IPL : Do the Delhi Daredevils have the guts to drop Mohd Asif

The Delhi Daredevils have now lost two games on the trot. I am not going to make the foolish mistake of prophesying doom for them. They still remain one of my favourites to win it all. However, the team now needs to do what champion teams do to win professional leagues.

Champion teams are flexible and know how to make adjustments. If plan A is not working out, they have a plan B in store. Also champion teams don’t pick players on reputation alone. They will drop a superstar without a second thought if he’s not performing and pick a lesser name as a replacement. Putting the best team on the field is more important than massaging star egos.

Delhi can prove that they have the makings of a champion side by dropping Mohd Asif and Shoaib Malik.

Mohd Asif is a great bowler. He is the modern day twin of Glenn McGrath - probably the most accurate bowler of the last 15 years. But while McGrath has been superb, bowling at an economy of 6.1 (best for the Daredevils and fifth best overall), Asif has been poor. His economy of 8.87 has been seventh-best for the Delhi side and 52nd best overall. Farveez Maharoof’s rate of 7.09 (the next best after McGrath’s amongst the Daredevils) is far better and he’s been cooling his heels on the sidelines. Asif’s also been poor in the late overs – getting clobbered for 3 sixes by Pollock in the penultimate over (of a low-scoring game against Mumbai) and then conceding 11 against Chennai with 33 required off 18 balls.

Therefore the Daredevils need to pick Maharoof and drop Asif. Maharoof’s batting will also add steel to the suspect lower-order.

Shoaib Malik has been poor with bat (9th best in the side) and ball (8th best in the side). Also guilty of bowling a terrible last over against Chennai and failing to guide the side home against Mumbai. AB de Villiers has also struggled but having played half as many games as Shoaib, can be given another chance. Delhi has an ideal replacement for Malik in the form of Tillakratne Dilshan - an aggressive middle -order bat who can also bowl some tight overs.

Inspite of the twin setbacks, the Daredevils dont have to lose sleep over it. Like most good sides, they have the bench strength to make the necessary adjustments. Making those changes would be the first step towards bouncing right back in the fray.

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Vijay Mallya is now the Herb Kohl of the IPL

Owning sports teams is a hobby only the super-rich can indulge in. The IPL finally created such a club in India. Amongst its prominent billionaire members was one Dr Mallya. He had tasted blood through his part-ownership of Force India, but owning the Bangalore IPL franchise was the real deal – a chance to compete for bragging rights like only the super-rich can.

He spent an exorbitant amount of money to buy the franchise and the players and also on the entertainment. Most of the money has been badly spent. The team was ill-suited to the format and lies at the bottom of the pile. The novelty of the cheer-leaders has worn off and the Force India F1 car sits like an orphan in one corner.

But all that is pardonable. There are other teams performing horribly and the entertainment efforts generally stink.

What is not pardonable, however, is the disgraceful manner in which Mallya has sacked his CEO – Charu Sharma. No reason has been given for the move – typical of tyrannical sports owners –they are accountable to none.

That captain Rahul Dravid was given a free-hand to pick the side is a well-known fact. And I am sure Mallya planned all the entertainment action. So, what is Charu’s fault? I don’t like him as a commentator and as a host but he hasn’t done anything to be treated this badly.

With this move, Mallya has a strong case to be anointed as the first ‘bad owner’ of the IPL. My heartiest congratulations. We need all kinds.

What defines bad owners is their knack for irrational and dictatorial moves - Hiring and firing the wrong guys at the drop of a hat. Charu’s unexplained sacking makes Mallya’s resume look complete. Giving Charu only 7 games to make winners out of RCB and that too with his hands tied to his back has to be considered a move worthy of membership.

I am tempted to compare Mallya to George Bush (a hopeless owner with the Texas Rangers in the MLB) but I’ll stick to the NBA. After all Lalit Modi has learnt the most from that league.

So I will call Mallya the Herb Kohl of the IPL. Herb is a senator like Mallya and spends a lot of money on his home-town team - the Milwaukee Bucks. But for all the money, the team stinks. They give big contracts to mediocre player (again sounds familiar, right) and change coaches and GM’s as a man changes his clothes.

A word of caution for Coach Venkatesh Prasad. Expect to be fired when you least expect it. You have a bad owner as a boss.

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We have no need for icons in the IPL – new article on isport.in

The IPL had this unique concept called icon players. Halfway through the tournament the concept seems to be taking a massive beating. And here’s why.

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IPL : Jingoism takes a back seat and objectivity is in

Sydney, Dec 2007

Harbhajan and Symonds got embroiled in a racism controversy. India was hard done by bad umpiring calls. There was clear lack of sportsmanship from the Australians.

Entire India gets behind Bhajji and condemns the Australian cricket team. Even the Australian media and fans express disapproval of their national team.

