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When Rahul Dravid was asked to explain another depressing day at the IPL office, he spoke of being outclassed

Cricinfo staff12-May-2008
When you consider that Jacques Kallis, a US$900,000 signing, has been warming the bench, you begin to get some insight into why Bangalore are where they are in the table © AFP
When Rahul Dravid was asked to explain another depressing day at the IPL office, he spoke of being outclassed. There was a moment when you thought he would actually let off some steam, but instead he settled for the phrase: “Pretty much second-best.” Had he said second-rate instead, few could have blamed him.Everything about the Bangalore Royal Challengers’ organisation is in shambles. The chief executive was sacked midway through the campaign, and the owner loves opening his mouth even more than Tom Hicks, the Texan tycoon now so detested by football supporters in Liverpool. With everyone else having done a Pontius Pilate, Dravid has been left to carry what is now a rotting corpse of a side.This wasn’t a contest. It was an embarrassment. With three Australians to the fore in the facile chase, you could close your eyes and imagine a team in green-and-gold battering some hapless invitation XI somewhere. It really was that one-sided, with Shaun Marsh and Luke Pomersbach using the stage, and a beautiful batting pitch, to highlight their ability.Marsh alone has made 295 runs in the competition, from just five matches. When you consider that he, Pomersbach and James Hopes cost less than half of what Bangalore paid out for Jacques Kallis, the most expensive bench-warmer in the IPL, you begin to get some insight into why Bangalore are where they are in the table.”It’s been a fantastic experience,” Marsh said of his IPL adventure.”You’re playing with the greatest players in the world. And I’m getting to learn from the likes of Yuvi [Yuvraj Singh], Sanga [Kumar Sangakkara] and Mahela [Jayawardene]. And to play in front of crowds like this is something I’ve never experienced before.”That’s not something Dravid or even a Mark Boucher could ever say. Yet, time after time, when the situation has demanded something special, Bangalore’s finest have failed to deliver. It’s almost like they lack an extra gear. A Mercedes convertible is an object of envy out on the road, but a tadpole amid sharks if placed on an F-1 track. Most of Bangalore’s top players appear similarly out of place.The two Twenty20 specialists have been a huge letdown. Cameron White’s highest score is 30, while Misbah-ul-Haq hasn’t gone past 21. He also finds ever more ingenious ways to get out. As for the opening partnership, that’s almost an oxymoron when it comes to Bangalore.”It helps to have openers in form and playing well,” Dravid said withreference to Marsh’s superb unbeaten 74. “It sets the tone for the game up front. We haven’t had that, and it’s filtered down to the rest of the batting.”As poor as Bangalore were though, take nothing away from the King’s XI, whose bowlers were simply sensational. Post-slap, Sreesanth has focusedmore on his bowling and less on grimaces, and the results have taken him to the top of the wicket-takers’ heap. Aside from a couple of poor short balls to Misbah, he was superb on Monday, swinging the ball at pace. The 94kph leg-cutter to get Praveen Kumar was magnificent, while the early wickets ensured that Bangalore never really got away.His new-ball partner, Irfan Pathan, also has 13 wickets and he gave nothing away in a probing opening spell. Yuvraj Singh, the captain, saved his praise for the third musketeer though, calling VRV Singh’s 1 for 15 a “matchwinning spell”. And if the King’s XI didn’t get you with pace, there was the legspin of Piyush Chawla. Virat Kohli was utterly flummoxed by one that he played back to, while White’s miscue became a caught-and-bowled for the highlights reels.With six wins from their last seven games, Mohali are now poised to seal a semi-final berth, which most likely leaves India’s three biggest metros – Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi – to slug it out for the fourth spot. Bangalore, like Hyderabad, have only pride to play for. Given the backroom shenanigans, even that might be exhausted by the time their wretched summer is over.

Bad hair, near-naked cheerleaders, Harold Pinter, brassy impresarios, fishing trips, lots of lolly… and some cricket as well

