THE IPL-GATE – from the eyes of a Commoner

For any cricket lover, the last 10 days have been full of mixed emotions to say the least. I still remember a panicking Swathi (my wife) calling me at noon to inform me that the RR Trio had been caught spot fixing. And since then it has been a parade of arrests including the mighty ‘Guru’. There has been media frenzy with 24/7 channels airing the same news over and over, and as Milind Rege rightly put it on one of the TV shows I participated in as a caller, “the common man will now tend to see all cricket with jaundiced eyes”. On the other hand unnoticeably England and New Zealand have been indulging in some good old test cricket which has been long forgotten in this country called India and Rahul Dravid has been carrying the torch of Integrity and Class, albeit all alone.

We have had experts from all fields, talking about IPL saga from legal, criminal, economical, moral, ethical, sporting and governance points of view. So what does a common man (or woman) think of all these. Because end of it all it is us, the cricket fan, who pays for the entire circus directly and indirectly.

Though I do not represent the entire creed of common people, I think the cricket fan is at the least saddened. However this does not mean they may be driven off the game. Yes, there is outrage on the streets, there is anger in social media but the stadiums are still full. And if the TV reports are to be believed the TRPs of IPL have gone skywards since the scandal broke out. The reason behind this is the eternal hope of “everything will be alright soon” which even I exude. The common man though angry wants his heroes to come out of this clean. Though MSD skipped the pre-final conference to avoid tough questions and though there have already been murmurs about how he is in a precarious position, the real MSD fan (and cricket fan as well) hopes that he has nothing to do with the scandal and he comes out of it as the hero he always has been. Only time will tell.

Beyond the angst however, I want to also ask several questions. These are issues that not many media houses or experts are highlighting. However, these are pertinent questions in my humble opinion. The first issue that seems to have missed the limelight is the IPL after parties. It has been a well established fact by now that the bookies have been contacting these players in these parties. And if one observes the nature of these events it is clear that there is an unprecedented access to cricketers.

Not just in the olden days but even as late as 2007 and in cases of Test and One Day cricket even today, the cricketers have always been a lot which people had less than limited access to. When on 2-3 month tours the team used to stay in a hotel and partied together in almost zero outside access environment. The IPL after parties have completely changed the scenario. I am sure the bookies and the fixers were thankful to the person who came up with this idea. I strongly believe that the most efficient step towards curbing corruption in cricket will be to monitor who has access to players. If this means keeping the businessmen who own the teams out of the hotel, dressing rooms and dugouts, so be it.

The second question has been raised across platforms but only occasionally and that too without too much fervor. The large question of conflict of interest. I could not help laughing out loud when I read in one of the news feed that BCCI is going to question the CSK ownership on the Guru issue. Imagine it for a moment. Mr. N Srinivasan in his capacity as the President of BCCI and part of its disciplinary committee will write to Mr. N Srinivasan the owner of India Cements and thus the owner of Chennai Super Kings seeking explanation. And then may be go on and give a clean chit to himself as well. How kool is that?

Dig deeper and you will notice that this is not only limited to Mr. Srinivasan. Krish Srikkanth was the chairman of selectors and mentor of CSK. MSD is the captain of CSK and India (in that order I believe) and therefore a part of the selection committee and also the Vice President of India Cements. In fact even the great Rahul Dravid is a Vice President at India Cements and captains their corporate team. In fact a glance at India Cements team in the BCCI corporate trophy will introduce you to about half of the Chennai Super Kings side. Then the greats like Sunny Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri who was/is on the IPL Governing Council are paid commentators of BCCI for IPL. No wonder you do not hear factual commentary. This list is certainly longer than then entire length of this article. While I am not at all suggesting that all these people have been indulging in malafide practices, one cannot but overlook the scope that such an overlap brings.

To sum it up I think the common man also has a tendency to forget or forgive and sometimes both. Therefore there certainly no threat to the gate collections and to those consumer brands associated with cricket. All will be merry too soon for comfort. And finally, I am certain of one thing. Cricket has to come out this as a winner and I am pretty sure it will. Whether it does so by cleaning up or by shoving everything under the carpet remains to be seen. I am hopeful at best.

 

The final stats from ICL and IPL

Monday, 2nd June 2008 (it was supposed to be 1^st June but the whole thing ended close to morning), saw the end of an amazingly well fought match between the Rajasthan Royals and the Chennai Superkings marking the end of Indian Premier League. The whole of India must have been glued to their TV sets to watch the epic end. Since then I have read hoards of articles and heard unending talk shows as to what IPL meant to India and its role in blossoming India’s future in cricket. Most of them forget one thing. There would not have been any IPL if the ICL was not born. I personally think IPL owes a lot, and more to Mr. Chandra.

