Modi loses Rajasthan Cricket Association election

Lalit Modi, BCCI Vice president and commissioner of IPL has lost elections for his home state cricket board – Rajasthan. His position had become untenable since the time new government took over in Rajasthan and it was a matter of time before Modi had to give up on presidency of RCA.

Will this have any impact on IPL? I doubt this. The stakes are too high in IPL and one person’s electoral defeat which has no direct significance for IPL should not worry us. BCCI was ruled by Dalmiya some time back but he is no where near its top echelons now and it has not impacted marketing or cricketing prowess of BCCI. Similarly I do not think Modi’s loss will have any impact on IPL. He would still continue to be part of BCCI and IPL anyway.

Moreover, Cricket in India is driven by passion of people for it, presence of a strong market and corporates that want to target this audience for promoting their products. An individual losing an election will not change any of them and IPL will not see any long term adverse impact on it. The stakes are very high for people involved with IPL and they would make sure that show continues to go on.

What wrong did ECB & Giles Clarke do?

ECB and Giles Clarke have been pillored a lot in last few days due to their decision of aligning with Stanford for sponsorship and generating cash for english cricket. I do not understand why are they being treated in this way. Clarke and ECB did what they thought was an excellent way of generating cash for players and board and also help in revival of WI Cricket. Any person in their capacity would have loved this idea. A few days effort every year which would make them richer by $3.5 m and give English players a strong chance to become millionaires. They would have been fools to reject such an offer. Why do people expect them to verify Stanford's credentials? They are in no position to validate Stanford's accounts and check if he is a fraud. This is something that SEC or similar organizations need to do and none of them had raised any red flag at Stanford when this deal was made. ECB even added clauses in their contract with Stanford which gave them "get out" options in case they cannot continue to handle this type of exigency. So, In my opinion, they did no wrong and this move would have been hailed as a master stroke had English players not made a mockery of themselves on Nov 1 against Stanford XI.

I do understand that they were trying to get even with BCCI and also trying to prevent English players from participating in IPL - this motive is something that I do not agree with and this was probably only fault that Clarke's and ECB's thinking had while signing up with Stanford.

Ricky Ponting will not play in 2nd edition of IPL

A one word response to this - Thanks.

There is no point of someone coming for only two weeks time. This would disturb team's strategy and balance and I am sure Kolkata Knight Riders and IPL management would have said the same thing to him.

There was no point in him making claims of putting country ahead of IPL. The fact that he was negotiating with IPL and KKR for 2-3 months shows that he was trying his best to squeeze in some time this year but IPL and team management did not agree to it. There is also some possibility of him not being picked for matches when he is available and that is going to tarnish his reputation. Ponting has made right decision for himself and the team management but there this is not a case of putting country in front of money.

One more victim of IPL

Last year, Andrew Symonds was the highest paid foreign cricketer in IPL and see where he is currently - not fit to be part of most important series that Aus is going to have in recent times where their #1 ranking is on the line. Last year would rank among the most tumultuous for Aus Cricket in general and Symonds in particular. No doubt, Symonds had some record earlier also but that does not compare with his infringements last year since he became the highest paid cricketer in IPL - skirmish with Clarke in WI, fishing incident, Pub incident and radio talk.

This year the honour of being the highest paid cricketers goes to Flintoff and Pietersen and results have started coming in. Eng lost the first test miserably to WI. Even before the series there were spats between the captain and coach (both ex now) once it was clear that KP would be among the top money makers in IPL. Would we see the same trend as last year?

Looking at the behavior of Symonds and now English cricketers, my respect for Indian cricketers esp Sachin Tendulkar has increased mani-fold. If this is how cricketers get affected by money in cricket then imagine how well Sachin has coped with this distraction for last nearly 20 years. He has been getting this kind of adulation and attention since the time he started playing international cricket but this has never got into his head unlike some of the cricketers and he has been among the most consistent batsmen. Not only Sachin but other Indian cricketers have been getting similar distractions but hats off to them that we do not see such negative press covergae for them except for a few.

