T20 BIG BASH-The season so far

The league stage of the 2009-10 season’s T20 Big Bash came to an end today with the dead rubber match between the South Australian Redbacks and the New South Wales Blues. The Redbacks did not seem to take this match seriously as they were scuttled for 81, a target which was achieved in just under 10 overs by the Blues. The Redbacks have made it to the final and the T20 Champions League 2010 with four straight wins while theiropponent for the final will be decided on Tuesday when the Victorian Bushrangers take on the Queensland Bulls at the Gabba.This will be more like a repeat telecast of what happened last season when the same two sides clashed in the preliminary final at the same venue.

The present and the 2008-09 seasons have been different for the Bushrangers. They had been unbeaten in every T20 match they played since the competition’s inception in 2005-06. They tasted their first match loss and tournament loss last year. This time they, for the first time, lost two matches in a row. Just when they looked to be going smoothly with two successive wins against the Bulls and the Blues, the Redbacks handed them a defeat to stall their progress. The Western Australian Warriors then made the journey to the finals more rickety. It was in the crucial, must-win game against the Tasmanian Tigers when Brad Hodge decided to shrug off his poor form in the previous two games and play a match winning innings.

The journey for the Bulls and the Warriors was exactly similar to that of the Bushrangers, the difference being the wins replaced by losses. Both of them started on a losing note, threatened their chances with another loss and came back strongly to win the remaining two games before clashing against each other in their last league game of the season. Notable performances during this time included an unbeaten 108 by Shaun Marsh against New South Wales, a match that also saw the bowling exploits of Mitchell Marsh, Shaun’s brother. In a rain truncated match against the Blues, the Bulls raced to 11o in the allotted 9 overs, thanks to contributions from captain Chris Simpson and basher Andrew Symonds. The target of 111 in 9 overs proved too much for the Blues who had lost their key batsman Phillip Hughes to Australian duty.

The match between the Bulls and the Warriors, a virtual semi-final, brought the best in Chris Simpson. Batting first the Bulls raced to 206 thanks to Simpson’s blitzkrieg innings of 76 off 37 balls. He stands a very good chance of making it to the Australian T20 squad. He constantly ran out of partners, losing James Hopes, Glen Batticiotto, Andrew Symonds and Lee Carseldine but thanks to Craig Philipson’s explosive innings at the death overs, the Bulls raced past 200. The Warriors started on a high with openers Shaun Marsh and Chris Gayle trying to exploit Simpson’s feats. But the early dismissal of the two meant that the Warriors had lost it all, paving way for the Bulls to reach the preliminary final.

Across the Tasman Sea, the HRV Cup, New Zealand’s domestic T20 tournament is in progress. Otago leads the points table with 5 wins out of 7 matches played so far. Come January 31, NZ’s candidate for the T20 CL 2010 will come to light but before that don’t miss out on the action between the Bulls and the Bushrangers on Tuesday, a match that will see more action than the IPL auction.

OF WILDCATS,TRADEMARKS AND SPORTS APPAREL

Last year, I was shopping at Pune Central for my Diwali purchase. At the Puma section, I came across a polo t-shirt that was priced at Rs. 450. I could not believe my eyes when I saw the price tag for even a no-frills, simple, plain Puma jersey would cost not less than Rs. 900. It was a deal I could not let go of and so I immediately purchased it.

Yesterday, I was shopping at a leading sports shop in Adyar when I saw the same Puma t-shirt on sale there. However it was branded not as Puma but as Black Panther, a leading brand of sports goods. For a moment, I dismissed it as a case of copyright violation by Black Panther but when I saw a Puma jersey in the racks, things began to get clearer. Puma has the logo of a panther, or a wildcat, in general, jumping over the word ‘Puma’. Black Panther, on the other hand, has the logo of simply a wildcat.

I then took out the Puma t-shirt which I bought at Pune Central and found that it is actually a Black Panther t-shirt. But I very well remember the price tag bearing the name ‘Puma’ in it. There were two or three similar t-shirts of different colours on the rack and keen to get all of them, I searched for them in Bangalore Central, Brand Factory and Puma outlets to no avail. A wild goose, or rather, wild cat, chase !

