Life has changed

The last couple of weeks have been hectic, travelled more then 18,000 Kms to finally reach IIM Lucknow. I missed World T20 almost entirely, However I guess India's early departure should be a good enough excuse for missing World T20. Still sometimes I get a feeling that the teams which played in last two world T20 finals have had to play it for all the non cricketing reasons. India and Pakistan missed out on ODI world cup and had to bounce back, for which no better opportunity then playing in the finals of World T20 could have been there and now we spotted the two teams, which faced the terror first hand recently and their countries have been subject of security concerns for a long period of time. Also Pakistan needed to desperately win this event in order to save their identity at a time when no one is willing to play the game their country.

Coming back to my life, it has changed a lot, I don't need to go to office anymore or attend the long meeting over the phone, instead I have to now attend classes (Formally they will start on 29th ). Living in a hostel room and having food in the mess with friends (all new) feels good. Yes we are not having any classes this week, but still this is no lesser then the weeks ahead. Full day yesterday was taken by the formal induction module by the IIM faculty and alumni and then night and today's morning was for the seniors, who seem to be too nice to give us all the possible "GLOBE" (i.e. arbit gyan) about IIML Culture in just three days. the schedule remains the same for rest of the week and then the real stuff will start.

I will update about my trip to Miller Breweries and Kohler soon......

Its T20, where every one is equal

After the grand treat of T20 cricket in IPL, its time for some more serious stuff. The rules remains same, however the loyalties now shift towards the country instead of the franchise. World T20 did not start with a bang as was the case for IPL, but the results of the first match could be summarized on similar lines i.e. in three hours who plays best is the supreme without any regards to History. I won't say that Netherlands performance yesterday was a sheer luck as they bowled superbly only to follow it up with even better batting. Today Australia were thrashed by Chris Gayle in a manner even Bangladesh would feel bad about.

The point i want to make here is that the shortest the format of the game, lesser the monopoly. The way 8 senior test playing countries dominate in test cricket (Bangladesh is yet to win a test match against any of them), they fail to match in ODIs. ODI world cup 2007 was a prime example, where India and Pakistan were ousted by minnows. I hope the shortest format of the game will provide even more level field to the so called minnows, and that will be good for the future of the game as well as for the level of competition. For the past 12 years or so, world cricket in both Test as well as ODI format was dominated by Aussies, but I don't see any such thing happening in the T20s (Even though I would have loved to see India dominate in T20 as world stage every time). Aussies anyways are done with their dominance with departure of their great players (who still manage to dominate T20s in IPL), and others who follow them have failed to be consistent as Aussies used to be.

I am great fan of tests because of the level of skill it requires to win a test match as compared to any other format of the game, however for the same reasons I love T20s as there its just a matter of 40 odd overs and the best during those three hours emerges as the winner. Bangladesh can manage to dominate in a session or two of a test, but not for 6-8 which it takes to win a test. Now compare the time it takes for a session of Test game with the length of a T20 game. The team which can control the game 10-15 overs of the total 40 can look to win a game and sometimes even a lesser team can dominate 25-30 overs as it happened in WI vs Aus game.

I am happy for India, that they are looking great but this greatness will be put to tougher tests in future, and I can only hope that they don't meet New Zealand in the knockout stage (well i know history doesn't matter in T20s but sometimes I am a bit superstitious as I can't find any other reason as to why they always loose to NZ in T20s)

IPL and bottom teams

I have been travelling travelling and travelling during the past seven days and because of that missed out IPL semifinals as well as finals :( . Drove roughly 1600 Kms, thanks to great highway network in US, covered four cities. It was tiring but was fun. Spent couple of days in Chicago with one friend and then travelled to Wisconsin dells to see the water park capital of the world, came back and again drove to Wausau for some official work and came back today morning.

