Empty Stadiums Make No Noise !

Congratulations Mumbai for winning the Ranji Trophy for a record 38th time - but what's with the empty stands for the premier domestic game in the country ? While the sad state of support for domestic teams is well-known that effect was exacerbated this year due to the decision by the BCCI to hold the knockout games at neutral venues - the argument being somewhat moronically that people don't come to see these games anyway. None less than Sachin Tendulkar has come out strongly against this policy.

What is your opinion ? Should knockout games in the Ranji Trophy be held at neutral venues ? Moreover should there be knockout games at all ? Why can't we just have a league system like the premier leagues in football where the team with the most points wins ? Get your thoughts flowing in ...

Most Promising Young Batsman ?

This seems to be a good time for raising this question what with a couple of test spots beginning to open up - Yuvraj has staked first claim to Ganguly's spot - largely thanks to Dhoni's friendship I think - and Badri has been in the hunt - however I don't really think of these batsmen as young.

So I have come up with this list of 6 - Virat Kohli- India U19 captain and stylish strokemaker, Suresh Raina - a consistent performer for India in the ODI squad this year, Robin Uthappa - audacious right hander who has gone off the boil a bit, Rohit Sharma - classy, elegant, cool, will deliver under pressure, Cheteshwar Pujara - scores triple hundreds as easily as brushing his teeth in the morning and Ajinkya Rahane - has had a very consistent domestic season for Mumbai.

My vote clearly goes to Rohit but that may be just because of my weakness for lazy elegance. What do you guys think ? Vote away !

New IPL Blog !

I am blogging at The DLF Indian Premier League for the duration of the IPL. Please visit and bookmark it. Will also occasionally post here, especially on non-IPL issues, but the main action will be out there. You can also subscribe to the feed directly by email.

Pleasure ....

Fabulous to see Dravid bat the way he did today. Didn't help the team in the end, but looked so fluent and confident and showing signs of returning to the Dravid of old ! This is great news for Team India in the near future !

On The Rise, Slipping Up - IPL Table

Teams on The Rise:

1. Rajasthan Royals: After a slow start the overwhelming underdogs have humbled three major teams. Definitely the biggest surprise package so far.

2. King's X1 Punjab: Another slow start with Yuvraj looking completely clueless in the first 2 games, but they have got their act together with back to back wins. Finally, the impressive star cast is coming to form - Sangakkara, Katich, Lee, Hopes, Yuvraj, Jayawardene all delivering.

3. Deccan Chargers: A terrible start finally seems to have been halted with a Gilchrist special. If Gilchrist continues in this vein, this is the team to look out for.

4. Mumbai Indians: The worst imaginable start with 4 defeats in a row but finally a great win over the Knight Riders with the overseas stars coming to the party has got the campaign going. With the imminent return of Tendulkar, things might have turned a corner for the Mumbai Indians.

Teams Going Down
1. Kolkata Knight Riders: Two defeats after two wins and the batting really coming up with nothing after McCullum's fireworks.

2. Bangalore Royal Challengers: After a painstaking win at Mumbai, things are going from bad to worse for Dravid's men. Three consecutive losses and the morale can't be anywhere but in the dumps.

Holding Steady
1. Delhi Daredevils: One of the more consistent lineups, had a bit of a hiccup at Mohali, but got their campaign back on track with today's win.

2. Chennai Superkings: Yes ! Rock solid baby ! Right at the top ! With no competitor in sight ! This is beginning to look more and more like a seven team competition to see who can challenge the roaring Lion !!

What is Ashok Malik Trying To Say ?

There is a line of thought which believes a rape victim owes some responsibility in the crime in the form of provocation. I think this article by Mr. Ashok Malik subscribes to that philosophy.

Throughout the article Mr. Malik finds no reason to delve into specifics satisfying himself with very broad and general terms. He says this about Sreesanth's behavior in the IPL:

He has sledged, abused and provoked rival players, even junior batsmen and plain tyros.

Pray, could you give at least one specific instance ? I do not deny Sreesanth has been chattering away but no one has come up with any complaint with regard to abuse, sledging and provocation. What is sledging anyway ? Sledging is a term that is used very loosely these days. In its classical sense sledging is one gets abusive personally and starts talking in terms of the opponent player's family tree in not very polite language. Well Sreesanth might have done that but there has been no specific incidence, evidence or complaint from anyone. On the other hand several other players have also clearly been indulging in it.

With this solid start, he launches in a further attack:

The fact is Harbhajan is not the best behaved sportsman in the world. Sreesanth hasn’t slapped anyone yet but, overall, he’s even worse.

Fact ? Wouldn't it be more realistic to base this as your perception or opinion ? Or at least the majority opinion ? Do you know how a fact is defined ? Pray what kind of behaviorometer did you use to measure these players, do let me know.

