Champions League T20

A big talking point in the recently concluded Champions league Twenty20 tournament was the inability of any of the IPL teams to qualify for the semi-final. While Deccan Chargers were knocked out in the first round, RCB and Delhi Daredevils only managed to reach the super eights. This point has been used by all and sundry to ridicule the IPL as an over-hyped tournament without any “real” cricket. I would completely disagree with this point of view.

There is a big difference between IPL and other domestic teams. The players in the other domestic teams play together for the whole year, and not only the T20s but also other forms of the game. This allows the players to gel together and play as a team. On the other hand, the IPL players get together for a very short span before a major tournament which doesn’t allow them to bond together and it shows in the results.

Secondly, teams like NSW have a history behind them and money is not their only motivation. Continuing the legacy of stalwarts like the Don Bradman and Waugh brothers (all of whom played for NSW) is as important as the money they earn. If they lose, they not only let themselves and the team down, but also these cricketing greats. In contrast, the IPL players are mostly in the team to earn some good money. True, no sportsman wants to lose, but there isn’t any motivation to win either. As Dale Steyn famously said after the IPL-1, “IPL was a paid holiday”. This after RCB lost 10 of their 14 matches and finished seventh out of eight teams! I wonder whether he would have made this statement if he was representing his national or even the state team.

So, will the situation always be the same for the IPL teams? Will they just make up the numbers in tournaments like Champions league? I don’t think so. It will take time, at least couple more years, but IPL teams will get there. The other day in the match against Otago Volts, Ross Taylor received such a big reception from the Bangalore crowd that he must have thought he is in New Zealand. No, that’s not quite true; he doesn’t get this kind of reception even in New Zealand! From now on whenever he goes to bat for RCB, he will not only carry the million dollar cheque, but also the hopes of RCB fans. He will not only be accountable to Mr. Mallaya, but also to thousands of RCB fans. Once the players start associating themselves with the team, they will get that added motivation to perform, which in turn will allow the IPL teams to be more competitive. Also, the more matches they play together, the better will be the team spirit and better will be the performance.

What about the future of Champions league? The TRP ratings were recorded at 1.6 for the event, while it was 4.6 for IPL-2. The matches not involving any IPL teams were played in front of largely empty stands (Thank god the commentators did not make a fool of themselves by uttering the clichéd “What an electric atmosphere”, as they did in IPL-2).

But I think the tournament will only improve from here. Once the fans start relating with the foreign teams, the viewership will increase. In fact, even in this addition of the tournament, a lot of fans who did not support any team to start with, started supporting T&T by the end.

On the whole, Champions league was a very good tournament with some high quality cricket, though it would have been more enjoyable had any IPL team done better. Hopefully, the next edition of the tournament will bring more joy to the IPL fans

Rahul Dravid...The Perfect Cricketer

There are few cricketers in Indian cricket, who have had as big an impact on Indian cricket as Rahul Dravid. On the field and off the field he has been a perfect gentleman, a guy young cricketers can look up to. In fact, the cricketing journey of Rahul Dravid offers some important lessons even to non cricket fans.

Dravid was inducted into the Indian team in 1996 and quickly established himself as a Test batsman. He was thought of as a batsman with compact technique and flawless defence and more suited for Test matches than the one dayers. Another aspect of his one day cricket which made him unbefitting for the shorter version of the game was his running between the wickets. Unsurprisingly, he was dropped from the one day squad. The fighter that he is, Rahul Dravid fought back into the one day team by ironing out the flaws. He still had the compact technique but along with it added some more shots to his arsenal which helped him score quickly. He dramatically improved his running between the wickets which not only allowed him to improve his strike rate, but also took off the pressure on him to go for big shots. The result – he ended up as the highest run getter in the 1999 world cup. To accept his omission from the ODI squad in true spirits, come back to the national team and be the highest run getter in the world cup shows the guy’s character.

