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IPL
The IPL at the Chinnaswamy
By Will 3 days ago, late at night, No Comments; be the first!
An informative and enlightening piece from my Cricinfo colleague, George Binoy, on the experience of watching the IPL. At Bangalore’s newly revamped Chinnaswamy Stadium, it’s all a bit good it seems. The IPL might make your lip curl, but the benefits to India’s stadiums alone make it worthwhile.
Don’t bring your own, we’ll give you some: The list of items spectators are forbidden to bring with them is long and all encompassing. You wouldn’t get in with a large flag, or something to create a din with. But the organisers were handing it all out. ‘Cheer kits’, Royal Challenger flags, inflatable noisemakers and more. The props were everywhere and the fans used them. The result was a sea of waving flags and an awful din.
F&B: The last time around, even expensive seats at IPL games witnessed an unseemly rush for food, a shortage of water and fights at the wine and beer counters. There’s no liquor on sale this time but plenty of food and beverages – even pizzas delivered to your seat, fairly warm and tempting – and, crucially, lots of free bottled water. That may seem trivial to cricket fans elsewhere but a huge step up from the regular in-stadia food and drink in India.
No Comments »IPL on Youtube
By Will Friday, last week, 3 Comments »
Anyone else able to access the Indian Premier League on Youtube? Seems to be broken for me:
Who to support in the IPL
By Rich Abbott Wednesday, last week, 8 Comments »
One of the problems people have with the IPL is a lack of natural affiliation with any side. I enjoyed the competition’s second incarnation all the more for backing the Delhi Daredevils, for no better reason than I quite like AB de Villiers. I’d advise any IPL-sceptic to do the same, after all, most franchises offer a quirkily enticing reason or two to merit your support. Here’s a quick guide:
Chennai Super Kings
Star: MS Dhoni. Look out for: SK Raina. Good pedigree – reached the final in ‘08 and semis last year. Boosted by the absence of Flintoff this year. Plenty of firepower (Matt Hayden averages 54 from 16 IPL games), but could be light in the bowling department – all eyes on Murali. If they were a boxer they’d be Ricky Hatton – big hitter, questionable balance.
Deccan Chargers
Star: AC Gilchrist. Look out for: MR Marsh. Adam Gilchrist-inspired reigning champions. Embodied the nature of T20 by being hopeless the first year and winning it last time around. Spent $720,000 on Kemar Roach at the 2010 auction – he shouldn’t struggle to be half as good as Kevin Pietersen, but might pull up short of being five-and-a-half Eoin Morgans. If they were a footballer they’d be Peter Crouch – used to be derided, before somehow suddenly becoming good.
Delhi Daredevils
Star: TM Dilshan. Look out for: WD Parnell. The chokers of the IPL? A little harsh maybe, but so far they’ve failed to back up strong group-phase performances in the knock-out stages. Packed with destructive batsmen, the bookies make them favourites – which probably means they’ll finish last. Paul Collingwood can often be found holidaying in Delhi around this time of year. If they were a tennis player they’d be Tim Henman – perennial semi-finalists.
Kings XI Punjab
Star: Yuvraj Singh. Look out for: YA Abdulla. The ones who look like they’ve been sent onto the pitch by Arsene Wenger. Any team that offers an injured Sreesanth a role as a ‘fan mentor’ must be worth keeping an eye on. Ravi Bopara starred in IPL ‘09 and will want to use this year’s tournament to cement his place in England’s World T20 squad. If they were an international side they’d be New Zealand - not good, not bad, easy to overlook.
Kolkata Knight Riders
Star: BAW Mendis. Look out for: AD Mathews. ”Last year we learnt how not to be losers,” says Shahrukh Khan in an introductory video on the KKR website. It’s a sentence which would be more accurate minus the “not”: at IPL 2009, KKR lost ten times and finished last. Their campaign was dogged by a captaincy rift and a phantom blogger (how do England players not feature for this franchise?), and this year they boast, in Rohan Gavaskar, the son of a man who once carried his bat for 36 from 174 balls in a World Cup match. If they were a tennis player they’d be Anna Smashnova – great name, but a bit rubbish.
