Conflicts of Interest in Indian cricket

MS Dhoni is now in controversy for "conflict of interest" in a sports firm which manages his interests. Now media has questioned that he owned 15% of shares in the firm and besides MS, the firm Rhiti sports also managed:

• RP Singh
• Pragyan Ojha
• Suresh Raina and 
• Ravindra Jadeja

Suresh Raina often picks himself up in T20I and ODIs, but in Tests he is not an automatic selection. Other than Raina, only Jadeja is Dhoni's favorite and the firm managing Jaddu boy could be one of the reason why now Jadeja plays all 3 formats with limited ability and minimal returns. 

Ojha and RP Singh aren't MS's favorites exactly.  But Jadeja is and he has been spoken of preferred in England as well for a place in XI for CT13. Defies logic, but this  relation could be one of the reason why Jadeja might edge Pathan and play all games even though the conditions in England will not favor 2 spinners. 

Rhiti sports also managed marketing of Chennai Super Kings. And Jadeja is a star player (on $ value he fetches) for CSK.  Media reports do allege that this sports firm might be reason why Jadeja  got the amount he gets in IPL. But there can be never a confirmation or total denial on the facts that Jadeja always finds a place in the team because of his ties with Srinivasan and Dhoni.

In the current skeptic ties and heated environment, where even a small "conflict of interest" or a slight negative news runs the potential of being made a breaking news, such disclosures are not in Indian cricket's interest. 

There are always a couple of players whose selection is always questioned and doubted no matter who the captain is and what era it is. Not going too far, when Sachin was the captain in 2000 and before that, he was accused of giving chances to Vinod Kambli. Ganguly was accused of favoring players like Harbhajan, Sehwag, Yuvraj, Kaif, Zaheer etc who were of limited capabilities.  Selection committees have been accussed of bringing in the players out of the so called quota system.  Ganguly himself was alleged to be part of that quota system when he was selected for England tour in 1996 right after the world cup. 

Dilip Vengsarkar always gave chances to players from Mumbai when he was head of selection committee.  Kris Srikanth always got Chennai players handy when anyone got injured in the national team. In 1990s it was accused that Karnataka sent in a lot of undeserved players in the national team. They were powerful in 1990s in the domestic circuit and the team always had 4 or 5 players in the playing XI. While nobody doubted the quality and temparament of Dravid, Kumble and Srinath, the core members, but there were few dubious selections like Noel David (Noel who ?), David Johnson, Sujith Somsunder, Sunil Joshi (he never utilised his potential), Venkatesh Prasad (the man assumed to be the culprit for all pacers suddenly losing their pace) etc.

The root of all the evils in the current scenario come from one single source -- N Srinivasan. Times of India reports that he was the man behind BCCI gagging Dilip Vengsarkar when he used to write the syndicated columns while being a chief national selector.   He also got Sharad Pawar remove that committee on the fact that the selectors were also the office bearers of state associations. 

But when he took over the BCCI presidency, he conveniently forgot that he also owns the CSK franchisee in IPL and he got BCCI to amend the constitution for that. Sharad Pawar's double speak was exposed a few days back when he spoke on the current mess. Srini also forgot that he had made the chief selector K Srikanth, the brand ambassador of his franchisee. He was holding both posts together.  And as soon as he completed his term, Srikanth was kicked out of the CSK fold. Later he joined Sunrisers Hyderabad, whose owners are Tamil from Karunanidhi family.

Their conflict of interest was also exposed again when they owned SRH and allowed a SL to be their captain, while on the same hand, their parent political party DMK opposed any SL player playing in Chennai during IPL-6 due to the political issues between TN and SL. 

Coming back to the Dhoni issue, the media also suggests that many players have been dropped from the team without giving fair opportunities.  TOI names Tiwary, Mishra, Dhawal Kulkarni, Saurabh Tiwary, Parthiv Patel among a few. While Manoj Tiwary's case has been correct, the others did just not click whenever they played for India. Saurabh Tiwary was the part of the team that travelled to Zimbabwe in 2010 under Raina, but could not click. Dhawal Kulkarni at his best is a mediocre bowler. And Mishra had a horrible England tour, irony is that he made it again to the CT team, but its very unlikely he will play. 

So at its best, it is very difficult to prove the conflicts of interest of MSD with Rhiti sports, but it also provides yet another opportunity for media to find a scapegoat after Srinivasan episode is over. We have not yet seen the end of IPL mess, a lot more skeletons shall tumble in the coming days and the SOURCED news shall give media to make merry on the cost of Indian cricket. 

Srinivasan's end game

N Srinivasan showed his might in the BCCI meet on Sunday. He did not resign, he did not step down. Just stepped aside. Till the IPL probe is on, the BCCI president "will not discharge" his duties. But he will continue to be India's representative in ICC. 

Eye wash. Jaggu Dalmiya has replaced Srini Mama as interim chief of BCCI. That's the end of cycle for him. In 2005 he was ousted from BCCI by the troika of Pawar, Srini and Lalit Modi. Pawar graduated to become ICC president, Modi was kicked out in 2010 and now Srini. So it is for sure there are no permanent foes or friends in BCCI like Indian politics. 

Jagmohan Dalmiya is no saint. For some returns only he would have agreed to step in the hot seat which will attract a lot of media glare right now.  September is the time for the next BCCI elections and for sure Jaggu Dalmiya will have some role to play in that elections.  

Sharda Ugra has rightly asked in her piece "What's cooking Jagguda"  in ESPNCricinfo.  Now if Srinivasan had stepped down, it had been his end game or like they say in IPL, an eliminator for him. If he was no longer the president, he would not have been able to save his troubled franchisee CSK. Neither he would have been helped his son-in-law. 

