IPL Cheerleaders and KKR

Yes, I am writing about cheerleaders :(

KKR recently sent back their cheerleaders who were selected from a reality show. It was reported that only "local" South African girls would be allowed to cheer and therefore they would not get the opportunity. KKR did the decent thing and they atleast got a holiday.

But that got me thinking about the White mischief gals (who I believe are from the US). So how come they get to cheer RCB while the reality winners did not?

The unfair fair play award

Just heard Harsha commenting about nice guys finish last or something to that effect (after reviewing the kingfisher fair play award table). Thus far nobody in the IPL or the commentary team have mentioned that the fair play awards don't factor in rained out matches.

So Mumbai Indians who are listed as having 30 from 4 matches actually have 30 from 3 matches as they did not play one and should lead the table. Similarly CSK, KKR and RR should not be in the bottom as they also missed out on matches.

Leading the table is RCB with 41 out of 50 (which means they have been docked the most points till now).

I wonder how long it will take to add a column to factor in the matches?
You can tell from this, how much this award is valued or kept track of...

In-stadia commentary

I could not believe this when I read it... Can we credit this innovation to the Modi and IPL or is it simply the T-20 effect?

"Manpreet Gony has played two one-day internationals for India. No great pace but good control." -- I have to excuse Gony's performance from yesterday ...

"I don't think you can make a change to the field!"
Whatever next?

Yorking Dhoni

Albie, why are you attempting to york Dhoni (the wicket keeper of your team) instead of the batsman?

They are all blogging

SRK, Modi have joined the club last week.

So if you are a glutton for punishment (like me), and really miss the fact that you see them and hear from them only half the day, you can now read them the rest of the time.

Modi's blog is full of innovations. The standard theme across his entries is everything I/we do, we do it for the game -- to innovate and improve the quality of cricket!!

I am unclear if the SRK blog is directed towards fans or towards the team.
We all trust we are a great bunch of people and cricketers.

One lakh people out there have only one prayer in their hearts, god give our kids strength and a bit of luck to beat the shit out of their opponents.

God's response might be: Son, mind your language atleast when praying to me and put out that cigarette.

Fines

Apparently DD, DC, MI have been fined thus far. Will be interesting to see if team gets fined the next step of $220,000 which is a significant amount of money. However I thought most matches went past their allotted time.

Davis Cup news

Australia has pulled out of the Davis cup tie in India (@ Chennai). Until the security hue and cry, I did not even know that the Davis cup matches were going to be held locally. Given it is a question of protecting a small contingent for 4-5 days, and a small crowd, I don't think it should have been a problem (unlike IPL with 100s or players, multiple locations and huge crowds for several weeks).
Several australian cricketers also transitted/trained in India before the IPL. So this move is bit surprising.

90% tickets sold ==?

90% tickets sold = empty stands.

Unless SA have a penchant for buying tickets and not showing up, what gives?

Basebalization of cricket?

KKR have signs? Come on KKR, keep it simple!

However this will create new job opportunities which is invaluable in these times. Opponents can now hire somebody to steal the signs and teach the player at the non-striker's end to communicate to the batsmen with its own signs.

Imagine if this is RR and Munaf is signed to bowl a bouncer and he bowls everything but one -- is it because he missed the sign or just would not or could not bowl one -- tricky, eh?

Not Morkel's Day

With the batting, the costly drop and the bowling.

Postives:

• Balaji's bowling
• Hayden, Patel and Raina's batting.
  
• Both loses have been to other strong teams, and have not lost badly yet.

Negatives:

• Shabby performance by CSK overall especially after getting Delhi Duo out early and then the Hayden innings and the close finish.
• Flintoff -- batting and bowling figures are reversed
• Dhoni -- old Dhoni is missing
• Badri/Jogi -- 1 over each to bat/bowl... Badri is wasted at the end. Not sure why Joginder is there -- surely given Balaji was bowling a decent over, he and Murali deserved another over?
• Poor death bowling

PS: Are the pitches being "Indianized"? What happened to support for bowlers and 150 being a good score?

Vodafone IPL Ads

Really like the vodafone ones -- different, eye-catching, entertaining, and you remember them as well. However at home, we have been wondering what a "beauty alert" might be???

You tube link for the ad.

KXIP 0 - D/L 2

KXIP have lost 2 matches, but in between the two games they are yet to bowl even 20 overs. They have logged in under 15 overs in 2 matches. There were not in strong position in either of the two matches -- but I am sure they must have a grievance. They are yet to experience a strategy break!

BTW, was D/L ratified by D or L for the T-20 game or simply by others? I think they should have D/L v2 for T-20 if they are going to persist with minimum 5 over games.

It is contagious

Yesterday during the CSK -- RCB match, I heard the phrase "like a tracer bullet". But hold your breath -- I don't think it was dear Shastri. Can cricket survive more tracer bullets? Given that some 'Indianness' is missing in this IPL, I suggest that we get Abhinav Bindra to give some lessons on other ammunition (surely there must be other kinds of bullets). Or better yet, use mythological ones like sudharshan chakra --- no?

IPL Official Website

Modi very humbly mentioned that FIFA should learn from him IPL. There are a couple of things that perhaps he could learn from them.

- Have a working website -- the IPL official website is dismal -- inaccessible most of the time, stale data when available.

