IPL and its Consequences

Published in Sportstar, 19 April 2008

By Gulu Ezekiel

The French have a phrase ‘plus ca change…’ which roughly translated means ‘the more things change, the more they remain the same.’
The French are not big cricket buffs, but the phrase keeps cropping up in my mind whenever cricket hits a new crisis or controversy.
Controversy there has been plenty already. But crisis?
To explain, one must go back over 250 years to the very beginnings of organised cricket.
Coloured clothing? The first professional teams riding horseback and by stagecoach through the length and breadth of England from the mid-18th to early 19th centuries wore coloured shirts to help identify their clubs.
Those professionals would receive challenges from clubs and villages around England and would be paid handsomely for their skills. There were thus plenty of historical precursors to Kerry Packer and his traveling circus of pros including William Clarke (of the 1840s) and Thomas Lord (the founder of Lord’s cricket ground) a century earlier.
The first recorded match in which prize money (10 Pounds Sterling) was on offer was played in 1700. Just 50 years later the first and most famous professional cricket club was formed at Hambledon, Hampshire (referred to as ‘the cradle of cricket’).
By the 1830s the railways were opening up new avenues and trains began to replace the horseback pro, leading to the wider spread of cricket.
Bookies and match-fixing? You better believe it. Cricket faced its first major crisis when the cover was blown on these professional cricketers indulging in widespread betting and fixing as well as violence and rampant alcoholism.
This was when the amateurs emerging from the elite schools of England such as Eton and Harrow and colleges like Oxford and Cambridge took control of the game and began establishing the county championship in the 1850s, though 1873 is generally regarded as the first year of the championship. This brought to an end the era of the traveling professional circus.
The Marleybone Cricket Club (MCC) was established as the guardian of the game and it’s rules and spirit with Lord’s as its headquarters.
The division between amateurs (known as ‘gentlemen’) and professionals (aka ‘players’) remained in English cricket till it was formally abolished after the 1963 season.
There are uncanny resemblances between those horseback professionals of 250-plus years ago and the modern day cricketer. And a conflict is brewing as more and more super-rich businessmen with giant egos and fortunes to match crop up to up the ante and attract the top players to their fold.
Thus more than a century after the establishment of the county championship in England spelled the end of the traveling professional, history is about to be neatly reversed.
The first of these cricket-oriented businessmen in the modern era was of course Packer and his two-year World Series Cricket that was launched in Australia in the 1977-78 season (and wound up a season later) and was the biggest force for change in cricket in the 20th century.
Since then the late Packer has had clones springing up all over the cricket world.
Sheikh Abdul Rahman Bukhatir was the first to follow in Packer’s footsteps. He launched cricket in the Sharjah desert with exhibition matches between India and Pakistan in 1981.
Two years later, having learned an expensive lesson at the hands of the Australian media tycoon who sued and won, the respective national bodies decided to co-operate with Bukhatir and his right-hand man, former Pakistan captain Asif Iqbal and the Cricketers’ Benefit Fund Series (CBFS) was born.
The matches received official sanction and the tournaments were a huge success whenever India and Pakistan faced off.
But the emergence of the crime underworld attracted the attention of the Indian government and once the Indian board withdrew their team in 2000, the curtains came down on the show.
There is now the spectre of the betting mafia once again descending on world cricket. 20/20 cricket is an ideal format for illegal betting (and its evil off-shoot, match-fixing) and herein lies the danger of this new format and its many avatars.
The IPL was launched by the BCCI to counter the Indian Cricket League (ICL), the brainchild of Essel chairman Subhash Chandra who like Packer 30 years earlier was thwarted in his bid to get the exclusive cricket telecast rights for his own Zee TV network.
The sporting world was stunned by the auction of nearly 80 international cricketers in Mumbai with the fat cats of Indian business combining with Bollywood’s glamour boys and girls. The eight franchise teams floated by the IPL had earlier attracted massive price tags and now it was the cricketers who for the first time found themselves on the auction block.
It was India’s ODI and 20/20 captain MS Dhoni who attracted the biggest price tag of $1.5 million followed closely by Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds.
But just as Bukhatir offered more riches than Packer and the IPL has gone one up on the ICL in the financial stakes, now comes the news that the IPL too is being put in the shade by Texas oil billionaire Sir Allen Stanford.
Stanford has made Antigua his home and has completed a stunningly successful second year of his Stanford 20/20 tournament involving 20 island nations of the Caribbean (Cuba will join next year), all playing at his own Stanford cricket ground in Antigua. This is the home of Sir Viv Richards who heads his ‘legends’ band of consultants made up of the greatest living cricketers from the West Indies.
Initially opposed to this private cricket event, the West Indies Cricket Board had no option but to dance to Stanford’s tune considering they are one of the most impoverished cricket boards in the world.
In 2006 Stanford offered $5 million for a one-off match between South Africa and his West Indies ‘All Stars’, the cream of the crop chosen from his own tournament. That never came off due to official opposition from both boards.
Last year after India won the inaugural T-20 World Cup in South Africa, Stanford upped the stakes, this time putting up $10 million for a match between the world champs and the West Indies.
The response? “They [the BCCI] said, 'no, we don't want to do that because it would be endorsing a privately funded programme,’" according to Stanford. “And look what they've done. They've set up their own privately funded programme. This is all about business, and it's big time business.”
He calls those who have signed up with the IPL as “mercenaries” which is a bit hard to swallow.
Clearly miffed, Stanford has now doubled the prize money and Australia have been invited. “$20 million for 20/20 cricket” he is calling it and who can resist? Certainly not the cricketers.
Yes, believe it or not, a winner-takes-it-all one-off match between the West Indies and Australia for $20 million!
Suddenly Dhoni’s price tag for the one IPL season is beginning to look like peanuts. Imagine being in a position to earn that kind of money for a game lasting barely three hours.
So what is to stop some other billionaire from some other part of the world doubling that amount? Say for argument’s sake, the Sultan of Brunei who has a passion for cricket and once employed Sir Viv to personally coach his son?
"Maybe another millionaire will come in with a different competition. Hopefully, it won't be too long," West Indies star batsman Chris Gayle (IPL price tag $800,000) was quoted after his side Jamaica lost in the final of the Stanford 20/20 to Trinidad.
So instead of riding on horseback to play in challenge matches around England as professional cricketers did 250 years ago, we may soon witness the spectacle of the modern-day pro flying around the globe from one private league to another to line his pockets.
The ICC will be just a mute spectator and probably killed off, as banning players will only bring in the restraint of trade law as Packer’s men did successfully 30 years ago.
It was respected Australian cricket author and journalist Gideon Haigh who wrote a few years back that it was the winner-takes-it-all concept of prize money first introduced in the modern era (it was the same in the 18th and 19th century) by Packer that laid the seeds for match-fixing in the last years of the 20th century.
If some of the captains of that time could sell their national pride for financial gain from illegal bookies, can one expect today’s cricketers to feel even a shred of loyalty while playing 20/20 matches, that too for franchises?
Further, the ICC has deemed the IPL a domestic event and will not be deploying its Anti-Corruption Unit (nor its drug-testing labs) at either the IPL or at Stanford’s events. And the ‘rebel’ ICL is beyond their purview.
Already the ICC and the Federation of International Cricketers’ Association (FICA) have expressed grave concerns over the threat of match-fixing in these new leagues.
The conflict with the traditional Test and ODI calendar is already obvious while a spate of international cricketers have been announcing their retirements in order to concentrate on these lucrative leagues. National bodies around the cricket world are running for cover, unable to stanch the outflow of their players.
20/20 cricket it appears has opened a Pandora’s Box.

--Gulu Ezekiel is a freelance cricket journalist and author based in New Delhi.
