And if CSK is ousted, he will be in for a huge loss financially. So it was in the right of Srini, that he saves his ass in yesterday's meet. With help of Arun Jaitley, who has eyes on BCCI elections in September, Srini was able to get his conditions approved.  Lalit Modi has termed this as biggest cover-up in cricket. But he is in no moral position to say anything, given he is the originator of the entire mess. He started the mess by being IPL commissioner from 2008 till 2010 and he was kicked out for the financial irregularities after IPL 2010. He has been doing the WikiLeaks stuff, giving interviews on all news channels, but he himself has been accused of wrong doings. 

BCCI politics has never been pretty, it has always been messed up. Thankfully that has not impacted the on field performance so far.  So we might just hope this entire drama will not impact the prospects of India in Champions Trophy, after all they are world champions and world's # 1 ODI team.

Champions Trophy Contenders (Group A)

In continuation to the previous post on India, I now try to list down the chances for all other teams in the last edition of the Champions Trophy. 

So here is the chances for every team, as I see it:

England:

They are the host of this edition and are playing in the home conditions. Obviously they will have in depth knowledge of conditions on all the venues, where the matches are being played. They have got a good ODI attack capable of exploiting the conditions in the early summer. They will  be starting as favorites, but they are heavily handicapped by the absence of their best batsman KP. 

They are also one of the few teams who will enter the trophy with lot of actual match practice besides South Africa and Pakistan. Not to forget NZ. But the way they batted today might not be good for their prospects. They have a good opening pair in Cook and Bell, but Bell has been struggling for runs for quite a while now. Their middle order reads Trott, Root. Morgan, Butler which is fairly inexperienced (Root and Butler, thanks to them).  

Their bowling attack of Finn, Broad, Anderson, Woakes is pretty strong enough to bundle out the opposition, provided the batsmen supply them the cushion of runs. As of now Finn is out injured, Broad is rested. Woakes was pretty ordinary in the first ODI today. 

If the batsmen get a good going, then England have a good chance to make it to the semis.

Australia

Australia are the defending champions for the past 2 editions and this time they come in with a new captain -- Clark in any ICC trophy.  Gone are the days of Australian domination in ODIs, not long ago they were top ODI side even through they had slide in the Tests. But off late that is not the case as well. 

Their batting looks fragile and inexperienced. They have been susceptible to swing and seam bowling. A 0-3 defeat to England in almost same time last year is an example of the fact how much they have slide in the ODI.  They have few players coming straight from a good IPL -- Watson, Faulkner and Johnson. To a lesser extent David Warner too. 

Their batting order might read : Watson, Warner, Hughes, Clarke, Bailey, Voges, Wade

The bowling attack is pretty good, but they need ample support from the batsmen who have been very fragile off late. 

They will need to have their batsmen fire every time if they want to make past the league stage.

Sri Lanka:

No chance.  They are team with 3 former captains, all past their prime, all coming in with a failed IPL. Their captain was a disaster in the IPL with captaincy and all rounder skills. So that provides them no hope. Their fast bowling resources are scarce except the Slinga Malinga.  

They have few young faces in the team followed by cushion of experience of the 3 former captains. But their record in England is not very encouraging.  The pitches are fast, swinging, seaming and the young batsmen shall be tested for the character, technique. 

The batting order might read :  Dilshan, Mahela J, Sangakarra, Chandimal, Thirrimanne, Mendis / Kusal Pareira (whatever the spelling is), Matthews, T Pareira,  Malinga, Kulasekra, Herath / Senanayake

Kulasekara and Malinga might enjoy the conditions a bit, but their spinners shall struggle. Again the success of the team shall depend on the big hitters. If they are able to score in 250+ every time, they stand a chance, otherwise its a good bye in the league stage as well.  

They might have a chance against Australia, against whom they have had an upper hand off late. 

Kiwis : 

Good bowling attack, but poor batting (till first ODI) gives them a very feeble chance, but in ICC tournaments they have often pulled over their weight. They might give a scare to the top teams in the league and again if their batsmen handle the conditions well, they might progress to the customary semi-final position as they always do. 

Semi - finalists:

England, Australia

Champions Trophy Preview : India

The last edition of the Champions Trophy is around the corner and it is in England.  In the swinging and seaming conditions, 8 top ODI teams of the world will compete in 17 day event to lift the trophy for one last time. 

Being the world champions, the expectations will be high on India, albeit the latest scandalous events back home surrounding the IPL and the BCCI chief might prove a deterrent. But it might also give the blue boys a kick in the backside to switch off the events and try winning the tournament to win back the faith and credibility from the fans. 

Last time India travelled to England, it was a sad sad story, but in ODIs, the close look at the results suggest a different picture. They lost 0-3, but all games were rain affected and they had to bat first giving England a good chance to see what they need to score to win. England did precisely that and they won.

Batting 

Most of the side from that series is unchanged minus the openers.  Dhawan and Vijay are inexperienced and less than useful pair. Nothing in comparison to the legendary opening pairs we have had in past 17 years. Temparament of both the players is a doubtful quality, moreso with Vijay.  They had a  good series vs Australia in Tests, Dhawan had a decent IPL and Vijay had horrible IPL. Especially that ugly hoick in the final. 

So if one of this 2 openers fail in 2 games in a row, then probably Rohit Sharma might be promoted to open and Karthik might play in the middle order. Dhoni confirmed the same thing. 

So probably the batting order could read:

Dhawan, Vijay, Kohli, Sharma, Dhoni, Raina

Allrounder:

The #7 spot will be another headache for India. Its England and playing 2 spinners will be costly idea. And since there is already Ashvin in place, so it might be a good idea to play Irfan Pathan over useless Jadeja. At any given time, in any conditions, Pathan is a better allrounder than Jadeja in terms of batting and fielding.

Bowling:

Pace attack seems to be better suited to the conditions. And if Pathan plays, then it will be a 4 prong pace attack with top 3 being Yadav, Ishant Sharma and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar. Especially with 2 new balls, Kumar and Pathan could prove handful. Not to mention the pace of Yadav. Ishant Sharma might be difficult to predict, which side of him will turn up, but looking at his IPL numbers, he should play ahead of Vinay Kumar. 