Mohali, April 2008

Sreesanth is at his obnoxious best and gets ‘one tight slap’ from national team-mate Harbhajan. The two try to diffuse the matter but Bhajji ends up getting banned for 11 games and Sreesanth is let off with a warning

Most cricket lovers welcome the move and wonder why Sreesanth was let scot-free.
His antics against Mohd Kaif earlier in the tournament were also in bad taste. A ban on the Malayalee, similar to the one imposed on Marco Materazzi for provoking Zinedine Zidane would have tempered his mad streak to some extent.

Quick question 1 – what would have been the reaction had Bhajji slapped Symonds and gotten a ban and fine in return?

Iam sure Indian fans and the cricket board would have pooled enough money to cover the spinner’s financial losses. And he would have become a cricketing martyr at par with the likes of Bhagat Singh.

Quick question 2 – what would have happened if Sreesanth had infuriated big André Nel to the point that the burly South – African hit him with a beamer and got banned for a year?

Sreesanth would be hailed as the second coming of Javed Maindad – a master of the mind games and looked upon as future captain and high-performance trainer.

Jaipur, May 2008

Shane Warne calls out Sourav Ganguly for violating the spirit of the game. He accuses Dada of delaying tactics and for refusing to accept the fielder’s word on a clean catch. The fielder is South- African captain, Graeme Smith. Ganguly retorts with a ‘Look who’s talking’, questioning Warne’s right to make a statement like this in light of the spinners colourful and controversial past.

A case of an Australian and a South- African pitted against one of India’s biggest cricket stars.

Expected reaction from an Average Indian cricket fan pre- IPL – blind faith in Sourav and criticism of both Warne and Smith.

Reaction from Bengali fans and media – How can an Australian (Warne) accuse Sourav of lack of sportsmanship, when they (the Australian test side) themselves were found short of it in Sydney?

Iam a great admirer of the Bengali intellect but this excuse is as pathetic as they come. Aren’t they aware of the fact that Shane Warne is long retired and wasn’t a part of the Australian side at Adelaide. You cannot classify every Australian in the world as unsportsmanlike for something done by a group of eleven. Going by that logic, Saurav and every other Indian cricketer should be as ill-tempered as Harbhajan and Sreesanth. Ironically, the leader of the ugly Australians – Ricky Ponting was a member of the Kolkata side. Wonder why no one brought that up?

And what about Graeme Smith’s word? Have they clubbed all the residents of the Southern hemisphere together now?

As for Dada being late for the start of both innings, this is not even a debate. We all know this is second nature to him.

Reaction from the Jaipur crowd – Rather than being jingoistic and supporting the Indian against the foreigner, the Jaipur crowd showed loyalty for their local team by loudly booing Sourav Ganguly. There is pride in identifying with a franchise, which doesn’t have a single star from Rajasthan. Their biggest hero is Shane Warne – a man who has inspired the so-called whipping boys to four straight wins.

Thanks to the IPL, the fans are no longer obsessed with members of the Indian cricket team. We have started noticing their flaws more than ever before. Jingoism is out and performance is all that matters. The league levels the playing field and everyone has to perform to be loved. The absence of a competitive domestic structure has been made up to some extent by the IPL and the ICL. Guys like Shikhar Dhawan, Yousuf Pathan and Manpreet Gony are slowly becoming household names.

Some folks, however, are incorrigible. The recent performance of their team is a just reward for their loyalties.

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This is what I want to do for a living - host football podcasts

Football is my favourite sport and I am a huge fan of podcasts. My favourite being the PTI (Pardon The Interruption) podcast on ESPN. And now I have a heady combination of both– A football podcast that I am part of. This is a new thing that we have started at isport.in and you can listen to the first edition here. We hope to make it a weekly feature. I await all the critical feedback.

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What is the motivation of a foreign player to do well in the IPL?

So far, the biggest stars in the IPL have been the foreign stars. Most of them were bid for far less than the Indian stars but have outperformed them by quite some distance. In spite of being great value for money, there is every reason to question the motivation and the intensity of the overseas stars.

The IPL puts a restriction of 4 foreign players per playing eleven. But teams have accumulated more than twice that number as most overseas players will not be available for the full tournament and also to adjust to different match conditions. As a result, players of the calibre of Muthiah Muralitharan, Makhaya Ntini and Herschelle Gibbs end up being left out of the playing eleven – a situation they wouldn’t have encountered at any stage in their cricketing careers. And then they see second or third rung Indian domestic players running around and hogging the limelight. How motivated does that leave an established international player?

Not too much, I am afraid. They will still egg themselves on and stay enthused for a while but sooner than later, just lose interest. Their plight is similar to an IT professional being on the bench during the recession years. The bench guys surf the free internet, drink the free coffee and wait to collect their pay-check at the end of the month. The benched cricketer will travel the country in luxury; eye the chicks in the stadium and packet the moolah when it’s time to leave for International duty.

