ASHES

After numerous attempts to restart my blog, I am finally feeling like I am there. 26/11 was a big day in my life, actually the three days after that also. Not because innocent people died the way they did. People die in every corner in this country, heck the whole world. I was frightened by ease with which the whole thing happened and I felt insecure. And then I introspected to realise that I am the problem. I never realise that small actions of mine transpire into mindsets, which transform into habits and then take the camouflaged form of a culture which is collectively disintegrated. I had been writing about how I should rise from my laziness to make a difference, when that ugly weekend came about. I realised that I still not able to leave my comfort zone to do anything, the least I could do was to stop writing and take a break.

Now, as a celebration of my shamelessness, I am back to writing. I thought of changing the blog title, but i guess now more than ever, the name Ashes fits the bill.

A lot has happened in the last six months, generally things have been positive. The major parts have been the elections, IPL and my vocational paradigm shift (true story!). When I was in class 9 our teacher was discussing elections and how it turned out that time. i had been following the news, reading papers lately and as is the case in any discussion i stood up to talk. i said something that nobody liked. i said that people are responsible for the state of affairs in the parliament today because they have given a fractured mandate. "Ye kya baat hui, jo jisko vote dena chahe usse de, how can you blame the public?" was a popular response. But i stuck to my guns because i was convinced by that idea. Although i didnt quite understand what happened last time and how it happened, this year people have vindicated my belief.

Perhaps this election was not about Cong/BJP/Left/3/4/5... This election was of sailing through because the current situation is pretty much unprecedented in independent India. And a horses for courses approach justifies the sentiment of the Indian people who are refreshingly aware of the situation. I must confess that I did not vote for this government for many reasons, but as a second best choice I will take it. There is need to reasses important issues and focus on challenges at hand, but by no means can we dissolve the big picture in this patch work. There is a time and place for every issue and we as a country have to "wait for it".

The other thing that has been happening, is in the world of cricket - the IPL. It goes by many aliases, but I will stick with Indian Premiere League. The only good part about this year's IPL was the fact that it was in South Africa and so there was an even contest between bat and ball. Apart from that its been a drab tournament, with poor quality of cricket, reckless batting, suicidal bowling and the fielding, what can i say, well it sucked. I got so bored of watching cricket after a while that I was working in office, late. I never endorse the thought that match fixing exists in cricket, and i stand by it. but my belief has gone through some rough times this IPL. Its not about the catches. you can't drop catches on purpose and get away with it. Sometimes the body language of the players was so uninspiring that it got me off cricket. One of the reasons i can think of is the sheer volume of matches. Not cricket, just matches. Players may well have been feeling, 'never mind, we'll win the next one'. This was the second edition of the IPL and youngsters were expected to be more confident and valuable this time around. Instead they were edgy, stressed and just not performing. The oldies came to party which was nice to see. But that does not help the cause of the Indian team, which was looking at this IPL as a practice session and it has turned out to be a dent in their confidence.

And finally the vocational paradigm shift. I will be moving to Lucknow within a month from now to join an MBA program at IIM Lucknow. Its perhaps the biggest news in the last three years i have had for someone. Whenever someone asked me 'whats up?', i'd say 'nothing much, the usual'. Atleast now i can say something to interest the other person. The sad part is that i have to leave my dear car behind. I hate this part. But the good part is that I am off the job, its always nice to lower the stakes for a while. At work your are probably handling a lot of pressure because its not just about you, its about clients, their performance, companies performance, global impact etc etc. You can't afford to make mistakes, unless you are as rich as i am (smile). At a b school you are responsible for yourself, perhaps a couple more, so the stakes are less and you can chill. In fact that, i just realised, is the best reason to do an mba after some professional experience because it will give you a cool off period before you jump in again to start the second part of the innings. The mba is then your, now proverbial, stratetic time out.

Labels: Cricket

Cricketers are superstitious, and the most common prevailing superstition across all teams, is to not change your position in which you are sitting, standing, knocking the bat etc if runs are coming or wickets are falling (whichever is appropriate). You just stay put there for the rest of the match if you don’t play any further part in it. I spent an entire inter-IIT cricket meet sitting outside the shed in a hot Chennai sun, because it proved lucky a few times and I didn’t want to lose that edge. I got all tanned and lots of other stuff too. So in line with that trend I am actually happy this time that my post is delayed by a day, as has been the case on the previous three occasions.