So the bowling attack will be

Pathan, Ashvin, Yadav, Kumar and Sharma

Weakness:

If Gautam Gambhir would have been in the team, India would have been strong favorites, but with a feeble, inexperienced and volatile opening pair, the task for guys like Kohli and Raina becomes a tad more difficult in the middle order before Dhoni can launch his attack. 

Rohit Sharma continues to be useless and unless he makes runs consistently, that opinion shall prevail. His IPL numbers dont matter.

India has played 7 ODIs this year, won 4 and lost 3.  A series win of 3-2 vs England and a loss of 1-2 vs Pakistan. That results are in India. 

India should find it easy to win against South Africa who are without their 2 best batsmen in this competition and their vice captain is fresh from an injury. If they can counter Dale Steyn and AB DeVilliers, they can make a great start to their CT campaign.

West Indies might prove to be unpredictable opponents in England, but they are more of a banana skin. If India play them cautiously then no reason why they can't beat the lowest ranked team in this competition. 

And then the biggest match in the competition. vs Pakistan.  Surely the Pakistanis are already making noises about the big game, but let them not forget this is England and they will be under extra spotlight for what they did in 2010.  So guys, focus on flying out of England without getting arrested or caught up in wrong practices as in 2010. 

Prediction :

If India can make it to the semi-final, then they have a good chance to win the trophy. They have got bowling attack to succeed in English conditions.  If the middle order can make up for the weak opening pair, India's chances are pretty good.

SRH's fancied debut in IPL

SunRisers Hyderabad are almost through to the play-offs after the comfortable win against stunned Royals. Only if RCB wins hands down against Chennai and they lose badly against KKR, they go out. Else they are very much in the play-offs. 

If RCB lose tomorrow, thats it. Sunrisers go through. If RCB win, even then SRH shall know what to do to get through. A simple win in that case would be enough, but if they lose, they need to ensure they dont loose bad to hit their NRR, which will come in picture then. 

To be a team of no good batsmen and no settled captain, a place in play-offs shall be a good debut in the IPL. They must be thankful to the bowling attack though -- Steyn, Mishra, Ishant, Thisara Pereira, their core attack.  On the batting front they have struggled, but their bowling has helped them defend even low par scores. 

Any such luxury shall be unavailable for them in the play-offs. And even they shall need to bolster the batting lineup and it shall make sense for them to bring in Sangakarra. 

Media coverage of spot fixing - IPL saga

There have been floating stories in the comments sections of some articles and on twitter that this IPL is pretty much fixed. 2 specific teams shall play the final and one of them shall win, a team that has not won IPL yet, but have won the CLT20. 

The other team that shall be in the final will be the usual culprit that always finds a place in the final no matter how badly or good they start their campaign. A team owned by 2 of the most powerful men in Indian cricket. 

PS : This are just tall claims from the IPL skeptics who have belief "See we said it the IPL is a breeding ground of all corrupt practices". 

The best thing out of this mess shall be a massive cleanup from top to bottom, clean out the dirt in Indian cricket.  And it shall be very interesting to see what comes out of the BCCI meeting on Sunday. Will they take up this opportunity to clean up the system or as usual they will dust everything under the carpet and be an ostrich. 

The media frenzy in India also suggests there are 2 more RR batsman under scanner for a game in IPL 2012.    One of them is an Australian and the other is an India batsman who was recently dropped from ODI team, but made a Test debut at # 6 after being in the team for long time. 

Of course, this stories have to be baseless, for there is a competition between the channels to gain the maximum TRP coverage out of this mess and for that they have even thrown up names like " MS Dhoni provided clean chit", "Shaun Tait name not in the suspects"  and stuff like that. 

Some media reports also suggest that the players have confessed to the wrongdoing in the police questioning. 

• This one

• NDTV

And then also at the toilet paper of India, the same reports are mentioned. 

The sources business is very dangerous in the electronic and print media, none knows how credible the sources are and what is the base of the information, on which the sources provide the news feed to the limelight hungry channels. 

The reports also conflict that Kundras might be questioned or they might not. No issues with them being questioned or not. But no such disgrace should be brought to the man of utmost integrity and honor, their captain Rahul Dravid. He must surely be under lot of distress and pressure to deal with this crap and also focus on the play-offs ahead. For sure they will be playing the eliminators after having lost to Sunrisers  today. 

This saga is far from over and surely there will be few more skeletons tumbling out of the cupboards in coming few days in immediate future.

Expect little to improve in Indian cricket even after the spot fixing scandal in light

At the time when we all thought that the IPL has evolved and finally settling in a mould where we have seen some very close finishes and some breath taking hitting in past few days, the disaster struck.  The spot fixing has raised its ugly head once again and this time the culprits are:

1. Sreesanth
2. Ajit Chandlia
3. Ankeet Chavan

The first of them is a world cup winner. For all things he might do from now on or he might have done in the past in his cricketing career, that tag of world cup winner was best he had. And not one, but 2.  He also had a reputation of one of the few pacy bowlers in Indian setup and the one who had talent to swing the match single handedly when he desired. 

But he also had lot of tantrums and idiotic acts up against his name, most famous of which was the Slapgate. But what he did in IPL-6 is nothing in front of his achievements and his idiotics.  He bloody well fixed a game of cricket in IPL-6, playing from a team captained by none other than Rahul Dravid.  Really ? Was he so short of money that it needed him to get in touch with the bookies and do spot fixing ? Didn't his team qualify for play-offs already and he would have received a share of prize money, no matter what place the team ended finally. Not to forget the contract money for playing in IPL.  Still ? And despite knowing what happened to the 5 idiots last year and to international players like Salman Butt, Asif and Mohd Amir from Pakistan ? Did he forget that this is the age of technology and nothing can go uncovered.  

