Talk about a favorite in T20?

Probably T20 is still in its nascent stage at the international level and probably things will change further in the years to come, but a few basic things that have emerged out of T20 world would probably remain the same. And I hope so, because that is good for cricket. One of such things is the end of dominance of a few teams over others. Compare it to Test Teams and the One day teams, where we have definite favorites going into a series or tournament. Agreed, upsets are a part in those formats too, but not to the same extent as we have been seeing in T20. After all, Australians have ruled the world of Test and One day cricket for almost a decade now.

Look at these facts. In IPL-2, the last year’s bottom ranked teams, Deccan and Royal Challengers were the finalists. Only three days into the World Twenty20 and one of the Kings of cricket teams thus far is out of the tournament. An associate member of ICC, Ireland easily Pushed Bangladesh out of the second round and England the host team were galloped by the nascent Netherlands in the opening game. Another finalist for the last World Twenty20 is struggling to move to the second stage.

So who is your favorite for World Twenty20? Yes, now you have the luxury to keep Australia out and probably by tomorrow you would also be comfortable to keep a few good teams out. But the question is, coming into this tournament, how many of us believed that Australia would crack like this? How many of us believed that Netherlands would punish a Team that is considered to be the father of this format? How many of us thought that Pakistan would be so unsure about its place in the second stage? Do we still dare to have a favorite?

One of my favorite writer, Harsha Bhogle, recently mentioned in his article about the impact of the duration of a game by saying “If football was played over 20 minutes Manchester United and Barcelona may not have been in the final.”. This is the underlying difference between a T20 and other fatherly forms of cricket. When the game is reduced to shorter duration, the strategies must change and at the same time, it adds an element of surprise into it. It is easier to play at your top level for 3 hours, but not so easy when you have to stretch the same to over a day. At the same time, there is a little room for making mistakes when you are up in the short format, since there is a little room for recovery. In the longer format of the game, even if you make some mistakes, there is time for you to recover, your team and the captain can plan out counter attacking strategies. But such luxuries are not accepted by T20. Such basic things have allowed us to see surprises more often which in fact are not surprises, because there have been far too many. This probably is the core of T20. And probably this would be the reason for T20 to be a huge success.

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.

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.