Champions League for Cricket

The cricket world is making full use of the popularity the game is now enjoying by announcing the conformation that a cricket champions league will take place this year. This follows hot on the heals of the world wide success and appeal that the IPL generated.

While soccer has enjoyed a champions league for a long time, with the best teams and best players from the European leagues taking part, and the prize the most sought after in club football, cricket has been slow to join the band wagon. No longer is this the case, and should the event prove to be as successful as hoped it will no doubt be here for the long term.

The event has been confirmed for either India or the Middle East, and should take place over 10 days, featuring 15 matches, in around about September/October this year. There will be a large cash prize for the winners, but teams finishing second, third and fourth will also be rewarded handsomely.

The competition will be made up of the domestic T20 finalists from England, Australia, India (the IPL) and South Africa. Englands T20 competition has just begun and only the two teams from their series are yet to be decided. The finalists there will join Western Australia and Victoria from Australia, the Rajasthan Royals and Channai Super Kings from India as well as the Dolphins and Titans from South Africa.

There are still some finer logistical points to work out, such as which team players who feature in more than one of the competing teams will turn out for. Albie Morkel for example is eligible for both the Titans and Channai and could have his county team Durham involved as well. The right thing would be for him to turn out for his home domestic team - the Titans, but because he is contracted as an overseas player for both Channai and Durham, they will lay claim to him as well. Money may talk louder than morals, as it often does, and don’t be surprised if Morkel is told to play for Channai over the Titans.

Should the competition prove to be a success than future series should involve teams from Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and the West Indies, bringing all Test playing nations into the loop. However with issues over lack of calender time to fit it in, it is likely that they may keep it small, meaning that perhaps only the champions of the domestic competitions and not both finalists will take part in a bigger event.

For now the news is a welcome one for domestic cricket and cricket in general.

Rajasthan Win First IPL

The Rajasathan Royals claimed the inaugural IPL with a close victory over the Chennai Super Kings in the final last night in Mumbai.

Set 164 for victory, Shane Warnes team, got there off the final ball with 3 wickets in hand, to give the team that finished top of the log victory in a game that both sides will feel was there’s for the taking at some stage or other.

In the end though the best team did win, the best team for the duration of the series, and not just on the night. It was Yusuf Pathan who was the man who made the difference, first with the ball when he picked up 3 wickets for 22 runs from his 4 overs and then crucially with the bat, scoring 56 from just 39 balls, with 4 sixes and 3 fours, before being brilliantly run out by Raina.

From a South African perspective, it was unfortunate that Graeme Smith missed the final due to injury, having had an outstanding series with the bat. In general the South Africans have disappointed during this first IPL, but the ones who have performed have done so with much credit, and in so doing where part of the teams in the final, with Albie Morkel and Ntini turning out for the Wessels coached Chennai Super Kings. Shaun Pollock and Mark Boucher were the other South African to perform during the series.

Ntini had a slow start to his IPL career, but when he got going he proved to be a real force with the ball for Chennai, forming one of the best opening bowling partnerships of the series with Gony. In the final Ntini was the most economical bowler in the match going for just 21 runs in his 4 overs, including a maiden. The highlight for him will have been his hat trick in the round robin series.

Morkel has had a fine all round series, contributing with both bat and ball, showing that he is a genuine all rounder, and set to be a star on the international stage. In the final he finished with 2/25 from his 4 overs and scored 16 of 13 balls with the bat, including 2 sixes. He ended just behind Gony as Channai’s second best wicket taker and made contributions throughout with the bat, with an innings of 71 in the round robin stage falling just shy of single handedly gaining Channai a victory. Morkels big hitting has made him a fan favourite in India, and he ended the series as the biggest six hitter, with a distance of 124m.

The inagrual IPL series has been a success and there is no doubt that the future looks bright for this format. Next season the South Africans will hope to make more of an impact all round, but for Smith, Morkel, Ntini, Pollock and Boucher, this was a job will done.

Where was Loots, Mumbai?