Further:

Waving his bat, exercising his pelvic muscles mid-pitch, screaming and shouting, bearing his teeth, grimacing menacingly without reason, Sreesanth is the most visible face of this cricket boor; at least on television. The face, let us accept, is ugly.

Boor ? The English dictionary defines a boor as a churlish, rude or unmannerly person, a peasant, rustic, country bumpkin or a yokel. You might find the face ugly Mr. Malik, I personally found the waving of the bat and shaking of the hips charming and like a breath of fresh air. Yes, he is not a choir girl. No one claimed he was. But why should we just accept what you want us to ? And why should the face matter so much ?

As a parting shot here is what Malik comes up with:

By making a public scene, playing the wronged guy, crying on camera, blaming it on his “fever in the morning”, Sreesanth has betrayed a streak for exhibitionism and a low emotional quotient.

I mean come on - give the guy a break. He is going through a rough phase in his career. His teammate slaps him in public. He is a temperamental emotional guy. Does Malik seriously believe that those tears were fake ? It is one thing to say he could have handled it like a man, some men are different.

The whole piece rakes of callousness deep-seated hatred against one individual.

No Country For Old Men ?

So what are these old buggers doing playing the IPL anyway ? Ganguly Dravid and Laxman ? There has been a positive uproar amidst sections of followers over the place of these guys in their respective sides.

My take on this is simple - this is club cricket, not international cricket. Traditionally in such games there are always the old local pros who have been around for donkey's years. They are there to knock some sense in the heads of the young tyros. Imagine how much Kohli would be learning sharing space with Dravid ! Not just about how to bat in this hit-or-miss thing (of which perhaps Dravid might know precious little) but of approach to cricket in general which would help the young kid in the long term in what really matters - his test career.

Often it might happen that these old pros might not come up with the goods. I'm totally okay with that. I think they should be afforded that luxury for their services and reputation. They are the ones who are giving identity to these local teams after all.

Bravo Bravo

West Indies cricket is alive folks ! Continuing in the list of gloriously gifted batsmen from time immemorial to Sobers, Lloyd, Richards, Lara etc. is Dwayne Bravo !!

What an innings that was against the Knight Riders ! What wrists ! What strokes ! What grace ! What Calypso flavor !

Do not miss out on the highlights - will post the Youtube link when it arrives !

Shivamani and Dhoni and Rayban Glasses in Kolkata

Some of the search terms that attract visitors to this site:

1. sivamani bangalore cricket
2. SHIVAMANI AND DHONI
3. price of Rayban glasses in Kolkata
4. about sreesanth
5. Harbinger singh slapping sreesanth
5. ball trajectory bowling cricket images
6. cricket spectators boundaries want cheer four banners
7. dhoni support of sivamani
8. chennai crowd cricket

I loved #3 and #5 the best

A Tale of Two Cities

Cross-posted on Chennai Super Kings Fans.

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. It was July, last year. I was coming off a painful period in life, when the whole World seemed against me. I arrived in Bangalore for a three month internship. I fell in love with the city immediately. Bangalore literally recalled me to life. I owe a lot to the city and my stay there.

The period was pretty much like the present. I landed in Chennai earlier this year. I was to spend a semester as a visiting student at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences. It wasn’t quite love at first sight. Chennai taught me a lot, and I am richer for the experience. I remain indebted to this city for that.

Bangalore was truly my first home away from home – a wonderful experience. The city was amazingly free, a wonderful cosmopolitan place where I enjoyed the good life. Chennai seems to be more conservative but very friendly and more personal. Here, I am really enjoying getting to know the local people and their way of life. Bangalore was explored on a bike, Chennai in trains.

So when these two lovely cities go head to head in the IPL clash this evening, I have more than a minor conflict of emotions in my heart. I know that for the locals this is a needling rivalry and I have friends on both sides who wouldn’t really like me sitting on the fence over this one.

Picking up the cricket connection I have reason to support Bangalore, as Rahul Dravid my most favorite cricketer ever, is leading the side. But the cricket loving people of Chennai have endeared this place to me. My forays at the Chepauk for the test match and the IPL games have left indelible memories of the place. I guess when the curtain lifts on this blockbuster clash – I’m going to have to say “Go Super Kings!”

Sieving Out The Trash

Lot of people crib about the fact that T20 has no role for bowlers. In fact this IPL has shown this to be completely untrue and quite contrary. One can easily see what an impact the likes of McGrath, Warne, Lee, Chawla (occasionally), and a few other genuinely talented bowlers in the odd game have made in this championship.

