhi as well.

Delhi Daredevils: It is a pity that after such a dream start the daredevils are languishing behind the top 4 teams. It is another pity that daredevils are the team who posses the best opening partners in the tournament and one of the openers (Gambhir) is also the most run accumulator in the tournament so far. Their opening bowler Mcgrath has been consistent and miser. In spite of all these facts, they are the joker right now. With two more games remaining to their name, they have the chance to make some upset in the last few matches before IPL heads for knockouts. All in all, they must win both the games against Mumbai Indians as well as KKR. They are going to see the toughest games, because both KKR and Mumbai Indians would try to beat them and seal their own chances for semis. Watch out for these two games.

Kolkata Knight Riders, Deccan Chargers, Bangalore Royal Challengers: In my opinion these teams are out of the first edition of DLF IPL.

Obviously teams qualifying for Semis would not like to be at number 4 and face number 1 (Rajasthan in most probability) in the semi's itself. So every team would compete hard to leave the number 4 spot and give themselves a much better chance to advance into the finals.

Tie Ups: There are high chances that 2-3 teams would stand at the same number of points after this league round. This induces masala in IPL in the remaining games when the teams would not only want to win the games but win them comprehensively. Watch out for big hits and hence big failures.

PS:- This analysis is completely based on my opinion and it might not match everyone's. Not that I care, but I do apologize to the loyal fans of KKR, Deccan Chargers and Bangalore to mention that they are out of the IPL. (I assume, IPL has been able to infuse some loyalty among the local fans)

No Salary cap in IPL is no good

Offer of a 4 mn contract to Peterson is already doing its round and at the same time we are hearing that there might not be any Salary Cap for the players in IPL from Next season onwards. For the first season, a franchise could spend only 5 mn dollar at the max on its players. Dhoni turned out to be the costliest T20 dude followed by the biggie Andrew Symonds.

Obviously, cricket in its T20 form in general and IPL in particular is all about economics and making money. No one can deny that and no one can question that. It is only going to get bigger with players getting salaries to the tune of millions of dollars for a few months. Why this is an area of concern?

1. It has already been a success with the Salary cap in place. First edition of IPL has already seen a fierce competition. After all what is the need to change it?
2. Without no salary cap, a team like Bangalore, if the frustration of its owner is anything to go by, would try to buy many big players at any money. A few other franchisee would also do the same and it would then turn out to be who has got the Money power and it would no longer be about the cricket players. A franchise spending more money would become a stronger team. Won't this make things boring? Don't we still want T20 to be a cricket game? Or we as spectator just want to see this as a dollar game?
3. So much money in quick time is no good for cricketers either. It would challenge the national loyalty of the players because why would someone not want to earn 10 times the money what he would earn playing for his country? Also in a double quick time?
4. Because of point three, many international teams might lose many players. Ricky ponting has time and again raised this concern. New Zealand has already lost so many to ICL. Now many players might stop playing for their countries and would prefer just to play in the IPL. After all IPL would last only for about 2 months. They can chill out with their families and friends in the remaining months of the year. With no designated window carved out for IPL from the international calender, this seems to be a close possibility. The international teams would be affected and obviously ICC's vision is not aligned to this development. What about spreading it to different countries?

I am afaird of the following consequences in the years to come:

1. Cricket might be run only by such franchises and ICC would become a defunct organization or would exist just for the sake of it.
2. All other forms of cricket, Test, ODIs etc would be scrapped and we would only see T20s.
3. No international matches to be played and it would only be domestic tournament, cricket's NBA? A team from Bangalore or Delhi might be declared the world champions of cricket soon.
4. And many more things, we never dreamt of.

Good luck purists.

IPL to donate Rs 60 mn for Jaipur blast victims

As per the recent report, the eight franchisee owners and sponsors of the Indian Premier League (IPL) have decided to donate Rs 60 million for the victims of the serial bombings that rocked the city on Tuesday. The eight franchises have donated Rs 5 million each, while the five sponsors namely DLF Ltd, Vodafone, Citibank, Kingfisher and Hero Honda have contributed Rs 4 million each. As per the IPL chairman, a cheque would be handed over to the Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje during Saturday's game between Rajasthan team and the Bangalore team.