Osman Samiuddin31-Dec-2008
It’s not how they come: Pietersen unleashes his inner leftie at Chester-le-Street © Getty Images
Shot of the year
Kevin Pietersen’s switch-hit, the human in the evolution chain to the reverse-sweep’s ape: As opposed to the shot Mike Gatting made infamous, Pietersen’s requires pre-meditating and changing grip as well as stance, making it riskier still. Most notably, he did it in an ODI against New Zealand in the summer, in Durham, twice hitting Scott Styris for six. The second went over the right-hander’s long-off. Even the MCC took notice, promptly concluding it wasn’t against the laws of the game.Ball of the year I
Anything bowled by Ajantha Mendis, but if pushed, one ball stands out. First Test wickets, or runs, are remembered usually only by the player himself but Mendis’ first in Tests will live on. It was the flicker, the carrom ball; pitched on middle, on a length, it left Rahul Dravid completely unsure of what to do, before zipping off, turning away and clipping the off bail. Set the tone for the series.Ball of the year II
Mohammad Ashraful’s wonderfully disguised delivery to AB de Villiers during the first Test in February in Mirpur: it bounced first at his own feet, then , a little closer to de Villiers, who, completely bamboozled by now, top-edged a pull back to Ashraful. If you fly over Dhaka, it is said you can still hear them laughing.Cricket headline of the year
“Pinter: Cricket is better than sex” (The , days after the death of playwright Harold Pinter). Perhaps, and it definitely lasts longer.Catch of the year
The league may not be recognised, but nobody will argue that Justin Kemp’s catch in the second ICL final doesn’t deserve recognition as one of the finest seen in recent years. Mohammad Sami was rightly expecting a maximum from a smash towards long-off. Kemp, however, sprinted across, leapt as if to pluck out a shooting star, twisted and caught the rocket, all at once, before falling over just inside the boundary. So unbelievable was it that the Lahore Badshahs didn’t believe it, subsequently sparking a bust-up.Clash of the year
Australia-India? England-South Africa? South Africa-India? South Africa-Australia? Nope. Stanford v Lord’s. New money v old power, Yanks v Brits, Bacon n’ egg ties v Armani suits, 20 million dollars v millions of years of tradition, a helicopter v the sacred Lord’s turf. Stanford’s shopping trip to Lord’s to buy English cricket was the heavyweight clash of the year. Even now no one is sure who won. Or whether there was a winner at all.Controversy of the year
Race, power, money, monkeys, s, culture clash, poor umpiring, icons: The surprise of Sydneygate was that it didn’t spark off WWIII. At its heart was something Harbhajan Singh said to Andrew Symonds, in a Test marred by diabolically poor umpiring. He was banned for three Tests, the BCCI and India screamed murder, threatened to call off the tour, appealed; the decision was overturned, Steve Bucknor was removed. Cue pained debates on sledging, race, power, monkeys, s, culture clashes, umpiring and icons, and precious little on India losing three wickets in an over, to a man KP might call a pie-chucker, to lose the Test.Debutant of the year
Twenty-six wickets in his first three Tests against the best modern-day players of spin; 48 wickets in 18 ODIs, including a six-for on essentially a cement track in Karachi against the best modern-day players of spin, all at an average of 10. A strange grip, no stock ball, more variety than Murali has wickets, and a nice smile; welcome to cricket, Ajantha Mendis. Last year windows for rest were being sought desperately; this year the panes shifted, and windows to cram in more and more games – and more ways to make more money – were created Makeover of the year
If cricket was Pamela Anderson, then the IPL was Pam post-op. It wasn’t bad before but it’s never been sexier since. Liquor barons, cheerleaders allergic to clothes, film stars, big money, big businessmen, music, noise, lights, and a marketing campaign to match any. There were also some pretty handy cricketers playing some pretty handy cricket, but that was almost besides the point.Spell of the year
Ishant Sharma’s hour-long torment of Ricky Ponting on the fourth day in Perth set the tone for both players’ year: Sharma confirmed himself as the best young fast bowler going, and Ponting, though never out of form, was never the perky intimidator. The duel was fascinating, nine overs of the most intense examination. There was pace, bounce, movement, accuracy, heart, near-misses and close things. Finally, as his spell neared an end, he brought about Ponting’s, with one that rose sharply and caught the edge. A star was thus born.Costliest hook of the year
The one Andrew Symonds used while fishing, having skipped a team meeting to do so, the day before an ODI against Bangladesh. The price? His place in the squad for that series, and more importantly, the one against India that followed. As punishment, CA officially placed him in the saloon for last chances, which, given his preference for an ale, he may not mind so much after all.Over of the year
Actually 10 balls bowled by Andrew Flintoff to Jacques Kallis at Edgbaston, but they produced more threat than some bowlers do over an entire career, and more quality cricket than do some Test series. Two sharp yorkers, one lbw appeal that Stevie Wonder would’ve given out, bouncers hellbent on rearranging Kallis’s face. The 10th was another yorker – quick, swinging out, against which Kallis had no chance. The sightscreens weren’t great apparently but were Kallis’ bat a wall and the ball a balloon, Flintoff’s will still would’ve forced it through. Loud and clear it was announced: Three injury-marred years after another special over to Ricky Ponting at the same ground, Freddie was back.Most embarrassing thing of the year about the Stanford Series I
EnglandMost embarrassing thing of the year about the Stanford Series II
The English press complaining about pitches, poor lights and Americans. In Antigua. While being paid to watch cricket.The Muntazer Al-Zaidi Public Service Award of the year
To Harbhajan Singh, for slapping Sreesanth at the IPL, and thus doing what all batsmen who have come across the breakdancer have presumably wanted to do. Funnily enough, the Annoying Prat Formerly Known as Sreesanth has been less annoying since. The spirit inspired a copycat attempt at the end of the year by the Iraqi shoe-throwing journalist after whom the award is now named.The AWOL cricket gripe of the year
Player burnout: Funny that, how no player spoke of being overworked despite schedules more crammed than Dolly Parton’s bra. Last year windows for rest were being sought desperately; this year the panes shifted, and windows to cram in more and more games – and more ways to make more money – were created.
Apparently the new Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif emerges from yet another hearing © AFP
Timeliest comeback of the year
Stephen Harmison, disenchanted with international cricket, suddenly rediscovered his fire in the summer. It had nothing to do, of course, with selection for the Stanford series and a potential million-dollar payoff, or the India tour and a possible route into the riches of the IPL. Just like the late Anna Nicole Smith’s marriage to that old whatsisname had nothing to do with his fortune. By the end of it, England had won nothing in Antigua and Harmison looked likelier to become a roving ambassador than to end up in the IPL.The “Oops I Did It Again” Award of the year
One drugs scandal is generally enough for most sportsmen, but three in two years? Mohammad Asif should’ve been on thin ice after the 2006 Champions Trophy scandal but he skated on. The folly of the PCB’s lenience then came back to haunt them this year, when first Asif was detained at Dubai airport for possession of an illegal recreational drug. Soon after, it emerged that he had tested positive for nandrolone again, this time during the IPL. Thus became Pakistan’s brightest star it’s biggest disappointment.The worst advertisement for Test cricket this year
The Bangalore Royal Challengers. They were a Test side, everyone groaned. No they weren’t. They were just a crap team. The Mohali Test between India and England was a close second.The best advertisement for Test cricket this year
Test cricket has never been as rowdy as when Virender Sehwag is at the crease. He resurrected his career with a resolute Adelaide hundred but he lit up the year with two outrageous innings. A triple hundred against South Africa at better than a run-a-ball in Chennai was easily the fastest triple ever, managing to enliven what was otherwise one of the year’s dullest Tests. The second capped off one of the best: A ludicrous 68-ball 83 that really made impossible nothing, letting India chase down 387 at the same venue but on a very different pitch.The most audacious match-winning innings of the year not played by V Sehwag
