i3j3Cricket :: A blog for fans of Indian cricket…

Two interesting news items concerning the IPL clearly shows that Mr Money will flex its muscle much more than in the conventional Indian cricket scenario under the BCCI.

The firs is the popular story of Vijay Mallya’s charge about Charu Sharma and Dravid not handling the auctions well. He has been careful about not saying too much about Dravid but Sharma has had to take it quite strongly. Afterall Mallya has put in the money and he will expect results. If 5 flights of Kingfisher did not take off on time for 10 days in succession some big heads in the company will roll.

The other story is about the Kolkata Knightriders asking some of its players to go home as they may not feature in the scheme of things this year. Is this a case of cost cutting? Afterall some of these players like one guy from Nagaland has to be put up in hotel and all his expenses taken care for him to just warm the bench. Maybe not even that unless he is in the squad. Chennai on the other hand seems to follow a kind of rotation policy as far as its substitutes are concerned so that everyone gets a piece of the dugout/dressing room action.

But these stories highlight the thing that BCCI never did. How many times have the BCCI pulled up its players for non performance? How many times have team selection blunders been ignored? How many times have prejudices and biases dominated team selection without anyone questioning or raising the issue?

If a team can send players home because they may never get a piece of the action, why can’t the BCCI stop sending huge contingents of officials on paid holidays?

– Sanjay

The CricBuzz cricket website recently published their “Top 51 Cricket Blogs on the Web” and rated i3j3cricket as one of these top-51!

– Mohan

Shahid Afridi, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Symonds and Scott Styris all in the same team. Add Adam Gilchrist, VVS Laxman, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh, and Chaminda Vaas to it, and on paper it looks like a team which is unlikely to lose a game. In reality though, it shows that the captain of the team has to deal with players with huge egos and serious attitudes. That  exactly is what I think has come in the way of the Chargers’ performing as a winning unit. Laxman and Gilchrist are “Mr. Nice Guys” and are having difficulty handling the likes of Afridi, Styris, and Gibbs. The team has not gelled at all with the real performers only being Gilchrist, Rohit Sharma and RP Singh. In fact, the three of them are amongst the top 5 run getters and wicket takers. Filling a team up with superstars is one thing but having to manage personality challengers is quite the other. The Chargers are facing it and are therefore unlikely to make any further impact in the tournament. Next year’s trading will see huge movement from this side, for one, I would like to see Rohit Sharma and RP Singh move out to better teams.

If Chennai can pull out a victory today against Punjab, the tournament becomes extremely interesting. Mumbai’s success, if sustained, can make 3rd and 4th spots really tight!

- Srikanth

Chennai is on a losing streak. Three matches lost and the team has some big problems. The auctions left them with a situation where 3 key players won them 4 games and just left. Of the replacements only Albie Morkel has more than justified his position and worth to the team. So what can Dhoni do to revive his team’s fortunes.

1. Drop Parthiv for a game. The guy has scored 96 runs in 7 matches and this is simply not good enough. Either get the dasher Aniruddha to open or bringing in the rookie Abhinav Mukund, who atleast is a specialist opener. Definitely persist with Fleming at the top.

2. Get Raina or Badrinath in at no 3. This floater no 3 is not working. Raina has shown promise and if he comes in early he can get a few balls to settle. Badrinath is also a technically correct batsman who can come in at 3. Either way I think numbers 3 and 4 should be Raina & Badrinath in any order.

3. Dhoni has to come in at 5. That is his best spot in the batting order.

My batting order for today’s game Fleming, Aniruddha, Badrinath, Raina, Dhoni, Vidyut, Morkel, Joginder, Gony, Ntini, Muralitharan.

– Sanjay

Earlier this year, David Morgan, President of the ICC, and others sought the removal of Sunil Gavaskar from the ICC Cricket Committee over his perceived conflict of interest (being a broadcaster and administrator) and his outspoken comments against Australian and English dinosaurs. Indeed, several reports, including this one by Christopher Martin-Jenkins, even said that Gavaskar had been sacked from his post! Peter Lalor weighed in to the argument too in this column on Fox Sports with a headline that reads “Sunil’s twin roles a ‘concern’”. Sunil? Duh?

Anyway, I digressed even before I began! Sunil Gavaskar chaired the ICC Cricket Committee which has come up with a list of innovations. Gavaskar’s committee — or should I follow the perfect journalistic example set by Peter Lalor and say Sunil’s committee, as though the object of discussion was my brother or my best friend? — included Mark Taylor (former Australia captain), Mickey Arthur (South Africa coach), Michael Holding (former West Indies fast bowler), Simon Taufel (ace Australian umpire), Steve Tikolo (Kenya captain) and Tim May (CEO of FICA, the players’ association).

Below are some of the major recommendations made by this committee to the ICC.

Decision Referral:

The major recommendation is that each team be allowed to refer a maximum of three decisions to the third umpire who could use technology such as Hawkeye to review the referred decision. Two things are not clear just as yet from the reports: (a) Is that three decisions each innings, each session, each day, each match? (b) If a team refers a decision and is successful in overturning the on-field umpires’ call, does that still count as a lost referral?

Although this experiment was reported to be unsuccessful when tried in English domestic one-day cricket last season, this referral system could prevent the sort of drama we saw in the Sydney Test (See this YouTube collection if you are an Indian fan and are in desperate need of a gut-wrench moment in your life!) between Australia and India early this year!

The referral experiment was said to be unsuccessful in the English domestic ODI season last year because it turns out that the 3rd umpires were largely loathe to turn on their on-field colleagues! Clearly, with some coaching, guidance, counseling and training, this issue could be overcome. The 3rd umpire has the benefit of technology as well as time and the on-field umpire should not see it as a blemish on his decision making prowess if a decision of his is turned down. Several other sports successfully manage a referral system that is aided by technology.

