A load of crap from an idle brainPersonal, Movies, Music, IT, India, Singapore, Politics, Fun

India lost 8 tests on a trot?  India are lousy travellers? India are tigers at home? Indian batsmen cant negotiate the seaming and bouncy pitches of England and Australia?

Really? Does it really matter?  All the complain masters realise that the real money in cricket lies in India (read BCCI).  So, love them or hate them, when the time comes, just make a beeline to India to play the IPL and rake in the moolah.

Get ready for the Micromax sixes, DLF fours, Nirodh condom wickets.  If you can’t tolerate the commentary, do search for the mute button on your remote…it helps.  Time for the cheerleaders to come out dancing and for the moral brigade to measure the length of their skirts and the depth of the cleavage.

Forget everything for the next 2 odd months, its an explosive mix of 2 of the biggest religions in India (Cricket & Bollywood).

Again i dont really need to specify where my loyalties lie.  Once a Hyderabadi, always a Hyderabadi.   Honestly, though i find the current team quite hopeless.  A position in the top 4 will be a miracle as unique as Pakistan renouncing terrorism as their official government policy.  Still, i will hope for miracles.

Go Chargers Go.

The complete IPL Season 5 schedule is here

+++

The IPL finals was hopelessly one sided.  With no orange or pink cap holders, Chennai proved that one doesnt need superstars in the team to win the cup twice in a row.  And Bangalore proved that its appearance in the final was courtesy a one man show called Chris Gayle.  Till Gayle came in the middle of the tournament, Bangalore was floundering.  He single-handedly powered the team to the finals.  To expect him to repeat the performance again in the finals was asking for a bit too much.  No wonder they flopped when Gayle was out in the first over itself.

The captain cool, Dhoni marshaled his troops well (as usual).  No fuss, no emotions guy, Dhoni has demonstrated repeatedly that he is the best cricket captain ever to wear the Indian cap.  A T20 world cup win, a 50 over world cup win, 2 IPL wins and a Champions league T20 win, taking India to the top ranking test team, he has achieved probably everything that he needs to.  And when asked, he simply retorted that he wouldn’t mind repeating the whole thing again.  That’s the kind of hunger that drives champions.

On the other hand, Barcelona showed why they are the best footballing club in the world.  Money can only buy you this much.  The most important thing is for the group to gel well and play as a team.  If at all money could buy success, the musical chairs of managers being played at Chelsea and Real Madrid would have won them tons of trophies.  Or for that matter if star players could power teams to victory, then Sachin Tendulkar would have been a great captain.  These are great examples for teams who have no qualms splashing out millions of bucks to snap up superstars for their teams.

Manchester United might be the best in England, but two consecutive losses to Barcelona in the past 3 years shows that they still have a mountain to climb when it comes to the Champions League.  And if Manchester United cant make it, then it just shows the hollowness of the other teams in the English Premier League (Chelsea, Liverpool & Arsenal included).

And now i shudder to think that i have no sports to look forward to for the next couple of months, with both IPL, Champs League and all the European leagues coming to and end for the season.

The only thing to look forward in the next month is if the second sting Indian team traveling to the West Indies can pull off a miracle.  And to see how the new coach of India, Duncan Fletcher manages the egos in the team.

Above pictures courtesy: Cricinfo & Sun

+++

The Cricket World Cup has started.  Hardly see any real enthusiasm for the game. The same is the situation with me.  Other than the opening match, there has hardly been any game worthwhile.

Why couldnt the ICC stage matches between the top teams on weekends?  Why is India playing the next match with England more than a week later on a Sunday instead of Saturday or Friday?  Why is the tournament stretched so long in the first place?  Heck, why have 14 teams in the first place?

Iam all for all out participation of minnows in top leagues, but why bring in Canada, Netherlands etc to the world cup.  There should have been a qualifying tournament for the other ICC member teams and only 2 of the winners should have made the cut for the actual world cup.

And then they worry as to why the 50 over format of One dayers are losing their appeal.

Call it tamasha or nautanki, iam still waiting for the IPL.  Gimme my Deccan Chargers and the cheerleaders anyday

And ya, keep that Lalit Modi fella away.  Another shot of his on the TV screen and i might puke.

+++

So, the main bidding for IPL-4 is complete.  New teams, new players and newer loyalties.  Again, dont think that i need to define my loyalties, which remain firmly with Deccan Chargers.  The loss of Symonds and Gilchrist is a bit upsetting, but then life moves on and i believe DC has a more balanced team this time.

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

+++

A fascinating look by the Forbes magazine into the rise and eventual fall of Lalit Modi.  Will Modi take the fall lightly or fight back is a million dollar question and needs to be seen.  A good read.

The story goes like this. Before the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) third season took off, Lalit Modi, former commissioner of the league, made a close friend of his an offer, Modi thought was irresistible.

For Rs. 5 crore, Modi’s friend could buy the rights to have his company’s name plastered on a blimp that would float over stadiums where league matches are played. The mileage it could possibly attract, Modi argued, was worth a lot more than the Rs. 5 crore he was asking for.

His friend, the scion of a prominent tyre manufacturing company in the country thought it too expensive a deal and declined. Modi then took the proposal to MRF, his friend’s arch rival, who saw value in the offer and bought into Modi’s pitch. Estimates vary on how much Modi sold the rights to MRF for. But consensus is, it was anywhere between Rs. 12 crore and Rs. 18 crore.

As the season started to roll, Modi’s friend figured he’d lost out on a sweet deal. And so the next time he met Modi at a league match in New Delhi, he admitted he’d made the wrong call; and that Modi ought to figure a way out to get his brand into the IPL. Modi pointed to the 30 yard circle in the stadium and offered his friend, a buddy from his days at school, an opportunity to re-brand the circle with his company’s name for Rs. 30 crore. “30 friggin’ crores!” the friend yelled and baulked. Modi didn’t blink. “You didn’t take it when I offered you a sweet deal. This is the best I can do now,” he said. A few moments of awkward silence followed.

Apparently, Modi had gone to the home minister’s office to seek clearances for the league matches. But in an appalling breach of protocol, he refused to wait for his turn to meet Chidambaram and instead attempted to barge into the minister’s office. Now, Chidambaram is the kind of man who doesn’t suffer either fools or arrogance and promptly asked Modi to leave. A miffed Modi said some daft things, stormed out of the room and eventually created an altogether avoidable controversy that snowballed into Season 2 being shifted to South Africa.

Read the full article here

+++