The Reverse Sweep

KP's Ashes Diary: 12th January - I love the IPL even with the 50% pay cut

KPWe may have won the Ashes and the World Cup may be coming up, but let’s face it the main gig for me this year is the IPL because it pays the most. All that lovely wonga for hardly any work and then there are those glitzy celebrity filled IPL nights too, which are right up my street.

However, as much as I am looking forward to the IPL, I was flabbergasted that I’ve had to take a huge pay cut this year. I only fetched $650,000 at the auction last weekend, which is more than a 50% pay cut. Don’t they remember that I was the Man of the Tournament in the World T20 last season? I’ll have to cancel that order for a diamond encrusted Lamborghini now.

But do you know what the best thing about the IPL is? It’s that I get to change franchises. Sod loyalty. Now after playing for Notts, Hampshire and Surrey, I can now experience the pleasure of playing for Deccan Chargers after my time with Bangalore. Although as Deccan isn’t that close to Chelsea, I’m not sure if it works geographically.

Finally, I couldn’t help noticing that Cooky didn’t get an IPL contract. See I told you all that I should have been Man of the Series in the Ashes instead of him.

Where next?

Read all the excerpts from KP's 2010 Ashes Diary

Delve into our comprehensive Ashes 2010/11 coverage

Check out all our Reverse Sweep heroes and zeroes including David Gower, Shane Watson, Justin Langer and Hedley Verity

If you like this, follow us on Twitter @thereversesweep

Help the Aged

Just when you thought you were getting a break from Twenty 20 after the IPL and World T20, the Friends Provident T20 starts next Tuesday 1st June with last year's winners and runners up facing off at Hove as Sussex take on Somerset.

A quick peruse at the squads will tell you that the counties are making a belated attempt to imitate the IPL by bringing in a number of international stars for the competition. Unfortunately, for English cricket that stable door was left open a long time ago and the horse has well and truly bolted even if Lalit Modi has been unseated from his not-so-trusty stead.

We'll be doing a proper preview of the tournament nearer the time, but we couldn't help notice that some of the stars that have been hired are to put it mildly a little past their best. We saw with Damien Martyn in the IPL how sad it can be when a former great player (and Martyn has to be one of the most stylish batsmen of recent times) is so obviously past their best that they should be consigned to the knackers yard. Sanath Jayasuriya in the World T20 also comes to mind.

Despite these warnings, Middlesex have conscripted; no doubt for an exorbitant fee, another former Australian who is way past his best. Admittedly Adam Gilchrist's best was pretty sensational, but as his stats in the IPL this year showed, Gilchrist should now be consigned to the commentary box. Gilchrist managed 289 runs at an average 18.06 for Deccan Chargers in the season just past with a highest score of 54. His strike rate was an impressive 156.21, but it was obvious that he is a shadow of his former self; hardly surprising considering he retired from first-class cricket in January 2008.

We may well be proved wrong but it would seem Middlesex are doing more for Help the Aged and its gate receipts by employing Gilchrist than in trying to actually win the competition.

The A-Z of IPL3 - Part 1 of 3

Prior to this season, we at the Reverse Sweep had not watched any of the first two years of the IPL. If we are honest, it has taken some time for us to warm to T20 and in our view it is vastly inferior to test cricket. Furthermore, despite all the hype created by Lalit Modi and his gang of reprobates, the IPL is a domestic Indian league and even with the plethora of star names, as non-Indians the competition held little appeal for us. But with ITV4 showing the action this year and a World T20 just around the corner, our interest was piqued and the IPL had found itself some additional viewers, albeit part-time and slightly cynical ones.

With the regular season now ended and only the semi-finals and final to go, now seems an apt time to summarise our thoughts on the IPL experience. We haven’t watched every game. In fact we haven’t even watched half of them, but we have seen enough to present our take on IPL3 in the form of an A-Z, with A-I today and then J-Q and R-Z following over the next two days.

Advertising 

Whilst we appreciate that the players need to get their astronomical salaries somehow, the amount of advertising is beyond belief. The renaming of a six as a ’DLF maximum’, the timeouts and the television commentators acting as walking advertising hoardings do all detract from the action.  Modi’s vast ambitions for the IPL stretch to it competing equally with the NBA and NFL; in terms of advertising he is there already and may even have surpassed the Americans in tactlessness and greed. Our abiding memory of IPL3 will be the advertising, which is a shame.

