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WHAT’S HOT

There have been some pretty awesome opening bat pairings – Sachin Tendulkar and Saneth Jayasuriya’s 137 runs for the first wicket at St Georges Park last night was breathtaking. Or Adam Gilchrist and Herschelle Gibbs – also yesterday – I don’t think I’ve ever seen Gilly hit it so sweetly.

The old guys (read 35+) have been showing the young guys a clean pair of heels. Big performances by Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Saneth Jayasuriya, Sachin Tendulkar and Herschelle Gibbs – even Rahul Dravid has a strike rate of over 120!

Some of those who didn’t get paid 1.5 million USD, but who proving to be great bargains. AB de Villiers for the Dehli Daredevils at only 300K, or Yousuf Pathan for the Rajasthan Royals. Hayden and Gibbs too are proving great value for money – whatever they were paid.

The crowd support has been fantastic (Newlands, St Georges Park and Durban at least). These grounds now get a rest, and the IPL moves inland to Johannesburg and Centurion. Surprisingly, the atmosphere at St Georges Park has seemed to be the most lively and festive of all, even though the ground only holds about 13,000. Good on you Port Elizabeth, and your brass band!!!

The IPL’s HEAT initiative – providing funding and sponsorship to students and schools of South Africa – it’s an awesome initiative – a BIG THANK YOU – IPL!

The cheerleaders – need I say more?

WHAT’S NOT

Kevin Pieterson by now must surely be the only person left on the planet that thinks he’s seriously cool, a great cricketer and a team player. On the one occasion he didn’t get a duck, and with his team in trouble, one might have thought that he would put his team first, and play with some responsibility (granted it is still T20). But no – he just can’t resist being an irrepresible show-off, trying to play his sad little “switch-hit”. Its always just about you KP – and I really feel sorry for those who paid 1.5 million USD to have you in the team!!! This time let it be me that categorically states “you are NOT a South African!!!”.

Chris Gayle and Brendan McCullam on paper should be an awesome opening pairing for the Kolkata Knight Riders. But they just haven’t yet fired – and Gayle will be leaving soon.

A batting order with the top three containing Jaques Kallis and Rahul Dravid for the Royal Challengers Bangalore – although in fairness both have been adapting to this game, and are surprisingly both have strike rates above 120. But compared to the explosive performances that other opening combinations have – it is just not enough.

Apologies to the Royal Challengers Bangalore – this seems all about you. But its not surprising considering that you are holding the last place on the log, and unlikely to change it. The team just has no team spirit, no sense of unity, and certainly no will to win. They look like a bunch of guys who just have to pitch up and play in order to get their USD. And I blame a lot of this on Kevin Pieterson – he is just a one-man-show – and should NEVER be put in charge of other people – it is just not going to work!!! Prediction – when KP leaves and Jaques Kallis takes over as captain – it will be a changed team.

The Super Over is great in concept – but for heaven’s sakes – does it need to take as long to bowl two overs as it does to play an innings? The batsmen and bowlers need to be identified and nominated before the start of the game. In a sport where everything happens so quickly, where the batsmen sit in dugouts on the field so as to save time – can we not bowl two overs with “known” participants in under half an hour?

Interviews with people in the crowds – with responses limited to “yes”, or “no”. Not interesting enough for the viewers.

Even though it’s all about the sponsor DLF – it gets quite annoying hearing about “DLF Maximums” instead of “sixes” – especially when Tendulkar and Jayasuriya are batting.

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The Indian Premier League may have brought money and fame for many, but the glitzy Twenty20 tournament is proving a bitter pill for many home-grown players. Organisers insist the IPL is a domestic Indian tournament with teams allowed to field only four foreign players per match, but local cricketers are already feeling the pinch in the event’s second season. All eight teams are coached by foreigners and only four sides are captained by Indian players.

The fascination with international stars does not end there. Among those cricketers bought at IPL auctions, seven of the top 10 earners were foreigners. “This whole talk of IPL being a domestic Indian tournament is a joke,” former India captain Ajit Wadekar told AFP. “It is Indian money, our country’s money on which foreigners are thriving. But they do not think twice before sacking an Indian.”

India star Mohammad Kaif, 28, was shown the door by Rajasthan Royals two days before the IPL’s second season started in South Africa because skipper Shane Warne said “he did not fit into the scheme of things”. The removal of Kaif, who has played 13 Tests and 125 one-day internationals, left many fuming. “It has exposed the complete ruthlessness of the owners,” said Sharda Ugra, sports editor of the respected India Today magazine. “Eventually for them it’s business first.

