First Day First Show of the Indian Premier League- Cricket’s “Cinderella Hour”

It has been more than a month since I last posted. I really wanted to write about the VB Series Finals which India won, Sehwag’s magnificent 319 against the South Africans at Chennai, India’s batting disaster at Ahmedabad and their avenging victory at Kanpur. I also wanted to write about the series saving efforts of Sourav Ganguly but college exams prevented me from doing this. As I am also preparing for a major career oriented exam in May, I obviously won’t have much time here.

At around 6 pm local time at Bangalore, Cricket is going to see a new chapter, something which is going to create history. After all the hype, the Indian Premier League (IPL) is going to commence with a bang. There will be a short yet entertaining opening ceremony with acrobats and a performance by the popular music composer trio- Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa before the opening match which is between the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Bangalore Royal Challengers. The 12 cheerleaders of the Washington Redskins, known as the “First Ladies of American Football” will also entertain the crowd. Superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta, who are also team co-owners will be present too. There will also be speeches by ICC President- Ray Mali , BCCI President- Sharad Pawar and IPL Chairman- Lalit Modi.

After the short opening ceremony the organizers plan to switch off the floodlights, thus plunging the stadium into darkness. “Then,” as the CEO of the Bangalore team told Cricinfo, "the spotlights will come on, and focus on the two skippers as they walk out for the toss”

Both the skippers- Kolkata’s Sourav Ganguly and Bangalore’s Rahul Dravid, had their test debut in the same match against England at Lords in 1996. They rescued India when the team was in trouble. Dravid got out in the 90s while Ganguly hit a brilliant 131 which happens to be the highest score by an Indian player on test debut. Both have also led the Indian side. While Ganguly has been India’s most successful captain, Dravid will be rather infamously remembered for leading the team when they were knocked out of the 2007 World Cup in the first round itself. The question being asked is whether or not Ganguly can beat Dravid in his own backyard. That is a question whose answer we will get by around 11 pm. The Kolkata Knight Riders are the favourites to win the tournament opener with odds of 1.66 while the Bangalore Royal Challengers have odds of 2.10.

I expect a very close match. Though the Knight Riders are the stronger team on paper, the Royal Challengers can give them a run for their money. A lot has been said about the Bangalore team and most of it has been negative. I, for instance, have heard people say that the Royal Challengers aren’t a team who can play Twenty20 Cricket in the right way because of their team composition. That may be partly true but then one should always remember that anything can happen in Twenty20 Cricket.

If you look at the Royal Challengers, Rahul Dravid will play a major role in today’s game. Though we can’t expect much from him, he will be a player to look out for. Many people were surprised when he hit a half-century in just 23 balls against New Zealand 5 years ago. I am looking forward to see Zaheer Khan open the bowling for Bangalore with Praveen Kumar. I am not to sure about how Wasim Jaffer will adapt to the T20 format. Another player to look out for will be India’s Under-19 skipper Virat Kohli. I am not too sure about the other local players as I hardly know them. It will be interesting to see their team composition as only 4 overseas players can play in a match. I expect Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher, Cameron White and Ashley Noffke to make the cut. Boucher is the obvious choice for wicket-keeper and is a very handy batsman too. Kallis will be another major player. I don’t know much about Noffke, who has replaced the injured Nathan Bracken. Bangalore’s trump card has to be Cameron White. White is a specialist in this format of the game and has a record 55-ball Twenty20 century on the English county circuit and with a batting average of 43.90 in this format he's clearly one to watch. He has hit 62 fours and 49 sixes in 546 balls faced in Twenty20 cricket - that's a four or a six every 4.92 balls!

Coming to the star studded team of the Kolkata Knight Riders, I surely expect Sourav Ganguly to lead from front. I am very eager to see him open the batting with Chris Gayle. The last time Chris Gayle played in the first match of a Twenty20 tournament, he blasted a 57-ball 117 against South Africa in the ICC World Twenty20 last year; the 10 sixes he struck is the highest in a Twenty20 innings. Ricky Ponting at No. 3 followed by the explosive Brendon McCullum will be major batsmen too. Ishant Sharma, who has undoubtedly been India’s find of the season will be the bowler that the Royal Challengers need to be wary of. Murali Kartik too will be interesting to watch as he has a T20 career economy rate of 5.90 which is very good in this format.

As of now, I can only wonder what is to happen this evening as 8 pm or as Cricinfo called it- “Cinderella Hour” approaches. Its quite obvious now that Cricket is never going to be the same.

Recommended reading:

• Dhoni: "Will Chennai cheer if Murali dismisses Sachin?"
• McCullum: "Ganguly-Ponting-Buchanan a lethal trio"

Yet another stupid act by the BCCI

It has just been a day since India won the hard fought Perth test and the BCCI is back at doing what it does best- experimenting. The moment I heard that Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid had been left out of the Indian ODI squad for the tri-series involving them, Australia and Sri Lanka, I was shocked. Moreover, they also decided to leave out Murali Kartik from the squad and didn't even bother recalling V.V.S. Laxman. This, in my opinion is a big selection blunder that has been committed by the BCCI. Their alibi is that they want a youthful team that is energetic and consists of good fielders. I agree, that Ganguly hasn't been a remarkable fielder but what about Dravid? Isn't he a good fielder? Another important mistake is not picking Murali Kartik who spun India to victory against Australia by taking 6 wickets in the 7th ODI against Australia at Mumbai last October.


