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Showing posts with label IPL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IPL. Show all posts

Sunday, May 16, 2010

India's T20 WC 2010 Debacle - Who is to blame?

Today is the final of T20 world cup between Australia and England. India got out of the cup 4-5 days ago and since then every news channel is discussing the reasons for the loss and making their own predictions regarding who will be out of the team and who will be retained. From late night brawl in West Indies in which Nehra is accused of misbehaving with the others people in the bar to Kirsten one-o-ones with 7 players, everything is being debated day and night in media.

Here are few reasons which I feel are responsible for India’s debacle.

IPL

I don’t think 14 matches are responsible for India’s loss in world cup, not even IPL parties. IPL matches used to end at around 11.30 so what if players came to a party for 1-2 hours to relax and enjoy. Players are expected to be professional and if they feel that they bodies can’t handle the glamour of girls and drinks of IPL Nights they should have controlled themselves. This is at least expected from senior players. IPL nights might have done harm to younger players. Arjun Rampal’s wife the organizer of IPL nights might have said that players were not forced attend the parties but I think their owners might have pushed them to attend these. Sachin could say no to these parties because he is Sachin no player can dare to fight against the BCCI, if you dare to fight you will be kicked out for sure.

Illogical traveling around the country for the matches is the main reason for fatigue and tiring bodies. If a team is playing match in Bangalore schedule should be made such that if plays its following matches in Chennai, Hyderabad so that traveling is less.

Dhoni has given an invalid reason of IPL nights being responsible for the failure.

Team Selection:

I am not lover of BCCI infact all useless sports bodies of India being run by old politicians who I am sure would not clearly know the rules of the sports for whose body they are head.Chief selector is ambassador of Chennai Super Kings, Srinivasan secretary of BCCI is owner of CSK are they working for BCCI of CSK.

Bindra is handling a big Punjab lobby. Arun Jaitely head of Delhi cricket association. n number of politicians are head of their respective sports bodies why because cricket has money and power simple.

Punjab lobby pushed for Chawla as a spinner in Indian team despite the fact that Pragyan Ojha and Mishra. Robin Uthappa is getting huge sympathy votes for not getting selected despite being in from. Sehwag was fit to play matches in IPL but as they were kicked out of IPL he got injured, its clear he wanted to make money playing IPL matches he should have the guts to say that he is injured during the IPL tournament. He clearly put DD over ICC World Cup.

Yuvraj who is now filled with fatty acids and loads of chicken tikka should have been dropped, he is so sad after being kicked out of captaincy of Kings X1 team that he has started eating chicken in breakfast , lunch and dinner.

Shortpitch Delivery

In the last WC we failed against the short pitch balls, this time it also happened. We are vulnerable since time immemorial against the short ball. Its just the last 4-5 years when greats like Sachin, Dravid , Laxman were there in Indian team who could handle short ball easily that opponents stopped using the weapon.

We need to practice for these type of deliveries, point is we don’t have time to practice. BCCI wants to mint as much money as possible by playing use less tournaments against Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Srilanka again and again. We have played I think every second month against SriLanka in the past year. Thanks to India being no-1 in test that BCCI now is trying hard to convert 7 ODI series to 2 test 3 odi wherever its possible but to BCCI it’s a loss of huge revenue as ODI gets more ads. Weren’t the BCCI a charitable body who is evading taxes since many years and filling their coffins?

When the player can go to National Cricket Academy to practice?

Poor Fielding and Running between wickets:

Outfield is very slow in west indies and one needs to run fast b/w the wickets but Indians players are adapted to hitting 4s in flat pitches in India. There was no practice match or time to practice in WI so we couldn’t adapt. Who is at fault again here – BCCI.

Player Fatigue:

We play lots of matches round the year. In 90's we were playing 35-40 ODI's are year and now we are playing lot of T20's ODIs round the year. Tours after tours is the routine , we will be playing in Triangular series in Zimbabwe, Asia Cup in Dambulla, Test series again in Sri Lanka , Triangular Series with NZ , SL in August. Australia coming to India and what not.

Ok we can't lesson the tours so lets make a bigger pool of players lets rotate them but that is also not possible till now. Players want to play as much as possible as you never know when you get kicked out, Fear of BCCI. ODI teams are not getting selected on basis of IPL performance which is wrong. Where is our bench strength. How many India A team tours to Australia , England , NZ took place in last 2 years. If same 15-18 players are playing so much cricket they will obviously get tired and fatigued, lets enlarge the pool and try to start rotation policy.


