IPL vs IPL, Politicians and their cricketer equivalents!

Indians love cricket, and a lot of them hate politics with an equal measure. But, if you look at things closely, you will realize there is not much of a difference. If IPL stands for Indian Premier League, it can also stand for Indian Political League. And, if you dig deeper, even the players ( or characters if you think its all a drama) bear an uncanny resemblance.  This season of the Indian Political league will come to an end this Friday, while the cricketers will carry on for a bit longer. We, in the meanwhile, will try to find the cricketer equivalent of some of our more popular politicians.

Lets start with the man of the moment, Narendra Modi, who for the past year or so has been in the best form of his life. Ofcourse, you will have to concede that he has had his fair share of controversies. He can always be trusted to have some not-so-kind words for his opponents, but has kind of mellowed with time. Currently captains his IPL team and hopes to soon take over the reigns at the national level. Virat Kohli?

Arvind Kejriwal – A gutsy player, who has his own unique style. Started with a bang, a century on debut but threw away his wicket when he was nearing a double. Off late, has started throwing away his wicket cheaply and form has been very sporadic. He will need to bring consistency into his game or the selectors might have a relook. Shikhar Dhawan?

Sonia Gandhi – Was never in power, yet always in power. Remote controlled the team from the outside. The captain damaged his clean reputation by falling in line with her plans. Obviously, the son-in-law has not helped!  N Srinivasan?

Robert Vadra – Ok. This is too easy. Who else but Gurunath Meiyappan!

Rahul Gandhi – Had a rich heritage and a legacy most of the country adores. Got opportunities based on the same legacy but could never live upto his surname. A surname doesn’t make you a good cricketer, why should it be any different in Politics? Rohan Gavaskar?

Digvijay Singh – Was once considered highly talented but wasted all his opportunities. Has a foot in mouth disease. His affairs outside the real game have grabbed the limelight lately. If anyone in politics could be called Controversy’s Child, its him! Sreesanth?

Priyanka Vadra – The poor lady has not even began her career yet. But, for the faithful she has already become a ray of hope. Her every movement is tracked, every innings is being watched! Arjun Tendulkar?

So these were the players, What about the teams??

Aam Aadmi Party –  A team which has done the most with limited resources. Created shockwaves with their maiden performance! A mix of everything. First time youngsters or people with years of experience who never got their chance, they have everyone. Rajasthan Royals?

Congress - Corruption scandals have haunted them. Captain was considered clean but the owners have made sure he is also caught in the mess. Yet, can never be counted out. Chennai Super Kings?

BJP – Have become a one man show. Have many players worth their names, yet they are overshadowed by this trailblazer. After the poor form of last few seasons, decided on a total rejig of the team. Brought in a lot of new players, masterminded by someone sitting in the dugout, are currently leading the charts. Kings XI Punjab?

Which makes me realize, there is difference between cricket and politics! In politics, we don’t have a non-controversial figure, someone who is loved by all. Politics doesn't have a Sachin Tendulkar ( or Rahul Dravid ) equivalent!

Those 15 men!

Come Feb 19, 2011 and the whole of India would be glued to their TV sets for the next 40 odd days. The reason-World Cup of Cricket is back and this time in India alongwit Sri Lanka & Bangladesh. India went out in the semis both in 1987 & 1996, the other editions of the WC that were held in the subcontinent. Can we do two steps better this time around??

The team on which the onus lies to win back the World Cup for us after a gap of 28 years has finally been announced, and those 15 men are:-

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Yousuf Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, R Ashwin

Most of the players actually picked up themselves either on the basis of performance or image. These are the ones in bold. The rest of the players were dependent on what balance the slectors and Dhoni wanted in the side. Some of the major names that missed out despite decent performances would be Rohit Sharma, Sreesanth & Pragyan Ojha.

