I resumed watching cricket, and following it, in 2008. It was the year of inaugural season of famed IPL. One match, between Kings XI v/s Mumbai Indians, I vividly remember. Mumbai Indians lost that encounter after a tight contest and that day I became a Mumbai Indians fan. Three and a half seasons of fanship and the fact that Mumbai Indians has gone from strength to strength just delights the fan inside me. This season they have also made for one more weakness of last season. Last season I thought there was thin layer between opening batsmen and Pollard. This year, as MI showed in the latest match against champions CSK, the middle order is studded with quality batsman like Rohit Sharma and Symonds before Pollard comes in. The postponed Sri Lankan series has also helped the case in a positive way with Malinga staying till the end. So obviously everyone would expect me to think that this year is MI’s year but believe me I am really not hopeful. I cannot be. Or for that matter no fan can be sure about his team becoming champion. The case I build here may have MI in it but the disappointment is of every fan of every club in general.
T20 version draws a major inspiration from football leagues but falters in one thing. The one thing I feel is to reward consistency. A league is more about consistency, rather relative consistency. A club who is relatively more consistent compared to other clubs should be winner of the league which is what happens in football leagues around the world. In a cup format, or a knock out format things are little different in a way that the team can always be pumped up to perform on that single day. It is hard to consistently perform with the same tempo if you are not a quality side. Ask South Africa to play in a league format and I guess 7 out of 10 times they would win it. Ask them to win a knock out cup and evidently so for 20 years a team of the day, recently NewZealand, can knock them out of the most coveted cup. And so the point is that keep the league for rewarding consistency. Keeping the format of Champions league cricket same, it can be ensured that only teams who were consistent get distilled to play for the prize that rewards the brilliance of the day. In the end we would have a winner who is consistent as well as has the temperament and nerves for the important day.
It would be unjustified to criticize the format and not coming out with any suggestion. We can retain the current format, with slight changes and still have a worthy winner. I am not at all saying that winners of previous are not worthy, because they performed best according to the system. Have a semi final where there are two matches at home and away venue. Winner of the semi final can be decided on the basis of net run rate. Have 3 or 5 final (like there are 7 NBA finals) so that the team has some time to react. The changes I suggest is just a point of view of a neutral as well as an ardent fan. After all IPL is just a synonym of fans and junta.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Friday, April 1, 2011
This is our day
All credits to Indian cricket team to bring joy to billion plus people by producing one of the stellar performances in semi-finals of the cricket world cup. Such dates and matches get itched in the memories and become the part of the gospels told till eternity. This match, apart from the win in the world cup semi final on the arch rivals, would be known for the amount of dignitaries that made there to cheer the Indian cricket team. Politicians, industrialists, film stars every one made it there. Certainly the match deserved an attention of all of them. But moreover I felt that our team deserved the cheers of those who were not there.
I felt that the crowd support in the match at mohali was not just enough. This got lost in the fact that we won against our arch rivals. I compare the situation to a football match where the home support acts as a 12th palyer. A goal is palpable when the crowd gets behind the team. It was missing. How can you just clap when a local lad produces a brilliant piece of fielding? Unacceptable. How can’t you cheer for every dot ball the boy of the nation bowls? Unacceptable.
The fact that a 500 rupee ticket got sold for 10k says a lot. What it did was to bring all the people who would usually occupy a seat in VIP box in whole of the stadium. A class of people who are really not used to those mad reactions for the team or maybe they have forgotten it. They are too high for that I think. Really no offence to anyone. One more thing which added to misery was, celebrities going to stands to capture eye balls and some click of cameras. This is the day of days and the celebrities are right there in front of you slugging ball in ball out, diving in, putting desperate efforts, injuring themselves to catch. I actually feel that when you are emotionally attached to your team, miracles happen, predictions start coming right. And by taking the attention to somewhere else (read as Ms. Sonia Gandhi in stands to get in touch with “aam admi”) you are defeating the purpose.
The same thing, a hope against hope, is going to get repeated in Wankhede in the final. I sincerely hope that everyone there comes out of their shell to be a real common man, rather than coming out between a common man. Our lads are playing in one of the dream finals and they really need every one behind them, certainly not as celebrities but as genuine “aam admi”. Be the 12th player. Win or lose (I say that the cup is all blue) I just hope that the flowers of India do not get disappointed with the support. It cannot get bigger than this and let us shed all our sophistications to cry out loud for India. Chak de !
I felt that the crowd support in the match at mohali was not just enough. This got lost in the fact that we won against our arch rivals. I compare the situation to a football match where the home support acts as a 12th palyer. A goal is palpable when the crowd gets behind the team. It was missing. How can you just clap when a local lad produces a brilliant piece of fielding? Unacceptable. How can’t you cheer for every dot ball the boy of the nation bowls? Unacceptable.
The fact that a 500 rupee ticket got sold for 10k says a lot. What it did was to bring all the people who would usually occupy a seat in VIP box in whole of the stadium. A class of people who are really not used to those mad reactions for the team or maybe they have forgotten it. They are too high for that I think. Really no offence to anyone. One more thing which added to misery was, celebrities going to stands to capture eye balls and some click of cameras. This is the day of days and the celebrities are right there in front of you slugging ball in ball out, diving in, putting desperate efforts, injuring themselves to catch. I actually feel that when you are emotionally attached to your team, miracles happen, predictions start coming right. And by taking the attention to somewhere else (read as Ms. Sonia Gandhi in stands to get in touch with “aam admi”) you are defeating the purpose.
The same thing, a hope against hope, is going to get repeated in Wankhede in the final. I sincerely hope that everyone there comes out of their shell to be a real common man, rather than coming out between a common man. Our lads are playing in one of the dream finals and they really need every one behind them, certainly not as celebrities but as genuine “aam admi”. Be the 12th player. Win or lose (I say that the cup is all blue) I just hope that the flowers of India do not get disappointed with the support. It cannot get bigger than this and let us shed all our sophistications to cry out loud for India. Chak de !
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