A fitting end to a great tournament
| Posted By Deepanjan DebBIO Total 25 posts | May 26th, 2009 |
The majestic Wanderers in Johannesburg was the setting for the IPL final as glitz and glamour icons from all across the world descended on the bull ring. The final of this year’s edition pitted two teams against each other who had occupied the last two slots in the previous year’s edition. Such is the unpredictability of T-20 cricket. Life had come full circle for both of these teams who had tottered at the bottom of the table last year. It was a tale of two captains who had taken over battered teams and inspired their teams to the doorstep of glory. Only the last frontier remained to be conquered.
The Royal Challengers of Bangalore had won the first mini battle by winning the toss and choosing to field. Their team is littered with batsmen and their ploy of chasing totals had gained ground in the past few matches. Their team is a perfect mix of batsmen who can bowl which is why they have always been comfortable chasing. But a final is after all a final. It is played more in the mind than on the field. For many of these young players in both the teams, it was the biggest moment of their lives. It remained to be seen which team could master pressure and achieve glory. Read more »
En route to the winning formula
| Posted By Deepanjan DebBIO Total 25 posts | May 21st, 2009 |
A surprising series of incidents commenced on Saturday with the defeat of the Left in Bengal after more than 30 years. Then, Sunday witnessed a fit Rafael Nadal lose a match on clay after over a year. And on Monday, the Kolkata Knight Riders, won for a change. It was beyond the wildest imagination of even the best political analysts to predict a Left defeat in Bengal. Also, popular notion is that Nadal cannot lose on clay. The events of Saturday and Sunday showed a positive continuous curve take a sudden negative slope. But on Monday, the Knights gave the continuous negative curve a push in the opposite direction. We hope the direction does not change.
It required two great innings from Brendon McCullum and Brad Hodge to overcome a huge target set by the Chennai Super Kings. McCullum single-handedly took the Super Kings attack to the cleaners. When he left, Hodge stepped into his shoes superbly. This victory should give a boost to the sagging spirits of a team that seemed to desperately need divine intervention to end to their misery. Read more »
Mind games on the field
| Posted By Deepanjan DebBIO Total 25 posts | May 18th, 2009 |
Shahrukh Khan in one of his memorable dialogues in the movie Chak De! India had said “Hamla samne wale team ke goal pe nahi, dimaag pe karo, Field pe goal apne aap ho jaayegi”. The very statement holds a fundamental aspect of every sportsperson’s performance throughout his career. The importance of the “process” of work often takes a backseat with respect to the end result. And to successfully implement the process, a calm and strong mind is required. The history of sports is replete with performances where sheer grit and will power have enabled teams or individuals to overcome their more talented opposition. After all, every match is played more in the mind than on the field.
In this year’s IPL, there have been numerous instances where so many results could have been different only if the teams had been a little more composed when it mattered. Although the photo finishes have excited audiences, some of the results have demoralised the teams. The primary reason for some of these losses is that many individual players tend not to remain in the present moment. Instead, their minds go aflutter in anticipation of a victory which might be a stroke away. But in this excitement, they lose the concentration which immediately shifts the momentum of the match. Thus, victory turns into defeat in the blink of an eye. Read more »
A Warne-ing for all the teams
| Posted By Deepanjan DebBIO Total 25 posts | May 17th, 2009 |
Genius cannot be explained and Shane Warne is no different. His bag of tricks has been puzzling for the opposition in the short history of the IPL. Prior to the crucial match against the Mumbai Indians, the newspaper reports were that Shane Warne was going to be out for at least a week with a hamstring injury. Unbelievably he had made himself available for the match and walked out for the toss. And not surprisingly turned out to be the difference between the Mumbai Indians and victory. It seems that if Shane Warne were to stand for an election from Rajasthan, there would be hardly any candidate wishing to stand against him. The Royals in the IPL has been the Shane Warne show. He should be declared the state icon of Rajasthan.
