Wanted for Indian cricket: Consistency of selection and a ban on tournaments played in islands

There are far too many reasons floating around for India's exit at the Super Eight stage of the T20 World Cup. No one even mentioned those (IPL, post-match parties, inability to play on bouncy tracks, poor squad selection, etc.) when India beat Afghanistan and South Africa.

By no stretch of imagination were the pitches at Barbados (where India lost to West Indies & Australia) bouncy pitches! They were good all-round wickets. India lost because its batsmen couldn't cope with anything above knee height, because its bowlers had zero ability to pick up wickets and because the fielding was a total joke.

It is a different matter though that the batsmen also struggle when the ball is 'slow and low'. So they can't play anything below ankle height and anything above knee height. Steve Waugh would call that a very huge comfort zone!

As in the 2009 edition, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, bizarrely chose to come in at #5 or #6 although he was in form and among the better batsmen around. Why he continued to persist with promoting an out-of-form and clearly unfit Yuvraj ahead of him was totally beyond comprehension.

The bigger issue though is the total lack of clarity and consistency around selection.

India's selectors keep picking squads for T20 that comprise of largely the same folks who play 50-over ODIs. Given the compressed nature of the T20 game, there is always a huge emphasis on cricketers with at least 2 skills - explosive batting, brilliant fielding and run-choking / wicket-taking bowling. Persisting with chaps like Nehra, Zaheer, Yuvraj (when he is unfit), Harbhajan and Praveen Kumar was really ridiculous.

India's successes in 1983, 1985 (ok, not exactly an ICC event!), 2002 and 2007, and the route to the finals in 2000 & 2003, had significant contributions from the fielding department.

The BCCI had over a year to identify specific players who needed help with playing "bouncy" stuff. When we say 'bouncy' stuff, do remember that it is not even getting close to "chin music"!

The BCCI had at least 4 years to figure out how the tracks in the Caribbean would have played. Was it not important enough? Did it assume that the tracks would be the same as those during the 2007 World Cup or the 4 ODIs in 2009?

Considering that India hadn't played a single game at Barbados over the last 4 years, was it really a surprise that the team was unprepared for the conditions?

Since Jan 2009, 29 players have been selected in India's ODI and T20 squads. That doesn't sound like a huge number, and it may seem like there actually is consistency of selection. But try explaining to the likes of Abhimanyu Mithun, Ashok Dinda, Amit Mishra, Badrinath, Abhishek Nayar, Pragyan Ojha, Ashwin, Virat Kohli, etc. that they have been treated fairly. Notice that with the exception of Kohli, Badri and Nayar, the rest are all bowlers.

This tells us that the 'senior' batsmen in the team are unlikely to get dislodged and any potential claimant to the spot must score a 250 in a 50-over innings or 150 in a 20-over innings to be considered.

Was there clarity around who plays what sort of role? Were Gambhir and Raina expected to bat through the innings? What was the expectation from Yuvraj and Rohit? What was Dhoni's role? If Vijay or Dinesh Karthik got picked, what were they supposed to do? Was Yusuf Pathan only supposed to try to hit every ball for 6 or 4?

Maybe its time for a thorough clean-up. Maybe the players who were picked for the T20 World Cup didn't have the hunger since they'd had it easy. Maybe its time to pick those who do have the hunger.

Forcing the games to be played during day-time hours in the West Indies just to cater to the Indian TV audience turned out to be so farcical after the team's pathetic showing.

The next time around, if the partners & sponsors tried to negotiate telecast timings, the ICC should ask them to take a look at India's recent record before assuming that India would even get to the semi-finals.

More importantly and more pertinently though, the BCCI must put its foot down and insist that ICC tournaments must no longer be held in islands, based on India's past record (Australia-New Zealand: 1992; England: 1975, 1979, 1983, 1998 & 2004; Sri Lanka: 2002 and West Indies: 2007). Of the 7 tournaments, India have been finalists on just 2 occasions and the rest were all major flop shows.

Labels: india, indian premier league, ipl 2010, selection, twenty20, twenty20 world cup

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:47 pm | Sledge/Read 2 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Players v/s owners at the IPL

One aspect of the IPL that I've been really curious about is the relationship between the players and the franchise owners.