Published in Sportstar, 19 April 2008

By Gulu Ezekiel

The French have a phrase ‘plus ca change…’ which roughly translated means ‘the more things change, the more they remain the same.’
The French are not big cricket buffs, but the phrase keeps cropping up in my mind whenever cricket hits a new crisis or controversy.
Controversy there has been plenty already. But crisis?
To explain, one must go back over 250 years to the very beginnings of organised cricket.
Coloured clothing? The first professional teams riding horseback and by stagecoach through the length and breadth of England from the mid-18th to early 19th centuries wore coloured shirts to help identify their clubs.
Those professionals would receive challenges from clubs and villages around England and would be paid handsomely for their skills. There were thus plenty of historical precursors to Kerry Packer and his traveling circus of pros including William Clarke (of the 1840s) and Thomas Lord (the founder of Lord’s cricket ground) a century earlier.
The first recorded match in which prize money (10 Pounds Sterling) was on offer was played in 1700. Just 50 years later the first and most famous professional cricket club was formed at Hambledon, Hampshire (referred to as ‘the cradle of cricket’).
By the 1830s the railways were opening up new avenues and trains began to replace the horseback pro, leading to the wider spread of cricket.
Bookies and match-fixing? You better believe it. Cricket faced its first major crisis when the cover was blown on these professional cricketers indulging in widespread betting and fixing as well as violence and rampant alcoholism.
This was when the amateurs emerging from the elite schools of England such as Eton and Harrow and colleges like Oxford and Cambridge took control of the game and began establishing the county championship in the 1850s, though 1873 is generally regarded as the first year of the championship. This brought to an end the era of the traveling professional circus.
The Marleybone Cricket Club (MCC) was established as the guardian of the game and it’s rules and spirit with Lord’s as its headquarters.
The division between amateurs (known as ‘gentlemen’) and professionals (aka ‘players’) remained in English cricket till it was formally abolished after the 1963 season.
There are uncanny resemblances between those horseback professionals of 250-plus years ago and the modern day cricketer. And a conflict is brewing as more and more super-rich businessmen with giant egos and fortunes to match crop up to up the ante and attract the top players to their fold.
Thus more than a century after the establishment of the county championship in England spelled the end of the traveling professional, history is about to be neatly reversed.
The first of these cricket-oriented businessmen in the modern era was of course Packer and his two-year World Series Cricket that was launched in Australia in the 1977-78 season (and wound up a season later) and was the biggest force for change in cricket in the 20th century.
Since then the late Packer has had clones springing up all over the cricket world.
Sheikh Abdul Rahman Bukhatir was the first to follow in Packer’s footsteps. He launched cricket in the Sharjah desert with exhibition matches between India and Pakistan in 1981.
Two years later, having learned an expensive lesson at the hands of the Australian media tycoon who sued and won, the respective national bodies decided to co-operate with Bukhatir and his right-hand man, former Pakistan captain Asif Iqbal and the Cricketers’ Benefit Fund Series (CBFS) was born.
The matches received official sanction and the tournaments were a huge success whenever India and Pakistan faced off.
But the emergence of the crime underworld attracted the attention of the Indian government and once the Indian board withdrew their team in 2000, the curtains came down on the show.
There is now the spectre of the betting mafia once again descending on world cricket. 20/20 cricket is an ideal format for illegal betting (and its evil off-shoot, match-fixing) and herein lies the danger of this new format and its many avatars.
The IPL was launched by the BCCI to counter the Indian Cricket League (ICL), the brainchild of Essel chairman Subhash Chandra who like Packer 30 years earlier was thwarted in his bid to get the exclusive cricket telecast rights for his own Zee TV network.
The sporting world was stunned by the auction of nearly 80 international cricketers in Mumbai with the fat cats of Indian business combining with Bollywood’s glamour boys and girls. The eight franchise teams floated by the IPL had earlier attracted massive price tags and now it was the cricketers who for the first time found themselves on the auction block.
It was India’s ODI and 20/20 captain MS Dhoni who attracted the biggest price tag of $1.5 million followed closely by Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds.
But just as Bukhatir offered more riches than Packer and the IPL has gone one up on the ICL in the financial stakes, now comes the news that the IPL too is being put in the shade by Texas oil billionaire Sir Allen Stanford.
Stanford has made Antigua his home and has completed a stunningly successful second year of his Stanford 20/20 tournament involving 20 island nations of the Caribbean (Cuba will join next year), all playing at his own Stanford cricket ground in Antigua. This is the home of Sir Viv Richards who heads his ‘legends’ band of consultants made up of the greatest living cricketers from the West Indies.
Initially opposed to this private cricket event, the West Indies Cricket Board had no option but to dance to Stanford’s tune considering they are one of the most impoverished cricket boards in the world.
In 2006 Stanford offered $5 million for a one-off match between South Africa and his West Indies ‘All Stars’, the cream of the crop chosen from his own tournament. That never came off due to official opposition from both boards.
Last year after India won the inaugural T-20 World Cup in South Africa, Stanford upped the stakes, this time putting up $10 million for a match between the world champs and the West Indies.
The response? “They [the BCCI] said, 'no, we don't want to do that because it would be endorsing a privately funded programme,’" according to Stanford. “And look what they've done. They've set up their own privately funded programme. This is all about business, and it's big time business.”
He calls those who have signed up with the IPL as “mercenaries” which is a bit hard to swallow.
Clearly miffed, Stanford has now doubled the prize money and Australia have been invited. “$20 million for 20/20 cricket” he is calling it and who can resist? Certainly not the cricketers.
Yes, believe it or not, a winner-takes-it-all one-off match between the West Indies and Australia for $20 million!
Suddenly Dhoni’s price tag for the one IPL season is beginning to look like peanuts. Imagine being in a position to earn that kind of money for a game lasting barely three hours.
So what is to stop some other billionaire from some other part of the world doubling that amount? Say for argument’s sake, the Sultan of Brunei who has a passion for cricket and once employed Sir Viv to personally coach his son?
"Maybe another millionaire will come in with a different competition. Hopefully, it won't be too long," West Indies star batsman Chris Gayle (IPL price tag $800,000) was quoted after his side Jamaica lost in the final of the Stanford 20/20 to Trinidad.
So instead of riding on horseback to play in challenge matches around England as professional cricketers did 250 years ago, we may soon witness the spectacle of the modern-day pro flying around the globe from one private league to another to line his pockets.
The ICC will be just a mute spectator and probably killed off, as banning players will only bring in the restraint of trade law as Packer’s men did successfully 30 years ago.
It was respected Australian cricket author and journalist Gideon Haigh who wrote a few years back that it was the winner-takes-it-all concept of prize money first introduced in the modern era (it was the same in the 18th and 19th century) by Packer that laid the seeds for match-fixing in the last years of the 20th century.
If some of the captains of that time could sell their national pride for financial gain from illegal bookies, can one expect today’s cricketers to feel even a shred of loyalty while playing 20/20 matches, that too for franchises?
Further, the ICC has deemed the IPL a domestic event and will not be deploying its Anti-Corruption Unit (nor its drug-testing labs) at either the IPL or at Stanford’s events. And the ‘rebel’ ICL is beyond their purview.
Already the ICC and the Federation of International Cricketers’ Association (FICA) have expressed grave concerns over the threat of match-fixing in these new leagues.
The conflict with the traditional Test and ODI calendar is already obvious while a spate of international cricketers have been announcing their retirements in order to concentrate on these lucrative leagues. National bodies around the cricket world are running for cover, unable to stanch the outflow of their players.
20/20 cricket it appears has opened a Pandora’s Box.

Topsy-turvy IPL

By Gulu Ezekiel

The only predictable aspect of the IPL and indeed of 20/20 cricket is its unpredictability.
If it was rank outsiders Rajasthan Royals who were the victors last year, this time around the two sides that finished last and second last in 2008 are in the final!
Surely at the start of the tournament it would have been a brave man who would have put his money on either Royal Challengers Bangalore or Deccan Chargers to make it this far.
Bangalore were condemned as a Test side last year. This time around the only two new players in their ranks have been the Kiwi Ross Taylor and teen sensation Manish Pandey who the team management discovered almost too late.
The shift of the tournament outside India could have been a factor in their success as well as their coach Ray Jennings is from South Africa as are several of the players.
Then again, that was the case with the Mumbai Indians as well; yet, they were one of the flops of the tournament.
Really the key has been Anil Kumble’s captaincy. Like Shane Warne last year with Rajasthan, here was another veteran leg spinner recently retired from international cricket.
The comparison ends there of course as you could not find two more dissimilar characters.
Once their prima donna captain Kevin Pietersen returned to India, things turned around dramatically for Bangalore as they won seven of their last nine matches in the league stage under Kumble’s captaincy.
Deccan have been the biggest revelation this time around and they too have not made many personnel changes from 2008. It was VVS Laxman who led initially last year before a combination of injury and unsuitability to this format saw him sit it out and Adam Gilchrist take over the reigns.
Both Kumble and Gilchrist have led from the front and by example. No side starts as favourite for Sunday’s final. It is thoroughly open and could go either way.