 

There have been comparisons between the two leagues and the IPL has won hands down in all. Be it the TRP’s, or revenues for the teams, crowd support, star appeal or just the way the tournament has been conducted. The IPL has overtaken the ICL in all those departments. But if you are someone who likes to know how cricket is benefited overall, read on.

 

Thanks to the maximum 4 rule of IPL, the Indian players got a chance to play in the tourney. Unknown faces from across the country showcased their skills on a very large platform. There were in all 86 Indian players who were given an opportunity to be a part of the teams. These players had never represented the country. I am not counting the ones who had. Of these 86 players a huge bunch of which I don’t have a count of only warmed the benches. But, there were 12 players who got the opportunity and also made it count. The players who changed their destinies with IPL were: Ravindra Jadeja, Manpreet Gony, Swapnil Asnodkar, Yusuf Pathan, Abhishek Nayar, Amit Mishra, Siddharth Trivedi, Shikhar Dhawan, Yo Mahesh, Ashok Dinda, Dhaval Kulkarni and Pragyan Ojha.

 

Of these only Pragyan Ohja was the lone player who got selected in the Indian team. Yes, Yousuf did get selected, but that was on the cards even before the IPL, and also that he had represented the country in T20 World Cup. So for me the numbers that are important are 86, 12 and 1, Number of players who were in, the ones who performed and the one who made it to the national side in that order.

 

The ICL on the other hand was a neglected baby compared to the IPL. But then they were not far behind in the numbers that matter. Yes, they had less Ad revenues, leave alone ads they had less revenues overall. But the ICL offered a platform to 79 young cricketers of this country who would have not seen a crowd more than 500 in their life had it not been for the ICL. They all performed out of their skins to ensure they were noticed. The ultimate reward was a blue uniform for 16 of them. Though the uniform did not carry the BCCI logo, it would certainly have been a matter of great pride for the following 16: Rajagopal Satish, Abbas Ali, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Abu Nacheem, Ali Murtaza, Ambati Rayudu, Ganapathi Vignesh, Ibrahim Khaleel, Love Ablish, Ravi Raj Patil, Rohan Gavaskar, Stuart Binny, Syed Mohammed, T. Sudhindra, TP. Singh and V. Sarvanan. The only player in the team who had previously known how it feels like in the blue uniform was Thiru Kumaran.

 

Whatever happens next. Whether IPL becomes the only form of cricket, killing Test and Onedayers, or whether everyone in the world has their own league. The facts are in front of you. I am someone who watches and admires Test cricket and I will continue to do so. But if these formats can produce 5 players every year who can bat for 4 hours without getting out, and 5 players who can bowl 20 overs in a day with steadiness, rest assured I will be the happiest cricket fan on the planet.

 

Why the Chargers lost?

Thank goodness… it is finally over. Well, that’s what each and every Hyderabadi present at the Visaka Cricket Ground felt at about 11:30pm on 27th may. The very troubled run of IPL’s Hyderabad representation called Deccan Chargers got over with playing cricket this season. Yes, as usual they lost one more, and there I had a new slogan courtesy two friends of mine. It goes like… One and Two and Three and Four… Deccan Chargers are No more… While the first half is patented to my pen pal (keyboard pal would be apt for this age), Sunny Khandelwal, another friend of mine Robin Cornelius, who works for the Indian Multinational, added the latter half describing the true emotion a cricket fan in Hyderabad went through that night. While we shrugged it off saying a bad season, 12 losses out of 14 attempts was not as easy as a Hyderabadi light lelo yarron, for people who were a part of it. The fact that Adam ‘Churchie’ Glichrist actually apologized to the cheering crowd talks about how the guys in the dressing room must have felt.

 

I am not an analyst to tell you the real reasons behind the loss. But for what I understand about the game and also for what I have seen from other teams in the IPL, I can say just one thing. It’s not about how much you spend (Mumbai for example), it’s not about how much you strategize (Kolkata with Buchanan), it’s also not about how many stars you have in your side (Deccan), it’s only about how passionate you are about the game, it’s about how much you can give to the game on the field and it’s about how desperately you want to win. Rajasthan Royals is the biggest example. They did not have the money of Mumbai, Strategy of Kolkata and Stardom of Deccan, they are on the top of the table just because of sheer passion and commitment and the will to win.