Way back in the early 2000’s Anil Kumble came out with a fractured jaw and bowled in a test against the West Indies. Shane Warne did an encore of that act tonight in a remarkable act of courage and brilliance. Playing with an injured hamstring, Warne single handedly scripted the story of the IPL so far. The passion with which he is leading this side cannot even be gauged. Even after more than 2 years of retirement, Warne is once again reviving classical leg spin bowling which had been dormant for some time. With Warne bowling to Sachin, the scene had rolled back to the time of one of the game’s greatest ever rivalries. It was pretty apparent that the winner between these two would determine the fate of their teams. As it turned out, Warne took Sachin’s wicket at a critical stage of the match and shifted the balance in his side’s favour. Read more »
Stories from the League
| Posted By Deepanjan DebBIO Total 25 posts | May 10th, 2009 |
The cash rich Indian Premier league has been so thoroughly covered by the news savvy media, that there has hardly been any aspect of it that has gone unnoticed. Yet there have been many inside stories which have not gained the attention of the common man. A recent book called IPL Cricket and Commerce: An inside story by journalists T.R. Vivek and Alam Srinivas has unravelled such unexplored stories with the dexterity of an Aesop. The book marries cricket with commerce and highlights how strong business minds have culminated in making cricket a billion dollar industry.
One such fascinating story reveals that an IPL-like concept was hatched way back in the early 90’s. People in close proximity to the late Congress leader Mr. Madhavrao Scindia contend that he had thought up a cricket league similar to the English Football League. But his plans could not be implemented due to his own turbulent political career and the inherent politics of the BCCI. But there are some sections who believe that the idea indeed belonged to Lalit Modi, who got influenced by the NBA’S franchise system during his tenure in the USA as a student of sports management. Such debates will linger but it’s Mr. Modi, who will be credited with translating his idea into reality. Read more »
Does Buchanan really have answers?
| Posted By Deepanjan DebBIO Total 25 posts | May 9th, 2009 |
Navjot Sidhu’s famous quip “The Indian openers in South Africa are as confused as a child in a topless bar” holds ever so true now. The Kolkata Knight Riders are in the same plight what the Indian openers got into during the 2001 tour. The loss against the Daredevils came as the last nail in their coffin, which should now be flown back to Kolkata immediately. If not, the wounded bodies inside that coffin would receive so many salts of defeat, that they would be ruined forever.
Right from the beginning of the tournament, the Knight Riders have done everything other than play cricket. Too many minds led by the smug John Buchanan have combined to bring in utter disaster. Let us take a look at some of the inexplicable things they did. Read more »
Time to come back, guys
| Posted By Deepanjan DebBIO Total 25 posts | May 6th, 2009 |
In T-20 cricket, strategies have an ephemeral lifespan. Hence, those who hatch them shouldn’t be held as important as their ODI or Test counterparts are. But, as players go hell-for-leather from the first ball, a team without a strong leader in T20 is akin to a ship minus a rudder. In times of crisis, the body language of a team echoes that of its captain; hence the importance of the role of a captain grows manifold.
A fascinating story unfolds as we look into the roles of the captains of various IPL franchises. The series has made it apparent that a balanced team with a stout captain bears fruit most of the time. On one hand we have Rajasthan Royals whose captain Shane Warne’s on-ground performance reinforces the popular byword about him ‘The best captain Australia never had’. And on the other hand, we have a team like the Kolkata Knight Riders whose captain looks like a busted flush, miserably weighed down by the responsibility thrust upon him. Some sportsmen thrive on pressure while others crumble— Shane Warne and Brendon McCullum respectively being the glaring exemplars. Read more »
“Korbo Lorbo Haarbo Re”
| Posted By Deepanjan DebBIO Total 25 posts | May 4th, 2009 |
With their second consecutive victory over the Kolkata Knight Riders, the Mumbai Indians have completed the first double of this year’s IPL— i.e. beating the same team over both the legs. It was a match which so prudently highlighted the kind of mental phase members of the Knight Riders were going through. After restricting Team Mumbai to a total below 150, the Knight Riders led by Brad Hodge and Van Myk looked all set to take the team to a victory, which should have been a mere formality. Instead some preposterous shot selection coupled with an inexplicable decision of promoting Laxmi Ratan Shukla ahead of the captain Brendon Mccullum proved suicidal for the Knights. It seems that Mr. Buchanan along with his multiple thinkers are living in a fool’s paradise where a certain term called “practicality” does not exist.