Mumbai Indians
Star: SL Malinga. Look out for: AM Nayar. Can name a fielding God in their support staff (Jonty Rhodes), God himself in their batting line-up (Tendulkar) and a bowling God in the leading wicket-taker in T20 cricket (er, Graham Napier), not to mention a plethora of exciting allrounders. Arguably too many bit-part players, but at least with Harbhajan Singh around, dull moments should be in short supply. If they were a bible story they’d be Noah’s Ark – random bunch of species thrown together but with God on their side.
Rajasthan Royals
Star: GC Smith. Look out for: SW Tait. Warnie’s boys have gone from rags to riches, and now have their sights set on world domination. Despite a relative lack of star names, the Royals possess a well balanced roster as well as that guarantee of success, Jeremy Snape, who lurks in the background administering his Derren Brown mind tricks. Michael Lumb could prove a snip at $50,000 too. If they were a cricket administrator they’d be Lalit Modi.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Star: DW Steyn. Look out for: V Kohli. Named after a liquor brand – how can you not love that? – they’re the ones who waited for KP to leave last year before becoming really quite good. Have been accused in the past of resembling (and playing like) a Test team, and with the likes of Dravid, Kallis and Boucher they’d make a rather good one. New signing Eoin Morgan should add some T20 urgency. If they were a football commentator they’d be John Motson – bit slow, but gets the job done.
8 Comments »The 2010 IPL
By Will Sunday, last week, 4 Comments »
You up for it, then? Excited or unbothered? I’m at 60% at the moment, which is surprisingly high – my interest probably peaked at 6% last year – though I’m mainly interested in seeing how successful the YouTube venture goes.
I don’t know why I’m telling you all this. Anyway, I want to garner your reaction to this year’s Modi Party, so wibble away to your hearts’ content.
4 Comments »Modi lures football to take over the world
By Will 1 month ago, 5 Comments »
Lalit Modi has risen from seemingly nowhere. Unlike us sleepy Englishmen, with our excellent ideas but reluctance to ever commercialise them – or, perhaps more fairly, our endemic resistance to change – Modi’s timing was spot on. He saw Twenty20 as the adrenaline kick cricket needed, a drug for the fans and moreover for television executives to crave. The ICC, like the ECB, were caught off guard yet Modi spotted his chance and got the international board on side, brushing off the Indian Cricket League – and doubtless others – with a disdainful arrogance not readily afforded to someone who had, apparently, appeared from nowhere. Remarkably, he calls the shots.
That, ladies and gents, is the man we are dealing with. There is a distasteful arrogance to the way in which he announces some of his latest ventures and his name does not attract great affection or joy, rather a looming fear. But that’s only because the rest of the world is envious, shaking their heads disbelievingly at the ease with which he has transformed the game, occasionally showing an insouciance of self belief in his vision not seen since Steve Jobs first took to the stage wearing loose-fitting jeans and grubby trainers. Modi knows he’s nailed it. The IPL is his iPhone, a game-changing device applauded by the world.
The rest of the sport and her clubs are fawning for his attention, and not just cricket teams. Modi might havs snared football into the bargain now, too:
“There is a football club, a very famous football club in the UK, very interested in bidding,” Modi said. “[They are] probably one of the most famous football clubs – that’s all I can say. Probably top three. They are interested in taking a stake.”
Responding to speculation in the Indian media, Modi later said on his Twitter page that the club in mention was not Chelsea. A report in the Sun named Manchester City as the team looking at buying a franchise although the club told Cricinfo they were not involved.
The IPL will include two more teams from the 2011 season and will auction the franchise rights at a base price of $225 million ahead of the third season, which starts in India on March 12, and will invite potential investors this week. That figure – double of what the most expensive franchise was sold for in 2008 and more than four times the base price in that first auction – is, in an uncertain market, a sign of the league’s confidence in itself and the Twenty20 format.
According to Modi, the MCC would be a value addition to the IPL and open up the possibility of taking the bandwagon overseas to Lord’s. “I have talked [to MCC] last night and they are quite interested,” he said.
When will he have his iPad moment?