But in between all the fun, I missed out the final and second semifinal of IPL. I read about the blistering hundred from Manish Pandey and the nail biting finish in the finals. Till now a lot has been written about two bottom placed teams of IPL 1.0 playing in the finals of IPL 2.0, but we might want to go back to IPL 1.0 and remember that RR were supposed to be bottom placed team then and they came up with a surprise team studded with stones (little known players) instead of gems (the big stars) and took every one by surprise. Deccan chargers, if had done this good last time around it would not have been a surprise but coming back from bottom to top is a real good one. For Bangalore also it was quite positive after a disastrous last session and further bad start with KP at the helm of affairs.

Delhi and Chennai were good but were not that good in the knock out stage but if i have to pick one factor which really worked in favor of RR last year and for RCB and DC this year and that is fact that at the end of the day you have to rely and home talent. Gilchrist definitely was at his best in taking away the semifinals but in other matches he was well supported by his Indian colleagues. Be it Pragyan Ojha, RP or Suman, no one really was ready to call it quits. Whatever we may say about disastrous first half Bangalore had with KP leading the deck, but the fact is that their domestic talent was not working then. It might have to do with KP himself, as it needs a Captain like Warne or Kumble to get the talent out of shyness by giving them additional responsibilities. Warne did not shed tears for his limited resources like Buchanan (who wanted more foreign players in the playing XI). Kumble did the same by sending the newcomer Pandey to open the innings in a semifinal. Gilchrist did not shy away from benching Laxman to give Suman a chance.

If anything the other teams have to learn from two IPLs is that, they need the home grown talent and for that they can not just rely on state ranji teams. Like Warne they may want to test a few folks who didn't even play a single first class match as every one know what it takes in India to get a place in State team.

I will soon updating my visit to Home of Harley Davidson (yes Milwaukee is the town where they are built and I visited their factory)

Elections and IPL well poised for a photo finish

Two third of IPL is over and four fifth of Indian elections is also done. Elections will be completed tomorrow and then we have to keep our fingers crossed for couple of days before we get to know about our next government. If I can make out anything from the elections analysis (no exit pols until 13th May), the changing tunes of media houses and of parties, it is almost sure that congress is going to be at loss this time around while BJP will be gaining (I might be biased in my analysis, anyways every one will come out probably with exit poll results by today evening and 16th is not far off either). But still one thing is for sure that no one is going to get anywhere close to the magic 273 mark, even with their current allies i.e. NDA and UPA formations.

With that the future of India will be left with the regional satraps and it will all come down to the kind of deal a one formation can offer over another. The worst scenario definitely will be every one rallying behind a third or fourth front PM as that PM won't survive for more then a year and thus creating instability during already bad times financially. I see a big dip in stock markets if something like that happens. I can just hope that BJP is able to pull it off with the help of people lie Chandrababu naidu (TRS has already come aboard) and may be Jayalalitha if required but certainly not the Bahenji. I know both Jayalalitha and Mayawati are bad but sometimes you have to choose best amongst the worst. If not BJP then i will hope even for congress but still everything as of today is pretty open and I don't think anyone has even slightest Idea of what it going to look like on 16th May.

IPL also started at almost the same time and rather had to move out of the country because of elections only (theoretically we should have been able to have IPL in India after 16th May). And there too I don't think any team except Delhi can be more then 90% sure about a place in semis, and even Delhi if looses 4 matches and mumbai and RR win their remaining three, the top four will be entirely different group. In this IPL their have been cases when a team with one win came straight to no. 2 from 7 and when we have just a margin of 4 points (that couple of matches) between the top seven teams, no one can be sure of anything other then the return schedule of Sharukhs Champs.

Mumbai started with a bang and lost in between and now catching up again. Deccan also started great, got dinged completely in between and again coming back. Chennai did not start that well but dhoni definitely made sure not to repeat his mistakes and with the help of old bull they are just an inch away from no.1 position.