After the match I heard a diehard Knight Riders fan sing their theme song but with changed lyrics. He was singing “Korbo Lorbo Haarbo Re” and was fuming with anger. When I enquired what he thought about the future of his team, his response was that all the players of the team along with the coach should turn into “male cheerleaders” for the other teams. Read more »
SRK is a brand treating KKR as its subsidiary
| Posted By SubhadeepBIO Total 13 posts | May 3rd, 2009 |
Kolkata Knight Riders being at the bottom of the table in the ongoing Indian Premier League may hurt the KKR fans but to a cricket enthusiast it is not surprising. The on field performance of the team has truly been disappointing but Knight Riders seems to have lost the plot with the team selection. They are left with limited resources in their present squad and are not expected to go too far ahead in the tournament.
John Buchanan and his team of experts messed up with the selection of players right in the first season. They got overboard with getting big international names such as Ricky Ponting, Shoaib Akhtar, Brendon McCullum and Chris Gayle overlooking the fact that only four international players can be accommodated in the playing eleven. This made sure that although squad looked formidable on paper the playing eleven was a vulnerable one.
Surprisingly IPL must have sounded like International Premier League to the KKR. Otherwise what logic can go behind having only one Indian star Ishant Sharma with all the other Indian players not even having a place in the Indian squad. Why could not manage to get any other players from among the 20-22 India regulars? They even lost Bengal’s most promising batsman Manoj Tiwari to the Delhi Daredevils.
Another mess up that the Kolkata Knight Riders did was select a top heavy squad. The batting stars that the Knight Riders have in their squad (Brendon McCullum, Sourav Ganguly, Ricky Ponting and Chris Gayle) bat at 1,2 and 3 conventionally. This leaves the middle order and the lower middle order in the hands of players like Aksah Chopra, Sanjay Bangar where as other teams had the likes of Yusuf Pathan, MS Dhoni and Abhishek Nayar.
One foolishness could be termed as mistake but twice it becomes stupidity. What made them buy Bangladeshi pacer Moshrafe Mortaza for a whopping Rs 3 Crores when he chilling in the dug out. Couldn’t they have got some better player from the India U-19 squad for may be one-tenth the price. Of course Shahrukh had more of Bollywood and Television plans in Bangladesh behind grabbing Mortaza. SRK is himself a brand and treating KKR as its subsidiary.
If all this was not enough the John Buchanan came with the four captain theory and sowed the last seeds of defeat. Brendon McCullum who has turned out to be a one innings wonder as far as IPL is concerned was given the captaincy ahead of Ganguly and Gayle both of whom have experience. The inexperience has showed in his decisions in the two close encounters the team had. The results are here for all to see.
IPL Season 2 is most likely over for the Kolkata Knight Riders unless a miracle happens which is least expected with the present team combination. Hopefully cricketing logic will drive the team in the next season and not just marketing and brand building exercise. ‘Go Desi’ and grab some good Indian talent that’s the logic behind doing well in the IPL. More importantly Shahrukh should not treat this team as a brand extension of his own name.
The IPL heats up….
| Posted By Deepanjan DebBIO Total 25 posts | May 2nd, 2009 |
As the IPL enters into its second month, the excitement and tension curve amongst the fans is slowly reaching its zenith. In the midweek matches this week, some crucial matches have taken place, which could have an important bearing in determining the semi-finalists. The Mumbai Indians have lost a match they should have comfortably won. The laws of Average at last caught up with their star batsman Sachin Tendulkar as he failed for the first time. The hugely talented JP Duminy almost took the team to victory but failed to clear the ropes at the most crucial juncture. This victory should be a boost for Preity’s boys who seem to have left the Duckworth- Lewis phobia behind and are looking more settled as a team.
