What am I missing of IPL on TV

Cricket is back on the prime time slot, this time its good old international cricket. Between 2 countries. That gets you involved emotionally, feeling the tension, attaching every drop of feeling to the country you support (India of course).

Its quite different from 45 days of pathetic coverage of IPL on Sony Max.

There are no glimpses of Lalit Modi in suave attires rubbing shoulders and cheeks with Bollywood beauties(??).

There are no cliches of DLF Maximums, Time out from Mini Mobiles or heck no Citibank momemt of failures for anybody.

There are no city based loyalties anymore.

There is a national anthem played for every country. We see national flags being hoisted rather than club flags which do not involve us emotionally.

There are no tweets from Modi, Shashi Tharoor and of course Shilpa Shetty on the World T20 because they dont understand what international cricket is all about. May be if Sreesanth was playing Tharoor had displayed "Kerala Pride" in his tweets, which he so cheaply used in statements in Parliament while defending his bribery act.  He did not feel Kerala's pride was at stake when he got a female friend do the work and get him some money to get dollars to pay his staff (he feels Rs 14k are not good enough to pay his staff, so he volunteers).

There are no mad musical jings in between every over or no ads between balls.

There are no Bollywood folks in the dressing rooms, dugouts and TV shamelessly laughing and giggling all over for no reason.

In short the crapiness of IPL telecast has given way to more sobre and decent World T20 coverage, something we have watched all over years (we have watched international cricket with the game at center stage, not the croonies and jokers taking center stage).

Last but not the least Lalit Modi is clinging to his baby IPL on Twitter so much that he has turned to a quizmaster who does not get answers from anybody.  He poses trivia, does not find any takers and then answers themselves. He's following Tharror but Tharoor like a small kid has unfollowed Modi on Twitter.

Laugh out loud~!!!~~

Pathetic Preview by Bobilli Vijay Kumar

Bobiilli Vijay Kumar has written an extremely pessimistic and dischanting preview of India vs Afghanistan match today.

He writes that India are in a chance for a longest but painful journey possible today ownwards if they dont pull off a win against opposition who thinks that they do not belong to this stage and yet are thrusted to play in the WT20.

He also talks of Dhoni and Gambhir being mentors to the team but then questions if they qualify being called mentors ?

Then he speaks about the so called rift between Bhajji and MS, Raina and Zaheer (thanks to the overhyped IPl final between MI and CSK).

ToI has been l;eader in exposing the financial misdoings of the IPL and in the process it has projected itself as anti cricket in India.

Some long sentences questioning the crux of the team and the core competence of the team that not long ago won T20 World Cup and was # 1 in ODIs (now at 2) does not make TOI gain readership it intends to gain through some pathetic writing.

Bobilli Vijay Kumar is one pessimistic journo who back in 2007 had suggested Tendulkar and Dravid go in the aftermath of WC debacle.

ToI at best is a tabloid which has nothing to do with the authenticity of news reports,  is pro Congress and has sold itself to the Page 3 stuff. It sucks in one word. And its even waste of time to read it every morning just to find how mucky Indian cricket is.

World T20 Teams Preview - I

Here is a quick preview of the teams in the fray for World T20 title starting this Friday part 1.

1.   Afghanistan

Their march to the world edition is a fairytale and as  I said in my last post in the preview to the game vs India, the journey to the edition by a war torn country speaks volumes of the willpower the cricketers in the country have. They wont win any game but they may create flutter or some panic with their natural style of play, which I gather is aggressive and they being strongly built could hit powerful hits. 

2.   Australia

The only tournament they have not yet won and the tournament they have a pathetic record in. They lost to eventual champions India in the 2007 edition in semis and in 2009 were kicked out in first round itself after being Gayle’d and Mendis’ed in the league stage. This year they have a new captain who’s asked for T20 contracts, they have a strong bowling attack and they have David Warner.   They’ve also got in couple of T20 specialists in addition to the experienced guys like Clark, Hussey brothers and Cameron White.  

Verdict : One of the semi finalists

3.   Bangladesh

They would live up their reputation – either they’d lose all games or beat at least one big team and go in next round. The thing is they are A2 and Australia is unseeded.  If they could beat Pakistan and then lose to Australia, then Australia beat Pakistan further turmoil could grip Pakistan team.  They have power hitters but most of them do not apply brains before they hit. If they could they could create a couple of upsets too.

