The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the governing body for the Lord's Cricket Ground, has come out with some earth shattering revelations. No, it has nothing to do with changes in the fine print of the MCC coaching manual, or a selection of a woman as their next Chief Executive.
It is simply this that the MCC has decided to agree to host neutral Test matches at Lord's and more importantly, it has also consented to host some of the matches of the proposed Champions League! We are not alluding to the sport of soccer here; it is the extension of the Indian Premier League (IPL) that would be played between the best teams of the various T20 leagues across the world. So, a Chennai Super Kings, a Pura Milk Perth Riders, a Vodafone Londoners and an Auckland Blacks side (names are definitely fictitious!), may face off in the Champions League of Cricket, with some of the matches being played in London, more specifically at Lord’s.
The biggest issue that would be faced by the organizers – each one of them – is the lack of availability of a proper playing window under the current ICC’s FTP, which means that the only time all the Test playing nations would be shorn of an international commitment would be just after the Champions Trophy in September, and that too for a very short period of time. Squeezing in such an itinerary could take further toll on the player bodies.
But, with so much cash flowing around, the players themselves do not seem to be minding it too much, are they?
The second round of the IPL player auction has come and gone with not too many surprises. The two big named Australians to go under the hammer were James Hopes and Shane Watson - both Allrounders, both from Queensland. Hopes brilliant innings in the second final of the Commonwealth Bank series must have upped his currency in the auction. For me the surprise wasn't his US$ 300,000 price but the team that got him - he joins Brett Lee at Mohali. The team I expected to get Hopes was the team that got fellow Queensland Allrounder Shane Watson - the Jaipur Rajasthan Royals headed by Shane Warne. They spent the least on the first player auction and had more money left to spend but opted not for Hopes. Instead they went for the only English player in the draft - Dimitri Mascarenhas.
Victorian batting ace Brad Hodge has chosen to keep his commitment to Engish County side Lancastershire instead of going into the IPL player auction unlike team mates Cameron White and David Hussey.
The only other Australians to get drafted to were Western Australian and Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year Luke Pomersbach who went for US$150,000 to Mohali and Tasmanian fast bowler Brett Geeves went for US$50,000 in a surprise buy for Delhi. The March 18 is fast approaching for all the franchises to have their squads finalised.
Australia in a spin trying to find the next Shane Warne
Say what you like about the man but one thing remains true about Shane Warne - he was the absolute master of his craft. He took the art of legspin bowling to a new previously unseen level and showed how a bowler could dictate terms and really be the difference in a cricket match (either test or one day).
His departure from Australian cricket left a gaping hole in the bowling line up - one that the previously all conquering Australians have not come close to filling. The heir apparent for much of Warne's career has been Stuart MacGill. The problem with him is he just doesn't bowl enough good deliveries. Sure he has some variety but he will almost always give you one or two balls each over that any self respecting batsman would gleefully dispatch to or over the boudary. Here was the true value of Warne - his ability to bowl an impeccable line and length for prolonged periods while also using all the trickery, variation and deception in his armoury. MacGill's first run as sole legspin option for Australia was a bit of a disaster with the Sri Lankan batsman taking him to the cleaners. It was then disclosed he was injured and needed surgery. He's back now but at 37 one has to wonder how much cricket he has got left to give. The other leading leg spin contender for the Australians is Bryce McGann who is 36!
At this rate I'd still say Australia's best legspinning option is Shane Warne - but with his animated likeness gyrating over Australian television screens this summer it looks like he has definitely taken up the Indian Premier League superannuation plan. Though anyone who watched that first final would have seen him in the crowd and his interview with Ian Healy showed how insightful he still is - talking about young Indian legspinner Piyush Chawla - Warne cast his analytical eye over the youngster and like what he saw. Warne talked about those traits he liked to see in a leg spin bowler - the main one being an attacking mindset and always looking to get a wicket. Warne now has a role at Cricket Australia as a spin bowling mentor. He like the rest of Australia will be hoping that a new young spinning sensation comes along.
It should be pointed out that Chawla is just 19 years old a full four years younger than when Warne made his debut!!! And almost old enough to call Stuart MacGill dad. India might have found their next bowling sensation. For Australia - the search goes on...
India has inflicted a defeat to Australia in the final game of the Commonwealth Bank one day tournament and in the process won it. It is the second time in a row the Australians have lost the finals 2-0.
Much has been made of the controversies that have plagued the summer of cricket - racism, sledging, the IPL player auction and now the tackling of a nude spectator - sometimes the actual cricket has gone unnoticed which is a shame.
India won this series because of the magnificent blend of youth and experience. There are many stalwarts of Indian cricket that have been neglected for this tournament - batsmen the calibre of Raul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman and bowlers like Zaheer Khan and Anil Kumble. But what dropping players like this means is that India has been able to blood a very very exciting generation of new, young cricket talent. The young dynamo batsmen Gautam Gambhir (26), Robin Uthappa (22) and Rohit Sharma (20) have developed under the watchful eye of master batsman Sachin Tendulkar and what a thrill it must be for those youngsters to bat with someone of that stature.
