IPL - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly updates

The Good - It's official. The IPL is set to clash with the lucrative NBA, NHL and NFL. Lalit Modi has announced that the IPL will go all the way west in the next few years.
The next set of 66 foreign players will go under the hammer tomorrow as IPL 3.0 gets set to roll off. The original list was pruned down to 97 from 66 after the iron hand of Lalit Modi hammered out a few names from the list. For the list go here.
The Bad - There is yet another twist to the IPL influenced by India politics. Mumbai and Punjab fans might not get to see Aussie players playing on their home grounds owing to threats from respective local political parties. It's getting inevitable - the IPL and India politics are getting too intertwined. Soon it will reach a point of no return! Now that has put a lot of Aussie players and their teams unsteady on their feet. Imagine DC without Gilly and Symonds or CSK without Hayden and Hussey or KXIP without Bret or for that matter KKR without Ponting and Hodge! Come on people - go dive into that new list of 67 and find someone!!
There is more bad news for CSK - Freddy is off IPL 3.0 - hasn't recovered yet.
The Ugly - When Lalit Modi scrapped Chris Cairns off the IPL auction list he was bold enough to say that Cairns was involved in match fixing and was therefore off the list. But let me get something clear here. Cairns was accused by the ICL of match fixing. Modi and the BCCI do not recognize ICL. Now how is it that Modi recognizes only ICL's accusations? Not that I am in favor of match fixers, but just being curious.

Auction begins again

The auction of players for IPL 3.0 will begin this month. A provisional list of 97 players who intend to play in the IPL has already been made. Unfortunately, it looks like not all 97 would get the nod. Pathetic!

Rolling heads

Yet another "icon" of the IPL has given way. This time it's at Punjab. Yuvraj Singh's reign as KXIP captain is officially over. Lankan skipper Sangakkara has taken over. The reason that has been cited for this change is that coach Tom Moody felt that Yuvi was arrogant and never listened to the management. Now here is my question - How is this decision going to change matters?
Yuvi meanwhile joins Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman on the list of Indians who have been axed after being at the helm for the inaugural event.

Will IPL fizzle out?

The Congress-BJP cat fight seems to have caught up with the IPL also. Lalit Modi's self created role - IPL Commissioner - now seems heading towards extinction. After having tried to take control of the Rajasthan Cricket Board in vain - a fight in which he took on the Congress government that runs the state with the support of the opposition BJP - Modi now faces the danger of his wings being clipped as the BCCI, which is run by another Congress man, looks to take him out of the IPL equation. The question now is, if Modi goes how much of the IPL will he take along with him? I can already imagine Subash Chandra of the ICL smiling wickedly.
Meanwhile, Modi hasn't been sitting silently and waiting for things to happen. Remember how they brought Captain Barbosa back to life to rescue Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie? On the same scale, Modi is now planning to bring Jagmohan Dalmiya back into the frame!!!

Another roadblock, India on top, but for how long and Vasthu in cricket

After crossing a number of hurdles the Pakistani IPL contingent has hit a "visa deadline" road block. Having not obtained a visa for the Pakistani players, the PCB has again ensured that the current T20 champs will not have any representation in the IPL. I suppose that the frustration of not being able to play in the IPL will drive the PCB to start their own PPL.
Finally, after a 8 year wait, India are atop the Test rankings - at a time when the world was lamenting that India was spoiling test cricket's reach with the IPL. But unfortunately, due to circumstances completely out of their hands, the Indians might find themselves going down the ladder if Australia and South Africa win their respective test series against West Indies and England. Cruel, but that's indicative of BCCI's greed. Would you believe that India will play only 2 test matches in the next 12 months - and that too against Bangladesh? The rest are ODIs and T20s. Baffling!!!!
Here is something interesting. The Rajiv Gandhi stadium in Hyderabad has seen the home teams lose all the matches they have played there so far. That has prompted the authorities to seek ways to ward off the ill luck.

Being Rahul Dravid

If ever you needed proof that being a cricketer other than Sachin Tendulkar in India is not such a thankful job, try being in the shoes of Rahul Dravid once and you will get the proof. For years, the "Wall" (which to my mind is probably the only form of recognition he's got from Indian cricket fans) has had to be at the receiving end of ridicule right from the pundits to the common fan. Take for example the plaudits Dravid has received after the innings of 177 he made in the first test against Sri Lanka yesterday. Compare that with what Sachin Tendulkar received after scoring 175 against Australia at Hyderabad a few days ago. Alright, I agree that it was fantastic from Sachin. But the 177 made yesterday at Ahmedabad at least deserves to be treated on par with the 175 at Hyderabad. I open the cricinfo website to see what Sanjay Manjrekar has said about the knock and his commentary is more concentrated on Murali losing his magic than on Dravid's knock. And former cricketers like Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Bishen Bedi who have one view or other about cricket published by the media every day do not have anything to say about Dravid. Compare that with the views and coverage after the 175 at Hyderabad. I must say that being Rahul Dravid is quite thankless.
Coz when the day breaks today, the media will suddenly have more important news than cricket to cover. The pundits will have something else to analyze. The fans will have another Tendulkar feat to wait and cheer for. All the while, the Wall would just defend with a straight bat and wait for the bowler to bowl the next ball with all concentration. Because when he walks back into the field today, none of these thoughts of mine would have even come to his mind. He'd just go in and sweat all over the pitch and add to that 177 while we sit and contemplate what Sachin would do in the second innings.

IPL 3 - new stuff

Finally, cricket is coming to the multiplexes. This is good news for both multiplexes and audience alike. While the owners need not worry about burning their hands by buying silly stuff, the audience can come out of a movie theater without having to go through torrid times that they are put through by some movies.
Staying with IPL, the PCB which was going hammer and tongs against the BCCI for being anti-Pakistan has already announced that its players will be allowed to play in IPL3 - proof of the depths to which money can flow. Or was it a fear of backlash from its players if they were refused permission to play?
This post cannot end without a mention of India's disintegration at Hyderabad yesterday. Indiscretion can be so cruel - most of the batsmen (yes and it includes Sachin Tendulkar despite the 175) found that out yesterday. The height of it all was Ravindra Jadeja's magnificent madness! Let's hope that before 2011 the selectors realize that players like Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina must learn or give way to others.