IPL Diaries – By Chetan Narula

The Big Bang!!!

One has so often wondered what a spectacle the beginning of the universe might have been. Matter in the form of a point exploding into millions of stars, planets and inter-planetary stuff flying away from each other at a head spinning speed. And sample this in a picturesque setting of the Big Bang. If only we had a picture of it to save as a wallpaper on our desktops.

18^th april 2008 provided us, mere mortals, a chance to witness the Big Bang as it might have happened. The curtains went up on one of the most highly anticipated events in cricket history, nay sports history. For the IPL curtain raiser was anything else but a disappointment. Against a perfect backdrop, the showcase event in Indian cricket was declared open.

That the IPL will be a hit with the fans was somewhat in doubt, say two days ago. But the full house at the Chinnaswamy stadium proved otherwise. Cricket in India is a sacred religion and at one of its biggest carnivals, how could the fans, rather devotees, not pay their homage? That it was going to be a spectacle was always a certainty, given that IPL and entertainment are best buddies already. The Vijay Mallya factor, however, surpassed anything & everything that one could have fathomed, and it will be interesting to see how opening ceremonies will now compare in the near future. He isn’t called the ‘King of Good Times’ for nothing, now is he?

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy provided a spectacular start to the proceedings with some of their hit numbers. Sixteen stilt walkers, eight acrobats who performed gravity-defying stunts on ropes of silk, eight rapellers dressed in the colours of the eight teams skimmed down from the stadium roofs on super-thin wires, and eight bubble dancers spinning & dancing in giant transparent bubbles left spectators in a total trance. But the special cheers were reserved for the Washington Redskin cheerleaders, for obvious reasons, and watching them left one wishing, if only they could be present in all the matches.

Entertainment was the name of the game, so much so, that even with the home team reeling, the local crowd was enjoying the music being played in the stadium. If for once you thought that there would be grim faces, think again, and maybe this is where the IPL will still be found wanting, come the end. For building fan loyalties will need more than such elaborate fanfare, although it remains to be seen what the other home teams can come up with.

Coming to the cricket, yes there was some, mainly from one man alone. Brendon McCullum batted as if he was picking the bat up for the last time in his life. His innings was so belligerent that it is the most terrific hitting the author has ever seen. Not to mention, that one feels that his ferocious attack on the hapless bowlers is yet to sink in. 13 sixes and 10 fours! If it were test cricket or even ODIs, then one can fathom the possibility of some one hitting out in this fashion, fed up with the drab proceedings. But this is T20 for crying out loud, where the ball is supposed to travel in all directions. But to travel like this? It was just simply staggering to watch. One can never claim that 159 will not be overcome as the highest score, but it will take some doing, and our only hope should be that we watch that match as well.

Now that we are talking cricket, away from all the hype and hoopla, it was good to see the spirit in the Kolkata KnightRiders. Ponting was seen hugging Ishant like a brother after he bowled Dravid and this only means that the bitterness of the test series in January will soon be a thing of the past. The Royal Challengers, however, looked forlorn. But if you have just been ravaged the way they were, you too will be wishing you weren’t there.

Of course, Mallya made sure he wasn’t there, atleast not on the television, as King Khan got one across him. The former won’t be too happy about it, especially in wake of the pre-match comments he made. But one can’t see the Royal Challengers do anything of note, if Wasim Jaffer continues to think he is playing test cricket. A strike rate of 40 in T20, when an hour ago, we saw something resembling lightning? Surely one can be forgiven if there is an urge to shoot Jaffer at sight. Kolkata, and for that matter, SRK will be flying high. One can’t begin to imagine the reception that awaits them when they play their next game at Eden Gardens. Shahrukh admitted that he would lose out a lot, if his gamble doesn’t pay off and will have to return to making movies. On the contrary, it seems likely that he will be quitting films soon.

In the previous article, it was stated that the first match will go a long way in predicting which way this tournament is headed. IPL would be a huge hit, this was never under doubt, but now it seems, the tournament will be a bigger hit than humanly thought possible. Welcome to the new age!

IPL Diaries – By Chetan Narula

A Curtain Raiser

Lights, Camera, Action! On 18^th April 2008, at 7 pm IST, the world will sit witness to a new page being written in the annals of cricket history, when the first season of the Indian Premier League gets underway at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. The first match will be played between Royal Challengers and Kolkatta KnightRiders, and it promises to be a mouth watering spectacle, and not just because it pitches the best in business against the best in films.

Yes, it is more than just Vijay Mallya and Shah Rukh Khan pitting their teams against each other, to see whose cricket, and business acumen comes out on top. Let us for a while leave that to the honchos in the European football leagues. Because a sterner test lies ahead for not only the two Fanchise owners, but also, the BCCI and in particular, Lalit Modi, the father of the IPL. For the first match will go a long way in deciding the fate of the multi-million dollar baby.

