Randomness around IPL VII

I have watched a cumulative of about 20 overs in the first 3 matches of IPL VII. That qualifies me as an expert to comment on the league as a billion others. A circus coming right on the heels of the real thing, a World Cup, is just not happening. We have not even got over the fact that Dhoni would have lifted the cup and this nation gone crazy after three years, but for the "hero to zero" Yuvi.

But hold on. Who am I to write a satire on this game which is becoming bigger and bigger by season. Did you even know that in the match between Delhi and Bangalore more than £ 23 million were bet on betfair (a British betting website) alone? And the Indian police still believe that Mr Kundra (a British citizen) needed to bet a few Lakhs in India. That was his way of paying off at the bar. You know what I mean.

Guys whoever thought that Lalit was behind all the wheeling dealing didn't know of one Mr. Gurunath. And for all those who thought with both these gone the game would be clean, God bless them, as they don't know of Srinivas. The king, the master, the lord. By the way, I am still blessing the noble soul, the Supreme Court judge who made Sunny the BCCI head honcho. This must be the kindest act that the gentleman would have done in his entire life. Ensuring that the viewers don't have to go thru his commentary deserves a "Ratna". I would have started an online petition on the same if had got rid of Ravi along with Sunny. Par yeh ho na saka.

We were all going bonkers seeing those stumps light up in the WT20, every time the ball hit them, but we ain't seen anything. Check out Mr. Mallaya's latest hairdo. He told that this cut is aerodynamic which is inspired by F1. Yes sir, we know that as your team co-owner is in custody, you think you own the whole team. Please enjoy till the time your F1 team is amongst points. We all know that after the revised open offer of USL you have become even more rich. But I ain't telling the KF airlines employees. Sir, congratulations to you on the thumping victory in the first match. I believe Yuvi pulled off a heist. I know, I know. It's all about money, honey. Yuvi has even attempted to copy your hairdo…….. So very loyal. What INR 140 million can't do?

We all know the problem with this edition of the league is the elections. People are so busy making fun of thappad, feku and pappu that they don't even have time to watch the games. They are not even talking about the most promising high jump athlete of the league, Ashok Dinda. He may be changing sides but he is still as consistently getting angry on the fielders when his full toss is dispatched to the boundary. He has shown that class is permanent and form temporary in the very second match of the tournament.

Did you see the latest innovation in the game? Umpire HeadCam. Wow, so the on-field umpires now have an added responsibility to ensure that the action replays are delivered correctly to the third umpire. On a more serious note, this has made them visually more interesting. Somewhat like the flycam. 2-in-1. So, there can be some saving in the production cost by eliminating the flycam. I guess cost consciousness in any organization is a good thing. Especially when the event is being held in 2 countries.

Did you hear the sound of the ball hitting the bat? I don’t like it at all. It is just not sweet the way Ravi describes it. I need some phonetic engineer to help me define the sound. It seems like the sound of concrete. It is quite possible as the grounds have more sand underneath in the Middle East than soil. Or is it Oil? Never mind. The more serious issue is that there are likely to be quite a few pulled hamstrings, so does Siddhu paaji say, because of the kind of outfield surface. Well, even before the tournament started Kevin and Gayle the star attractions are not fit. God Bless.

One team that doesn't seem to change their way of losing is Double Dees. Even though the team has a completely new look and I couldn't associate anyone with DD, the end result was still the same. Lossssssss. A Team whose fortune seems to have gone down is the Cement team. After all this, do I care? Phew. Sarook and Preity’s teams had a positive turn in their fortunes. Lets wish them all the best guys as they need alternate careers after Bollywood. Sympathy, you know. And anyways, because of Mamta and other bongs I can't criticize Sarook’s team.

The final observation of mine should worry the mandarins of the Indian T 20 league is about the lack of financial support. The players’ jerseys, which had become like a moving billboard, are much cleaner this season or am I dreaming. This isn’t good news. Even when there are logos, they seem to have been slapped on the jerseys in an unaesthetic manner, indicating last minute deals. And as we know last minute deals are desperate ones, normally done at much lower rates than desired.

Before I end, loved the spidey touch in the promos. Very different. Though the same can't be said of Samir and Siddhu. Challenge for all organisations (and programs) is to choose between continuity and disruption. Season VII should have been long enough to go for the latter, esp when you are competing with the elections of the century.

This post of mine is randomness and more as it is too early to talk about statistics or otherwise. Let’s see how the tournament progresses. And the elections, as well. Will keep you all posted.