And what is the impact of a foreigner’s performance in the IPL, on his international career? Absolutely nothing!! Not even on his international Twenty-20 career. Do you think Cricket Australia will drop Ponting for getting a pair of ducks for the Knight Riders? You must be kidding if you think so. Even the contract money is guaranteed and there is no performance based incentive. Therefore an international player has absolutely nothing to lose if he performs miserably or ends up spending the entire tournament on the bench. How’s that for motivation.

But there is still the question of losing out on an IPL berth in the future. No such risk for someone who spends most of his time on the bench. He will continue to get selected as there is no evidence of any poor performance. Even the guys who play badly need not bother. There will again be a mad rush to sign the biggest international stars. Indian selectors are still blinded by star power and will select purely on international form. And in the unlikely situation that a player misses the IPL bus, there will be other leagues (in England and Pakistan) to vie for his services. The pool of international players is limited and their availability for the IPL and the other leagues gets reduced further by the busy international calendar. A player will have to do a Harbhajan-esque mistake to miss out on the Twenty-20 bounty. And that is ruled out as nobody is as dumb as the master slapper.

The software engineers in the recession years ran the risk of getting reject letters at the last minute. And the guys who were doing real work needed to perform at extremely high-levels to keep their jobs. The International cricketer in the IPL or any other League has no such worries. He will go out and swing hard when given a chance. But he is under no pressure to perform and not overly bothered about how things turn out. They are here to enjoy the Indian summer of 2008.

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New article on theviewspaper.net - Jeev Milkha Singh becomes as tall as his father

Jeev Milkha Singh just keeps getting better. Last year he performed creditably at the US Masters and the US Open. At the 2008 Masters, he recorded his best finish in a major, ending up joint 25th. The article tries to put his achievement in perspective and makes a case that he is now a sporting equal of his father - the great Milkha Singh. Read it at http://theviewspaper.net/sports/2008/04/2858

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The BCCI has banned me from watching any ‘official’ cricket

I thought I could get away with lavishing praise on the ICL and bashing the BCCI and the IPL. Sadly for me, my crimes have caught up with me. I will have to pay for watching the ICL and writing about it.

The BCCI ban on the players and officials attached to the ICL has now been extended to the fans of the so-called Rebel league. As part of this drive, ICL watchers like me have been cut off from all forms of official cricket.

I have been branded a rebel fan and following are the restrictions imposed on me by the BCCI

• I can no longer watch any official cricket on TV. In fact my cable operator was forced to choose between official cricket and the ICL, and poor man had to take the former option and black out coverage of the rebel league. He been given a discount on the new IPL coverage tariff imposed on cable operators for his loyalty.
• Iam not allowed to enter any of the BCCI-controlled stadiums. The BCCI has installed a detection technology used by the Interpol to fish out terrorists at international airports, at all the stadium entrances. They will prevent rogues like me from creating any trouble at official cricket matches.
• All the websites covering official cricket have blocked my computer from accessing their sites and the lack of my regular dose of cricket is already giving me the withdrawal symptoms. In fact, talks are on with Google to display only official cricket –related content on searches. Thus, India will become only the second country after China to impose restrictions on the search engine.
  

This ban has made my life hell and I can finally relate to the plight of the players and officials who have been banned by the BCCI. I have a greater sense of bonding with them now. And why should they suffer alone. After all, we are all guilty of disobeying the BCCI. In fact, I have heard rumours that other equally guilty parties will be facing a ban soon. These include all the various vendors who have done business with the ICL. The cricket ball supplier, the tent-house guys, the travel agents, the hotel people, the bankers and even the taxi and rickshaw wallahs. Like the cable operator, who was given a second choice, these guys have been given some time to jump off the ICL bandwagon. The BCCI - just and kind as always, doesn’t want to deprive them of their livelihood and is giving them a second chance to mend their ways. And there is money to be made from these guys also. Alas, we poor fans had no such luck. At least you can’t blame the board for favouritism this time. Everyone and anyone has been an equal sufferer.

The ban is depressing. Life as a cricket fan will never be the same again. I don’t know if I can still call myself a cricket fan. Will I have to call myself something else - an anti-cricket fan or banned cricket fan or a rebel cricket fan?

You can see that Iam already going nuts.

And this could get worse.

What if the BCCI blocks my access to the remaining ‘official cricket’ media forums – newspapers, mobile updates, radio, blogs etc? What if ‘official cricket’ fans were forced to boycott us? What if, the BCCI stopped us from buying all the books about ‘official cricket’ – which covers the entire literature there is on cricket. There is so much I plan to read after I retire. What will a retired, socially inept person like me do without ‘official cricket’? I just hope the laws of this country somehow prevent such a situation. But you never know.

BCCI ke haath bahut lambe hain!

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