Indian Premier League 2011

look I don't want to take anything away from Raj but except for his prediction of the Player of the Series, which was Yuvraj Singh, no prediction was exceptional.

He predicted PAK to barely qualify for the QF's, as it turned out they topped the group, he predicted NZL to top their group as it turned out they finished 4th. He predicted BAN to barely win a game, as it turned out they beat both IRE and ENG apart from beating NET, well and many more such predictions. In fact his prediction of RSA reaching the finals was good but it went wrong which was unfortunate.

I'm not having a dig at him, neither am I saying he is not good at predictions, in fact his knowledge about Indian cricket and players is excellent and he has a very good cricketing brain too but his predictions are nothing but biased in favor of India and against Pakistan and even Bangladesh. Most of the time he doesn't predict things he merely writes what he wishes.

Now once again, nothing against him, but highlighting only the right things and not the wrong ones is... well... not fair.


Edited by sam_ahmed - 11 April 2011 at 8:07pm

nothing against you Raj, I was just making a point. :)

coming back to IPL, well Charges are going no where, I'd love to see KKR win this time but genuinely I think Bangalore have a terrific team and are my favorites followed by Pune who I think have a fantastic T20 team.

 Well Zuhair I can assure you the following is not the same as the previous editions. Most likely reason to be WC hangover too much cricket and such a short burst, they taking the indian cricket public a lil too much for granted.

  Apparently KKR's first home match, the day before, saw a turn out of only 25000 of the 65000 capacity. 1st time the stadium was not filled to capacity ( remember previously before the WC renovation the capacity was more than 90000).  Another reason being the exclusion of Ganguly from the side not going down too well with the home crowd.

Having said that the analyst say the viewership is still a lot more than any other normal cricket match not involving India.

I don't see any reason why he should call it quites. He is playing as well as he probably ever has - and seems pretty fit on the field in any format that he plays. And I as a cricket fan would want Sachin to continue as long as it goes - because there are few better sights in world cricket than watching Sachin bat in supreme touch.

Originally posted by zuhair_abbasi I don't see any reason why he should call it quites. He is playing as well as he probably ever has - and seems pretty fit on the field in any format that he plays. And I as a cricket fan would want Sachin to continue as long as it goes - because there are few better sights in world cricket than watching Sachin bat in supreme touch.

Yes would love to see him carry on for ever. But sadly, all good things must come to an end.

 Meanwhile Sachin has been feted by Wisden for the first time since it started in 2004. Finally..

http://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/current/story/510540.html


Edited by vote4peace - 13 April 2011 at 3:03pm

 Valthaty Who?? Hello stranger !! My word what a knock, and where did he come from. Treated the likes of A Morkel, Southee, Ashwin , Randhiv with absolute disdain. Apparently he had played alongside I Pathan,  Parthiv Patel in his U-19 days.

 His name in malayalam(my regional tongue ) translates  'sword lowered', He did anything but that out there in the middle today. Today he upheld his sword(bat) real high.

 

Decent outings for R.Jadeja and Robin Uthappa, should bring a smile to their fanatic's faces. Meanwhile Watson, Lee, Shakib, C White, Bollinger to join the rest of the bandwagon at  IPL-IV.

In other news Pakistan keen to start their own version of the IPL, and are  planning of holding it in Dubai. Umm... so very soon we could be watching a PPL too. 

The Pakistan League is unlikely to happen and even if it does, it wont attract the bigger players. Only the discards and those who were not auctioned will give it a go. It could be one for a lot of BD and Zim players - and it wont be a huge success in the UAE. the PCB, it seems, is in desperate mood to earn some revenue as we have no cricket at home and that is not likely to change in the next year or so.

There is one wonderful news that has come for both PCB and also for cricket fans all across the globe, Indian government have announced that India will resume cricketing ties with Pakistan and it is likely that the Pakistani players will be allowed to play in the next years IPL as well.

The series might be played next year in March when PAK are scheduled to tour India although the talk is that India will have to tour PAK before that. However, India do not have a window to tour Pakistan anytime before March next year.

It has been left to the respective boards to decide on the dates and venues.

Originally posted by Mikey If other boards get a cut of BCCIs revenues then they will create a window for IPL and expanded to maybe 10 teams and then you will stop other leagues popping up.

I find that absurd. Why would the BCCI share the revenues of its domestic league with the other boards. I don't see ECB sharing their county cricket revenue or ACB giving a share of its Big Bash domestic T20 competition despite having many foreign players too.

I don't see any reason why the IPL should have a separate window (its purely a domestic tourney), or why other leagues shouldn't prop up.

At no point did I blame the BCCI mate. What happened to the Lankan team in March 2009 was reason enough for other teams not to tour Pakistan and I am absolutely fine with it.

Playing a home series in UAE wont be a bad idea though. India being the world champions now would not be too keen to make room for bilateral series though methinks.

That will never happen mate, you are right. And it won't be long before the ICC finds a window for IPL in the calendar.

The ICC is pretty much the BCCI - so it won't be long before that happens. I do not see the ECB altering their season - so it will be the IPL which will be shifted to some other months and all boards will eventually succumb to it.

Originally posted by sam_ahmed nothing against you Raj, I was just making a point. :) coming back to IPL, well Charges are going no where, I'd love to see KKR win this time but genuinely I think Bangalore have a terrific team and are my favorites followed by Pune who I think have a fantastic T20 team.

I very know Sam that you have nothing against me, just that I was pointing to some points that you missed.