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.

NZ beats India again

McCullum played a key role as NZ beat India in 2nd T20 International also. With this result NZ has maintained their clean slate against India in T20 Internationals. NZ is clearly a superior side in this format under the conditions and they will be tough to beat in ODIs also. India would have settled by then and acclimatised to conditions better, hence I think India would be a 3-2 winner.

This match was much closer that previous one and at one stage India looked like in a better situation to win it but McCullum's composure under pressure clinched the game for his team. Hopefully India will maintain the trend and keep improving with each match and soon we will see India leading in ODI series.

NZ tour starts

India began NZ tour with a loss in first T20 international. Not a surprise since NZ is very competitive team in shorter formats and Indians did not get any practice game. It was very similar to last year’s Aus series when India got thrashed badly in T20 international but came back to win ODI series. Like the last time, Indian team tried to impose itself on the opposition and win psychological points for a long battle which remained ahead. Last time, it went very badly and India lost the T20 comprehensively. The result this time is not that bad.

This match has actually given me hope that India would do better than I initially expected in this series. Indian batsmen did not feel much uncomfortable on pitch and scored freely though they went overboard in trying big hits. If nature of pitches remain same over the next weeks, India would be favourite to win test series though ODIs will still be close affair.

In terms of team composition, Irfan looks to be a liability and Praveen or Munaf would be a better choice. In batting, Rohit Sharma is slowly becoming a problem as it has been a long time he has played any useful inning. He had a great opportunity yesterday and he should have stayed on the crease and stabilized the innings with Raina but he missed another opportunity. Hopefully, Yuvraj will get into his elements soon. NZ tour would be a great opportunity for him to cement his place in Test side and also make people stop talking about his records on difficult pitches abroad.

Brad Haddin: The next-in-line for Oz captaincy

Brad Haddin was named captain of Aus Cricket team for T20 match against NZ. Michael Clarke was not fit for the match and Ponting was being rested. Haddin seems to have proved his credientials by claiming Brooms out during Ist ODI against NZ when it was his glove and not the ball which actually hit the stumps. It looks to me as tradition of Aus to select captains who use unfair means to dismiss opponents when they are in tight spot.

This tradition is running at least since the time of Steve Waugh who claimed catch of Brian Lara during 1994-95 series in WI which Aus won and staked its claim for #1 rank by becoming the first team to beat WI for 15 years. That catch proved critical as Aus went on to win that match and ultimately series was won 2-1.

Ponting and Clarke have proven credentials in this area as we saw in last year's series against India. Clarke is relatively inexperienced player but still he moved pretty fast in leadership stakes and his flair towards claiming dropped catches seems to have played a critical role in this. It was no coincidence that he was the bowler when Haddin claimed Brooms as bowled out.

Adam Gilchrist seems to be the biggest loser in this race and Aus selectors never saw him fit to be captain of the side as he never dismissed opponents by making false claims. Lst year against India he tried to mend his ways by claiming Dravid in Sydney test when Dravid had not touched the ball but by the end of the match he realized Clarke is way ahead of him and decided to retire after the series.

Brad Haddin seems to have justified the selectors' decision as Aus went on to win the match in a thrilling finish and Aus selectors' would be hoping that they will keep finding cricketers like him who will justify their unfair means as hunger to win and mental toughness.

India Vs SL T20: Pathan brothers' show

Last evening's T20 between India & SL was highly entertaining and had a thrilling finish with Pathan brothers' showing their talent and might to the world. India looked down for the count at one stage and SL win was looking like a formality and then Pathan bros' weaved their magic. Both played very sensibly and took calculated risks and at the end India looked like comfortable winner.

In hindsight, one can question Dilshan not employing Jayasuriya who was bowling well but the fact is that he made the right decision to move towards medium pacers knowing Yusuf can hit any spinner out of the park. Bandara was doing well with 3/15 in 3 overs before he came up against Yusuf who hit him for 16 in 4 balls out of a total of 22 that he scored. Jayasuriya could easily have got the same treatment. Against seamers, it was Irfan who hit most of the big shots for which Dilshan had no counter-plan.

This win shows Indian team has become mentally tough and can pull itself from any situation. Any team would have given up at the stage when 57 runs were required off 29 balls and only three wickets remaining.

But one would also question how did this team get into that situation at the first place. Raina and Dhoni were doing well and asking rate was not too much and then with some silly shots from them, we reached a difficult situation. Dhoni also needs to think about the batting order. In the current circumstances, it was strange to see Yusuf coming after Rohit and Jadeja. If he wants to give Rohit more chances, he could have been sent at #3 so that he could have settled down and played a longer inning.

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.