The Kolkata Knight Riders vs the Bangalore Royal Challengers match was to determine who would establish themselves as the “holders” of the bottom position. And the knights did not disappoint. Although the match went down to the wire, it was always a matter of the Royal Challengers losing themselves rather than the Knights winning. The captain of the Knights, Brendon McCullum scored a golden duck and from there on the team never looked like scoring anything substantial. Read more »
Legends’ day out
| Posted By Deepanjan DebBIO Total 25 posts | April 29th, 2009 |
It was a national holiday on Monday in South Africa and the Double header matches at the IPL provided the crowds with amazing entertainment. In the first match of the day, Team Chennai led by India skipper MS Dhoni took on the revamped Deccan Chargers. The Super Kings were given a super start by the Orange cap holder Matthew Hayden only to lose impetus at the strategy break. This strategy break, which was initially intended for commercial reasons, has proved to be the undoing for many of the teams, especially the team that bats. This is because it is difficult to regain concentration after the break, and bowlers take advantage of this big time. But some lusty hitting by Jacob Oram at the death provided the Chennai team with a respectable total of 165. But when as a captain you have to tackle Adam Gilchrist and Herschelle Gibbs batting at the top of the powers, even 265 would seem a low total to defend. Gilchrist literally finished the match in the first 6 overs with a 19 ball 44 and Gibbs carried forward the team with a beautifully paced innings. It is so heartening to see Herschelle Gibbs overcome his personal problems and play the type of cricket he is used to playing. One of South Africa’s greatest ever cricketers hitting a purple patch has come in as a boon for the Deccan Chargers who are in to prove a point this time. The only worrying factor in the Charge of their brigade has been the form of the very very special Laxman, who seems at the moment to be playing artificially and forcing the pace a little too early. As the Chargers are on a winning spree, the importance of his failure has been negated. He just needs to spend some time in the middle to regain his silken touch and once he starts firing, the Charger would be the team to beat.
The beauty of the IPL is that it has transformed what was a hypothetical situation some years ago into reality. As a cricket fan, I used to make an all time eleven which composed of players from different nations. The IPL has given all of us cricket fans a chance to see our dreams get translated into reality. Now you have Gilchrist and Gibbs, Sachin and Sanath opening the batting for their teams. If it was Gilchrist and Gibbs in the afternoon, it was the turn of the old masters from the subcontinent, Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya to show what could have happened if they had been part of the same team at the International level. The only unfortunate part of this fairy tale is that at the receiving end of their brutal torture were the Knight Riders from Kolkata who seem to have found the abysmal depths of ordinariness in their approach. Read more »
Bowlers— the backbone of a team
| Posted By Deepanjan DebBIO Total 25 posts | April 27th, 2009 |
Mark Waugh was once nicknamed “the forgotten Waugh” because the more famous Waugh, his twin Steve, used to hog most of the limelight. Similarly, bowlers, in the T-20 format seem to be the forgotten bunch as much of the credit goes to the batsmen. They say T-20 is a batsman’s game as you have the licence to hit from ball one. But a deeper study into the history of T-20 matches shows that bowlers have been a pivotal part of a team’s success. After the Italian team won the 2006 World Cup, the legendary Italian Coach Marcello Lippi said in one of his interviews:” Great attacks win you matches while great defences win you tournaments”. As defenders always lose glamour to the forwards and the midfielders in football, their importance to the team is neglected many a time. Similarly, the importance of bowlers in cricket matches has time and again taken a back seat with respect to the importance of batsmen.
