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The second season of the IPL is finally here and what a start it has been to the tournament! After a splendid opening ceremony, we saw the two finalists from last year being beaten comprehensively. The matches so far have been a pleasant change from last year where the sole aim of the teams was to outhit each other. We have already seen that that strategy won’t work this year. The conditions seem much more helpful for the bowlers, especially the seamers. And batsmen will actually need to focus on playing themselves in, not missing out on the bad deliveries and playing some daring and innovative shots once set. It will, rather happily, not be a situation of step on front foot and swing the bat.

What this means for the teams

In this edition, the teams that will succeed will be the ones whose seamers can bowl tight in the initial overs – and garner wickets for the spinners bowling later. More importantly, the teams in the final four will be the ones that have their batsmen scoring the most singles and twos in the process of getting set. While we will see the occasional 100 from 40 balls knock, we will more likely see the 60 from 40 balls with 30 runs in boundary hits. And as this becomes the key, the teams that can save the singles and cut down the twos will be more successful. We will see a twenty20 tournament that will be a throwback to the era of one day cricket before WC96. Where the ‘Dean Jones’ kind of batsman is preferred to the ‘Kris Srikkanth’ kind. Finally, as most people point out, the performance of the senior cricketers in the teams will be critical especially in the first half of the tournament. Based on all this and the way the next few matches go, where do the teams stand? Who do we think are the favourites ? Watch this space for more…

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After the four semifinalists and the Mumbai Indians today is the turn of the only team to turn a profit in the first season of the IPL

Team: Kolkota Knightriders

Captain: Good Question!

Coach: John Buchanan

Trump Card: Brendon McCullum

X-Factor: Ajanta Mendis

Whats changed from last season:

Umar Gul misses out because he is from Pakistan. Brendon McCullum will be available for the whole tournament which is a big plus. Mashrafe Mortaza will make his debut for the Knightriders – meaning big support from the other side of the border in Bangladesh.

  What happened in 2007

As much as we dislike Shahrukh Khan for his over the top acting, we have to admit he ran the Knightriders well last season. Shahrukh convinced companies whose brands he endorses such as Nokia and Pepsi to sponsor the Knightriders as well. He charmed the media, consistently made the headlines through the tournament and incredibly managed to win the support of the neutrals. Polls conducted in India showed impressive support for the Knightriders even among people in Mumbai and New Delhi. However, despite putting together a reasonably strong team in the auction, the Knightriders flattered to deceive and ended up outside the top four.

 This year, Kolkota has been making news for all the wrong reasons – Buchanan’s controversial and frankly ridiculous four captain theory has strained his relationship with Saurav Ganguly. While the idea might seem revolutionary, the idea that you might have four different captains in a team might lead to unnecessary pressure on the four and too many messages being sent to the youngsters. How Chris Gayle might make a difference in 2 weeks with a bunch of kids whom he doesn’t even know remains to be seen. Buchanan’s announcement and the resulting attack by Sunil Gavaskar has turned into a spat between Gavaskar and Shahrukh Khan. How it effects the team will be interesting to see. 

The Batting: 

The batting will of course be bolstered by the presence of the Brendon McCullum through the whole tournament. In the recent series against India, McCullum showed a more responsible side to his batting leading the Kiwis to victories in both the T20s, something that augurs well for the Knightriders. And let us not forget that this is the guy who kicked off the IPL last year with the most incredible knock against Bangalore. Interestingly, McCullum has also been nominated as the captain for their first match this weekend. Saurav Ganguly has been in half decent form leading up to the tournament and so has youngster and future Indian hope Cheteshwar Pujara. David Hussey will be available only for the latter half of the tournament anyway. Chris Gayle’s presence in the first half of the tournament should be a great boost for the Kolkota side. 

The Bowling: The bowling looks a little stronger than the batting but is not the best in the league- Ishant Sharma will have to lead the attack and in the absence of Umar GUl will have extra pressure on his young shoulders. He has done a lot of bowling and a lot of traveling in the recent months and for someone so young, it is going to take a lot of mental effort to stay on top of his game. Giving him support will be men like Ashok Dinda, Ajit Agarkar, Charles Langeveldt, and Mashrafe Mortaza – all of them good bowlers but none you would expect to light the tournament on fire. The spin department looks better with  Mural karthik and Ajanta Mendis- while Kartik has had a lot of success in the 20-20 format in England, Mendis still remains a mystery to the cricket world at large and should be able to do well against a lot of teams. Overall, the team looks weak when compared to the likes of Superkings and the Dardevils.