5 Comments »Indian Premier League live on Youtube
By Will 2 months ago, 3 Comments »
This caught everyone by surprise. The IPL will be streamed live on YouTube, a feat which could revolutionise the way sport is broadcast and consumed. If that’s too bold a statement, it will certainly have TV executives shifting uncomfortably in their leather-upholstered swivel chairs. Google are game-changers, and so is Lalit Modi – like him or loath him – so it’s a fascinating partnership. As a fan, I am over the moon and excited by the impact it could have on TV’s monopoly. This could open up the industry, certainly for live sporting events.
The only question which remains is whether they’ll run pre-roll ads or rely on Google Adsense.
3 Comments »Broad shuns IPL. Again
By Will last year, mid-December, 8 Comments »
I imagine Stuart Broad’s ears have been burning today, not by the South African sun which has oddly gone into hiding, but by a probable outpouring of admiration at his second decision not to go to the IPL.
And that, as an Englishman, I’m afraid, remains the instinctive reaction. Well done, Stuart. Nice one, Broady – balls to that conservatory-and-new-car-providing frolic in India. And balls to you, too, Mr Modi. And in fact anyone else planning to overtake the sport. Grr, shakey fists and all – damn you foreign, successful people and damn you for thinking of it before us!
An instinctive reaction but also a naive one. Broad will cave eventually, as will others who have initially feigned interest to further their embryonic international careers, and he shouldn’t be lambasted for chasing quick cash. I find the concept, and the money, of the IPL at odds with the game itself, but I know others – friends and colleagues whose opinions I respect – who rave unequivocally about it.
But it remains a tournament without true identity. It’s perceived by some as the place to learn international cricket, or certainly Twenty20 cricket. By others, it’s a goldmine, and they can’t sharpen their picks fast enough. Some think it’s a brief foray into what the wider sport might eventually become – short and rich, like Alan Sugar – while others, many of them English, are still flabbergasted that India beat them all to it. But many, like Broad, still choose country over cash.
As long as it divides opinion, for all Modi’s cash and investment – and, indeed, impressive promotion and swagger – the IPL is the shiny new apartment block with porters in an ancient city revered for its tradition…albeit one whose foundations are beginning to crumble.
8 Comments »IPL final – Bangalore Royal Challengers v Deccan Chargers
By Will last year, at the end of May, 6 Comments »
So it’s the starwars final in Johannesburg today. Match kicks off at 16.30 local. I’ll be on the beach, but if you have any thoughts on today’s final, or indeed the tournament as a whole, leave a comment.
6 Comments »IPL an “entertainment circus”
By Will last year, at the end of April, 17 Comments »
Neil Manthorp has found the nail and hit it resolutely on its head.
The IPL is a fun tournament and will make excellent wallpaper in sports bars around the world in years to come. But South Africans are already beginning to see it for what it is, rather than what it portrays itself to be. It is an entertainment circus, rather than a sporting one, designed primarily to enable a very small number of fabulously wealthy people to become even wealthier.
A full page newspaper advertisement appeared nationwide last week depicting Sachin Tendulkar against Saurav Ganguly above the caption: “Whose side are you on?” The problem was, Tendulkar was alongside the Rajasthan Royals logo with Ganguly smiling next to the Delhi Daredevils motif.
The IPL. It’s an Indian thing. And will forever remain so until the owners and administrators who so desperately want to become a “global brand” actually stop and think about what that means and how it can be achieved rather just splashing cash and blowing kisses to themselves in the mirror.
The one caveat for IPL’s dissenters is this: yes, it’s not cricket as we know and love, but the very fact this sport has managed to spawn such a beautifully bonkers tributary almost from nowhere deserves some acclaim. I have always been drawn to the game for its eccentricities – the rigidity of the laws, the absurdity of the fielding-positions’ names, the length, the breaks for lunch and tea – so before I write the IPL off in its entirety, for now I’ll accept that it’s a wacky branch off a particularly wacky tree, growing in a meadow of ridiculousness.
In time, someone will probably lop it off…else it’ll grow into something else entirely. Enough gardening-related analogies (I’ve just cut down a tree, as it happens).
17 Comments »IPL coverage
By Will last year, at the end of April, 4 Comments »
Like it or loath it, the IPL is here with us, like a particularly excitable canine nuzzling your feet for attention. So we might as well welcome him in and, if necessary, give the dog a bone. I am utterly biased, but I do think Cricinfo’s coverage of the IPL has been monstrously excellent thus far. So go here for the series page, here for the RSS feed, or here for IPL Page 2, which might be precursor to something we’ve got cooking up for later in the year, containing cartoons and other wicked whimsy.