If we take a look at last year’s IPL, the Rajasthan Royals team, which won the championship, had three bowlers who were amongst the tournament’s leading wicket takers— Sohail Tanveer, Sahne Warne and Shane Watson. A team cannot consistently win matches only on the basis of its batting as it always needs bowlers who have the capability to bowl the opposition out. The great West Indian side of the 70’s and the 80’s had in its ranks some of the greatest batsmen of the modern era but it is their fearsome bowling attack, comprising Marshall, Garner, Holding, Croft and other, which destroyed the opposition . The team could rely on its bowlers and hence the batsmen had the liberty to play at will. If, as a captain you know that you have the bowling strength to defend whatever total your batsmen make, you become more confident in your approach. This is why the Indian victory in the World Cup against the great West Indian side will always go down as the country’s greatest victory on a global scale. Same can be said about the Australian team of the late 90’s and the current decade which had bowlers like Shane Warne, Glenn Mcgrath, Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee complementing their great batsmen, thus making their team virtually unbeatable. The Indian team of the 90’s and early part of this decade had great batsmen in their ranks but still could not make much of an impact in world cricket. But the current team is a world beater as it is winning almost everywhere. The reason is that initially the team didn’t have bowlers who could bowl the opposition out in conditions unfavourable to them. But this team under Dhoni has bowlers who can give the captain the belief that they are ready to defend any total the batters make. Moreover, there is competition for places which prompts each of the players to perform better. Read more »
Kolkata deserves a better performance from its Knights
| Posted By Deepanjan DebBIO Total 25 posts | April 25th, 2009 |
So near yet so far— this was the tale of the two teams that played better cricket in their respective games on Thursday: the Chennai Super Kings and the Kolkata Knight Riders. Both the teams should have cruised to victory yet they manufactured a loss for themselves out of nothing. The Super Kings were given a dream start by one of the many retired wonders playing in this IPL, Matthew Hayden, and victory for them seemed just a formality. But somehow they failed at the post due to some disciplined bowling by the Daredevils at the death overs. The match saw the first century of the tournament by one of modern cricket’s emerging supertstars—A B De Villiers. But what was baffling to see was that for the second match running, the relatively unknown Dirk Nannes was preferred to the great Glenn Mcgrath. This decision might have proved costly for the Daredevils but they somehow scraped through in the end.
The second match of the day saw the defending champions under the leadership of the charismatic Shane Warne take on the Kolkata Knight Riders. For the first time in three matches, sanity prevailed in the camp of the multiple leaders. The mystery man Ajantha Mendis got his first match of the tournament and Akash Chopra was dropped. Mendis proved his selection was not an aberration as he spun a web around the rampaging Yousuf Pathan which stopped the run flow of the Royals. The use of Sourav Ganguly and Chris Gayle proved a master stroke as these bowlers slowed the pace which prevented the big hitters of the Royals from going under the ball and hitting it with the pace. Read more »
Perfect finish again eludes Dada
| Posted By SubhadeepBIO Total 13 posts | April 25th, 2009 |
If critics still doubted the talent the ‘Bengal Tiger’ Sourav Ganguly had, yesterday’s innings against the Rajasthan Royals was an answer for all of them. Nobody expected the match to go down to the wire once Brendon McCullum and Chris Gayle had shown their back. It was the man of steel the former Indian captain Sourav who came good and almost did it for the Knight Riders silencing the Ganguly bashers.
The only sad thing in the story was a perfect finish has once again eluded our beloved Dada. Be it the 2003 World Cup final or the first ball duck in his last Test innings Sourav seems to have been unlucky when it comes to finishing in style. After playing a breathtaking innings and almost scripting an impossible win, Sourav was out in the penultimate ball of the innings giving Royals a chance to win the encounter in a Super Over decider.
A lot of questions are being raised on McCullum’s choice to hand over the ball to Sri Lankan Ajantha Mendis. This showed his inexperience in captaincy and the New Zealander’s personal understanding of the game. McCullum a good player of pace handed the ball to a spinner. What he forgot was Yusuf Pathan being an Indian can murder spinners. Yusuf hit through the line and finished the game single handedly in the Super Over.
Coming back to Sourav it is sad to see that time and again this man has been targeted by his critics. In spite of scoring more than 18500 runs at the international level his attitude, temperament and skills have been regularly questioned. But the character that he is Sourav has always come out of poor form and silenced them. There has been no cricketer in the Indian history who has come back from the docks time and again and proved his critics wrong.