Yet another case of two sporting brands having similar logos is that of Slazenger whose wildcat logo has been copied by an Indian sports apparel maker, Shiv Naresh. Spot at least six differences in the below pictures.

Wondering what it is that makes sports goods makers to opt for wildcat logos. Is it because a sportsperson is expected to be aggressive like wildcats ?

CRICKET AND SENSATIONALISM

What a comeback by Shanthakumaran Sreesanth! The last we saw of him was in 2008 during the Test against South Africa at Kanpur, the same ground where he has now impressed everyone with his comeback. He is reported to have thought of giving up hopes of playing for India and nothing can change his mind and put him on the road to redemption more than the magic spell he weaved in the first innings.

But look at the way Sreesanth’s feat is projected by the media. Is it necessary to keep raising the issue of ‘Slapgate’ more than a year after it has been done and dusted with? Some newspaper reported the camaraderie between Sree and Harbhajan as ‘From slap on the face to pat on the back’. This is what is sensationalism. Now whatever feats Sree achieves in the next few years will always have the term ‘Slapgate’ attached to it. Will some true cricket fan give a tight slap on the face of the media ?

Now for some IPL related stuff. The organisers have come out with a new rule which states that any ball pitched above waist height would be called a no-ball. As if free hits are not enough, bowlers now have to put up with this nonsensical rule. Even free hits have helped bowlers be careful with their run-ups but what does this rule seek to achieve? It means that there will be no more ‘one-for-the-over’ bouncers. A handy weapon will have to be done away with for about a month. Now the likes of Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma will not get any bouncers to contend with in the IPL. Instead they get an opportunity to pile up runs in front of a hapless bowler. Then when they go into the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean, they find themselves exposed and vulnerable to the short ball. While franchise owners have reported differences against the proposed re-auctioning of players in 2011, it surprises me that no IPL captain, not even Anil Kumble, has raised his voice against the nonsensical rule.

NO LONGER A SPORT

The 2009 edition of the Indian Premier League was marred by the off-field buzz of match-fixing allegations. There was no evidence to back this claim and close finishes were used as “solid” and “concrete” evidence of Lalit Modi exchanging suitcases with bookmakers and telling teams to play till the 20th over. The media, which has a history of creating Himalayas out of a small speck of sand when it comes to cricket, gorged on this to create its own bit of sensationalism. So called experts among the fans agreed with the media citing examples of how a top player like Andrew Symonds was dismissed by a rookie player like Rajat Bhatia of the Delhi Daredevils, not bothering to take note of the fact that Bhatia has been Delhi’s leading allrounder for more than a decade.But it was impossible for a true fan to imagine players like Anil Kumble being hand-in-glove with bookies.

In the ongoing T20 Champions League, two IPL teams were knocked out at the second stage and another, at the first itself. All those who believed the match-fixing claims were licking their lips in joy. I’m sure these same people would have begun their accusations if the IPL teams had progressed to the further stages. Next year, if these teams progress till the finals, the accusations will emerge again and the premise would be that the teams failed the previous year and that they want to make amends by not disappointing the sponsors.

Pradeep Magazine, noted journalist, took part in a debate in Times Now yesterday. The topic was whether the Indian team was under prepared for the forthcoming ODI series against Australia. Magazine said that the team was accountable to the Indian public which was its key stakeholder. This sounded a bit silly to me. If players of a sport like cricket should be accountable to those who have little say in their selection or performance, then other sportsmen should also be held accountable for their performance, or the lack of it, in big events like the Olympics.

Cricket has ceased to be considered a sport in India. It is treated as something that generates sensationalism, according to Harsha Bhogle. Those who treat it that way are the ones who burn player effigies and damage players’ houses while those who treat it as a sport suffer no heartbreak when the team loses.

KIWI WORDPLAY

* Where does the New Zealand cricket team get its apparel from?