Delhi police might be inept in stopping crimes against women, but they are leaders of the pack in picking up the fixing -- spot or match irrelevant.  Neeraj Kumar might have saved his job after all the flak he received from the December 16 crime and the latest one last month against a 5 year old.  But that's irrelevant here. He displayed everything he had with him as proof to show the involvement of the 3 idiots of Rajasthan Royals team, which had been romantics' favorite, given the way Rahul Dravid has led the team so far. 

Without a doubt he has been devastated. He has been the man of ultimate honor, integrity and respect. Playing under him and getting a chance to come back in the national fold was the best thing to happen to this Kerala player and he blows it all away.  Indeed he is Appam Ch*****. Even bigger than that.  He should be banned for life and not allowed to step on any cricket field. He deserves the harshest punishment that will serve as a deterrent to the players in future. 

Ankeet Chavan, I read somewhere, was leading Mumbai spinner in their 40th Ranji triumph and he was the go-to man of the bookies involved in this scandal.  Ajit Chandalia, another bigot who earned the distinction to dismiss Sachin and Ponting in a single game and also had an hattrick last year, is the 3rd in this list.  None of them should be spared. 

BCCI's reaction has been disappointing as well. And they keep ranting "zero tolerance", "everybody guilty will be punished". Biggest question they need to be asked is after all the sting of last year's IPL, how come spot fixing again happened in this year's IPL  right under its nose ? Perhaps Srini was busy scoffing at other IPL owners to pave a way for his  team to win it again this year.  He has been already termed as "most destructive figure " in world cricket after the Sivramkrishnan - FICA episode.  And there is little doubt that he will do anything to clean up this mess.   

Lalit Modi has harped on twitter about this episode and he would enjoy this no doubt whatsoever after the way he was ousted in 2010.  

Shashi Tharoor has termed Sreesanth as "pride of Kerala " and "innocent until proven guilty". Of course he will find all sorts of excuses to term Sreesanth as a martyr and gain some political mileage out of this. He is a part of the government, which is the most corrupt and inept in the history of Independent India.  So yes, this type of stereotypical statements are expected. 

The need of the hour is an extensive cleanup operation of Indian cricket, find the guilty players, deal with them very strictly, ban them for life, throw them in jail, demolish the bookie network (wishful thinking) and moreover, the most important thing, develop an educational framework for young uncapped Indian players to keep them away from corrupt practices and any luring offers from the bookies. Also help them report any such instance to the authorities without their career and position being compromised. 

Having said that, this is India. The country which strongly believes in "Chalne do" attitude. So expecting any fruitful action out of this shocking saga will be waste of time and wishful thinking.  And if only Shilpa Shetty and her husband would have kept tight leash on their players instead of jumping jhapak and dancing on every single 4 or 6 or a wicket, a lot of this embarrassment to Rahul Dravid could have been avoided.

Sir Mahendra Singh Dhoni

A week away from the blog and so much has happened. Rohit Sharma captained his first IPL game and won thanks to another West Indian.  Ricky Ponting sat out, Tendulkar continued to disappoint and get out to the guys he would have so conveniently dispatched in the stands in his prime (or even in 2011).  Pune Warriors continued to disappoint, the character evaporated from the Delhi Daredevils's captain belly.  Punjab continued to progress while Gilchrist continued to disappoint. 

And Sir Jadeja, actually useless Jadeja showed why he is an useless player. 2 knocks followed by listless performances and still boasting of himself.  KKR loses everything they play. And happy for SRK and Shilpa Shetty, that we dont have to see them jumping jhapak jhapak after their franchisees' win.

Chennai continue to impress with their batting might. Dhoni and Hussey continue to score more and more for Chennai, while the Test match comeback boy Vijay disappoints. Welcome signs for sure. It's the other way around for him now. Fail in Test matches, excel in IPL now changed to Fail in IPL and excel in Tests.  

Take out this 2 gentlemen and CSK shall limp. 

The man of the hour is MS Dhoni. He has been in his usual self. One man army. Continues to bat in a way only he can and win the games for his franchisee. Whenever he has failed CSK has lost. And when he has excelled, more often than not CSK has won. I am no fan of CSK, but I am in awe of MSD once again.  He is a superman of Indian cricket. 

A wicket keeper, a captain, a batsman, a fielder at times, in addition to CSK captain, VP of India cements. Last 2 doesn't matter though.  Dhoni has been under  the hammer ever since India lost 0-8 in 2011-12 on away tours and that call for his head grew louder and louder when India lost 1-2 to England in 2013 at home. 

But what a comeback he made. He won 4-0 against Australia.  And now winning games for CSK almost single handedly without much of fanfare. He keeps his cool, has a sense of humor and does his job with no pressure at all. As a result he has a grey hair and grey beard. He shows no hype, he shows no pressure and he hardly loses his cool like Gambhir and Kohli. 

He has a bowling attack of newbies even though he has a junk in Jadeja. He is making those newbies excel, something in line of Ganguly for India. Although he has a long way to travel in this regard for him. MS Dhoni is a man Indian fans and media should be thankful of.  Not long back, I did put some scathing posts on him on this blog itself, but seeing him excel for CSK when all other big names and big ego players failed has made me a big fan of him again. 

CSK sit on top of the table.  Dhoni has scored 235 runs this season, but most of those runs have been helpful in CSK winning the games.  And the heartening factor to see is his strike rate. He did not have a very useful strike rate in T20Is so far, but hopefully this S/R of 162 shall see a spike in the T20Is Strike rate as well.

Hussey is top scorer for CSK, but its MS Dhoni who has won more games to CSK than  Hussey and that is where he deserves to be called Sir. For all he has done to CSK and to Indian cricket leaving out the 3 test series loss (0-8 and 1-2), he is one cricketer who surely deserves to be called Sir Mahendra Singh Dhoni. 

The likes of Jadeja are good enough to be called as junk, they can never ever in their life reach to the stage where Dhoni has managed to reach. Even though Junk Jadeja might earn 2 million dollars every season only to appear in IPL, his value remains even today of 1 cent or in Indian currency 1 paisa.