4 Comments »What do we make of the IPL?
By Will last year, at the end of April, 3 Comments »
So, we’re about a week into IPL 2. What do you think?
I saw a couple of matches on TV in South Africa and, as expected, was struck by the brilliance of the concept and the ugliness of its commercialism. On the one hand, I was watching Shane Warne continue to defy age and physics with unplayable legbreaks. The same can be said of Anil Kumble. Kevin Pietersen was captaining a side containing Dale Steyn against an Indian team led by Warne. The whole idea is mad as a box of frogs.
It’s especially bonkers this year because it’s being held in another country. That very factor alone ought to help the IPL; the stadiums in South Africa are all magnificent from what I’ve learned, and although some cities are considered dangerous, there is less of a terrorist threat than Asia.
The Indian Premier League in South Africa. It just sounds so wrong, so incongruous and unlikely, doesn’t it? To see some old-timers still prove their worth is undoubtedly thrilling, yet why do I not give a flying toss about it all? Perhaps because I refuse to pay the absurdly overpriced Setanta fee (I’m in the UK now). Perhaps I abhor the amount of money. Maybe it’s that, and the combination of the format.
Or maybe it’s just Lalit Modi ingratiating himself with the South African president, Kgalema Motlanthe, who looked about as interested in proceedings as my mum. Modi’s modus operandi. Yes, I’m afraid that’s the other nail in the IPL coffin for me.
Anyway. What’s your name, where do you come from and do you like the IPL?
3 Comments »Flintoff and KP record-breaking millionaires
By Will last year, at the start of February, 10 Comments »
Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen have both broken the IPL record, each netting a cool US$1.55million. Holy moly.
Owais Shah and Paul Collingwood were sold for a frankly pathetic $US275,000 while Luke Wright and Ravi Bopara remain unsold, unwanted – the runts of this latest litter of shame.
So Hampshire and Lancashire will both be getting US$155,000 for Pietersen and Flintoff’s involvement in the IPL – a factor which the players are a bit peeved about. But, still, England’s most marketable and successful players can nevertheless eye up a new house, or car. Or a farm perhaps. Small off-licence selling cheap whiskey, wine gums and sellotape? It’s surprising how people turn to local shops in a recession – these are the things Flintoff and Pietersen will have to consider very carefully in the coming months.
What should they do with their loot? I have a feeling Flintoff’ll be sensible, after drinking 1% of it, whereas Pietersen will invest in a Humvee for tootling around town.
10 Comments »Broad shoulders
By Mark Tilley last year, at the end of January, 15 Comments »
Interesting and heartwarming to see Stuart Broad politely refusing the chance to play in the Indian Premier League. Broad, a wise old head on young shoulders, possibly feels that the crucial summer of English cricket, encompassing a Twenty20 World Cup and an Ashes series, is worth preparing for properly and so has opted out of the high profile player auction to be held on 6 February.
Is it a good choice for young Broad? Financially, it is probably not. The Nottinghamshire fast bowler could stand to earn a six figure sum should he be signed by one of the eight teams involved. However, Broad has his eye on the bigger picture. England face a rigorous schedule between now and the rest of the summer and the heavy workload has seen many an England bowler break down injured (see Messrs Sidebottom, Flintoff and Harmison). Broad is clearly desperate to have a big role in the Ashes contest with Australia this summer and views this as his one chance to have a break before the hectic summer.
It is not unfeasible to say that England surely stand to benefit from Broad’s absence from the IPL. Ignoring the fact that Twenty20 is not necessarily a bowlers game and that Broad has painful T20 memories (thanks, Yuvraj), Broad could well have an extra spring in his step come the visit of both the West Indians and the Aussies. Mick Newell, Broad’s coach at Nottinghamshire, has described the decision as ‘very mature’ and it’s hard to argue. Us mortals can only imagine the monetary lure of the IPL and how easy it must be to play motivated by the promise of cold hard cash.
