IPL Tiring

Even for a crazy cricket lover this IPL is tiring. No wonder why the TRP ratings are going down? Had it been a crispier tournament with just one round of matches between teams, it would have been perfect icing in the cake. Again, that doesn’t yield right dividends for the investors. Oops… did I say dividends? Mumbai Indians already declared their financial loss in IPL. So the cry for cricket fatigue is only going to fall in deaf ears.

Personally, I felt IPL robbed the times we would have celebrated on basking World Cup glory. However, an India - England TEST Series of 5 matches over 6 weeks shortly after World Cup sure lived to my imagination than 8 week edition of IPL. Again you can’t blame me for this as I grew up watching only TEST and ODI cricket. To me the journey and prayers of cricket lover is only partially completed after the World Cup victory. The remaining portion of the journey will be finished when India beat WI, England and Australia in a TEST series at their home soil. Eagerly looking forward to blog all these events.

Back to IPL

If you are a regular visitor of CCL, you may have noticed a disliking for Knight Riders largely because of the hatred towards King Khan. To phrase it better, the overwhelming love for Sourav Ganguly created the hatred on King Khan and his franchise. However the Badshah of Bollywood deserves due credit for dealing the right cards that carried Knight Riders to the Top 4 in the event they usually fancy the bottom half. I suspect Sourav Ganguly would have carried this Team to the Top 4. This statement is made on the assumption that the continued friction (battle) with the owner is only good to stall the progress of the franchise and the reputation of DADA’s leadership.

Finally the way Gambir carried his team compared to Yuvraj Singh deserves a pat on the back of selectors for the choice of understudy.

Despite having a weak team a good leader can inspire better performance from the unit. Punjab is a solid example to this statement as you see them finish ahead of Delhi, Deccan, Kochi and Pune. This is also the same logic for reasoning Chennai to be the Champions of IPL 2011.

Punjab may have stolen the heart of the people but it is the big boys bash for the title.

Though Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore and Knight Riders all appear good on paper; Knight Riders and Bangalore are more dependent on their batting unit. While Chennai and Mumbai are covered in all grounds, Chennai holds the edge due to the Captain Dhoni factor.

Bottom Line: If Tendulkar appetite is runs, Dhoni appetite is Wins.

Dinesh

Cricket Lover

PS: See you all again during the India Vs WI Series.