I P L

Right from day one, I’ve never been a fan of Twenty-20, and I still believe that’s not cricket.

As I write this, I realize that I’m actually writing after a long time, not because I was too busy to write but truth is that there is too much to write. But again I’m no writer :-) hahaha use of word ‘write’ five times in 2 lines :-)

Hah…in between a lot happened from long 4 days weekend to a short two days trip to Tahoe, but heck I cannot write two coherent sentences about it, forget a travelogue-ish type entries altogether. So we started at 8pm in a rental Nissan Armada…hahahaha now I hate writing like this :-)

Wait, I think I started this post with my favorite topic CRICKET, lets not deviate from there, it (thought process, what did ya think?) all started with that crazy auction of players. Well, well nothing against players or money they are making, but yes I’m plain jealous and amused. Now just imagine what you were doing when you were 19. Hmm….I was playing cricket with tennis ball on a basketball court, and you? (Last line has nothing to do with Ishant Sharma.)

As I said in first line, I’ve never been a fan of Twenty-20, and I still think that this will not work in long term. Well, even this IPL sounds more tamasha than actual test of skills.

First of all it is not cricket, it is some freaking lottery where guys like Afridi or Utthapa will flourish.

To me, problem starts with naming of teams, why the hell they want to associate major cities with Teams, I cannot fathom the fact McGrath playing for Delhi, or Shoaib Akhtar for Kolkatta.

May be these names like Delhi Daredevils, Chennai Super kings or Bangalore Royal Challengers, and ensemble of stars will sound and look good in short advertisements but its hard to imagine individual cities actually backing up the players.

Imagine Afridi and Symonds of Hyderabad blasting Ishant Sharma of Kolkatta. How many Hyderabadis will support them?

Or Imagine Mumbai’s Malinga bowling bouncers to Bangalore’s Dravid, how many Mumbaites will back him?

Can these matches ignite the passion among people? Can people of cities actually feel elated when their team wins, or go in mourning when they lose? Can these matches create that ‘crazy’ excitement? Can these matches bring whole country to standstill?
Can these matches make students forget their next-day exams?
I’ve my strong doubts about it.

Other than that, composition of teams is ill-balanced; I know second round of auction is still remaining. Chennai and Delhi teams have 2 wicketkeepers, whereas Mumbai has none. Moreover only 4 overseas players can make it to final eleven, so that again defies the logic of buying foreign players in bulk.

Lets have a look at team compositions –

Jaipur (3 Indian , 5 Overseas)
Mumbai (3 Indian , 5 Overseas)
Delhi (4 Indian , 7 Overseas)
Chennai (4 Indian , 7 Overseas)
Kolkatta (4 Indian , 6 Overseas)
Bangalore (4 Indian , 6 Overseas)
Hyderabad (3 Indian , 8 Overseas)
Mohali (5 Indian , 5 Overseas)

This initial formation of teams clearly suggests that many big money-making overseas players will sit out.

This Modi’s brainchild is nothing but a pure business proposition with no intention of developing cricket or nurturing upcoming cricketers, and sole idea is based on exploiting our huge ‘idle’ population.