As we have been discussing about the unfortunate incident that took place in the pink city and the apprehension of the players and what the BCCI should do, this comes as a truly noble guesture on the part of IPL. BCCI seems to have faciliated this without paying anything from its own pocket, but it doesn't matter. The help to the victims is what matters and not how the help is being provided.

As a mark of respect to the victims of the terror attacks, both the teams will wear black armbands during the game on Saturday. This action seems really like a milestone to me. If IPL has to reach to the indian household and into the indian hearts, such efforts are only going to prove as catalysts.

Good show IPL. Atleast we have one thing to mention that we know IPL has definitely benefited.

Finally Bowlers seem to get a hold of Twenty20 in IPL

When most of us first heard about Twenty20 in general and IPL in particular, we all heard and thought that it is purely a batsmen's game. For many cricket fans, It was all about hitting those massive SIXes and flurry of boundaries. It was perhaps all about making the bowler repent for his chosen career path in Cricket world. Cricket purist often criticized this form of the game citing the logic that it is a harakiri for the bowlers as they doesn't stand any chance in this format. Well, in the IPL opening ceremony game and for the next few games that followed, all such notions were well supported with big 100s in a Twenty20 game by Mccullum, Symonds, Hussey and Gilchrist. Umpteen number of countless sixes which has been rare even in the 50-50 format was easy to see af if a video game was being eye witnessed. Mouth watering for many and more success and dollors for IPL and Bollywood.

But it seems, slowly slowly the pattern has been changing and it has stabilised to some extent now. There could be many reasons for example exodus of the international stars, most importantly the australians, the amount of cricket being played and its tiring effect on the players etc. All these reasons have been suitably explained it one of the earlier posts of Mrigank.

However, After a bit of analysis, I do feel that bowlers are now finally getting a strong hold on the subject matter of T20. Initially they must have followed more or less the same approach as they do in regular ODIs if not test matches. Obviously that was not to work as this format gives more freedom to play your shots as you have 11 batsmen to play in only 20 overs. But the bowlers seem to understand a few basic things for their T20 bowling armoury:

1. Bowl lot many slower bowls and mix it well with your faster ones. It is learnt that Shane Warne had this plan for Sehwag and had asked his team members to bowl only slower bowls to him and frastrate him as the bowl would not come to the bat easily. Hard hitters always love it when the bowl comes to the bat really good.
2. Avoid full pitched bowls. As the boundaries have shrinked, chances are what would possibly be a catch near the ropes would be a comfortable SIX in this format. So bowl flat but short of a length. This is what Balaji did against Punjab Kings XI.

When the tournament started off, a dot ball was a Mallika Sherawat (rarity), forget about a Katrina Kaif (maiden over). But as the tournament has progressed, we have seen bowlers coming with many dot balls in overs and in fact we do see 1 or 2 maiden overs every match. In fact there has been instances of maiden wickets. See below.

Bowlers Bowling a Maiden

Mdns	Bowler	For	Mts	Overs bowled
2	IK Pathan	Moh	9	35.2
2	GD McGrath	Del	10	40
1	M Ntini	Chn	3	11
1	ST Jayasuriya	Mum	8	13
1	SM Pollock	Mum	8	28
1	SK Warne	Jai	9	29
1	I Sharma	Kol	9	30.4
1	P Kumar	Ban	9	32.4
1	RP Singh	Hyd	10	36.5
1	M Gony	Chn	10	37