 

Boundaries

And lots of them. With bowlers increasingly fulfilling the role of hapless christians to the lions of the batsmen, the boundaries have flowed. So far there have been 1622 fours and 552 sixes, which by our rough estimation is approximately 29 fours and 10 sixes per match . Boundary ropes have been brought in and for the most part pitches have been deliberately prepared with the batsman in mind. It is to be hoped that the IPL administrators will realise that cricket (even T20) is better where there is an equal battle between bat and ball. So more spicy pitches and bigger boundaries next season please.

 

Celebrities

It seems that India has fallen foul of the modern curse of celebrity that has afflicted the rest of the world. Cameras continually pan to whichever Bollywood actor or actress is in the crowd when the focus should be on the cricket. The IPL is the closest thing cricket has come to football and in our opinion that is a bridge that shouldn't be crossed. Shilpa Shetty may be attractive (and mention of her gives us an excuse to include a picture of her!), but not for the 100th time during the course of a match.

DLF Maximums

A six is one of the great things about cricket; providing they are a rarity rather than once every couple of overs. The crowd roars, the commentators splutter praise and the batsman basks in the glory. Unfortunately, the IPL has even taken to commercialising this wonderful event by renaming a six as a DLF maximum. How the commentators can lower themselves to call it by that name, we will never know. Also, please see Boundaries for our view on the alarming frequency of sixes in IPL3.

 

Exaggeration

The IPL doesn’t do understatement or humility. Modi says he wants to conquer America and make the IPL bigger than the English Premier League and the NBA. The worst exaggeration though came from Shane Warne when he described Yusuf Pathan’s 37 ball century against Mumbai Indians as the best he had ever seen. What, better than Laxman’s 281 at Kolkata whilst you and the rest of the Australians toiled in the field? Better than the many hundreds that Lara and Tendulkar scored against you Warney? Get real.

 

Franchises

What has to be remembered when watching the action is that it is not humble teams we are watching, but franchises; and the IPL is big business. Witness the constant talk of corruption and the huge sums of money tabled by bidders for the two new IPL franchises to be awarded from 2010. In the end Kochi and Pune won the day, but with a new player auction on the horizon, fans could see wholesale or even complete changes to their line-ups for IPL4, making the summer transfer merry-go-round in football seem small fry. How this will affect supporters awaits to be seen as people that support Mumbai because of Tendulkar may face a decision whether to change allegiance to another team should Mumbai be outbid in the auction for his services.

 

Garish

The lack of understatement in IPL3 has extended to the garb worn by the teams. We have sometimes had to don sunglasses whilst watching the action in order not to bring on a banging migraine. Delhi, Bangalore, Deccan and Mumbai all have decent enough apparel, but some of the other kits are plain horrible. Kings XI Punjab’s grey and red garb is as dreary as their cricket was for most of the season, Chennai’s yellow number has blinded most of its supporters and Rajasthan’s gold sleeves look a bit strange. But worst of all has to be Kolkata's purple and gold number. How Chris Gayle and company can keep a straight face with those gold pads, I do not know. Absolutely hideous. 

 

Homeless

As in the reigning champions Deccan Chargers. Banned from playing at their home ground of Hyderabad, Adam Gilchrist's team has been forced onto the road like a band of wandering minstrels; albeit highly paid ones. It looked like this nomadic existence plus the dulling of the talents of former greats such as Gilchrist and Chaminda Vaas would see the Chargers experience a damp squib of a season. But they regrouped and won their last five matches to reach the semi-finals. And who would bet against them retaining their crown now?

 

ITV4

Watching the action unfurl on ITV4 has produced several cringe inducing moments of car crash television. The studio presenters and summarisers for the most part have been terrible especially the bloke who worked alongside Mandira Bedi. He was so wooden he could have given Pinocchio a run for his money. The commentary too has been poor with the aforementioned shameless advertising and hyperbole turned up to the maximum. So our gratitude to ITV for showing the action is somewhat tempered by the awfulness of the coverage. Sky Sports must step in next season.

Tune in tomorrow for our J-Q of IPL3.
  

Crash, bang, whimper

So in the end Delhi’s season did turn out like Liverpool’s.

 

Heavily backed at the start with many pundits suggesting that this would be the season they would deliver.  

 

There were some tremendous highs like beating Bangalore not once, but twice. Just as Liverpool beat Manchester United, and also Everton twice. But the lows were horrible. Two dismal defeats to Mumbai and then the nadir of being bowled out for 111 by wooden spoon winners Punjab. Topsy-turvy is the best way to describe it.