 

I am not saying the Chargers did not have these qualities, they sure did. The reason they did not win is that they couldn’t display them or action them when needed… on the field that is. If you were on the ground for the last match, and were present till the last ball, you will vouch for the commitment the team showed in the last 10 overs. They made life so difficult for the Chennai Super Kings that they had to go till the last over to chase down a very modest 147. If that level of commitment was shown throughout the tourney, we would have seen the Chargers in the semi finals.

 

Ironically, it was the big four of the Indian cricket that was out of the IPL with the new brigade going ahead and battling for the honors. With Sachin, Saurav, Rahul and Laxman out, it’s a battle between Dhoni, Yuvraj, Sehwag and the tough nut Aussie Shane Warne. Is that a signal?? Is that a sign of things to come?? I have no answer today.

 

As a Hyderabadi who loves cricket and hates business in cricket, I still have my loyalties with Hyderabad Heroes. I also hope the next season gets more local flavor to the tourney and let us witness our own Hyderabadi stars battling out under the Deccan Chargers banner. So long for DC I wish I hear this again… One and Two and three and four, Deccan Chargers give us more….. Victories that is.

 

The Charger’s Nightmare

One and Two and Three and Four, Deccan Chargers Give us more… As the voice of Sunny Khandelwal (I think it was him… not too sure though) rocked the Visakha Cricket Stadium (now called the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium thanks to the rulers of our nation), standing on the third floor of the Shivlal Yadav Pavilion, wearing a pink colored access card, I was wondering how much more to expect from this “Technically the Best Team in the IPL”? The loss at Kolkata was fresh in my mind. Though the newspaper run by the franchisee of Deccan Chargers screamed and shouted that it was the pitch and the lights and the umpires that did us in at Kolkata, I was sure that the KnightRiders batted on the same strip. A loss after all was a loss and had to be faced.

 

As the Deccan Chargers (I will call them DC now… The franchisee will be really happy with that), practiced in front of about 10,000 people in the stadium (the capacity is about 39000 and growing everyday… They are on an expansion spree), an hour before the game started everyone in the stadium including the guest singer Neeraj Sridhar of the Bombay Vikings, were confident that they will reduce the Delhi side to dust within three hours and everyone in Hyderabad will go home happy. And when Adam Gilchrist struck one that landed in the stands on the midwicket boundary off the modern McGrath, Mohammed Asif, people thought they were on the brink of realizing their dream of seeing a DC win. What followed was a continuation of the Kolkata failure. Gilly played on one from Asif soon after that marvelous shot and the one drop skipper Laxman had his timber thrown to winds by one that came back (!), from Asif. I was recollecting my childhood when we used to measure the distance the stump traveled after being hit. Laxman’s would have certainly gone about 8 stump lengths.

 

It then continued the same way with people like Symmo and Shahid out. Rohit Sharma took Farveez Maharoof for a ride of his life and the poor fellow never knew where to bowl to the Indian T20 specialist. 26 runs in one over meant DC would cross the 100 mark which looked out of sight at the 10 over juncture. They did though and did well to end up at 142. But that was not a great score even after getting rid of the dangerous Gautam “Gauti” Gambhir for next to nothing. The butcher from Nazafgarh, Virendra Sehwag and a very steady Shikhar Dhawan ensured no damage was done thereafter and saw their side home with more that 33% of the overs remaining. The notable innings came from Sehwag (naturally) who scored a near hundred and gave Symonds a good run for his money. 646464 is not a fancy phone number in rural India, but the runs scored of the six balls that he bowled. The crowd had already begun their journey back home even before people who came in late could settle down.

 

A loss for the home team and with 2 losses in as many matches they were just above the Punjab team of Ness Wadia (yes, I forgot her because she anyhow does not have any role to play) at number 7. That was not where the guyz wanted to be when they started. A day’s off and Shane Keith Warne was in town leading a very cheap and inexperienced Rajasthan Royals team. With one win and a loss they were in a far better position than the DC. I was in no mood to be at the stadium and therefore choose to buy myself the best seat to watch cricket for Free, at home, in front of the TV.

 

When the news of Venugopal Rao being dropped and DC batting first was broken, I wasn’t too excited to see young Kalyan Krishna, who I had seen bowling really well in the Deodhar Trophy about a month ago, in the team. I thought he was very inexperienced to rub shoulders with the bigwigs of world cricket. But them I am not the skipper of DC, VVS is, so his decision was more important. I got kind of a shock when Laxman himself walked in along with Adam Gilchrist. Why was Boom Boom Afridi in the team??? To play second fiddle to people like Symonds and Sharma? I couldn’t digest that as well.