www.sportshero.com (24/5/09)

Charging Ahead

By Gulu Ezekiel

Ten days back in my blog I wrote how another Australian captain could well be holding up the IPL Trophy at the end of final on Sunday following the triumph of Shane Warne’s Rajasthan Royals in the inaugural season.
That captain is Adam Gilchrist of the Deccan Chargers and he is now one win away from the prediction.
Standing in Gilchrist’s way are the two other teams from the South, Chennai Super Kings led by India captain MS Dhoni and the Bangalore Royal Challengers captained by his predecessor, Anil Kumble. So what that ensures is that Sunday’s final is going to be an all South clash.
If Bangalore due beat Chennai on Saturday, then the amazing turnaround will be complete.
Rajasthan after all were the champions last year while Deccan finished last and Bangalore second last.
Gilchrist showed during his international career spanning a decade that when he was in form, few batsmen in history could come anywhere near his murderous strokeplay. He demonstrated that in full measure in the semifinal against Delhi Daredevils on Friday and if he can carry that form into the final, it will be a one-horse race.
Indeed the batting on display on Thursday and Friday spanned the generations in the IPL.
On Thursday Manish Pandey from Bangalore became the first Indian to score a century in the IPL. At 19 he is just about young enough to be Gilchrist’s son! So 20/20 cricket is not about age, but more about audacity after all.
Delhi managed to reach so far despite their top two batsmen of 2008, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir failing. And despite benching Glenn McGrath for the entire tournament.
McGrath is 39 and retired from international cricket. But he had the best economy rate among Delhi’s bowlers last year and has now indicated he may not return for the next edition.
No wonder Delhi’s coach Greg Shippard has joined the chorus, demanding the IPL raise the number of foreigners in the playing XI from four to five!

www.sportshero.com (23/5/09)

Goodbye to Glamour

By Gulu Ezekiel

The semifinal lineup of IPL II sends across an unmistakable message—glamour and money do not win you cricket matches.
It is no coincidence that three of the four teams who have been dumped by the wayside are those with a ‘Bollywood’ angle while the fourth, Mumbai Indians, are the most expensive franchise in the league.
The biggest flop show of this year’s event has been Kolkata Knight Riders who finished dead last. Enough has been written about the bungling manner in which the team was handled even before the IPL began. And for this co-owner Shah Rukh Khan must take a major share of the responsibility since he has the final say in all team matters.
Preity Zinta may not have so much clout with her Punjab XI Kings. But Zinta’s breakup with beau Ness Wadia—who bought the franchise for her last year as an expensive gift—must surely have had repercussions through the team.
Planting herself in the players’ dugout—from where Khan was banned last year by an ICC anti-corruption official—did not do her team any favours. All that dancing, prancing, pouting and gesticulating was surely a distraction for the players who have always resented the presence of anyone except the team members and support staff being in close proximity.
The same goes for Mumbai’s owner Nita Ambani, though at least she maintained a respectable silence, unlike the irritatingly animated Zinta.
The Rajasthan Royals were the rank outsiders last year and they came from nowhere to win the title. As is characteristic with the film world, that led to their jumping on the bandwagon. One hopes for their sakes that Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra do not do a Preity-Ness after this year’s team flop.
It must be nice to be a glamorous film star and have filthy rich boyfriends buy up cricket teams for your personal aggrandizement. But now at least the film world should realize that sports does not follow a script. And while glamour may attract media attention, it only takes away from the game.

www.sportshero.com (22/5/09)

Down to the Wire

By Gulu Ezekiel

It is down to the wire in the IPL with three of the four final league games over the next two days shaping up as do-or-die encounters.
Delhi Daredevils, despite their loss on Tuesday to Royal Challengers Bangalore, are the only side assured of a place in the semi-finals and their match against Mumbai Indians on Thursday will be a formality for both sides.
Mumbai and Kolkata Knight Riders are both out of it. The other five sides will be fighting it out for the last three semis slots.
KKR though played the spoiler role to a nicety when they stunned Chennai Super Kings on Monday. It was KKR’s only authentic victory of the tournament since their previous one had come via Duckworth/Lewis method against Kings XI Punjab in a rain shortened match.
Chennai looked to be on a roll and winning on Monday would have ensured they joined Delhi in the semis as had occurred last year. Now the pressure is on both sides when they take on Kings XI Punjab on Wednesday. It will be a fascinating match-up between the leadership skills of India captain MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh who has suddenly discovered his skills as a bowler.
It will be the Rajasthan Royals camp however that will be suffering the most jitters over the next 48 hours. The reigning champions have been having a pretty topsy-turvy time of it this time around and it is their negative Net Run-Rate which is their biggest worry. But they face KKR on Wednesday and on current form should easily win.
Deccan Chargers, who finished last in 2008 have been this year’s surprise package. Bangalore had last year ended up second last and now the two sides will also be fighting it out for that precious last four berth on Thursday. It should make for two days of fascinating cricket.

www.sportshero.com (20/5/09)

Divine Intervention?

By Gulu Ezekiel

Rajasthan Royals’ co-owner Shilpa Shetty is convinced “divine intervention” was behind her side’s narrow victory over Mumbai Indians in the IPL last week.
Writing in her blog, the actress claims she repeatedly saw the vision of her guru in front of her in the tense final moments and he re-assured her the Royals would win.
One does not wish to hurt anyone’s religious feelings, but the question that has been bothering me is: where was Shetty’s guru when the Royals were beaten by the Delhi Daredevils on Sunday and are now on the brink of elimination?
Does one assume if the reigning champions are eliminated before the semifinals that they have been abandoned by the aforementioned “divine intervention?”
And if they to scramble into the last four (and beyond) will no credit at all be given to the cricketers for their efforts?
Meanwhile, Kings XI Punjab co-owner Preity Zinta—coincidentally, also an actress—has been in the news of late for visiting Durban’s Hindu temples and collecting prasad to feed to her players before every game.
It is now a toss up between Shetty’s Royals and Zinta’s Kings as to who will book one of the desperately sought after semifinal slots. So if one makes it and the other does not, does that mean one team’s divine forces is stronger than the other’s?
As a non-believer all this praying, prasad-giving and guru-glimpsing strikes me as superstitious nonsense. Even if one concedes there is a greater force looking down on all of us, does He (or She) really have nothing better to do than decide the fate of a 20/20 cricket match, for Heaven’s sake (pun intended)?
The other day when the camera focused on a Mumbai Indian’s supporter praying in the stands, commentator Harsha Bhogle expressed his concern. “It always worries me when I see someone praying at a cricket match. Does it mean his god is stronger than the other team’s?”
Wonder how Zinta and Shetty would react to that!

www.sportshero.com (19/5/09)

True Confessions

By Gulu Ezekiel

With the IPL entering its final week, it appears the franchise captains are ready to unburden their inner thoughts.
The other day Delhi Daredevils’ Virender Sehwag admitted the IPL was tougher than international cricket as losing captains have to face the music from the franchise owners in case of a defeat.
Fortunately for Sehwag, Delhi have become the first side to book their place in the semifinals so he must not be facing too many dressing downs of late from the money bags.
Now Kings XI Punjab skipper Yuvraj Singh has admitted that “the IPL brings out the worst in me.” He confesses to losing his temper on the field and while Preity Zinta’s hugs and smiles when her team wins are most welcome, surely Yuvraj and his boys are aware that “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”
It is now Mumbai Indians’ captain Sachin Tendulkar to take the heat since his side faces a next-to-impossible task of reaching the last four.
Already his best buddy Harbhajan Singh has been whining in his column about the manner in which his bowling has been utilized. And the support staff are washing their hands off the constant chopping and changing in the batting order.
The talk is there is mutiny brewing in the MI ranks and Tendulkar is smack in the middle of it.
Last year after they were edged out of the semifinals, the former India captain is said to have blasted his young teammates back in the dressing room, leaving them in a state of shock.
Of course in India we are all painfully aware of that old saying: “Victory has many fathers; defeat is an orphan.” Just look at the alibis flying around in the defeated camp after the national election results became public! It has always been the same with Indian cricket as well.

