A summary of the IPL

Everybody probably saw the nail biting match between the Rajasthan Royals and the Chennai Super Kings. And really… Everybody was hooked on to the IPL thing, it was like the new fad!

I think IPL revolutionised county cricket in India. I’m not a person who can comment too much on the technical aspects of cricket, but even for a person who’s rather an ignoramus, you will know that this form of cricket (i.e twenty-twenty) is entirely new.

Well first of all the strategy is different, in test cricket, it’s all about the wickets. In a one day game it’s a mixture of how a team manages to score runs with enough number of wickets in hand. But in T-20 it’s just about the scoring, the priority to the wickets take a back seat.

Though I think cricket in India is more like a religion and that was one thing that brought the entire nation together, I think that this was pretty well accepted by the Indians who were divided by cities! Overall, It was not only good for the players, but I think it also promoted international harmony.

But on the whole, I think it is really entertaining, it’s fast paced and the match is usually not over till the very last ball is bowled. So it’s doing a very large thing to boost up the TRPs of the TV channels.

IPL has been a big success, everybody preferred it to boring saas-bahu sagas! (It’s more than obvious!) And with the amount of money that it has spun, whoa! The highest earners being people like Vijay Mallya, ShahRukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Anil Ambani and of course cricketers like Dhoni and etc… And let’s not forget the cute little pug which kept appearing on screen now and again! Well I think Vodafone had their share of the cash too!

And when you talk of bollywood, the word “glamour” is never far behind. The glam quotient of IPL was very high with people likeKatrina Kaif, Preity Zinta, SRK, Arjun Rampal kept showing their faces now and then. And of course who can forget the Cheerleaders! I think majority of the people were more interested in them that the cricket! And to add to the entertainment, there were the controversies, and quite a lot of them too… Be it the Charu Sharma- Vijay Mallya tiff or the Shane Warne-Saurav Ganguly tiff or the major cheerleader controversy they all made it to the headlines! But I think the fight that took the cake was the Bhajji-Sreesanth fight! That not only made it to headlines but stayed there for pretty long too!

With the most expensive trophy and a cash prize of 4.8 crores being away to the winning team, the IPLs curtains closed down. I hope we are all entertained with this masala next year too!

The end result matters the most.

In my previous blog I made a statement saying Dhoni would be an incompetent captain…Well now I’m forced to take back my statement and am really happy to do so.

The twenty20 world cup proved to be one heck of a tournament! All the matches were amazing, the final was simply a nail-biter! (I’m just glad my hands are intact to type this!)

Pakistan played commendably well. Absoultely no doubt about that. Misbah Ul-haq being the best… but eventually the end result is what matters. We won, it doesnt matter that we won by a margin of 5 runs… WE WON!

Dhoni led his boys to a spectacular victory! Pathan and Gambhir doing very well. This goes to prove that the team can do very well without the big three. The history Sachin has made, the Consistency Dravid has maintained and the experience that Ganguly has did not win them a world cup. But the zeal, the strategy and he efforts of this young team paid off and how!

Dhoni said that the cause of the team playing this well was the “team effort.” that they put in…Doesnt this make you wonder as to why it wasnt there all these days. I personally believe Sachin and Saurav were the cause. Great as they were, they did wreck a lot of havoc in the team.
Now all that matters is we won the world cup, nobody gives a damn about the rest!

Dravid resigns as Captain of Team India

It’s the latest shocker to hit the cricketing world and one is left wondering why Rahul Dravid was forced to take this decision.

I personally believe it’s due to politics between the senior team members, but it will not be a publically accepted reason. Rahul claims his resignation is because “he wants to focus on the game.” But it’s not like he’s been performing badly as a batsman when he is team captain. As a matter of fact he was at his best in the last few tournaments.

But the media claims that there was too much pressure on him as captain. Well that could have also been a posssibility. He hasnt accepted it by far. But if it werent for both these reasons I’m sure he wouldnt have quit.

This man on the televison made an excellent remark. He gave it a very corporate kind of a perspective. He said “if the CEO of a chairman wants to work as another employee in the same company, then it means that either the work culture is not good or there is too much pressure.”
I still think it’s the former…

My cousin also gave another reason why he might have quit…He’s probably off to the ICL. But the latest news says that he’s not quitting the team so that doesnt seem a likely possibility.

Whatever it is I personally believe Rahul was much better than Saurav not only as a player but even as a captain. He maintained high levels of consistency and composure. He was never surrounded by controversy.

The only downside of his career was the loss at the world cup but that was also due to the presence of non performers like Sachin and Agarkar.

The big question is who will succeed Rahul as the captain?
1. Sachin/Saurav. Nope- Not competent enough, too old and have bad attitudes.
2.Yuvraj- dialogue inspired by my brother Adi “always-on-viagra” and will get the team ejected out of every tournament that there is!
3.Dhoni I think is too incompetent.

So bottomline is we are left captain-less and coach-less. Wonder what will happen next!

THE CLASH OF THE TITANS!!

No prizes for guessing…I am indeed talking about the cricket world cup-2007!
Its going to be the biggest entertainer of the year.Its on everyone’s minds and hence all the hype and hoopla surrounding it.

Now the most important aspect of the world cup is…Of course the World cup itself!So now the question is who will take it back home.The reigning champions-Australia were the favourites till a few months ago,till their performances started slipping and key players like Brett Lee are down with injuries.So we Indians are looking at the bright side of the issue.We are another inch close to the world cup!

Of course another threat were Pakistan,who are also not very good considering Shoaib Akhthar and Mohammad Asif are out due to injury(i am not vouching for the authenticity of that statement!).And of course England with key players like Michael Vaughan and Kevin Pieterson injured,and or course New Zealand who have been in great form off late.But all in all India’s chances of winning dont seem very bleak!

Our Indian Line up seems to be pretty good.Like Dhoni,Dravid,Ganguly,and of course the man Sachin himself,very good talent,great efforts…we can just say Que Sera Sera!

The Indian Team was given a huge send off,sponsored by pepsi,and of course stars like Shahrukh Khan and Priyankas Chopra “encouraging” the team,of course there were Adnan Sami and Shankar Mahadevan performing to boost the morale of the team!

Well lets just hope that our team brings us the trophy.As for optimism,that is the last thing our crowds lack.Now dont we?