Rahul Dravid has always put the team above self. From 2001 to 2005, Rahul Dravid was going through a dream run and was the number one batsman for India – both in test and one day cricket. In order to accommodate 7 batsmen and improve the team balance, the team management asked him to keep the wickets in ODIs. Being both batsman and wicketkeeper can be a challenging task for anyone – especially when the last time one kept wickets was at under-16 level. Also, as the number one batsman in the team, he could have easily declined to keep wickets. But again, keeping the team’s interest in mind, Dravid accepted the additional responsibility of wicket keeping and did it with distinction.

To be successful in international cricket over a longer period to time, one has to continuously keep on improving. Rahul Dravid is not known for his fielding, however, the effort he puts in to improve his fielding is commendable. Among the senior players, he is the only one who uses the sliding-stop technique to field the ball. Even the relatively younger players like Virendra Sehwag and Zaheer Khan can’t do it.

When compared to his teammates, Rahul Dravid is probably the least naturally talented of all. He doesn’t have the hand-eye coordination of Sehwag, the elegance of Saurav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh, the wrists of VVS Laxman and the overflowing talent of Tendulkar. And yet, in the last decade and a half, along with Sachin, he has been the most successful of all the Indian batsmen. He has won more test matches for India than any other batsman – including Sachin. He is a perfect example of how hard work and dedication can take you places.

Rahul Dravid will always be remembered as a selfless and committed cricketer who played his heart out for India. If some of the other Indian players had his attitude, India would have been the number 1 team in the world long time ago.

Test or Twenty20

Chris Gayle’s comment the other day, “To hell with Test cricket, I love Twenty20”, has reopened the debate on Test cricket getting marginalized by Twenty20. Okay, these weren’t his exact words, but they nevertheless raise some important questions on how a contemporary cricketer views Test and Twenty20 cricket. Chris Gayle is not the only one with such views. His teammate Dwayne Bravo is unfit for Test matches, but surprisingly fit for Twenty20. Going forward, I think more and more cricketers will get these kinds of mysterious injuries which rule them out of (only) Test cricket.

Where does the problem lie? Does it lie with the cricketers because they prefer money over playing for their country? Or does it lie with the ICC, which is still in denial about the impact of Twenty20 cricket and refuses to create a window for a tournament like IPL, which though a domestic event, has become the number one tournament in world cricket?

Let’s see this from a cricketer’s perspective. Chris Gayle will potentially earn $800,000 annually playing for Kolkata Knight Riders, and that too by playing only for a few weeks. Should he be chastised for thinking he should be left alone for this period to earn some decent money? Moreover, the West Indies-England test series was not even in the FTP, it was a hastily arranged series to justify television deals. Isn’t he entitled to be a tad angry? Many former cricketers and experts are making condescending remarks about how playing for the country is the ultimate glory for a sportsman and that money can never buy it. I wonder how many of them would have made that choice if IPL had started in their playing days. Besides, cricketers play in IPL for only a month, the remaining time they are free to play for their country.

This brings us to the role ICC can play to fix the problem. First they must understand how big IPL is - both in terms of money and popularity - and create a window for the event. This will spare the players from making a choice between their country and franchisee. As they say, if you can’t beat them, join them.

Secondly, the ICC has to look into the issue of player burn out. As it is, the international cricket calendar is so crammed that players hardly get any breathing space. Now with IPL and possibly some more twenty20 tournaments, it will become virtually impossible for cricketers to play all forms of game throughout the year. And the form of cricket that gives sufficient rest with least financial loss is Test cricket. Naturally, cricketers will skip Test cricket to be injury free for the more lucrativeTwenty20 and ODIs – as Mahendra Singh Dhoni did last year by skipping the Test tour to Sri Lanka.

Something has to go and the most feasible candidate is the one day cricket. Test cricket cannot go and the cricketers (and administrators) will not let Twenty20 go. ICC has to slowly decrease the number of ODIs, which anyway have become largely uninteresting and predictable. In fact, the main reason for the arrival and popularity of Twenty20 was the monotonous nature of one day cricket.

Its high time ICC prioritizes the different forms of cricket and finds a way which preserves the importance of test cricket as well as takes care of player’s interest. Otherwise it won’t be long before players are dropped onto the field by a private jet on a Test match morning - that is, only if they decide to play.