311-5, Australia will be very pleased with the effort. Not so much there bowling effort, because none of their bowlers looked like getting a wicket. The least likely was Krejza. Only Watson got a good ball which deserved a wicket, others just sprayed it around. Indian batsman played some poor shots. Well I mean Sehwag’s bread and butter is the same shot he got out to, so can’t blame him. Dravid, has gone from hopeless to disaster. I think Dhoni will do well to bat him at 6 in the second innings if at all the need arises. Sachin played very well, and although he came out like a young boy playing an ego match with Krejza, he batted beautifully to get the hundred. Laxman and Sehwag did well also. But India should again have been much more for much less. Similar story to Mohali.

The most interesting thing of the first day’s play to me was the ball that got Dravid out. Bite and kick on the first day first session, says that we are in for a result here. Saurav is playing well and Dhoni does well, apparently for some people, when he is Captain. It’s upto the bowlers now really to win India the trophy and bring it to its suitable location. Just four more days of good cricket and we will be there and I will take off my shirt for one last time.

The last test match, we let the Aussies away. Should have won it, but for a few drop catches. No let ups now, we need to stick it out for another 4 days and win this series. Win it for Kumble, win it for Ganguly, win it for Sachin. Don’t win it for Dravid he has been a terrible disappointment. Win it for Laxman, I think he can get the record of scoring 50s in his first and 100^th test match and winning it. Ok weird correlation.

This is perhaps the last time Sachin, Dravid, and even Laxman will play Australia in a test match. Perhaps also the last time for Ponting, Hayden, Hussey maybe even Lee. It looks like the end of the road for many of the game’s greats. This for all the talk of India-Australia test cricket is really the Final Frontier.

Labels: Cricket

Jab tak suraj chaand rahega...

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that he was the biggest match winner who played for India. The timing of his retirement announcement was characteristic of his demeanor, composed and educated. So was his farewell, un-superhero like, modest and honest. Anil Kumble will always be remembered in Indian cricket books for as long as they are written. I expected him to retire sometime soon, but to actually know it, was a bit of a shock. The point is that he is still good enough than the Mishras, Ojhas and Chawlas, but he has dipped from his own very high standards. And great players don’t play just because they are good enough. They play the game because they want to be the best.

Of all the retirements that are impending in this Indian team, this surprisingly is the first one, and will perhaps remain the best timed. Again, if Kumble had played against England he would have thrashed them, but he realizes that it’s not worth continuing and letting younger guys have a taste of things will be more fruitful. Afterall the second string of spinners can definitely take on England anyways.

It’s the end of the career of a legend, only that it doesn’t sound like one. Perhaps it will sound like one on the fifth day of the Nagpur Test, only that this time it would not be a true legend. There are so many stories, so many matches and so many moments related to Kumble that we have cherished over the years. Everyone knows that he is a gritty man, very aggressive on the field and very polite off it. And even after all that aggression he never said any bitter thing to his opponents. There were so many times that he was criticized by media. Now he is not the first person to get it from the media and then give it back. But the way he handled criticism was quite extraordinary. I remember once he was asked how he felt on being dropped from the team and he politely said – maybe my performance hasn’t been good enough and I will go back and take a few wickets in the first class matches and try to come back. No allegations of bias, no references to the number of years he had played for India. He just wanted to do well and get back in the team. The sheer weight of his performance kept bringing him back and I think that is why he was always so assured of himself. He never took his place for granted in the team and that is why he had more highs in an 18 year old career than any Indian cricketer.

But the best part about him, the icing on the cake of his greatness, came when he thanked everyone for their support in his final interview as the captain of India on the field. The fact that he mentioned Azhar really left a lump in my throat. There was a time when Azhar and Kumble were my most favorite cricketers (batsman and bowler). Caught Azhar at silly point bowled Kumble used to be usual service in those days. I was pleasantly reminded of that mid-90s era. Kumble is a true sportsman and a gentleman and acknowledged the contribution of everyone, even those who have been long buried.

Kumble walks off the cricket field as perhaps only second to Kapil Dev in terms of his completeness as a cricketer among Indians. He eventually did everything including a test hundred and captaincy. If Kumble had not been the captain at Sydney, then either the team would have crumbled like a cookie or 3-4 more players would have been suspended on various charges ranging from racism to physical contact and spitting on the umpire’s face. He must feel satisfied and content today as he looks back at all these years. From an MBA perspective he has a very diverse profile so to say (smile). And you know it may not be a surprise if he actually does something like that. As Rahul Dravid mentioned, he has a Masters in Engineering and a PhD in leg spin.

