Mother Land or Money Land.

Mother Land or Money Land

One week into the IPL edition IV has been nothing less than exciting. Some of the matches and some performances have been amazing least to say. The start of IPL IV was a fairy tale start, an amazing 1^st match between CSK and KKR; the match which went down to the wire was the perfect start to the IVth season. IPL needs such matches for people to show interest in it. Many thought that IPL won’t get the viewership after the long WC, but on the contrary the WC win has increased the interest in the game and so the viewership has been high, in fact it is believed that the opening ceremony and the opening match had the best TRP’s compared to the previous 3 editions. All urges well for IPL almost all high profile cricketers playing barring a few Australians and West Indians, some exciting matches and to match with it some amazing performances. 

The previous 3 editions of IPL honestly India as a team haven got any match winning player from IPL, barring Yusuf Pathan no other player have been able to use the IPL platform to make it to the national team successfully. But this time the story seems to be changing, in 1^st week itself we have seen some amazing performances by less known players. Paul Valthaty has been the 1^st to catch eye of every one this IPL by scoring the 1^st century of this IPL edition, a very less known player before the 126 not out against CSK has made him almost an house hold name now after that stupendous innings. The most important thing about that innings for me was that he didn’t give it away after making a 100 he made sure that his team won the match and he stayed there till he guided his team to the 1^st win of IPL IV. The 2^nd performance which took every by surprise was the innings by Bharat Chipli of DC against RCB, this has to one of the very confident innings, he played superbly throughout the innings, again he didn’t give it away in middle he was there till the end of the innings which lead the DC to a good score and which helped them register their first win, Both the performances have lead to a win for their respective teams which is very important. There have been other match winning performances by players like Mohnish Mishra of PWI against KTK his 31 not out was a knockout punch for KTK. 

The performance of a player which makes me very happy is Ambati Rayudu’s performance, it has been nothing less than brilliant so far in this tournament, he has always been a very talented batsmen but just lost his way by getting associated with the rebel league ICL, but he is back since IPL 3 and has been back with a bang. The best part for Rayudu is he has the guiding light given by none other than the legend Sachin Tendulkar. Rayudu’s performance so far is creating a gap between himself and the other talented Mumbai batsmen Rohit Sharma. Other than this amazing performances so far there has been a very brilliant knocks by the old war horses Jacques Kallis with 3consectuive 50s, Sachin Tendulkar who is yet not dismissed in this tournament so far with 1 Century and 1 half century, Gautam Gambhir has been a valuable addition for KKR this year.  We all hope this IPL gives us a brilliant match winning player who can serve the country for long time to come.

Along with some amazing performances this IPL, there has been few controversies also. The 1^st being where the Sri Lankan Cricket Board has called its players to report back by 5^th May so that they can prepare for the England tour. BCCI would do everything to influence their decision. I am somehow of a feeling that national duty should be given preference over the IPL duties, but some players like Kieron Pollard has a different point of view who has refused to be part of West Indies team for Pakistan series at home.  He has chosen money land over mother land which I feel is poor decision by him. National duty should always be given priority over IPL commitment; nevertheless it’s his personal point of view. There are players in this IPL who are not ready to lead their National Team or who have given up National captaincy but are very happy to lead an IPL team. This seems to confuse me no end.

Players like Kumar Sangakkara has given up Sri Lankan captaincy after the world cup loss due to some reasons but then he is very happy to lead the IPL side. I wonder why the reason for quitting national captaincy does not apply when you are leading an IPL side. Players like Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, and Daniel Vettori have all given up their national team’s captaincy but are happy leading an IPL side. On the other hand our very own Virender Sehwag is also not too interested in leading the DD team; he had given away his captaincy to Gautam Gambhir in 3^rd edition. But this season he has been put back to leading the team. If you see the performance of teams who have captains who aren’t that keen on leading the team isn’t very inspiring. Performances of DC,DD,RCB and KTK has not been very exciting so far with one win for each of them and when you compare with a keen captain like Yuvraj Singh, Shane Warne, MS Dhoni you can clearly see the difference. The reason for Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene for quitting national captaincy was they didn’t see them self playing for long, but these reason don’t apply when captaining the IPL side The Sri Lankan players are going to go back to Sri Lanka by 5^th of May, that would mean they won’t captain their respective sides during the most important leg of the tournament so since they won’t be there for the entire tournament why don’t they allow someone else to lead the side, who will be there for the entire tournament. When they leave for national duty then their respective teams would again have to start from scratch, they should actually help the young players to get into the role of a captain with help of their experience. But in IPL all the reasons and problems go for a toss. In first 3 editions we had players who retired from international cricket but continued to play in the IPL; in this edition we even have the umpire doing the same. Rudi Koertzen has retired from International Cricket but is happy umpiring in IPL. I won’t be surprised to see in future if players decide only to play in the IPL.