From (Ross)Taylor who makes them from cloth weaved at Kyle Mills.

* What do you call a rivulet named after a Kiwi pace bowler?

Brook Bond.

* Which mathematical subject do the Kiwis like the most?

Geometry. Because it is full of theorems and Ryders.

* Which Kiwi cricketer has the ability to sweep away the crowds with his batting?

Neils Broom

* What do Kiwi sweettooths eat?

Tuffee

* What is common to a Kiwi pacebowler and Wodehouse’s Jeeves?

Butler

* Who is the best doctor to treat animals in New Zealand?

Vettori-nary (not to be confused with Otteri Nari)

THE NEWEST CRICKET HERO

Yesterday marked the birthday of a cricket hero. I’m referring not to Sourav Ganguly but to Krishnamachari Srikkanth. Being a cricket star these days means your effigies will be burnt if you cannot please everybody. In Vadodara, fans of Irfan Pathan burnt effigies of Srikkanth expressing their anger over his non-selection into the Indian squads for the Champions Trophy and the Emerging Players tournaments. He cannot be drafted into the latter squad since he has spent more than five years in the Indian team and thus cannot be termed emerging. But it does come as a surprise to see him excluded from the Champions Trophy probables. Effigy burning is bound to become a common place act in future given what happened yesterday in various parts of the country.

Mattan Biriyani, head of the Baroda Irfan Fan Club, expressed his outrage against Srikkanth with this statement “Arrey saala Krishna Acharya Srikkantha, just because Irfan’s name contains the letters f,a and n, you think he becomes a fan? If you include him in the squad we will build a temple for you and do abhishegam everyday using Amul milk. Else all you will get is Amul underwear. Kem cho, kem che, kem choo, milkybar choo, aathi choo”. The next moment, the fans began dancing to the song ‘Aathi Choodi’ from the Tamil remake of ‘Taxi 9211′. However fans of Yusuf Pathan could not tolerate Vijay Antony’s music and ordered Irfan’s fans to stop the music. The latter did not relent and this led to a clash between the fans of the two brothers. Only after the Pathans’ father, Mehboob Khan, came into the scene with his own fans like PSPO, Havells, Khaitan etc, there was peace.

This act of the Irfan fans had spread to Ahmedabad where the fans of Parthiv Patel decided to lodge their own protests.  Larsons BDM Cricketbatwala, chairman of the Amdavad Parthiv Patel Fans Association, expressed his anger over the lack of players from Gujarat. He was referring to the Gujarat Cricket Association but Srikkanth thought it was the state of Gujarat and mentioned the presence of Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja. But Cricketbatwala retorted in a mix of Gujarati, Hindi and Marathi “Woh Vadodara aur Saurashtra se che. Aamchi Amdavad se naahi. Parantu Parthiv Patel Amdavadi che”. He also threw up a surprise when he concluded by saying “Yeh Ahmedabad hai, Vadodara ya Jamnagar nahin. Idhu enga area, ulla varaathey”.

The scene was exactly the opposite in Tamilnadu, the state which now saw four players in the Champions Trophy probables and three in the Emerging Players squad. Fans of Chennai Super Kings erected a statue of Srikkanth outside the Chepauk stadium and were bathing it with packets and packets of Aavin milk. The theme of their celebration was “Move over, Amul. Welcome, Aavin”. Cutouts of Srikkanth were erected on lampposts all along Mount Road and they too were being bathed in milk. Within half a day, the fervour had spread to all over Tamilnadu and the Aavin dairies began working over time.

Karnataka witnessed mixed reactions. Bangalore celebrated the return of Rahul Dravid to ODI contention. Masaldosa Ootaamaadappa, president of the Rahul Dravid fan club, announced his grand plan to sponsor milk supply for Dravid’s new-born child for the next two months. He thanked the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (translated in English as Dravidian Progressive Movement) for their continued support in ensuring the progress of Dravid. But in Coorg, irate fans of Robin Uthappa garlanded Srikkanth’s effigy with onion uthappa and threw cups of hot, steaming Coorg coffee on it. Elsewhere in Hassan, a new fan club for Manish Pandey was inaugurated. At the same time in Jamnagar, in Saurashtra, the Cheteshwar Pujara Fan Club came into being in a grand function that was marked by the fans doing puja and eating jam.