 

Anyways, Laxman hit some pretty blows before he saw a Pathan (Not Irfan… His bro, Yousuf was this) from Baroda being given the ball by Shane Warne. Everyone in the stadium would have thought Warne’s gone mad. But it had its effects immediately. Pathan removed Gilchrist and Afridi in one over. Symmo was in again and his side was in trouble. Then Laxman had to fall… he did. Though Symmo and Rohit gave stability and runs to the DC innings, I was getting bored and wanted to sleep. Well I didn’t for the love of cricket though. And it was paid off well. Symonds came up with the fastest century in IPL and it was awesome to see him clear the fence with ease. 214 to win and DC were looking good to register their first points in the tourney.

 

But then the Blue Brigade of Marwaris (none of them is a marwari I guess) had other ideas. And again it was Pathan. While smith did some serious damage to the DC bowling as the opener, and also emerged the highest scorer of the innings, it was yousuf whose magic was there to be seen. And when both of them got out, it was Shane Warne, who did the real damage. No it was not with the ball this time around. With 17 off the last over needed and Afridi, Vaas and RP having finished their respective spells, Laxman chose Symonds over Ohja and Kalyan. A wise decision on paper. But Warne had other ideas. When he got strike from Pankaj Singh (remember the lanky fast bowler on Aussie Tour… Not Ishant Sharma man…) He smashed Symonds for a Four, Six and Six to finish DC. And yeah with three losses out of as many matches, it is now going to be a tough, or should I say a Very Tough road for DC. And for poor old Symmo, who is the second highest paid player in the IPL, figures of 6.5-0-101-0 in the tourney is not something he will feel good about when he goes back down under to join his team on the tour of Windies.

 

While the Symonds story ends here, the DC story doesn’t. They will have to play out of their skins to overcome the obstacles the three losses have created in their path to a triumph in the IPL. And for someone who compares things, I will certainly put together some interesting stats to see their record against my favorite team, the HYDERABAD Heroes. At last all I can say is one and two and three and four… Deccan Chargers don’t loose anymore.

 

ICL Vs IPL… What stands out??

 

Beloved son against the neglected (rebel!) one…this sounds like an apt description of the two newest babies of the grand old religion, which about half the world follows. Cricket has always been a game that has been very receptive to change though not immediately. The T20 version of cricket suddenly saw a burst of leagues in various parts of the world to counter arguably the most popular game that the world have ever seen… Soccer.

 

While the Alan Stanford backed Stanford T20 has grasped attention of the cricket crazy islands south of America, the ICL and IPL have born much to the amusement of the a billion people back home. The Stanford league has definitely helped the revival of cricket in the West Indies. The dying state of cricket stadiums with empty stands during test matches seems long gone. With black bats and white balls flying around the ground in front of huge screens, it is for sure that the T20 is here to stay.

 

Though the lucky facet of the windies is that the authorities that run the show have backed the league. The same though has not been the case in India. While Mr. Chandra has done a great job ensuring the much-ignored lot in India, the Ranji Players, gets what they deserve, it has not been taken well by the ever bullying, powerful BCCI. The birth of IPL to counter the ICL has been enough evidence of the same. But who will stand out eventually in the eyes of the common man? This is the question, which can be debated for hours together.

 

For once the ICL has more brand credibility than the IPL in my eyes. With two T20 tourneys, one 50 over tourney under their belt and the ICL World T20 awaiting its first ball as I write this, the ICL has proved that even when the strongest of them are against you, with will to succeed and honesty towards the game, you can achieve the impossible.

 

The last T20 tourney held in Panchkula and Hyderabad has drawn more than decent crowds and people have connected to the ever-popular never hyped cricketers from the domestic foray of cricket. If the scenes at the Lal Bahadur Shashtri Stadium when the Heroes won against the Badshahs are anything to go by, the ICL has arrived in India and no Modi-Pawar-Shah trio can uproot it.

 

Technically speaking, there has been a tremendous improvement in the standard of the game since ICL was launched. While the inexperience of the organizers was there to be seen in the first tournament the cricket was also of a mediocre quality. But come the second tournament everything just changed drastically. The grounds and the pitches looked far better. The quality of cricket being played also looked improved. So much so that the All Test Star Studded Lahore team was comprehensively beaten 2-0 in the finals by a pack of rebel youngsters from Hyderabad who would certainly have found it hard to stamp authority of any sorts on the Indian cricket scene had it not been for the ICL. Not even in his wildest dreams would Alfred ‘Freddie’ Absolom have imagined picking up 7 wickets in four overs to technically create a world record in the latest form of cricket. And for someone like Ibraheem Khaleel, it was just a dream to wear India colors. The dream has come true with him being selected in the ICL-India side. Though not backed the BCCI and the ICC, the Indian colors will still be a matter of great pride for the gloveman from Hyderabad.

