IPL Auction 2013

The IPL auction 2013 was a relatively low key affair with most of the franchisees having a settled squad and only a few making all out effort to strengthen their squad.  The highlight of this auction was the low key players getting big money, the players who were really unheard of outside their home countries. 

For example,

• Chris Morris
• Kane Richardson
• Akila Dhananjaya who made it big in SLPL and played a couple of games in World T20, but since has been warming benches for SL team.

A lot of players went "unsold" like:

• Aaron Finch
• Ravi Bopara
• Matt Prior
• Suraj Randiv
• Martin Guptill
• Test sensation Vernon Philander

The Aussie greats Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting were picked up for their base prices, although none of them are hot T20 commodities, it remains to be seen if Mumbai Indians play Ricky Ponting alonside their most famous player, Sachin Tendulkar of India. 

Michael Clarke had retired from T20 format couple of years ago and is not a typical T20 player. However he might offer some valuable tips to the Pune Warriors captain, most likely Yuvraj Singh.

The defending champions were the most complacent side as they bid for only two players:

 

Sachitra Senanayake and Ryan McLaren.

Mumbai Indians again made the news by bidding a million USD for Glenn Maxwell who celebrated the day by 4/63 and a first ball duck against West Indies. They also bid successfully for Ricky Ponting, Phil Hughes and Nathan Coulter Nile, all Aussies.  And  the neighbouring Jacob Oram. 

Kings XI Punjab also bid for only 2 players in Manpreet Gony and Luke Pomerbausch. 

Wooden spoon holders Pune bid for Ajantha Mendis, the guy who has a formidable T20 record (albeit against minnows), Kane Richardson and over hyped Abhishek Nayar.

Sunrisers Hyderabad, the new name for now defunct Dhakkan Fusers got a few players in their kitty too, but none of them impact players. Sudeep Tyagi, Darren Sammy,  Thissara Pereira, Nathan McCullum etc. Serious doubts exist if new name and new management might improve the fortunes of the Hyderabad team or they continue to disappoint like last 2 seasons.

Uncle Srini proved his coach Stephen Fleming wrong who had said his franchisee wont go for foreign players. Instead CSK went for 5 foreign players -- Dirk Nannes, who as per BCC! has good chance to earn an India cap, Akila Dhana....., Jason Holder of WI, Chris Morris of SA and Ben Laughlin of Australia.

Rajasthan Royals went in for few players too and the players who'd now be Rajputs will be James Faulkner, Fiddy Edwards and Kushal (or Kaushal) Pereira (or Pareira) of SL. 

Uncle Mallaya does not have money to revive his defunct Kingfisher airlines or pay the salary to pilots and other cabin crew, for sure he has lots of money to choose a Kingfisher calendar girl and few players like RP Singh etc. 

I do not care who wins IPL or who does not. I also do not care which player makes it big or which player fails. I worry about the fate of Indian cricket when few very ordinary players like Ravinder Jadeja, Rohit Sharma and R Ashvin make it big in IPL and on back of those strong performances continue to play for India. That, to me, is the saddest aspect of IPL.

MSD, the India Cements Vice President

MS Dhoni for sure has been one of most busy players for India in all three formats of the game, not to forget the IPL and Champions League duty days too.  And a rare 3 week break between the England ODI series and the upcoming Australian Test series is a rare but welcome one for the captain. Unfortunately his boss and the boss of BCCI, Mr N Srinivasan has some other plans for the skipper. 

He made him skip the Irani trophy starting in few days time and offered him to play for India Cements in the unofficial Corporate Cup. Not sure if he or R Ashvin is going to lead the IC team, but MSD has been offered a rich bounty to play for IC in this  tournament. He is also the Vice President of India Cements now. 

The nexus between Srini and MSD is not a holier one. We have seen in the past that MS Dhoni has got away with his failures in the Test cricket and often CSK implants have played ahead of deserved ones. Jadeja ahead of Rahane in Tests, ever failing Ashvin continuing in all 3 formats of the game and so forth. 