Do post your reactions below this blog. You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter

T20 - Team Game or Individual Brilliance

I write this during the 37^th Match between RCB and MI, a match in which the Gayle brilliance did not make its appearance. Still Gayle has been the talking point with his sixes & the dance that he has been doing on field. When you think about these examples T20 is all about individuals. Antics on the field cant be a team thing. Sammy pulling out a soother on making his first 50 of the IPL is about the individual. The west Indians have been adding a lot of colour, which is also individual. Virat’s behaviour on the field is also about an individual. Virat and Gambhir having a public spat is also about individuals (they are in opposite teams). Flying catches by Ponting or brilliant run-outs by Kohli is again about individuals. Siddhu’s shayari and Ravi’s boring routine is all about individuals.

So, what’s the point of writing this? T20 is about Individual brilliance. Out and over. What happens if a team has 3 run-outs in one innings (MI in 37^th match)? Or what happens, if a captain abuses a team member on camera (GG to Balaji)? Team work or lack of it?

But this is all qualitative. We need to get quantitative and look at some data.

First the discussion at a match level.

Looked at the top 4 bowling performances in IPL 2013, which had 4 or more wickets in an innings. In one of them the match was lost and 2 were supported by some great batting performances. Only one of them, that of Amit Mishra against Pune Warriors won the match single handedly. So, only 25% of top bowling performances won the match singly.

Next up, looked at top 10 batting performances with 85 runs and more in an innings. Out of 10, 4 of them involved another batsmen. 2 of the wins came with the support of a bowler and 1 of them was in a losing cause. Only 3 of them were singly responsible for winning the match and 2 of them came from Gayle. Again 30% of top batting performances got to wins singly.

I have limited data, but only 25-30% of top performances lead to single-handedly winning the match. If that is the case with top performances then it will be definitely lower with cameos.

If this analysis is about an individual match, a tournament like IPL is over a period of time and therefore for an individual the law of averages also catches up.  So, lets look at tournament performance.

I took all the batsmen who have scored 200+ runs in the tournament till the 36^th match. In addition took all the bowlers who have taken 9 or more wickets till now. And see the table that I got. The number of top performing batsmen + bowlers in the tournament correlates extremely well with the inverse of ranking (10 – Rank on the points table). An amazing correlation of 78%. Strongly suggesting that in a tournament team performance is more important than just one individual.

You can see if 4-5 players have performed well then the team is also doing well.

Team	Bowlers	Batsmen	Total	Inverse Ranking
RCB	2	2	4	9
CSK	3	2	5	8
RR	2	3	5	7
SRH	4	0	4	6
KXIP	2	1	3	5
MI	1	2	3	4
KKR	2	2	4	3
PWI	0	1	1	2
DD	1	1	2	1

RCB has Kohli batting well besides Gayle. CSK has 3 bowlers besides Hussey and Dhoni batting well. Surprising is the SRH team that has 4 bowlers and no batsmen doing well in the tournament and are in top 4. Again if SRH get their batting act right like in match 36 against RR, they will be dangerous. PWI and DD have at the bottom of the table for the same reason. Exception is KKR. And I believe that all exceptions prove the rule.

Hope you make some sense of my analytics and tend to agree that T20 is a team game.

Keep watching IPL and this space.

All data used above is till match 36^th played on 27^th April 2013 (first match)

PS: You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.

New and different IPL

IPL is so exciting that I have to write a column or two every year. Is it Indian Premier League or is it Injured and Pensioners League? In any case, what’s in a name? So, move on. This year’s tournament is really different. Did I hear some sniggering? You skeptical guys. What? The use of word "guys" is sexist? Are there any women reading this? I am Surprised and honoured.

Please read on to understand the difference, the novelty.

The best news from IPL was delivered even before the first ball was bowled. The news was delivered in the homes of the Kingfisher employees, who will get 2 months of arrears now. A Diwali before Diwali. Please applaud such humanitarian gesture from a team owner. The employees are now keenly waiting for the F1 to come up.

In other news before the games started, there was a brand new title sponsor. Pepsi. We were all excited as we like Pepsi more than DLF. There is no controversy about who Pepsi sent free samples to. Free flats and land gets political. So, a drink is fine. Though, after the games started we were told that Pepsi has been robbed of the key branding of the “maximums”. It was a rude surprise to us that it is going to be Yes Bank Maximum. And all of a sudden we wanted DLF maximum back. The wheel just turned back. With the new title sponsor we also have a set of new stumps. Yay!

Then there is a new channel broadcasting the tournament. Sony Six. Nothing new about the commentary or analysis or even technology except for the sixes tracker. The most exciting thing is that Six HD feed has not started accepting advertising. What a relief. Pure cricket. We don’t have to suffer Havell’s “social message” advertising every 15 minutes. Thank God for such mercy.