A lot will depend on the youngsters and how they contribute to the team. Of course, the battle might be lost by the first week with the kind of reactions to the new captaincy theory. 

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After previewing the two finalists, it is now the turn of the semifinalists and we look at the Kings XI Punjab in this third edition 

Team: Kings XI Punjab

 Captain: Yuvraj Singh 

Coach: Tom Moody (Australia)  

Trump Card: Yuvraj Singh 

X-Factor: Piyush Chawla

 Whats changed from last season: The addition of Ravi Bopara. Sreesanth and new signing Jerome Taylor miss the whole tournament through injuries. 

Kings XI Punjab were one of the most exciting teams to watch in the first edition of the Indian Premier League. A well balanced side led by Indian internationals and some exciting international recruits. Of course, Punjab also generated a lot of interest off the field – first, because the owner is a certain outspoken Indian actress by the name of Preity Zinta and secondly (and more interestingly) because of the famous ’slap gate’involving Sreesanth and Harbhajan Singh. The team looks a lot weaker this season due to injuries and unavailability of foreign players and should do well to make the semifinals again.

  The Batting:  

The Punjab batting line up looks imposing but will find the going tough in the first two weeks in the absence of two of their best players last season – Shaun Marsh and James Hopes. Shaun Marsh was absolutely brilliant last season ending up on top of the batting charts and getting into the Australian first XI through his consistent performances in the IPL. He made runs at a robust pace without taking unnecessary risks thereby giving good starts to Punjab every single time. Of course, both him and his opening partner Hopes will be away in the middle-east on national duty till the 3rd of March. In their absence much will depend on the foreign recruits such as Jayawardene, Sangakarra and Ravi Bopara. Bopara has done well for England recently and should be a good addition to the squad.

The trump card however remains the captain and arguably the most destructive Indian batsman – Yuvraj Singh. He set some of the South African grounds on fire in the 20-20 world cup in 2007 and should be the key to Punjab’s success. Irfan Pathan will provide some spark lower down in the order. 

The Bowling:  

The short version is that the bowling looks down right weak. The long version is that Kings XI Punjab are without Sreesanth and new signing Jerome Taylor (who was unfortunately injured in a car accident) for the whole tournament. They will also be without Brett Lee and medium pacer James Hopes for the eight matches as they will be away on international duty. Plus, how well Brett Lee performs after coming back from an injury and a poor season remains to be seen. That means there will be a lot riding on the three Indians – Irfan Pathan, Piyush Chawla and VRV Singh. South African speedster Yusuf Abdullah should add some variety to the attack and looked promising in the 20-20 internationals against Australia. It will be interesting to see how Piyush Chawla bowls – the youngster has a lot of variety and has done reasonably well in the shortest form of cricket. The Kings XI also have Ramesh Powar and recently signed Australian rookie paceman Burt Cockley.

  The squad: 

 The Indians: Yuvraj Singh, Piyush Chawla, Irfan Pathan, Ramesh Powar, Vikram Singh, Karan Goel, and Tanmay Srivatsava

The Unknowns: Ajitesh Argal, Uday Kaul, Wilkin Mota, Sahil Kukreja, Burt Cockley and Ryan Ninan 

The Foreigners: Shaun Marsh, James Hopes, Luke Pomerbasch, Simon Katich, Brett Lee ( Australia), Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakarra (Sri Lanka), Yussuf Abdullah (South Africa) and Ravi Bopara (England) 

Image Courtesy: www.iplblast.com 

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Following Rajasthan as runners up in the previous edition are Chennai Super Kings. There wasn’t a lot of noise made about this team but they were the ones who functioned best as a unit.

Team: Chennai Superkings

Captain: MS Dhoni

Coach: Stephen Fleming

Trump Card: MS Dhoni

X-Factor: Matthew Hayden

Whats changed from last season: Mike Hussey and Jacob Oram won’t be around this time. Andrew Flintoff joins the team as one of the most expensive players in the league. Changes in the coaching set up with Stephen Fleming replacing Keppler Wessels as head coach and Venkatesh Prasad drafted in as the bowling coach.