The first time I thought about it was when Sachin Tendulkar showed interest in having a stake in the Mumbai franchise. At that time, the BCCI did not allow it because it decreed that a playing member couldn't be a shareholder of the team.

It is bizarre that a BCCI official can own stake in an IPL team since Sharad Pawar, as BCCI President, ruled in N Srinivasan's favour. According to Pawar, the franchise bid was by a company and Srinivasan was not a bidder in his individual capacity. Hence, there was no conflict of interest.

Now that argument against having players own equity in the franchise sounds so stupid and outdated. Many organizations, across sectors, provide some sort of equity (sweat or otherwise!), in order to retain and motivate their employees. It makes a lot of sense that players have equity in the franchise.

All that Sachin Tendulkar had to do was to setup a company in someone else's name, and convince Mukesh-bhai and Nina-ben to sell some of their stake to the new company. Alternately, he would need to have a relative own equity in say Teesta Retail Pvt. Ltd.. I'd hardly be surprised if he was not a shareholder, directly or indirectly, in Mumbai Indians.

It does seem to me, based on a couple of reports & interviews in the last 24 hours or so, that the team owners exercise a disproportionate influence on the team, especially on cricketing matters.

Were Chennai Super Kings' selection & on-field decisions influenced by an astrologer who Srinivasan and Srikkanth fervently believe in?

Dhoni does brush it under the carpet, saying that superstition is part of cricket. I think NDTV had an interview with Hayden yesterday, where he was non-committal about the practices bordering on occult.

Shilpa Shetty sounds as close to arrogant as possible when the CNBC-TV18 interviewer asks her "How does the team react to you". She raises her eyebrow and haughtily says "We are the owners, they're nice to us".

If there is a trend here of owners thinking they are superior to the players, or that they can control everything about the game, it's not really good news especially considering there will be a fresh auction next year.

Even if the IPL rules say that a franchise can retain a certain number of India internationals, foreign players, etc., there is nothing that stops a player from choosing to participate in the player auction in 2011.

Players who are frustrated with their team management or owners will leave. Their contract period is over. It is one of the fundamental principles of a free market.

Labels: indian premier league, ipl 2010

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:02 am | Sledge/Read 2 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

What is the point of this exercise, BCCI?

Earlier today, Lalit Modi was suspended from his post as IPL commissioner. He has 15 days to respond to respond to the charges. As of now, he remains the IPL chairman.

I'm hardly surprised that a a certain website whose domain he effectively owns continues to list him as chairman and commissioner.

Chirayu Amin, one of the BCCI Vice Presidents, has been appointed the interim IPL commissioner. He is a chairman of Alembic Ltd, a publicly listed company.

But the point of this entire exercise needs to be questioned. The governing council remains as it is (except for Chirayu in, Lalit out) despite them being party to every single decision that was taken. BCCI President Shashank Manohar claimed today that it was not the responsibility of the governing council but that of the CEO & IMG.

With one stroke, he exonerated himself, from the issue as well. Interestingly enough, even before any sort of findings are announced by the investigations by various authorities into various aspects around the IPL, he exonerates Sharad Pawar of any wrong-doing.

Should we be surprised? After all, he is closely linked to Sharad Pawar. Shashank Manohar's father was the advocate general of Maharashtra when Sharad Pawar was the Chief Minister.

I'm assuming that Mr. VR Manohar is one of India's top legal eagles. If not, maybe it is just a coincidence that VR Manohar represented Harbhajan Singh during Judge Hansen's hearing in January 2008.

While we're at it, Chirayu Amin should disclose any sort of relationship that his company has with Shashank Manohar, perhaps as one of their legal advisers. I'd really not be surprised if that was the case.

Labels: bcci, indian premier league, ipl 2010

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:39 pm | Sledge/Read 2 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Johnson Cherian, Lalit Modi and a couple of domains

Over 3 years ago, I'd written about one of the BCCI's domains - bcciratings.com. The domain was registered under a name 'Johnson Cherian'. I now notice that the domain has Lalit Modi as an administrative and technical contact.

Tinu Cherian reckons that the ownership details of iplt20.com changed on 19 April.