This year Graeme Smith confirmed his status as one of the best last-innings batsmen ever, leading South Africa to victories in four countries. He started with a 79-ball blitz against the West Indies in Newlands in January, his 85 fairly hunting down a tricky 186. Sixty-two came in a dicier 205-run chase in Dhaka. But the glory lay first in a monumental unbeaten 154 at Edgbaston, chasing 281; a blistering 108 in Perth in the second-highest chase ever; and a calming 75 at the MCG to seal the series. No longer the cocky kid, in 2008 Smith became a man of indomitable will.Streak of the year
Once a more solid Imran Farhat, Gautam Gambhir became a smaller, less puffy-chested Matthew Hayden this year. No batsman was more difficult to remove: in 16 innings his lowest score was 19, and only once did he bat for less than an hour – that was for 55 minutes. He didn’t dawdle either, crossing 50 nine times, and always scoring three runs an over.Bradmanesque streak of the (last 2) year(s)
Shiv Chanderpaul: 13 Tests, 1467 runs, six 100s and ten 50s in 23 innings, and at an average of nearly 105. We are not worthy.Late cut of the year
It will happen, it will happen, it will happen, it will… actually it won’t. So went the saga of this year’s Champions Trophy. Nobody knew, least of all hosts Pakistan, whether it would happen, until the day it was postponed. It was a cruel, devastating and poor decision.Comeback of the year
On the back of a sensational domestic season, Simon Katich forced his way back into the national side two-and-a-half years after last playing for them, and this time as opener. By a troubled year’s end, he was one of the few rocks in an uncertain batting order: Four hundreds and over a thousand runs, each of which suggested you would have to kill him to get past him. No less obdurate was Neil McKenzie, who also came back as an opener for South Africa four years after last playing for them. He helped Graeme Smith to all manner of opening records and himself to over 1000 runs, and three hundreds. Once a more solid Imran Farhat, Gautam Gambhir became a smaller, less puffy-chested Matthew Hayden this year Career-saving hundreds of the yearThis was a vintage year. Andrew Strauss saved himself in March with 177 in Napier, having averaged 27 over his previous 14 Tests (and made a duck in the first innings). Paul Collingwood went into the Edgbaston Test against South Africa with 92 first-class runs in nine innings, having been dropped for the previous Test. He responded with a hundred that should have won the game. Rahul Dravid averaged 31 over two years and 19 over his last ten Tests before he made 136 against England in Mohali . Career-saving perhaps, but ugly as sin all the knocks. “If he was batting in your front garden, you’d draw your curtains,” David Lloyd quipped of Collingwood recently. Had any of these been played in your front garden, you’d move house altogether.Most bizarre selection of the year
Darren Pattinson. Who? Yes, precisely. Nothing more left-field was seen until Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave the world a Christmas message on the UK’s Channel 4.Most overworked officials of the year
Reg Dickason, the freelance security expert, clocked up more air miles than Simon Taufel as cricket met the harsh realities of today’s violent world. If he wasn’t scoping out Karachi and Lahore – more than once this year – it was Chennai and Mohali, before heading all over the world to report back to players. Followed closely by the PCB’s lawyers, who slapped more lawsuits than were slapped in all of the US.The Inzamam-ul-Haq Award for figure of the year
Jesse Ryder. The boy may be fat but the boy can most definitely bat.The Lalit Modi Award for services to cricket
Lalit Modi. Obviously.Quiet champion of the yearHow many people noticed the work of Hashim Amla this year? Quietly, unnoticed, and with a lovely, old-world dignity (and quirky technique), Amla went about ensuring South Africa barely felt the lack of runs from Jacques Kallis. Over a thousand runs from that crooked back-swing, with three elegant hundreds, meant South Africa always built on the fine starts their openers gave. Other contenders were, unsurprisingly, also South African: Ashwell Prince, AB de Villiers, Paul Harris, and Kallis with the ball.Retirements of the year
The quietest but loudest “Just one more things lads’ was how one of Indian cricket’s most significant figures quietly announced his retirement. Sourav Ganguly signed off with a bang, however, with 324 runs at over 50 against the men he riled the most. No better way of saying he could’ve played on.
The least noticed The most famous red top since Archie Andrews, and less notably, one of the finest allrounders of the modern age, Shaun Pollock wrecked West Indies in his final Test, in January. That was his first Test in almost a year, though his team have hardly, in the year since, missed the only South African with 400-plus Test wickets.
Most statistically satisfying Stephen Fleming’s actual batting was far sexier than his career numbers suggest, but if he had failed to finish with an average of 40, it would’ve been cricket’s greatest injustice since Bradman’s 99.94 and Inzi’s 49.60. Fortunately, two typically smooth innings (typically, not hundred either) ensured he didn’t.
The biggest shoes to fill Those left behind by Anil Kumble and Adam Gilchrist. Both were among the biggest game-breakers their country – and cricket – has seen. Who will be the more difficult to replace: A wicketkeeper-batsman who made 33 international 100s at a strike-rate not far from 100, or a grim-faced leggie with over 600 Test wickets? Will make the search for the next Beefy look like a walk in the park.
Jesse Ryder: Not bad for a fat lad © Getty Images
Lamest excuse of the year
Ricky Ponting citing the spirit of cricket, and his obligation to try and bowl 90 overs in a day, to defend his tactics on the fourth afternoon of the Nagpur Test. Australia needed a win, and India were in trouble, whereupon Ponting turned to those renowned threats Michael Hussey and Cameron White to make up time. Was avoiding a suspension more important than the win? The worst excuse since the dog ate my homework.The batsman to bat for your life of the year
If ever there was a man for a crisis this year, it was < Kevin Pietersen, Mr 911. Each of his five hundreds, and a 94, came when England in serious strife. First was a 129 at Napier with England 4 for 3; the Kiwis were pummelled again for 115 at Trent Bridge – handy, with his side 86 for 5. The Lord's hundred against South Africa was the most comfortable, Pietersen steadying only a slight wobble, but the 94 at Edgbaston came with England effectively 21 for 4. His next hundred was in his first Test as captain, and in Mohali, he came in at 2 for 1. All he was missing was a cape, some tights and a mask.Haircut of the year
Ishant Sharma, because he got one.Finish of the year
The touch he’s in, Shivnarine Chanderpaul could get 36 off the last over to win it, so 10 off two balls against Chaminda Vaas in Trinidad was never going to be a problem. He drove a boundary first before flicking a full toss over midwicket to finish, as coolly as you’d flick the ash off a cigarette. Kamran Akmal wasn’t far behind in stealing 17 off Jerome Taylor’s last over to seal a thrilla in… er… Abu Dhabi.Captain of the year
MS Dhoni and Graeme Smith were very good, and Mahela Jayawardene always is, but there was only one captain this year. Shane Warne proved that genius remains in all formats and that old dogs learn new tricks. As performer, he was undimmed: his bowling was magic, as 19 wickets for the Rajasthan Royals – joint second-highest in the IPL – testifies. There was the odd batting cameo, as Andrew Symonds will tell you. But his captaincy sealed it: A gambler’s touch complementing the sharpest mind. One-over spells, surprise bouncer barrages, no coaching BS, and his players loved him. On rolled the “best Australian captain that never was” debate.Fruitless search of the year
How many men does it take to replace Warne? Australia tried six spinners this year alone, and by the end, none had really convinced. In 13 Tests, Beau Casson, Stuart MacGill, Nathan Hauritz, Jason Krejza, Brad Hogg and Cameron White took 38 wickets at over 50 each. How many men? How long is a piece of string?The return to terra firma of the year
Once he had only Bradman in his sights; now Michael Hussey’s horizons have shrunk to include other, more mortal, batsmen. Mr Cricket started the year averaging 80 and, having scored an even 900 runs at the comparatively derisory average of 37.50, ended it at 60. This included four ducks in the year, after getting none in his first three years, and the grand total of 10 runs in the last four innings of 2008. How the mighty have fallen indeed.