Verdict : Tough to see them going beyond league stage

4.   England

Regular under achievers and regular captain.  They do not have their regular Tests captain and the man who led them in BD. But the trio of Colly, Morgan and KP aided with couple of strong bowling performances could see them going to the semis. They’d need to be consistent and they’d also need to shed the consistency  in losing out at stage when it matters the most. They reached super 8s in last editions but failed to go further. This one could see them go to the semis only if they play a bit better than they usually do.

Verdict: Tough to reach semis, surety for Super 8s

5.   India

2007 champions, IPL’ed country and a team that boasts of some super hitting batsmen in the format of the game. But horribly out of form. None of the batsmen in the team expected to make it to the final XI had a great IPL.  The team would mostly rely on the batting prowess of Gambhir, MSD, Yuvraj and Raina.  It could be Rohit Sharma  or M Vijay who could open with Gambhir in absence of Sehwag.   Bowling would be the key for India to go the distance, but given huge experience of IPL for the lads, the team should make it to the semis and try to avoid the mistakes it made in super 8s stage in England.  The wkts would be more or like we’ve got at home yet the choice of # 7 (one of Jadeja  / Pathan) could be the X-factor for the team.

Verdict: Should make it to the semis

6.   Ireland

Return to the country where they made a mark in 2007 ODI World Cup could inspire them to create a flutter or 2. They could very well manage to upset one of WI or Eng, but if they do not they stand little chance to go the distance.

7.   NZ

They make it to the semis of alternate ICC events and they even played final in the CT 2009, so now they should lose before semis. They’ve got a strong batting in McCullum,  Taylor and Ryder.  And add wily Daniel Vettori, the team should be able to make it to the semis. They’ve played most T20Is than any other country. McCullum is in awesome form and Aussies would swear by that.

Verdict: Semis

8.   Pakistan

Defending champs, country with best record in T20Is, country with best record in WT20 (both editions, they never lost before final) and the worst record in terms of discipline and team spirits. They are a team rigged with infighting, chauvinism, favoritism and back biting. A new captain who doesn’t hesitate in biting the ball, the players who do not think before pulling each other and a bowling attack that looks strong on paper boasting of Aamer, Asif and Sami. Well this players were part of disastrous Australia tour where they could not pluck anything, so its unlikely that they would make a difference here.  Batting is weak with no Malik and Younis.  A lot would depend upon young Akamal and the captain himself.  If they do play after they find time off fighting and plotting each other’s downfall they could reach the super 8s.

Verdict : Super 8s. Not beyond that.

     SA, SL and WI to follow next post.

India vs Afghanistan : Preview

World T20 begins 2 days later and India plays  its league games over coming weekend.

Afghanistan first and Saffers next.  Afghans making to T20 is a credible thing for them as they would find transtion from  guns to cricket bats a bit tough.

Despite the happenings back home them making to a world tournament is a fantasy come true. Good luck to them. Only if they dont take their opposition to be Talibs or allied forces of US.

Indians are the only team to not have played a warm up game in this World T20. Last edition they thumped the eventual champions in a warm up game.  Indians have never lost to Pakistan in T20Is and never beat Kiwis in T20Is.  Besides they have positive record against Saffers, Lankans and Aussies. A bit of poor one against England and WI, thanks to the screwed up Super 8s last edition.

But most of the team members have played at least 14 T20s coming to this World T20 albeit for different city teams. Yes the IPL.

And they dont have their best batsman of limited overs cricket after Sachin in the team. He is out injured.

So the final XI should look like :

Gambhir

Vijay

Raina

Yuvraj

Dhoni

Sharma

Pathan

Zaheer

Praveen

Harbhajan

Nehra

Pathan and Jadeja could slog it for the last batting spot. Very little to chose between them but the strong and mindless hitting makes Pathan a stronger candidate in final XI.

It should be a easy cakewalk for India in the first game at least. Records are in offering. The most obvious man to make it is missing alas!!!

IPL Cleanup begins

Lalit Modi being disbanded out of IPL is just a first step to clean the alleged mess thats gripped IPL.  Another step probably could be to terminate the telecast rights which has a set of rumors of felicitation fees being paid to WSG from MSM (or vice versa).  80 million dollars of bribe or commission. How much pie was distributed to the middlemen including Mr Modi himself needs to be find out.