- Follow the soccer approach - no ads are shown here when I watch the premier league and definitely no forced breaks. I hope the IPL will realize the error (given teams, players, fans don't appear to like it very much) and cut the strategy break to 2-3 mins for this season (to save face) and do away with it altogether next year -- or allow the teams to select when to take a shorter break.

Farce of a game - DD vs KXIP

First 14 overs
Then 12 overs
Now 6 overs

Each bowler gets to bowl once (except for the privileged 2)? Lets make sure there can be a strategy break after the 3rd over, if not, if I was KXIP I should complain.

Spin Doctoring

Apparently the live streaming of the match crashed the "official" IPL website. So how to turn that into a positive? Call it popularity going through the roof.

As I write this, the site does not load again -- you wonder when they had a year to fix the site, what were they doing.

Note also the site is called slave.iplt20.com -- now I understand "master/slave" machines -- but have yet to see slave.google.com or slave.cnn.com :)

Aiyoo

That's not me bemoaning anything! That is Robin shouting from behind the stumps. And he did a decent job. So beware Partiv and Dinesh -- your backup job to Dhoni is not safe :) The lone warrior Dravid's innings was sweet to watch. Will Ganguly and Laxman do the same today?

BTW: I did not get a feeling that there were too many ads -- recession...? Also the coverage does not show the dug-outs often -- the expressions there are priceless -- wonder why?

Not as captivating?

Is it just me...? Or was the first game, pre-game show, Mandira (Lekha and Sonali missing?), atmosphere, just about everything less interesting than last year. The 7.5 mins breaks are terrible -- I used the first one to complete some chores and the second one to go online and have not followed much after that. The match has lasted 4 hours -- is someone getting fined (or is the dog the excuse)? Crowd did not appear to be as enthralled as they were in India.

CSK, the team I support got several things wrong -- why was Ashwin there if it was not to bowl... And the batting order was not right either. Flintoff/Oram ahead of Dhoni/Badri? So the game was disappointing as well.

Hopefully I will like some of the next matches a little more...

Where were you?

Dear Dhoni,

You missed the Padma Shri awards given by the president. Where were you? If the award meant anything, short of an emergency, you should have made it -- if not you should have declined it a long time ago, so that another sportsman/woman should have been awarded it. Surely there needs to be a public word on why you did not make it? I did not see you in the IPL parade either (though I took only a passing glance at it on TV). Hope you were there...

You have been privileged to recieve so less criticism. It will take only a few defeats after which you will be in the same boat as Ganguly or Dravid.

PS: To the sports ministry and BCCI -- don't you check beforehand if your "wards" intend to attend or persuade them to do so?

IPL Preview

What's new this year?

- Floats and a parade
- Fan mentor (Shree)
- Lots of new team jerseys -- (Feng Shui/colour therapy?)


Perhaps the two below will be the most asked questions and the most typical answers.

How do you feel about the IPL being shifted out of India?

It is sad that it had to been moved out of India -- we will miss the Indian atmosphere, but we are still glad that it being held (in the background -- cha-ching atleast the cash register is ringing). SA will be great.



How has the IPL experience been for you?

Fantastic, it is a great opportunity to learn from other players, share a dressing room, understand their work ethics and observe them. It is also a great opportunity for young Indian players to experience and learn from SA conditions (in the background -- young Indian players-- we get a chance and are not going to be sent back??) . It is also the ideal training ground for T20 world cup.


I will be a fan of any cricketer who gives original answers to any of this.

Errors

The IPL somehow always causes the press to lose track of facts especially teams/players combination. Take a look at this article.

According to a report by the Australian Associated Press (AAP), Symonds would have earned USD 1.91 on current exchange rates from his franchise Bangalore Royal Challengers.

I will gladly give Symonds $1.91 (USD)
When did he move to RCB :)

I am assuming they mean $1.91 million Australian dollars and not USD, if they got the rest of it right...

Injured?

Is a player fit for T20, ODIs or tests? The new mantra appears to be that if you are not fit for tests, the way to get there is to play high intensity T-20 virtually non-stop for a month (though some may call it entertainment). I wonder if Watson, Symonds or Lee can make use of the same concept -- as they perhaps have been recalled at an inopportune moment (atleast financially)?

World Cup Archery

Indian team wins a gold in the archery world cup (not sure what stage 1 means -- I hope it is not just a qualifying round). I remember Champia from the Olympics -- but I am assuming gold is good. The women's team also win a bronze.

For Chennaites out there, do you know if there is archery arena/place where you can try archery for fun?

TV Timeout?

It is reported that the IPL folks may be planning an additional 5 min of advertising/breaks per innings. It is unclear if this would be after 10 overs or at some other time. Last year hardly any match finished within the stipulated time. This seems to be more and more like the NBA/NFL, where the last 2 minutes could take half an hour. I realize that they won't show ad after ad, but perhaps throw in 30 secs worth of tour diary or something similar :)

So wonder if people will really watch IPL/ads during the break. Perhaps you can have a game -- how many times will Dhoni appear in that ad break. Perhaps this would be an ideal time for KKR to change the captain. Or perhaps catch up on the election news or serials. I wonder if advertisers or viewers will buy into this concept?

Pearls of wisdom or not!

IPL players' views on voting

The elections were never part of my plans for the season and even if we were playing in India, I don’t think I would have voted.

My job is to play cricket and I rate it more highly than my responsibility as a citizen.

Jaago re!

Does not appear to be any proxy voting. All the more reason for MSD and SRT to fly back to vote to set examples as celebrity citizens.