Pakistan players not coming for IPL

As expected, Pakistan players are not coming for IPL. Pakistan Govt itself made the decision making it easier for franchises to make early plans about team composition and replacements. After Mumbai attacks, it was nearly impossible for Pak players to participate in IPL. Either Govts of any of the countries or some political party would have made it very difficult for them to come and play or increase security headaches for IPL-administration.
The decision has been timely and come just before auctions, so would help franchises. Irrespective of Govt stand, it would have been very difficult (if not impossible) for Pak players to come here and uncertainity over their participation would have created problems for franchises in doing their team planning. All-in-all a timely decision for franchises and right one too.

Addendum: IPL has leveraged the situation to its own benefit. Six of the pakistani players see their contract terminated. Not surprising that all these players were pretty ineffective in the first edition and four other players who made some impact last year (Gul, Tanvir, Akmal and Misbah) have their contracts suspended meaning they can play next year on same terms and conditions.

Twenty20 for 20

The last week's events in Antigua culminating in Superstars' win can be summed up as Allen Stanford's show from start to finish. He looked like the master of all he surveyed. He ensured that batsmen played with black bats, had full access to players dressing room and also had WAGs for company.


See this story in The Sun - http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/cricket/article1864808.ece
He literally had English cricket in his lap :) (pun intended).


The whole event was nothing more than a publicity gimmick for him and he got better returns than he expected. Yes, he invested $20m into this but in my opinion, he got better returns than he or anyone else anticipated.


The kind of publicity that he got through this event would be worth much more than he spent. The result of the match (Superstars bt England in a one-sided encounter) would give everyone in WI a false hope of WI's cricket revival. Even sane people will forget that winning a match classified as exhibition does not make WI team a good team, leave alone great. But Stanford's spin-doctors would ensure that people in Antigua see him as a philanthropist who revived WI cricket. People will start comparing this result with drubbing that WI teams of 80s used to give England in their heydays.


It is ECB and english cricket which seem to have lost out from the drama of last week. In terms of quality of cricket, it was a pathetic display from English side who seem to be thinking more about how to spend the winner's cheque or how to behave after they have won. Giles Clarke used to call himself as champion of Test cricket, now he has no place to hide. English cricketers have emerged as money-hungry and whining sportsmen. They were seen as a side on upswing during their last series against SA but played as a club side during the match.

After watching this show, I fail to understand why does ECB has issues with its players playing in IPL? If they can play 20-20 in WI for a large amount of money, then can do the same in India as well.

I have been reading articles about BCCI becoming dominant body in ICC and trying to bully other cricket boards using their financial muscle. In this case, Stanford used his financial muscle to make ECB swallow its pride and made them and english cricketers a laughing stock. Not sure if the whole thing is worth it.

IPL: Battle for Semis still open

After yesterday's results, the battle for semis in IPL is still open and three teams (Delhi Daredevils (DD), Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Mumbai Indians (MI)) are still in contention for last 2 places.
Yesterday's matches seem to have gone as per script of a thriller with all possibilities still open. Had there been any change in result, at least one or two teams would have booked their place in the semis and remaining matches would have become redundant and only for academic purposes. Had DD lost to MI, both CSK and MI would have qualified irrespective of result of the other match and had CSK won, they would have qualified irrespective of result of the other match. It could not have been better with the two slots still open at such a late stage of the tournament. This is going to be an exciting finish to a superb tournament.
Out of these three teams, MI looks to be having the worst chances as they need to win both their remaining matches and one of them is against the Rajasthan Royals (RR), currently the leading team in the tournament.

A day without IPL

Yesterday's match between Delhi Daredevils (DD) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) got abandoned due to rain. This was the first match to be abandoned in IPL. It knocked out KKR from race for semis and also hurt DD's chances of qualifying for the semis.
The race to semis had become very interesting and it is a shame that this match has tilted the balance for some of the teams.
Moreover, this is the first day after more than a month when there was no cricket match. I really struggled to find something meaniningful to engage myself hoping that this does not happen again. Delhi has another match tomorrow and hopefully weather won't intervene then.
What will happen after the tournament is over on June 1? I have become highly addicted to it and would love to see it going on beyond June 1 as well. It will be terrible to see the same Soaps on TV after June 1 in place of IPL.