Whats more the IPL parties could be terminated too alongside kicking out the Bollywood and glamour quotient including the likes of Mandira Bedi.  Its being said that MTv forced players to participate in IPL Nights to ensure high glam quotient. So if thats shown the door too, the  game of cricket would be in focus rather than the sundry models and useless DJs making fun of player fitness.

The ongoing tax probe is not much optimistic as its being used by the government settle terms with the opposition and NCP. (Sharad Pawar is NCP chief, most influential in cricket in the country). Modi is alleged to be linked with Vasundhra Raje, ex Rajasthan CM (from BJP). So if taxmen find something in the probe, Cong managers wont leave any stone unturned to malign or unsettle the cricket in the country.

Later on Twiteroor would be restored, thats also a possibility.

Manohar has questioned if Shilpa Shetty and her mister are real stakeholders of RR. If he is true then its even more good. We would be spared her fake smile and her presence on the dugouts.

The IPL on field action might have ended but the off field action is far from being over. Political vendettas from madam and Pranab babu aided by quiet support from MMS,  ICC president elect being cornered and murkier details being leaked out are going to be order of the day.

CSK are IPL Kinks.

So in the end Mumbai Indians could not win the IPL and the inconsistent CSK won the tournament thus making MSD first Indian captain to win the IPL.   Mumbai lost it more than Chennai won it.  Robin Singh messed up Mumbai’s batting order for reasons unknown. How can you imagine Harbhajan Singh at 4 in a final chase.  Pollard being holded till 8.  15 overs gone and yet no signs of Pollard being on the crease.  What was MI management thinking?

CSK Perspective:

·         They rode on Raina’s batting to be able to post 169 as target for Tendulkar’s MI. Raina was dropped twice but he capitulated on both lives to rankle MI.

·         Hayden was patchy in the entire tournament and his struggle tonite ensured that the team got to the slowest 50 in a IPL final.

·         Dhoni came at 5 after Dabri. Why ?  Dhoni any day is a better batsman than the Dabri guy and he ought to have more time in the final given fact that it was his last chance to warm up before he took field on May 1, 2010 against Af in world T20. 

·         Bollinger was difference between the two teams and the balls he bowled in first 2 overs were awesome. Good enough to put the pressure on MI which never experienced pressure in league stages.

·         Dhoni was superb in his captaincy skills. He paced the innings well and has used R Ashvin effectively in tandem with Bollinger.  As a result the run rate was always going to increase for MI.

·         Raina was awesome in his batting and fielding. Only if he could now play such innings for his country, he would go further distance than just playing well in IPL games.

·         The team played better and won a tournament they did not deserve to win it if you consider their lop sided campaign in the league stages. But every time they found inspiration in MSD and he was a big influence on the team which was half dead at 7 games stage with a record 2-5.

MI perspective:

·         Batting order was mess. Abhishek Nayar at  3 ? Really? He had not played many games to be worthy to walk at 3. He scratched around thus putting pressure on Tendulkar to accelerate and subsequently fall.

·         Tendulkar being injured and thus preventing him to be in his typical own self. 

·         Pollard being sent at 8 ? Why ? Was he paid to be benched ? What was Robin Singh thinking ?

·         Poor fielding. 2 catches grossed.  13 and 28 for Raina.  Poor keeping in final over from Malinga which was turning out to be an excellent one. No run had been scored of first 4 balls and off next 2 11 runs were scored including a no.

·         The Mumbai Indians team reflected consistently of the Indian team of 90s when only Tendulkar played and the rest did not. The others including Rayadu, Tiwari, Pollard, Dhawan, Nayar did not own up and expectedly lost.  Given this huge dependency the team did not deserve to win. But then have a thought for Tendulkar. He did everything right. He trusted the so called youngsters giving them bigger roles than they actually deserved and scoring runs at will. Playing in despite an injury sets an example of his work ethic. Unfortunately his other team members could not get inspired.

·         Poor bowling from 14-20^th over when they allowed CSK to go to 5/168 from 3/96.  Even Zaheer could not stem the flow of runs and he dropped a hi-flier which should have been caught.

·         Inexplicable batting from the youngsters.  There was no other guy than Tendulkar whom they could have used to learn the pacing of innings, but instead they chose to play ugly hoists  thus leading to loss.