Bowlers Bowling a Wicket-maiden

Bowler	For	Vs	Venue	Match	Batsman dismissed	Over #
Glenn McGrath	Del	Jai	Delhi	3rd	Taruwar Kohli	3rd
Ishant Sharma	Kol	Hyd	Kolkata	4th	Y Venugopal Rao	4th
Shane Warne	Jai	Ban	Bangalore	12th	Mark Boucher	12th
RP Singh	Hyd	Mum	Mumbai DY	14th	L Ronchi	3rd
Sanath Jayasuriya	Mum	Kol	Kolkata	16th	Mohammad Hafeez	14th
Praveen Kumar	Ban	Moh	Bangalore	25th	Yuvraj Singh	11t

Do not forget the two hattricks. Balaji and amit Mishra both have taken hattricks already. Had anyone ever thought something like this happening in T20?

owler	For	Vs	Venue	Match
L Balaji (5-24)	Chn	Moh	Chennai	31st
(victims-IK Pathan, PP Chawla & VRV Singh (all caught)
A Mishra (5-17)	Del	Hyd	Delhi	37th
(victims-DB Ravi Teja (Ct), PP Ojha (Ct) & RP Singh (St)

More importantly, I could count as many as 7 instances where the bowlers have won the game because of a terrific spell/over.

1. Sohail Tanvir [ 6/14 against Chennai]
2. Amit Mishra [ 5/17 against Hyderabad including a superb hattrick]
3. L Balaji [ 5/24 against Delhi]
4. Shoaib Akhtar [ 4/11 against Chennai, Daredevils might lose a semi spot because of this terrific spell]
5. GD Mcgrath [4/29 against Bangalore]
6. SM Pollock [3/12 against Kolkata, Kokata slumped to their lowest total of IPL]
7. Ashish Nehra [3/13 against Rajasthan]

There are many other small instances where the bowlers have contributed significantly. You can analyse the data in cricinfo in detail.

As someone has aptly said - "Throw a true sportsman to a challenge and he would raise his game". No matter what the format would be, everyone would have a day of his own to prove his calibre. It might need sometime and some motivation. This change also augurs well for the cricket pandits who were against T20 because it was a bowler's grave. Now they also have a reason to rethink and probably embrace this format.

I feel more happy as it seems to give chance to every participant to turn a game around just like we have been seeing those magical spells, magical innings and stunning catches in the regular forms of the games. And I hope it balances out more and it doesn't turn the NBA way?

Jaipur Bomb Blasts and IPL

As expected the Jaipur Bomb blasts on 13th May, have not only rocked the pink city but has also rocked the Rajasthan Royals as the foreign players have expressed a concern on continuing in the IPL especially after BCCI declined to move the games from Jaipur.

As for as the concern of foreign players goes, it is completely justified. After all, any sports require a peaceful environment to showcase its talent. A player can not concentrate in the game when there is always a possibility of a bomb explosion near the stadium or the hotel or anywhere they are. At the end of the day, all of them have families like we do. Although it is said that the terrorist have nothing to do with the cricket and the cricketers in particular, I will not buy the words of those people who are involved in such a inhuman act. And so why would the foreign cricketers buy the same? In fact many of the domestic players too would have the same concern. Shane warne has been reported to have said to an Australian daily - "I would not have come to play in IPL had it happened before I flew from Australia". No wonder, recently because of similar concerns, Australia canceled the whole Australian trip. Question is: how do we see IPL without those foreign players, especially without the Australians?

This incident at the same time has put BCCI on its toes. Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman, declined any such reports about Australian's not continuing the game but It is yet to be seen, how BCCI has prepared itself for any of such unexpected events. This probably has given them a chance for future if they have never thought about this. I sincerely hope they have not been completely lost in the million dollors. They can devise and come up with a strategy to tackle such a situation. It is going to be an inconvenience for the viewers, but it should not bother anyone a bit, where the lives of so many people are at risk.

I guess BCCI can follow a simple Strategy in the future. In addition to these 8 stadiums, it can think of another 1-2 reserved stadiums. These reserved stadiums should not be declared public to anyone. In case, something like this happens and there is a high concern, the games should be immediately moved to that location. It would not take much effort because BCCI would have already planned about most of the things. Of course beefed up security system is a part of any process by default. The organizers would incur some loss because of this sudden move, but I believe it is worth taking. It is only going to increase IPL's reputation in its initial years. Remember, most of the foreign players have been the super stars so far. Without them, IPL will only be slightly better than the existing domestic tournaments. What about the Rajasthan Royals? Would they remain the same Royals if Warne and watson depart midway? BCCI should make every effort to make sure they are convinced about their security.

