IPL could be the next R-Power

Newspapers were splashed with its news, everyone was talking about it, the whole nation was following up every bit of information, every event was a record in itself- listing of Reliance Power. This is happening again and this time it is IPL -Indian Premier League.

Could IPL be the next R-power? IPL is creating the same buzz before opening ceremony as Reliance power did before listing and it may also repeat the results after opening as R-power did.

Anil Ambani used to call it the great Indian story so is Lalit Modi saying about IPL. Every one wanted a pie of R-power and corporates are having of IPL. Though the ordinary man (aam admi) does not have much to do this time around as they could do in case of R-power by applying for Rs. 100,000 worth of shares. But, everything will depend on this very aam admi(they have to watch it for it to be successful). While R-power made millions dream about earning a quick buck IPL is making the rich dream of becoming richer and it has already made a few not so rich Indian cricketers richer by a few crores.

But, Why would IPL be the next R-power?

T20 world cup was a great success and so is English Premier League. So BCCI (Lalit modi) decided to mix the two and come up with a winning formula. It indeed is a good idea but every idea has a right value and I think IPL is over valued in terms of the money being thrown around for everything from tournament sponsors to TV rights to buying players.

IPL is a twenty-twenty tournament, which is all about cracking, blasting and lightning - hitting sixes and fours, scoring runs at breakneck pace. T20 world cup was successful for this very reason especially after Yuvi's (Yuraj Singh) 6 sixes in one over to Andrew Flintoff. EPL is about local clubs contesting against each other with international flavor and high standard of the sport. But, T20 world cup was also about nations competing, which IPL is not about and EPL is more about football with many more nationalities participating in the form of players which also is not the case with IPL.

Nation vs. money

IPL will have teams comprising of people from different countries with different languages and different creed. Some of these players have been through recent brawls and will not have the same spirit towards each other that a national team has on the field. This will be an important factor and will reduce the intensity of the teams to win. On the other hand there will be players with long history of playing on the same side who will stand against each other. The question here is what bounds the team together, the feeling of belonging to the same nation or being paid by the same employer? Since money is the only reason for all these players to get together in the same team, they will not be able to perform the way these very players performed in T20 world cup. For some the performance appraisal pressure will not exist either because they are already standing at the end of their career. We may see matches as we have seen before that of India XI vs. World XI etc.

Player combinations

The Indian public is much more emotional than that of many other nations. Now imagine Rahul Dravid and Misbah-ul-Haq celebrating Sachin's wicket when Bangalore Royal Challengers clash with the Mumbai Indians. This may not go very well with the crowd unless the batsmen and the bowler smile and laugh while being bowled or being hit for a six. In either case intensity of cricket will be down.

Less cricket more bollywood

The organizers have already promised a lot of music and dance, which is also very much visible in team advertisements. But, do we not have enough of music and dance on Indian television? Adding more and more masala into the same dish does not make it more tasty! This masala may just make IPL another entertainment show and not a sporting event. Leaving the viewers with a bad taste.

Fans

I am a Sachin and Rahul fan. I shifted from Bangalore to Delhi a month back. So whom shall I support? Well there are many like me who will not have one team to cheer for and hope to win so we will follow the matches just to kill time while not doing anything else.

So while I do not say that IPL will fail, I think IPL will not be a massive success or a run-away hit as expected. It will end up as just another event with respect to TV viewer ship! let us wait and watch on 18th April.

20-50 - Cricket world cup 2015

I always felt 20-20 is not for bowlers. In fact I often used to say that in T20 bowlers could only bleed as the concept of the game was to score irrespective of the pitch, fielding etc.

With India's performance against Pakistan and South Africa where the team defended average scores of less than 150, not only the bowlers have done a commendable job but I also gladly accept my wrong notion of no room for bowling.

But, of course the best thing I have liked in the T20 tournament till now is the short span of the match. 3 hours for a cricket match in my opinion is the best thing to have happened where one can watch the match without having to miss his work, take leave, stay awake the whole night etc.(all so common for Cricket crazy Indian fans).