 

From semi-final certainties to a final do-or-die clash with reigning champs Deccan Chargers.

 

Andrew Symonds proved the difference and showed what Australiahas been missing, and I don’t just mean some personality and off-field shenanigans. As ever, Paul Collingwood battled, but he lacked partners and the big shots to take Delhi over the line.

 

So it as I was warned. Delhiremains the perennial underachievers of the IPL. Most of the big players didn’t do themselves justice. Dilshan had an absolute nightmare, averaging only 7.33 with 44 runs from six innings. De Villiers wasn’t much better with an average of 16. The perplexing nature that is Sehwag’s failure to dominate T20 continued. And Gambhir’s most notable achievement was in upsetting Lalit Modi and Rajasthan fans.

 

True, Collingwood, Amith Mishra and Mithun Manhas did ok, but on the whole this was one star-studded line-up that failed to fire.

 

Oh well, Sussex has started with two wins and Englandare going to win the World T20! Onwards and upwards.

The winner takes it all

It's almost like Lalit Modi engineered it.

With Chennai scoring an excellent victory over Punjab and securing their semi-final place, attention now turns to Delhi and Deccan.

And by sheer coincidence they are now playing. And as ABBA would say, it's the winner takes it all.

As a Delhi 'fan', I hope it is them and not the reigning champs that make it.

The next three hours should be fascinating stuff...

A conjurer, some chokers & a new pair of pants

Any England supporter asked to refer to their side's darkest hour in the last few years will point to Adelaide 2006 when Shane Warne conjured up some magic to inspire a collapse to demoralise the losers to such an extent that the series ended up as a 5-0 whitewash. Ponting may have been captain in name on that day, but have no doubt it was Warne who bowled, cajoled and marshalled the Australians to victory.

Having watched some of Rajasthan's games this year, Warne the bowler looked a shadow of his former self and his shoulder appears to be close to completely falling out of its socket. That is hardly surprising as Warne is now a part-time cricketer and full-time poker player and underwear salesman with his Spinners brand. Indeed, like Mike Brearley before him it seemed that Warne was only in the side as a specialist captain. Until last night that is.

Defending 159, Warne looked in trouble as his fellow Australian and part-time cricketer Adam Gilchrist got the Deccan Chargers off to a lightning start. But Warne does not have a reputation as the best test captain Australia never had for nothing and he was not prepared for Rajasthan to lose their record of always successfully defending a score of 150 or more in the IPL.

Warne delayed his introduction until Deccan needed only 68 from 54 balls with seven Chargers still in the hutch and proceeded to roll back the years with a tremendous exhibition of legspin. First, he produced a slider to take Anirudh Singh's outside edge. Then knowing that he had to attack to have any chance of stealing a win, he put a slip and silly point in place and was rewarded with the wicket of the dangerous Dwayne Smith.

The Wizard of Oz was now in his element and despite Deccan needing only 23 off the last 18 balls with five wickets remaining, Warne applied more pressure in his final over (the 18th) by taking out Azhar Bilakhia and Ryan Harris to  produce his best T20 bowling figures of four for 21. Deccan still looked strong favourites though with Rohit Sharma going well and when 13 were taken off the penultimate over from Morne Morkel to leave six required off the last six balls, Warne's heroics looked in vain.

But as so often in the past, Warne's magic rubbed off on others and with the pressure reaching boiling point Siddharth Trivedi proved his mettle whilst Sharma and Deccan disintegrated before everyone's eyes just like the English batsmen at Adelaide. Sharma took a single off the first ball and with Trivedi penalised for a bouncer with the next the equation was down to four off five. RP Singh then swished and missed before miscuing the next to Morkel at mid-on. Sharma then attempted a suicidal second to run out Harmeet Singh and then completed his woe slicing a lofted drive to Abhishek Raut.

Warne had done it again and no doubt he also made some extra cash into the bargain as the shattered Sharma and many of his team-mates will have probably required some new underwear judging by the way they choked.

IPL half-term report & semi-final tips

As those of you that read this blog will know, this is the first season that I have tuned into the IPL, in part thanks to ITV4 (and that's the only time I will utter gratitude in that direction) but mainly out of curiosity to see if the reality lives up to the hype.

Of course it doesn't live up to the hype, but considering it is promoted more than the second coming of Jesus would be, that is hardly surprising. The television coverage and commentating is awful, there are far too many adverts and the renaming of a six as a DLF maximum is a crime; and a serious one at that. The hyperbole surrounding the tournament annoys me too with Shane Warne's assessment of Yusuf Pathan's 37 ball century against Mumbai Indians as the best ever perhaps being the worst example.