The Indian bowling has been equally blessed with new young talent - Man of the match Praveen Kumar is just 22 years old and Sreesanth is just 25 years. Irfan Pathan is 23 years old and injured find of the series Ishant Sharma is 19!! Couple those quicks with the most exciting young leg spinner in the world 19 year old Piyush Chawla and the future of indian cricket is very very bright. My only concern is 19 year olds making millions of dollars playing 20/20 but kudos to indian cricket for finding and getting those youngsters into the team.
The Australians haven't had much to be happy about since the lucky win in the Sydney test right back at the start of the year. In the one day arena they started with all guns blazing but had their form desert them at the crucial moment.
The one shining light I think it should be said was the bowling of Nathan Bracken. He has been the outstanding bowler in international one day cricket for the past few years and it was good to see him recognized as the player of the tournament. Looking back at his career it seems strange that he has never found a regular berth in the test team. With Brett Lee's express pace partnering Stuart Clark it seems to me that at this stage Bracken would be the ideal change bowler. Australia has been obsessed since th retirement of McGrath and Gillespie to find the quickest bowlers possible rather than the best. Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson just don't bowl accurately enough often enough and I feel that Bracken should be in the test team.
So a season of intrigue has ended and we await with some interest to see if the Indian Premier League 20/20 tournament will be the saviour of cricket or an exercise in corporate profitability.
Need to punish 'bad boy' undoes the Green and Gold
It was there to see at the SCG on Sunday night. Australia lost, the all conquering almighty team of the past two decades came crashing down and it was all due to one man. The turbinator, the man publicly named as an obnoxious weed - Harbhajan Singh brought the downfall of Australia by his mere presence.
How is this you ask? The Australians got themselves into trouble with some early poor shot selection and bad luck (Ricky Ponting underedged a pull shot that went cannoning into leg stump - two overs later Matthew Hayden did exactly the same thing but the ball missed the stumps and rolled away for a boundary).
At 3 for 24 Australia was in dire trouble when Andrew Symonds came to wicket and joined Matthew Hayden in a furious counter attack that saw them reach a 100 by the 18th over. They took the game by the scruff of the neck and shook it violently back to Australia's favour with the kind of intelligent power cricket that has been the hallmark of this team. Commentators were likening it to the world series finals of 2006 when a game down and 3 for 10 in the second game Symonds then joined by Ricky Ponting bludgeoned the Sri Lankan making 358. Hayden and Symonds had put on a hundred run partnership when the Indians then turned to Harbhajan - he hasn't been bowling particularly well of late and he didn't bowl particularly well here - BUT the two batsman at the centre of the childish schoolyard spat with the indian off spinner both decided he had to go. The thing is after they had dominated the game and got the Indians on the back foot Symonds and Hayden could quite easily have milked the bowling, taken five singles an over and just accumulated another 80 more runs then set up for a guns blazing finale with both of them past 100. BUT Harbhajan had to be taught a lesson and the two tried to arrogantly hit him out of the attack. It was an attack of stupidity that really did cost the Australians the match as the Indians settled down to chase a moderate total of 237 when they should have been chasing a much more daunting total of more than 320!
All attention will now turn to Brisbane, Australia has to win this match to stay in the final series and more importantly get back that air of invincibility. I would recommend instead of going after Harbhajan they concentrate on their own brilliant game and maybe teach him a lesson that way. To everyone else in the cricket world Harbhajan has given you the answer as to how to beat the Australians - as Arjuna Ranatunga before him, you have to beat them at their own game and really really get under their skin.
Just when you thought the whole idea of the IPL player auction couldn't get more crazy...
it has. The actual auction has taken place and is full of such bizarre contradictions and extravagent spending that you would think that there is no poverty in India and that the streets are paved with gold.
Now before we begin with the analysis of this draft let's just take a moment to consider that the all conquering Australian team are supposedly touring Pakistan during the duration of the competition meaning they would have a limited influence on the tournament.
So let's start with Andrew Symonds - the $1.47million dollat man [insert cash register noises here]. Mr Symonds has been blessed with circumstances here. The big hitting awesome fielding Australian would be the perfect 20/20 cricketer. But with Australia going on tour no one would pay that amount of money from him right? Well his own incredible stupidity actually helped up his price. He claimed that he would not go to Pakistan even if the rest of his team went as it was too dangerous. So far so good. He then went on to say that it was his undrstanding that all international tours were on an invitational basis and that he would kindly decline the Cricket Australia offer to tour. He obviously hasn't read his Cricket Australia contract and my guess on the basis of those comments is that he isn't the smartest joker in the pack (and when we are talking Australian cricketers, that's not a very smart pack to begin with). His comments were lept upon those who also can't read with glee that he would be playing in India no matter what. So Hyderabad forked out $1.47 million dollars for his talents on the assumption that he would be playing for them no matter what only to find that in his Cricket Australia contract if he refused to go to Pakistan they could (would and should) stop him playing for the mercenary money in India.