Unfortunately the Indians seem to be losing out, even the great players.” India’s most successful Test captain Sourav Ganguly was replaced at the helm of Kolkata Knight Riders by New Zealander Brendon McCullum, a move masterminded by their cricket head, former Australian coach John Buchanan. Rahul Dravid was dumped as captain of Bangalore Royal Challengers after Kevin Pietersen came on board this year while Venkatsai Laxman was sacked as skipper of Deccan Chargers in favour of Adam Gilchrist. When Pietersen leaves the IPL in early-May due to England commitments, South African Jacques Kallis will take over as captain for the rest of the season.

Wadekar said he wished Indian coaches were taken on by the rich owners. “Some of the foreign coaches have not even played Test cricket, that’s why they don’t know how to respect talent at the international level. No wonder, players like Ganguly are being ill-treated.” Ugra fears it may not be long before the restriction on four foreign players per match is removed.

“There was already an attempt to amend the rules and have six foreigners in a playing eleven before the auction this year, but luckily it was shot down,” she said.

Article courtesy of Sports365 , Thu, 23 Apr 2009

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The Event

South Africa will stage the 2009 Indian Premier League after officials decided to move the Twenty20 tournament to a neutral venue because of security fears due to the elections taking place simultaneously in India. Ironically South Africa will be holding their own general elections during the tournament, and one hopes all goes smoothly.

England was the alternative choice for the highly-lucrative event, but IPL chairman Lalit Modi confirmed South Africa as hosts. Modi said after the meeting: “We are very happy to confirm that South Africa will host the 2009 DLF Indian Premier League tournament.

Gerald Majola, CSA said : “The South African public loves T2O cricket and CSA successfully hosted the inaugural ICC World T20. Both of these factors weighed heavily in South Africa’s favour, and we look forward to a successful and exciting tournament being held at venues throughout South Africa.”

“This event will strengthen the ties even further between South African and Indian cricket, as well as binding our nations even closer together.

“We are looking forward to hosting some of the world’s best cricketers, and we can assure them they will be provided with the very best facilities to show their skills.

The Teams

The Grounds

The Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg

Newlands, Cape Town

Kingsmead, Durban

St Georges Park, Port Elizabeth

Supersport Park, Centurion

De Beers Diamond Oval, Kimberly

Outsurance Oval, Bloemfontein

Buffalo Park, East Londen

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PowerPlays, SuperSubs, FreeHits and other frills

I don’t care if this new “batters powerplay” has introduced a whole new dimension for the viewing public – “its just not cricket“. I dislike any form of powerplay, and I’m really pleased that much vaunted supersub disaster was dropped before too long. I don’t mind all of these gimmicks in Pro20 – like on-field microphones, heartrate monitors, free hits and the like. By all means, try out these things in domestic competetions, and let Pro20 be a playground – but please, please – don’t corrupt Test and ODI cricket.

Can you imagine tainting the other “purists'” sport – golf? Let’s make every golfer have to tee off with a 5-iron on at least one par 5. Or how about forcing the players to swap their putter with their playing partner – all in the interest of making it more interesting for the spectators. Or how about making the Formula One cars have to race towing a trailer, or a caravan? Imagine what that would do to spectator viewing interest. How about making the tennis players play one game per set with their “wrong” hand, or else make them tie their shoelaces together, or make them carry a backpack while playing? Imagine how much the spectators would enjoy that!

These suggestions are obviously very much tongue-in-cheek – yet cricket is actually implementing some of these steps. Come on cricket – how about going back to your roots – back to the original game. When two equally matched teams are competing, you won’t need tricks and illusions to make it attractive to the viewing public. By all means let Pro20 be your glitz and glamour spectator special, but please, please keep Test and ODI cricket pure!

Strength vs Strength

When cricket provide close encounters, as South Africa vs Australia has been this summer, or India vs Australia, or the classic Ashes – the whole world sits glued to the screen. Many of these games go down to the wire, and both teams have wins, and both have losses. Who needs Pro20 if we could have more 438 games?

But cricket becomes boring when for example Australia post 350-plus in their allocated 50 overs, and then watch Bangladesh, Zimbabwe or sometimes West Indies make no effort whatsoever to chase the score, but rather use this opportunity as 50 overs of batting practice, and end up with 140/7 after a most tedious afternoon.

Would it not be possible to have something like they do in other sports – for instance a premier league where the top eight teams of the ICC play against each other, and a B league – where perhaps the next eight teams will play each other. Every six months or year, the bottom premier team and the top B league team swap places, or at least have a playoff. Admittedly it would be difficult to implement with tours scheduled possibly years ahead, but nonetheless.

Again, no disrepect intended, but games against Bangladesh or Zimbabwe aren’t really worth watching. However a B-league with teams like Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Ireland, Holland and Kenya might make for some interesting viewing – and I’d certainly rather watch South Africa play the top team of this league, than Zimbabwe on an off day (or year)!