It remains to be seen if the Test captaincy switches the hands for the upcoming all important Australian test series. This is the last chance India has got to arrest the dramatic slide in the home shores as well. The cocoon of home series is going to end later this year when India travels to the # 1 test nation.  So if India is able to beat the Aussies 2-1 or 3-1 or 4-0 (very unlikely), the home season would be less horrible than it has already been till now.

Sir Ravindra Jadeja's best delivery

Video Courtesy : You tube channel of ac89jc

If this kind of bowling makes Ravindra Jadeja best bowling allrounder then more whitewashes follow in Tests vs Australia, South Africa and then again England.

Sir Ravindra Jadeja, you rock.

MS Dhoni's politics

47,4,0.

That is the scoreline for Ajinkya Rahane, the new forced opener and a replacement  for "failing" Virender Sehwag.  

And of course the above scoreline provides a solid opening stand which we have been used to see in ODIs at least ever since we have had world class opening pairs of Sachin-Saurav, Sachin - Sehwag, Saurav - Sehwag and then Gambhir - Sehwag.

96, 18 and 11 are the opening stands in the first 3 ODIs and of course for the next 2 ODIs in Mohali and Dharmsala, the same opening pair shall continue. 

What extra value has Ajinkya Rahane has added at the top of the order  ? If Sehwag failed, Rahane has been no different. Sehwag was persisted for only 2 ODIs against Pakistan. He was  rested for 3rd and then dropped for the series against England. 

The only thing that goes in favor of Rahane is that he is young, supposedly good fielder than Sehwag and he has backing of Sandip Patil who hails from Mumbai as does Rahane.  It is very difficult to ignore the selectorial bias or presidential bias in selection of guys like Rahane, Rohit Sharma and Sir Ravindra Jadeja who will always excel against England who are hopeless  against any kind of turning ball. 

Another question that arises out of Sehwag's axing is whether Dhoni feels secure as leading Team India in all 3 formats ? He is selectively kicking out people who could be challenge to his captaincy. Sehwag now, Gambhir next and who knows Yuvraj in future.  

Dhoni has been off color in Tests and T20s captaincy. Overly defensive when things go wrong. That X-factor and what they say lucky charm is long gone.  Losing 10 tests to Australia and England have been the undoing of all the hard work the golden generation of Indian cricket has done in past 14 years or so. 

There is no doubt over the class of MS Dhoni, the ODI batsman, but more results like Pakistan loss will do only harm to his captaincy. Also the backing of players like Ravinder Jadeja who come good in 2 of 10 games isnt going to do any good to Indian cricket.  There is just no logic why one player finds sudden favor from Dhoni and then loses it. Ashok Dinda at times is his go-to bowler but then next game he is out.  Shami Ahmed bowls good in one game, he is out next and back in the next. 

Piyush Chawla does no good in any form of cricket he plays and suddenly he comes in the 4th Test match out of blue replacing Harbhajan Singh (who just got Punjab back in the contention for place in Ranji final).  Yet he plays T20Is against England and  then dropped against Pakistan.

Suresh Raina, now in good form, continued to play all games when he was out of form.  Ravinder Jadeja suddenly becomes one good bowling allrounder with one innings of 61 from 37 balls after ages of failure.  R Ashvin, who has not delivered since ages, who does not get a single wicket and James Tredwell gets 4 in a game, continues to play every game, every format.  And doubt lingers over the intentions of MS Dhoni when one relates this players to his IPL franchisee.

And you are left to bite your hairs in disgust when Sir Jadeja comes in a press conference and backs "out of form" Virat Kohli.

It is high time MS Dhoni is  relieved of captaincy in Test format and a bold move is made sooner than later.  And one viable option could be Virat Kohli, aka Graeme Smith way. But if Indian selectors led by the world cup winners of 1983 world cup have the balls to take hard decisions, that remains to be seen.

Why not drop Rohit Sharma instead of Sehwag ?

India's cricket is in shambles. The ODIs were strong forte all this while with gloom setting in Tests and T20s were never India's mettle. Now the ODI wall has stood broken with 2 back to back defeats to Pakistan. Of all countries, losing to Pakistan is shambolic and sinful. No matter what, the defeats against Pakies will never be taken easily. And that when no fight has been put up. Top four showing up no fight at all. Batting has been India's strong point entire 2000s and now that is the reason for failings. 

