Ramanean’s Blog

At the start of the tournament Rajasthan was considered as a weak team by many pundits and they gave them 10% chance of wining the IPL.But as the tournament progressed many cricket pundits were made to eat their own words by the Rajasthan Royals as they won match after match with ease.Suddenly in the middle of tournament ,these cricket pundits retracked their words and now started saying Rajasthan as the favourites to win the tournament…….

That is why cricket is called as a game of uncertainities and also though this has been a good team effort ,all praises should go to their inspirational captain Shane Warne who inspired youngsters like Asnodkar to   a great level.This is what a inspirational captain or leader can do to a team,they can bring the best out in each and every  person.

A leader should be such that he should be able to inspire each and every one of his team and also he should be able to extract their skills and talents hidden in them in way that will help realize common goals..

IPL aka Indian Premier League got of to great start at Chinnaswamy grounds on Friday.The opening match between kolkata Knight riders and Bangalore Challengers was a one sided affair with Knight riders winning the match by a comfortable margin of over 100 runs.
The special about that match was Brendon McCullum ’s Superb 158 which included over 12 sixes and as many as 7 fours.

The next match between Chennai Vs Punjab was somewhat a close contest by Twenty- Twenty standarads.McCullum’s record of century in 53 balls stood only one day as Hussey (Elder one) scored a century of just 50 balls for super kings.Bandrinath and Raina contributed with useful cameos and in the end Chennai reached 240 in 20 overs.Punjab got of to a good start with James Hopes scoring 79 ,but most of others failed to contribute substantially with the bat which resulted Punjab losing the match .

The next one between Rajasthan and Delhi was a one sided affair with Delhi romping home with 9 wickets to spare in 15.2 overs.

Let us see how IPL fares in the coming days..

After seeing him in his first match ,I though India had got a genuine fast bowler who can bowl at 140-150 KMPH consistently and his yorker to remove Hoggard in his first test match still remains in my mind.After few matches which he did well ,he got injured and came back after a lay off.

Once he returned to intenational scene he looked like a ordinary Indian bowler bowling at 125-130 KMPH and also due to absence of swing he suffered a lot at the hands of batsman and also his fielding his very worse than any otherplayer.Though he is economical ,he gives away nearly 15 odd extra runs in the field which can be crucial in tight situations.

When you see Australian players like Glen McGrath with great fitness levels ,you may wonder why Munaf is not doing the same even though he is younger than Glen.

I think Board needs to tell him to improve his fitness ,otherwise you may be dropped as nowdays fielding is more important than batting and bowling

IPL(Indian Premier League) auction of players got off to good start today where Dhoni was picked up by India cements(chennai team) for a very high bid of $1.5 milion and next to Dhoni was Symonds(Monkey hero) who was picked by Deccan Chronicle group for $1.35 million.

Sqauds :
Jaipur Shane Warne (US$450,000), Graeme Smith (US$475,000), Younis Khan (US$225,000), Kamran Akmal (US$150,000), Yusuf Pathan (US$475,000), Mohammad Kaif (US$675,000), Munaf Patel (US$275,000), Justin Langer (US$200,000)

Chennai MS Dhoni (US$1.5 million), Muttiah Muralitharan (US$600,000), Matthew Hayden (US$375,000), Jacob Oram (US$675,000), Stephen Fleming (US$350,000), Parthiv Patel (US$325,000), Joginder Sharma (US$225,000), Albie Morkel (US$675,000), Suresh Raina (US$650,000), Makhaya Ntini (US$200,000), Michael Hussey (US$350,000)

Mumbai Sachin Tendulkar (icon), Sanath Jayasuriya (US$975,000), Harbhajan Singh (US$850,000), Shaun Pollock (US$550,000), Robin Uthappa (US$800,000), Lasith Malinga (US$350,000), Dilhara Fernando (US$150,000), Loots Bosman (US$175,000)

Bangalore Rahul Dravid (icon), Anil Kumble (US$500,000), Jacques Kallis (US$900,000), Zaheer Khan (US$450,000), Mark Boucher (US$450,000), Cameron White (US$500,000), Wasim Jaffer (US$150,000), Dale Steyn (US$325,000), Nathan Bracken (US$325,000), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (US$200,000)

Hyderabad Adam Gilchrist (US$700,000), Andrew Symonds (US$1.35 million), Herschelle Gibbs (US$575,000), Shahid Afridi (US$675,000), Scott Styris (US$175,000), VVS Laxman (US$375,000), Rohit Sharma (US$750,000), Chamara Silva (US$100,000), RP Singh (US$875,000), Chaminda Vaas (US$200,000), Nuwan Zoysa (US$110,000)

Mohali Yuvraj Singh (icon), Mahela Jayawardene (US$475,000), Kumar Sangakkara (US$700,000), Brett Lee (US$900,000), Sreesanth (US$625,000), Irfan Pathan (US$925,000), Ramesh Powar (US$170,000), Piyush Chawla (US$400,000), Simon Katich (US$200,000), Ramnaresh Sarwan (US$225,000)

Kolkata Sourav Ganguly (icon), Shoaib Akhtar (US$425,000), Ricky Ponting (US$400,000), Brendon McCullum (US$700,000), Chris Gayle (US$800,000), Ajit Agarkar (US$330,000), David Hussey (US$675,000), Ishant Sharma (US$950,000), Murali Kartik (US$425,000), Umar Gul (US$150,000), Tatenda Taibu (US$125,000)

Delhi Virender Sehwag (icon), Daniel Vettori (US$625,000), Shoaib Malik (US$500,000), Mohammad Asif (US$650,000), AB de Villiers (US$300,000), Dinesh Karthik (US$525,000), Farveez Maharoof (US$225,000), Tillakaratne Dilshan (US$250,000), Manoj Tiwary (US$675,000), Gautam Gambhir (US$725,000), Glenn McGrath (US$350,000)

Of this Hyderbad teams look a lot better than other teams on paper ,they have the big four Gilchrist,Gibbs,Afridi Symonds who can tore apart any bowling attack in the world.Also in addition to this they have Laxman and Rohit Sharma to act a s glue.And also their bowling attack is very good with likes of RP Singh ,Styris, Vass and Zoysa.

Let us wait and watch how the teams fare when IPL begins in April

Rohit Sharma was fined 10% of his match fee for dissent after being incorrectly judged caught behind for 0 off Muttiah Muralitharan at the Gabba. Sharma was the second India batsman to remain camped to the crease following his dismissal over the past six weeks, but his punishment was stronger than Yuvraj Singh’s following an in-depth pre-series discussion on behaviour by Jeff Crowe, the match referee.

Source:www.cricinfo.com

It again shows ICC in bad light.It is natural for batsman or a bowler to show his displeasure over some decisions butwhy ICC is taking this seriously .If a cricket had verbally abused umpire or other players then it’s okay but not for these and that when Rohit Sharma was fined for a wrong decision that went against him.

Also the same punishment was not handed over to Clarke of Australia when he stood in his crease even though he clearly knew that he nicked it .

So Why ICC and match referres is hell bent upon punishing Sub continent players.

This certainly makes believe that there is racism in cricket and a lot has to be done by ICC to remove this from cricket