www.sportshero.com (18/5/09)

Pressure Taking its Toll

By Gulu Ezekiel

Delhi Daredevils captain Virender Sehwag’s admission that there is more pressure in the IPL than in international cricket is an eye-opener.
Sehwag is always charmingly straight-forward and when he says a defeat in the IPL means meetings with the franchisee bosses “where you have to explain what went wrong” he disarmingly summed up what must irk the top Indian players the most in this new format of cricket.
Most Indian players bristle at criticisms in the media and from the public and feel they are only answerable at international level to the selectors and their coach who are usually top former international players themselves.
So when a Sachin Tendulkar has to face the music from an Ambani, a Yuvraj from a Preity Zinta and a Sourav Ganguly from the likes of Shah Rukh Khan, it certainly piles on the pressure.
Indeed one of the more memorable moments of the inaugural IPL season was a clearly chastised Kings XI Punjab captain Yuvraj studiously avoiding team owner Zinta as she glared at him following his dismissal in the semifinal against Chennai last year!
On the other hand you have the case of Chennai’s Matthew Hayden who is currently in brilliant form stating he feels much less pressure now that he has retired from national duty.
South African pace bowler Dale Steyn of Royal Challengers Bangalore got into hot water last year when he commented that the IPL was like a “paid holiday” and “you only had to work hard if you felt like it.”
Obviously it is the captains, icon players and the priciest picks who feel the heat the most as they are first in line to face up to the bosses in case the team flops.
Wonder what kind of pressures Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff had to face as this year’s highest paid players went from one flop to another!

www.sportshero.com (16/5/09)

Gayle Force

By Gulu Ezekiel

West Indies captain Chris Gayle was probably speaking out on behalf of the majority of today‘s international cricketers when he said he would not be bothered if Test cricket was to die out and that 20/20 cricket was the future.
After the drubbing in the first Test at Lord’s and Gayle’s own failure, team morale would have taken a plunge once the team got to know their captain’s heart was not in the series.
One can just picture cricketers around the world huddling around in groups over a drink and nodding their heads in agreement with his assessment.
Fans and TV viewers around the world have already shown their preference for 20/20 games and now that the players themselves have opened the Pandora’s Box, it seems Test cricket will die out within a few years.
A major portion of the blame for this lies at the doorstep of cricket’s blindingly inept administrators.
In India at least it is painfully obvious that the BCCI is no longer bothered with staging Test series with the IPL having emerged as their primary cash cows.
But England is one country where Test matches still attract full houses and it is the ECB’s poor planning which has brought about the current scenario.
They signed a deal with Sky TV for seven years from 2006 (pre-IPL) that they would stage seven Test matches during the summer. That means two nations touring every year.
Zimbabwe were originally slotted in for two Tests, only to be replaced by Sri Lanka. When their players rebelled due to their IPL contacts, they were replaced by a reluctant West Indies.
Gayle had to be dragged kicking and screaming from South Africa and landed in London just 48 hours before the start of the Lord’s Test. There could have only been one result after that.
Gayle has hinted he will soon quit Test cricket and there is sure to be an exodus of players following suit.
Why travel the year round playing strenuous international cricket when you can earn much, much more playing three hour games staged in one country?
It’s the money, honey!

www.sportshero.com (15/5/09)

IPL Should Beware

By Gulu Ezekiel

Cricket administrators, like Caesar’s wife, must always be above suspicion. But sadly some of the moves of the IPL have proved money cannot buy you common sense.
The match fixing scandal of the early 2000s still hangs over world cricket like a toxic cloud. And any hint of impropriety on the part of the organizers and the players must attract immediate attention.
It is astonishing then that the IPL could have come up with a scheme as suspicious as the sms prediction game.
Maybe the chances of this leading to corruption and match fixing are just “one in a million” as Lalit Modi said. But the fact that India’s sports minister had to come down harshly on the game with its gambling overtones is a harsh indictment of the money-before-all mentality of Modi and his minions.
That he has now had to eat humble pie and hurriedly withdraw the game after it was also condemned by former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar just goes to expose the commercial culture that pervades the IPL.
That is not all. It emerged recently that the IPL organizing committee decided not to utilize the services of the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) due to the cost of $1.5 million. One can only scratch one’s head in wonder at an organization that spends huge amounts on lavish parties, cheerleaders and other frills, yet balks at something that would preserve the integrity of their baby.
The reason behind this is quite obviously the brouhaha raised last year by KKR co-owner Shah Rukh Khan when he was advised by the ACU’s officer to stay clear of the team dugout.
It is the owners who call the tune in the IPL and this year they have had a free run to come and go as they please.
The players’ area has always been off limits to all but the team and support staff. But the IPL likes to see itself as a fresh breeze blowing away cricket’s hoary traditions. It may however end up paying a very high price for its vanity.

www.sportshero.com (14/5/09)

Chargers Charge Ahead

By Gulu Ezekiel

One of the highlights of IPL II has been the dramatic turnaround in the fortunes of the Deccan Chargers.
If Rajathan Royals’ victory in IPL I was the big surprise of the year, not far behind was how a team packed with limited overs specialists could have finished bottom of the heap in the inaugural season.
If the Royals were the underdogs at the start, the Chargers were one of the hot favourites. How could you go wrong with the likes of Adam Gilchrist, Herschelle Gibbs, Shahid Afridi and Andrew Symonds, each one a match-winner in their own right?
But then in 20/20 cricket the only thing you can be certain about is its uncertainty. Certainly Season I proved that time and again.
Season II is proving that again and title holders Royals are in a tight race to make it to the semifinals while the Chargers look almost certain to be among the last four.
In 2008 they won just two of their 14 matches; this year they have already won six out of 10.
VVS Laxman was replaced as captain by Gilchrist half way through the first season after he suffered a knee injury. This year Laxman has made a quiet exit from the playing XI. It is obvious he neither has the technique nor the fitness to be a success in the shortest format of the game.
Just as Shane Warne was the captain of the year in 2008, Gilchrist has shown he can rally a young side and lead from the front. He has helped India discover a new bowler in Rohit Sharma who surprised one and all with the first hat-trick this year and has taken a hands-on-approach to the side just as Warne did last year.
Don’t be surprised if there is another Aussie captain holding up the execrable IPL Trophy in triumph at the end of the tournament.

www.sportshero.com (12/5/09)

Hollywood Warne

By Gulu Ezekiel

It is no wonder his teammates nicknamed him ‘Hollywood’. For better or for worse, Shane Warne has always managed to stay in the news.
The IPL has given the Aussie spin legend a new lease of cricketing life. It was felt after he retired from international cricket in 2007 that he would captain Hampshire for a couple of years in the English county championship before giving up cricket all together.
Then along came the IPL with its unheard of wealth and suddenly Warne was basking in the limelight again after leading underdogs Rajasthan Royals to the inaugural title last year.
Right from his teenage days when he was thrown out of the Australian cricket academy for unruly behaviour, Warne has had a habit of bucking authority.
Already this year he has been caught on camera having a puff on his cigarette and taking a swig of beer proffered by a spectator. This has brought a harsh light on him and it is no wonder the media—the bane of Warne’s life—have been banned from Royals’ practice sessions.
There have probably been more unauthorized tell-all biographies written on him than any other cricketer in history and it is no wonder given his colourful track record—the quintessential ‘sex, drugs and rock n’ roll’ lifestyle. He has even had a play written around his life and career, unique perhaps for any sportsperson.
Much like football’s notorious and yet hugely popular Diego Maradona, Warne too has legions of fans who admire his larrikin lifestyle and anti-establishment image.
Now portly and obviously out of shape, the 20/20 format ideally suits both his physique and temperament and the Royals management must be lauded for allowing him to have total control of the team, the only captain-cum-coach in the IPL.
Whether he can recreate the magic of IPL I this time around with his team or not, Warne continues to both intrigue and infuriate the cricket world.
www.sportshero.com (10/5/09)