World Cup training ground

In all of the other major sporting disciplines, players or teams need to earn enough points to qualify or be eligible to play in their premier events. In golf there are the four majors, in tennis – the four Grand Slams. Not so in cricket however! For some or other unfathomable reason – (unless its all about making the event as big as possible so as to maximise profits) – teams that are not good enough to play international cricket make up half of the field for the World Cup. If there are sixteen teams playing (four teams in four groups) there are 24 games before we get to the SuperSix round. Of these 24 games twelve are mismatches – like South Africa vs Holland, or Australia vs Bahamas. No wonder people lose interest way before the end of the tournament. They say it is all about “growing” the game and providing “lesser” nations with international experience. I’d love to be invited to play in The Masters at Augusta, or at Wimbledon – in the interest of “gaining experience”!

No, the World Cup is rather where the cream of the crop should come together to determine the best of the best – it isn’t a training ground. I would far rather see the tournament start with the top eight teams (ICC rankings as at a specified date) that regularly play international cricket, and then all of these teams play all other teams other for points. At the end the top four can go into a traditional knockout stage. Ireland, Kenya or the Seychelles have no place at a Cricket World Cup – with no disrespect intended to these countries. If my memory serves me correctly the first World Cup South Africa played in after re-admission was played along these lines – and was by far the most memorable for me. This last one in West Indies lasted about two months – and was about one month too long. Too many games were just insignificant!

IPL Pro20 and other pay-for-cricket options

I love my cricket, but in all honesty I didn’t watch one single game of the IPL – there were just too many games, I didn’t really identify with any of the teams and it all just smacked of $$$.

A lot of people I know feel the same – in fact it wouldn’t surprise me if the ONLY people that followed it would be the bookies, and the people dealing with the bookies.

I don’t like the fact that some bloke with more $$$ than sense can come in and “buy” world cricket. I was really pleased to read of the failure of the Stanford series.

I don’t like the fact that young up-and-coming cricketers (from all countries) have as their primary goal is to land a lucrative IPL contract, instead of aiming for the honour of representing their country. It would be a tragedy when IPL gets the first choice, and Test/ODI cricket gets the “leftovers”. I don’t have a problem if its the other way around however – Kevin Pieterson is a prime example – IPL can have him!

Pro20 has a place in world cricket, but it must remain a small place. One or two games can be played between two countries, ideally between a Test series and the ODI series. It should always be about having fun, entertaining crowds, and experimenting with new players. Pro20 must NEVER become bigger than Test or ODI cricket.

One upside is that ODI’s have become “bigger”, with higher run rates being chased, and higher scores achieved. But on the downside many of the purist strokes are becoming yesterdays news, making way for big, powerful blokes coming in with treetrunks in their hands, and “hacking” the ball to the boundary fence. I would hate to lose those classic shots, like Herschelle Gibbs’ lofted cover drive, or Sachin Tendulkar’s sublime wristplay as he flicks the ball off his pads. It would be a pity to lose all of that!

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Wisden names the South Africa’s Jacques Kallis as the No. 1 cricketer on earth for 2007.

Kallis becomes the fifth player to win the accolade of “Leading Cricketer in the World” since it began in 2004 to identify the first name on a World XI team-sheet to play Mars.

Previous winners include the Australians Ricky Ponting and Shane Warne, Andrew Flintoff of England and, last year, Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka.

Credit: Wisden

Firstly, let me congratulate Jaques Kallis on his achievement – it is indeed something special to be considered the worlds No. 1 cricketer.

However, that been said – am i the only one that feels that somehow he isn’t living up to his true potential? He has the ability, far more so than any other in his team, to demolish any attack. But how often does he in fact do that? He so often seems to be playing a supporting role to the batsman at the other end – one would assume that Kallis – “the best in the world” – would more often than not be the player that others would support…

How often have we seen him – when we are in a strong position of 550/3 – looking to declare, yet Kallis will still bat at 2 runs to the over, preferring his junior partner to take the risks. Its as if his “not out” is more important than the teams so-called strategy of “brave cricket”.

Little wonder then that he was excluded from the Pro20 World Cup – that’s just not his game. He likes his 15 overs to get his eye in, and there are only 20 overs. In this game one needs to be firing from both sides – Kallis keeping an end up while expecting his batting partner to do the work just doesn’t strike me as the ideal gameplan for Pro20.

When Lara, Ponting, Tendulkar or Sehwag walk to the crease, then I sit glued to the TV – not wanting to miss a thing. However, when Kallis walks to the crease I find an excuse to work in the garden – secure in the knowledge that he will probably still be there when I return, but there’s just no way I want to watch him play.

And somehow that – to me – defines the essence of greatness!.

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