The focus now shifts on the WT20 which starts in 4 days time and India plays its league games over the weekend against Af and SA.   The batting order for that game looks more like settled :

Gambhir, Vijay, Raina, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Sharma / Jadeja, Pathan, Zaheer, Harbhajan, Nehra, Praveen Kumar

More on the WT20 later. For now lets congratulate MSD for yet another win as a captain and with a hope that this would inspire him to give even bester shot to the upcoming World T20 and wrest the trophy back. I just assume deep within the mind MS would have thought this final to be a warmup.  

Rohit

Rohit Sharma falls for a similar ugly hoist in the 3rd spot playoff. 2nd consecutive game he has played a similar shot to get out. 

He is going to be a part of WCT20 squad and if he plays the same way GOD forbid the fortunes of his team. 

PS : Somebody now at some random blog is going to post a post in response to this post and claim me to be anti Mumbai too. I cant be writing to soothe everybody's opinions and view points. Expression of views is a skewd thing which not many take it kindly.  Little bit of broad mindedness is all what is required. 

And as for Srikanth's decisions as head of selection committee, we have a lot to debate against him.  In recent memory the Test team for 1st test vs SA, the W20 squad last year and for this year. Dig out and you'd find such instances even more.  On what basis likes of Dinesh Karthik is persisted in the team and Uthappa is not even given a chance since 2008. Ponder over stats and you d find the essence of regionalism favor. Period.

Srikanth's grand plans for his croonies

Srikanth was a mighty displeased man and he cried buckets of tears when his croonies -- Vijay, Dabri and KKD did not win any of the IPL awards at stake. 

He was shocked even more when his son Ani's cameo in semi final game did not win him the best debutant award in the ceremony. Why ? There was no such award....

So for this reasons Srikanth has now joined anti Modi camp and alleged him to be anti-Chennai and hurt the feelings of Chennai people. As another mean of protest he is now planning to remove MSD as skipper of India and planning to install Dinesh Karthik as captain of India in Tests and ODIs. He is also heard to have offered VVS Laxman a post in selection committee if he retires prematurely for Badrinath or his own son to be able to play Test cricket for India.

Bollywood hosts a cricket awards function.

Shahrukh Khan and his gay friend hosting IPL awards function with some Bollywood croonies performing is another low in the cricket - Bollywood nexus. 

Have a look at this. Award category called "Dramatic Performance". Whats that supposed to mean ? Another Bollywood term coined in. And it went to Harbhajan Singh. For what ? Lifting Neeta Ambani or scoring 49 off 18 balls or for bullying Symonds ?

Cringing to see Bollywood hogging the limelight in cricket and I hate Modi for that.  Modi has got Indian cricket in a zombie state. Muck man that he is.

Happy Birthday God of Cricket

Happy Birthday Sachin Tendulkar who turns  37 today.

Wishing him lots of runs and hundreds in Tests and ODIs. And  of course the elusive World Cup win that would rank as one of his best achievements. Something thats rankled him thus far.

I wish he plays on for couple of more years and we do not lose the privilege to witness him bat in the games for India in blues and whites. Not just the MI team.

God of cricket for the entire fraternity not just India.

Conflict of Interest

AC Mutiah has dragged BCCI to supreme court over conflict of interest issue for N Srivinasan, the owner of CSK and BCCI secretary.Actually Muthy or somebody else should also drag Srinivasan and

Srikanth to the supreme court because of following reasons:

1. Srikanth is the brand ambassador of CSK in addition to the head of

national selection committee.

2. Srikanth has got his son playing for IPL in CSK, which he thinks is the easiest way for drafting his son in the national team. As soon as any other player would get injured while on national duty like for example : Gambhir gets injured in the SL Test series or the Aussie ODI series later this year, then his son would be drafted in. Actually he has marked one on one player for every Tamil Nadu player.

Sachin, Dravid, Laxman, Yuvraj injured (Any one) : S Badrinath

MSD injured : Dinesh Karthik

Sehwag, Gambhir : M Vijay and A K Srikanth.

Zaheer Khan , Ishant Sharma, Ashish Nehra (Any) : L Balaji

HArbhajan, Ojha, Mishra, Chawla : R Ashvin

He is onlooking for other set of players who could be mapped to every one of the players listed above.