What is Duncan Fletcher doing ? Has he got any ideas ? Has he got any plans to stop the slide ? Does he even speak more than what Manmohan Singh speaks? Or he also believes in silence ? Tests woes and now ODI woes. 

The selection of team is also an issue. Rohit Sharma is in the team after failing since ages. Single digit scores in all his ODI appearences this year, still he is in the team and will play England ODIs. And the blame of this defeats is going to be passed onto Virender Sehwag. Admittedly he has not been in great form, but he is certainly better than Rohit Sharma and Ravinder Jadeja.  This 2 lads continue playing every game despite doing nothing great and Sehwag always faces the axe.

MS Dhoni did not play an innings of substance in T20I and Tests for long, yet he remained in the team and was the captain despite losing 0-8 abroad and 1-2 at home.  N Srinivasan has his hand behind MSD, Jadeja and Ashvin. Sandeep Patil has his behind Rohit Sharma. Who said quota system did not rule Indian cricket ?

And now yet another Chennai lad is in the team. Dinesh Karthik is in the team as standby to injured MSD. Why not inject 11 Chennai players in the INDIAN team?  Sehwag will be dropped and out of nowhere M Vijay shall replace him. Does not matter Ajinkya Rahane or Manoj Tiwary have been left to warm the benches. Out of nowhere Jadeja appeared and played last test match against England when Rahane should have been playing at #6.

The string of this losses followed by Tendulkar's retirement is fast forcing me to give up watching Indian cricket for good. Chennai Super Kinks for all its patronizing is destroying the soul of Indian cricket. 

Chennai Super Kings killed Indian Cricket

Ravinder Jadeja will be playing Test matches for India on the brink of triple centuries on Rajkot pitch. And he moves in the team ahead of Manoj Tiwary and Ajinkya Rahane.  This is shameful and disgrace. Ridiculous and sinful. Chennai Super Kings is now hell bent to destroy the fabric of Indian cricket. Time to kick out N Srinivasan, Duncan Fletcher and MS Dhoni out of Indian cricket. Indian cricket is not about Chennai Super Kings franchisee. 

The spot Jadeja will play was once owned by Ganguly and occasionally by Laxman. Later on by Yuvraj and Raina. 

The post does not reflect the outrage and disgusting feeling on the happenings in Mumbai and Kolkata. Had to write about the feeling to see Jadeja play, so wrote the nothing post.

Ricky Ponting retires

So Ricky Ponting has called time on his 17 year old Test career in 2012 based on "tentative" manner of dismissals in first 2 Tests. And Perth test shall be his last.  He had already called time upon the ODI career and with him retiring the successful era of Australian dominance shall come to an end. He was the last pole of the dominating Aussies who ruled the world in 1990s and 2000s. He was a very successful captain who basically carried on the legacy of Steve Waugh in 2004 and struggled after 2007 Ashes when the greats retired one by one.  And those defeats put him in a very ordinary light -- some one not been able to turn the things around with men of ordinary capability. When he was the captain and had the awesome men like Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, Matty Hayden, Jus Langer and of course Glenn McGrath, the results spoke for themselves and post 2008 when all of the above men were gone, the results show a downward spiral.

Later on his form dwindled and every test series he played was speculated to be his last. But Indians revived him last summer as they have done to so many failing batsmen and suddenly Ponting talked about the back to back Ashes prospects next year. But he was done in by series of ordinary scores in the ongoing series vs South Africans. In a series when Australians have maintained a noose over the # 1 team in the world and all batsmen around him were getting huge scores, Ponting struggled. And thats when he determined he was not contributing enough that led to this decision.

The world cricket in 2012  especially the Test cricket will be very poor with 3 of the most illustrious men retired -- Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman from India and now Ricky Ponting from Australia. Not to mention that Andrew Strauss from England had also called time earlier this year, but he might not be in the league of this 3 men. And again in near foreseeable future Sachin Tendulkar might call it time as well.  The Test cricket will be poorest in years then. As an Indian fan, I hated Ponting make runs in Australia against India, but there were few sights of pleasure also watching him bat against other teams. Indian fans despise him, they hate him, a lot of frentic fans rejoiced on facebook when they saw the news of Ponting retirement.  Ponting has had a formidable record in Tests and ODIs. And like the contemporaries he did not excel in T20Is and very soon he retired from that format.