Graeme Smith announced his return to form in typically ebullient manner and, if he is consistent, Rajasthan are bound for the final four

Karna S05-May-2009Rajasthan got what they wanted from this game. The team has spoken about the need for consistency in the batting; Graeme Smith, who averaged 13 before this game, got among the runs today and his new opening partner Naman Ojha looked pretty solid too. Smith had not been himself for a while; he had a quiet last three games against Australia in the ODI series and flopped in the first seven here in the IPL. Today, he announced his return to form – good news for South Africa as much as Rajasthan – in typically ebullient manner.Watching Smith bat is not the most joyful act. There is nothing graceful about his batsmanship but it almost mirrors his steely mind that is so evident and celebrated in his captaincy. A tough and hard captain doesn’t usually conjure up visuals of lyrical batting; as Allan Border grew into his captaincy, he seemed to get more crab-like in the crease. It was almost a fight within himself. Smith can be a power hitter but he is not your flowing Yuvraj or Gilchrist. Everything about him suggests force; muscle over wrist, batsman over bowler, mind over matter.It begins with his stance, and how he tries to bring the bat down – a deliberate, almost very conscious, move to get it straight down, as if he is almost willing himself to get it right. It doesn’t seem to be a natural movement. More often than not, the straight drive goes to mid-on. He has a mean flick shot but even there he has turned that graceful movement to something hauled off the assembly line. Young boys are not going to fall in love with the game after seeing him bat but his peers will admire his guts and want to play as tough as him.Today offered more evidence of his tough and calculating mind. He was about to take first strike but once he saw it was the offspinner Ramesh Powar who had the ball, he asked Naman Ojha, the right hander, to do so and go after the bowler. With Ojha getting off to a flier, Smith didn’t have to worry about runs or preserving his wicket. He was not in great form when he started off, the ball meeting the edge more than the middle, but he fought on.The field setting for him was perfect, Mahela Jayawardene stationed at short mid-on to catch the error from the bottom-hand powered drive down the ground. And it almost worked: Smith hit one hard and Jayawardene almost pulled off a blinder to his right. Once let off, though, Smith broke away. He hit four fours in the next eight balls, which included his favourite flick and a slap past point, and charged along to unfurl powerful sweeps and carved drives before he holed out to long-on. The pitch helped him; it was faster, the ball came on nicely to the bat and he prospered.Later, Jeremy Snape and Darren Berry spoke about how delighted they were with Smith and Ojha’s partnership. “They played proper cricketing shots. Smith has been very professional in his preparation and it was just matter of time before the runs came. This was the strip on which he played the Test against Australia and was feeling good ahead of the game.” The strong-willed Smith is back and, if he is consistent, Rajasthan are bound for the final four.

Rajan Bala’s writing was only a portion of his contribution to the game. He also built up teams of writers across the country

Suresh Menon09-Oct-2009For a couple of decades from the start of the 1970s, Rajan Bala was India’s most provocative and controversial cricket writer. Not for him the well-turned phrase or the surprising metaphor; his writing was aimed not so much at the head or the heart as the solar plexus. Sometimes he missed the target, especially when he let emotion get the better of him. But more often he shocked because he knew well both the game and the people involved.At his best he was stimulating, and even when he wrote with the awareness of an insider he gave the impression that he knew much more than he wrote. He was blessed with the attributes of the popular columnist: a passion for the game, the love of language that placed simplicity of style above what Hemingway called the ten-dollar words, a remarkable memory for facts and figures and a sharp opinion on most matters.As a reporter he was hard-working, had a great instinct for news and an almost virulent dislike of the fakes and phoneys of the cricketing world. He was 23 when he wrote his first book in 1969, the story of the New Zealand tour of India that year (), an expanded version of his reports for , Kolkata. Very quickly, he took Indian cricket writing beyond the Cardusian cadences of a KN Prabhu or an NS Ramaswami, combining his understanding of technique and human nature to produce stories that went beyond the 22 yards. In this he was a pioneer, setting the agenda for today’s writers who, forced by the immediacy of live television and the internet, look for the stories behind the story. Had Rajan Bala not been on the 1974 tour of England where India lost the three-Test series 0-3, it is unlikely that some of the more unsavoury aspects of that tour would have seen light of day. Bala sniffed out the stories of personality troubles in the team, the unhappiness of those who had come to play cricket and not politics.His presence at cricket stadiums and at board meetings thereafter was guaranteed to keep the officials and players looking over their shoulders. In those years, Bala was the conscience-keeper of a cricketing nation. Yet, for a writer who often wrote about the underbelly of the sport, Bala was no cynic. He saw every game with fresh eyes, arrived at the press boxes around the world with infectious enthusiasm and a determined effort to beat the other guy to the news story. He continued to look up to his heroes. Tiger Pataudi, Erapalli Prasanna, the late ML Jaisimha, Gundappa Viswanath, Bhagwath Chandrasekhar, the late Dattu Phadkar, Garry Sobers, Bob Simpson, the late Ken Barrington and many who didn’t get to play international cricket but were no less icons for that. He wrote about them, wrote for them, and wrote by them. And he was prolific. But that was not all.

All of us were inspired to feel extremely possessive about the game: if things went wrong we felt personally responsible. “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing,” Rajan was fond of quoting.

His writing was only a portion of his contribution to the game. He took a path through and the now defunct , , , , , and publications spread over the country, from Kolkata to Chennai to Bangalore to Mumbai – and built up teams of writers in each of these publications.Just over a quarter century ago, Rajan was sports editor at , Bangalore. On my first day at work, fresh out of university, I asked hesitantly, “Is it all right to smoke in here?” and was welcomed with the memorable words: “So long as you don’t f**k on my table, you can do what you want.” Rajan was friend, guide, philosopher and mentor to a bunch of talented youngsters who went on to make a name for themselves. At a recent Test match, someone calculated that the press box was filled with a good percentage of Rajan’s boys and one-time acolytes. All of them had been put through the Bala school of hard work, passion, respect for facts and endless debates over bottled stuff. All of us were inspired to feel extremely possessive about the game: if things went wrong we felt personally responsible. “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing,” Rajan was fond of quoting. Sixty-three is no age to die.In the last decade or so, Rajan had become unhappy. There were medical complications, and emotional ones too. He wrote books on the character of Indian technique (), the politics of Indian cricket () and biographies of Chandrasekhar and Sachin Tendulkar. He wrote less than he knew, which works for a newspaper column but doesn’t in a book. His final book was to be released this week. Its title, , sits well as his epitaph. For despite everything, he would not have wanted it any other way.