I don't think his reasoning is right. The 'Updated 1 hour ago' entry he points to merely indicates that the whois server fetched the data 1 hour ago. Just click on the "Refresh" link to see the last update details change.

But yes, the larger issue is that iplt20.com and clt20.com (the Champions Twenty20 League domain) are owned by someone from Modi Entertainment Network, even though the BCCI's address is provided.

So, is Johnson Cherian someone who works for Lalit Modi at the BCCI office? He does seem to work at Modi Entertainment Network, since he is listed as the administrative contact for modi.com as well.

In passing, you can actually go and buy the iplt20.com domain. The whois record indicates the domain expired over a month ago.

For the record, just in case the ownership data changes, here's what the whois information looks like:

iplt20.com

Registrant
Email:
Organization: BCCI/IPL
Address: CRICKET CENTER,WANKHEDE STADIUM,CHURCHGATE
City: Mumbai
State: Maharashtra
Country: IN
Postal Code: 400020
Phone: +91.2222800300
Fax:
Name: bcci ipl

Domain : iplt20.com

Administrative Contact :
Name: bcci
Organization: BCCI/IPL
Address: CRICKET CENTER,WANKHEDE STADIUM,CHURCHGATE
City: Mumbai
State: Maharashtra
Postal Code: 400020
Country: IN
Phone: +91.2222800300
Fax: 0
Email:

Technical Contact :
Name: bcci
Organization: BCCI/IPL
Address: CRICKET CENTER,WANKHEDE STADIUM,CHURCHGATE
City: Mumbai
State: Maharashtra
Postal Code: 400020
Country: IN
Phone: +91.2222800300
Fax: 0
Email:

Created on.......: 2008-03-14
Expired on.......: 2012-03-14
Last updated on..: 2009-01-14

clt20.com

Registrant :
Email:
Organization: NA
Address: BCCI,Cricket Center,Churchgate
City: Mumbai
State: Maharashtra
Country: IN
Postal Code: 400020
Phone: +91.1111111
Fax:
Name: Lalit Modi

Domain : clt20.com

Administrative Contact :
Name: Lalit
Organization: NA
Address: BCCI.Cricket Center,Churchgate
City: Mumbai
State: Maharashtra
Postal Code: 400020
Country: IN
Phone: +91.2266637373
Fax: 0
Email:

Technical Contact :
Name: Lalitk
Organization: NA
Address: BCCI.Cricket Center,Churchgate
City: Mumbai
State: Maharashtra
Postal Code: 400025
Country: IN
Phone: +91.2266637373
Fax: 0
Email:

Created on.......: 2009-02-05
Expired on.......: 2013-02-05
Last updated on..: 2010-01-12

Labels: conflict of interest, domain, indian premier league, ipl 2010, lalit modi, website

Thus spake Jagadish @ 12:50 am | Sledge/Read 2 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

A strong link between the IPL and the T20 World Cup

Based on statistical evidence^*, Mumbai or Bangalore will win the IPL and 11 out of the 16 teams playing in the T20 World Cup have no chance of winning the World Cup.

Here're the damning statistics:

• Mumbai or Bangalore will win the 2010 IPL tournament. The previous 2 editions have been won by Jaipur (league topper) and Hyderabad (4th on the league table).
  
• The only sides with a reasonable chance of success at the T20 World Cup are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ireland, Pakistan and Zimbabwe. The World Cup winning side has never included even a single player who played in the preceding IPL tournament.
  
• Based on current evidence from IPL tournaments preceding a T20 World Cup (sample size: 1), the top 2 run-getters are usually not good enough (or too old) to even feature in their national side's squad. So, the only consequence of Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma hitting a real purple (orange?) patch is that they will eventually not play at the 2010 T20 World Cup. The only other real contenders are Herschelle Gibbs and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, but they'd need to score something like 300+ runs across 2 innings to race to the top of the 2010 IPL run-getters list.
  
• 3 out of the top 5 wicket-takers at an IPL event played in a T20 World Cup that immediately followed. Hence, at least one out of Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra and Irfan Pathan will definitely be called up to play at the World Cup. The first one to have a confirmed ticket booking on a trans-Pacific flight, or willing to travel by road, will get the nod.
  