The ICC Cricket Committee recommended further that Hawkeye could be used only to determine the path of the ball up to the point that it struck the batsman. A wise decision in my view. The questions that could be addressed through this could be, for example, “Did it strike in line?” (for off stump LBWs), “Did the ball pitch outside leg?” (for leg stump LBWs), and “Was the impact too high on the pads?”, rather than, “Would the ball have gone on to hit the stumps?”

In another significant and good move, the committee has also recommended that the on-field umpire should eb allowed to consult the 3rd umpire on whether or not a catch was taken cleanly. That should put an end to the sort of stupid pact that Anil Kumble and Ricky Ponting signed prior to the recently concluded Australia-India Test series — a pact that was torn up after the contentious Sydney Test!

Substitute Fielders:

Apart from this major recommendation which, in all likelihood will be accepted by the ICC, the Cricket Committee also ruled out “comfort breaks” that fielders use to reign in substitutes. The Cricket Committee has indicated that substitute fielders should only be permitted in cases of injury, illness or other wholly acceptable reasons. I am not clear what “wholly acceptable reasons” means in this context. However, if a player does require a genuine “comfort break” does this then mean that the fielding team will field only 10 players for the duration of this “comfort break”? This is not entirely clear from the report. This is, however, in my view, a good suggestion that needs to be adopted. This may also put an end to the sorts of incidents we saw in the 2005 Ashes series when Ricky Ponting and Duncan Fletcher had a war of words over Englands’ use of specialist fielders as substitutes.

PowerPlays in ODIs:

Another significant recommendation is that in ODIs the timing of one of the three Power Plays would be determined by the batting side! As a result of this recommendation, there is no “Second PowerPlay” anymore. In both the 2nd as well as the 3rd PowerPlay, the fielding team can employ 3 fielders outside the restriction circle.

Again, the devil is in the detail on this one. Who decides first whether a PowerPlay is on or not? The fielding captain? What if the fielding captain as well as the batsmen simultaneously decide that they want a PowerPlay to be employed? Is that designated as a batting PowerPlay or a fielding PowerPlay?

Bowl-outs in T20 games ditched:

Thankfully, the dreaded bowl-out that decided tied Twenty20 games up until now has been replaced by a one-over-per-team play-off! Sensible, in my view.

Test League:

The committee also recommended a Test League for the top two sides in the Test Championship. I think that this is a good idea. However, I’d like the Test League to be between the top three sides in the table. Thankfully, the Super Series idea — a dud in the first place — has been killed!

– Mohan

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– Mohan

Rohit Sharma should be drafted into all forms of the Indian team in a hurry. With the talent that he possesses and the kind of form that he is in it would be a grave mistake if he was not part of the national side. He played another little gem for the Deccan Chargers and in vain again. They threw away a game that they should have won comfortably after bowling well and getting off to a great start while batting. It was sheer magic to watch VVS Laxman and Rohit Sharma while they were at the crease. This side has looked so close to winning most of its games but the points table tells a completely different story. The sides seems to possess the same kind of luck that its captain has had through his career. The one huge gain for that side and for India has been Rohit Sharma. It is not surprising that I have become a big fan of his approach to the game.

Punjab Kings X1’s casual approach in the last 10 odd overs almost cost them dearly. After a wonderful spell of seam bowling by Sreesanth and more significantly Irfan Pathan, they seemed to go into ” I am bored” zone. Also, Yuvraj may have made some tactical mistakes by not bowling Piyush Chawla when the Knight Riders were 50 for 5. It would be a great time for the leg spinner to bowl at David Hussey and Saha and attempt to get them to hole out. It was not to be. While VRV Singh and Gagandeep Singh bowled reasonably well during that stage, it let Hussey and Saha settle in to take them in the final stages. Irfan Pathan’s smart bowling in the last over denied a Warne like repeat performance. Piyush Chawla’s assault on Ishant Sharma in the last over may well have been the difference.

Tomorrow’s matches bring all teams at level as far as number of games played are concerned. Irrespective of the results, the point table will indicate that there is not much between the top 6 teams with possibly Delhi slightly ahead of the rest. I can’t wait to see the Tendulkar - McGrath/Asif and Warne - Dhoni/Murali challenge(s).

- Srikanth

The Delhi opening juggernaut powered on as they overpowered a depleted Chennai Superkings. While Sehwag and Gambhir certainly stole the game away in the first 10 overs of their innings, I think the game may have been lost due to some tactical mistakes that Dhoni may have made. Delhi does have a competent pace lineup including the incredible McGrath but Dhoni batting order reshuffles may well have contributed to their downfall. 170 was always going to be a gettable target on a fantastic Chepauk wicket. Chennai should have been looking at setting a target more in the vicinity of 200. Suresh Raina demotion in the order and the ignorance of the presence of Badrinath in the side could have been avoided. Dhoni is an astute captain, no doubt, but he does seem to have likes and dislikes. Badrinath for a strange reason has not won too many favors from his captain. While Vidyuth scored runs, he may have been fortunate in doing so. Raina and Badrinath ahead of Vidyuth and certainly that of Morkel could have been a better way to go. Having said that, Chennai had to lose a game (atleast if law of averages has anything to do with it). They are better of doing so at this stage of the competition than later on. I still feel they are strong favorites for the title with Delhi and Rajasthan being next likely.

Daniel Vettori, Brendon McCullum and Jacob Oram are now in England braving the english weather and playing in front of hundreds of spectators and already missing the fame, glory and cash that go along with playing in the IPL. Their statements in this article in cricinfo certainly justify the undisputed success of the IPL, a good sign in my opinion.

Looking forward to another exciting weekend of IPL,

Srikanth