Who said Sourav Ganguly has forgotten how to hit sixes? Things have changed and Dada is doing it against the pacers now. Did we hear somewhere that he was susceptible to fast bowling? Well true he was not a great puller of the short ball like many in the international stage are but again he was murderous when it came to the spinners especially the left arm ones. Even the great Sachin is never comfortable against left arm spinner, so did we brand him as a player who can’t play left arm spin.
The buck has to stop somewhere. If we can’t respect our heroes lets not humiliate them.
Is ‘Fake IPL Player’ faking it?
| Posted By Deepanjan DebBIO Total 25 posts | April 24th, 2009 |
It’s just five days into the IPL and we already have a superstar; his name –FAKE IPL PLAYER. Don’t be surprised— he is undisputedly the biggest hit of this year’s IPL, as of now. But the big question is: who is this superstar? No one knows, but he has a fan following that’s sweeping the cricket crazy nation. I feel as if I’m writing on a fairy tale, for what has transpired in the last few days is nothing short of one. Here is a ‘man’ who has blogged himself into superstardom. Cricket experts have ridiculed his identity by saying that this must be someone from the non cricketing world playing pranks in order to come into the limelight. All said and done, the man has surely come into the limelight with his blog www.fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com. He calls himself a Kolkata Knight Riders team player but we’ll call him Mr. X as we try to unravel his identity.
This is how Mr. X defines himself: a fringe player who is sure never to get a spot in the playing eleven. A player whose assistance to the team can be utilised at best in serving drinks. Hence he has decided to utilise his talent in using his new Apple MacBook Pro notepad, which he always carries in his kitbag. He says he is tall enough never to go unnoticed but has miraculously escaped everyone’s notice. This master of the blogging world has disintegrated the whole Knight Riders team by leaking out secrets of team meetings, strategies and the confidence of each player. He has not even spared the commentators and some members of the media by delving deep into their off field “affairs”. The media has begun analysing him more than the teams and the Knight Riders have started a hunt for the suspect by interrogating many of their members, including Sourav Ganguly. For a team which has already been through so many controversies, this latest tale must be making quite a few hit the roof. Read more »
Rain rain go away, IPL players wanna play
| Posted By SubhadeepBIO Total 13 posts | April 24th, 2009 |
This is probably the nursery rhyme that all the players and the fans of Indian Premiere League are rhyming at the moment. Almost half a week after the tournament began the weather god hasn’t showered his blessings on the tournament and rain has played a spoilt sport in most of the matches. It seems to be raining everywhere in South Africa be it in Durban or Cape Town.
Out of the eight matched played so far two have been reduced encounters with the result being decided by the ever debated Duckworth Lewis method. Ironically both the times Kings XI Punjab have turned out to be the victims once at the hands of Delhi Daredevils and than Kolkata Knight Riders. Another match between Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians had to be abandoned due to rain.
Many cricket experts are raising doubts over the shifting of the venue to South Africa after the IPL Governing body and the Indian Government could not come to an agreement on the security for the tournament in wake of the General elctions. Many are asking the question whether England would have been a better venue but the weather man would say the situation is the same even in UK.
The rainfall has become a major headache for Lalit Modi and his team as it doesn’t only mean no play it also mean loss of ad revenue. The fact that the ad revenue is already low as compared to the first season of the league made Modi and his men come up with the idea of Strategy Breaks which has already met with sharp criticism from the teams and former players.
IPL Season 2 has already been hit by low TRP ratings which may be a result to the low scoring matches compared to last year. The batsmen are unable to play the slam bang cricket as the green top in South Africa is no comparison to the dusty flat beds in the sub continent. Also the fact that the matches are being played at the end of the season in SA the pitches have become a lot slower and not conducive to stroke play.
All this has become a huge worry for Lalit Modi and his team. They will be praying to the rain gods to shower some blessings on them or else IPL Season 2 might just prove to be a disaster.