Daredevils Secure Spot

By Gulu Ezekiel

After Friday’s match, it is now almost certain that Delhi Daredevils will be one of the four teams in the semifinals and Mumbai Indians join Kolkata Knight Riders as one of the four certain not to make it.
MI were the most expensive franchise when purchased last year by Mukesh Ambani and with Sachin Tendulkar as their icon player and captain, they were one of the glamour teams as well.
Their poor run this year therefore is one of the more surprising aspects of IPL II.
Last year nothing went right for them at the start. With Tendulkar unfit and unable to play till halfway through, the captaincy was given to Harbhajan Singh. But the ‘Slapgate’ affair meant he was banned and then Shaun Pollock took over.
By the time Tendulkar made an appearance, their situation was precarious. And although they came agonizingly close to the semifinals—losing a number of extremely tight matches—a fifth place finish was just not good enough. This year the batting has depended too much on the old reliable pair of Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya. Their form has been patchy however and it has been left to South Africa’s JP Duminy to shore up the batting. The team has been prone to batting collapses and their defeat at the hands of Deccan Chargers just when they looked to have the run chase under control was a perfect example of that fragility.
While Lasith Malinga has played a stellar role with the ball, the biggest flop has been Harbhajan Singh. He has played all nine games so far but has picked up a mere five wickets.
Even though three Indian icons faced the chopping block from the captaincy this year, it is unthinkable that the MI would consider doing the same. It is a fact though that Tendulkar is not the sharpest tactically as was proved by his two stints as captain of the Indian team, both of which were failures. It would take something extraordinary now for MI to turn things around and they must reconcile themselves to a second year out of the top four.

www.sportshero.com (9/5/09)

Buchanan's Brainwave

By Gulu Ezekiel

Kolkata Knight Riders’ coach John Buchanan has been known to come up with some rather quixotic ideas in the past. But his suggestion that Australia’s squad for next month’s T-20 World Cup in England should have contained three retired veterans who are currently having a whale of a time in the IPL is not as ridiculous as it appears.
Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden all quit the international scene over the last couple of years.
Like most Australians, they have retained their match fitness even in their late 30s and unburdened by the thoughts of national duty, are playing the current season with a rare freedom.
Hayden is well on top of the IPL run scoring chart right now and looks to keep that top spot considering he is approaching the 400-run mark. The next best, Suresh Raina who also represents Chennai Super Kings is way behind with 296 runs. And what is more, Hayden is the only one in the top 10 with a strike rate above 150.
Gilchrist is currently fifth on the list and has proved to be the most innovative captain of the current IPL season. The way he has turned around last year’s bottom placed Deccan Chargers is reminiscent of the manner in which Warne led dark horses Rajasthan Royals to the title in the inaugural season.
Warne has not been as successful with the ball as he was in 2008. But his leadership has once again been inspiring and after a sluggish start, he has ensured the Royals are back in title contention this year.
Last year too the Aussies dominated with Shaun Marsh (missing this year through injury) the top run scorer and Shane Watson (MVP for his all round show) the standout performers.
Quite a few of the top Australian players have given this season a miss either due to injuries or because they wanted to rest ahead of the Ashes. But Andrew Symonds (Chargers) and Brett Lee (Punjab) will be joining the IPL shortly and that should further add to the Aussie flavour in the tournament.
www.sportshero.com (8/5/09)

Batting takes a Beating

By Gulu Ezekiel

The biggest change from IPL Season I and II has been in the batting on display.
It is remarkable that it was not till the 30th game of Season II when Rajasthan Royals raced to 211 for 4 against Punjab XI Kings on Tuesday that the 200-run mark was crossed for the first time.
At the exact same stage last year in India, there had been seven totals of 200-plus. And while only Delhi Daredevils’ AB De Villiers has reached three figures this time so far—though Chennai Super Kings’ Suresh Raina came agonizingly close--at the half-way mark in 2008, there had been three individual centuries, including Brendon McCullum’s barnstorming 158 not out in the opening match of the tournament.
The major factor behind these relatively low scoring contests is of course the pitch conditions in South Africa.
While last year the likes of Swapnil Asnodkar made waves with their batting on flat Indian tracks, this time around the younger lot have been outsmarted by the veterans with their superior technique and vast experience.
Cricket at all levels has always been a batsman’s game, more so in limited overs cricket. But while in the 50-over variety, tall scoring matches have often been boring, in 20/20 it is the batsmen and their big hitting that draws in the crowds and the viewers.
It was at Johannesburg in 2006 that the cricket world was stunned when both Australia and South Africa crossed 400 runs for the first time in the history of 50-over ODIs. But most batting records in international cricket tend to be set in sub-continental conditions.
Australia and South Africa are the only two nations in which the Indian Test team have yet to win a series, though in the latter case the first tour came only as recently as 1992.
The South African season had come to a close by the time the IPL shifted base and the wear-and-tear on the wickets means Season II is destined to favour the bowlers.

www.sportshero.com (6/5/09)

It's Tight at the Top

By Gulu Ezekiel

It’s pretty tight at the top at the exact halfway mark of IPL II.
The only sure-shot prediction at this stage is that bottom-placed Kolkata Knight Riders have no hope of reaching the semifinals as they have lost six of their eight games with one ‘No-Result’.
Apart from KKR, all the seven remaining teams must fancy their chances and this will help hold the interest of the fans while the second half of the tournament unfolds.
The big surprise at the start was the resurgence of the Deccan Chargers who had come last in the first season.
This time they began with a bang and shot to the top of the table with four wins in their first four matches.
But the nature of 20/20 is such that fortunes and equations can change with just one game or two. Sure enough, Chargers have lost their last three matches and after crashing to defeat on Monday at the hands of Chennai Super Kings, they have ceded the top position to their southern rivals.
CSK on the other hand had a slow start but have now won their last three matches and with skipper MS Dhoni finally coming good with the bat, last year’s runners-up must fancy their chances again.
The biggest disappointment this season has been the slump in form of title holders Rajasthan Royals who are currently second from last, on equal points with Mumbai Indians but trailing on Net Run Rate.
The absence of last year’s top wicket taker Sohail Tanvir and Most Valuable Player Shane Watson has hit them pretty hard. To add to their woes, surprise packet left arm seamer Kamran Khan is out with a combination of a knee injury and suspect action.
It looks like a fight to the finish this time around and from now onwards, every match will be vital as the teams scramble for a place in the semi-finals.

www.sportshero.com (5/5/09)

Two Meaningless Words

By Gulu Ezekiel

The two words you won’t find any more in the professional cricketers’ lexicon are ‘burnout’ and ‘acclimatization.’
In the pre-IPL era (i.e. till 2007), the Federation of International Cricketers Association (FICA) which claims to be the voice of players worldwide (though it has no Asian members) would repeat ‘burnout’ like a mantra. Their complaint was there was far too much international cricket played throughout the year and this was taking a toll on the health and fitness of cricketers, particularly fast bowlers.
The IPL calendar is pretty hectic. This year there will be 59 matches played across South Africa in a span of 39 days. Yet one does not hear a peep out of the players about burnout these days.
The reason of course is that as long as the money is good, the players will be quiet. Who can argue with $600,000 for three games, the amount that was paid to Andrew Flintoff for his truncated IPL season?
As for acclimatization, touring teams in recent years have had a tough time in the opening Test of a series. With sometimes just one week and one warm-up game to prepare them for the alien conditions, the tourists would struggle at the start of a tour.
Now with the IPL however we have a situation where the captain of the West Indies, Chris Gayle will be flying from South Africa to London just 48 hours before the start of the opening Test at Lord’s. All so that he can squeeze in one extra game for his franchise Kolkata Knight Riders and pocket a nice cool sum of money for that one game.
The West Indies cricket board is unhappy with the situation but in the face of player power, they are helpless. It happened last year as well when New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori rushed from New Delhi to London on the eve of the opening Test of the series.
Acclimatization and burnout? All part of cricket history now!

www.sportshero.com (4/5/09)