Minor selection issues converge to become major headache for India

N Hunter06-Feb-2010It was a day of two contrasting debuts. For the last five years S Badrinath has been shouting himself hoarse trying to attract the attention of the selectors with a truckload of runs. Finally his call was answered – he got his debut in place of the injured Yuvraj Singh. What raised eyebrows, though, was the inclusion of the second debutant, Wriddhiman Saha, a last-minute decision that put the player and his team under considerable, perhaps unfair, pressure.It forced the question: Why was the Bengal wicketkeeper, just 24 first-class matches old, out on the field when he really should have been carrying the drinks? The simple answer: he was here in Nagpur and the team management were put in a spot once Rohit Sharma, himself a last-minute inclusion to cover for the injured VVS Laxman, twisted his ankle during the morning warm-ups.Behind that simple answer lies a questionable selection decision, a gamble that could yet backfire on the selectors should events in this game go against India. The squad for this Test had six batsmen – there no wriggle room in the event of injuries, nor even the more established batting wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik to fall back on.Instead, the selectors picked four seam bowlers, seemingly one too many given that India have rarely played three quick bowlers in a home Test. One spot could have been freed up for a batting back-up, and the need to include Saha as a specialist batsman would have also been avoided.Asked after the day’s play if he felt the squad lacked an extra batsman, Dhoni gave a mixed response: “This question should have been asked when the squad was announced. No one expected the injury [Rohit] to happen 15 minutes before the start.”Rohit’s was a case of being in the right place at the right time. He was leading the Board President’s XI in the warm-up game against the South Africans and was asked to stay back at the team hotel as the cloud over Laxman’s wrist injury had not yet cleared. Barring a triple-century against a below-par Gujarat attack at home, Rohit had little to show this domestic season. Even in the ODIs his spot has now been grabbed by Virat Kohli, who has been earning plaudits with his performances with the national team.This was the first instance of both Dravid and Laxman missing a Test since 1996. Both men are in the twilight of their remarkable careers and selectors over the last few years have been working hard on grooming their replacements. Badrinath has proved to be the most bankable scrip on the domestic cricket indices and the first name on the replacement list. But selections are matters of choice, and across history selectors have picked players in the past on pure instincts, willing to take the gamble. Another route has been to pick a player on his current form.If you use the second parameter as the yardstick, Karthik should have been the ideal choice as your reserve keeper. Despite the lacklustre Bangladesh tour, he has outperformed Saha in the domestic season and if he was pressed in as a specialist bat, his 23-Test experience would have added weight to a new-look middle order. But Dhoni mentioned he was left with no choice. “We went with the best option available option because Laxman was 50-60 % fit,” he said.So India had two debutants in the middle order for the first time since 1996 when Dravid and Sourav Ganguly played at Lord’s. In the last decade only Yuvraj Singh managed to make a place in the middle order, playing his maiden Test in 2003 since when it has had a settled look.Kris Srikkanth’s selection panel has, through most of its tenure, stuck with players who were introduced to the national pool by the previous two selection panels. You cannot blame them for riding on the success that the pairing of Dhoni and Gary Kirsten has scripted in the last two years in Test cricket, but they need to work out the pros and cons of every decision they make.There is no doubt Saha is happy and excited about his debut – though doubtless he would have preferred different circumstances and a different role. Spare a thought, though, for those young aspirants who have been shouldering responsibilities for their respective states piling up big runs – the likes of Manish Pandey, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and other good batsmen who are bound to feel distraught at not being considered despite their domestic success. Their time will probably come but it could have been sooner rather than later.

To know Murali was to love him (and occasionally to wish he would be quiet)

Charlie Austin22-Jul-2010It says much about Murali that you’ll never hear a bad word spoken about him. Forget for a moment his prolific on-field record, Murali the man is deeply loved and enormously respected by team-mates and opponents alike. Kumar Sangakkara, his captain and close friend, summed it up most eloquently a few years ago: “The greatest tribute I can pay him is that I have met no finer man. He’s great as a cricketer and even better as a human being.”Yet, somehow, Murali is still a little misunderstood. An Indian journalist asked me last week if it was true that Murali was a loner in the dressing room? I laughed out loud.I guess I understand the question because his shyness can sometimes make him come across as reserved. But the real Murali, the relaxed Murali, relishes a group environment, is hyperactive, talkative, opinionated and fun-loving.One thing is for sure: the Sri Lanka dressing room will be a far quieter place without him. Just as his bowling has dominated on the field, his effervescent personality fills any room he occupies. He’s such a chatterbox, in fact, that his exhausted team-mates once challenged him to be completely silent for the duration of a three-hour coach trip to Kandy. He lasted about three minutes.Mahela Jayawardene summed it up well in the last week: “He is the sort of guy you want in the dressing room, but sometimes you think: ‘Why is he in the dressing room – he won’t stop talking!’ When he exhausts us, he goes to see the opposition. He is the only player I have ever known who spends more time in the opponents’ dressing room than his own. You never sit next to him on an aeroplane because you won’t get any sleep. Lal, the masseur, has that job. But ask him to make a speech and you will be lucky to get 10 words.”He’s irrepressibly cheeky, too, one of his favourite pastimes being admonishing his top-order batsmen. While others are afraid to voice their opinions after a team-mate loses his wicket, Murali sometimes can’t resist. Once, while playing for Lancashire, a towering Andrew Flintoff stormed into the dressing room, ashen-faced, having failed to end a lean trot. Murali sauntered over casually. “What happened – another shit shot?”The wonderful thing, though, is that despite his huge success he remains so humble and down to earth. Sport is full of inflated egos. Sometimes arrogance even seems a necessary evil when competing at the highest level, but somehow Murali has managed to stay normal. The only time he can be accused of immodesty is after one of his cameo performances with the bat.His polite and humble persona has much to do with his father, Muttiah, a man of few words and the polar opposite to Murali’s effervescent and emotional mother, Lakshmi. Despite being significantly wealthy, having run a company called Luckyland Biscuits tirelessly since 1956, he carries himself with a Gandhi-like air of simplicity. He’s easy to spot at Murali felicitations: the quiet, unassuming gentleman dressed in a simple, traditional white sarong, surrounded by flashy suits.Murali, a naughty child, rarely spoke to his father during his childhood, but they enjoyed a relationship of great respect. Muttiah, a man with the strictest of working routines, taught his son the virtues of hard work and provided the never-say-die backbone that has epitomised Murali all these years. When the biscuit factory burned down during the terrible island-wide riots in 1977, Muttiah might easily have fled the country to join his family in India. Instead, refusing to turn his back on Sri Lanka, he went to the pawn shop the week after and negotiated a loan to rebuild the uninsured factory from scratch. That unbreakable spirit has always been evident in Murali.Chandika Hathurasinghe, Murali’s team-mate during the early years at Tamil Union and the current Sri Lanka assistant coach, recounted a story. He and Murali had stopped for a snack at a small café close to the Parliament grounds in Colombo. A young boy working in the shop asked for a signed photograph. Murali promised him one and left. The boy would probably not have not expected him to remember, but Murali did. After cricket practice the following day, he got Chandika to take a detour to the shop and duly handed over the signed photograph. The kid was gobsmacked. It was typical of a man who truly cares.

One time while playing for Lancashire, a towering Andrew Flintoff stormed into the dressing room, ashen-faced, having failed to end a lean trot. Murali sauntered over casually. “What happened – another shit shot?”