Nevertheless this IPL has been brilliant so far. We have seen some very exciting matches which have gone down to the wire. Hope to see such more matches in future for the benefit of Cricket and IPL. For me IPL is all about Divided by teams but United by Cricket.

Fairytale Start to IPL IV

What an amazing start to IPL IV.One could not have asked for a better start to IPL IV.It could not have been better than this,the match was in balance till the last over of the match.You could not bet your money on a team to win till last over of the game.After the brilliant inauguration of IPL from KKR owner ShahRukh Khan,this kind of a match was the icing on the cake for IPL IV.
CSK's captain won the toss and elected to bat first,not surprising at all since the pitch at Chennai is a slow turning pitch,during World Cup 2011 the pitch at Chennai was turning square.But the at the toss both the captains were pretty happy as MSD wanted to bat and Gautam Gambhir wanted to bowl,so their wish was fulfilled.The CSK started well their opener Srikkanth Anirudha started well and top scored with a fluent 64 of 55 balls with 6 hits to the boundary and 2 over it,although the other opener Murali Vijay didn't score too much was out int he 1st over of the match.There was very useful contributions from Suresh Raina with 33 off 29 balls(4sx4) and the CSK captain MS Dhoni with 29 from 21 balls (1x6s,1x4s),but CSK innings needed a knock out punch which was given the South African all rounder Albie Morkel making 15 off 9 balls(1x6s,1x4s).
Srikkanth Anirudha's innings was very important, he played well and it was also a quick innings showing he can bat the way his dad did for India.
KKR started well in this match by getting Vijay's wicket in 1st over of the match,but then they lost the plot when Raina and Anirudha gave the innings stability.KKR also dropped couple of catches of Raina and Anirudhas both the time Yusuf Pathan was the culprit.After dismissing Raina KKR came into the match nicely and they did well to restrict CSK to 153 where earlier it was looking like CSK would easily reach a total of 175+.
When KKR's turn with bat came up they started well,but I was surprised to see Bisla and Kallis opening.As KKR opened their bowling with a spinner I.Abdullah CSK went for the orthodox approach opening with 2 pacers.
KKR had the best opener in Gambhir but they didn't opt for him has surprised many a people.KKR batted well specially in the first 8 overs with 64 on board without loss of a wicket.After the ball lost its shine and hardness captain cool was in his favorite zone getting his spinners and create pressure on the batsmen and that pressure worked in favor of MS and the spinners Jakati,Ashwin,Randiv and Raina bowled well and created pressure with each of them taking 1 wicket each.Kallis played well and made a fluent 54 off 42 balls(7x4s) the Kallis innings proved that the Purists have a place in this format,he was the only one who made some thing substantial for KKR.KKR was winning the match till the 15th over but then came the brilliance of Indian Captain Dhoni he ran out Yusuf brilliantly.After the wicket of Kallis who tried to play a cute paddle shot, then the wickets were falling like nine pins,between these wickets there was cameo from Manoj Tiwary who made 27 off 15 balls(1x4s,2x6s) because of Tiwary KKR was in the game till the last over of the match.Gambhir who batted to bat at number 6 was run out by Styris for a single run.
Because of Tiwary's cameo KKR needed 9 runs to win off the last over but some brilliant bowling from Kiwi Tim Southee made sure that CSK won the match by 2 runs.
The difference between both the teams was the Captain,where MS was ready to take the challenge on and promoted himself at number 4 and KKR captain Gambhir shy ed away from the challenge and lost the match.The difference between the captaincy was the experience,where MS has a lot of experience of captaincy and used his experience to good effect where as Gambhir was found wanting and didn't not take the challenge.
There is a saying,"To Win a Match you need to Teach,and when you loose a match you need to learn."
Dhoni wanted to win this match and he lead by example with both bat and gloves and not to forget his cool captaincy and where as Gambhir although lost the match would learn from his mistakes and rectify his mistakes in coming matches.In KKR's defence they got the toughest opening match against the IPL III winners,the only way they would go from here is up and they would only improve.
Since its a long tournament where each team gets minimum of 14 matches in Round Robin stages,every team has a chance of making a comeback in the tournament.
Nevertheless it's an amazing start to the IPL season hope to get some more tight matches as the tournament goes along.
IPL is back although with new set of administrators but with old excitement.