How good Dabri, KKD and Balaji are, we have seen. Srikanth has got a dangerous agenda for Indian cricket as similar to that Lalit Modi has for IPL.  Both should be shown the door asap for betterment of cricket in India.

On a parting note how about a laughter on a report saying matches in

IPL are being fixed.

Aniruddh Srikanth would be next replacement / reinforcement

Srikanth's croon Vijay was dismissed for 15 and the bearded cheapo also ensured his son got a chance to play the game so that whenever any India bound player gets injured Ani Srikanth would then play for India. 

Very soon you'd find Tamil Nadu players being drafted in Indian team as first choice players and not as replacements for injuries as they are done right now.

Dinesh Karthik would be the captain and Aniruddha Srikanth would be the vice captain then.  

Not so long ago the cheapo had said IPL is not just the criteria for India selection so when it came to replace Sehwag his regional preferences got over his statement and he ignored strong claims of Kohli and Uthappa for the Sehwag slot. Kohli has been the best bat for India in ODIs this year.

But Srikanth has got a myopic vision which does not see beyond the boundary of Tamil Nadu.

A hope

The first semi final is through and the MI is in the finals. I am a bit dischanted for this development.  We all are too deep in the ongoing IPL mess and the on field action. I sometimes feel we have forgotten that there is an entity called Indian cricket team and in little over a week’s time we are going to watch the team in action in West Indies for the World T20.

Its not even worthy to diagnose the game and highlight the highs and lows of the match, as it was all too futile and irrelevant.  The ongoing mess has thrown a disinterest in anything that’s going on in the name of IPL.  Lalit Modi, the man in the center of storm is audacious enough to walk to the center and have the cameras focus on him.  How powerful he is, is evident with the murkier details tumbling out every hour. He must have been a power within the power center and must have had a very strong backing deep within the government that he was able to do what he did on the name of creating a IPL brand value.

Now the IPL stands tarnished.

The IPL must go on albeit with a clean image. We expect the taxmen to act in good faith and not in the act of vengeance as a minister was claimed in the scandal.  We hope that the wrong doings are exposed, the mess is cleaned up and a brighter side of IPL is exposed to the world.

Too big to hope ?

Butt bungles again!!

There were 2 lads injured from Pak W20 team and so 2 replacements had to be sought. Sami and one more guy was replacement and was ratified by ICC. But the Butt bungled here and there was as always a confusion.  A simple thing messed up.  Hilarious.

Virender Sehwag out and Vijay in

Sehwag is out of the World T20 and another lad from Srikanth's state is in with little under his belt to prove in T20. Murali Vijay is in. Uthappa  is left out.


Great going Srikanth. Why not chose your own son Aniruddha over Gambhir then ? We would have Vijay and Anni open the innings for India. Wow.


Srikanth really sucks now. Weird. Weird. Weird.  Dinesh Karthik must be a happy man now.

What Sushy actually did

Shashi Tharoor posed himself a martyr and innocent,  faked ignorance and in the end was dumped in the dust bin after the government had enough of him. Truly cattle class behavior after being one of the better imaged minister in the group of jokers and puppets of the Queen.

But what he has ensured is the deeper scrutiny and opening up of pandora box. The Yadav troika and Mamta Didi who at best are bigots are now demanding BCCI takeover. And guess what if that happens who would take over BCCI chief post ?  Sures Kalmadi. Lol. 

Pushy lady has ensured the IPL remains in the headlines for wrong reasons after she lured Sushy Twiteroor out of the government berth. Time she is shunted to Sheikh land to ensure that the nexus of Bollywood bigots and socialites is broken in game of Cricket.

What IPL scandal means to the end user

The IPL has taken a huge blow in its credibility and the trustworthiness.  There are some murkier details coming out every hour in the media, many of which could be true or many of them just could be the word in the mouth in the media.  This is a huge story for the publicity hungry media and they are leaving no stone unturned in the coverage of the IPL scandal.   The scandal claimed Shashi Tharoor and now it threatens to claim Lalit Modi too. There have been reports of betting and match fixing in the Times of India where in its being said that Modi is the face behind it. It also mentions that Modi has few of his friends and family members invested in the 3 franchisees and the company that hosts the mobile rights for the tournament.

The government is also behind the BCCI and IPL for the so called tax evasion and there have been noises from the political leaders to overtake the cricket administration and ban the IPL.   