Delhi and Pune make this IPL a 5 or 6 team affair

Delhi continue to disappoint every game they play and lose it. More pathetic to see is they fold up without a fight. Their big names continue to disappoint -- Warner, Sehwag and Jayawardhene seem to have frozen when it comes to bat. 

Ditto for Pune, they continue to get disgusting with every match, they lost the game they should have won against Hyderabad. But they collapsed from 4/101 to 109 giving a hattrick to Amit Mishra. Hyderabad were equally pathetic with the bat, but Pune gifted them the game on a platter. 

The Lankan players who are leading the franchisees are completely at sea when it comes to make runs or show leadership skills. Matthews is inexperienced but Sangakarra and Mahela are seasoned ones and they have ruthlessly murdered minnows in their peak days. 

The thinking of Mahela Jayawardhene was proved to be crappy when in the Super over against Royal Challengers Bangalore, he sent debutant Roherer ahead of Sehwag and himself. Even on the 1st wicket fall of Warner, he did not come himself in or send Sehwag. 

16 off 6 balls was gettable by any means for Sehwag, Warner and Mahela himself. But he froze and gave up the only chance to win the game. Now they are almost out of IPL.  

Sangakarra dropped himself in the game against Pune, he himself has been in woeful form. 

Punjab, Delhi and Pune are pathetic teams. That makes the competition among 6 teams for 4 play-off slots. With Hyderabad being on the lighter side with the bat, as the IPL progresses, the competition would seriously be between 5 teams.

Resign now Mr Jayawardhene

Shrimati Mahila Jayawardhene captained Sri Lanka not long ago in all 3 formats of the game. Now he is captain in none. He also led them to their first world cup final in 2007 and lost it to Adam Gilchrist single handedly with a glove ball. 

He then relinquished the SL captaincy after the Australian tour, got injured, did not play against his favorite opposition Bangladesh in SL. And then returned to IPL to captain Delhi Daredevils after Sehwag gave up the captaincy.

When Jayawardhene was the captain, every match presentation, pre-match or post match interview he used to utter a word "CHARACTER" too much too often.  He used to write articles and in those again the mention of the word "Character" was aplomb. 

But somehow coming to this IPL season, he has lost a lot of that character. He is no more an inspiring captain, thinking captain, astute captain, clever captain, sharp captain or whatever captain, the cricket media and SL bloggers hailed him to be. Delhi Daredevils continue to lose every game they are playing this season. Things dont look good in the 5th game as well with them struggling at 5/137 in 19 overs. This is a ridiculous target for a lineup that reads Gayle, Kohli and ABD.  Admittedly, his batting form has tapered away as well. He used to be "silken" and "classy" in T20s and people still remember his opening in 2010 and 2012 T20I editions. They also don't fail to remember the world cup final century in 2011 ending up in a losing cause.

My simple question to Jayawardhene is dude where is all that character, fighting spirit gone?  Where are those so called silky, classy shots, effortless drives gone  which help decimate all minnow bowlers ? Dude, your captaincy sucks, your attitude sucks and overall you suck. You should give up the captaincy for the franchisee sake and play just as a batsman. Your shelf life as a captain in any format of the game is OVER.

PS : Irfan Pathan just showed why he is a better batting or bowling allrounder for India than over hyped Sir Jadeja. 

Delhi end up at 5/152 a decent score, still not good enough.

Gambhir's return to form in IPL

Gautam Gambhir seems to be back in form in the IPL and it seems he will save his ODI spot. That means trouble for Shikhar Dhawan and M Vijay at least in ODIs. The ODI opening pair -- Rahane and Gambhir are in good form and unless their form tapers away ridiculously, neither of the 2 lads would be able to  find a place in playing XI in Champions trophy. 

Gautam Gambhir is the only performing cog in the wheels of KKR's train in this year's IPL, when it comes to batting.  And his good run with the bat in IPL augurs well, as soon as this jamboorie ends, the CT begins in England. So all the experiments and "youth policy" should be left to the tri-series in West Indies involving Sri Lanka,

Meanwhile Sunil Narine captured the first hattrick of this IPL and he earned me some crucial points in both ESPN and iplT20 fantasy leagues. 

As long as Gambhir is around, the KKR stand a chance. Post Gambhir there is very little batting that inspires hope.

Sir Jadeja appears

Sir Ravindra Jadeja appears on the CHEPAUK

Pune vs Chennai tidbits

Srikanth left the CSK brand ambassador post after his term as a chief selector with BCCI was over. He moved onto Hyderabad Sunrisers and guess what he has tied up with VVS Laxman in that franchisee. Laxman's impromptu retirement last year on the eve of series vs New Zealand was attributed to some unkind comments in the media from Srikanth. And now they are bonding. 

Srikanth left CSK, but he left his son in the good hands of N Srinivasan to continue get the blessings of Lord Jadeja. Today Annirudhha (whatever his spelling is) got a chance to play and he was out for a 2nd ball duck to Bhuvan Kumar.

Another sitter is dropped by T Suman for M Vijay and now Vijay shall repay the debt by a match winning innings. Damn right. I did not take him in my fantasy league today for his failure in that epic Jadeja game vs RCB. 

Pune has put another good performance today in absence of their looking lost skipper Angelo Mathews who could not play vs CSK being a Lankan and see the result. The batting prospered, the selections were great and the 2 Aussies contributed to take the Warriors to a healthy total of 159 for 5. Not the winning one, but still better than their previous games.

And if they could check Dhoni and Vijay after they get Raina, the match could be another close affair. Don't count on Sir Jadeja to come through again today. His chance of coming good is done in last game and he would make it count with 3 or 4 failures back to back.

I was wondering if DADA would still say Dinda is the best fast bowler in the country after what he did vs Mumbai Indians. 

So far Bhu1 has given away 3 runs in 2 overs with 1 wicket and 1 maiden. On the other hand Dinda babu has given away 7 in 1.  2 more fours conceded.  I think that should be it for Dinda in this game at least. If he bowls more, then it is injurious to Pune's campaign in this IPL.