So, there might have been some discussion about Yousuf or Rohit but Yousuf's explosive style and bowling abilities must have taken things into his favour. The thing that confuses me the most is Why our selectors have gone with 3 spinners. I know its the Sub-Continent and the ball will spin but 2 spinners with Sehwag, Yuvraj and Pathan as more than average part time spinners would have been a good combination. Taking an extra spinner at the cost of poor Rohit Sharma has been a bit harsh on him

Sreesanth performed very well in South Africa and deserved a call up but in place of whom? His biggest positive has always been the ability to pick wickets and the biggest problem has always been his ability to ball bad deliveries in every over. The selectors must have thought his as a high risk-high gain proposition so they decided to hedge their risk by taking a Munaf Patel who can contain the batsmen after the field is spread out.

The third major name to miss out- Prayan Ojha has been a bit undone I feel. He has virtually done nothing wrong whenever he has played for India and his performances in the IPL for Deccan Chargers have also been exceptionally well. Maybe his inability to bat and provide some useful runs played into the hands of Piyush Chawla who can bat decently.

Overall, I feel there is noone in the side who didn't deserve it, but some surely have missed out who deserved it a bit more. Will this side win the world cup for us? Let us hopse so!

And Sold...IPL Auction Day 1

IPL is back or atleast the auction is. After months of speculations and legal battles, all the 10 teams made it to the auction table but there was the last surprise in store with Rajasthan's total budget being reduced to $7 mn instead of  $9 mn as it is for everyone else. The reason is still a bit uncertain.

If we have a look at the teams building up, one thing is for sure-A lot of player and team loyalties are going to be tested as besides Chennai, very few teams have brought many of their ex team members. Chennai, though went all out to buy who were there own-Ashwin,Badrinath,Boullinger & Hussey. To this, they have added Dwayne Bravo and Wridhiman Saha. And remember; they had retained Dhoni,Raina,Vijay and Morkel. So this looks to be a great team with a good mix of domestic players & foreign players,bowlers & batsmen. They will again be one the favourites, like in the previous editions.

Mumbai Indians were the other side who had retained the maximum allowed limit of 4 players which were Sachin, Harbhajan, Pollard & Malinga. Neeta Ambani bid aggresively for Rohit Sharma which was a great buy but extremely affected the overall budget. The other buys were James Franklin, Andrew Symonds & Davy Jocobs. This looks like an interesting side developing here but MI will have to just fill around the other spots because they don't have a lot of money left. But, SRT is known to have a good eye for youngsters and a knack of backing them so that may not be a big problem as they have the master tendulkar who seems to running the show(aggresive bidding for rohit sharma being a proof). Will be interesting to see though, how Bhajji and Symo get along after "Monkey"gate!

Deccan Chargers seemed to be the team who did the smartest bidding. They didn't go too hard, but stole some gems at a bargain. They now are home to Steyn, Sangakkara, Cameron White, Pieterson, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Shikhar Dhawan & JP Duminy. A perfect mix of bowling,batting, domestic, foreign, stability and firepower. To add to this, they are still the team which maximum amount left in their exchequer. Great Work Chargers.

The schewd and smart Vijay Mallya was calling the shots for Bangalore with some smart advise from Kumble being a bonus. RCB knew the players they just needed to have and went all out for them. Be it Saurabh Tiwary or AB Devilliers. They now have a deadly pace attack with Zaheer and Dirk Nannes, one of the smartest spinners in the world-Daniel Vettori, A dependable and destructive Dilshan,young and talented Chiteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli being the one they retained. Just too good a side to have. But with the budget dwindling, they will have to make smart choices to build the bench strength.

Delhi Daredevils made a slow start to the day with no bids early on. They got aggressive with Irfan Pathan for whom they fought ferociously with Kings XI Punjab. After that they concentrated mostly on foreign players with David Warner coming back to revive the Veeru-Warner deadly partnership. Their other buys were Morne Morkel, James Hopes, Aaron Flinch and Naman Ojha. They still have a lot of money to spend and they will be very aggresive on day 2.

Kolkata Knight Riders were the ones who started the day with a frenzy and paying a whopping $ 2.4 mn for Gambhir, who certainly is worth it. A proven performer and an ODI captain with 100% winning rate(I know it was New Zealand but still-statistics). Gauti can certainly turn the ship for KKR provided he has good company which we now know is being provided by Yusuf Pathan, Jacques Kallis, Shakib Al Hasan, Manoj Tiwary, Brett Lee, Eoin Morgan & Brad Haddin. This is a great side but a bit lacking in the bowling department as Lee's fitness is always a concern. They will be looking for some steals in the bowling department on day 2. Gambhir and Pathan were incidentatlly the two most expensive players today. SRK always goes hard for whom he wants.