Of all the franchisee owners in the Indian Premier League, India Cements can probably lay claim to being the only true patrons of the sport before the IPL. For years, the company has been supporting cricket in local leagues in Chennai and when the opportunity came to buy a Chennai based team, it was only natural that the company stepped up. Of all the teams in the league, Chennai probably remains the most stable – devoid of controversy and interference from celebrities or by the owners. The team’s first signing – MS Dhoni remains the fulcrum around which the team revolves, and there are some solid Indian youngsters and foreign players to make up a good team. What resulted in the first season, was a run to the final sealed by a spectacular thrashing of Punjab in the semifinals. The team went on to lose the final to Rajasthan Royals but not before giving the Royals a tough fight. Much will be expected from this team in the second version of the IPL which starts on the 18th. 

The batting:

The X-factor could well be Matthew Hayden, the burly Aussie legend retired early this year and it will be interesting to see whether his mind is still in it. Having players who continue to play after they retire is tricky; it could go either way – fail like Brian Lara in the ICL or succeed like McGrath for the Delhi Daredevils. The good thing is that Hayden will be available for the whole tournament and if he does come off, he has the potential to be devastating. Opening with him will be Murali Vijay, who in addition to facing up to the Aussies in his first international outing, has had a fantastic year in the domestic circuit. Suresh Raina has made that third spot his own and in all probability will be followed by Dhoni at four and Badrinath at five. The other two slots could be a toss up between men like Andrew Flintoff, Albie Morkel, Abhinav Mukund and George Bailey. Flintoff will not be available for the whole tournament and Morkel’s successes against Australia will mean that there will be a lot riding on his performances. George Bailey is a virtual unknown to Indian fans and Mukund, like Vijay had a good domestic season.

 The bowling: 

The bowling has two very important changes from last year – one, the introduction of Venkatesh Prasad as the bowling coach and second, the added variety with players such as Andrew Flintoff,  off-spinner R. Ashwin and Thilan Thushara. The signing of Prasad could well be a masterstroke by the Superkings as he will guide bowlers like Manpreet Gony, Joginder Sharma, Thushara and of course L. Balaji. Further, the Superkings bowling line up looked one-dimensional last year and the added variety could make a difference. Flintoff’s bowling is tailor made for the 20-20 format, Ashwin (similar to Yohan Botha) is a difficult bowler to get away and of course Thushara’s left arm seamers will add variety.

Add to this, proven performers from last season such as Ntini, Morkel, Balaji and Gony – you have the makings of a very solid bowling line up. Plus, Ntini and Morkel will have home advantage and will be available for the whole tournament. It will be interesting to see if Joginder Sharma and Amarnath get many opportunities in this line up.   

Looking at the squad as a whole, one gets the feeling that there are better bowling and batting departments in other teams but where Chennai scores is the fact that the franchise comes together as one team, something that Bangalore and Hyderabad failed to do last year. Similar to Rajasthan and Mumbai – there will always be only one captain and he will get to make the decisions on the field. Stephen Fleming will be another shrewd addition to the coaching lineup and should work well with Dhoni considering they had played together last season. Barring, a big change in script- the Superkings should definitely find themselves in the semifinals and from there on its anyone’s game. 

The full teamThe Indians: MS Dhoni, P. Amarnath, Anirudh Shrikanth, S. Badrinath, S. Raina, Murali Vijay, L Balaji, R Ashwin, V. Sivaramakrishnan, Abhinav Mukund, Parthiv Patel, Manpreet Gony, Suresh Kumar, Arun Karthik, Sudeep Tyagi and Joginder Sharma

The unknowns: George Bailey, Napoleon Einstein, Shadab Jakati, Viraj Kadbe

The foreigners: Makhaya Ntini, Albie Morkel (South Africa), Muttiah Muralitharan, Thilan Thushara (Sri Lanka), Andrew Flintoff (England) 

Image Courtesy: Sify   

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 The Indian Premier League is going to kick off in just one week and while the excitement hasn’t kicked in yet, thanks to the tournament being held nearly 3000 miles away, my guess is that come April 18th, a lot of people are going to be glued to their screens. Lets face it- we love the 20-20 and we absolutely loved the Indian Premier League last year. Unlike last year, most of us will not have the chance of being there to soak in the environment but let’s see if South Africa lives up to the challenge thrown at it by the IPL.

Starting today, we plan to cover each team one by one leading up to April 18th. And it’s always customary to start with the champions. So here we go.

Team: Rajasthan Royals

Captain and Coach: Shane Warne

Trump Card: Graeme Smith

X-Factor: Shaun Tait

Whats changed from last season: Loss of leading wicket taker Sohail Tanveer might leave the bowling weak and last year’s trump card Shane Watson will only be available for two weeks. Tyrone Henderson while not exactly an unknown will have a lot riding on him.