This article has already been published in www.cricweed.com

The Royal Blame Game Continues

As per a recent article from timesofindia.com, the blame game of Royal challengers refuses to attain some maturity. The report says that the IPL team owner and the beerwalah, Vijay Mallaya wanted Dhoni, Uthappa and McCullum in his team rather than Mark Boucher, Anil Kumble, Sunil Joshi or even Rahul Dravid. This is a serious Masala news for every reader and no wonder this news has been first reported in times of India.

I am outlining a few revealation from the report that is eye catching. My thoughts on these would follow.

1. While Mallya was really keen to get Dhoni and wanted to bid for him, Dravid insisted that "there is no need for such an expensive player". The same went for McCullum, whom Dravid is believed to have turned down and instead settled for Mark Boucher.

2. Sunil Joshi, whose cricketing career is almost over, was taken in the team just because he is supposed to be a close friend of Rahul Dravid. This was a surprising decision to many of the Royal Challengers Officers.

3. Kumble had to be selected in the T20 team being the nice guy Dravid himself is.

4. RC officers also blamed Charu sharma for taking things easily at the start. He is learnt to have suggested that "the boys need to bond, let's go to Ranthambore for four days".

5. Seeing the performance in the IPL debut, Royal challengers are not ruling the possibility of changing its players in the next IPL season if the rules allow to do so.

I have serious reservations about the point number 1. I do not think Mallaya might be having such a good cricketing knowledge that he wanted Dhoni, Uthhapa and McCullum. This revelation is only a continuation of what I already posted 2 days ago. This is only a blame game at best. Now that things have not worked, impose it on the obvious scapegoats.

Point number 2 and 3 are acceptable. By no cricketing logic, Sunil Joshi and Anil Kumble deserve a place in the Twenty20 Team. A close look at the other IPL teams would show that none of those teams have picked similar players. Dravid has failed in this regard completely. The question is, why would he do so? One reason could be friendship as mentioned in the article, but I believe Dravid (and Co.) might have taken this IPL stuff too lightly. Probably as a time pass fun game.

As for point 4, probably 4 days for outdoor activity was a bit too much given the tight schedule IPL has, but the idea was not a bad one altogether. Lack of experience of Charu Sharma at this level and unexpected money that he probably was supposed to receive probably worked against him.

Only future would tell what actually Royal challengers would do about point 5 or if they at all be allowed to do something they have started thinking right now given the fact that there is a slimmest of chances for every team from now on to make into the semis.

Seeing all this "halla bol" by the Royals, It aptly proves the fact that IPL is in its nascent stage. This is only its first year. Probably these experiences would come handy for all teams in the subsequent season as the Organization IPL and all its franchises would mature.

But my conclusion remains the same, and more so if they are not allowed to change players at their own desire, they are not doing anything good by making all such things open for public even when there are so many games to go in the current IPL. Vijay Mallaya and Co need to understand that only 4 out of 8 teams would qualify for Semis and others would have to sit out. There is no end of the road for those teams who would be out. In sports, you win some and you lose some and more importantly everyone can't be a winner. Do we have a term called "Gracious Loser". I believe it is a more respectable tag than simply "loser".

Corporate Culture and IPL Twenty20

Kolkata Knight Riders join, Royal Challenger Bangalore in enforcing the fact that Cricket is indeed no more cricket in its traditional sense in IPL. While Bangalore owner has reasons to fire its CEO and flay its captain for the lethargic performance so far in the IPL, It seems Kolkata Knight riders have something else in their mind as they asked 5 of their fringe players to vacate the hotel rooms today.