What one is trying to imply is, that in a jiffy, the IPL won’t become near and dear to the cricket crazy millions of this country. Like any other sane object of entertainment or leisure, this too will only grow from strength to strength, however it needs a major shot in the arm if it needs to do so. Why this so, one is is tempted to ask? Well, to start with, there is no culture of following sports in this country. What sets us apart from the football or cricket traditions followed in other countries, say England, is the simple fact that almost every night after returning from home, these people do not lumber up in bed, or waste their time watching dim-witted family sagas on the television. They actually shell out their hard earned cash to watch their football, cricket or rugby heroes play their rival teams and along with it, guzzle a beer or two.

No, one is not making a case of higher alcohol consumption here, instead what is being highlighted is the way that these long standing football cultures have been built. Teams like Manchester United and Arsenal were formed hundreds of years ago and they have since developed into multi-million dollar clubs, who now own academies as well as some of the world’s best footballers. While they didn’t grow over one season alone, the international competition was born out of the rivalries of the clubs. And, then of course, there came the money. The IPL, instead, is a case of the process being reversed. Take international rivalries and put them in the not so enthralling scenario of domestic cricket, to make it more appealing to the average Indian fan. And all this made possible, only by pumping in humongous wads of currency notes.

Here, one is trying to bring out the biggest headache that the IPL, or the franchises rather, will face, to the fore. And that is to pull away the couch potatoes from, well, their couches. To ask the middle class man to spend upto 250 bucks on a match ticket for seven matches over a period of forty odd days, is something they don’t normally do, not even on four consecutive weekends of a month, irrespective of the ever increasing GDP. And this brings us to the cards played by the BCCI, in order to lure the common man out of his home to the stadium nearest to him.

Go international, whenever in doubt in cricket, just go international. And that is precisely what the board did, and before them, Zee Group’s ICL. Getting foreign players to play in these twenty20 leagues is a well judged move. After all, these players starve for the kind of money there is in Indian cricket, especially New Zealand cricket, who are so cash strapped that as many as 15 players, current and retired are playing in the two leagues combined.

So much so, that some players have taken an early retirement from their budding international careers to play T20 in the dust of India. Shaun Pollock, Adam Gilchrist, Stephen Fleming are just a few of the prominent names. Maybe at their age, international cricket was actually getting too much for them. But what about some one like Justin Kemp or Lou Vincent, who are not even 30, and by virtue of playing in ICL cant play international cricket now. The latter, at one time, even complaining of depression, did the whiff of money make it all go away?

International players, after all, may not be the answer to the dilemma faced by the organizers. Consider this, in a match between Delhi Daredevils and Mumbai Indians, you will be expected to cheer for Mohd. Asif against Sachin Tendulkar, or, Sanath Jayasuriya against Sehwag. Is that really possible? Will a Delhi fan ever do that, or for that matter, a Mumbaikar? Cricketers in India are demi-gods, the game is a religion and taking it to the masses, while there are no international rivalries involved, is something the masses will be apprehensive of. It has been tried before, the Premier Hockey League being a prime example, but then that is hockey and it doesn’t exactly set the fans’ imagination on fire.

All this is going to test the patience of the men (and one woman) who have bought the franchises. For these are the platforms on which the revenue generation models will be developed. For the IPL is nothing but a business opportunity for these spendthrifts, and considering a very old saying, they will want to reap more than they have sown. Ticket prices will need to be at a premium; for only then the common man will make the effort to watch the matches live. Only then will the huge stadiums be full to capacity and only then, will the whole venture be successful. Another option is to market the merchandise but given that it takes years to build fan followings, one wonders how much will they sell. One other option is to follow the Kolkatta Franchise model and put everything in the Eden Gardens, up for sale.

Talking about SRK, the talk shifts to the first match and there are many expectations. There are going to be eight international players, eight young stars ready to make a mark and not to forget stalwarts like Ganguly and Dravid, who will be the first ones to experience this new chapter in cricket history. The biggest point, however, is the way the match is expected to be played out. If it is a close one, or a high scoring one, and maybe someone is kind enough to hit four-five consecutive sixes, then we have a tournament on our hands.

Even then, there will be dark clouds hanging over the fate of the tournament. Events like these take a long time to settle in. Fan following is not created overnight inspite of the huge amount of money. Nor are the heroes jeered against so easily. But such is the beauty of sport that such incidences have occurred. In the last football world cup in 2006, Cristiano Ronaldo got Wayne Rooney sent off, Portugal beat England, and yet, today the former’s popularity charts in England are tearing up the roof. Similarly, there will be millions who will be tuning in to watch and you never know what to expect from the unpredictable game of cricket.