Dravid didn't play the 7th ODI against Australia and was left out of the ODI squad for the series against Pakistan as well. Though Dravid has a slow scoring rate, he isn't called Mr. Dependable for nothing. On the other hand, Ganguly was India's most successful ODI batsman last year scoring 1240 runs with an average of 45. He also took 7 wickets to go with his wonderful batting. He performed very well after making a comeback and was very good in England. He also played well against the Aussies when they toured India. He also had six partnerships of 100+ for the first wicket with Sachin Tendulkar in ODIS in 2007. The two also happen to be the most successful opening pair in ODI history. Ganguly will be really missed in the games against Sri Lanka as he has a brilliant record against them and is regarded by most cricket experts as the batsman who can play ace Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan the best. His wonderful knock of 183 against the Lankans at Taunton during the 1999 World Cup is regarded as one of the best knocks in ODI history. Incidentally, it was Dravid who was involved with a huge 318 run partnership for the 2nd wicket with Ganguly. Dravid scored a masterly 145 and both of them shared the man of the match award. The partnership between them was the first 300+ partneship in ODI history and was quite obviously the highest partnership for any wicket in ODIs at that time, a record which was broken at Hyderabad 6 months later when Tendulkar and Dravid put on 331 for the 2nd wicket against New Zealand. Tendulkar scored an unbeaten 186, the highest individual score by an Indian batsman (the record was held by Ganguly before this, when he scored 183 in the match mentioned before this) and Dravid stroked a classy 153. It really is surprising to see a player like Ganguly dropped when he is in such good form! The last time India played a ODI series in Australia was in early 2004, Laxman had scored 3 brilliant hundreds- 2 against Australia and 1 against Zimbabwe.

Coming in for Ganguly is Suresh Raina, who last played an ODI in January 2007. He doesn't have a very impressive record against Australia but is a good fielder. Piyush Chawla, who was impressive on last year's tour of England, gets the nod for the second spinner's spot ahead of Murali Kartik. Chawla was preferred because the selectors were of the opinion that a wrist-spinner would be handy on Australian pitches. It is believed that the captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, wanted to stick with a majority of the squad that won the inaugral ICC World Twenty20 last September. Explaining why Ganguly was overlooked, BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah said, "The emphasis was on fielding abilities and they (the team management) wanted a young fielding side for the series. That's why you see a lot of youngsters in the side." Well Mr. Shah, if you wanted a good fielder why not take Mohd. Kaif, he is also from the Uttar Pradesh Ranji team like Raina and is a brilliant fielder (probably one of the best in the world)? In fact, Kaif is the captain of the team and has played quite well in the domestic circuit.

India's fast-bowling attack will be led by R.P. Singh, Irfan Pathan and Sreesanth, who missed the Test series against Australia with a shoulder injury. Joining them will be Praveen Kumar, who played a ODI in the series against Pakistan. Zaheer Khan hasn't been considered as he is still recovering from the heel injury he got during the first test at Melbourne. The BCCI plans to send him to South Africa for treatment. Gautam Gambhir and Dinesh Karthik have also been included. Manoj Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan and Munaf have been placed on standby and will join the squad in case of any injuries.

I also feel that the BCCI made a big mistake by announcing the squad for the sole Twenty20 and the tri-series before the fourth test at Adelaide. It may divide the team and disturb the players a lot. News channel sources say that Ganguly and Dravid are highly disappointed at them being left out of the ODI team. Dravid was hoping to make the cut after having played well at Perth and Ganguly was reportedly shocked about the entire incident as he had a wonderful 2007. These 2 players need to keep their cool at Adelaide as they have a big role to play if India are to level the test series.

Chairman of selectors Dilip Vengsarkar is under fire from many quarters after what I would call an extremely stupid decision. In fact, Navjot Singh Sidhu challenged Vengsarkar on NDTV's cricket talk show "Cricket Controversies". He said that if Vengsarkar can prove Ganguly's exclusion then he (Sidhu) would stop doing whatever he does to earn money. He also said that Raina's experience was nothing compared to Ganguly's and that if India has managed to survive in Australia, it is all because of Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman. He went on to say that dropping a player who scored 1200 odd runs in a calendar year amounts to sacrilege as it would not only affect the player psychologically but will also divide the team. It didn't there, Sidhu later said that the selectors didn't know how to treat its heroes. All this shows just how foolish the selectors have been. What needs to be seen is what they can do to counter this outcry.

Given below is the squad for the sole Twenty20 and the CB tri-series:

• Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain and Wicket Keeper)
• Sachin Tendulkar
• Yuvraj Singh
• Virender Sehwag
• Dinesh Karthik
• Robin Uthappa
• Gautam Gambhir
• Suresh Raina
• Rohit Sharma
• Irfan Pathan
• Praveen Kumar
• Ishant Sharma
• S. Sreesanth
• Harbhajan Singh
• Piyush Chawla
  

Standby:

• Manoj Tiwary
• Yusuf Pathan
• Munaf Patel