There have been already some noises made in the Australian, English and Kiwi player associations over the blasts in Bangalore and there are many who dislike Modi. This controversy is a god gift to those entities who allege that BCCI is the root of all evils in the subcontinent.

What beckons for the end user who watches cricket in any form and format ? Will he be turned off from the iPL as it did from cricket in 2000 match fixing scandal ? Or would it wait for the dirt to settle out and then come back to the IPL with zeal same as last 3 seasons. A lot of it depends on how things turn up in next few days. The build up to the World T20, more significant than the IPL , is not very ideal for Indian team.  Its not playing any warmup game in the carribean. The same place where it lost 2007 world cup.

I would not bother much about the iPL right now since this version is almost at the end and anyways I am not a big fan of intrusion of Bollywood and other irritating factors in the good ol game of cricket. If the ongoing investigation gets to the root of the evil and cleanses the entire system thus shunting out the objectionable stakeholders, then the IPL-4 could be a new beginning for the BCCI and it could go well in the history of the board that would mark the start of much needed transparency and accountability in the system.

The answer  to this well could be the ouster of Lalit Modi and Shashank Manohar taking over his place. 

Semis report card

The IPL is in the final stages and the semi finalists are almost decided.  MI takes on RCB and Deccans take on Chennai.  The teams that got out were Punjab, Kolkata, Rajasthan and Delhi.  Here is my take on each of the teams:

Delhi : The unluckiest team to go out. However they blew hot and cold in this campaign. The indifferent form of Sehwag and Dilshan did not help the case either. Colly was gutsy but he hardly received any support from the other end. And persisting Dinesh Karthik was a blunder on Gambhir’s part, whose form was patchy but he was in form for run outs. The bowling attack did not help them either.  Except for Nannes in first few games they had none who could control the runs and take wickets even though Mishraji were among wickets, he never threatened.

Chennai : They should not have been in the semis, however they are. The most pathetic team they are playing in 3 seasons. Thanks to resurgent Dhoni in batting form, they peaked right time in the tournament (last game) and with the luck factor got there. They have pitiable bowling attack with none except Dougie Bollinger in top form. Batting seems to be reliant only on Raina, Vijay and now MS.  Hayden and Hussey did not fire, though they cannot be discounted. They should be the team who should lose again in the semis. If they win they would not be the worthy finalists.

Punjab : A best example to show credentials and worthiness of Sangakara as captain. Period.

Deccan  :  Some luck and more grit, little contribution from Gilly and super performance from their man Rohit Sharma (he plays only in IPL) followed by key wickets at right time saw them through to the finals on 2^nd place.  They won 5 games on trot and jumped to 2^nd place, their best finish. Awesome. They have a super inspirational captain and a super hitter in Symmo. They should look forward to play the finals getting past Chennai in the semis.

Rajasthan : Magical captaincy from Warne and over reliance on Pathan Y were not good enough to see the Royals go through the semis. They begun disastrously but recovered soon to lose out in the final battle.  They shone in parts, not good enough to win a semis birth. Injury to Smith did not help the case, Pathan was over hyped and Ojha was unlucky. 

Kolkata : A right man in wrong team. Dada did everything he could to inspire the lads, but they did not learn and as a result they lost out in what was a best chance to show the strength and character. It remains the only team now not to reach semis at any point of the seasons.  They had good start, then they fizzed out, then they won 1 and lost 1. Ganguly scored runs to silent his critics, but his lads fell back on the commitment factor and the team lost. Questions should be raised on the worthiness of Ishant Sharma in the limited overs format. How long he is going to be promising and emerging ?Some point of time he has to deliver the promise and emerge to a full blown fast blower.  Having Akram in the side did not help as he concentrated more on how ball tampering was done than to actually help the bowlers.

RCB : Fantastic start to see them lose the momentum and now being the 4^th team to be in the semis. Led by Anil Kumble who is the most economical bowler of the tournament and the best skipper yet in the season, the team won 4 consecutive games, then lost 4 in row and then again won 2 lost 2. A 56 run loss to MI was heart breaking for a team who has Pandey, Kallis, Dravid, KP, Uthappa, Kohli as its batting lineup. Bowling is a worry with the likes of Kallis leaking 4s at will and R Vinay Kumar never going over 135 kph. 