Rajasthan Royals were the real deal last year despite not looking remotely like it when the tournament started. Here was a team which had a bunch of unknowns put together by owners who were more interested in conserving cash and improving profits in the first season. But what experts and fans were not counting on was on the magic touch of their captain and coach Shane Warne- a cricketer who had retired from international cricket and who was the captain Australia never had. What emerged over the next two months was an extraordinary fairytale as the bunch of unknowns went from strength to strength to win the tournament. The team could not do any wrong with the youngsters blossoming under Warne and players like Watson and Pathan finding their feet on the big stage. Rajasthan ultimately went on to win the title in a very tense encounter against the Chennai Superkings.

The batting:

IPl V2.0 will be a fresh start, for starters they have a new owner and cheerleader – Shilpa Shetty (who doesn’t even know the team!). The batting looks reasonably solid and experienced – Graeme Smith could be the real trump card for the Royals considering his explosive batting at the top of the order and because he will know the conditions like the back of his hand. But, the question remains, will Smith remain injury free for the whole length of the tournament? Asnaodkar was a revelation last year- the diminutive opener delighting fans with his fearless batting, whether he will succeed in foreign conditions will remain to be seen.

The middle order could see a lot of juggling as the season progresses thanks to the unexpected call up of Shane Watson to the Australian team for the series against Pakistan which means he will only be available for the last two weeks of the tournament. Mohammed Kaif and Yusuf Pathan should hold their places barring injuries or poor form. Ravindra Jadeja should also make it thanks to his excellent performances last year. The other positions could well be a toss up between Dmitri Mascrarenas, 20-20 specialist Tyrone Henderson and South African all rounder Morne Morkel. Mascarenas will want to prove himself to the English selectors in time for the 20-20 world cup in June and Henderson will have a lot of pressure on him considering the amount of money Rajasthan forked out for him.

The bowling: 

The bowling looks a little weak because the excellent Sohail Tanvir wont be around this time with Pakistani players not getting clearence to play in the Indian Premier League. He was the leading wicket taker last year and always gave the team four good overs. The darkhorse this time could well be Shaun Tait. His meltdown last year was well documented but like Shane Watson before him, he could just do well under the guidance of Warne and barring injuries Rajasthan will have him for the whole tournament. The other fast bowling options are Munaf Patel and Siddarth Trivedi.  It will be interesting to see how Warne bowls- he hasn’t played cricket in over a year and the conditions will not be as helpful as they were in India last year.

Looking over the rest of the squad, it looks like there are a lot of unknowns in the squad. Some of these players don’t even seem to have a statistics page! Rajasthan might well start this season at the same place they did the last, as underdogs, despite being defending champions. Unlike last year, Rajasthan will be the team the rest look to beat and you can expect the video analysis guys to work long nights on their footage. Shane Warne will have to prove once again that he has it in him to bring this team together and push back seemingly stronger opponents.

The full team

The unknowns - Kamran Khan, Gajendra Singh, Srideep Mangela, Raiphi Gomez, Ashraf Makda, Mohammed Arif, Atul Sharma, Amit Singh, Paul Valthaty, Aditya Angle, Lee Carseldine, Siddarth Chitnis, Paras Dogra, Parag More, Rob Quiney, Anup Revandkar, Mahesh Rawat

The Rest- Shane Warne, Shane Watson, Shaun Tait, Justin Langer (Australia)  Swapnil Asnodkar, Ravindra Jadeja, Munaf Patel, Mohammed Kaif, Yusuf Pathan, Niraj Patel (India), Graeme Smith, Morne Morkel, Tyrone Henderson (South Africa), Dmitri Mascarenhas (England) 

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 I hate to say this. But this was coming. In a shocking incident in Lahore, terrorists ambushed the bus of the Sri Lankan cricket team injuring 6 cricketers. The Sri Lankan team was traveling from the hotel to the Gaddafi stadium for the second day of the test match when the team bus was attacked by terrorists at the crowded Liberty Chowk. None of the Sti Lankan cricketers seem to be seriously injured but unfortunately 6 bodyguards and 2 civilians lost their lives. Hours after the ambush, local police defused two car bombs and also recovered a stash of weapons.

The first incident after Munich 1972?

All day I have been trying to think of incidents where sports persons were directly targeted by terrorists or other militant groups. But I just cant come up of any other incidents apart from the Munich 1972 attack where Israeli athletes were killed by Palestinian gunmen. There have been incidents where there have been bomb incidents around sporting events but none that have directly involved athletes.