Bhu1 takes out Raina, now only Dabrinath and Dhoni remain before Sir Jadeja appears.

Sir Jadeja praises himself.

Jadeja's hitting has a secret and that is he eats a lot this days. And then utters shit, like this interview in Times Of India.

"I am eating a lot these days. If you are playing for India or your franchise in IPL it doesn't matter, irrespective of how many matches you have played the pressure is always there. Number seven is a very difficult position to play in. You come in such a situation where you have to take the team to a victory. 

"Therefore, it is a difficult number. But I try to back myself in such situations for whichever team I am playing for and take the game to the last over and take the team to a win. It is not like earlier I was not able to hit and now I am able to hit. I have not become fat, though." 

"Later, the partnership between Dhoni and me was crucial. That was the need - to get a partnership towards the end and the runs would come. In the last four overs we needed 54 and we finished well from there."

And  finally he calls himself a good allrounder:

"The thing is that we have got good all-rounders. Bravo, (Albie) Morkel, Morris and I. There are four all-rounders so our batting is good and till number nine everybody can bat. "

Shit hole, if what you do makes you a good allrounder, then what the hell are Shane Watson, Jacques Kallis and Kieron Pollard ?

Sir Ravindra Jadeja jokes

Blessed are the players who make their debut in the team blessed and possessed by Lord Sri Sir Ravinder Jadeja. 

Today Sir Jadeja did not bless Chris Gayle, so the guy was out cheaply. 

Sir Jadeja blessed Mike Hussey in the previous game vs Punjab and the guy scored unbeaten 86.

Sir Jadeja was pissed off with MS Dhoni in the first game, he did not get to bowl 4 overs complete. Chennai Super Kinks ended up losing the close game by 9 runs. 

Sir Jadeja needs to be pleased by  the Sri Lankan cricket board and by the shady Lankan politics to ensure that their cricketers are allowed to play for Chennai and against Chennai in Chennai.

Srimati Mahila Parajayawardhene and Sriyut Angelo Matthews should offer prayers to Sir Jadeja and seek his blessings to ensure that they are able to turn the losing streak of their respective franchisees to victory lap.

Sir Jadeja just got hit for a 6 by Mayank Agarwal, poor kid, his cricketing career just got finished. 

And in the end is there another Harbhajan Singh who would do a Sreesanth to Sir Jadeja ? That is the only way to get rid of the magic spell cast by Sir Jadeja on the entire cricketing world.   

Gayle storm and finally a Pune win

Chris Gayle has continued his form with the bat for the 3rd year in succession. After 2 failures in last games, he is back to the usual and today he demolished Shahrukh Khan's team with a superb knock of 85*.  This knock demoralized the Knight Riders totally and as a result the captain Gautam Gambhir had an ugly spat with his rival captain and India / Delhi mate Virat Kohli. 

The spat was very ugly and repeated watching of video suggests the 2 captains fought in the heat of moment and on the behest of the team owners. When they don the blues again, this spat will be long forgotten. For RCB, Kohli and Gayle are turning out to be superb combination. The opposition can think of beating this franchisee only if they manage to get both the players cheaply.

It will not be wrong to mention that RCB is the team of the tournament so far. They have won 3 out of 4 games and almost won the 4th one too, if not for the Super over defeat to SunRisers last Sunday. They hold the purple cap, orange cap. Virat Kohli is the topmost run getter followed by Chris Gayle. Ditto in bowling. R Vinay Kumar followed by RP Singh.

Kolkata Knight Riders are like the soda bottle which fizzes very soon once the lid is opened. They had a title last year but this year they are by no means playing like a team. Their bowling is decent, but in batting except for Gautam Gambhir, the other batsmen are misfiring. They need some boost in batting very soon before it is too late for them. Jacques Kallis has been successful for them in last 2 years, but I think playing Ryan Tendo or Brendon McCullum over Kallis will give them the necessary boost. 

RCB next play against Sir Jadeja's team and should be overwhelming favorites to win the game. Imagine the kind of bowling Jadeja would do to Kohli and Gayle, the 2 top run getters shall score tons in the next game.

And finally Pune won something against some team. Breaking a 11 game losing streak is a huge achievement for them. They should be congratulated for this.  Who knows when will the next win come and in which season.

Hail Rahul Dravid

While we are enthralled by aggressive batting from Chris Gayle and company, one can never get enough of legendary stuff from Rahul Dravid even at age of 40, good 1 year after retirement and picking up a cricket bat after 7 months. 

You will always heap praises on Gayle for the entertainment and return of money he provides through his batting , but it is the sight of some classic shots from Dravid even in this tournament make you feel blessed to have witnessed the stuff of legend.

The satisfaction one derives from the batting of Dravid, Tendulkar is just incomparable. Nothing exceeds that, nothing beats that.

Sir Ravinder Jadeja bashing

Sir Ravindra Jadeja is on a roll. After the fans, its CSK team mates also address Jadeja as Sir Jadeja and they are now trying to replace Rajni jokes with Jadeja jokes. Any number of jokes on Jadeja are not enough and seeing him in the national team makes me go berserk and I can then barely control on the expletives I wish to bestow on him. 

Today Sir Jadeja got to bowl full quota of overs and he also took a wicket of Manan Vohra.  That was a sh**t of a ball and Vohra could hit it only in the hands of fielder. Cricinfo acknowledged it.

"Jadeja to Vohra, OUT, that's a rubbish ball, so short, and Vohra went back and pulled in the air towards cow corner, where he had hit his previous boundary. But Dhoni had moved a fielder there, and Hussey settled under the ball and caught it a couple of yards inside the rope. He could have hit it anywhere and he picked out the fielder"

Thanks to MS Dhoni's captaincy who would ensure he would do everything to update wickets column under his team's most overrated and expensive player. And Jadeja got a wicket of a rubbish ball. That is how Jadeja gets wickets. 

