an IPL lover is born

I did some IPL bashing in my last post. I repent.

After closely following its fortunes throughout the just concluded first half of the series, I want to concede that the property is a hit.

And you don't need me to tell that either!

But I want to admit that, my first impressions on the tourney were wrong to an extent. These are some of the elements I thought stood out in this T20 edition so far.

In which other format of the game, would you get to see the South African ace batsman-stumper Mark Boucher and our new-found pace sensation Praveen Kumar sharing the crease, and that too in the death overs of a game that was turning out to be a cliff-hanger?

In which other format of the game, would you get to see Sri Lankan spin doctor Muthaiah Murlidharan injecting venom to his Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's plans of slow poisoning?

By bringing all these world class players together, irrespective of their nationalities, IPL has demonstrated a great truth to the cricketing world: The truth of unity in criketity.

Our cricketing youngsters have been making the most of their careers by rubbing shoulders with players such as Mathew Heyden, Ricky Ponting, Jayasurya and the likes!

And more importantly our youngsters like Badrinath, Gony and Yo Mahesh, who had been knocking on the doors of the Indian team, are suddenly finding themselves exposed to international cricket, and making the most out of it as well.

But Vijay Mallya is a disappointed man. He gets setbacks in life very rarely and this time it has happened from a very unlikely field – cricket!

I could not see any logic in him firing his Bangalore team CEO Charu Sharma. And that also makes me wonder, what exactly is the job role of a CEO in an IPL franchise!

Whoever said 'cricket is a great leveller', I want to salute that guy. Look at the experience of Harbhajan Singh. Australians are the happiest in this amusing context, no doubt about it.

Another great leveller is the failure of our superstars such as Dravid and Ganguly to deliver for their respective teams. The grapevine says many teams want to disown their non- performing assets in the next season! Man, this should happen in international cricket also. The term ‘non-performing assets’ - I am loving it.

And finally, Sachin! I wonder if he ever had plans to play in IPL!

Ambani won't mind if their team win or loose! He has better things to do, such as building billion dollar houses.

Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta might get affected by the kind of overexposure they had been subjecting to themselves to promote their teams.

Next time, when someone come to you and say Shah Rukh and him peed together in the stadium loo, please don’t utter any expletives of disbelief. IPL rocks and you don’t need me to discover that.

Alarm (not wedding) bells for S. Sreesanth

Shanthakumaran Sreesanth is a Keralite, and being a Keralite myself, he is my sole reason for pride when it comes to the regional sentiments connected to the Indian cricket team.

However, Sreesanth is disappointing his fans. He is running towards the wrong end of the crease, I feel.


The player is clearly on a lean patch currently, and his concentration on the on/off field antics rather than the game itself is actually making things worse for this otherwise promising cricketer.

Also, giving him sleepless nights would be competition from the likes of Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar.

This duo is now the first choice for the management whenever the final-eleven is picked up and the sooner Sreesanth realises his faults and learn from the mistakes, the better for him.

This can be dealt with only by improving the game. But, when somebody feels he is bigger than the game, there sounds an alarm bell.

It is not just Sreesanth's mistake. The blame should also go to his non-cricketing managers. To be in the limelight, it has become necessary for Sreesanth to do something different in the middle.

And, naturally, a struggling bowler would attempt some non-cricketing 'shots' to remain in the limelight. That is what happening here.

Just the other day, I was shocked to see a news channel 'exclusive', connecting the boy with Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra. The reporter even gleefully played a recorded conversation between the two, in which Sreesanth is heard ‘appealing’ for the actress' attention.

I couldn't believe it! Sreesanth and Priyanka Chopra!!! It must be some PR plug, I thought.

Then I listened on, and heaved a sigh of relief when the reporter started questioning the player's endorsement manager on the chances of a hype being created to boost a possible advertisement starring both the stars.

But the point I want to make here, Sreesanth is finding himself in the news for all the wrong reasons nowadays. Consciously or otherwise. Indian cricket is not at all in shortage of talented players. It is Sreesanth's good fortune that he is still in the team these days.

And then the player is advised rest by the outgoing team physiotherapist, I heard. A talented cricketing crowd is waiting outside the doors and a mere absence due to injury would be enough for Sreesanth to find himself relegated into oblivion when he returns.

He might be able to change his hairstyles on a regular basis, but would never be able to change the present course of his career, unless for a timely intervention.

So, instead of focusing on the run-up to the gosssip columns and endorsement deals, Sreesanth should actually be concentrating on his run-up to the bowling crease.