 

But taking all that into account, the cricket itself has at times been undeniably exciting even if tilted a little too heavily in favour of the men wielding the willow. The best aspect of the tournament is the fact that the teams are so evenly matched; apart from two exceptions. Mumbai Indians, with Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh and Lasith Malinga to the fore, are cruising towards the semi-finals having lost only one of their first eight matches. Kings XI Punjab on the other hand are the Bangladesh of the IPL with their only victory coming fortuitously in a Super Over triumph over Chennai Super Kings. Since then they have simply disintegrated with the low probably being the shambolic fielding in their last match, which saw a self-inflicted defeat against Bangalore.

That the other six sides are so close in the table is a vindication of the salary cap and perhaps the auction process too. Of these, Bangalore has been the most impressive with a good balance between bat and ball. Jacques Kallis has been imperious, as have Anil Kumble and Dale Steyn, and with Kevin Pietersen and Ross Taylor recently arrived, plus Robin Uthappa scattering bullets, Bangalore look a good bet for the semi-finals.

Delhi Daredevils also look set for the last four and despite a three game losing streak seem to have recovered their poise. Like Bangalore, Delhi look well balanced with the batting strength of Sehwag, Warner, Gambhir, Dilshan and secret weapon Paul Collingwood complimented by Dirk Nannes and Amit Mishra. 

The battle for the final semi-final place is too close to call. Rajasthan Royals looked out of their depth at the start of the competition and likely winners of the wooden spoon, with the failed Damien Martyn experiment seemingly summing up their woes. Despite a recovery of sorts, I tend to agree with Gautam Gambhir's assessment of the Royals as ordinary and predict that they won't make the top four. Reigning champions Deccan Chargers also look off the pace with Adam Gilchrist looking every bit the retired first-class cricketer that he is.

That leaves Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders. Both have improved after average starts and both have been reinforced by antipodeans; Doug Bollinger and Brendan McCullum respectively. I've a hunch that Bollinger will continue his excellent form and that consequently Chennai will pip Sourav Ganguly's team for the final semi-final spot.

So it is Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi and Chennai for the semi-finals for me, but given the closeness of the competition I wouldn't be surprised if I end up with egg on my face. 

The world-beating Angelo Mathews

The first time I saw Angelo Mathews I was surprised that someone with a name that wouldn’t sound out of place in an Australian soap opera was playing for Sri Lanka.

 

My next thought was that he was not quite good enough with either bat or ball to justify his all-rounder tag, but I could see that he was a wholehearted trier. I couldn’t help think that when Mathews was run out for 99 against India in the 3^rd test before Christmas (see picture) that he had possibly missed his best and only opportunity of a test ton.

 

But it seems that when it comes to T20 cricket he is a world beater; well certainly on the evidence of the last few days anyway.

 

First, he hit an unbeaten 65 off 46 balls for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the opening match against the reigning champions Deccan Chargers. Given that Kolkata were 31/4 when he came to the crease, his partnership with Owais Shah was a matchwinning one. He also took 1/27 with his medium pace, which helped reign back Deccan’s reply after the flying start provided by Adam Gilchrist and VVS Laxman.

 

Then yesterday his 4/19 destroyed the innings of the Bangalore Royal Challengers to set up a second victory for his side.

 

Average test and one day all-rounder, but a world beating T20 player. Maybe there is hope for Luke Wright and Tim Bresnan yet.

Start of IPL3 fails to live up to Lalit Modi hype

"I see the IPL becoming bigger than the NFL, the NBA, the English Premier League."

Lalit Modi

 

The third season of the IPL kicked off yesterday and as befits the most modern of cricket tournaments, I tuned in via YouTube (and ITV4) to see what all the fuss was about. All the hype created around the IPL, mainly by Lalit Modi, suggested that it was going to be the biggest thing since The Beatles. It isn't and as far as I am concerned it is more akin to Kula Shakar then the four moptops from Liverpool.

 

Firstly, supporters plus the global TV and internet audience had to contend with the opening ceremony, which dragged on for an hour. I don't particularly enjoy opening ceremonies and this wasn't the Olympics or the football World Cup; although doubtless Modi feels he can surpass both.