Sourav won the match for KKR
| Posted By Deepanjan DebBIO Total 25 posts | April 23rd, 2009 |
‘Korbo Lorbo Jeetbo Re’ was the song of Tuesday afternoon as the Kolkata Knight Riders took on the Kings XI Punjab on a gloomy day at Kingsmead, Durban. And the Knight Riders did not disappoint. Riding on the magnificent performances of Sourav Ganguly with the ball and Chris Gayle with the bat, Shah Rukh’s boys ended up smiling thanks to the Duckworth and Lewis Rule. The setting was perfect for seam bowling and Ishant Sharma showed why he is one of International cricket’s emerging superstars. But with Irfan Pathan wreaking havoc, the Kings XI were all set for a mammoth score. In comes the man with the golden arm — Sourav Ganguly. One over of classical seam bowling – and the tides are changed. First Pathan and then Ravi Bopara, Ganguly all on his own halted the speeding train of the Kings XI.
Watching Ganguly bowl, I was reminded of the India vs Pakistan series in Toronto, where the golden boy of Bengal had put in one of cricket’s best all round performances. And with Harsha Bhogle at the mike after a long hiatus, watching cricket became even more romantic. The manner in which Ganguly bowled was so pleasing to the eye— the passion that he exudes is unmatched. When Ravi Bopara was dismissed, Harsha Bhogle gave the ultimate honour to Bengal’s golden Boy. Harsha called it a “romantic dismissal”. He was spot on. An overcast sky, a seaming wicket and Sourav Ganguly bowling— there is a bit of classic romance in this combo. Read more »
IPL picks up pace
| Posted By Deepanjan DebBIO Total 25 posts | April 21st, 2009 |
With the cash rich Indian Premier League taking off from the Rainbow Nation of South Africa, the word ‘recession’ will take a back seat for at least a month. It will be a honeymoon period for the Franchise owners from India who hope to make the IPL the next big thing in world sport. Mr. Lalit Modi has even compared the IPL with the UEFA Champions League and has asked the governing body of world Football FIFA to take a lesson from it. As the focus shifts to cricket, viewers all across the world should be in for a cracker of a tournament with most of the international players being available, making each team perform better.
The initial stages of the tournament bring to mind an old maxim ‘the older the wine, the better it tastes’. Senior statesmen of the cricketing world have stolen the show from their junior counterparts, who were expected to hog the limelight. The first three days of the IPL proved the old adage that cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties with the defending champions and the runners up of last year being outplayed in the opening two matches of the tournament. The Mumbai Indians led by Mumbai’s favourite son and Madame Tussauds’ latest entrant, Sachin Tendulkar, rode an all round show to stop last year’s runners up Chennai Super Kings in their tracks. The greatness of Little Master’s batting lies in the manner in which he adapts himself to different situations. Although he played an uncharacteristically sedate innings according to T20 standards, it was his innings around which the team could build a respectable total. However, some experts felt that Abhishek Nayar should have been the man of the match. Can’t disagree altogether…but as a Sachin fan could not have asked for more….. Read more »
India doesn’t know how to honour its sporting heroes
| Posted By Deepanjan DebBIO Total 25 posts | April 18th, 2009 |
Indian cricket has been blessed with Princes and Maharajahs ever since its inception. We have had Royals like Ranjitsinghji, the Maharajah of Vizianagram and Duleepsinghji don the sport and make it richer. But indisputably Indian cricket’s Greatest Maharajah has been the man who is so aptly nicknamed ‘Maharaj’- Sourav Chandidas Ganguly. He started like a prince, ruled like a king and left the game like an emperor. The story of cricketers from Bengal being given a rude awakening by the controllers of cricket in the country has been a historically continuous process. It started with Shute Banerjee and Putu Chowdhury while Sourav Ganguly’s case shows that things haven’t changed. But defying all odds, the Tiger of Behala has stood like a Prince among the ruins of his predecessors to become arguably his country’s finest captain. Read more »
 |
|
Five minutes of heaven
"For me to talk about the man I have become, you need to know about... By Sujoy Ghosh
State of the Nation
Let us wait and pause for a second,
And give a thought as to...
By I Love Kolkata
 |