Murali’s caring personality is reflected, too, in how committed he has been over the years in ensuring young players are looked after. On his first international tour, fresh out of school, when Sri Lanka toured England in 1991, he was among those entrusted with going to the launderette each evening. In those days the team was hierarchical and clique-y, and the senior players ruled like boarding-school prefects, but thankfully, since then Murali has been at the forefront of a transformation in team culture – it is now one in which everyone is treated equally. He invariably takes younger players under his wing when they come into the squad, taking them out for dinner and making sure they feel welcome.I saw first-hand how down-to-earth he was in 2005, when I travelled with him to the tsunami-hit town of Batticaloa on Sri Lanka’s east coast. Murali had single-handedly organised about 10 lorries of emergency supplies for distribution in the relief camps. In the evening we stopped at the Polonnaruwa Rest House to catch some sleep. They only had three bedrooms available for about 10 of us. Murali not only insisted on paying, he steadfastly refused to take a bed, spread a sheet on the floor, grabbed a pillow and slept happily.Murali, like his father, who is famously charitable, is one of the most generous people I know. He can’t say no to people – sadly a trait that has been exploited at times – and, always quietly, he has financially helped an enormous number of cricketers over the years. He has also contributed greatly to his charity, the Foundation of Goodness, founded by his like-minded manager, Kushil Gunasekera, often donating the entire proceeds of his endorsement contracts.”When Murali takes on something, he does it properly,” says Gunasekera. “When the tsunami struck, he told me we were going to build 1000 houses. I said that 1000 Test wickets would be easier. However, while he didn’t get the 1000 wickets, he built the houses – 1024 of them, spread over 24 villages so far.” The duo’s next project has already begun, a Learning and Empowerment Institute in northern Sri Lanka based on their holistic rural development model in Seenigama in southern Sri Lanka.Murali’s charity work will undoubtedly now dominate his future life – after the World Cup, which he is committed to playing if selected – but it is hard to see him leaving cricket completely. He loves the game too deeply. He was obsessed from an early age, playing with his cousins for hours. They played softball cricket in the factory car park, “veranda” cricket in the house when his father was at work and even “book” cricket in the library at St Anthony’s, when he was supposed to be studying.Cricket left little time for studies. Murali spent hours and hours practising. School friends recount how he regularly skipped study time and dragged them to the nets, forcing them to keep wicket while he bowled endlessly at a single stump. For him cricket was the big priority then, and getting into the team was his No. 1 goal. When he was trying to break into the Under-17 team, he actually decided to take up bowling legbreaks for an entire season because there were two senior boys to bowl offbreaks already.It is not a great surprise that he has decided to call time on his Test career. Being determined to leave at the right time and not stand in the way of young talent, he had been talking about it for some time. In fact, he considered quitting Test cricket in 2009 before being persuaded to stay on. He now feels, aged 38, that the unique physical challenge of Test cricket is too much for his body. As we have seen in this Test, he could easily play on with continued success, although probably not with the same potency and consistency for much longer. And if he did risk playing Test cricket too long, it would jeopardise his desire to continue playing the less-demanding Twenty20 and ODI formats. For Murali, a true pragmatist, the decision was simple in the end.Unfortunately it won’t be so easy for his team-mates and all his fans. Today will be the most emotional of days. Saying a final farewell to a legend will undoubtedly leave many teary-eyed. Hundreds of friends and colleagues are coming from all corners of Sri Lanka – and indeed some from different parts of the world. If you judge the calibre of the man by the love and loyalty of his friends, Murali is a very special person indeed. He will be sorely missed.

Plays of the Day from the Group B match between West Indies and South Africa in Delhi

Sharda Ugra and Firdose Moonda at the Feroz Shah Kotla24-Feb-2011The anthem
Halfway through the South African national anthem, one line before it was about to change from Sotho to Afrikaans, instead of the name of the country being belted out in high-pitched melody, it stopped. Instead of that throwing the team off, they carried on singing, helped by a section of touring fans. The group had walked in with South African flags draped over their clothes and had no problems helping the fifteen men on the field sing the anthem to completion. The ICC apologised to the team and said it will use a better quality version of the anthem in future matches.The optical illusion
It was the only one in the West Indian innings, early on in the contest, just after it had been proved that the Kotla was back to its low, somnolent, unban-able business. Morne Morkel, in his second over, bowling round the wicket made full use of his height to find wherever shred of bounce there may have been in the wicket. The ball leapt off the ground and at Darren Bravo’s nose like a drone in a bad mood. Bravo got his wrists out of the way, turned his body convex and lived to see many moments more. For the next three hours, it was normal service again.The alarm-clock moment
After more than 11 overs of West Indies batsmen scratching around and being (pardon the word) choked mid-innings by the South African spin trio of Botha, Tahir and Peterson, Dwayne Bravo decided enough was enough. Botha tossed one up, Bravo Sr leapt at it, swinging angry, clean and over midwicket for six. A journalist in the press box spontaneously hollered, “Jamnapaar!”, which translates into ‘Across the Jamna!” . The Jamuna/Jamna/ Yamuna being the river that splits Delhi’s posh southwest from its eastern edges. In baseball they would call that a lusty home run. The Bravo ‘fireworks’ promised by Gayle had been lit.The celebrations
Imran Tahir dispelled any doubts about his patriotism to South Africa when he emphatically kissed the Protea badge on his jersey after taking his first wicket in international cricket. Tahir’s joy knew no bounds, and with each of the subsequent wickets he claimed, his victory dance gained another step. From a mad dash into a circle of fielders to pumping his arms as though in a gym and screaming his lungs out, Tahir was enjoying every moment on the international stage.Kemar Roach competed with Tahir for the most animated celebration when he dismissed Hashim Amla in the second over he bowled. After Amla was caught at slip, Roach ran wildly away from his team-mates, an excited pack of fielders in pursuit, and charged at the dressing room. He pulled on his shirt and thumped the logo so hard his heart must have jumped in his rib cage.The aggravation
The West Indies have a way of getting under South Africa’s skin and they did it again today. When Graeme Smith gestured for spectators to move away from the sight screen and refused to take his guard until they did so, Chris Gayle was impatient for play to resume. He kept mockingly approaching the crease, as though he was about to bowl, and then lobbed the ball over to Devon Thomas behind the stumps. Thomas removed the bails and, for a laugh, appealed. Smith was, predictably, unimpressed.