All Downhill for Warne

By Gulu Ezekiel

The remarkable triumph of the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL last year was just the fairy-tale finish the league was looking for in its inaugural season.
The manner in which Shane Warne took a young squad with few superstars—they were the lowest bid at the team auctions—to victory from the last ball of the final gave the IPL a massive boost right at the start of their saga.
Its all gone pear shaped for Warne and his boys this season though. Currently they are languishing at second-last in the points table.
Warne has just not been able to reproduce the magic this time around which had made him the first year’s biggest success story.
The absence of the Pakistani players has hit the Royals hard. Left arm pace bowler Sohail Tanvir was the leading wicket taker in 2008 and his loss has left a big hole in their bowling attack.
The unheralded teenager from Uttar Pradesh, Kamran Khan looked like he could fill in for Tanvir. But after a few surprise spells, Kamran has been injured. And what is worse, he has become the first bowler in the IPL to be reported for a faulty action. That has put a huge dampener on Rajasthan’s prospects and it will have to take a remarkable turnaround if they can make the semis now with just two wins from six matches.
The other success stories of 2008 were the batting of young Goan opener Swapnil Asnodkar and the all-round skills of MVP Shane Watson.
Watson has been on national duty and it is uncertain if he will now join the franchise since Australia’s ODI series against Pakistan has just finished.
Asnodkar’s technique has been found wanting on the pacier tracks of South Africa. But the biggest disappointment has been the wretched form of South Africa’s captain Graeme Smith in his own backyard.
With all these woes piling up, the Royals’ dream run appears to have come to a shuddering halt.
www.sportshero.com (2/5/09)

Abandoning the Sinking Ship

By Gulu Ezekiel

The reported move by Kolkata Knight Riders co-owner Shah Rukh Khan to sell his stake in the team is a dramatic barometer of the manner in which the fortunes of the team have plummeted.
Though they finished a disappointing six out of eight in IPL’s inaugural season last year, KKR was by all accounts the most popular team in the league with a pan-Indian appeal.
The reason was obvious. Khan is the biggest star of Hindi cinema, the so-called ‘Badshah of Bollywood’. In fact KKR were the only franchise to not only break even but in fact make a profit in the very first year.
Khan proudly proclaimed the highest selling T-shirt in the IPL was the one with ‘SRK 12’ in the KKR colours emblazoned on it.
With the largest stadium in the country at their disposal (Eden Gardens at 100,000-plus) and the most passionate fans as well—plus of course the presence of the beloved Sourav ‘Dada’ Ganguly at the helm—KKR had everything going for them. But for the rain and a couple of cruelly close finishes, they could well have made it to the semis and even further.
Now KKR are currently at the bottom of the points table and what is worse, they have suffered one PR disaster after another, starting with the hare-brained ‘joint captaincy’ scheme of coach John Buchanan.
The decision just 24 hours before their first game to replace Ganguly as captain with New Zealand wicket-keeper/batsman Brendon McCullum has proved disastrous both to the team and the player.
Khan has now come home to India both to vote and dance at weddings (at a reported fee of Rs. 2 crore a pop).
But for a man who made a fetish of his loyalty to his team (“they are like my children), Khan’s statement that he will not return to South Africa till the team starts winning, must be the last straw for a side that has currently everything going against them.
It is like the rats abandoning a sinking ship. Pity KKR.

www.sportshero.com (1/5/09)

Club or India?

By Gulu Ezekiel

When Rajasthan’s Yusuf Pathan said his match-winning batting in the tied match against Kolkata Knight Riders was the “most important innings of my career”, you have to sit up and take notice.
As a reminder, Yusuf slammed 42 from 21 balls and then with the scores tied, went in for the ‘Super Over’ and single-handedly took his team to victory by smashing Ajantha Mendis for 18 runs from four deliveries. KKR had reached 15 in their one extra over.
The significance of Yusuf’s statement is that he has played 22 ODIs and four T-20 Internationals for India. Yet it is his batting in the IPL which he apparently cherishes the most.
It should be recalled that Yusuf, Man of the Match in last year’s IPL final and the standout performer this season so far as well, made his international debut in the final of the T-20 World Cup against Pakistan in 2007, the year before IPL I stormed the world of cricket.
But in less than two full seasons the IPL has changed the attitude of the world’s players. It is apparent by now that many of them are contemplating retirement from international cricket in order to concentrate on the shortest—and most lucrative—form of the game.
It is hard to blame them considering the IPL and the various other 20/20 leagues such as the ICL and the American Premier League (just announced for New York at the end of the year) is really money for jam.
Just imagine being paid 10 times as much for a few weeks of lightweight cricket played in just one country rather than traveling the world the year round with your national squad! It’s really a no-brainer for a professional sportsperson.
So does this mean the impending end of country v. country cricket as it has been played for over a century? It could well be, considering money talks. And nowhere louder than in the IPL.

www.sportshero.com (29/4/09)

IPL or FPL?

By Gulu Ezekiel

The Indian Premier League in its second season is rapidly turning into the Foreigners Premier League.
What is almost certain is that from next season onwards the franchise owners—IPL’s de facto rule makers—will ensure the quota of foreigners in the playing XI is raised from four to six. They tried this year but were thwarted in their bid.
However with all eight franchises packing their support staff with foreigners, mostly from Australia but also South Africa (understandable this time around) and England, there appears to be a concerted move to sideline as many Indian players as possible.
The inaugural IPL began last year with five teams being captained by Indians, all icons.
Mid-way through VVS Laxman (Deccan Chargers) was replaced by Australia’s Adam Gilchrist when he was forced to miss some matches with a knee injury.
This season Rahul Dravid has been replaced by Kevin Pietersen who in turn will be replaced by South Africa’s Jacques Kallis when the Englishman returns home on national duty.
Kolkata Knight Riders dropped the biggest bombshell when they first floated the ‘joint captain’ concept and then dumped Sourav Ganguly once the team reached South African soil.
His replacement, New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum has caved into the pressure this season and the team’s fortunes have plummeted along with his form with the bat.
That leaves just Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai Indians), Virender Sehwag (Delhi Daredevils) and MS Dhoni (Chennai Super Kings) as the Indians in charge of a side this season. And the only Indian coach is Mumbai’s Praveen Amre.
The sending back of Kolkata’s Aakash Chopra and Sanjay Bangar after they made just appearance follows on the heels of Rajasthan’s packing off of Mohammed Kaif and five other Indian players. It is an ominous trend.
But what takes the cake is Rajasthan captain Shane Warne’s comment to an Indian newspaper: “We, foreigners, can help develop Indian players and thereby help Indian cricket.”
Somebody should remind Mr. Baked Beans that if it were not for Indian wealth and passion, he would still be plying his trade as a poker player!
www.sportshero.com (28/4/09)

First Week's Impressions

By Gulu Ezekiel

Any impressions of the first week of the IPL will have to necessarily focus on the weather.
With two matches totally washed out and two decided on the Duckworth/Lewis method, the organisers must be looking longingly towards England where the start of the county championship has been largely unaffected by rain.
The absurdity of applying the arcane D/L method in a 20/20 over match was amply illustrated in the Punjab v Delhi match in which the latter had six overs to reach their truncated target and did it in 4.5.
The most heartwarming trends of the first week have been the form of the veteran players as well as the domination of spin bowling.
To watch the likes of Adam Gilchrist, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Matthew Hayden, Shane Warne and Anil Kumble in full flow has at least for the time being put a stop the argument that this is a young man’s format.
While Bangalore’s Kumble has the best figures so far of 5 for 5 against reigning champions Rajasthan, it has been the bowling of veteran leggie Warne and young left armer Pragyan Ohja of Deccan Chargers that has been a real eye-opener.
No team has come close to crossing 200 yet but the first century of IPL II was fitting recorded by hometown boy AB De Villiers for Delhi against Chennai. And the first tie in the short history of the IPL has been another talking point.
Warne proved he still has the upper hand over former Australian coach John Buchanan as he single-handedly outsmarted the Kolkata’s brains-trust to win the match in the ‘Super Over.’
The ‘tactical time-out’ after 10 overs has been roundly condemned by all concerned and will surely be shelved next season.
Finally, Chennai and Bangalore must be kicking themselves for sinking a fortune for the services of England’s Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen. They have proved to be the biggest flops of the IPL thus far.
www.sportshero.com (26/4/09)