• West Indies will continue a rich tradition of the hosts (1996 World Cup and 2002 Champions Trophy being examples) never winning a 'World Cup' like event. In much the same manner that the 'home' team has never won an IPL to date.

* - All data is valid as of before the first semi-final of the 2010 IPL event

Labels: indian premier league, ipl 2010, prediction, statistic, twenty20, twenty20 world cup

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:39 pm | Sledge/Read 1 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Choking at the IPL

Everytime I see a team screw up a chase at the IPL, I wonder what is it that causes batsmen to choke in a T20 chase.

To a large extent, it is because of the huge pressure on batsmen to succeed. Like several worthy commentators have pointed out, the bowler is really under no real pressure. More often than not, he expects to be tonked around and is reconciled to conceding 8-9 runs an over with the hope of picking up at least 1 top order wicket.

However, a top order batsman is expected to smack it around at a strike rate of at least 150. Every dot ball increases the pressure. A batting effort of 30 in 20 balls with 5x4 and 1x6 looks excellent. Except that the batsman actually scored only 4 runs off the 14 balls that he didn't hit a boundary. This potentially means he had at least 10 dot balls, i.e. he wasted 70% of the balls he faced.

Let's define the set of circumstances that describe how a team chokes while chasing.

• The score being chased isn't ridiculously high (e.g. in excess of 180)
  
• The team is at a fairly comfortable position halfway through the chase (e.g. a required run rate of 9-10 with 7-8 wickets in hand)
  
• The team is fairly well placed with 5 overs to go (e.g. a required run rate of 11-12 with 5 wickets in hand)

In the 2008 IPL tournament, there were 11 such games. In 2009, the number was 13. So far, in 2010, there have been 7 instances of a chasing team 'choking'. It seems quite likely, given there are another 19 games to go, that we'll end up with a similar number of chokes this year as well. Maybe there's a better way to force batsman into taking more responsibility to finish off games - like we wrote over 5 years ago about Twenty20

I think one option would be to have Twenty-20 games with 11 players but only six are allowed to bat, not all eleven.

The main problem that the IPL will face is the number of mismatches. This year alone, there have been at least 20 games where the result was known before the last over of the game started. Somehow, winning margins of 20+ runs, 7 wkts etc. don't seem right for this truncated format. If we extrapolate a winning margin of 20+ runs (say chasing 180) into the 50 over game, it amounts to something like scoring 280 when the target was 320 - a sound thrashing. The debate over which team will lose the most number of games is over. Mohali has lost 8, and have 3 more to play. This means they could end up with 11 losses (from 14 games). Hyderabad is the only other team that could get to 10 (won 4, lost 6 with 4 games to go).

Whoever voted for the Mohali franchise wins themselves a gift voucher for a 2 week fitness programme to be conducted by Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Abdulla and Ramesh Powar. Sreesanth will be a special guest and he will conduct aerobics sessions for 2 days. VLCC is one of the team sponsors.

In other news, I find it baffling that the various commentators, ex-cricketers, administrators, etc. who protested against the absence of any bids for Pakistani players during the last IPL auction have missed out one very obvious fact - Sri Lankan cricketers are being sidelined at IPL 2010.

The Sri Lankan players in this tournament are Murali, Thushara, Perera, Vaas, Maharoof, Dilshan, Jayawardene, Sangakkara, Mathews, Mendis, Jayasuriya and Malinga. All teams have played 10 games by now. Only Murali, Maharoof, Sangakkara, Jayawardene, Mathews and Malinga have played 6 or more games. Chaps like Dilshan, Vaas, Mendis and Jayasuriya have been sidelined with no-one protesting!

To paraphrase Lord Tennyson, is it better to have been picked and left out than not to have been picked at all?

Labels: indian premier league, ipl 2010, twenty20

Thus spake Jagadish @ 12:48 am | Sledge/Read 1 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

IPL 2010 semi-final prediction

We're pretty much at the half-way stage of the league round of the 2010 IPL. At this point in time, Mumbai, with 6 wins from 7 games is the runaway leader, and has definitely sewn up a semi-final slot.