Kings XI Punjab would have been pleased just to be sitting there after all the drama surrounding them in the last few months. They were unlucky that whichever players they pursued were wanted badly by someone else as well so they missed on Pathan as a case but Preity Zinta didn't lose that pretty smile despite, which was good to see. KXIP bagged the services of Adam Gilchrist, David Hussey, Dinesh Karthik, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, Abhishek Nayyar, Stuart Broad & Ryan Harris. They seem to have gone a bit overboard with Nayyar as he is not really a T20 specialist but he is a stable batsmen and someone who can be banked upon. Whats lacking in this side are big names which seems to be a hige shift from the earlier strategy where Yuvraj, Lee, Pathan being the marketable faces(besides the talent) in the side. A couple of real good buys in Praveen Kumar & Hussey in this side. They need to focus on some domestic players now as they have plenty of foreign talent in the side now. They will be the darkhorse in IPL 4, I guess but I hope they do a Rajasthan Royals(IPL 1). Go Kings XI!!

Rajashthan Royals didn't have the presence of Shane Warne on the table but his word was certainly important in what they did. With the budget being 7 against 9 for others, they needed some smart buys which came in the form of Paul Collingwood and Ross Taylor. They only brought Johan Botha and Rahul Dravid besides these two. They paid $950 mn for Botha which is strange as they already have a world class spinner in Shane Warne. Besides Warne, they have retained Shane Watson. They will be heavily relying on Shane Warne's eye to spot some really good domestic players as otherwise $2 mn deficit will surely be a disadvantage.

Sahara Pune Warriors were one of two new teams entering the fray but they had done their homework well. They bid heavily for Robin Uthappa and Yuvraj Singh, who are explosive when it comes to T20. Yuvraj seems to have been paid well for his capability and allround abilites because his batting in the earlier editions has just not been upto the mark. Kings XI tried to get him back till a point but then they backed off against the aggressive Pune. Angelo Mathews, Ashish Nehra, Grahme Smith,Calum Fergusson, Tim Paine and Nathan Mcullum were the other buys. There strategy was similar to KKR's-Bid heavy for a couple and try to get some cheap buys.

Kochi are the other new team into the IPL, who still havent decided on a name. They were involved in a lot of bidding wars, winning a few and losing a few. Their prized posessions are Mahela Jayawardene and Murali. They also have one of the best opening bowling combos in RP Singh and Sreesanth, who will be the hometown boy. They will also be having Ravindra Jadeja, Brendom McCullum, Brad Hodge, VVS Laxman, Parthiv Patel, Steven Smith and Ramesh Powar at their disposal. They have build a good roster here but they lack some dependable players. Sreesanth, Jadeja, McCullum & Jayawardene can all be amazing on their days but just fall away on others. But they still have decent money left with them so lets see whom they buy on day 2.

These are the teams and all of them look competitive but today will be remembered for the players who weren't bid for i.e. Ganguly, Lara and Gibbs. There were many more but these are names who would have been part of most World XI's a few years back and now noone even wants them. With Lara, its understandable as he has played no cricket for the last 3 years and failed badly in his brief ICL stint but Ganguly and Gibbs must have been more shocked. But, there is till hope left as they come back for auction when all the players available have been put up on auction once.

What could have been

So, the much talked about India-SA test series has finally come to an end and as most would agree, to a fair end. India were thrashed by South Africa in the first test and India came back strongly in the second match to show what they can do, even on green tops.