Indian crowd also need to understand that these are players not super humans. Saying that they keep on doing ads, party a lot and not play at all is wrong. Its good they lost now they will focus on test cricket which is the best.

Its very sad that we are having very less test matches when we have players like Sachin, Dravid , Laxman. Australia plays 8-10 tests a year and we should have used given these great players lot more chance to play test cricket in these years.

Its time to celebrate Vishy victory again, its a very big achievement to beat Topalov in his home. Indian hockey team is also performing well reaching the finals of Azlan Shat Tournament , today is the final.







Wednesday, April 1, 2009

International Players in IPL Franchisses

Kolkata Knight Riders:
Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum, Brad Hodge, Ricky Ponting, David Hussey, Angelo Mathews, Moises Henriques, Mark Cameron, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and Ajantha Mendis
Opening pair is looking deadly this time as both Gayle and McCullum will play this year. I expect Ricky ponting may not be playing all the matches.

Mumbai Indians:
Lasith Malinga, Jean Paul Duminy, Graham Napier, Ryan McLaren, Dilhara Fernando, Sanath Jayasuriya, Dwayne Bravo, Mohammad Ashraful, Kyle Mills and Luke Ronchi.
Kyle Mills though he is thrown all around the park in NZ, I expect he will be able to give good start to the team. MI will have home advantage in form of Duminy. Mohammad Ashraful will get a big platform to prove his worth and talent. Jayasuriya is a legend and he has some experience of playing with south african twenty-20 franchise.

Rajasthan Royals:
Shane Warne, Graeme Smith, Shane Watson, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Morne Morkel, Robert Quiney, Tyron Henderson, Shaun Tait, Shane Harwood and Lee Carseldine.
All players I find to be dark horses. I have not seen much of Henderson,Harwood and Lee but they can be what Shaun Marsh was last year.

Kings XI Punjab:
Brett Lee, James Hopes, Shaun Marsh, Luke Pomersbach, Simon Katich, Kumar Sangakkara , Mahela Jayawardene, Burt Cockley, Ravi Bopara and Jerome Taylor.
All hopes for Brett Lee to be fit by the time tournament starts, Sreesant also will not be playing due to injury. Ravi Bopara will bring in some stability down the order.

Deccan Chargers:
Adam Gilchrist, Herschelle Gibbs, Scott Styris, Andrew Symonds, Ryan Harris, Fidel Edwards, Dwayne Smith, Chamara Silva, Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa.
We had lot of expectations from the team last year, perhaps the burden on star players was unbearable or they didn't click properly. Team of power hitters and Sri Lankan bowlers. I have a gut feeling of seeing this team in Semis this season.

Delhi Daredevils:
AB De Villiers, Daniel Vettori, Owais Shah, Paul Collingwood, David Warner, Andrew McDonald, Dirk Nannes, Glenn McGrath, Farveez Maharoof and Tillakaratne Dilshan.

Watch out for Warner , De Villiers. I dont know Glen McGrath will be the same as he was last year. McDonald is a dark horse.

Chennai Super Kings:
Muttiah Muralitharan, Matthew Hayden , Michael Hussey, Albie Morkel, Makhaya Ntini, Jacob Oram, Stephen Fleming , Thilan Thushara, Andrew Flintoff and George Bailey.

Jacob Oram injury is a blow, Fleming will be doing the role similar to what Shane Warne did last year. Costliest player Flintoff will be under huge burden of expectations. Team is looking stable with nice combination of international stars. They might play Flintoff,Hussey,Morkel/Ntini,Murli frequently.

Royal Challengers:
Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher, Dale Steyn, Dillon Du Preez, Cameron White, Nathan Bracken, Ross Taylor, Kevin Pietersen, Jesse Ryder and Roelof van der Merwe.

Mallaya will be after them this year expecting a semi final finish atleast.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Dark Clouds over Major Events in India

Concern of security is affecting sports events on regularly basis. Thanks to Indian Government for their efforts to alleviate the fears which have increased since IPL committee decided to host the event in South Africa as we didn't have enough police/army/nsg/crpf to give the security cover. Country with 3/4th largest army and big police force can't provide security cover to common people, that is for politicans only. 

GOI expected that BCCI will postpone the event but Modi was able to do a turnaround and get the event hosted in SA which will benifit hugely with the coming event.

