Serious cricket is over.  Time for fulltoo timepass cricket.  The baby of Lalit Modi, the combination of two religions of India, Bollywood and Cricket, the Indian Premier League begins tomorrow.

Chikni cheerleaders, bimbotic Bollywood stars, moronic commentators, 3 hours of non stop masti.  The next 50 days promises non stop hungama.  Bring it on.

No points for guessing who my favourites are.  Go Deccan Chargers Go.  No Gilly, Symonds, Gibbs & Styris.  But we do have Steyn, Sangakkara, Pietersen, Ojha etc.

The new advertisement for Deccan Chargers is downright hilarious.  Watch the video link here .

Best thing about this IPL?  No Pakis.  Thank God for small mercies.  Or else after feasting on our money and enjoying our hospitality, that bird brained Shahid Afridi will go back to PUKEistan and complain that we are not large hearted.  Not to mention that langda tyagi, Sohail Tanveer complaining about hindustaniyon ki zehniyat.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

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Given below is the list of the players (info source: Cricinfo) picked up in the auction and the ones retained by the teams.  The first player in each team (according to my assumption) will captain the team.

The IPL-4 looks much more formidable this time with more players, more teams and no clear favourites.   Again happy to see no Pakistani players in the auction and glad to see them being kept out of the whole tournament.  Hope this courtesy is extended to all their artists too who are feeding off our film & music industry.

First the World Cup in February and then the 4th edition of IPL.  Ah, life’s gonna be busier again.

Previous posts on IPL here

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An explosive start to the tournament is expected starting today when the defending champions, Deccan Chargers take on Kolkatta Knight Riders at Mumbai.

IPL3 is even bigger as not only is it back in India, almost all the world players will be there (sooner or later).  And most importantly, there is no Pakistani players (thank God for small mercies).  Hope it stays that way for years to come.

For the first time ever, IPL will not only be streamed lived on youtube, but also will be telecast live in multiplexes around the country.  Imagine watching 3 hours of cricket on a mega 70mm screen with stereo sound and hunderds of screaming fans in a dark hall.

Am sure, i don’t need to spell out my favourites.  Once a Hyderabadi, always a Hyderabadi.

Go Deccan Chargers Go !

Full schedule of IPL3 can be obtained here

All pictures source: Ibnlive, Rediff & Telugupeople

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Playing around with the look of my blog.  That’s what you do when you have nothing better to do.  

Deccan Chargers crashed out of the T20 Champions Trophy and i hardly watched even a single match of the tournament.  Ended up wondering why the hell are they playing.  Read some news that the TRPs of the T20 Champions Trophy are worse than the other Champions Trophy played recently in South Africa.

With so many Champions Trophies in a single sport, no wonder the people are disinterested.  Read Pritish Nandy’s tweet where he predicted that cricket is on a decline as a sport as money has corrupted it.  But then, the self professed God of cricket, Lalit Modi has some other plans.  He plans to have 2 IPLs in a year, 3 Champs leagues, 4 world cups and if possible a few more matches here and there.   Not that i care.  Fortunately for me, once i left India, i left the craze for cricket behind too.  Earlier used to subscribe to sports channels to watch them.  Now, even with tons of websites doing free streaming of all TV channels, i still dont bother watching them.

With Diwali around, 3 big movies are releasing in Hindi.  I might finally drag my sorry ass to some multiplex and watch one of them.  Which one of them is something that will depend on my mood at that particular moment.

Mr & Mrs Khanna surely wont be the one i will spend my money on.  Who in the right frame of mind wants to see 2 constipated faces (Salman and Sohail) on the screen after having paid so much money?

Picture source:  Icanhascheezeburger

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The Twenty20 Champions League cricket tournament starts off at Bangalore today with a clash between the Royal Challengers Bangalore (India) and Cape Cobras (South Africa) at 2000 IST.

I dont think i need to mention where my loyalties lie.  Go Deccan Chargers Go.

The trophy that the below mentioned teams are playing for; along with the prize money of US$ 2.5 million.

The teams are:

India -  Deccan Chargers, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Daredevils
Australia – New South Wales Blues, VB Victorian Bushrangers
South Africa – Cape Cobras, Diamond Eagles
New Zealand – Otago Volts
Sri Lanka – Wayamba
west Indies – Trinidad & Tobago
England – Sussex, Somerset County Cricket Club.

For comprehensive information about the tournament, go to their official website at clt20.com

All above pictures source: clt20

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What an awesome month this has been.  The chaddi gang routed in the elections.  Deccan Chargers coming out of nowhere to win this year’s IPL.  Twenty-20 world cup coming up in another 10 odd days. Yay.

Missing the sleep was worth it.  Tonight, i will have a contented sleep

It was a double whammy for Vijay Mallya yesterday.  His Formula 1 team, Force India just missed out on the points table and his cricket team, Bangalore Royal Challengers just missed out in the finals.

Pictures courtesy: IBNLive & Rediff

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The war begins in approximate 4 hours.

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Deccan Chargers will now meet the winners of the Chennai Super Kings and Bangalore Royal Challengers match in the finals of the IPL 2009 on Sunday.

Above pictures courtesy: Cricinfo

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Go Deccan Chargers Go 

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And on the other hand, heartbreak to see Chelsea miss yet another seat to the Champions league finals.  Andreas Iniesta’s injury time goal meant that Barcelona drew 1-1 with Chelsea and thus moved into the finals with a better away goal record.

Earlier, Michael Essien scored for Chelsea in the 9th minute to go 1-0 for the English team.

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