Anil Kumble has been an inspiration for me all these years and a source of comfort while I sat through heart wrenching matches on TV. He has given me so much to cheer about and so much pleasure, that the cricket field will look a little empty without him. Now it’s up to the rest of the guys to plan the perfect farewell party for Anil Kumble and that other chap, whats his name?

Undoubtedly, the biggest Kumble moment is the jaw-strapped performance to get one of the best batsmen in the world. But throughout his career there was so much that you saw and felt within that gives you the true idea of what Anil Kumble did for Indian cricket.

Labels: Cricket

Ponting ke Chhakke, hakke bakke!

Would have again loved to have gotten this post in yesterday, but with the Diwali celebration at home, I couldn’t get time and space to write. And just on that Diwali note, what is up with the smses for diwali greetings. Come on people, either send personal messages, or don’t take that pain, it won’t really matter. But sending spam messages, is quite irritating frankly. Especially when you have to read the entire message to find out who sent it.

Back to cricket then, Ponting has a very serious problem (literally ‘gambhir’) on his hands going in to day 2. Delhi boys are special anyways..hehe. But before we get into the third test, let me flaunt the drubbing that we gave the Australians in the second. I mean, 320 runs was the victory margin that is also effectively an innings victory. Australia is such an insipid cricket team. They lack depth in batting, they are not doing well in pace bowling and they don’t have spinners. Ishant Sharma has made Ponting his bunny, Hayden doesn’t seem to like spending time on Indian pitches and rest of the batsmen, save for Hussey, don’t look threatening even if they are batting on 60-70 odd. We are steam rolling this Australian side and hell we will crush them like the ganne ke juice ki machine crushes the dhaniye ka patta. We have tested blood alright.

Dhoni’s captaincy is not a revelation anymore, it’s becoming a hallmark of his cricket. What I like about his captaincy is that he looks and plays like a cricket captain and not a leader. I think the two most successful Indian captains, by number of wins, were very distinct personalities. They did get hundreds in their first two test matches, but one would lead by example and the other would lead. Both of them were successful. But Dhoni is somewhere in between, if not in a league of his own altogether. He never seems to be ‘dictating’ terms. He can be called senior only to Gambhir, Ishant and Mishra. Rest of the 7 are much more experienced than him. Yet he handles them with respect, care and authority. And the best way to do that is to hit Brett Lee for a boundary to square leg first ball. That to me was the shot of the test match.

Mishra impressed in the match. He maybe the future of Indian spin, but he doesn’t look like someone who would take 2-3 hundred wickets. But still he has done well and all credit to him. As I said earlier, it’s a beautiful art, leg spin. Sachin and Saurav made a lot of runs, so did Gambhir and Sehwag. Everyone made runs, everyone took wickets, everyone took catches. Boy we beat Australia and how.

So going into the third test, Ponting can only hope that his team bats a lot of overs. I doubt that there would be a draw in Delhi. I can’t remember when was the last time we had a draw here. Perhaps and India Zimbabwe match, where Andy Flower had net practice, in 2003. Generally the Kotla wicket is result oriented and having seen the first day, only one result looks likely.

By the way, the frustration and anxiety with the Australians showed today, with Katich doing a moving screen on Gambhir and then following it up with a bit of lip. Gambhir will give them some tomorrow morning, when the Aussies start chasing leather again. Ponting is absolutely devoid of any plans. There are no tricks left, no catching positions left where he can trap the Indian batsmen. All he is thinking of is batting and batting through the test match. Ricky mate, this is just the beginning, get ready for a mauling in South Africa next. Hard and Fair my ass.

And finally, as much as I would love to see him continue, I think its time for Dravid to hang up as well. He is not one of those who will do well in trying to prove it to someone. He is not someone who gives it back so to say. If he believes he wants to do it, he will do anything. He showed glimpses of that in the IPL. But he is now trying too hard to prove something. I don’t know what. Perhaps he is looking for that final purple patch with which he can sign off. But his options are dying out. He has another test match at Nagpur for sure, but if he doesn’t get a 100 till then, then I am not sure if he will be picked anymore. Maybe for one last series ;). Sachin on the other hand paid his premium for another year at least. The thing is that in the test side he deserves his place, but if he comes in the one-day side at the expense of a Gambhir or Sehwag, then it will be unfortunate.

