Gilly the blaster and the IPL regional loyality

As Gilly’s thunderstorm knocked off the only north Indian team that could make it to the semis this year (as opposed to three last year, Punjab, Delhi and Rajasthan), the second edition of IPL has become even more interesting with mouth watering possibility of a final between two worst teams of the first edition of IPL, Deccan and Royal Challengers. Will that happen? Will resurgent Royals challenge the Super Kings tomorrow?

We will have to wait for another 24 hours to know about this, but for now, let us concentrate on the Special Gilly punch that stormed Deccan into the finals of IPL-2 and what Tishani Doshi mentioned as a north vs south divide in her cricinfo column even before the first semi final started, cautioning Daredevils with a “MIND IT DELHI”.

If you have followed the one day career of Gilchrist, today’s knockout punch would not come as a surprise to you. Be it the finals of the world cup 1999, 2003 or 2007, he has always attacked the opposition out of the game in no time and has produced his best when it mattered most in the so called big game. Today was no different. Most of us believed that Deccan was in for a good chance this time around and the first three consecutive wins only reinforced that belief, however when they wandered in the later part of the tournament winning only 3 of the last 10 league games, that belief was somewhat getting subdued.  Gilchrist probably was aware of that and leading from the front, he rose to the occasion and batted Daredevils, the most consistent team of the IPL-2, out of the tournament as he carved 21 off the very first over including 5 consecutive boundaries, 17 off the third over from Sangwan and the massive 24 off the 6^th over from the daredevils captain Sehwag. All packed in within 30 minutes of play and it looks like a keypad operated computer simulation of cricket game. His brutal attack had such massive impact on Delhi, that failures of Gibbs and Symonds from Deccan in this game have gone completely unnoticed. What Twenty20 fun!! Hats off to Gilchrist for a Twenty20 masterpiece. The message must have reached strongly in the Challenger and Super Kings Camp.

Given the outcome of the first semi final of IPL-2, Tishani Doshi’s article on north and south divide as far as cricket is concerned, would not have come at a much better time. On a funnier note, my own north Indian roommates have been after me because I have been supporting the non north Indian teams (Chennai, Deccan etc) so far. Looking around within my own cricket club, it is easier to find people being loyal to the IPL team that is related to their native place. Some of them have started becoming crazy to the extent that they become arrogant at times. Suddenly it comes to my mind, what a great idea it was to have City based teams in the IPL given the Indian set up. Probably this was the only way for a quick loyalty build up around the teams. Hats off to Modi and Co on this idea.

I would still be wondering, why it is tough to support a team based on the quality of cricket it is playing? And hence, how conveniently people would be able to switch loyalty back to the national team immediately after the IPL is over for the second edition of T20 world cup?

Cricket once again seems to be winning over Glamour in IPL

After Kolkata kicked defending champions Rajasthan out of the second IPL today and Chennai almost shut the door on Punjab’s possibility of making it to the semi finals (mathematically they still have a remote chance), I wanted to have a look at the current standing in the IPL-2 as of now and could observe an interesting pattern. If you look at the below colorful points table, there is a reason why the last 4 rows have been marked yellow.

 

Team	Matches	Won	Lost	Tied	N/R	Pts	Net RR	For	Against
DelhiDaredevils	13	9	4	0	0	18	0.251	1812/237.5	1788/242.4
Chennai	14	8	5	0	1	17	0.951	2086/255.3	1855/257.1
DeccanChargers	13	7	6	0	0	14	0.265	1953/252.4	1927/258.1
Bangalore	13	7	6	0	0	14	-0.253	1824/256.0	1869/253.2
Kings XI Punjab	14	7	7	0	0	14	-0.483	1787/251.2	1887/248.3
Rajasthan Royals	14	6	7	0	1	13	-0.352	1688/253.1	1810/257.5
Mumbai Indians	13	5	7	0	1	11	0.401	1732/236.2	1636/236.1
Kolkata	14	3	10	0	1	7	-0.789	1757/248.5	1867/237.5

 

 

Together with Bangalore, these four teams, Kolkata, Punjab, Mumbai and Rajasthan Royals would probably make the glamorous group within the IPL.  The common notable points about these teams: 

1. The ownership was mostly individual.
2. The running was mostly glamorous

Seeing these teams at the bottom of the table, came to my mind, could this be a basic lesson for those owners? Did cricket at the end seem to emerge as winner over the glamour yet again for the second time in a row? Is this game more than the individual and glamour would hardly fetch success on the field (off the field, probably yes)? If yes, when would the likes of Shahrukh Khan and Preity Zinta understand this?