I think this is how the 2015 Cricket world cup should be.

32 teams to play the world cup.

Round 1 - 8 groups, 4 teams in each group. 20-20 matches intra group.
Top 2 teams from each group to move to next round.
Let us say then we have A1, A2, B1, B2 .... H1 and H2

Round 2 - A1 plays B1 and B2 and so does A2. So 2 teams from one pair play 2 teams of another pair and this round be 20-20 too.

Based on the points and run rates the best 8 out of the 16 move to round 3.

Round 3 - Quarter finals.
and now begins the show down with 50-50 in place.

From here on the tournament goes as any other tournament.

With 32 teams playing cricket I am sure there would be lot more variety than we get to see today and with 20-20 in first 2 rounds it will not last for months. With 50-50 in last 3 rounds the big boys will not be able to complain either about the reduction in the quality of sport.

Of course grooming 32 teams to be able to play up to international standard will have to be ICC's job and I do think 8 years is a good time to bring teams to that level. ICC has much to gain from entry of so many teams into international arena so they should not have any qualms for such a daunting task.

Regardless of my weird ideas till India plays Australia on Saturday we can say - "Bharat desh ka nara hai, 20-20 hamara hai", "Indian's slogan is 20-20 is ours".

Sachin

Sachin's last play in England. A good slide show I found on The First Post.

This is not the first of its kind slide show especially for a legend like Sachin. But, since I admire him and I found it today by chance so thought of linking it here. I admire him because:

> His bat spoke for him and not he.
> He never answered criticism to defend himself. He knew what he was doing and what he had to do.
> He always made a comeback in the worst of times.
> His behavior was always of a gentleman.

Ok, since I am sounding very cliched here so I will stop before the fewest of the reader's of my blog pledge to stop reading my blog.

But like Ashoka, Budha, Ram, Krishna, Prophet and Jesus became history. He would become history too. A history that will be remembered till when cricket will not cease to exist.

Indian hockey - chak diya!

No, I am neither going to write a review for chak de! nor I would be writing a news item for Indian hockey team's victory over Korea in Asia Cup(7-1 victory is commendable).

I watched the final of Asia cup final on Sunday evening and yes it was a shocking victory (yes not a shocking defeat, but a shocking victory). Indian beat Korea 7-1 in an already flooded tournament - flooded with goals by Indian hockey team, who scored a mammoth 57 goals in the tournament. Then I coincidentally watched chak de, 2 hours later. I think this would probably be the reverse of what others would have recently done - I am assuming some of the so many people who liked chak de! might have watched the match.

This could well be a great opportunity for the celebrity hungry brand managers and media agents. For example even the news channels in my opinion have a good chance to spread their wings over some other sports and may be have dedicated shows for hockey.

Companies picking some of the good hockey players as of now could be spotting a good opportunity for much lesser a price than they might have to shell out in case they win another tournament and then all the companies jumping to cash them resulting in much higher prices for the new ambassadors.

It may look as if I am blowing Indian team's victory in the Asia Cup way out of proportion. But, as far as I can see hockey is one of the few games which can easily gain mass appeal in a country like India. I say so because,
(i) It does not require costly equipment to start with.
(ii) It does not need special courts or tracks for common man to play.
(iii) It is not a very complex game when it comes to scoring.
(iv) It's a good entertainer.

And then once upon a time... India was the best in this very sport and even though I doubt kids below 10 would know this, but it is India's national game.

I don’t think chak de was the motivation for Indian hockey players but it could be with these results coming in more frequently. Great hopes for hockey to gain its lost glory.

Good for Indian sports

It’s been a old matter that India exit from the cricket WC in round-I and people seem to have forgotten this as well. Though i am not happy to see my own country and its players loosing so badly. Not because it lost but because it lost without even giving any fight to the teams it lost to.

But, i think it is a good opportunity for the other Indian sports. I personally believe a sport in today’s world is driven by business. With Indian cricket team's all time low rankings and worst performances, Indian sports is lacking national idols and now is the time for any of the new individuals to show some great performance. Business will grab them for their brand endorsements and that would give a good push to the respective sport.