MI : Team to beat riding on purple form of Sachin Tendulkar.  They look good to win the tournament should Sachin continue to fire. A long one is over due now and he shows the youth players how to play T20 without actually thumpin it and with the help of conservative orthodox shots with little innovation and no slogging.

Semis line up :

MI vs RCB

DC vs CSK

Finals

RCB vs DC

Look who is talking

I won't name anyone but I have seen quite a few cricketers who have been rubbing mud on the ball and that is also tampering," Akram told espnstar.com. " If umpires are not watching then I don't know who is. In this IPL, umpires should look for players who are putting mud on the ball because you can't alter the state of the ball with anything.

"Around the 18th, 19th over in places like Rajasthan, Mumbai or Ahmedabad where there is red soil it is difficult to see the ball under lights and by putting the mud on the ball these players are trying to contain the batsmen or get wickets." 

Look who is talking ? The masters of ball tampering now taking on moral policing role to put a lid on ball tampering. He has done it umpteen times and his country’s captain actually bites the ball to tamper it on live cameras.

Virender Sehwag is Wisden Cricketer of the year

Virender Sehwag has been chosen Wisden Cricketer of the year along with 4 Englishmen and an Aussie. Big achievement that Wisden chose to look an Indian cricketer for this award. Thats credible cos no Indian got that in the recent memory even when the fab five were in their pomp.

Bigger point to note is that this is the second consecutive year he has got the award.

This in a year when he has ascended to greater heights as opening bat, something he never looked to achieve when he started at 6 in B'fontein, SA.

293 in Brabourne against Lanka remains his best batting act of the year besides other explosive innings in ODIs and Tests this year.

Great going Viru.  Cant imaging that DBV dropped this guy for almost a year out of Tests cos his ODI form was poor and got Jaffer and Karthik opening for India in Tests!!!!

Do an Aircel to relaxed lads

Its time to do an AirCel (MoveOn) from this guys from Indian cricket. Yes Indian cricket exists and its not just about the IPL.

So those guys are :

Ishant Sharma from ODIs and T20s.
Dinesh Karthik from all formats
Rohit Sharma from all formats
Piyush Chawla from T20
S Badrinath from all formats

Put Raina, Praveen Kumar on notice that being lax and assured of place in the squad would come with a price and that would be a hefty amount to be paid.

The "in" guys are :

Manish Pandey for ODIs and T20s
Virat Kohli for T20s and Tests
Amit Mishra for ODIs and T20s
Naman Ojha for T20s

If that happens remains to be seen.

Ugly spat bw Modi and Twiterrooor

The ongoing tussle between Modi and Twiterroor just indicates how fragile the egos of top managers are. Twiteroor is scared that his nexus with a socialite would be exposed to the world. Modi is scared that his supremacy in IPL biz would be grabbed by the minister.

Minister mentored few biz people to form an unholy and unethical group to bid for IPL team for a state whose best known cricketer is Sreesanth. And in lieu of that mentorment Twiterror is asking for a free equity for supposedly soon to be wife or smbody else socialite from Dubai.

He also asked Modi not to ask stakeholders of Rondavu sports.

Twiterror is not new to controversy. He is at max a cattle class minister who has no regard or sensitivity for the damn post he holds. He now wants to be getting into cricket biz in a bid to stamp his authority over game of cricket in Kerala. Not surprising if he becomes chief of KCA or whatever cricket association state has.  The UN under secretary is finding tough to cope with the work atmosphere of country and is an open embarrasment to Indian government and its people.

Its all bloody ugly game of money and corrupted power. As long as he has Madam's support and Modi has Pawar support this ugly game in public domain is going to get longer. Its also an excuse for Cong to flex muscles over ICC president to be Mr Sharad Pawar. Not long ago PC had flexed his power over SP by kicking out IPL to SA....

Boss dk

Is indeed crap. No runs at home and he is on trip to windies. Someone say him thank you very much n move on. He is one bugger we gotta digest and see his antics. India is not reaching semis this world t20

too.

Resemblance between MI and 90s India

Mumbai Indians without SRT batting is the Indian team abroad of 1990s.

Semis scenario

Deccan v Bangalore at Nagpur
Apr 12, 2010 (20:00 local, 14:30 GMT)

Mumbai v Delhi at Mumbai (BS)
Apr 13, 2010 (16:00 local, 10:30 GMT)

Chennai v Kolkata at Chennai
Apr 13, 2010 (20:00 local, 14:30 GMT)

This are the next 3 fixtures in the IPL circus this week.  Mumbai is through to the semis already.