The reaction of Vijay Mallaya enforces the fact that the rules of the game are bound to change, as not only huge sum of money is involved but also the brand name of the corporate involved is at the stake. The decision of KKR to ask those five players, Ranadeb Bose, Rohan Banerjee, Sourasish Lahiri, Cheteswar Pujara and Yashpal Singh, to leave the hotel too can be taken in many ways.

The KKR Coach, Buchanan, says that with IPL almost in its closing phase, he pretty much has the team in his mind and these players might not get a chance in this season. And that is why there is no reason why they should be with the team. The owner Shahrukh Khan backed Buchanan saying that the decision is practical and cricketing in nature. He adds that carrying those 23 players for every practice session and managing it is a tough task. That is why they want to concentrate their energy on a smaller set of players. 18 instead of 23?

Both these reasoning sound logical to me, but have we ever seen such logics being applied in cricket? That is where I observe the change in the culture. Obviously this will be very discouraging for the players who have been asked to go for now. Can this be a move towards cost cutting? Imagine their lodging and related bills for so many days in a 5 star hotel? If it is all about cost cutting, is this a small hint of how much success IPL is providing to its owners, given the fact that the cost involved with these 5 players would be a very tiny amount compared to the millions of dollors already spent by each franchisee? In another words, does this sound like baniyagiri?

If the players are being tracked at such a minute level, the rules of the game are set to change. It is definitely going to keep all the players on their toes. We might see improved performance because of this OR the players might fail to absorb such extreme pressure too. It seems the corporates owning the IPL teams have their goal set in mind. Make enough money out of this tamasha and do whatever it takes for that. I would take such early developments in IPL cautiously or shall I say Fifty50?

Can Sachin be the same force in IPL?

So finally he is back. After missing the Test series against South Africa barring the first game and then the first 7 IPL games for his Mumbai Indian team, he is all set to return for the game against Chennai Super Kings. Needless to say, this news would bolster the confidence of Mumbai Indians further more. After losing the first four games pathetically, they have done quite well under Shaun Pollock and are on a winning streak. Sachin's presence would also let the Harbhajan episode recede away slowly.

There could be so many positives about his arrival for Mumbai Indians and there is no second though on that. However, I have some questions coming from different corners. Some of them are mine and some of them belong to my friends. As he would make the debut in the IPL, I would keep my eyes open on the below questions, but what is the take of cricweed readers on these?

1. Match fitness: He has not played a single game for the last 8 weeks. Do you think he would be able to make an impact immediately? I mean would he be able to live upto the name of Sachin Tendulkar?

2. T20 Factor? : We have seen and observed that many good players have not been able to really align themselves in this format. There are so many examples: Ricky Ponting, Ganguly (Except that one innings), Dravid (ofcourse he is trying his best), Laxman and many others. Do you think this will be easier for Sachin, given he has only played 5 T20 games so far. We all know he is one of the best batsman of this era and if someone could change himself to suit to any format, Sachin should head the list. I really hope this statement is true.

3. He lands among the poors again: My personal dream at times has been what would have happened, had Sachin played in a very consistent and successful team. How he could have adjusted his game. Probably we would have seen his natural best or something that we never could see. I hoped IPL would probably allow him to show this to all of us, but allas, he once again belongs to Mumbai INDIANS, an average team so far, pretty much like our own indian team.

4. Captaincy: Shane warne has proved many things by now from his inspirational captaincy. I believe Sachin has something to prove in this regard (nothing would matter if he doesn't). This should atleast be very very inspirational for mumbai indian youngsters.

The above are my personal views. Readers are free to express their thoughts by commentining on the article. And FYI, I am also one of the biggest fans of THE SACHIN.

Beerwala blames Dravid and Charu Sharma for Lack of Royal Challenge

The internal dispute of the bangalore team is finally out in the open for public masala and I am enjoying it. Vijay Mallaya is shouting that "He virtually had no say in the player's selection for his own Team".