Panjab started badly, picked up fast and with the return of their two of best seamers into the team, they are on their loosing streak again. I don't know what bret lee and Appam have to do with this but sure Yusuf abdulla has, who undoubtedly was an important factor in Yuvi's team. RR again has been pretty shaky and came back strongly after loosing badly at start only to go back to find their place at the bottom half of the table. Now without Shane Warne I am not sure how Smith will guide the champions (I assume he will be natural choice for the skipper's role). Bangalore has again been shaky but is doing quite well after the departure of Malya's favorite KP and today in the battle of two kiwi's their bird stole the game for them to keep their hopes on.

In between all these swinging performance by six teams in this IPL ony two teams have been quite consistent and lesser amongst the two finds a place at the top of table with just a couple of losses. Delhi is struggling with their opening combination and they have to thanks their middle order for their rank in the table. I hope when Viru comes back he will start firing again and will take Delhi forward.

The most consistent team definitely has been a well picked and lead team of Knight riders (I assume they have to move out of Kolkata next year with all they have done this year, final nail to their coffin can be dropping of dada from the team which Buchnan wants as per info provided by fake ipl player). They have been pretty consistent with loosing and came close to win only a couple of times only to let it go. The only role they can play now is of a spoiler to others chances if somehow they manage to pull a game off.

I obviously want BJP at the top of poll charts and Delhi at the top of IPL charts, but have to keep my fingers crossed.

Warne the Magician and Dada the great

I am happy... both the matches go as I wanted, first a thrilling win to delhi and then a loss to Kolkata with Dada proving his worth. In the second match, no one would have thought the way warne thought to defend a moderate total of 150. To block Gayle and McCullum, warne brought Yusuf and that appeared to be a well thought decision and then when they were almost done by the heroics of Dada, he took the things in total control.

When KKR required just seven from the last over, he put the new guy Kamran, who has never played even a ranji game, I was not able to stop myself from comparing Kamran's performance with that of Dilhara in IPL 1.0 RR Vs MI. Dilhara has loads of experience of international matched and he was not able to withstand the pressure of last over whereas now this new guy successfully restricts the opponents.

I wanted Warne to beat his ex coachie, who thinks of himself another Sun Tju. There are certainly big problems going in KKR camp thanks to Coachie, it was evident by the newcomer Yashpal was ignoring Dada'a advice. This guy Yashpal seems to be very arrogant or may be is on high with the closeness to new order in KKR. That guy got two catches and both the times his reactions just shown the arrogance. But at the end of it I am happy for Dada, who made blistering 46 to bring his team back into the contest, which I believe is just a start to make Vinnie and Coachie realize the real worth of Dada as a player. Also the Sun Tzu's bet on Mendis was so foolish that even a rookie like me told my friends before the super over that he will be butchered by Yusuf, who is particularly good against spin.

But there has been something not good yesterday and that was not blog from fake ipl player. I am worried about the guy, is he caught or he has just taken a break to escape the high levels of scrutiny. Whatever it may be, I am desperately waiting for his new post to know more about the happening after yesterday's match. Or if he was caught, I am eagerly waiting for the insider news about the identity of that guy.

I am loving it... the fake IPL Player

A couple of days back I read about this guy, who claims to be part of KKR team, played ranji probably for WB and has no hopes of being in the playing eleven. The blog is www.fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com, and the posts are just hilarious. I believe this guy gives some reliable info, else no one would have taken him seriously. The nick names given are also damn interesting and if you read all the posts, you can easily find who is who, but just to make your task easier, I will put down the nicknames used by this guy:

Sheik of Tweak - Shane Warne
Vinnie/Winnie/Badshah Dildo - Shahrukh Khan
Lord Almighty/ Lordie - Saurav Ganguly
Pedophile Priest - Adam Gilchrist
Kaan Moolo - Ajit Agarkar
Appam Chutiya - S. Sreesanth
Calypso King - Chris Gayle
Prince Charles of Patiala - Yuvraj Singh
Kishen Kanhaiyya Commentator - Ravi Shastri
Little John - Ishant Sharma
Meera Bhai - Harbhajan Singh
Babli - Priety Zinta
Big Sister - Shilpa Shetty
Junta Tormentor - Ajantha Mendis
Havai Chappal - Greg Chappel
Baja of Baroda - Anshuman Gaekwad
John Wrong - John Wright
RDB - Ranadeb Bose
Bangla Tiger - Mashrafe Mortaza
Very special friend Ram - VVS Laxman
Sandy Baddy Babe - Mandira Bedi
Coachie - John Buchannan
Phoren Babas - KKR Coaching Squad
Bevdaa Team - Bangalore Royal Challengers
Mr. Batlivala - Vijay Mallya
Biggest Bevda - Jesse Ryder
Commentator who crossed the border for this tournament - Alistair Campbell
Chatterjee Kaku - Old man in the KKR Ad
Big Sisters Team - Rajasthan Royals
Bubblies Team - Kings XI Punjab

A few recent posts have not been up to the standards set by him in the initial posts, may be because now every thing is scanned and the time is less rather now he also claims to be putting his blog via his bro in India.

My take on the blogger is that this guy is certainly not as described in the blogs, the kind of unique writing skills he has, it would have been easier to identify as you wont find many people with such skills. Other thing is that, he gave so many clues and anyone having inside information could have found as their are a few instance where 2-3 people only were present, so definatly this guy is faking it but for sure is some insider.

I feel it can be Lordie himself, as the start date of blog coincided with the announcement date of McCullum's captaincy and Lordie has good enough reasons to be against Vinnie and Coachie. Also one needs to have balls to do such an act, as any newcomer's career will be destroyed if caught and there is only such player who can take the team management head on when caught. Again I feel that Lordie has quite good oratory skills and he might be using his some journalist friend to put the blog and he is also cleverly putting the things about himself. I hope its Lordie.. and if that's true hats off dada, BRAVO.

If not lordie then it can only be a parts of Vinnie's marketing team, just to keep the interest of viewers after loosing the fan base in Kolkata. Vinnie is a very shrewd guy and any one can make out that fact from his take on Dada but unfortunately its too easy to find that he is faking it. Vinnie also is a very good business man and wants to earn profits by hook or crook and this might be one of his crooks anyways I feel next year onwards KKR will either remain KR with a base on Ahmedabad or Vinnie has to get rid of Phoren babas and lick a&% of Kolkata's dear Lordie.

The greats of Tests rule in T20

IPL 2.0 started in a grand fashion yesterday, as it did last year. However there was a big difference in the matches played, last year's inaugural match was defined by reckless batting of McCullum, whereas this time both the matches were classified by some classic batting from the all time greats of the game, and genuine bowling firepower that also included two of the top three in tests.

If day 1 of IPL 2.0 has to be defined in one statement, i will say "The greats will rule in any form of the game". Yesterday's two matches featured three of India's Big Five in tests (Sachin, Rahul, Kumble, Saurav and Laxman) and of these three two bagged the man of the match awards and third ended with 5-5. Neither of three is playing T20 internationals for India as people say that this is the game for youngsters. Sachin's capability in in any form of the game is unquestionable and he made his own decision to sit out of the Indian squad for T20s, but the same reasoning might not hold good for Dravid and Kumble. In addition to these three, Warne was one more great of tests, who bowled superbly yesterday.

Going by the performances of these four, I can only say that this time around IPL is not going to be any one's game just by their attacking ability. On the pitches of SA, the application will matter the most. Not every ball can be dispatched to the boundary and scores like 140 will provide thrilling finishes and even those 140 can be made only with prudent shot selection. Dravid's innings was not only classic but also had a flavour of aggression required for T20s, he played the role of the anchor and provided the thrust when necessary. For RCB another stand out performance came from Kumble, who is not playing any form of cricket at international level (the argument used to oust Ganguly from KKR's captaincy). Even though RR's top order was wrecked by Praveen and Ryder, still last 6 could have easily made the match interesting. a 5-5 in a T20 is always a defining performance.