Crown of Thorns for McCullum

By Gulu Ezekiel

‘Too many cooks spoil the broth’ is one of those clichéd sayings we were taught in school.
I am not sure which school Shah Rukh Khan and John Buchanan went to, but perhaps learning such sayings was not part of the curriculum.
The IPL has certainly been given the kiss of life with Thursday’s twin thrillers. But one can be sure the Kolkata Knight Riders do not share in the general enthusiasm.
After all that hot air over the joint-captains theory, the crown of thorns was handed to Brian McCullum.
The man who set the IPL alight on the opening day of the inaugural season last year now looks like a fish out of water.
The Kiwi ‘keeper/opener is obviously finding the pressure overpowering and his batting has suffered a nosedive as a result.
Even the multi-talented MS Dhoni does not keep wickets, captain his side AND open the batting. With scores of 1, 21 and 3, KKR have dealt themselves a double-whammy. They dispensed with the canny services of ex-captain Sourav Ganguly and lost a star batsman in the bargain.
But just as in the Wild Wild West where there would be room for just one champion gunslinger in a town, the KKR also appears to have place for just one giant ego. How long that ego can keep taking the battering of defeat is a story that is still unfolding.
If they had been winning, SRK and Buchanan’s would have been crowing over their bizarre tactics. Now that they are sliding down the table, they must put their hands up and take responsibility. And surely the decision to push Ganguly down the order and give the ‘super over’ to Ajantha Mendis was the decision of the coach alone.
Shane Warne probably can’t wipe that grin off his face. He has once again put his two bete noirs in their place, both Buchanan and Ganguly. No wonder they call him a wizard.
www.sportshero.com (25/4/09)

'Moses' Modi Looking all at Sea

By Gulu Ezekiel

At the end of IPL’s first season, PR master Ravi Shastri had called his mentor Lalit Modi “the Moses of cricket.”
But while the Biblical Moses was said to have parted the Red Sea to save his people, Modi has not been able to control the natural elements to save his baby.
Despite all his organizational ingenuity, the IPL czar did not factor in the weather when he took his 11th-hour decision to shift his circus from India to South Africa.
Ironically one of the reasons for not choosing England as the alternative venue was the wet weather that bedevils cricket at this time.
It was thanks to the rain that for the first time one saw the sorry spectacle of a match involving international cricketers truncated to six overs. Which is even fewer than the schoolboy ‘gulli’ cricket of our youths!
If that bit of farce when Delhi batted on Sunday was not bad enough, to have a ‘tactical time-out’ at the midway point (in this case, at the end of six overs) of the Punjab innings, brought a new low to the IPL, one which has reduced it to an international laughing stock.
The weather is not the only force of nature which is working against ‘Moses’ Modi this time around. With the cricket season in South Africa having ended officially with the fifth and final ODI against Australia last Friday, the wear-and-tear on the pitches has made it hell for the batsmen.
Last year there were 11 totals of 200-plus in 59 games (or 20%) on India’s flat batting tracks. But in a format of the game which is supposedly batsman oriented—the crowds flock in to watch the boundaries flow—anything over 150 will be considered a winning total this year.
Last year there were just three totals below 100 in full games. This time there have already been two in five matches.
Meanwhile, Modi and his minions can only wring their hands in helplessness!

www.sportshero.com (21/4/09)

Sorry for the Break!

By Gulu Ezekiel

Lalit Modi has perhaps never heard of Joseph Goebbels. But the IPL chief and Hitler’s notorious propaganda minister share something in common. They both believe (in Goebell’s notorious words): “If you tell a big lie enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
Not only Modi but all the high-profile mouthpieces he has surrounded himself with led by motor-mouth Ravi Shastri have been following this philosophy.
No matter how many times Modi may try to justify his idiotic break between innings as a ‘strategy break’, no one is going to except it for anything other than another way to milk money from ad breaks.
One national newspaper on Saturday referred to the ruse as “the prostitution of cricket.”
The farce was exposed for what it was on a rain-hit Sunday when the break was taken after six overs in Punjab XI’s innings which last all of 12!
Being a TV veteran Shastri should know that the camera never lies. And no matter how many times he may wax eloquent about the “huge crowds lining the streets” of Cape Town for the IPL parade on Friday, it was plain for viewers on TV (and the more honest journalists on the spot) to see that the crowd was miserably thin and the reception lukewarm at best.
The same was the case with the fans in the stands for the opening weekend’s double-headers.
Modi and his men have been telling us for days that the games were complete sellouts. Yet the panning cameras clearly revealed there were wide swathes of empty seats all around. And that buzz so evident at Indian grounds was woefully absent.
Of all Modi’s boasts though the one that takes the cake is comparing organizing the IPL in South Africa in three weeks to Fifa taking eight years to plan for the 2010 World Cup football.
There are eight franchises from one nation in the IPL while the World Cup consists of 32 national teams from around the world for which a number of new stadiums and hotels have had to be constructed.
Goebbels must be grinning from his grave!

www.sportshero.com (20/4/09)

Double Whammy for Punjab

By Gulu Ezekiel

Considering the way the weather has been playing havoc with the IPL, perhaps next year the organizers could look into staging the tournament indoors!
Seriously though, it has been done before. The Telstra Dome in Melbourne with a capacity of 74,000 and a retractable roof has staged One-day Internationals.
But then part of the charm of cricket has always been the way the unpredictable elements play such a big part in deciding the pattern of play. Matches indoors cut out that element and bring a sameness that takes some of the joy and uncertainty out of cricket.
In the inaugural season in India there was just one match (out of a total of 59) which was completely washed out while only two were decided by the dreaded Duckworth/Lewis method.
Now with the second edition just four days old we already have seen one match abandoned without a ball being bowled and the D/L method coming into play in two others.
It is just bad luck for Kings XI Punjab that on both occasions they were at the receiving end with the side batting second gaining the advantage under such circumstances.
It could not have improved the mood of the players to have received the news—finally official—that owner Preity Zinta has split with Ness Wadia who bought the franchise as a gift for his (now ex) girlfriend.
Considering his team has been under a cloud even before the tournament began and their woeful display in the opener against last year’s bottom placed Deccan Chargers, KKR team owner Shah Rukh Khan was naturally a relieved man when they closed out the opening match on Tuesday.
Still to make comments like ”the nightmare is over” and telling his critics “to go suck on this” shows a streak of immaturity and lack of understanding of cricket’s inherent unpredictability.
The biggest let-down for the fans on Tuesday was that they were deprived of a dream clash between Mumbai Indians Sachin Tendulkar and Rajasthan Royals Shane Warne due to the rain.
They will now have to await the re-match—weather permitting of course.

www.sportshero.com (22/4/09)

Cowardly Decision by KKR

By Gulu Ezekiel

It may be hard to pick a winner for the IPL’s second season but one thing is for sure—the decision to sack Kolkata Knight Riders’ captain Sourav Ganguly has put paid to their chances of clinching the title this year.
KKR finished sixth last year despite a good start and there were numerous factors behind their failure to make the last four.
But the deceitful and cowardly manner in which the team management has gone about this whole Ganguly business is certain to adversely affect the morale of the team.
One thing is for sure—if the tournament had been held in India, there is no way even the mighty Shah Rukh Khan would have had the guts to remove Ganguly from the post considering his fanatical following on the streets of Kolkata.
Moving away from this PR disaster perpetuated by KKR and SRK, the task of picking a favourite for a 20/20 tournament is negated by the very nature of the game.
India winning the inaugural World Cup in South Africa was surprising enough. Even more of a shock was how on earth Zimbabwe could have put it across Australia!
In the IPL’s first season it was the Deccan Chargers who were the pre-tournament favourites considering they had in their ranks explosive hitters like Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Shahid Afridi and Herschelle Gibbs.
The Rajasthan Royals on the other hand had no super stars and were expected to finish bottom of the cellar.
Well, what turned out was exactly the opposite—Royals first, Chargers last!
This time on paper at least it is the Delhi Daredevils who look the strongest in batting what with Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, David Warner and AB De Villiers providing the fireworks.
So many other factors will come into play however. Will squads with the most South Africans have the edge? What about the absence of Pakistanis this year? And the departure of a number of players on national duty is sure to impact the final result too.
Twenty-20 is almost a lottery and IPL II will be no different.

www.sportshero.com (17/04/09)