Now there are 3 spots and 6 teams in the fray. Sanga’s men wont be good enough to play in semis, so they would be shooed away when they knock the semis door.  After Mumbai, there are 3 teams tied on 12 – RCB, Royals and Devils.

And 3 on 10 – Knight Riders, Chargers and Super Kinks.

Deccan and Bangalore play today. So if Bangalore win they are almost in to the semis. If Chargers win they step an inch close to the spot yet not there. They would be on 10 points.  Both teams would have 2 games after today, that means one of this 2 teams would go in.

Situation after today :

RCB 12 Deccan 12

RCB still remain in top 4 while Chargers would move on 4. Royals would drop out of 4 on their negative run rate.

RCB do not lose much but the Chargers gain a lot. Only if they win. If they lose, they are on the verge of kicked out.

Mumbai vs Delhi

Mumbai any day just for presence of one man : Tendulkar. If Delhi get world’s best Test opening pair fired they would pose a challenging threat to Mumbai. Mumbai if they win would go on 18.  No 1 spot sealed. If Delhi win they go on 14. Semis assured almost. If they lose they still remain on 12.  But in the given scenario they would still remain on 3 or 4.  They have a slight positive net run rate.

So after the 2 games the semis scenario is not yet very clear.

Chennai vs Kolkata :

Last time Chennai won but going by KKR’s pattern, they should win it easily.  Honestly speaking Chennai sucks in the fast bowling department. Who are their men ? Balaji, Morkel, Joginder and Sudeep Tyagi who would any day lose out to the men like Ganguly, Gayle and McCullum. 

Whoever wins goes on 12 and crowds the table.  KKR would have to win by large margin as they have –ve NRR. 

The semis picture is going to look hazy at least till next 2 days….

Reason behind sudden resurgence of KXIP

The way Kings XI are now playing indicates that it was Sangakara who underperformed and under captained the team.

Or may be Preity Zinta's dip in the holy Ganges is doin the trick for her men who are more eager to get a jaddu ki jhappi than play their real self on the game.

Perhaps a jadu ki jhappi to Sanga would have done the trick.  Something similar(Sreesanth's crying act) antics would have been done by him in the dressing room to get the jhappi and once he had got it, he would have realized like a Bollywood hero that he is the captain and must perform.

So he did, but a bit late, the train to semis was already missed.

Legacy of Match fixers

Shoaib Malik, Ata-Ur-Rahman, Salim Malik, Naved Rana, Danish Kaneria.....

And many more hidden reputed names of cricket from terror torn country.

Whats common b/w this names ?

Tainted names or famed names ?

One of them is a serial wedder (he weds Hyderabadi girls, refuses to accept, forced to divorce), other is banned for life and other one is an ICL rebel to be back in team to be banned again.

Whats Danya Danya doing here ?

He's got indicated in a match fixing investigation in England playing from Essex....

Nothing new, he's got the legacy. And we have got no doubts that he would be indicted, but Mr painFul Butt would not act on him and a match fixer would proudly play for his bunch of idiots in England this summer.

What a country......

Shoania

Flip flop, flip flop and then finally accepted. Way paved for impending M with Indian tennis zero Sania Mirza.  Typical PCB attributes.

Ban first and then revoke. That’s in their veins.  Its cringy to see media coverage offered to the crap going on in Hyderabad where ex captain of world’s poorest cricket team in terms of spirits of cricket is dilly dallying with Indian authorities. When told in no uncertain terms that him not accepting the first marriage might lead to long jail term and no return to Pak, the match fixer lad agreed to provide the divorce. Why did the police even wait for this ? Should have gone ahead and got him behind the bars.

The question of ban revoke would have automatically gone out of window. 

Its their individual choice to get married, but the drama ongoing could have been avoided. But then anything affiliated to PCB does not warranty a smooth sailing.  There are serious questions on the integrity and authenticity of Malik on and off the field. His camping to dislodge MoYo is well documented, he is said to be involved in match fixing and now this much maligned affair with the Mirza girl.  Raises serious doubts over man’s intentions. Do whatever in Pak, but why make a tamasha in India?