"When Rahul Dravid was not present in the second auction, I wanted to acquire some players but Charu Sharma was very tentative about them. I mean I bought Misbah-ul Haq because I was determined to do it. There were other players I was discouraged about,".

This statement makes reader believe that Rahul Dravid and Charu Sharma had together hired Vijay Mallaya for Bangalore team and it is not the other way around. I mean how can Vijay Mallaya now complain about not having his say on his own team? Cut the crap.

I do not see it more than a result of extreme frustration, loss of self belief and fear of losing that macho attitude. ATTITUDE? You remember that line after the IPL auction? "Give me any team and I would make it glamrous". With KK? bole to Katrina Kaif?

Well Mallaya saab, you did try your best to make your team one of the most glamorous of all IPL teams. The red skin cheerleaders, gorgeous Katrina kaif and many such things surely would add to the G factor. I would clap for you for your innovations in your area of expertise. You have probably given a new face to Twenty20 in India and many people are enjoying it more than the cricket. But thats about it. What about T20 factor? Have you been so busy in the G factor that you completely ignored this T-20 factor? You didn't even know if the persons you hired were good enough untill the results are showing that. You have proved that you were not good enough for cricketing matters. You can vent your frustration by firing the CEO, and all other staffs, but the at the end of the day Royal challengers have not produced even a bit of a challenge in the IPL so far and you have to now live with this fact. A complete lack of Royal challenge.

Cricket is sports. Glamour can pull you crowd and fetch you money, but that can not win you matches. You simply forgot this basics. Now that you made the statement that "At the end of the day, people need to understand that the IPL has a corporate side to it, and a very definitive corporate side. It is not at all cricket in the traditional sense,", it is pretty clear that you are taking it as a corporate loss and I am afraid to sense that you might even take it as a personal loss, Bangalore's loss. Afterall you might not like to lose. Would you?. Now to run away from the face of defeat, you are trying to blame every TOM, harry and dick so that at least, your face is not defamed. You are blaming everyone but yourself for the outcome. You need to understand that in sports, you can't change things by hiring and firing. You need to have the morale and the enthusiasm of your team players at all time high and positive. You can not achieve all this with this blame game ever. After all it is a runtime team game and there is no retake in this. It needs extreme level of planning and execution of all those plans in a timely manner.

The IPL story so far would suggest to anyone that Rahul and Charu sharma were definitely not the right persons to select the T20 team. They probably lacked the imagination and the experience for this format of the game. But having said that, It is hard to believe that they almost forced Vijay Mallaya to go with their selected team. They didn't pay any hid to Mallaya's cricket experties?. Probably Mallaya saab was more busy in planning for those red skin cheerleaders, Katrina Kaif and in changing the face of Indian cricket.

This is also a perfect example of what association of corporate giants into cricket can do to the game.When businessmen buy teams and spend exorbitant sums to become owners of cricket celebrities, the rules of the game are bound to change. The focus of "corporate culture" is only on winning and on returns. The end product of their entire endeavour is profits and the Indian Premier League has given them an opportunity to build their brand image. They will do anything for that. Afterall, this corporate attitude has to win at any cost with the morale banner running high.

I do feel sorry for Rahul Dravid that a person who would virtually have no knowledge of Cricket (in comparison to Dravid for sure), is now blaming everything to Game's one of the most respected cricketers. This will only exert more pressure on the cricketers and the cricket in general. I won't wonder if we can see some match fixing stuff re-surfacing again in years to come. And ofcourse cricket being the team game wherein the team's spirit plays a big role, I would not be surprised to see complete lack of Royal Challenge from Bangalore.

This article has also been published in www.cricweed.com

Sorry Punjab you may be Kings but we are super kings

As Chennai Super Kings beats Punjab Kings at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai by 18 runs, thanks to the first hattrick of the IPL by the forgotten pace battery L Balaji and blistering knock by Chennai's adoped captain and Jharkhand's Hero MS Dhoni well supplemented by chennai's own son Badrinath's well compiled half century, we have a chance to go back and think if the IPL is finally able to infuse the loyalities in the cricket fans for their local teams?