Showing Disrespect

By Gulu Ezekiel

Famed filmmaker Muzaffar Ali was right on the button when he attacked cricketers for their lack of loyalty in the wake of the controversy over MS Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh skipping the Padma awards ceremony in the Capital on Tuesday.
“Money is now greater than the country’s honour. That notion is getting diluted because cricketers can now play for anybody who gives them money,” according to Ali.
That has not been the case in the past. One recalls Sachin Tendulkar rushing back from Australia to receive the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 1998 barely 24 hours after meeting Sir Don Bradman in Adelaide on the occasion of his 90th birthday.
But then the IPL has changed the face of cricket in so many ways. One of its less savoury aspects has been the open auction where cricketers are bought, sold and traded like cattle.
It is farcical when a player who was born and brought up and played all his cricket in one particular city is bought by the franchise from another simply because of money power.
Players being traded from one franchise to another after just one year completely dilutes any loyalty he may feel for his club side since he knows he may not be part of that outfit the very next year.
It becomes even more complicated when the club v country equation comes into play, something that has plagued world football for decades but which was unheard of till the IPL’s advent last year.
The IPL has led to a spate of premature retirements as cricketers would anytime prefer playing a short game of cricket over a period of six weeks in one country—that too for fabulous sums of money--rather than touring the world the year round with their national sides for considerably less pay.
The endorsement potential for Indian cricketers has also gone through the roof thanks to the IPL and Dhoni and Harbhajan have shown now where their priorities lie.
In light of Harbhajan’s sarcastic comment about Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Sports Ministry should seriously think about placing a moratorium on national honours to our cricketers. It obviously means nothing to them in any case.

www.sportshero.com (17/4/09)

For the IPL, any Publicity is Good Publicity

By Gulu Ezekiel

In this day and age of reality shows and obsession with fame, publicity and hype the Indian Premier League lives by the credo: “any publicity is good publicity.”
The exception was in its inaugural year when the notorious ‘Slapgate’ incident between hotheads Harbhajan Singh and S. Sreesanth threatened to dent the tournament’s credibility.
The organizers did well on that occasion to immediately impose a ban on Harbhajan.
Now we have a faux controversy, the so-called war-of-words between cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar and Shah Rukh Khan, screen superstar and co-owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders.
KKR coach John Buchanan’s announcement that the team would have four ‘joint captains’ this season, effectively sidelining their icon Sourav Ganguly was really a storm in a tea cup.
It was amusing to see a dramatic ‘breaking news’ banner on one of the English news channels the other day.
So what was the drama all about? Was it some election related sensation? No, it was merely pace bowler and KKR member Ishant Sharma denying he had supported Buchanan’s concept!
For SRK to state that nobody has any business commenting on his team and that Gavaskar should buy his own franchise smacks of awful arrogance. No wonder he has since had to backtrack and eat humble pie.
It is ridiculous to portray 20/20 cricket as some sort of rocket science. For SRK’s information, it is the same game that has been played for centuries, only a dumbed-down version.
Gavaskar has hit the nail on the head when he points out that the managements of most of the franchises have Australians in charge and the likes of Buchanan and Warne have appointed their buddies as assistants; in the case of the former coach of the Australian national side, even his son has bagged a job with the franchise!
But this is not the only instance of nepotism and cronyism in the IPL. Indeed it is fast becoming a gravy train for has-beens like Buchanan and Darren Berry, Warne’s Victorian pal and assistant at the Rajasthan Royals.
There is plenty of moolah going around so why not grab it while the going is good appears to be the philosophy!

www.sportshero.com (15/4/09)

The American-isation of Cricket

By Gulu Ezekiel

The American-isation of Indian cricket continues apace with the latest IPL innovation of ‘strategy break’ or ‘tactical time-outs’ of five minutes at the end of 10 overs in each innings.
IPL czar Lalit Modi--he of the glib tongue—has of course denied that it is anything to do with squeezing out more ad revenue from the telecast of the matches. According to Modi it is in fact a ploy to hasten the games which in its inaugural season last year regularly ran over time, despite fines imposed on the teams!
Indian cricket fans who have for long had to live with the first and last ball of every over being lopped over due to ads spilling over into match time should understand the rational for this, warped though it may appear.
With telecast fees going through the roof in recent years, the host broadcaster is forced to play spoilsport to the viewers in a desperate bid to at least break even. And that extra one commercial squeezed through every over can make all the difference between profit and loss.
Television has long played kingmaker in sports in the United States. That is one major reason why soccer has never taken off in the US—there are no breaks in play where ads can be telecast.
Both in the NBA (National Basketball Association) and NFL (National Football League), the rhythm of play is interrupted by time-outs for commercial reasons alone. And basketball was broken up into four quarters so the TV channels could extract maximum revenue from their captive audiences.
The IPL landed a bonanza last year when they got Sony to pay $1.026 billion over 10 years. But apparently even that obscene amount was not enough and after plenty of arm-twisting and a high-profile court case, the fee was bumped up even further.
Meanwhile, as fees and costs spiral, it is the viewer who will pay the price.

www.sportshero.com (13/4/09)

Club v Country

Published in The Hindustan Times (March 30, 2009)

By Gulu Ezekiel

For over 50 years, the world of football’s major headache has been the club v. country struggle.
Cricket has been bedeviled with so many controversies over the last century. But club v. country was one thorny issue it did not have to ever contend with.
Until now that is. The Indian Premier League in just its second year has plunged international cricketers into a quandary.
Their dilemma is over whether to choose to wear national colours and travel around the world the whole year. Or stick to their IPL franchises and pocket ten times more money for playing six weeks of 20/20 cricket in one country.
The issue has come into sharp focus with a number of recent incidents.
The latest of these is the case of England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff of the Chennai Super Kings who with compatriot Kevin Pietersen was the highest bid player this season.
With the prestigious ‘Ashes’ series later this year in England (as well as the T-20 World Cup), Flintoff’s fitness had been a major cause of concern.
He has had to return home after just three games for knee surgery and will miss next month’s Test series against the West Indies. There is a cloud over his fitness for the rest of the international season as well.
For those three appearances Flintoff will reportedly receive $600,000—or $200,000 for each three-hour game! It is money that was unheard of in cricket till recently.
Flintoff is part of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) central contracts system. Former England captain Nasser Hussain has now attacked the ECB as “wimps” for not insisting the injury-prone Flintoff miss the IPL and rest ahead of the hectic international season.
That is what Cricket Australia did with their fast bowler Shaun Tait. Many top Australians in fact decided to give this IPL season a miss to stay fresh for national duty.
Hussain (and Mike Atherton, another former captain) have also attacked English cricketers for being greedy—signing lucrative central contracts and demanding a piece of the IPL pie as well.
In fact the top English cricketers held out on signing their central contracts last year when they were refused permission to participate in the IPL inaugural season.
There is also the issue of premature retirements from international cricket. New Zealand’s all-rounder Jacob Oram who like Flintoff is also injury prone and plays for Chennai has made it clear where his priorities lie.
While not denying there is pride in playing for the country, Oram admits the IPL is all about the money. He says he intends to quit Test cricket in order to preserve his body for the more lucrative and less physically taxing 20/20 leagues springing up around the world.
The latest of these is the just-announced American Premier League to be staged in New York at the end of the year. The APL claims to have recruited a number of recently retired players as well as those connected with the ‘rebel’ Indian Cricket League, the precursor to the IPL.
When Australian media magnate Kerry Packer dropped his bombshell of World Series Cricket in 1977, players from around the cricket world (except India) flocked to his ‘rebel’ league and faced the wrath of the establishment.
Players back then unlike today were paid a pittance and Packer’s offers were irresistible.
The difference between WSC and IPL is the latter is part and parcel of the establishment since it comes under the purview of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. In effect and right under the eyes of the hapless ICC, the BCCI has created a monster which has the money power to change the structure of world cricket as we have known it for nearly 150 years.
On the face of it, the ICC could solve the problem by keeping a window open for the IPL every year when no other international cricket is staged.
However, one can be sure the likes of Modi and his minions would not be satisfied with just one window. Last year flush with the success of the inaugural season he grandly announced the IPL would have two seasons a year.
Modi and the BCCI may have created a monster but it is far from a Frankenstein’s monster which destroyed its creator. Instead it could well be a precursor to multi IPL seasons as well as IPL clones, both sanctioned and unsanctioned (like the APL) cropping up around the world. In fact Modi has already expressed his wish to take the IPL around the world.
If sponsors, advertisers, spectators, TV viewers and the players themselves decide city-based franchise cricket is the future, the ICC will cease to exist and so will country v. country contests.
And there may be no escape from that in our modern market-driven world where the word ‘traditionalist’ is frowned upon, even despised. For many of us who have a genuine love for cricket as a sport— as distinct from ‘show-biz’ and ‘entertainment’--that is a grim but realistic scenario.