In T20 cricket, like in Test cricket, only the best of the best bowlers can survive. That is why a McGrath will always survive over a Bracken, a Lee over a Sanjay Bangar. These dibbly dobbly bits-and-pieces type bowlers (think Styris, Harris, Larsen, Robin Singh, Bangar, and a whole bunch of others) who made a career out of bowling the "boring" middle overs in a 5050 game will have no place. They will be ruthlessly shown the door and that can only be good for the game.

Look out for more big names among the bowlers to shine - Dale Steyn, Zaheer Khan, Mohammad Asif - just to name a few. Oh how I wish Shane Bond was here.

Umpiring The Umpires

So the umpires in the IPL can award team points for fair play but who will judge the umpires ? Just today, Rudi made two howlers in a 20-20 game. This would have been an ideal testing ground where captains could have rated umpires publicly just like the fair play award, so that everyone knew where we stood with umpires.

Good (K)Night Kolkata !!

This post of mine also appeared on Chennai Super Kings blog where I am now a part-time co-author.

The Biggest Crowds

So far, I had been lucky to be able to travel in largely empty, comfortable trains to and from the stadium. All that changed today, with the infrequent afternoon local train being crammed with an ocean of humanity in a narrow pipeline bursting at the seams. There were cricket fans, of course, flocking in large numbers to attend the “big game” but there were also non-cricket-fans, notably a group of young girls, extremely annoyed with the unexpected hardships in travel they were subjected to. Initially, I was quite thrilled by the rush, for, what is the experience of train travel in an Indian metro if not one defined by one such? Later, however, it got a bit irksome, as I discovered I was being acted upon by several external unbalanced forces, made to undergo random Brownian motion over which I could exert no control. In all the chaos, I was most concerned about guarding my Ray-Ban glasses and more importantly, my match ticket. Luckily, I managed both. Such chaos continued out of the train onto the platform and all the way till I entered the stands, where, luckily things were more orderly.

Up Close

As earlier, the Chennai Super Kings were going through their warm-ups close to our stand. Stephen Fleming was so close he could have virtually heard any whisper in the crowds. Fleming’s is an awesome presence – watching him on TV all these years, did not give me the true picture of how tall he actually is. Of course, Ishant seems actually taller and he too made his way towards us during their practice. Besides, Ravi Shastri also passed by a couple of times, he went past the stands somewhere and I could have literally shaken hands with him through the fence if I wanted to. And then there was the large Zimbabwean Pommie Mbangwa, who, quite astonishingly looks even more deadly up close than on TV with his flashy hair locks.

The Game

As was speculated, Shah Rukh Khan did not make an appearance at the game. Perhaps, he knew his superstar status would have competition here in the South, unlike in the rest of the country. Perhaps he feared that the Chennai team was going to be too strong for his Knight Riders anyway and he stayed away. Perhaps he was simply busy with something else. Anyway, he did send over a couple of his giant 10-feet tall knights (the mascots) over.

Like he did to Steve Waugh in that famous 2001 tour, Ganguly chose to keep Dhoni waiting at the toss too. I must say, it is a most annoying and unsportsmanlike gesture. Back then, I had joined the rest of the Indian fans and applauded it as a masterstroke. But sitting in the stands I appreciate that it leaves a bad taste in the mouth if both captains do not walk out for the toss together.

As the game began, McCullum’s massive six hit the roof of our stand just a few meters away from where I was sitting, it was a phenomenal stroke but soon after that he got out and then Ponting followed; and that was the beginning of what was to be an extremely one-sided game.

The Lights

I have now been at the Chepauk for day games and night games but today was the first time I was there in day-night game, so to say; and I had the pleasure to see the lights turning on. They follow a very systematic pattern - it is the two central columns which light up first, starting with the top row and going down to the bottom. Then the adjacent columns light up and so it spreads outwards. Llike almost any other landscape in the World, a cricket stadium looks its prettiest at twilight; when illuminated partly by nature and partly by man. It was in this light that Parthiv Patel hooked a short ball from Ajit Agarkar up in the air right into the hands of Ishant Sharma in the deep, one whose trajectory I am happy to say I followed from start to end.

Sivamani

Lastly, I was honored to have the opportunity to shake legs to the beats of the living legend Sivamani. This guy is absolutely amazing. I already mentioned the fact that he moves around the stadium with his drums so that all sections of the crowd can enjoy him. But what I noticed yesterday was that he also plays while he is on the move and his assistant is carrying the drums for him. Besides a great percussionist the guy is also a magnificent showman as I discovered and has the ability to carry the crowds with him. When he parked himself at our stand and beat the drums for our dancing pleasure, I focused on the way his hands moved the sticks.

It was as graceful and subtle as a very skilled batsman with a bat in his hand.

Unfortunately the cricket today was all about brute force and lacked that grace and beauty.