World Cup Triumph

World Cup Triumph

Would like to start by congratulating Team INDIA on their amazing WC win. After the team would like to congratulate the Support Staff of the team and last but not the least Congratulations to the fans. Fans if not more but have worked equally hard to win this Cup. Except a few everyone has been supporting the team in ups and down, more so important when the team is down.

This world cup win has been nothing less than magnificent it’s been a complete team effort thought out this tournament it’s been superb team effort. Everyone has chipped in when it was very important. As in the past all the world cup winning teams start slowly and then they start peaking at the right time. Be in India in 1983 when they lost to West Indies in round robin match and when there were in trouble against minnows Zimbabwe at 17 for 5 before Kapil Dev played captains knock of 175.

In 1987 the World Cup was in Asia and no one gave chance to Australia to win it.

Pakistan didn’t start well in 1992, mid tournament there were 3^rd team from bottom and we all know how the tournament ended for them. In 1996 Sri Lanka was least expected to win the World Cup. In 1999 Australia lost matches in WC unlike their next two triumphs.

So like past winners India was a bit slow to start. Before the tournament started many people thought India would win the tournament but 2 weeks into the tournament everyone would have changed their opinions. India’s performance against Bangladesh especially the bowling was poor, their next game against England which ended in a tie was a shocker specially after scoring 330runs, but after Andrew Strauss’s innings the tie would have made India happy, but I would still feel that Tie against England was a poor result for Team India. Their next two matches against Ireland and Netherlands ended in Indian victory which was expected out of the Team but still the way India won was less than convincing losing half the side while chasing 200 odd runs. But these two games gave us Yuvraj Singh the bowler. His Fiver against Ireland was truly the highlight of the World Cup. Then came along the loss against South Africa, if we consider the start that Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag gave in that match losing that match was a nightmare. But when you also consider that India made only 296 and they lost the match only in the last over so this bowling performance was the best bowling and fielding performance till that time in the tournament.

Then came the match which I think made the real difference and this match got India peaking and it was the best time to peak and so well did them. The match against West Indies was the best game in round robin for Indian bowling. The win did not excite me but the thing that I excited me was the way Team won. Virender Sehwag was sitting out for this game. Unlike other games Sachin Tendulkar was out early in the innings, when he walked while the umpired didn’t give him out.  Then came the Yuvraj the batsmen and he conquered the world with his batting this time scoring a century his maiden century in World Cups. After amazing innings by Yuvraj Singh, India didn’t not end up making up a big score. 268 are what they could manage which was the lowest score by Team India batting first in 1^st stage of this World Cup. But the way the bowlers made a comeback in this match was amazing to see especially after West Indies made a good start with the bat and were going strong when Indian bowlers decided to end the match early. This was the best bowling performance in round robin matches and also the best victory by the team in round robin matches. This is the match where India looked at home and they started to peak from this match. They Started to peak not too early and not too late just at the right time before the knockouts.

Then came the 3 most amazing victories for India in World Cup, one was against the three time world cup winning team Australia and the team which made their dreams shatter in 2003, and then against the arch rivals Pakistan and then came the final victory against the team which washed away India’s dream of winning the world cup in 1996 by defeating them in 1996 World Cup semi finals in Calcutta (now Kolkata). With each game India’s performance got better in Knock Outs. I feel the difference between the Sri Lankan team and the Indian Team this World Cup was the road to the finals. Where Sri Lanka had a much easier route to World Cup finals playing Tired England in Q F's and New Zealand in SF's where as India has more difficult route to Finals playing Australia and Pakistan in Q F's and SF's respectively.

There is a saying "Still Waters do not make Skilled Sailors". So may be since India had come through rough waters they were more ready for the Finals and were more skilled as compared to Sri Lanka on the day.

India’s performances are more commendable because of the pressure they were surrounded with. Be it from Media and the home crowd. World Cup has never been won by the host till date; this shows the amount of pressure home crowd creates on their team. This World Cup win is more so sweet because it came in the host country for the winning team, like 1996 Sri Lanka won the World Cup but then the finals were played in Pakistan. But this Indian Win was in India which makes me applaud this performance more so.