I get the feeling that this could be another Kumble special test match. He bowls well with Harbhajan, but the added responsibility of being the premier strike bowler will be good for him. It’s all happening at Kotla, and India is doing it in style. Hope to make it to the Ambedkar Stadium stand once again on Saturday and revisit glory as I did that fateful Saturday evening in February 1999. Come on Jumbo!

Labels: Cricket

$@@&# fati to Australia bola… “Old school, old school”

I am slightly disappointed that I could not get this post in time before the start of the second test. But my opinion would not have been much different either side of today. We may not have Australia on the mat yet, but boy are they ruffled. “He has done well in the last test match, and this is unusual for him. He should concentrate on his own game”. I think that was my favourite part of the entire first test façade. (For those who didn’t remember, this is what Ponting said about Zaheer, when the latter commented on Australia’s defensive approach). And shortly after that the descendent of Raja Harishchandra aka Punter, went ahead and said “Kumble’s poor form is a worry for India”. I was a little sad that Kumble could not play, because he is at his best when he is poked at.

There is huge controversy surrounding Kumble’s fitness and form. I am not a worshipper of Tendulkar, but still I think such things time and again prop up the issue of how batsmen centric this game is. Margin for error for bowlers is very tiny. All said and done, if I see Anil Kumble on the field I am assured that there is aggression in our bowling and something can happen. Yes he is out of form and in the twilight of his career but he is still a force. I hope Amit Mishra does justice to his selection and bowls well. I have always had a thing for leg spinners, because I think this is the most artistic practice in the game of cricket. As far as Kumble’s captaincy is concerned, I believe he is fulfilling a particular job and that is of buying time for Dhoni. Its not that Dhoni may not be ready yet, but you want to have the captain experienced enough so that these Ian Chappels do not get another opportunity of mud slinging at the opposition captain. I really hope that whenever, the selectors think Dhoni is ready, they should ask Kumble to discontinue his services. I think captaincy is the highest honour that a player can get, and one should really be a captain when he has effectively learnt everything he could and can continuously give it back to the team. And therefore, your resignation from captaincy should be your retirement call as well. Although it was a different scenario for Dravid, but that’s in the past.

Of course Sachin finally reached the landmark of maximum runs. But I don’t want to make much out of it. It is a great feat, but it is a feat which should really be celebrated at the end of a career. Anyways, as an Indian it feels proud that we got that record back. We put up a good show through the day. Although we should have got much more for fewer wickets. But that’s ok. With no Stuart Clark in the side, Australia will be feeling very good about restricting India to 311 for 5. India should look to cross 400.

The Mohali pitch has always been a good cricket pitch, i.e batting pitch. (Sadly these terms are synonymous). Getting Australia out twice will be slightly difficult, especially without Kumble. Moreover, Australia has two local boys in their team and India has none. But once we have the runs on the board, it will be easier to apply pressure on Australia. Obviously they will play their “aggressive” brand of cricket. And I am sure that this is what is going to bring about their downfall. Something tells me intuitively that Ponting is going to make that one bold decision and its going to go against him in this series. He almost did that at Bengaluru, if only Sehwag would have batted for an hour or so. I think the Australian bubble of aggression, if you will, is going to explode in this series. Sunil Gavaskar made a good comment on air about the Australian aggressive strategy. Ponting dropped the third man and deep point on the boundary and had only one slip. SG’s co-commentator was about to say that it’s a strategy employed to block the flow of runs and create pressure and how Ponting has made specific plans for specific batsmen. SG said if India would have done it, it would have been defensive, but if Ponting does it, its strategy. The Australian team is full of this bull shit and this October we are going to help them get relieved of some of it.

Waiting for tomorrow as it will be a crucial day in this test match, how many India get in the first innings is going to decide the fate of this match. I am loving Dada for every run he scores in this series. And he is not letting down. Even Sachin scored a 50, you know he is big match player and only plays in the big matches. I am glad he thought of this match as big too. Gambhir is a rockstar; he is like the left handed version of Sehwag. Only more technically correct.

Labels: Cricket

Aaj to khatiya yahin gadegi…..

So the time has come. To seek revenge. It’s what I have waited for the last 9 months and more. One of my favourite films Don, had this song which comes to my mind – Jiska mujhe, tha intezaar, jiske liye dil, tha bekarar. Who ghadi aa gayi aa gayi…The Australians are now cornered. They are at full strength and yet they are unable to put it across and Rajasthan Cricket Assoc. XI side. This is going to be a mouth watering cricket series. Hang on boys and girls. But first the other major happening of the last 48 hours.

