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.

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?

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.