If Symonds is a little dim then perhaps he gets some of it from his captain Ricky Ponting. In a press conference after the auction Ricky P claimed he was 'dissappointed' with getting 'only $400,000 ' in the auction. He wondere why that was - maybe his poor form around the time of the auction but he wondered aloud that maybe it was the Harbhajan Singh incident at the Sydney test though he noted his international teamate at the centre of it was now Mr $1.47million. Punter did some more pontificating on the reasons - he sais he's always been good at endorsements (A fact that I cannot deny as I have seen him whore hiimself out for ads for vitamins, deodurants, cars, phones, banks, fried chicken and oils - you know what I mean). BUT RICKY, baby, DO YOU HONESTLY THINK ANYONE IS GOING TO FEEL SORRY FOR YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE ONLY GETTING $400,000 to play 40 days of cricket????? I tell you cricketers are going to get a bad name.
That is with the exception of Michael Clarke - A man who did put some level of principle above the money when he decided to spend time with family and go fishing with an aging father over the IPL. Someone has some morals. Also in that category is England's Andrew Flintoff who showed his true sportsmanship (not for the first time) by saying the England Cricket Board has always done 'alright by him'.
This is money driven madness and the stupidity of it can be seen when you take a look at young Indian fast bowler Ishant Sharma - he has played in a handful of tests and one day internationals - sure the kid shows enormous promise BUT the 19-year old has been signed up for $1.01million!!!!!!!!! Stop and think about that folks - as a 19 year old he is going to make in 40 days of cricket what some entire villages in India make in a decade!! This is insanity and someone has to stand up and speak out about it. Wouldn't it be wonderful if somoene in the IPL showed they were only playing for the love of the game by donating half of their income to charity in the developed world??? Of course this is unlikely to happen, I'd like to see a program maybe where the relative cricket boards in each country take some of the players money and re-invest it into the game. So a new generation of Pontings, Tendulkars and Jayasuriyas can come through and endorse hamburgers and high calorie soft drinks for years to come.
So it's come to this
In what has to be a move for the detriment of the game cricketers are today being auctioned off to the new Indian Premier League - made up franchises, with made up uniforms playing a made up game to make cricket look and feel like football. The net result is going to be an end to international cricket.
The first thing I think you'll see go is the One Day form of the game - if you had to truncate the game of cricket then this is perfect, it takes roughly the equivalent time of a day's play at a test match and you will more often than not see 400 runs scored (and anything upto 600) in a day with plenty of wickets and great fielding. 20/20 you may if you are luck get to see the same amount of runs scored but there is little planning and stategy which means more comes down to luck and you have an equal chance of seeing a no contest. Which is far more boring than any one day match or any day of test cricket will ever be. I think this will also lead to the end of the one day cricket world cup which I would value more highly over a 20/20 world cup.
The next thing that 20/20 cricket will effect is the players - the results are already quite clear in Australia where the majority of the current playing squad have signed up - but more intriguingly, there are several recently retired players who are also signed up for this competition. My gut feeling is that the likes of Warne, McGrath and Gilchrist have taken the money and run from playing for their country - I know they will protest this but I think it's clear for all to see.
I think if cricket is to survive the ICC has to step in a regulate this form of the game - I know they have sanctioned this tournament and the IPL but with $56 million dollar sponsorship and a billion dollar TV rights package one wonders whether this is for the betterment of the game or the pockets of those involved at every level.
Personally I will try and keep away from watching this form of cricket (though being a cricket obsessive that might be difficult). My main problem with the game is it really comes down to luck and the skill of a batsman and the skill of a bowler are secondary to the manufactured excitement of seeing a ball going into or over the fence.
Today's auction will also see the end of any dignity the cricket playing community had - now reduced like farm animals at the yearling auctions the players only value will be financial, They will go chasing endorsements and advertising dollars and lose sight of why they gained that recognition in the first place - In Australia every summer we get subjected to more and more advertisements featuring cricketers, selling everything from Cars to phones, to deoderant and fried chicken. I fear we will see these clunkheads nearly 24/7 with this new competition and the further bestowing of demigod status. Anyone who has heard these players speak (especially in light of recent race controversies) should know that this is not a good idea. If I want to see badly behaved sportsmen getting payed ridiculous sums of money for a few hours entertainment then I will stick to the footy (which is at least much more entertaining than 20/20 cricket). Yes today's auction is the final resting point for the journey into money that cricket took under the guidance of the late Kerry Packer. It is a sad day for the game as 20/20 shows a complete lack of vision. Sure there will be players, officials, umpires and commentators telling you that this is definitely not the case - but they will be doing so with large bundles of cash in their pockets.
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