The other thing jiska mujhe tha intezaar – Saurav Ganguly quits international cricket. The wait is finally over. The man has got some wisdom, albeit borrowed, to decide what’s best for him and the team at the same time. Well everyone is saying that he is going so at least be polite to him now. So let me try, but I don’t promise anything. The only time I really wanted him to score runs was, one when he was batting at Taunton, as it were the nets at eden garden and he was closing on a double hundred….but he got out. The second time when he was batting against sri lanka in the world cup 2007. He dint just get out, he wasted balls and then got out.

As a captain, he was good. But he turned from good to bad, when he was disposed from captaincy. With every offence to many Bengalis, they are whimsical. They wouldn’t listen to anyone and do what they want to do. While this is not such a bad thing, they are also against any kind of growth of people around them, if they don’t get a share of it. If mamta banerji is not enough to exemplify that, Shorav does it for Bengal. He couldn’t stand the site of someone captaining India and actually excelling in it. In fact doing better than him. Still I think there are some positives that he brought to Indian cricket as a captain and as a one day batsman. Really if you look at how India will remember Ganguly you don’t get one pivotal moment. Maybe his hundred on debut at Lords. He was hardly inspirational in the field. I can’t think of a test inning that helped India win or save a game on its own. Maybe the coca cola cup in Dhaka, the final, but even there a certain Hrishikehsh Kanitkar will take the cake. His pivotal moments are actually the following:

1. his denial to carry drinks on his first tour in Australia in 1991-92
2. his naked shirt waving in the lords balcony
3. his ugly spat with Greg Chappel
4. and the sabotage of India’s world cup hopes in 2007

But I think his announcement of retirement could not be better timed. VRS or not, I think he is going to give it to the Aussies one last time. I think ganguly will now play as if there is no tomorrow and he will beat the shit out of the Lees and the Johnsons. Lucky McGain got a shoulder injury, his career is safe now. But I feel sorry for Cameroon White. I mean he is already playing for the Bangalore RCs. How bad could things be. The Indian batting will murder him, if he dares to step in. Krejza might cause some concern with ishant Sharma, but all the rest of the Indian squad, including Munaf Patel are capable of handling him.

So for Australia, it’s up to Lee, Johnson and Clark. Well don’t count too much on them, not from the evidence of the BP XI game. If Sehwag cuts lose tomorrow, it could be a long day for the Aussies. The batting looks okish. Katich and Hussey will do well, because all left-handers do well against India. Ponting will do some stuff, so will Clarke. Who is the sixth batsman? This is the check mate for Australia, with Haddin at 7 it’s a lost cause. When Kumble will zip through his flippers, the tail will come to their aukaad instantly. Ofcourse, Ishant vs Ricky will be fun to watch, so will be Bhajji vs Clarke. Lee vs Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar vs. Ricky Ponting bowling left arm and the most fun will be to see Laxman cream the so called spinners to all corners of the ground.

Its time to give it back and hell we are going to give it back. Anil bhai the whole country is behind you. We will cheer every run the team scores and every ball that we bowl. In so many years I have seen cricket, never have I felt this confident that India will win the series against Australia. This is the perfect moment. Loha Garam hai, Maar do Hathauda!

Labels: Cricket

As an honest confession, we all have been cribbing about monotonicity in life and lack of change. Well not often so happens that change comes and almost sweeps you of the ground. So much so, that the change becomes, albeit momentarily, the major focus of the day. Welcome to the IPL, accept it or not, everyone is talking about it and you are talking about it to everyone.

Leave behind the big bucks for a second, leave behind the hypocritic moral high of playing for the country, this really smells like cricket at its very best. The problem is that such a feast of cricket is being served literally on a platter, that people find it unreal and sometimes, surprisingly, unacceptable. I’ll stick my head out and say that the IPL has given Ekta Kapoor and the likes (read Shahrukh and Salman Khan) a run for their money. You know its like that famous tag line from pizza hut - ‘you just can’t the beats’.

It’s now been a week since the tournament started, and it’s already been more entertaining than the 2007 World Cup (50 over). Since we won the 20-20 world championship, this tournament may not be able to take that place. But it’s up there. And there is only one reason why this tournament has been so popular, the quality of cricket period.