The Mumbai Indians failed to make the semi finals of the IPL, after a last ball fumble on Monday, and their season has come to an end. After a poor start, followed by a great run of form that saw them within striking distance of a semi final place, they limped out of the competition with some very poor fielding to blame more than anything else. They will now have time to look back at their campaign and answer some very tough questions, like why didn’t they make full use of the resources available to them? By this I mean why was Loots Bosman not used, not even for a single game?

While some may claim that perhaps Loots was an unknown to the Mumbai Indians staff, unknown to the degree that they were not fully aware of his capabilities, but this is a poor excuse. The number of Australian players who aren’t involved in the Australian team, players like Marsh, Thornely and Pomersbach to name a few, who have been bought and played by their teams shows that the homework done by the teams extends past international cricket and into domestic cricket of non Indian teams. So they should have been fully aware of what Loots had to offer. Failing that they had Shaun Pollock in the team and he would no doubt have informed them of the big hitting batsmans record in this form of the game.

In international T20 matches Bosman has played 3 matches, has an average of 38,5 and a strike rate of 135. Which shows that he is comfortable at the highest level in this form of the game. But its in the domestic Pro 20 Series that Bosman has really excelled. In 30 matches he averages 34,66 at a strike rate of 146,7 and is the only player in Pro 20 Series history to have scored a 100. He has been the top batsman in the competition basically from its inception and he is the type of swash buckling, big hitting, no fear, risk taking batsman that T20 cricket was made for.

Loots opens the batting and this may have hindered him with the likes of Tendulkar and Jayasuriya occupying those births it would have been hard to plead a case for Loots, but with Tendulkar missing the opening half of the series and Mumbai struggling, Bosman should have been given a chance at some stage. Even with Tendulkar in the team the nature and style of Bosmans batting means that he can bat anywhere in the top order, and would have been a far better bet then Dwayne Smith for one of the foreign player roles.

A batsman as destructive and experienced in T20 as Bosman was wasted at the Mumbai Indians and the people in India missed out on some very entertaining, explosive batting, and some good fielding. If Bosman returns next season lets hope the same mistakes aren’t made.

Adopt A Team

In an earlier post I wrote about the support for the IPL teams from outside India has tended to be cast towards the individual rather than actual teams, when I watch the Chennai Super Kings I tend to be indifferent as to whether or not they actual win or lose, but rather am just waiting for Albie Morkel to get into the action and hoping that he does well. While this sort of support has gained momentum throughout the cricket watching world, even in India i’m told, it does take something away from the actual enjoyment of supporting a team.

Whether or not your domestic team are challenging for the title, or languishing far behind, you support them through thick and thin, because they are your team, and that’s what supporting a team means. The individualistic approach may make sense but it does leave a certain empty feel to the whole process, with little emotion behind the results.

It is for this reason that I think all cricket watchers from outside India (and those in India who have not done so) should adopt an IPL team and make them their team, just as you would for an soccer team in England, Italy or Spain, when you don’t hail from that country.

We’re past half way in the round robin stage and are approaching the semi finals so we’ve all had time to get to know the various teams, their players, their approach, and various other aspects we may be interested in, such as the likes of Priety Zinta and Katrina Kaif being the faces of the Kings II Punjab and the Royal Challengers Bangalore. So chose a team and make them yours for the remainder of this series and future IPL series that are sure to come.

I have adopted the the Mumbai Indians as my team. Shaun Pollock has always been my hero and thus it is obvious that I would gravitate towards his team. The Mumbai Indians have, in my view, had the best team spirit in the IPL. They started off losing their first 4 games, have had their captain, and most expensive player, Tendulkar, out injured for the opening 7 games, then had Harbajan Singh banned for the rest of the tournament after their 2nd game, when he slapped Sreesanth. After all that has gone wrong Shaun Pollock took over as captain and has pulled the team together and they are not winning, having won 3 in a row. Even through the losses you could see that the players generally get along and enjoy each other. A lot of other teams have seen players gravitate towards who they are most comfortable with, the Australians stick together, the Sri Lankans and Pakistani’s and so on. When you watch the Mumbai Indians you see them as a team and this makes a huge difference. It probably helps that Shaun Pollock comes from Durban in South Africa, which has the highest density of Indians outside India, and he has managed to keep the spirit and teamwork high. When wickets fall and you see Pollock, Bravo, Jayasuriya, Uthappa and Nehra jumping on each other, you can see the joy and pleasure they feel. The older players have been great role models and points of reference and knowledge for the young Indian players in their squad.