Tendulkar exemplified why is he considered modern great, even though his innings was not as great as that of Dravid but still he provided the stability to the batting order of Mumbai Indian. He kept one end safe, and provided the required support to the batsmen attacking from the other end. He also played some glorifying strokes, as you always expect from people like Tendulkar.

Warne's final figures might not put him as a standout performer, but we must keep in mind that he was bowling to Dravid. 2-18 in four overs is good in a T20 but if one as seen his bowling yesterday, its just a warning for the rookies in the coming matches. He bowled Kohli and Akhil with a sheer brilliance of controlling the turn of the ball.

With the rule of veterans on Day1, I am eagerly waiting to see the response of Dada to Buchanan and Shahrukh (Dada has a knack of responding with bat). Laxman' performance will again be closely monitored and I bet on him as well.

IPL 2.0, Dada and Elections

The so called shrewed combination of business and cricket is just about to begin and with that I can see the politicians getting anxious about the kind of response they will get from Media and the people. Since yesterday media has restricted its elections coverage and diverted good time to IPL, and once IPL is on, the crowd at rallies will be hard to gather.

Also came a news that dada is sacked as KKR captain, and to my complete astonishment, no news channel is reporting the response of Kolkata. I expected effigies of Shahrukh and Buchanan being burnt on the roads of Kolkata, but till now no news. But still i feel, next year it will be a big problem for Buchanan and Shahrukh, when the matches will be held in kolkata or may be they will ask for another home stadium. As IPL is a shrewd combination of cricket and business, KKR management must have had the business in their mind before making such decision, or may be the multi captain theory was just to give jore ka jhatka dheere se. Anyways I am waiting for the images of shahrukh being booed in kolkata ... my destructive mind :P.

Pakistan’s absence: who will be impacted?

This time around IPL will defiantly miss the action coming from across the India’s western borders, which also brought with them the support of millions of Pakistanis for teams like KKR. IPL was a huge hit in Pakistan, I guess maximum interest among the foreign nations, mostly because of all big players of Pakistan playing along with the popularity of Sharukh and Zinta in urdu speaking country.

The biggest sufferer of this absence will be KKR, who had four players coming from Pakistan. I consider Umar Gul as one of the best T20 bowlers, as he has the ability to bowl the Yorkers consistently and for that I believe he will be a big miss from the KKR squad. Umar Gul’s last year performance might not have been able to match the might he showed at world T20 2007 in SA, and since IPL 2.0 is held in SA I think Umar could have been a great asset for KKR.
Salman Butt was another big player on KKR payrolls. Salman again did not contribute significantly during IPL1.0 but still his impact at the top of the order can not denied. At international level this guy has a knack of performing well against India, but I am not sure how does that transform when he plays for an Indian team. Salman might not be a big miss because of prolonged availability of Chris Gayle and McCullum.

Shoib Akhtar was another big signing of KKR from Pakistan, and he made some impact during his 4 match stint at IPL 1.0. But I believe apart from cricketing prowess Shoib was one of the biggest factors of Pakistan’s support for KKR. Hafeez came to IPL with a badge of a big hitter, but ended up as an extra baggage, and might not be missed at all in the presence of other big hitter in the ranks of KKR.

So KKR will miss the firepower on the seam bowling department and will also loose their big fan base in Pakistan, still I am not sure if that will also impact their fan base in Bangladesh.
The other team, which will miss Pakistanis a lot is the current IPL champion Rajasthan Royals. They had three Pakistanis on their payrolls and Sohail Tanvir’s contributions to their campaign can not be debated. In absence of Tanvir their bowling attack will be led of Morkel and Patel as Shane Watson, another big find of IPL 1.0 will also be missing from action. They will have to rely on the new (publicized) sensation Kamran Khan.

Rajsthan will also miss their wicket Keeper batsman Kamran Akmal and now they have rely on local talent to fill that gap. Also their middle order might miss the stability that could have been provided by Younis Khan. My take is that from the pure cricketing perspective RR might turn out to be the biggest losers.