Whether it was the explosive McCullum, one of my favourites, or the audacious Veeru, the stylist Mr. Cricket or Shane Warne, the game has been played with enormous enthusiasm and a will to honestly do well for the team that’s paying you. I guess you come to expect that kind of professionalism from an Australian, South African and New Zealander. But I was most impressed to see Afridi take on Shane Warne with a verbal assault, even if it was poorly timed and out of nowhere. David Hussey’s rallied effort to win the game against the Chargers was a perfect example of the high level of intent and intensity.

The only major threat that I feared to this idea was the over dramatization of the event. Its good, atleast so far, that the game has been let alone to do the talking. The Zinta’s, Khans etc have been only dancing in their own groups in the stadium and so they should be. The cheerleaders are very indulging, but the cricketers have done well to keep their focus on the cricket because some of the cheer leaders are very very hot. The irony is that, the batsman who makes the cheerleaders dance to his tune by hitting the boundaries is a fair distance away from them and the third man enjoys the fine legs.

But what if the show was dramatized. There are a lot of Australian and kiwi players who are about to make their way back to their homes and with the IPL already being touted as an APL effectively, some of the excitement may be lost. So maybe to spice it up the creators may add a few theatrics to the show. For example, Shahrukh Khan will walk into the dressing room and deliver his ‘sattar minut’ speech to Dada and his boys. Or Pathan might get Sehwag out first ball clean bowled and suddenly the umpire will say…’theharo….No Ball’ and the camera will register the detailed shock faces of all the fielders from every angle, zooming in on each face. Or maybe Ricky Ponting will return to the pavilion after not making many runs and at the end of the game Ganguly and Shahrukh Khan will tell him ‘aaj tumhare energy levels kuch ache nahi the, aap aaj chakravyuh me hain’. Or after every game the Mumbai Indians lose, there will be a vote out and one player will go, which simply means that half way through the tournament they will have to buy new players. And maybe Dravid will be called in by Aamir Khan in his new television show ‘Kya aap under-15 se tez hain’, to which Dravid will reply ‘nahi me to us zamane se hi slow hu’…you know what I mean.

My major worry is that the galvanizing may cause televisionizing of the game. I still remember the days of 2003 world cup, when I could not go and watch the pre match show because a half naked women did not help the cause of an interesting discussion and I used to feel embarrassed. If the cricket remains cricket, rest assured there is a lot of money to be earned by everyone who is putting in stakes. But too much television coverage and influence will ruin it. I remember watching an interview of an old cricket photographer from England and he said some of the best pictures he had taken of cricketers were when they were by themselves and being themselves. But the insurgence of media has made them very cautious about their body language and they don’t seem natural on TV or pictures anymore.

Anyways, as per the ‘script’ so far, my team is doing well. Yeah the Delhi Daredevils are here to rule. Initially I had my doubts over the composition of the team. But Pidgie and Asif form a lethal combination, Vettori is exemplary and the kind of form Sehwag and Gauti are in its going to be very difficult for the rest of the teams. Shoaib Mallik, Karthik and Dhawan are ideal for this format in the middle order. And especially when the Australians leave our shores, Delhi will have the strongest lineup without any doubt. Hyderabad might come into the picture then, as they lose Symonds, but gain Gibbs who is an equally good fielder and batsman and less said about Symonds’ bowling the better. So my favourite picks for the semi final spots will be Delhi, Chennai for sure and two teams out of Hyderabad, Mohali and Rajasthan Royals. I am really excited to see how the RRs go from here, because they have the fire and nobody is ready to take them seriously yet, but they will have to pretty soon. Mumbai Indians are by far the worst team and once Sachin joins the team they are going to achieve new heights.

As I started by saying, forget about the money, forget about who wins, don’t even think that this game will hamper cricket in general, just look at the little things that have made the event so big. Remember the spell from Pragyan Ojha at Kolkatta, remember Piyush Chawla’s spell on a batting paradise, remember Shane Warne’ heroics in the final over, remember Abhishek Nayyar’s valiant effort for Mumbai against the Royals, remember the spell bowled by young Gony, remember the catch taken by Yuvraj, remember, would you believe it, Kaif hitting 3 sixes in an over off Symonds. These and many more are the moments to cherish from the tournament and really without them cricket is not cricket and without cricket IPL goes nowhere.

As I have said in earlier posts, whether the IPL stays for long or not is something that will be known in 2-3 years and I feel its unlikely that it will retain the effect it has now, simply because BCCI is going to lose interest in this initiative soon. But for the current edition things are going well and look all set for a competitive tournament of cricket.

Labels: Cricket