With Tendulkar back they can only get stronger. Hopefully my Mumbai Indians will continue their winning way and get to the semi’s and then have every chance of winning. I’ll be supporting them all the way.

Individuals or Teams

The IPL has moved past the half way point of its round robin phase with each team beginning to play the other teams for a second time, and there is little doubt that the competition has thus far been a huge success.

The IPL does bring about a new twist on loyalties for those outside India. Generally a domestic competition does not hold much interest out side of its national borders. England may disagree with that statement but the truth is most people take a passing glance at county cricket scores every now and then just to check up on how certain players, usually from the county of the person checking, are doing. Most people outside England won’t be able to tell you who won last years various county cricket competitions. The IPL is a different monster. It’s domestic competition in that it comprises teams from various franchises in India, but it has gripped world attention, and garnered viewers and supporters from all over the cricket loving globe.

The twist for those not from India is in who do you support? In India you would support a team geographically or historically, just as you would your own domestic team, however what’s happening around the world during this IPL series is cricket watchers are supporting individuals rather than teams. When I watch an IPL game I take a keener interest in the South African players, and if one team has a South African representative and the other doesn’t then my team for that evening is the one with the South African. This sort of mixed support is happening all over the globe, in Australia, the West Indies, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, and Zimbabwe - and maybe in England where there sole representative has finally arrived.

When people do pick a team to support (people from outside India, although maybe even people in India) they are once again doing so based on the individual rather than the team. Some on from Cape Town for example, who supports the Cape Cobras in the South African domestic competitions, may follow the Rajasthan Royals simply because Graeme Smith plays for them.

The individual is where loyalties are being formed in the IPL initially with the longer the competition goes on for new bonds developing between outside viewers and teams, with perhaps in a few years international viewers adopting teams as their teams.

IPL Off to Great Start

The Indian Premier League kicked off this weekend with much ceremony, fanfare, and a fair bit of cricket too. McCullum’s century to opening the tournament will surely not be beaten, and Hussey, Michael, adding a 2^nd century in the opening weekend gets it off to a great start. While some having been voicing concerns about the affect and influence that the IPL will have on world cricket as a whole, it is fair to say that what has been seen on the pitches thus far has not harmed the game at all.

While people have been worried that the money involved in the IPL and the structure, with the auction for players to teams, teams made up a core of international players and filled by young Indian talent, would turn players into mercenaries, going where the money takes them, with no loyalty and patriotism, although only at its beginning, these fears appear to be ill found.

International players are using this forum to showcase themselves away from their national teams. Reputations are being tested and the idea that these athletes are showing up just to collect some money while they can is naive. Watching the games it is clear to see how much each individual and each time wants to win, they are in it to win, and the pain of defeat is all too obvious.

What is more so, following on from the Australia/India series, where so much damaged was done to cricket, it is of particular highlight to notice the camaraderie, and fellowship that is being forged by so many from different countries, cultures and backgrounds. The ill effects of the Australia/India series are being redressed and new friendships formed.

Players are testing themselves in ways that they can not at international level. In yesterdays game between the Mumbai Indians and Bangalore Royal Challengers there was an over when Shaun Pollock was bowling to Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher. Boucher and Kallis would have stood behind the wicket, at keeper and slip, to Pollock on many occasions throughout their careers and would have faced him in domestic games, but not under these circumstances, in front of as big a crowd, and with the whole world watching.

For the South Africans that game was a good show case of where they are in world cricket. Pollock showed South Africa that he is still capable of being a world beater with a brilliant knock of 28 from just 12 balls, finding the middle of the bat and the boundaries from just about the first ball faced, and then an economical spell of bowling that will surely go down as “doing a Pollock” in years to come.

On the other side Kallis did a job rebuilding the innings with Boucher and getting their team within reach of the win, while Boucher played an innings, 39 not out from 19 balls, which just about won the game for Bangalore.

IPL is off to a great start and promises to be an entertaining, quality driven, feast for all.

(Pic from www.cricinfo.com)