He has had 2nd highest ODI centuries and 2nd highest ODI runs as in Tests after Tendulkar. But what he has is something no other player in history has. 2 World cup wins back to back as a captain, 3 overall.  2 Champions Trophy wins when the Aussies struggled in this trophy till 2006.  Ponting led Australia in 3 world cups, won 2 and lost in the quarters of the last one.  Under him Australia won 34 World cup games in row and this looks to be a record which will never be broken. 

Ponting is hailed as 2nd best Australian batsman only after Don Bradman. He scored runs in all conditions against all countries. He struggled against India in India especially against Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble. But in return series in 2003, 2011 he made tons of runs against Indians.  He scored against South Africa, England, Kiwis, West Indies and of course Lankans. But again he was the only captain to lose 3 Ashes (2005, 2009 and 2010-11). Something he was very keen to improve, but his scoring dried and off he went.

He was not a very good sportsmen as often he claimed the catches that were not, he appealed when the dismissals looked dodgy, pressurized umpires, had a short temper. Who can forget that 1998 Sharjah tourney when he was hurt by Javagal Srinath bouncer and he rudely sent back the bowler when out of courtesy, Srinath went to check if he was fine. He had tussles with Zaheer Khan, Sourav Ganguly and of course Harbhajan Singh. The 2008 series in Australia was one of the worst in terms of "spirit of cricket" which led Anil Kumble to famously quote "Only one team was playing in the spirit of the game".

All said and done, despite his shortcomings as a captain and a person on the field, Ricky Ponting will be a cricketing legend with formidable record in Tests and ODIs. And he shall be missed.

Thank You Ricky Ponting for all of your cricketing memories. And I must confess when he was in his prime, I so very wished his form fell so that Tendulkar's records remain intact and now they will.

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Motera win

As expected India won the first Test in the Motera and that win came after 7 years later on the ground.  This time the relaid pitch was slow, low bouncy one as opposed to flat ones in past.  England continue to work to their reputation of being inept to play spin and apply some application.  Here were a few positives and negatives:

Positives:

• Yuvraj Singh's classier return to the test cricket. His 74 was not amongst his fluent, but he was on the field for 2 and half days. And that is good sign for him. Now only he could make consistent scores on the # 6 spot, he could make a name in Test cricket as well.
  
• Cheteshwar Pujara's 247 runs without getting dismissed. He put a price on his wicket, didnt get out a single time and he did outscore Sehwag in 2nd innings while chasing 77.  A long term prospect found. And best bet to continue batting at #3, the one where a legend batted for 168 Tests and 16 years.
• Pragyan Ojha, with his best match figures, he continues to grow in confidence and getting better day by day. He's now raced to 85 odd wickets in 18 Tests and at an average of 30, which is bound to improve with time. His dismissals of KP in both innings and then bowled dismissal of Ali Cook were remarkable ones.
  
• And of course Virender Sehwag with a Test century after 2 years on the same ground he had the last one.  He will be playing his 100th one in Wankhede, the world cup winning venue and it shall even be better if he scores his trademark big ton in that Test.
• Fast bowling. Umesh Yadav bowling with pace and lot of hostility. Zaheer Khan with whatever  contributions he make, it's good for him.
  

Negatives:

• R Ashvin, he got 4 wickets in the test and he tried too much. Impatient and flat. Gave up too easily when he did not get wickets. At one point of time he gave out 154 runs without taking a wicket. One more failure and talks to get in Harbhajan Singh will only grow louder.
• Sachin Tendulkar, though he took a couple of wickets and he was agile in the field, he did not make the runs, only 13 of them and its now 5 innings without substantial contribution. The best thing now is he returns to his home ground and a century there will be an awesome return to the form (for whatever time he feels is left to play).
• MS Dhoni's keeping and batting. Only thing he excelled in was in whining and post match comments.  When things don't go his way , he just gives up and we get to see a lot of unimaginative captaincy. 
  