This World Cup win would take Indian Cricket to higher levels. It’s a dream for every player to win the ultimate trophy in cricket. This World Cup would also help the ICC to advertise the 50 over game which was slowly dying because of invention of Twenty-20 cricket. I don’t think ICC needs to worry about the future of 50-Over format any further as the biggest cricket loving nation has won the trophy. This world cup win would also promote the game further especially among people who thought 50-over cricket was boring. The fight of tickets for the final match assures the safe future of One Day cricket. This win would also make kids take up the sport more, as when young kids watch such amazing victories its more so motivating for them to take up the game, so this win would also improve the standard of the game in future. The Master Blaster Sachin has many times said that seeing the team win the World Cup in 1983 when he was just 10 yrs motivated him and it was his dream to win the ultimate trophy. So this win would also help India to produce some more great players in future which would benefit the Indian cricket. So this win would help India reap benefits for many more years to come. It won’t be surprising to see many young kids taking admission in cricket academy this summer vacations. It’s like seeding a mango tree by the grandfather but the benefits that is the mango fruit would be enjoyed by the grand children over the years.

Would like to end up by saying Congratulations once again to everyone and thank you to Team India for making us proud. Cricket is something that unites every Indian. 

Proud to be an Indian.

Last World Cup of "THE STARS"

The World Cup 2011 is about to end.It has been one of the best World Cup's.Before this World Cup there were talks whether there is a future of One Day Cricket because of growing popularity of the "Fata Fat"Cricket the Twenty20 Cricket.But this World Cup has actually put life back to the Dying One Day Cricket.There should be a special thanks to Team England from ICC and from the fans of One Day Cricket.They have been the best advertisers of this game in this World Cup as all their matches have gone down to the wire.They have won the award for the "Most Entertaining Team" this World Cup.
But as this World Cup has helped to increase the popularity of One Day game.This World Cup would also be remembered as the last World Cup of the Stars.This World Cup would see the end of many a Stars.

This would be the last World Cup of many players who have been at best of the ability level.Some stars have announced their retirements before the World Cup began and where as some took the difficult decision during the tournament and where some may have not taken the decision but it would be difficult for them to last for the next 4 years to participate in the most followed cricket tournament.

This World Cup would see an end to the career of the best spinner in any form of cricket Muttiah Muralitharan. It would be shame if the champion wide eyed spinner does not the play the Final.He has been the brand ambassador of Sri Lankan Cricket for a long time and also the lone warrior for them specially in Test Matches.The person who would miss Murali the most would be the Sri Lankan captain,he no more can look round his shoulder to find the champion spinner helping him out of trouble.
Another player who announced his retirement during the tournament was the player better known as the Rawalpindi Express.Shoaib Akhtar he announced his retirement during the tournament after the poor match against the Kiwi's where he was slaughtered by Ross Taylor.But his final match does not show us the way that he has performed in past.He has slaughtered many a batsmen during his prime time.We wont consider as the ideal career as his career was always surrounded by controversies.But still he would be remembered as the fastest bowler the cricket world has seen.
Where some players have announced their retirements,there are some whom we doubt would stay till the next World Cup in 2015 to be played in Australia and New Zealand.
The South African who would feel unlucky in all the World Cups he's been part off.Jacques Kallis one of the best all rounders the cricket world has ever seen. Although his team has been suffering from World Cup Jinx.
There is player who has always raised his game during World Cups,he's been part of 6 World Cup campaigns.The little master from India Sachin Tendulkar although he has not announced his retirement but it is highly unlikely that the master would be part of the tournament to be played in 4 years time.He has always raised his game in world cups and the only trophy missing from his trophy cabinet has been the world cup trophy.But it's about to change in next 24 hours as India are playing the World Cup 2011 final.The hunger of World Cup trophy in the master can be seen as he has always raised his game in the big tournament barring the 2007 where India were out of the tournament in the 1st round.
Wonder how would the cricket world  be without these stars,as these players born once in a generation or a lifetime.
Along with these players there are some more players who wont be part of the Cricket World in future specially they wont be part of the cup that counts the World Cup.
Steve Tikolo from Kenya announced his retirement during the tournament.
Ricky Ponting it will be difficult to see him playing in world cup in his home country.
Mahela Jayawardene,Paul Collingwood,Mike Hussey,Shivnarine Chanderpaul these are the few more players who would find it very difficult to remain part of the respective teams during the next extravaganza in next 4 years.

Cricket world wont be the same without these stars.