But that decision as I also wrote earlier has put India-Pakistan-Bangladesh-Sri Lanka at same platform in terms of security concerns. Events are getting affected or main players are not turning up due to fear factor.

I feel its not the terrorists who have held the common public to ransom its the politicans and elections which have held us to ransom. You have to vote its a biggest democratic exercise of the world with 700 million voting. 
Democracy is government for the people and by the people so the biggest elections are putting my National Pride at stake Why ?? . Image of my India is taking a beating. 

I guess the time has come to think What we have done for the country not What the politicians have done and are doing. 
Time for young guns to come over not those who spread communal voilence ...... 



Monday, March 30, 2009

IPL in South Africa: Match Schedule

Here is post number 280 we are nearing the triple century mark.

Below is the schedule for IPL-2 in SouthAfrica

April 18: RAJASTHAN ROYALS v ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE (4 pm) Cape Town
April 18 MUMBAI INDIANS v CHENNAI SUPER KINGS (8 pm) Cape Town

April 19: KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS v DECCAN CHARGERS (4 pm) at Cape Town
April 19: DELHI DAREDEVILS v KINGS XI PUNJAB (8 pm) at Cape Town.

April 20: ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE V CHENNAI SUPER KINGS (4 pm) at Port Elizabeth.

April 21: RAJASTHAN ROYALS v MUMBAI INDIANS (4 pm) at Durban
April 21: KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS v KINGS XI PUNJAB (8 pm) at Durban

April 22: DELHI DAREDEVILS v CHENNAI SUPER KINGS (4 pm) at Durban
April 22: ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE v DECCAN CHARGERS (8 pm) at Cape Town

April 23: KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS v RAJASTHAN ROYALS (4 pm) at Port Elizabeth

April 24: KINGS XI PUNJAB v ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE (4 pm) at Johannesburg

April 25: KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS v CHENNAI SUPER KINGS (4 pm) at Cape Town
April 25: DECCAN CHARGERS v MUMBAI INDIANS (8 pm) at Durban.

April 26: RAJASTHAN ROYALS v KINGS XI PUNJAB (4 pm) at Cape Town
April 26: ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE v DELHI DAREDEVILS (8 pm) Port Elizabeth

April 27: KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS v MUMBAI INDIANS (4 pm) at Cape Town
April 27: CHENNAI SUPER KINGS v DECCAN CHARGERS (8 pm) at Durban.

April 28: DELHI DAREDEVILS v RAJASTHAN ROYALS (4 pm) at Pretoria

April 29: MUMBAI INDIANS v KINGS XI PUNJAB (4 pm) at Durban
April 29: KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS v ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE (8 pm) at Durban

April 30: DELHI DAREDEVILS v DECCAN CHARGERS (4 pm) at Pretoria
April 30: RAJASTHAN ROYALS v CHENNAI SUPER KINGS (8 pm) at Pretoria.

May 1: ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE v KINGS XI PUNJAB (4 pm) at East London
May 1: MUMBAI INDIANS v KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS (8 pm) at Durban

May 2: RAJASTHAN ROYALS v DECCAN CHARGERS (4 pm) at Johannesburg
May 2: CHENNAI SUPER KINGS v DELHI DAREDEVILS (8 pm) at Port Elizabeth

May 3: MUMBAI INDIANS v ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE (4 pm) at Durban
May 3: KINGS XI PUNJAB v KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS (8 pm) at East London

May 4: DECCAN CHARGERS v CHENNAI SUPER KINGS (4 pm) at Port Elizabeth

May 5: DELHI DAREDEVILS v KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS (4 pm) at Durban
May 5: KINGS XI PUNJAB v RAJASTHAN ROYALS (8 pm) at Durban

May 6: MUMBAI INDIANS v DECCAN CHARGERS (4 pm) at Pretoria

May 7: KINGS XI PUNJAB v CHENNAI SUPER KINGS (4 pm) at Pretoria
May 7: ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE v RAJASTHAN ROYALS (8 pm) at Pretoria

May 8: DELHI DAREDEVILS v MUMBAI INDIANS (4 pm) at East London

May 9: DECCAN CHARGERS v KINGS XI PUNJAB (4 pm) at Bloemfontein
May 9: CHENNAI SUPER KINGS v RAJASTHAN ROYALS (8 pm) at Port Elizabeth

May 10: KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS v DELHI DAREDEVILS (4 pm) at East London
May 10: ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE v MUMBAI INDIANS (8 pm) at Johannesburg

May 11: DECCAN CHARGERS v RAJASTHAN ROYALS (4 pm) at Bloemfontein

May 12: ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE v KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS (4 pm) at Pretoria
May 12: KINGS XI PUNJAB v MUMBAI INDIANS (8 pm) at Pretoria.

