Initially I clicked on this essay, presuming it to be written by Rajeev Srinivasan.I'm a bit choosey and dont want to spoil my mood by reading the essays of anti-nationals like Bidwai.
I enjoyed reading this column.Personally I'm not for these cheerleaders.....the reason being that this cheerleading dance will trickle down to the village high school matches too. But inspite of my opposition to the cheerleading folks,I liked the opinions of Rajeev S especially the following sentence:
In a delicious reversal of roles as compared to colonial times, white players were performing as gladiators for the benefit of Indians. And Western women were performing as 'nautch girls' in an ancient spectator sport loved by all couch potatoes.
While the IPL was a resounding success, it can at best be described as mildly innovative. Like others have described, the framework is a tested formula that has succeeded in other forms of the game. IPL must however be commended for pulling off a 44 day tournament at relatively short notice.
What the author fails to address about the IPL is the level of risk that each of these owners took was so low, that it is laughable.Keep in mind, that only the IPL had access to all the best players. So, there was no competition with other leagues. It is a monopolistic league which muscles its success with the threat of bans. Not a whole lot t admire, in my opinion.
If someone would only start a Kabaddi league with all the cheer leading squads, and compete with the WWF, now thats innovation!
RE:Innovative - mildly at best
by Rishi Maker on Jun 11, 2008 01:39 AM
How can you call IPL innovative ... copying other people's ideas .. IPL is a byproduct of ICL ... The notion of league does not exist .. Its good for IPL that Rajasthan royal won the finals but soon there will be a team that rocks the league stage and looses the semi finals badly .. There is nothing in it for topping the league ... The number of foriegn players should be increase to 5 or 6 and the number of franchises should increase .. This will ensure enough indian domestic players get a chance ... Orange cap and Purple cap is a good innovation . Man of the series should be a point based system instead so that we all know who is tending towards the Man of the series (like in cricket world cups).
With all the money that they generated ... Power cuts in matches , poor quality pitches , tickets sold in blacks shows poor management something we tend to accept ...
RE:
by Vishvaksenah E on Jun 10, 2008 10:03 PM
Fight fire with fire! I'm indeed happy that the author used the word "White Players". This is appropriate and I hope more authors do the same.
1. A salary cap for the team as a whole doesn't appear to be a foolproof idea. Instead salary cap be placed for individual players, after grouping them under three categories - A,B,C - based on their performances in the past and recent past, ICC rankings in the last 3 years, potential as revealed by current form etc.
2. We have seen that some of the icon players who proved to be ranging from ordinary to non performing to plain disasters. This icon status should be scrapped and every player should come under three categories as above.
3. Salary should be fixed per match rather than by way of a lumpsum. If a player is fit and available for playing but is not included in the playing XI, he should be given a small percentage of the fee, say 10 or 15%. 12th man should be paid 25% of the contracted fee and other players coming in to field as substitutes should also be paid 10% of their match fee.
4. Only three overseas players should be allowed to be included in the playing XI - what did players like Geeves, Ronchi, White, Kapugedera, Shoaib Malik contribute? This will give exposure to more Indian players.
5. Retired foreign players like McGrath, Shane Warne, Stephen Fleming, Pollock, Lehman should not be included.
6. Increase the number of teams to 9 by adding one team (may be Lucknow or Ahmedabad) and have only one match for each team against the remaining 8 instead of 2 as at present. (Four at home, four away).
Branding BCCI as innovative is like congratulating Tanuja Chandra for a beautiful theme of the movie. BCCI borrowed heavily from the other sports to start IPL. The fact is there is no innovation in anything. Having said all this, BCCI dared to do what others did not even htink of. That too actually happned after ICL. Anywayz, hats off to BCCI. I enjoyed every moment of IPL.
Among the batsmen, Indian maestro Sachin Tendulkar (777 pts) trails South African opener Grame Smith (792 pts).
Tendulkar is followed by Australian captain Ricky Ponting.
Pakistan batsman Mohammad Yousuf and Shivnarain Chanderpaul complete the top five.
Team India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who is at the 10th spot, is the highest ranked Indian after Tendulkar. His deputy Yuvraj Singh is at the 15th position.
In the bowlers' list, temparamental off-spinner Harbhajan Singh (18th) is the only Indian in the top 20.
Irfan Pathan in 38th while Sreesanth (49th), RP Singh (66th), Piyush Chawla (101st) and Ishant Sharma (106th) will be hoping for an upward movement in their rankings.
Daniel Vettori leads the charts with Nathan Bracken and former Kiwi tearway pacer Shane Bond second and third respectively.
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Tags: icc odi rankings, india, fourth, new zealand, australia, south africa, tendulkar, smith, vettori.
Among the batsmen, Indian maestro Sachin Tendulkar (777 pts) trails South African opener Grame Smith (792 pts).
Tendulkar is followed by Australian captain Ricky Ponting.
Pakistan batsman Mohammad Yousuf and Shivnarain Chanderpaul complete the top five.
Plans are afoot to make Test matches more attractive and ensure the Twenty20 format does not destroy the traditional five-day game, according to IS Bindra, who takes charge as the ICC's principal advisor next month.
Bindra said the sport's governing body was concerned at dwindling Test attendance. "We need to learn from our experiences and move forward," Bindra told the Week, an Indian magazine. "We in the ICC have had very serious discussions for the last six to eight months on how to repackage Test cricket, make it more exciting and introduce an element of competition.
"It does not mean tinkering with the form but we are looking to bringing in more audience in Test matches." Bindra, a former president of the BCCI, declined to reveal the measures being considered but said the "the ICC was looking at ways to increase scoring-rates [and] have a world championship of Test cricket."
These plans will be unveiled as early as next month when the ICC holds their annual meeting at its headquarters in Dubai. Bindra sidestepped suggestions that Twenty20 will spell more trouble for the 50-over format than Test cricket. "The future of 50-overs cricket is something that one has to look at in the long term."
"For now, the ICC has laid a stipulation that all Test nations must play a minimum of 30 one-day internationals and 12 Tests each year as part of the existing Future Tours Programme (FTP) that runs till 2012."