Lights, Camera, Action! Let the drama begin!

Yorked!!! – By Chetan Narula.

What's the fuss all about???

So Rahul Dravid gets dropped (or rested, whichever way one wants to look at it) from the ODI squad and there’s a huge hullabaloo about it all over. Yes, a player of his stature has not found a place in the team which is worrying, but that’s a different proposition altogether. More important is the fact however, that this man was captain of this very team about until two months back. Suddenly, he will be sitting in his drawing room and watch the team play their arch-rivals. What changed is what he ought to be thinking.

What changed is something that will be looked at towards the end. Right now, it is important to wonder about the implications of the decision. By no way, one is suggesting that the decision is wrong, or right, for that matter. Everything needs time to marinate, more so, everything in Indian cricket. So, again, what might be the implications?

No strength in the middle order, for one. Who will Dhoni look up to when Shoaib Akhtar and Mohd. Asif rip apart the top order, in an early morning start? Or when chasing a big target, the team loses a few quick wickets, and begins to meander from its path. And of course, he will be missed every time, Sehwag is found napping at first slip. Though, let it be clear, that by no way, “The Wall” is being made to look indispensable here.

For everything has a sell-by date. More so, the kind of cricket Dravid plays, when the country has just taken to T20, like fish to water. Thus, Sehwag, Uthappa and Ganguly could all drop down the order. Rohit Sharma can be groomed for the job too. The point is, with two big series coming up, should Dravid have been the one taking the fall?

Maybe yes, since he was out-of-touch, inspite of what people say. One won’t use the word ‘form’ in his case, simply because, players such as him, don’t have anything called form in their dictionary. But even by those standards, he has had a less than mediocre 2007. One ODI innings in England, though, isn’t enough anymore it seems, nor are the tons of runs he has scored over the past decade. That said, maybe no, is another option. What is Ganguly still doing in the team when his 100-plus-balls-innings aren’t helping the team either? Is this a hint for Dada too, come the next selection meeting?

So far, it seems to be a simple enough logic to drop (err rest) him. Let him sit out for two matches. Let him clear his head and in the meanwhile, we will get to see some youngsters tried out. So, why all the noise then? Are all the retired cricketers and so called ‘cricket pundits’ failing to see the simple but obvious cricketing logic behind this? If no, then they are simply ignorant, inspite of having been there and done that. If yes, then what is forcing them to do so?

The answer is a simple phone call. Dilip Vengsarkar returning the favor to his ex-captain, as even Dravid chose not to inform him of his resignation. Now, while one is laughing his/her head off at this egotistical gesture by two grown ups, some objectivity is required to look at it, whatever way you look at it. Rahul Dravid is rested for two matches and is not even given a deserved courtesy call, inspite of his services to the country for the past decade. Obviously this rang a million bells of some conspiracy everywhere, when there is none. For the Karnataka player is getting what we know as tit-for-tat.

For simplification purposes, let us consider an army captain, who has just won a minor battle at the front. But he’s all fed up with the monitoring of his ways by his superiors and, in Dravid’s case, the constant media & public glare. At the end of it, while his immediate superior is away at another front, the captain goes to the head-quarters and puts in his papers. Then he calmly walks away, as if nothing has happened. The immediate superior isn’t informed and gets to know through alternative means. What is he supposed to do?

Well, in the army, the superior won’t greet the captain, the next time he sees him. He would be shot, called a traitor, if he already hasn’t been. One is not suggesting anything similar in this case, but the fact is that what goes around comes around. You simply can’t relinquish the second most important post in India (the prime minister’s being the most important one, one thinks) and walk-off without absolutely no rhyme or reason. Thanks to the huge media presence, Vengsarkar was directly seen as the reason for the same.

It is no hidden fact that the two didn’t see eye-to-eye on many occasions previously, be it team’s selection or the coach’s. And this seems to have been the last straw. Plus the Mumbai lobby theory. Or previously, the Bengal lobby theory. And the fact that Sachin Tendulkar who maybe rightly named test captain, will also be incarcerated under this same logic, is a sad testimonial to the affairs of Indian cricket.

Now before the average Indian fan gets ahead of himself, it has to be cleared out that he might actually return for the next three ODIs. Consider India trailing 2-0 and the picture will be more than obvious then. Already, Pakistan have started rubbing it in, it being Dravid’s absence. Anyways, he is still very much a part of the test plan, no doubt about that, and obviously, when Down Under, will be part of the ODI ones as well, as the pitches will demand it. But then again, parameter seems to be the criteria now and he will have to perform, something he is very much capable of.

As promised, towards the end, we discuss, what changed in Dravid’s life? The simple fact that he let go of the second most powerful job coupled with his spiraling-down performances and obviously rubbing some one as important as the selection committee wrong. Getting away with murder would have been easier.