Luck, rapport with influential people where it matters and less of performance. That is Sir Jadeja for you.  24 wickets in 4 tests vs Australia and dismissals of Clarke is something he will feast upon long. And since Clarke is best Test batsman in contemporary cricket, Jadeja's name shall always be mentioned in same breath. 

Before this Test series he made 2 triple centuries in domestic cricket, which fast tracked his place in the Test team.  But every one forgets to mark where he made those centuries. On one of the flattest wicket in the country in Rajkot, those runs does not matter. His batting was rubbish in the tests. But all of that did not matter. He was 2nd highest wicket taker in the Australia test series. 

In IPL 2012 as most expensive buy of the year, he made 191 runs in 19 games with an average of 16 and a strike rate of 127 and took 12 wickets in 19 games, 5 of those coming in a single game vs Deccan Chargers.  That means 7 wickets in other 18 games. 

Certainly not worth 2 million dollars. But in the end does not matter. He got to be in Srinivasan, BCCI chief's good books and from there on his place in all formats of game in Indian team is guaranteed. Performances, attitude and all. That does not matter. 

By the way Chennai Super Kings  got to winning ways after losing the first one. And today it was Michael Hussey and M Vijay's chance to shine brighter and brighter. Together they did and won by 10 wickets. 

Thalaiva Krishna Kumar Dinesh Karthik

Update : He just got out for 86.

Krishnakumar Dinesh Karthik alias Dinesh Karthik alias Boss DK has now come of an age. It took him 9 years after his Test debut to fulfill the promise he shown earlier. 

He has been the best batsman of the Mumbai Indian franchisee this season when the greatest players of modern age cricket have failed consistently. Our Boss DK has truly stamped his authority over the game. 

Not long ago he was reeled mercilessly by the fans and bloggers all around much similar to what Sir Ravindra Jadeja is being done in past couple of years. Unlike Jadeja, our lad has gone ahead quietly and developed to a full blown aggressive batsman. 

If MS Dhoni injures or rests, the selectors must look to this man as potential replacement.  

He is now truly the BOSS.  Mumbai Indians have come alive in IPL-6 thanks to this man from Namma Chennai (not Uncle Srini's Chennai).

Thalaiva Krishnakumar Dinesh Karthik. 

Kolkata Night Riders suffer their first defeat

In a master class of a captaincy from the old legend of the game Rahul Dravid, the defending IPL champions and Shahrukh Khan's franchisee Knight Riders lost their first game in the IPL season 6. In a virgin Jaipur pitch, Dravid offered no leeway to the Bollywood dancer's team who never recovered from the initial blows RR bowlers offered to them. 

The middle order of the Knight Riders -- Kallis, Bhatia, Morgan,  Yusuf Pathan feasts on spinners and taking a cue from this fact, Dravid offered no leeway to them. Despite chasing only 145 the Riders were bundled out for 126 and lost the game by 19 runs. 

Earlier the Riders restricted RR to a decent 144 in 20 overs with no batsmen crossing 50.  Rahane and Hodge scored decent 46 and  36 respectively. In the end 144 proved too much for the defending champions just like 149 proved too much for Sir Jadeja's team on Saturday.

Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad are on the top of the table. Led by legendary # 3s of their respective countries (Sanga is no legend outside SL, but within SL he is), this 2 franchisees have one of the lowest "star value" and hence they gel more as a team. The results are for every one to see.  They might lose a game or 2 by big margin, but they would for sure put up a big fight and often scare big teams. And that's where this 2 teams might win more fans outside their traditional fan base. 

One such example of player with limited talent but tremendous temperament is Hanuma Vihari. Although there is very little evidence on his talent, but he has shown enough of temperament and attitude on positive side. He almost got SH to the victory yesterday with a fighting 44 off 46 balls.  Even though later in the Super over, the SH won, but it was Hanuma Vihari who got them to this stage. Except for Sanga and Cameron White, the batting prowess of SH is pretty limited and with players like Vihari in the team, the results in the remainder of tournament will be more favorable than not. 

That leaves a lot of lesson for the players with "tremendous potential" but little temperament like Rohit Sharma.  2 games in the season and he is yet to find his mojo.  Vinay Kumar, captain of Karnataka Ranji side was unlikely hero of 2 games in row -- MI and SH by bowling a good last over. But he lost his balance when it mattered the most -- Super Over. 

If we take a look at the results so far in this IPL, the franchisees who are more of team than mere collection of Indian and foreign players have excelled.  Again RR and SH lead on this count.

Unfortunately on one side when it is a delight to see Dravid led RR to win the games, on the same hand it is a crunchy feeling to see Shilpa Shetty jump on every wicket RR takes or every four or 6 their batsmen hit. The Bollywood intrusion in cricket is the worst part of IPL, that I continue to hate.

Chennai vs Mumbai

Sir Shri Ravinder Jadeja failed to wave his magical wand in this game and as a result the Chennai Super Kinks franchisee lost its first game. Dubbed as always the pre-tournament favorites begun well by tapping Tendulkar for a golden duck in what could be his last game in Chepauk. And they had MI in mat by the 13th over stage at 6/83. 

Pollard then showed why he is a dangerous T20 player of the world. 51 off 38 balls saw the MI post a respectable 148 for 6 with a good contribution from their former captain Harbhajan Singh. The pacers of the CSK did the job for them unlike the spinners. Ashvin bowled cheap but could get only 1 wicket. 

Sir Jadeja did not turn up for more than 2 wickets. Mysterious. But it is Dhoni and it is very difficult to guess his moves. 0-12 in 2 overs. That's the only contribution he made. 

149 was a gettable score always. Vijay and Hussey were the openers. Hussey will be available for full IPL after having retired from the international cricket. And Vijay was nominated to the Champions Trophy 30 probables replacing Virender Sehwag. How did he celebrate ? Going too wide for a leg side hive and seeing his stumps shattered. 

The MI skipper continued to rotate his bowlers and soon the star studded batting of Chennai found itself back in the pavilion and when Sir joined MS Dhoni in the middle, I thought Sir with his Cricketing Puppa (Father) MS will see CSK home and in turn earn some more promotions from N Srini. 