May 13: DECCAN CHARGERS v DELHI DAREDEVILS (4 pm) at Durban

May 14: MUMBAI INDIANS v RAJASTHAN ROYALS (4 pm) at Durban
May 14: CHENNAI SUPER KINGS v ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE (8 pm) at Durban.

May 15: KINGS XI PUNJAB v DELHI DAREDEVILS (4 pm) at Kimberley

May 16: CHENNAI SUPER KINGS v MUMBAI INDIANS (4 pm) at Johannesburg
May 16: DECCAN CHARGERS v KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS (8 pm) at Port Elizabeth

May 17: RAJASTHAN ROYALS v DELHI DAREDEVILS (4 pm) at Kimberley
May 17: KINGS XI PUNJAB v DECCAN CHARGERS (8 pm) at Johannesburg

May 18: CHENNAI SUPER KINGS v KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS (4 pm) at Pretoria

May 19: DELHI DAREDEVILS v ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE (4 pm) at Johannesburg

May 20: CHENNAI SUPER KINGS v KINGS XI PUNJAB (4 pm) at Durban
May 20: RAJASTHAN ROYALS v KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS (8 pm) at Durban

May 21: DECCAN CHARGERS v ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE (4 pm) at Pretoria
May 21: MUMBAI INDIANS v DELHI DAREDEVILS (8 pm) at Pretoria

May 22: Semi Final 1 at Pretoria

May 23: Semi Final 2 at Johannesburg

May 24: Final at Johannesburg.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Indian Premier League in England/SA gains and losses

So finally we saw yesterday what we all were expecting since long. IPL governing body decided that there is no way the tournament can be organized in India. It was decided that tournament will be shifted to England or SA with England having upper edge.

Why BCCI had to take this decisions:

1. Petty politics between NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Congress and congress trying to diminish the clout of Mr Pawar after he offered himself as PM candidate
2. Government of India thought that the returns of organizing the event will be less at the time of elections.
3. Why take the risk of any unexpected terrorist attack which may raise questions on the running government. Lets get it scrapped or push for delay
4. Fear among the politicans that they may be sidelined duing the IPL season, i.e cricketers will be the heroes not the great nation servers politicans.

What is lost with IPL going out:

1. Big opportunity to the political parties to advertise duing the IPL season. 
2. Revenue for reeling Hotel industry, and other tourism related industry. If the even had gone peacefully lot many foreigners would have stared coming back to India who have stopped after Mumbai  attacks.
3. Image of India as a powerful country has taken a hit. Elections elections are the biggest festival but that doesn't mean that no other event can take place during this time. This is not what superpowers are made up of. We cant even have 3000-4000 police force for the match day where as we can have big 60,000 police force to protect any big small medium politicans in New Delhi.
4. Feeling of city-city rivalry which was the base of IPL will not be the same. IPL-1 was hit due the big city fan following TV viewing being the other reason.
5. This decision has put India together with Pakistan and Bangladesh which are not save for cricket.

What's good for having IPL outside India:

1. Eventhough the sport may go the England or SA, still we can expect a upliftment in the level of game in that region and also increase in fan following. EPL organizers are trying to have 1-2 matches added in the season which can be played outside England so as to cater to fans in Asia, in the same way with whole of IPL going out of India we may see an increase in fan following. It may make IPL fully global in a way and may lead to cricket being played by more then 8-9 serious countries
2. Logistics industry will get a boost in the organizing country.
3. Easy money for organizing country as BCCI will pay hefty amount to SA/England
4. We are seeing globalization in cricket now, there are no boundary walls now as a local tournament of one country will take place in other country.



Some people will say they will not watch the matches, it will not be the same as last year. But i feel this was the only way out considering the options left to the organizers. 

Enjoy the game at same timings atleast and i will be glued to the TV that is for sure.