Looking at the enthusiasm of the fans and the kind of placards they put on display, I believe it is slowly slowly catching up. We have also seen Dravid not being acknowleded and cheered for his boundaries in Bombay already. In today's match too, when Yuvraj singh was cleaned, the roar of the crowd was so intense as if they were celebrating dismissal of Ricky Ponting in an India Australia match. I do not know how the international stars might be coping with this sudden change of loyalties by their own fans but this is definitely good for the future of IPL and it seems IPL is on good track.

This observation is eye catching because for a team that has its coach, captain and as many as half of the team members from not the same soil, receiving this amount of fan loyality is something extraordinary. In my opinion this may be attributed the maturity and the love for the game of the Chennai cricket fans. A good cricket, a good bowling spell, murderous big sixes contribute more towards team loyalities than just the "Sun of the soil" factor.

Observing the halla bol going on in one of the most developed states of India on the related subject lines of "Son of the soil" by Raj Thakrey Vs the UP and Bihar, It is so pleasing to feel that cricket is such a good leveler of Nationality among indians. In this respect, I believe the world of cricket which ofcourse comprises all sort of its fans is much more mature, well behaved, loyal and responsible.

This article has also been published on www.cricweed.com

Rural T20 OR GP T20 OR just a mere election compaign?

As we are discussing heavily about IPL T20 and other formats of cricket, I read an article about another tournament going on in the election constituency of Rahul Gandhi (AMETHI). Purely on numbers, this could be the largest cricket extravaganza ever on earth. But is this really cricket?

Numbers suggest:

1. number of teams playing the IPL is eight but in the rural Twenty20, the total number of teams is 1857.
2. The IPL has only 128 players but the rural Twenty20 has attracted more than 27,000 players.
3. The IPL has a schedule of 59 games in two months while Rahul Gandhi's Twenty20 tournament has 150 matches played every day.

Cricketnext.com reports:

Majority of the boys who are playing cricket hardly get to see television as Rahul Gandhi's constituency Amethi gets only five to six hours of electricity every day.

In my opinion this is not more than just a rigorous election campaign. In the title of the blog, GP T20 meant Gandhi Pariwar T20 .

It is not that I favor congress a bit, but I am impressed with the medium they have chosen for their own self interest. Cricket is the strongest medium that can be most easily spread out. They have also launched it at a time when IPL fever is catching whole nation, so they have also got the timing correct.

Are we going to see the following tournaments in the coming days?

JMM T20 in Jharkhand Villages

BJP GUJJU T20 in Gujrat Villages

CPI T20 in Bengal Villages

BSP T20 in UP Villages

and many more like that?

This article has also been published in www.cricweed.com

India’s Game, U.S. Spice

IPL Twenty20 finds an editorial space in the Newyork times and the buzz of cricket is doing its round in America too through the cricket newest and fast awatar of Twenty20.

Tunku Varadarajan, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and a fellow at Stanford’s Hoover institution writes about IPL and india's outsourcing of cheerleaders. He terms this phenomenon as the reverse offshoring sarcastically through the following lines:

Yet how paradoxical it is, and how delightful, that Bangalore, a city that has leapt to global prominence on the back of work outsourced by America, is now itself outsourcing from America — outsourcing glamour, no less.

He also suspects about how the moral teachers would find an opportunity in this and would oppose all such things. Although, I do not want to indulge myself on the appropriateness of cheerleaders for a Twenty20 game in India, I do agree with what Professor Tunku has to say about the cultural changes observed in india in its recent past:

With the Redskins cheerleaders on Indian soil, one can safely declare that the British cultural influence in India has been entirely replaced by an American one, cricket notwithstanding. India’s relationship with the United States — economic, strategic, diasporic and cultural — is now its primary external alliance, with a complex nuclear deal at one end of the spectrum and 12 cheerleaders and two choreographers at the other.

Click HERE to access the complete editorial।

This has also been published in www.cricweed.com