But the true colors and limitations of Sir Jadeja showed up. And after hitting a four and a 6, he returned back to the pavillion. 

MSD continued to wage a lonely battle, something which he has so many times done for his franchisee and India , but in absence of any valued support from the other end, MI crossed the victory line by 9 runs. A good win but lot of questions on whether Ponting and Tendulkar opening combination will work or Rohit Sharma will ever fulfil his promise and will Harbhajan ever return to the wickets ?

But the game will be remembered for one more tight finish this season and the failure of Sir Jadeja after a miraculous unexpected success against Australia.

Pune vs Punjab

Pune can't play sala. 

And take Yuvraj out, any club team of desis in USA is better than the PWI team in IPL. And that was visible  in today's first game. 

99 for 9 in 20 overs and the Punjab side romped home with 8 overs remaining. 

Enough said. PWI should probably think about withdrawing mid stage from the tournament. Even a tennis ball side playing league cricket in USA will beat PWI convincingly.

Weekend games round up

Friday and Saturday saw 3 games being played in the 6th edition of IPL.  2 of those games were pretty close and were perfect advertisement for the game except that one of those games saw the bollywood crap jumping on every wicket falling. 

Pune vs Hyderabad

Pune were favorites in this battle of the wooden spoon holders of previous season. Hyderabad were making their debut under new owners and new name (crux of the team was same as Dhakkan Defusers).  And Pune had a new head coach, their best player was back in the team. But the fortunes did not change.  Although they made  a good start in limiting the Sunrisers to modest 126, their batting flopped. 

Yuvraj excelled with bowl but failed with the ball. The nemesis with the ball were Dale Steyn, the best Test bowler in the world and India discard  -- the last leggie to play for India in Tests -- Amit Mishra. Pune could muster only 104 runs and lost game by 22 runs. 

No batsmen in the game crossed 50.  Pune might need to rethink their strategy sooner to avoid the disappointing results of past 2 seasons.  Hyderabad might have made a good start but they dont have established players in batting except Sangakara and to an extent Cameron White.  How much confidence Tom Moody and Waqar Younis are able to pump in this franchisee, that remains to be seen. 

Delhi Vs Rajasthan

This was a game Delhi should have won easily after David Warner showed why he is one of the most exciting batsmen around in all formats. But his run out followed by a brain freeze from Mahela Jayawardhene to send Irfan Pathan later, cost Delhi a game by 5 runs.  They should have won the game easily given the way they paced their chase. 

Kevin Cooper and Brad Hodge kept their nerve in the end and Rajasthan saw themselves home in a  tight game. Last year they had lost the game by 1 run to the same opponents in the same venue but this year they turned the tables.  

Umesh Yadav made a welcome return after the injury (2nd game though). And it was good to see him in wickets straight away. 4-24 ensured Rajasthan did not post a big score. They got to 165 thanks to their captain Dravid's solid 65 run knock. 

Dravid said he had taken a 6-7 month break from cricket in the year of his retirement, but had returned to training and fitness in last 2 months. That effort paid off today. He is indeed a legend with an unique work ethic. Something that made him the legend that he is.

Sehwag was out for 2nd game in running and today he also found himself out of the contention of the Champions Trophy.

Mahela Jayawardhene continues to lose games in his captaincy. Not sure where his character has lost.

More on the 3rd game in next post.

RCB win the dramatic game full of Karthiks and Muralis

Drama. More Drama. RCB won in the end by 2 runs. MI choked, like they always have. Somebody in the MI dressing room who suggests the batting order for Kieron Pollard should be spanked on his ass. Rayudu ahead of Pollard ? Must be kidding.  Damn Pollard is a member of a World Cup winning team and he coming at 6 was just ridiculous. In the end that turned out to be the decisive factor between a 6 wicket win and a 2 run loss. 

Boss DK pulled things last moment, but they never should have landed up in that mess. Having people like Kumble and Ponting in the dressing room has not changed the messy thinking of Mumbai Indians. And I am not blaming Tendulkar for it. 

Whoever that person is who decides the batting order is such an ass. 

Meanwhile it must have been an epic to see  2 modern greatest batsmen walking out together and opening the account for the MI.

Tendulkar was run out and Ponting out cheap. 

But it was Ponting stumped Arun Karthik bowled Murali Karthik that got the attention.

3 players with last names as Karthik and 2 people with first name as Murali. South Indian names!!!

In the end it was once again a Gayle magic that saw RCB home for the first time vs MI in their home ground.

KKR off to a winning start with a YES Bank Maximum Win

Defending champions KKR won their first game in the run to defend their title. And the one on losing side were Virender Sehwag 's Delhi Daredevils. 

Earlier Srinivasan and Dhoni had instructed Delhi Daredevils management to drop Sehwag from the playing XI and attribute it to the back spasm. Dhoni wants to ensure that Sehwag gets no chance to explode back to form and in process find a way back in the ODI and Test team.

Pun intended for above para.

Back to the game, this time the star of the win was Sunil Narine who took 4 wickets and spun KKR to its first win of the season and 5th win over DD in last 6 games.  From DD, only Mahela and Dave Warner ran into double digits and the rest failed miserably. Of course they were without 2 of their best batsmen of last season -- Sehwag and KP. 

Mahela's jugglery did not inspire "CHARACTER" in the Delhi lads and in the end Gambhir led his team with a 29 ball 42 to a win that also piled agony on the viewers to witness the owner of KKR team once again on the holy Eden Gardens ground.

The sighting of Bollywood "Bhands" is a ugly view on the grounds which should only be left for cricketers to step in.  Unfrotunately IPL is a mix of Bollywood crap and cricket. 

And yes this time it is YES BANK MAXIMUM instead of DLF Maximum. Pepsi Maximum should have sounded better.  Suddenly DLF Maximum sounded better, the word we had bemoaned all this years.