 

Where does this leave the IPL though? Much has been talked, printed and telecasted about this favorite child of the BCCI even before it is born. Huge money has been spun over even before the first ball is bowled. The teams have franchisees with all their glaz-ma-traaz making me think that cricket can very well take a back seat. With decent number of stars in the IPL known for their off the field heroics, the tourney looks more like a great bollywood tamasha than a cricket tournament. No… I am not anti-IPL. But somehow apart from the great adverts nothing interests me. Will I cheer for Andrew “Troublemaker” Symonds when he plays for Hyderabad??? I’d better cheer Ibraheem Khaleel.

 

The end though looks very pleasing. I think this is pure imagination but I see the Indian selection committee choosing the Indian Test Team and they are fighting among each other to take players from the ICL as if they were players from the states they belong to. I think I am sleeping but then please…. I beg you… Please don’t wake me up…. God Bless Cricket

 

IPL: Show of Brand India or Boon for Cricket??

 

The juggernaut has started rolling. Soon you would see the Hyderabadis cheering for Aussies, the Delhites Cheering for Indians and the Mumbaikars cheering for Sri Lankans. Well this is not a dream. Welcome to the latest money spinner in sports. The Indian Premier League seems to be here to stay.

 

When Subhash Chandra, the visionary behind ICL (Indian Cricket League) the breakthrough cricket, would have thought about incepting something that was anti BCCI (!) as thought about by the BCCI themselves, not even in his wildest dreams would he have seen a 19 year old Delhi lad who was learning to bowl quick against the GOOD batsmen of the world, contracted for a whopping $950000. As the telecom users thanked Reliance Infocomm in 2003 for lowering the overall market prices in spite of them not having great services themselves, the cricket fraternity of the country should felicitate Mr. Chandra for having pioneered a revolution in cricket where the money goes to its deserving creator, The Players. Though ICL itself was not an out and out success, it at least made sure that the poor Ranji Trophy player who used to earn 5000 to 10000 per match and had to struggle to keep the ends meeting after his playing days, had a scope to make enough money to support him for life.

 

Everyone would agree that there is money in cricket. And when there is an opportunity to earn and that too legally, why not take it. I mean, if someone does not take a money making opportunity we will label him a fool instantly!! So that is one way the whole ICL, IPL story sounds pleasant. The lower rung cricketers are getting opportunities to look up and choose which, 5 years down the like seemed impossible. “If you want to play cricket, don’t take any panga with the BCCI” was the mantra every coach used to teach his wards apart from the customary batting stance and the bowling action.

 

So if IPL is giving opportunity to people and paying for the same why is there a hue and cry about how it can harm the game? Well personally, as someone who is a devotee of the game, I think they are not entirely wrong.

When Kerry Packer rolled out his then infamous and now historically famous World Series, the first thing happened was the clash between the authorities of cricket and his company. While BCCI has taken due care to please the akas of the cricket world, the ICC, there will be scope for spats and clashes. The bitterness will start the day when an IPL tournament clashes with the schedule of an international tour for the contracted player. Though the player will give his country the priority, there may be instances when the whole scenario turns bad because of the non-cricketing franchisees. Yes, the boards may understand the game and so do the players, but none of the franchisees do. So after paying hefty sums to buy the teams and the players, if absenteeism hurts them in the pocket, they will for sure react to it at cricket’s loss.

 

Apart from that, there also rises the question of whether or not the people prefer to watch such a cricket. Again, that seems to be of less importance because even if the crowds don’t gather at the venues, they will for sure want to see a good 20-20 match from the comforts of their lounges without paying anything. And that sounds like music to an advertiser. TV revenues have already broken the roof and now are heading skywards. So more money in store…

 

What then happens to the poor old Ranji trophy??? Now that is where the real problem is. Why would an Ishant Sharma play for Delhi at a meagre 1 lakh when he is getting 100 times more for playing for IPL? Though both Ranji Trophy and IPL have a common parent, I am sure the treatment would be very different. And this is the long term problem. Today we may enjoy the attention of the world, become famous as cricketers and retire with large sums of money. What will happen to the next generation who have been playing the Ranji Trophy without any serious competition, because all the good domestic players have already gone to the IPL? If Lalit Modi has an answer to this, then I think IPL will stay. If not the future does not look too good for the INDIAN NATIONAL CRICKET TEAM, though it looks great for the current cricket teams.