Plays of the Day from the fourth day of the Trent Bridge Test between England and India

Andrew McGlashan at Trent Bridge01-Aug-2011Filth of the day
Even taking into account the workload of India’s quicks and the absence of their frontline spinner, some of the bowling on the fourth morning was dreadful. As Stuart Broad clubbed consecutive sixes off Suresh Raina it prompted Michael Holding in the commentary box to say “this isn’t Test cricket.” He was right, but it was also a shame because for so much of these first two matches the action has been of the highest quality. India, though, were a broken team.Ball of the day
There were plenty of candidates from England’s attack – many by Tim Bresnan – but for sheer skill and control of his craft it goes to James Anderson and the inswinger to remove VVS Laxman. Anderson has the ball on a string these days and exploited Laxman’s tendency to hang back in his crease. The ball started comfortably outside off then began to shape back at Laxman. Perhaps he thought it would come back even further than it did because he played the wrong line and the ball beat his outside edge to take off stump.Correct drop of the day
England should have had Abhinav Mukund with the first ball of India’s second innings but Bresnan, in about the only moment that didn’t go his way all day, couldn’t hold on as he dived across one-handed in front of Andrew Strauss. However, if you’d offered them that drop and the wicket they did take before lunch they’d have happily accepted it. Stuart Broad, again finding the perfect length for this pitch, made one nip away from Rahul Dravid who was drawn forward and got an edge to Matt Prior. Abhinav survived until lunch, but England won’t have minded too much.Set-up of the day
Raina is being picked apart by the England bowlers. Troubled by the short ball in the first innings he was bounced again, but didn’t exactly make Bresnan work too hard for the success. Five balls into his innings he went for hook and obligingly placed it straight down to long leg. The catcher was Scott Elstone, the Nottinghamshire player, who joined the list of county players to have their moment in the spotlight as a substitute. In 2005 on this ground Gary Pratt became a national hero for running out Ricky Ponting and while not in the same league, Elstone, who took a second catch to remove Harbhajan Singh after dropping a tough one, should be getting a few free drinks.Fielding change of the day
Some days things just go your way. Having seen Yuvraj Singh flap against the short ball Strauss brought Alastair Cook into an odd position. It wasn’t really a silly point, more a silly slip. Whatever it will be called it worked. Next ball Yuvraj lobbed a catch off his glove and Cook ran back a few steps to hold the chance before being mobbed by his captain and team-mates.Stat of the day
James Anderson became the most successful pace bowler against Sachin Tendulkar – he’s now dismissed him seven times – when he trapped him lbw for 56 to hasten India’s defeat. At Lord’s he’d also trapped him in front to move equal with Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespite as the most successful quick against Tendulkar but now he stands alone. Only Muttiah Muralitharan – with eight dismissals – is ahead of Anderson and there are two more Tests to go in this series yet.

His first one-day century as captain but another defeat for his team left Alastair Cook with a day of mixed emotions and plenty of questions

Andrew McGlashan at Lord's03-Jul-2011One step forward, two steps back sums up England’s current situation. Alastair Cook’s first one-day hundred as captain will be dissected both for its personal significance but also for its impact on the team. However, England didn’t lose at Lord’s because Cook spent most of the innings at the crease, but rather because no-one could complement his methodical accumulation with a more brisk pace.For Cook it was a day with the ultimate mixture of emotions, although not quite on the extreme level felt by Nasser Hussain in 2002 against India, because this match never got as close as that epic. However, Cook still had to weigh personal success against team failure. His 119 off 143 balls was nowhere near the slowest one-day hundred by an England opener (and swifter than either of Michael Atherton’s, who as Sky’s compere, oversaw a rather terse toss and presentation with Cook), while many of the others have come in victory. If an opening batsman scores a century, the rest of the order should have the ability to play off his presence to push the total somewhere near 300, especially where the team has been told to play ‘fearless’ cricket.Cook will not be leaving the one-day job any time soon. He probably has at least two years before the management consider a change of tact if things don’t go to plan, so the team as a whole needs to formulate the best way to make the most of his talent. And that talent is building an innings to offer a foundation. Clearly he needs to develop his game, both from a strokeplay point of view and in terms of pacing an innings, but even Cook admits he’s a work in progress. He needs some help along the way.”It’s nice for a bit of confidence to score runs but never nice in a losing cause,” Cook admitted. “You want to score runs when you win, it’s far more satisfying. We had a bit of a slow start then we kept losing wickets which meant you are always playing rebuilding cricket and that’s not the way to get a big total.”The problem for England is that they have two other batsmen in the side – Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell – who play a very similar way to Cook. When Cook and Trott come together inside Powerplay overs, as they have at Headingley and at Lord’s, the bowling side is not worried. Trott’s one-day record is formidable, his average is 53, but he needs to know when to operate outside the ‘bubble’ that is rarely an issue in Test cricket. Finding the fielders for two overs isn’t an issue in the longer format, but brings an innings to standstill in this version. One-day cricket is a game of risk-taking.Today’s opening ten-over Powerplay sums up clearly the difficultly facing England. Cook was 25 off 30 balls after ten overs, but England were only 32 for 2. Later, England took the batting Powerplay from overs 34-39, but Bell and Cook only managed 24 runs. In comparison Sri Lanka motored to 61 for 1 after ten and from there were always well ahead of the game. That, too, was with Sri Lanka losing their renowned trail-blazer in Tillakaratne Dilshan, but Mahela Jayawardene has shown that orthodox batting, with intent, still works.One theory is that England should have a more flexible batting line-up which changes depending on who falls first. If Craig Kieswetter, who has a lot of pressure on him to score quickly, departs early then Kevin Pietersen could be promoted to No. 3. The idea has merits, but the issue is that if Trott doesn’t bat in the top three he can’t be in the team.That, though, might be the tough decision England need to make. Selecting Cook as captain was going to create this problem. “Trotty has had a quiet couple of games but he averages 50 and strikes at 80 which are pretty good stats to me,” Cook said. “We all take collective responsibility for not scoring enough runs.”In the current line-up Bell also looks lost at No. 6. His 30 off 46 balls was painful viewing from someone normally so free with his strokeplay. It was his 100th ODI but that experience didn’t come across. There is a worrying similarity with Matt Prior: free-scoring at Test level, but unable to find the tempo for the one-day game. The boundary-clearing shots are in the locker – unlike with Trott – but he doesn’t seem to back himself as much as in the longer format.Pietersen, meanwhile, has fallen to the ‘big’ shot in all three innings of the series. The first, at The Oval, was understandable in a game reduced to 32 overs but his dismissals at Headingley and Lord’s were wasteful. He’s too good to be falling to Jeevan Mendis three times in a row, especially now he looks back in fine form. Does he feel it has to be him to find the boundary? If so he is right to back himself, but should consider that it’s better him still being there after the 40th over.England have played some good one-day cricket when Pietersen has been absent – the Champions Trophy in 2009 and then Pakistan last summer – but, currently, they are clearly not good enough to do without his power. His record shows that No. 4 and 5 in the order are his most productive positions and when he was at his best around 2007 he had a sixth-sense of when to cut loose. However, he has scored just two one-day international half-centuries since November 2008 which is a horrid waste.After victory at The Oval, England will have hoped to avoid any tough questions for this series at least. Yet, to save the contest something has to change. They will be desperate not to show signs of uncertainty so early in Cook’s tenure by altering tactics, but that can quickly verge towards stubbornness.