In making this decision, Broad has shown us two things. One – that he views playing for his country as the main objective and ambition in cricket and that no amount of money can detract from that for him. And two - that it is possible for players in this day and age to say no to the big money riches of the IPL. With all the concern over the longevity of Test cricket and the preservation of cricketing traditions, Broad’s mature stance must be a well of relief for those fretting the most.
Here’s hoping that Broad will prove that he made the right decision and really come on as a Test bowler this summer. I, for one, applaud his decision, wholeheartedly.
15 Comments »Butt on a roll
By Will 2 years ago, mid-October, No Comments; be the first!
Another press conference. More dull, mundane and probably inane quotes to listen to, record, transcribe and hack. At least, that was probably the sentiments of most Pakistani journalists when they rounded on Lahore and descended on Ijaz Butt’s first press conference as Pakistan’s chairman. And what a press conference it was.
Just when my colleague was about to leave, and seemingly unprovoked, Butt spilled forth the sort of juicy quotes some journalists wait a lifetime for. “The ICL think they have a good case” was dispatched through the covers. “The ICC are worried about the ICL” appeared to be drifting down the leg-side, but nevertheless it was smudged through midwicket with power and flair. The poor journalists didn’t have a hope of stopping him. Oh, and not forgetting his coup-de-grace – the most delicate of leg-glances to announce that, yes, the ICC are thinking of merging the Indian Premier League and the ICL (its unsanctioned cousin) to form one mammoth league. Yes, indeed. (If you’re not aware, the ICL is unofficial. The IPL is official and recognised by the ICC. The ICL want to be official. The ICL doesn’t think the ICC can have one official league and one unofficial league, but neither can it have two official leagues, it seems. So it could all end up in court, and the lawyers will all get very, very rich indeed.)
This was a press conference of dizzying revelations, almost none of it planned or expected. Quite what the ICC are thinking now is anyone’s guess, but it’s safe to assume that they’ll be up most of the night wondering just what Mr Butt had for his breakfast. I’m thinking it was two Weetabix and three boiled eggs.
There was more, too. Geoff Lawson, the coach, was sacked (not until April next year though. So he’s got six months in which to try and convince his players, if not himself, that he’s the right man for the job.)
Pure entertainment.
No Comments »Test cricket in serious danger
By Will 2 years ago, mid-October, 10 Comments »
I have accepted Twenty20. I even like it. But watching how powerful the newly-formed tournaments have become is like witnessing a teenager push a pensioner over on the street. It’s rude, wrong and has an air of danger. You want to stop it; you don’t quite know how.
The pensioner, if you’ll allow me to extend this frankly ridiculous analogy, is Test cricket. OK, so the doddery old bugger hasn’t yet been floored by IPL’s gang, but the news this week that Sri Lanka could be sending a second XI to tour England next year is the most significant effect Twenty20 has had on the game as a whole. The Twenty20 World Cup has been a success, and will eventually replace the ageing 50-over wreck, but Test cricket has so far remained swaddled in its own security blanket of tradition. Until now.
The reason, if you’re not aware, is that Sri Lanka Cricket has proposed a US$70m deal with Lalit Modi, the oligarch behind the IPL. In addition, Sri Lanka’s sports minister has said that his top players are therefore committed to fulfilling their highly lucrative contracts with Modi – at the expense of Tests. The teenagers are jeering at the old pensioner. “Come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough,” they rant.
By 2010, almost half the County Championship fixtures will be done and dusted by about May 15, to accomodate the English Premier League, the Twenty20 Cup and whatever else the ECB’s bean-counters decide upon. Where does this leave four and five-day cricket? The Championship remains the most coveted title in England. Test cricket remains the atlas of most cricketers’ aspirations. And yet they could soon be marginalised by the unsavoury appetite for money.
Once dollars are involved, it’s very hard to stop the rift widening. Who can blame players when they’re being offered life-changing sums? Happily, the ICC president, David Morgan, has brandished this decision by Sri Lanka as deeply worrying, so there is still hope that his organisation can stop the rot. But if Sri Lanka do decide not to tour, their relationship with India thus strengthens, and the BCCI’s clout over world cricket becomes even more encompassing. Even more worrying.
The whole face of international cricket could be about to change very dramatically.
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