• And a rare failure from Virat Kohli.

And of course umpiring.

We are 2 days out from the 2nd Test and the media reports suggest that the Wankhede pitch will assist seam and swing at least on day 1.  So let's see how England fare. And if the so called famed English lineup turns up.

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Sehwag and Gambhir show they still belong!!

A big middle finger to the critics of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir by scoring a 100 run and counting partnership for first wicket.....

Job just started and long way to go..

Bravo West Indies for being the T20 champions

And the South Africa gave their CHOKERS tag to Sri Lanka. And how. West Indies, the pre-tournament favorites won a world title after 33 years. Huge achievement. Happy for them. They deserved the victory. Their team is one super power in T20 format, no wonder they shall garner record IPL auction prices later this year or early next year.

Marlon Samuels played a gem of a match winning innings to turn the score of 2/32 to a match winning 137 in 20 overs. And then the big hitters of Lanka were silenced through a disciplined bowling attack of West Indies. 

Chris Gayle, for all his pre-match noise, had the last laugh though in the end and he would be ridiculing the loud mouth Mahela Jaywardhene who felt amazing when his team reached 4th final in last 5 years. But they have not won a single event and thats not amazing. Actually that is ridiculous. Forever bridesmaid. They did not have a single reason for not winning this tournament. Home conditions, slow and low wikats, army of tweakers who bowl within the now tweaked 15 degree elbow rule, so called best T20 bowler who went for 54 runs in 4 overs, boring band and of course the ignorant, cricket crazy fans who just blindly support their team. 

What they did not have was a spirit to win the tournament. If they had won this tournament, the spirit of cricket world wide would have taken a beating. Frequently challenging ICC rules and tweaking it to their convenience had to pay some time and it did in this crushing defeat. 

"We are all really happy to be part of a very successful group over a period of time," he said. "We have been blessed with four now - although I know we haven't won anything. But four finals, it's amazing. In one's career you are lucky enough to play in one final."

We play with a very positive mindset. We spoke at the start of the tournament that we would have to play on three different surfaces in Hambantota, Pallakele and now Colombo. We had to adapt. It is about handling tough situations better."

This were his words after they defeated Pakistan in the semi-final.  All of this was not on display when they took the field to chase down the target. But they were beaten in their own game. Loud mouthing never helps. Sri Lanka will forever be known for the 1996 victory, they'd never be known for the fact they reached 4 finals in 5 years and failed to win one of them. 

Mahela Jayawardhena's problem is he speaks too quickly and speaks too much. He seems to be that project manager of an IT company who is process oriented, but always fails to deliver the projects on time and with necessary quality standards. People loath this kind of characters in their team. And when he often tweaks the rules to his favor, he basically presents a poor picture of himself in the world crickat.   

SL unveil a lot of cricketers from their so called school system and most of them fail to shine consistently on international level. Take out the 3 big players of their team and the team is a dud. The captaincy revolves in hands of those 3 creatures. Each of whom is a genius in batting, but they fail to go the distance when it comes to win a world title. 

All of those character talks, silken batting touch and "romanticism" and of course "neutral's favorite" goes down the drain when you continously fail at last hurdle and still boast hugely about the losing team. Mahela Jayawardhena spoke too early about Chris Gayle and he had to lick his own spit.

And as a loser shall do, he has stepped down again from the captaincy. Albeit only T20 this time. Pakistani players retire,  they come back, they retire, they come back. Sri Lankan captains quit captaincy, they come back again and they quit captaincy again.

Play well and play within the spirits Lankans. 

And what a birthday gift turned out to be today for Dwayne Bravo today. Something to cherish for life. Simon Taufel bowed out of umpiring today and he has had a wonderful career in umpiring over last decade or so. And it was just apt that the last of the West Indies greats of 1970s and 1980s -- Richie Richardson is team manager today and though he was not part of any world cup wins, he would surely have remembered the winning feeling they so frequently had in 1980s.  And only if Windies shall convert this super win in more consistent displays in ODIs and of course Tests, the world cricket shall be richer once again.