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)