However, differenciating the 2 sides in the 3rd test is next to impossible.While kallis anD Steyn were out of the ordinary throughout the match, India had the services of SRT,Sreesanth,Harbhajan & Gambhir to thank at different points in the test match. I have been reading a lot in the last few hours about how some people felt that India didn't play as a true champion and how India should have gone for the win etc etc. I, on the contrary, have a new found respect for the Indian side after today's display. I am not a strong believer in the No.1 or No.2 debate. So, I don't feel as a "No. 1" team, India had to try and win the game at all costs. Wouldn't we all have loved to see India winning? Ofcourse we would have, atleast here in India! But being realistic, When was the last time a team scored 340 on the last day to win a test match? When was the last time India did something like that? Infact, India have a very poor reputation when it comes to batting on the final day or the last innings. So, going for the victory is great as it sounds but it invariably means taking the risk of losing. If that had been the case, the same people who feel India should have gone for the "win" would have been writing about how India can't play to save a match.

I feel the entire Indian batting showed a lot of class and composure in the way they batted today. At tea on the 4th day, everyone in the Indian dressing room would be looking forward to a series win but the way Kallis and co batted in the last 2 hours on the 4th day, they just took the match away from India. India knew they had let the opportunity slip away but rather than doing something extravagant and going on a blitzkrieg, they did what was sound and logical-They tried to play for a draw on a pitch where scoring freely was not really an option. But, the way they played to save the match was what caught my imagination. Similar attempts have been made in the past by our national team but invariably they have had to bite the dust as we have never been good at being extra defensive. But the way each and every batsmen applied himself on the field today was admirable. Gambhir did a Kalllis for India when he carried on with an injury to take India to safety, Sehwag did what we thought he just cant-control himself, Dravid was a rock solid wall, Sachin showed that his class is not just in the runs and centuries he has scored but in his capability to adjust according to situations and VVS showed he is what he is.

So, I dont see this as having let go of a possible win because we did that on the 4th day. I see this as a beautiful display of craft by what is often defined as the best batting line up on paper.

Grandfather of Cricket

Donned the mantle for 20 years now
He has managed it for so long. How?
Having won us many a match
What defines Indian Cricket is Sach!

November 1989 was such a long time back
Since then he has been collecting runs stack after stack
He might have been eluded of that 300
But who else can claim a ODI 200

Humbled them when he was just out of the cradle
Then went on to invent the paddle
He kept hammering them all
Fielders were left chasing the ball

No matter how hard Bucknor or Denness tried
Or keepers claiming edges lied
Be it ODI’s or tests
He kept making bowlers look like a jest

Not a player him who doesn’t admire
Some “experts” keep asking him to retire
He carries on that cover drive followed with a nod
That is why for billions he is GOD

He gave Warne nightmares
Even the Don thought he is rarest or the rare
As he turns the grandfather of international cricket
Hope even longer he stays on the wicket

The MEN IN BLUE have arrived, finally, hopefully!

When I got up this morning and saw India struggling at 204/6, the first thought that crossed my mind was- here they go again. Though it was much better than what I got to see in 2002 series( India were often bundled out for less than 100) but the expectations off late have been high. But, I am glad I was wrong. The resilience shown by Harbhajan, Zaheer, Ishant and Munaf was adorable. This is not the first instance in the immediate past where the tail has wagged. Bhajji and Zaheer have off late shown that they are worthy of being called all-rounders.This probably is another sign that Indian cricket is finally coming off age.

Infact this series by itself has given us a lot to admire in this team. The first test was a showcase of batting prowess of India, the 2nd second was an example of how not to surrender and keep fighting and the third(till now) has 2 things to be noticed i.e. we can bat and fight no matter what conditions are there and our tail can bat and bat well.

I personally felt utmost happiness watching the grit and determination shown by gambhir,laxman, tendulkar and co in the 2nd test. A lot of times in the past India easily succommed to pressure on the last day but this was not to be the case this time around. Batting for 2 days straight and losing just 4 wickets was a huge achievement especially after having fared poorly in the 1st innings. This speaks volumes for the confidence these guys possess. I emphasise on confidence because talent was something that we always had in abundance, it was just a matter of application.

But, something that has still not been seen is an amazing display by the bowlers. We certainly have a better bunch of pacemen then we ever had and they have been performing decently. But this bowling attack has not been able to make up for the one odd less than average batting performance. Once that starts to happen, I am sure theres no stopping the men in blue.