The new channel also brought in some new promotional advertising. The song goes, Jhampak, Jhampak, Jhamping, Jhapang. No discussion on how you like it or not over here. But, I believe that Farah khan was made to lose weight for the promos. This is good news for all the viewers of reality shows, which is her key profession ever since that disaster called, “Tees Maar Khan” was unleashed on us. What is more interesting is that the channel has got an adult film actress to do some jhatkas for the “extra innings” on this number. So, we now know who the target audience is, for the “extra innings”. And there is the new look Sameer Kochhar who is back after a stint in BALH (bade acche lagte hain) and brushing his acting skills. Though jury is still out as to which is his more ridiculed role.

We have a new team as well. Hyderabad sunrisers. Though the captain is the same, their jersey is competing for the worst jersey of the tournament. Wonder how Puma expects to sell any. We will reserve our comments and making fun of them as they won a rare match in Hyderabad, much to the surprise of even the local crowd. Even the local crowd has given up on this team as they didn’t turn up to watch the match. The television audiences are highly disappointed as they are missing the very charming Gayatri Reddy.

On a more serious note, there is a new brand partner for the IPL as well. Star India. Isn’t Star supposed to be a competition to Sony? Official sanction provided to ambush marketing? Or is it that Star realized that Star Plus lost more viewers during last year’s IPL compared to Sony and therefore it is important to leverage this most important property in Indian television history? Time will tell us the details of the strategy.

Talking about players, MI did a coup by picking up Ponting and even making him the captain. The entire nation went crazy about Pondulkar and all the excitement of the two opening the batting together. Two of them having a combined International run tally of over 60,000 and combined age of 77 is the most exciting thing that can happen to the cricket crazy nation. In other news, after first two games of MI, Glen Maxwell is the most envied person in this planet. You get a million dollars for doing nothing. Everyone is willing to give their left arm to trade places with Glen Maxwell.

The Pensioners League reached new heights this year with a 41 year old Gilly captaining a fledgling team. Atleast 2 players, Narine and Jadeja, have got a new haircut. 4 teams got new captains. And all these boring small changes happened. Whilst Rahul Dravid taught Rohit Sharma a lesson or two by proving that class is permanent.

In the meanwhile, bias also reached new high. Sri Lankan players were not allowed to play in Chennai for political reasons. The venue was not changed unlike the previous year when Hyderabad was dropped as a venue due to political strife.

Just before I end my piece, this year 2 new things that IPL has taught me. Firstly, Jaundice is not a serious ailment. Secondly, going by the jewellery worn by the West Indies players, I reckon that Gold is cheap in that part of the world.

I want to end my piece by saying that please comment and add all the points that I may have missed about what’s new in this IPL.

PS: You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter.
PPS: The opinions here are mine only. They do not pertain to any organisation or sponsor.

It all started with Kunti

Disclaimer: The author is not a mythology expert. As some of the observations are based on mythology, the same cannot be verified. If your feelings are hurt, the same is deeply regretted.

The premise of this writing is that the treatment of women in India is determined in a large part by the behavior of women themselves. As Mahabharata is considered a cultural symbol of India, this narration starts with my using popular stories (beliefs) extracted from the Epic.

Somewhere it all started with Kunti, the mother of Pandavas. To digress, I read a very interesting statement. A man who treats his woman like a princess is sure raised in the arms of a queen. This means that how a man behaves is in a large way the responsibility of his mother. Coming back to Kunti, when Pandavas returned after Draupadi’s Swayamvar, either of Yudhisthira or Bhima said, see mother what have we got. The implication was that they have got some alms. Kunti, without looking, told them to distribute whatever they have got equally amongst the five of them. Therefore, Draupadi had 5 husbands. The mythology has various discussions on what happened after Kunti’s verdict. However, there is no discussion on what Kunti felt or said to rectify the situation. This was an odd situation and King Drupada (Draupadi’s father) consulted various learned men on what should be done.

Did Kunti realize her mistake and felt bad about what was to become of Draupadi? Could she have said that I take my words back? I said this in error and my words are nullified. Couldn’t she have performed penance and summoned the Gods? Scriptures do not mention any of these acts by her. And that is why I say, it all started with Kunti.

Another folk retelling tells us how Kunti never shared her kitchen secrets with Draupadi. Through food Kunti ensured her sons still came to her and were not totally smitten by their beautiful wife. Is there an act of one upmanship?

Let’s switch to Draupadi. She is supposed to have been born out of fire. She could be fiery and angry when the situation called for it, but still had a compassionate nature. She encouraged people to face life with the same inner strength that she did. She is supposed to have told Karna during her Swayamvar that he is not eligible to marry her. However, there is no mention of her protesting her marriage with five men. Family honour?

