Blind faith and the finances of the IPL

The decision to move the tournament to South Africa in a fit of panic has convinced me that all is not well on the glamorous marketing rave fits, people throw on the genius of Lalit Modi. In its debut season, the sheer numbers and projections thrown in were so unreal, that you had to ponder how much of it is made up. In terms of the financial aspects, this tournament is nothing more than a huge gambling den for the stinking rich and the best part is like good businessmen they don't use their ...

The tale of four captains

I have heard of multiple orgasms, multiple sex partners, multiple fractures, multiple organ failure and even a yearly multiple dysentery on you favorite curry from a shady road side joint. But multiple cricket captains is undoubtedly a ridiculous first. John Buchanan, as the coach of the Kolkatta Knight Riders, has sold his 'kinky' idea of multiple captains for this year's tournament. The choice of captains are quite interesting with Ganguly (the witch being hunted), Gayle (the pirate) an...

IPL: Rajasthan Royals wins the inaugural IPL

Seriously they have! Because how meaningless in context are these so-called knockout rounds in the name of Semi-finals and finals are in the IPL! Let's face it... In the case of a tournament having a large number of teams, say the world cup, where it is impossible for all the teams to play significant number of matches against each other considering a tournament that has to be spectator friendly, cannot go on for months. Hence it makes sense for the officials to divide them into groups and the l...

IPL: Why did the Deccan Chargers fail?

The clear pre-tournament favourites for many was the most disappointing team in the tournament. A batting line-up filled with explosive stars like Gilchrist, Gibbs, Symonds and Afridi was supposedly the sure-fire hit for twenty-20 cricket, yet they failed miserably. To be fair, on another year, the same people like Afridi and Gibbs could well have taken apart every opposition to boring sports psychologists. But then, the catch with these guys has been the big tag called "inconsistency". Gibbs...

Welcome racist India! No black cheerleaders please!

In the very first edition of the Indian Premier league (IPL), there has been string of pathetic displays of bad behaviour from the likes of players and team officials, from downright physical assaults, verbal abuses and dirt cheap treatment of the lesser known fringe players of the IPL by their team owners. What has been even more shocking is the report on some black cheerleaders been asked not to perform quite simply because the Indian people don't like to see dark people. Dancers Ellesha...