Monday, March 2, 2009

IPL 2009 Schedule

DateMatchVenueTime (IST)
April 10Rajasthan Royals vs Delhi DaredevilsJaipur8pm
April 11Kolkata Knight Riders vs Deccan ChargersKolkata4pm
April 11Chennai Super Kings vs Bangalore Royal ChallengersChennai8pm
April 12Delhi Daredevils vs Kings XI PunjabDelhi4pm
April 12Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan RoyalsMumbai8pm
April 13Deccan Chargers vs Chennai Super KingsHyderabad8pm
April 14Bangalore Royal Challengers vs Kolkata Knight RidersBangalore8pm
April 15Kings XI Punjab vs Mumbai IndiansMohali8pm
April 16Deccan Chargers vs Delhi DaredevilsHyderabad4pm
April 16Chennai Super Kings vs Rajasthan RoyalsChennai8pm
April 17Mumbai Indians vs Bangalore Royal ChallengersMumbai8pm
April 18Kings XI Punjab vs Deccan ChargersMohali4pm
April 18Kolkata Knight Riders vs Delhi DaredevilsKolkata8pm
April 19Bangalore Royal Challengers vs Rajasthan RoyalsBangalore4pm
April 19Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super KingsMumbai8pm
April 20Kolkata Knight Riders vs Kings XI PunjabKolkata8pm
April 21Delhi Daredevils vs Mumbai IndiansDelhi8pm
April 22Rajasthan Royals vs Deccan ChargersJaipur8pm
April 23Bangalore Royal Challengers vs Kings XI PunjabBangalore8pm
April 24Mumbai Indians vs Kolkata Knight RidersMumbai8pm
April 25Chennai Super Kings vs Kings XI PunjabChennai4pm
April 25Delhi Daredevils vs Bangalore Royal ChallengersDelhi8pm
April 26Deccan Chargers vs Mumbai IndiansVizag4pm
April 26Rajasthan Royals vs Kolkata Knight RidersJaipur8pm
April 27Kings XI Punjab vs Bangalore Royal ChallengersMohali8pm
April 28Mumbai Indians vs Delhi DaredevilsMumbai8pm
April 29Chennai Super Kings vs Kolkata Knight RidersChennai4pm
April 29Kings XI Punjab vs Rajasthan RoyalsMohali8pm
April 30Deccan Chargers vs Bangalore Royal ChallengersVizag8pm
May 1Chennai Super Kings vs Delhi DaredevilsChennai8pm
May 2Mumbai Indians vs Deccan ChargersMumbai4pm
May 2Kolkata Knight Riders vs Rajasthan RoyalsKolkata8pm
May 3Bangalore Royal Challengers vs Delhi DaredevilsBangalore4pm
May 3Kings XI Punjab vs Chennai Super KingsMohali8pm
May 4Deccan Chargers vs Rajasthan RoyalsHyderabad8pm
May 5Delhi Daredevils vs Chennai Super KingsDelhi8pm
May 6Kolkata Knight Riders vs Mumbai IndiansKolkata4pm
May 6Rajasthan Royals vs Kings XI PunjabJaipur8pm
May 7Bangalore Royal Challengers vs Deccan ChargersBangalore8pm
May 8Kolkata Knight Riders vs Chennai Super KingsKolkata8pm
May 9Kings XI Punjab vs Delhi DaredevilsMohali4pm
May 9Rajasthan Royals vs Mumbai IndiansJaipur8pm
May 10Deccan Chargers vs Kolkata Knight RidersHyderabad8pm
May 11Delhi Daredevils vs Rajasthan RoyalsDelhi8pm
May 12Mumbai Indians vs Kings XI PunjabMumbai4pm
May 12Chennai Super Kings vs Deccan ChargersChennai8pm
May 13Kolkata Knight Riders vs Bangalore Royal ChallengersKolkata8pm
May 14Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Super KingsJaipur4pm
May 14Delhi Daredevils vs Deccan ChargersDelhi8pm
May 15Bangalore Royal Challengers vs Mumbai IndiansBangalore8pm
May 16Delhi Daredevils vs Kolkata Knight RidersDelhi4pm
May 16Deccan Chargers vs Kings XI PunjabHyderabad8pm
May 17Rajasthan Royals vs Bangalore Royal ChallengersJaipur4pm
May 17Chennai Super Kings vs Mumbai IndiansChennai8pm
May 18Kings XI Punjab vs Kolkata Knight RidersMohali8pm
May 19Bangalore Royal Challengers vs Chennai Super KingsBangalore8pm
May 21Semi-Final 1Chennai8pm
May 22Semi-Final 2Chennai8pm
May 24FINALMumbai8pm
This is a tentative schedule, and subject to change

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