IPL chief executive Sundar Raman speaks about the future of the league, the hit it took this year, giving the franchises more power, and more

Interview by Tariq Engineer06-Aug-2011″For us, the larger goal is how we can be the most well-organised, well-run, successful sporting league in the world”•Getty ImagesThis is the first season without Lalit Modi. Were there any differences in how things have been handled? It did feel a little toned down…
I don’t know what your definition of “toned down” is but clearly the view of the management is very different and the view of the board is very different, and as a management team we go out and deliver what we believe is good for the tournament and something that helps us build the tournament within the governance that has been laid down by the board.I think a lot of things were decentralised. There was a view taken that specific areas need to be handled by the franchisees, and those are things that were tried and experimented last season. I don’t think it was anyone’s intention to take control of all of that. It was done in a manner that [said], “Okay, here is how you could do it, now you go out and do it.” That’s the kind of difference I am talking about.I am presuming these are things like ticketing…
Ticketing, entertainment. Pre-match, post-match. Their own licensing arrangements, etc.Most leagues around the world are run by teams. The sporting body sits on top as an umbrella organisation and makes rules for the sport, while the teams run the league. The English Premier League is run by the 20 EPL teams. But in the IPL, it seems the franchises are kept at arm’s length. Is that something that is going to change?
That is untrue because, firstly, when EPL was formed, the governing body was formed by the teams. Here the teams were formed by the governing body. And clearly, as I said, we are a nascent league and the focus of the governing body is to govern the sport, regulations and fair practices and stuff like that. I think that’s exactly what it is. At a nascent stage, we will do whatever is in the interest of the sport and the interest of the franchise. We are working together with the franchises very closely. Franchises are working closely amongst themselves, and I think it is a league growing from within.There have been some comments made by franchises at certain points. Vijay Mallya has made some comments that they would like more say, they would like to have someone on the board. Do you see that happening?
Sure, I think that has always been the case. There have been consultations that have happened in the past. There will be consultations that will happen in the future, but the decisions need to be taken in the interest of the sport.

“Considering [we had] 74 matches, you started to feel that 94 matches would have been a little too much. If we have to have 94, clearly the window needs to be longer. We will not be able to do it in 50 days”

Is there a time table for that?
I don’t think there is a time table. As I said, it is an evolutionary process. We will continue to evolve as a league.The IPL has generally had some innovation every year. What is the next step in the evolution?
Some of it is part of the strategic plan. Some is opportunistic because of technological development or innovation in various stages. Who knows what’s in store for us in the next 10 years or next 15 years? For us, the larger goal is how we can be the most well-organised, well-run, successful sporting league in the world. And that’s what we are working towards. You have to understand, it is an exclusive club of 10 [franchises] as of now.Do you see it growing?
The view of the board currently is not to add any more teams, and I think that’s possibly the sanest view. I think any more teams are not going to add to the sport. Maybe [it could be] different 15 years from now.Is the auction going to remain the only way teams get assigned players or will we have a draft?
We need to go through the years to see. But the auction has worked. It is proven that every team has a fair opportunity for a player and that’s the way we will continue.How does the IPL measure success?
From a cricketing standpoint, from an administration standpoint, it is about, “Is it building the sport and giving an opportunity to players?” If you see our trophy, it says “where talent meets opportunity”, and that’s what the league stands for.Two, is it helping the board bring in new fans, new spectators, new audiences?Three, is there some influx of funds that can be deployed for the sport?I think those are the three measures that one looks at. Whereas the third part is a smaller measure, the other two are significant for us.On those three measures, how would you evaluate the IPL?
I think it is not a goalpost that here and now we have achieved that goalpost. I think directionally we are excellent, we are very much there. You see the Indian bench strength and significant contributions will be because of our ability to put the best of talent available, to give them the opportunity. That’s for everyone to see.More people are watching IPL. More consumers are seeing IPL. More women, more children. I think all that is adding to the sport.Why do you think the IPL has been able to do that?
The format and the exciting talent. I think those are the two things. They get to see the best of talent compete against each other in a format that makes it nail-biting, and the bit about unpredictability is always there.Going back to Modi – how do you think he should be remembered? Could this have happened without him?
I think Lalit brought in the vision, and had the bold thinking and created this entire piece. And I think there is no [other] way that you would speak – as a person who is not connected to the IPL – about the fact that he did put this together as the chairman of the governing council.”Retention has not had much of an impact”•Associated PressRetention means that there is a stated figure that is taken away from the salary cap, but the players could be paid anything. How does that affect the idea of the salary cap?
It allows you to do that for the four players who you could have potentially retained. If you look at it, across the eight teams, a maximum of 12 players were retained. That’s an average of [less than] two per team. There were only two teams that retained all four players.So you don’t think it has that much of an impact?
It has not, from the results that you see. It was intended [to solve the problem of maintaining] continuity while bringing in fresh blood and that’s what it is. Punjab was a brand new team and they were almost there.Two of those teams, Mumbai and Chennai, are still in the last three.
That’s fine. Two of those teams are in the last three but then they were in the last three last years also.Yes, but this year they had the advantage of having largely the same team.
One team [Kolkata] which did not retain anybody was in the top four. [Also, Bangalore, who retained only Virat Kohli, made the final].What is the league’s view of transparency? Why keep the players’ salaries a secret?
The franchisees know. The players know and there is a certain contract which has terms and conditions, which has been signed by all the players, so I don’t think there is any secrecy in this.Will we see a return to the home-and-away format? How do you think the format worked this year?
I think this format worked very well. Considering [we had] 74 matches, you started to feel that 94 matches would have been a little too much. If we have to have 94, clearly the window needs to be longer. We will not be able to do it in 50 days.What is the best thing about the IPL?
The exhibition of talent. The opportunity that it provides for people. It breaks barriers in the dressing room.What is the worst thing about the IPL?
The summer. Just the heat.Nothing that needs to be refined?
As I said, we are a continually evolving process and I don’t think it is about today, here, now. It could be on a daily basis, it could be on a weekly basis. It could be on a venue basis. It could be on a regulatory basis. It could be across the board.We are obviously looking at what we could do with the schedules. Clearly, what we got right was the cricketing aspect in terms of more matches in less heat. I think that part of it is effectively addressed. I think we will evolve about how much more we can do in brand building. Teams will evolve. More licensing, merchandising will start. All of that will come.Is there a concern that merchandising hasn’t really taken off yet?
It hasn’t set the world on fire for sure, but I guess it is taking its time. It is building slowly and steadily.I am not going to buy a Dwayne Bravo jersey if I think next year he is not going to be with Mumbai Indians…
I don’t think that’s a point. I think you will still buy a David Beckham jersey when he was with Manchester United and when he decided not to be with them. I think that helps more merchandising.