The remaining 3 are the tough ones to predict. In 2008, 7 wins was enough for Delhi to sneak into the semis ahead of Mumbai. In 2009, Hyderabad sneaked in ahead of Mohali though both had 7 wins.

So it is fair to say that 7 wins out of the 14 games (i.e. winning 50% of the games) should be sufficient. Bangalore, Jaipur and Delhi have 4 wins. Hyderabad and Kolkata have 3 wins. Chennai has 2 and Mohali has 1.

That said, momentum is a huge factor, and teams can get going with just 2-3 wins in a row.

The arrival of players from Australia, England and New Zealand will be a significant factor. Which teams are likely to benefit?

Bangalore: Pietersen, Steven Smith and Ross Taylor are the new arrivals. Bangalore's batting has been awesome, especially their top 3-4. But Kohli, Dravid, White & Morgan have been untested and with Pietersen & Taylor joining, this would mean Morgan and possibly White being left out.

Chennai: Hussey and Ntini are the new arrivals, with Ntini returning from injury. They should really have found some hospital as a sponsor given how much they've invested in Flintoff, Oram and Ntini. The bowling leaks far too many runs, and Ntini won't actually change the status quo.

Delhi: Daniel Vettori. This could mean Mishra and Vettori bowling in tandem. So unless Maharoof has a couple of excellent games, he'll be sitting out.

Hyderabad: No new arrivals.

Jaipur: No new arrivals.

Kolkata: McCullum. Their batting has really been pathetic, clicking twice and their highest total is only 180-odd. So his entry will hopefully result in some better performances in the first 5-10 overs.

Mohali: No new arrivals - Hopes is injured.

Mumbai: No new arrivals.

Given the influx, it is quite possible that Bangalore and Kolkata will make it to the semi-finals along with Mumbai provided Kolkata's bowlers learn something from Wasim. Between Delhi and Hyderabad, I'd go for Delhi because their bowling is better than Hyderabad's.

So the semi-final lineup will be Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi and Kolkata (in order of points from the league stage).

Labels: indian premier league, ipl 2010, prediction, twenty20

Thus spake Jagadish @ 11:30 pm | Sledge/Read 4 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]

Last hurrah for quite a few players at the 2010 IPL?

When the Indian Premier League started in 2008, the likes of Hayden, Gilchrist, Kumble, Ganguly, Tendulkar, Dravid, Murali, etc. were eagerly sought after for being famous [then] current international cricketers. Warne had only recently retired.

In 2011, there will be a new fresh player auction and it is quite likely that the likes of Hayden, Gilchrist, Kumble, Warne, Murali and Ganguly would not be purchased at the auction, especially if they don't perform too well in this year's tournament.

While a Kolkata Knight Riders side sans Sourav Ganguly (or indeed a Rajasthan Royals minus Shane Warne) seems unthinkable, the whole point of organizing a tournament on this scale, with title sponsorship sold for 5 years, mobile rights sold for 8 years and TV broadcast rights sold for 10 years, is to ensure that the tournament outlasts individuals.

Hopefully from next year, the IPL will trim down the number of games by splitting the 10 teams into 2 groups. A 45 day tournament to decide the best T20 side from among 8 is around 15-20 days too long! Having 2 groups, and sticking to the current play-each-other-home-and-away formula would mean a total of 44 games (20 league games per group, 2 semis, 1 wooden spoon game and 1 final) and we could be done with the tournament a month!

The quality of cricket so far has been excellent. While seamers have actually made a mark (Vaas, Angelo Mathews, Malinga and Sreesanth), they'll find it tougher as the pitches ease out over the next 40 days. The fielding has largely been really good and all evidence points to R Sathish as being one of the fielding stars of the tournament. For further evidence of his skills, see one of his catches in the 2008 Indian Cricket League tournament.

While we're at it, why don't you take a shot at who will lose the most matches at the 2010 IPL?

	Bangalore Royal Challengers
	Chennai Super Kings
	Deccan Chargers
	Delhi Daredevils
	Kings XI Punjab
	Kolkata Knight Riders
	Mumbai Indians
	Rajasthan Royals

Labels: fielding, indian premier league, ipl 2010, twenty20

Thus spake Jagadish @ 1:55 am | Sledge/Read 1 sledge(s)
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed - | | Tweet ]