Kerala witnessed a flash strike once news of the non-existence of Sreesanth’s name in the two squads spread. Kannukutty Thennamarathil Chacko, head of the Sreesanth fan club and a leading Malayali poet wrote a poem directed at Srikkanth and published in Malayala Manorama. It goes as “Dear Srikkanth, Don’t think Sree can’t, Because he is Sreesanth“. A few hours later Chacko got to know of one Abhishek Nayar and soon he called off the strike thinking he was from Kerala.

Ajit Agarkar’s fans staged a demonstration in Mumbai. They planned a rail thaamba (Marathi for Rail Roko) protest and had the busy Western line as their target. But like their hero setting a packed off-side field and bowling anywhere other than the off-side, the fans squatted on the express train line where no trains passed by. Frustrated, they changed their location to Agarkar Chowk in Andheri East. However instead of disrupting traffic they began regulating traffic when they found the public apathy towards their protest was worse than the apathy of the selectors towards their hero.

Fan clubs for individual players will be in vogue in a couple of years from now. After three good innings in a domestic T20 tournament known as the IPL, Manish Pandey is thrown into the league of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid and his fans urge that 19-year old Pandey be included in the test team. Very recently, a 5-year old named Phanish Monday shot to fame when he broke Saeed Anwar’s ODI record of 194 runs in an innings. Phanish played with a plastic bat and plastic ball and the rule of his game was; hit the bat and you get two runs. In this process Phanish managed to score 200 runs in 100 balls and earned a fan club for himself. Another success story is that of 2-year old Rajathi Raja Raja Marthanda Raja Gambhira Ayyampettai Arivudainambi Kaliyaperumal Chandran (known as R.R.R.M.R.G.A.A.K Chandran), born in Sri Lanka and presently living in Chennai. He is being touted as the next Mitchell Johnson after he broke the head of his zoozoo doll with a deflated tennis ball. His father was a huge fan of the Sri Lankan cricket team and said that he named his son after legendary names like WPUJC Vaas, DPMD Jayawardene and HMRBK Herath. John Buchanan planned to sign Chandran up for the Kolkata Knightriders only to be met with a “No Thanks” retort from Sourav Ganguly. Miffed at this, Buchanan wrote crap about Indians in his latest book.

BATTLE FOR THE URN

Cricket’s erstwhile battle is back. The first day of the first Test of the Ashes 2009 has just drawn to a close. It was a see-saw battle that finally saw Australia gain an edge over the English who ended with 336/7.

As is the case of the Ashes, the eve of the tournament was eventful. There were the usual mind games, only that this time it was the English dishing it out to the Aussies. The Aussies’ mind games came from outside their team from Shane Warne who spent his retired life playing poker all around the world. He began his mind games by poking Ravi Bopara stating that he should not be in the playing eleven. A few days ago he gave useful advice to the English urging them to include Monty Panesar in the eleven before shifting his focus towards his own team where he called for Nathan Hauritz’s inclusion.

It was a battle between a dilapidated Australian line-up and probably the strongest English Test line-up ever. This is the second tournament of the Ricky Ponting era. Australia were going in without their strongmen who had ruled the roost in 2005 and 2006. Justin Langer, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Damien Martyn, Jason Gillespie, Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist have all made way for players of the likes of Phillip Hughes, Nathan Hauritz, Brad Haddin etc. Brett Lee was the only remainder from England 2005 but he is currently out of the team on account of rib injury. A bad time to pick up injury considering that just a couple of days ago, he had picked up six wickets in the second innings in the warm-up game against the England Lions. The battle for his place boiled down to Stuart Clark and Ben Hilfenhaus and the latter won a place on account of his good showing in South Africa earlier this year. He did not disappoint as he picked up two wickets to join his mates, Peter Siddle and Mitchell Johnson who also had two apiece.