I think its important for business to look outside cricket. Only cricket and bollywood being the options available with ad makers the options are too less and thus the brand value of even not so popular and new celebrities is quite high.

Now is the time when these new sportspersons could click and get their share of fame and glory, which has been overshadowed for long by cricket.

So may be Indian cricket might recover from the slump soon for some reason but here is a chance for Indian sports to redefine itself from sports=cricket to sports=sports.

Shame or Blame

So India lost to Bangladesh. Shame! Shame! Well they outplayed us, so some cheers!! for the bangladesh team too. Credit has to be given to them for bowling out Indian line-up for 191. Yes, the same Indian batting line-up where 3 players individually have more score than whole Bangladesh team.

But, is this not how everything runs in this world - cyclical change. India is a developing economy. But when we see business from these developing countries growing and becoming bigger than some of the developed countries we say its our time now. So if somebody wins someone has to loose.

I think this is good for the world cricket that there are new teams showing good performance. Atleast the world cup will be a little more unpredictable instead just 8 teams being expected to be in the 2nd round(every world cup for the last 4 times).

Ofcourse i dont mean to say, for the development of world cricket I am happy to see India loosing. It is unfortunate to see India loose to a new team. But then if Infosys tipping IBM and Accenture in a mutimillion contract is fair enough then I think Bangladesh tipping India is fair enough too.

But then Accenture and IBM would not sit down and relax. So it is important to notice what do Indian players do after this match.

I think atleast after this world cup, those players who claim cricket is their first love and rest all second(like Sachin etc.) should atleast show it for the sake of it by saying no to all new advertisements for the next 6 months, focus only the game and see what has changed in world cricket since last time they focussed on the game(i guess it might have been a long time for most of them since they have been working very hard for ad shoots).

This result would also have raised Bermuda's hopes. They might be thinking can we do it too. God bless them!

By the way after being chucked out of the workd cup is Pakistan going back home. I think they must loose to Zimbabwe too. Not because i love to watch Pakistan loosing. But, because pak cricket team would anyways receive maltreatement on their return. If they loose to Zimbabwe then they can go to Zimbabwe and there they might receive a welcome treatment. So atleast they will have some place to hide.

I am catching up!!!

Yes, i am cacthing up with cricket WC.
I still remember the time when i had a dream to be a batsman in Indian cricket team. Now, my wish(not dream ofcourse) is to somehow be able to watch atleast some matches in this World cup. Though some of my friend have told me some links where i can watch live matches, i doubt i would do that(i hope i do that).

Today at last i tried finding some latest information for this world cup and relaized there were some new teams like Bermuda also included this time.

I think bermuda might have been included because cricket is played in pants and players might have complained to ICC that other sportsmen tease them and make their fun for playing in pants and not in bermudas(shorts upto knees, the ones used in Tennis).

So ICC might have decided including bermuda in WC(no disrespect to bermuda cricketers), thus now players feel better in boasting the fact that they also play with Bermuda(not in bermuda but, with bermuda).

Anyways i hope to get some more info over the next few days so that i can feel like an Indian(anybody from India not knowing about cricket should not be called a native Indian, only a residential Indian). I need to prove now that i am a native/by birth/by soul/by body Indian.

Till then, lets hope Indian players too feel like that!! Best of luck to them. They need a lot of luck in the form of important players of other teams getting injured, rains gods smiling at them or may be even umpires watching a bird while the player is LBW(in other words full body before the wicket).

Best of Luck to men in Blue(is the uniform still blue, i read it is under change)?

Its a Gooooooooaaaaaaaaallllllll

When everybody thought you wont get to hear it here in the play time, and there would be penalty shootouts again, it was a time for surpirse and shock for the home team, when there were 2 hits in the 119 and 120th minute.

But then its said who wins is the better team.

So now when the French or the Portugese meet Italy in the finals they will know one thing for sure : Italy has been into the finals every 12 years since 1970 - 1970, 1982( they won), 1994 ..... now you do the maths.