Long term impact on Pakistan Sport

I don’t think too many teams will even think about touring Pakistan meaning that the country will be forced to play most of its home matches in cricket, football, and other team sports on neutral venues (most probably the Middle East). The 2011 World Cup will probably be shifted exclusively to India and Sri Lanka (and probably Bangladesh). The big question is what exactly was the Pakistan security forces doing? This was a very high-profile tour and the first cricket tour in Pakistan in almost two years. No amount of assurances from Pakistan authorities will convince any team to tour the country unless the situations change dramatically. 

Its a good thing that the Indian team did not tour Pakistan. considering the history, and the situation an attack on the Indian team would have been absolutely catastrophic. 

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In the end, it was the perfect send off for one of India’s best ever test captains and it came at Nagpur, the city that bore witness to one of the lowest points of his captaincy. What really amazed me most about the Indian performance was the sheer professionalism exhibited by all eleven players. The atmosphere was obviously emotionally charged due to the impending retirement of Saurav Ganguly and the presence of recently retired Anil Kumble but barring a a couple of dropped chances, the Indian team was thoroughly focused in getting the job done. 

With this victory India has seriously cemented its position as the number two test team in the world (the series loss in Sri Lanka notwithstanding) and stands a good chance of taking over the top spot in the next couple of years. Whether the team will achieve even half the consistency of the Australian team of the past decade remains to be seen but all the signs point to a decade of Indian dominance. 

The Slow over rate controversy:

Obviously, one of the major talking points of this test match will be Ponting’s complete bungling up of the over rates. Here is a test captain with over 30 test match victories, 2 World Cups and numerous series triumphs under his belt and yet over the course of the series, he simply couldn’t ensure a health over rate. With India absolutely tottering at 166 for 6 going into tea on the fourth day, most Indian fans including myself were fearing the worst. What we got following tea was an absolute joke. In an attempt to catch up with the over rates, Ponting bowled part timers including Hussey and Clarke meaning that Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh could add 100 runs with out any problems.

What exactly was Ponting worried about? A fine? Big deal! A two test match ban? Considering their next opposition are New Zealand at home- I don’t think that would have worried anyone too much. And why didn’t he even consider bowling Watson at one end to try and mop off the tail? The result of that 1 hour of madness meant that Australia were left to chase 382 where it could have so easily been 282. The Australian media has absolutely slammed Ponting for his actions- and it remains to be seen what action James Sutherland takes against his captain.

It was not the best of test series for the Punter (barring Bangalore) and having the likes of Siddle and White instead of McGrath and Warne didn’t help him either. Add to that, his most lethal pace bowler Brett Lee had to spend more time fighting the demons in his head and his tummy to be effective.  It is going to be interesting to see how New Zealand and especially South Africa shape up against the Australians.  

Still the team to beat: 

Despite the 2-0 series defeat, the spate of retirements, the controversies with Symonds & Clarke and a misunderstood captain, Australia is still the team to beat. India is probably the only team that can challenge them at the moment- home & away but the rest barring Sri Lanka do not inspire much confidence. The South Africans and English always flatter to deceive against the Aussies (barring a test here and there).  

As for India, it seems to me that the English will prove to be a very tough challenge for India. One, the Indian team will definitely have a new face in the middle order (and I am hoping its Badrinath) and second, the Indians need to be motivated enough to see off the English resistance. Remember the way we lost to South Africa after a tough series in Australia last time out. And in Pietersen and Dhoni- the series will just see the clash of the two most exciting cricketing captains in world cricket today.    

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132 test matches, 619 wickets, 19 years of international cricket and one of just two men to get all 10 wickets in an innings in a test match. The man who was the architect of so many test wins first in India and then abroad, Anil Kumble has announced his retirement. Thank you sir for all the wonderful moments.  

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What continues to amaze me about this Indian test cricket team is how unprepared some of the senior players go into every test series. I don’t think any of the top six got much action going into the Bangalore test and it showed. The Australian team on the other hand had two tough matches in Jaipur and Hyderabad to get used to the conditions. Rewind, one year to the Melbourne Test in Australia and the same thing hapened! – the Indian team went into a big test series in alien conditions with one practice game and promptly got hammered. Yes, some of these men played the Irani Trophy but one four day match does not practice make! Plus, Ganguly and Tendulkar didn’t get any match practice!  

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