 

Rajasthan was a much unknown team last season but with success came the glamour in the form of Shilpa Shetty and Co. and the team couldn’t make it to semis. Story about Punjab (Preity), Kolkata (Shahrukh), Mumbai (Neeta Ambani) and Bangalore (Vijay Malaya) is well known to everyone.

 

Probably these things are not directly related to the positions of the team as much but they sure have played a part.  Cricket is not an individual game and this fact puts cricket in a different league altogether among other sports. This is very much a team game and should best be left to those who play the game on the field in the real time. By making close and unnecessary presence in the dugouts and other places, the owners might just have made mistakes. Such things might have put extra pressure on the players to perform or the tempting glamour around might have just distracted them a bit from their focus. Who knows what exactly, but there was a correlation in the last IPL and there seems to be a definite correlation in this IPL as well.

 

This theory does lack to explain the Bangalore’s possible semi final spot, however on a funnier note, we can take that as an exception, given that Katrina Kaif only cheered her team from India this time, a mark able difference from the ways of other celebrities.

 

This feeling is also reinforced by the teams like Delhi, Chennai and Deccan making into top 4, where we didn’t see the owners’ presence onto the field area and these teams seemed to play like a proper cricket team. It still remains to be seen who finally will clinch the Mega Trophy, but the glamorous ones have been shown the door once again.

 

Disclaimer: This blog could seem to be illogical and furious to few, but it is intended to those who would find it logically funny.

Why Kolkata and Bangalore deserve to see the bottom?

It is too early to predict who is going to win the IPL this season and a bit foolish too given that only 6 games have been played so far. However, I am not talking about “WILL”, but I am talking about “Should” giving the game of cricket its true value and spirit.

Many of us surely think that the table is going to change this season for good reasons. Change is necessary. However, Bangalore along with KKR MUST go to the bottom. This is my completely personal opinion. I have nothing personal against the players of either KKR or Bangalore but am simply thinking about the sanctity of the game we all love. 

Why Bangalore?: Firstly because they do not have a strongest T20 team and secondly because their owner has done little to correct the problem even after last time's dismal performance. They were tagged as the greatest test T20 team ever and despite that nothing concrete has been done. Sure he lobbied for KP ahead of Flintoff, fired Dravid as the captain despite Dravid being one of the better scorers last season and fired the first CEO of challenger, Charu Sharma out of sheer frustration only showing the true cricketing acumen that he might posses if any. Lots of money, cheerleader babes and things remotely related to cricket will not fetch wins. They have somehow managed to win a game against a lackluster Rajashthan and then lost to Chennai and Hyderabadmiserably. Once KP goes back to England after 2 weeks, it is going to be even harder for them. 

This is not a beer bajaar after all, this is entirely a different ball game and it has to be. It needs to be played differently. At the end, personal ego must be burnt by this great game of cricket and the fans must celebrate that.

And why KRR?: Almost for the same reasons. They have been the most talked about team for non-cricketing reasons. Multiple captaincy theory,sleeping-with-the-boys theory and what not have been all over the media before the IPL kicked off. A change of captaincy just before the IPL started was a non-sense move, it might have surprised McCullum more than Ganguly. They would get what they targeted, probably the attention, but win would be hard to come by. McCullum and Gayle after all can not fire every game. Gayle is already slated to go soon. It is also hard to figure out why Mendis has not been tried so far looking at the successes, Murali and Kumble have achieved. God was gracious a bit for KKR against Punjab but were completely overwhelmed by Deccan.

So much talk and so little cricketing considerations. It looks like, the coach has found a new field to experiment different theories and satisfy his personal ego while the owner doesn’t seem to differentiate between acting on big screen and playing on the field in real time. Do not deserve to win cricket games. Ego must be burnt again by this great game of cricket and the fans must celebrate that.

Many of you might disagree, but compare other teams with KKR and Bangalore based on only such matters and you might get a conclusive hint. As I keep my eyes fixed on exciting IPL, I would soon bring why two of my favorite teams, might make it to the final.