Probably for the first time, the Australian team selection has begun recognising merit over reputation. How else would you explain the omission of noted players like Shane Watson and Stuart Clark from the XI? Mitchell Johnson has risen to such a level that even Brett Lee’s position in the team is under threat. Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus have been the two players who have impressed the selectors this year. Had Michael Hussey not struck form in the warm-up game, he too would have faced the axe but thankfully.

Shane Warne has contended that the IPL is bigger than the Ashes. He is retired now and the only official cricket he plays these days is the IPL. So it is no surprise that he wants other important tournaments to make way for a domestic T20 event. He has also called for scrapping of the Champions Trophy. What next, we wonder. I would not be surprised if he calls for scrapping of the Ashes altogether.

The battle for the urn promises to be full of excitement for the next few months. Let’s enjoy it.

THE WODEHOUSE IMPACT

When P G Wodehouse wrote the book “Pigs Have Wings”, little did he realise that it would have a worldwide impact in the 21st century in the form of Swine Flew !

IPL TEAMS ON THE WEB

The IPL season 2 is due in 8 days from now. I was browsing through the websites of the eight IPL teams over the past one week. All the sites have one thing in common-an online shop where you can purchase team merchandise. There are many features that distinguish one site from the other. My analysis and findings:

1. Chennai Super Kings

CSK

Probably the simplest IPL team website around. The best thing about this site is the blog that is authored by V B Chandrasekar, the chief selector and assistant coach of the Super Kings. No other site maintains a blog for its team and thus CSK’s website, the Lions’ Den, as it is called, stands out. However it lacks a discussion forum and to make up for it, the fans post their views as comments in the blog and these are in no way relevant to the blog post. My rating–8/10.

2. Kings XI Punjab

Sher-e-Punjab

This site was launched just two days ago. I am not sure if this site existed last year. It is also designed to be as simple as the CSK website. Featured currently is an interview between co-owner, Preity Zinta, and Brett Lee. Some day in future, you can expect the Superkings to fight a copyright violation since the Kings too call their website as “Lions’ Den”. It has to with the names of the two captains-Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh. Rating 7.5/10

3. Rajasthan Royals

Champions out of underdogs!

Probably the best and most comprehensive of all the IPL team websites. It has a section called Squad Tracker that brings forth news articles about its players from all over the world. This helps ensure the site has content even during the off season. A discussion forum is an added asset and the best of all is a separate merchandise store for international fans. In addition, they are on Twitter. My rating 10/10.

4. Mumbai Indians

Aamchi Team

At the entry, you have snapshots of Mumbai at the top and pictures of Sachin Tendulkar and Ajinkya Rahane to welcome you. Go in and you have a concise site with plenty on offer. Rating 9/10.

5. Delhi Daredevils

Delhi Daredevils or England Cricket Team?

A very good website that greets you with the fiery faces of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag popping out of an animated picture. Another comprehensive one. Rating 9.5/10

6. Deccan Chargers

Chargers-gaaru!

A replica of the Chennai Superkings website albeit with a much better background colour. Rating 9/10

7. Bangalore Royal Challengers

Makes you wonder if Vijay Mallya is able to spend $1.55 million on buying Kevin Pietersen, why can’t he spend a much lesser amount and get his website hosted independently? The site is hosted in an MSN platform and this lacks the independence that other IPL sites enjoy. While every care has been taken to update the player list, the animated GIF of the players at the top still shows Venkatesh Prasad and Zaheer Khan. (For the uninitiated, Venky has moved to Chennai Superkings while Zaheer has been lapped up by Mumbai). Rating 6/10.