Delhi comes next with two Pakistanis in its squad, but both Shoib Malik and Asif turned out to be the over heads with their limited contributions. Malik was a big flop as an alrounder and Asif was also not able to match the firepower of McGrawth, Mahroof and Yo Mahesh. Now with Ashish Nehra also coming back to his home team, Delhi will not miss the Pakistani duo at all.

Bangalore and Hyderabad had one player each from Pakistan with them last time, but both Misbah and Shahid afridi were not able to justify the high price tags they came with. Even though Misbah was a personal choice of Malya, he failed and was not able to match the level of so called test players in the team. The biggest failure of star studded Deccan Chargers team undeniably was the Man of the series of world T20 2007. Shahid Afridi failed miserably both with bat and ball. With their pathetic performances the tow bottom teams might be feeling a bit light after doing away with the excess baggage.

Mumbai Indian, CSK and Kings XI were the teams with no Pakistanis and obviously have no impact coming from the stand off between India and Pakistan.

IPL Outsourced

In a week’s time, the cricket’s biggest extravaganza will set its first global footprints, thanks to Indian Government. In an era of outsourcing, India has benefitted the most by bagging the IT and other jobs. However as is the case with any business having money, people around the globe will be more then happy to work with you or work for you. India is the biggest market for cricket and that makes it easy for even the cricketers from first world countries (even those who criticize the playing condition in third world countries) to argue with their national boards about the 6 weeks stint at IPL that can earn them a million dollars.

This time around when this ultra rich baby was aborted by its parents, SA decided to take care of it. Obviously South Africa knows the kind of stimulus IPL can provide in such times. But with that I also see an opportunity for IPL in this. Last year’s IPL was a mega event for sure, but was mostly confined to India or at most in south Asia. This year when the 8 city franchise teams start their journey for the trophy, they will find more supporters in form of those living in Johannesburg and Cape Town. IPL has almost every good cricketer across the globe on its payroll, but still a person in SA or Australia will not be bothered much about the performance of Smith or Lee for RR or Kings XI, just think how much interest we have in county cricket when our players participate in that. However now with the teams starting their journey on an offshore location (a term highly used in outsourcing), it will be interesting to see the kind of interest It can generate there with the help of Big Indian diasporas and bollywood stars.

Franchises may loose some money of ticket receipts and might have to incur additional travel costs (Actually hotels in SA are much cheaper than those in India), but still I consider it a good opportunity for them increase their support base. Still I am not much happy with the format, if every team was allotted a home ground in SA and then they were asked to repeat the same format as that of last year, the city based loyalty might have hit the roof.

From the cricket’s point of view IPL anyways presented a great opportunity for the domestic cricketers to get a feel of Big Games, before venturing into the international arena. This year it takes the experience forward by giving them an opportunity of playing with big guns of cricket at a global location, which must help them and in turn Indian team for future. Anyone can see the evolution of likes of Asnodkar, Ravinder and Dinda. I also feel that this time around the results might be very different from the last year’s as I doubts the capabilities of domestic players on bouncy tracks and that might just change to order of teams.

I will quickly rap up the discussion with a little SWOT analysis of IPL at an offshore location:
Strengths: Teams with international players will be able to get good results as well as support base. Indian domestic players will get more recognition.

Weaknesses: Only four overseas players allowed in a team, thus restricting the global fragrance. Indian domestic players might not be as accustomed to playing the shots on backfoot as compared to their mastery on front foot on slower Indian grounds.

Opportunities: A new market thrown open for IPL and with that it can really get a global status. Also it will be good for Indian cricketers to get a feel of international cricket at international location. The timing is also perfect from Indian team’s perspective as they will play on wickets, which are closer to those they will get in England during world T20, thus enhancing their chances of retaining their champion status.

Threats: With no matches in India, the city bases loyalty may fade. Anyways no Hyderabadi would back Hyderabad this time around :D.