 

But what about the cricket? The opening match saw the reigning champions, Deccan Chargers, taking on the perenniel underachievers, the Kolkata Knight Riders in Mumbai. Given that this was a 'home' match for Deccan (security concerns mean that they can't play in Hyderabad), the fact that the ground was 70% full is not too bad I suppose. Although I would guess that the first games of the season for the New Orleans Saints and Manchester United would be sold out long before the actual game.

 

I actually enjoyed some of the cricket. It was good to see Chaminda Vaas show that T20 isn't just about batsmen hitting boundaries by taking two wickets in the first over. I also enjoyed the unbroken 131 partnership between Owais Shah, who surely will be in England's World T20 squad, and Angelo Matthews, which saw the Knight Riders post a competitive 161/4. It was also good to see Adam Gilchrist teeing off - especially as it wasn't against England. But overall the game was a bit of a damp squib with Deccan throwing the game away after the lightning start provided by Gilchrist and VVS Laxman.

 

As my first experience of the IPL, I'd say it was ok but not great. I can understand why the tournament is big news in India where the combination of bollywood razzmatazz, clever marketing and the participation of India's biggest cricket stars makes it an appetising proposition in cricket's biggest market. But as for Modi's global ambitions, I just can't see it competing successfully with the international game over a long period; the Champions League seems the best chance of doing that.

 

Modi reminds me of Tony James, the bass player in Sigue Sigue Sputnik. James created a hype around the band that enabled them to score a massive deal from EMI and masses of press coverage before they had released a record. When they finally did, Love Missile F1-11 was propelled to the top of the charts. Then everyone realised that Sputnik were not the second coming and their fall was as dramatic as their rise. Will the same happen to the IPL?

I will continue to tune in especially to the matches of my adopted team, the Delhi Daredevils, but my overall impression is that test cricket is not as in danger as I thought. Perhaps I should add a caveat to that though given the boredom that is the 2nd day between Bangladesh and England so far zzzzz.

 

 

Who should I support in the IPL?

I didn't take much notice of the first two seasons of the IPL. Being a traditionalist, T20 cricket is not my favourite form of the game. If it was a woman it would be Cheryl Cole - good to look at, exciting even but without much substance and something you would tire of quite quickly. Whereas test cricket is more like Scarlett Johansson. Beautiful too but with depth and mysterious, unpredictable and always fascinating.

But the odd night with Cheryl is not something to be sniffed at and having enjoyed Trinidad and Tobago's progress in the inaugural Champions League, I have decided that I will tune into ITV4 for some of the third instalment of the tournament. But, T&T are obviously not one of the eight teams participating, so who should I support as a non-Indian?

Well if I was a Manchester United fan, I could go down the glory supporter route and simply pick the reigning champions, the Deccan Chargers. But as I regard United and its manager Alex Ferguson as the antichrist that's a non-starter.

Likewise, I also have to rule out the Rajasthan Royals due to the recent 'worldwide franchise' press conference replete with hideous PowerPoint presentations. This is the sort of arrogant move reminiscent of Chelsea. It's a shame in some respects as I could easily follow a side captained and coached by Shane Warne. He may be happy to punt anything nowadays including pants, but the sense of theatre he creates when he bowls is something special. But I hate PowerPoint presentations...

So, what about going down the name route? Unfortunately, most of these are pretty good with the Kolkata Knight Riders in particular standing out. However, this route does enable me to rule out the two worst names of the Chennai Super Kings and the Mumbai Indians. The former sounds like a pack of cigarettes and the last lacks imagination.

Four down, four left to choose from. Having no particular affinity to any city or region in India means that the final decider will come down to the player roster at each of the remaining sides. The Bangalore Royal Challengers have Dravid, KP, Eoin Morgan and Prince Kumble but also have Boucher and Kallis. Delhi Daredevils have the God that is Sehwag plus his apprentice Dilshan, Paul Collingwood and Dirk Nannes, but also have Andrew McDonald. Kings XI Punjab are captained appropriately by King Kumar, which is nearly a reason in itself. And Kolkata Knight Riders have Chris Gayle.

Deities overcome mere mortals anytime, so for me it's a straight choice between Delhi Daredevils and Sehwag, and Kings XI Punjab and King Kumar. And Delhi shade it for me with their plethora of opening batsmen (Viru, Gambhir, Warner and Dilshan - wow!), the last gunslinger in town in Nannes and my favourite England player Colly.

So Delhi Daredevils it is for me then. I cannot see it becoming a big love like that I have for Liverpool, England and Sussex or even Scarlet Johansson, but a few nights with Cheryl could be good fun. In three days time, I'll find out.