8. Kolkata Knightriders

Thank God no SRK in this

As a fan of Sourav Ganguly, I hate to say this but this is the worst website of the eight. The URL is kkr.in and once you enter you wonder if it is kkr.in or SRK.in. It’s Shah Rukh Khan everywhere. I searched throughout the site for photos of Sourav Ganguly, Brendon McCullum and David Hussey but all I saw was huge and glaring images and crappy videos of Shah Rukh Khan while the photos of the aforementioned players have been kept small and relegated to a corner of the site. The merchandise store still reads “Coming Soon”. When ? After May 24 ? They also have a poor presence in Twitter with a “huge” follower count of 11! This promotional website of Shah Rukh Khan deserves a rating of 1/10.

FOR THE LOVE OF CRICKET

Finally it’s official-the IPL 2009 will not be played in India this year. The flip-flop by the various state governments over providing security cover went too far to the extent that the IPL organising committee, headed by Lalit Modi, was fed up. The last of the flip-flop games was played about two days ago when the Maharashtra government went on record expressing satisfaction over the revised schedule only to reverse it later. A similar thing happened in Andhra Pradesh when the government assured security cover but later the chief minister, Rajasekhara Reddy, went on record saying that elections were important.

The consolation for IPL fans is that the game will be played after all, albeit in a different country. This is good for the primary reason that cricket is not going to bow to terrorism. This gives an opportunity for the franchisees to build fan bases abroad. There are speculations that the spectator count may not touch high levels owing to the recession in the UK. But if football league games run to full houses, there’s some hope that the IPL will not be party to empty stands. Brickbats are being heaped on both the BCCI and the central government. In case of the former, the one word that is doing the rounds among critics is “money”. It’s hardly surprising for me given that similar cash bundles are being thrown about in inter-team swaps and transfers of football league players and noone complains. And much of this is happening in the United Kingdom, the country believed to be greatly affected by recession. Maybe Lalit Modi is right in his view about cricket being recession free.

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The T20 Champions League has kindled the interests of cricket fans, urging them to follow domestic cricket. The KFC T20 competition in Australia ended on Jan 24 with New South Wales emerging champions, thus ending Victoria’s hat-trick of T20 wins for three consecutive seasons ever since the competition’s inception in 2005-2006. The runner-up was Victoria this time. The two teams will go through to the T20 Champions League 2009, to be played in September.

New South Wales sprang a surprise when they signed up Brendon McCullum. This was done keeping in mind that he would be an important cog in the Speedblitz Blues’ wheel during the Champions League. Now comes the most interesting part. Lalit Modi has already announced that the 2009 edition of the CL would be a twelve team affair with New Zealand as one of the probable two additional countries. Matters have become tricky for McCullum since his home side, Otago Volts, have emerged winners of the NZ T20 competition. Now if Kolkata Knightriders make it to the CL, McCullum will find himself in a soup, being left to decide on priorities among three teams.

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Cameron White may not be the best batsman for Australia or the best leg spinner but he is definitely a great captain when it comes to his home side, Victoria Bushrangers. They emerged runners up in the domestic T20 cup and in the domestic one-day competition (Ford Ranger Cup). They ended the Australian domestic season on a high by winning the prestigious Sheffield Shield test competition. The final match of the competition was a special one for the leading Victorians, White, David Hussey and Brad Hodge, all of whom got centuries in Victoria’s massive innings of 862 runs. After ODIs and T20Is, David Hussey is keen to join his brother in the Australian Test team and this performance, he believes, will make the selectors consider him for the Ashes. Brad Hodge, who expressed frustration after being overlooked for the role of Matthew Hayden’s successor, had a point to prove and he still believes he can overtake his Victorian peers in the race for the Ashes squad.

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Ricky Ponting would have definitely banged his head on the wall in the lunch break of Day 3 of the Cape Town test. The previous day Bryce McGain was taken to the cleaners with his 10 overs accounting for 93 runs ! When one expected Ponting to turn to his reliable part-time spin duo of Simon Katich and Michael Clarke, with the former having three wickets from the 2nd test, he threw a surprise by persisting with McGain. The Proteas were ruthless on him and his 18 overs accounted for 149 runs and no wickets. Thus the question of Shane Warne’s successor still remains open.