Apparently, when Draupadi agreed to be the common wife, her condition was that she would share her household with no other woman. So, is it convenience at work on part of Draupadi?

Draupadi did protest when Dushasana came to fetch her after she was lost in the game of dice. However, even after her insult she goes to the forest with her husbands. This is what is taught in Hindu households? Patidharma?

Were Pandavas raised well by their mother? If yes, why did Yudhisthira gamble his wife? Wife is a possession like jewellery, kingdom and infantry?

Cut to modern India. Mother-in-laws are often an accomplice or even the mastermind in the act of atrocities against bahus? Where did it all start? Are these women taking revenge for what they themselves went through? Have they raised their sons well enough to respect women and their modesty? I am not willing to accept that all this should be blamed on society and women are helpless. If we have to blame, blame it on Mahabharata.

One of the more controversial subjects relates to objectification of women in Cinema and advertising. This has been beautifully written about by my ex-colleague Santosh Desai in one of his articles and I cannot add any more. However, do want to mention that the women who are party to this objectification are rich actresses who are not in dire need of money. They are portraying these roles with no moral qualms and under no pressure except for the greed of money.

I end by saying that none of this absolves Indian male of what is going on in the society. But our societal ills start from Mahabharata and the role of women in the state that they find themselves in. Women need to stand up for themselves and their rights. Some of the words used above are lack of compassion, jealousy, family honour and Patidharma. Women need to question these words and their usage in daily life. And mothers need to ensure that sons and daughters grow up in equality and learn compassion as demonstrated in the household. If change has to happen, women need to participate in the same.

Some controversial thoughts have been written here, hopefully they will serve as food for thought.

PS: Draupadi was blessed by Shiva in her previous birth that she have five husbands. This still doesn’t absolve Kunti for what she did as she was not aware of this boon. Also, the premise of this writing is that a woman having five husbands is not good for the woman. If you disagree with this premise then my whole argument falls flat.

I  look forward to your feedback. You can also connect with me on twitter via @agrawalsanjeev

I am not an IPL hater

I write this piece day after the Manic Monday, 14th of May. What was maniacal about this day? Two high scoring amazing games decided in the last over and one of them with a last ball six. This was a day when a TV channel known for its “investigative journalism” did a sting featuring small time IPL players talking about corruption.

As regulars on my blog, you would know I love writing and talking down the IPL, even accurately predicting the downfall of the ratings in IPL V. But right here I admit I am not an IPL hater. A BIG statement!! If you have more big scoring games and the ones that get decided on the last ball you will love the format. This year some 10 games have been decided on the last ball. That’s a game too many, I think. And I care less about these fixing charges. Fixing may happen if an airline gets petro dollars if a particular team loses. So, do you really care about the no ball fixing for a petty sum of a million Rupees.

And why are the ratings down? I have written on that earlier, so no more. Right now the time for some free advice as to how to improve the ratings for IPL VI. Some suggestions have been made in last year’s blog as well. Please note consistency is my forte. But most importantly the powers that be, must agree that IPL needs a “Relaunch” to maintain its vigour and vitality. If Shuklaji thinks Aal iz well then only God (aka LKM) can help him. With that preface, read on......

Franchise identity:                                                                                        

The franchise identity has been eroded by the constant chopping and chipping of the teams. Even the “icons” have switched. Ganguly is Pune or Kolkatta? And adding to the mess are these Max promos who keep reminding the viewers how the players have switched the franchises. For god’s sake let Viru and Mahela open the DD batting with Kevin / Warner following. Same for many others. There is a possibility that there may be a fresh set of auctions next year. Some report said that the retention limit should go up from 5 to 6-8. Why? Just let the franchisees retain the existing players if both agree. Why limit them. You need a long term identity. That can happen only with players. Don’t have any auction at all. The left over players and slots can be done on a one on one basis based on market forces. A formula can be found out as to how to limit the money being paid.

It’s a game based on individual brilliance:

IPL is masquerading as a team game. Let’s be honest, individual brilliance matters. Most games are decided by individuals and not team performance. The effect that a Narine or Malinga or Gayle or Rahane or Sehwag have had on the matches and their team’s standings is for everyone to see. So, how do you make the game more competitive? Just give more money for the individual brilliance. Ideally, IPL should pay more for individual brilliance in each match. If not the team owners should incentivise (or are they doing so already - based on what is being said in the stings).

Better scheduling of the matches:

Last 5 matches of Punjab have had 2 against Chargers and 2 against DD. Last 4 matches of MI have 2 against KKR. When you are fighting for a place in the play-offs, you don’t want 2 games against table toppers. Or your opponents don’t want you to have 2 against the bottom basement dwellers. This just makes the fight to the finish like a toss of the coin. Let’s have the league broken in two parts like the first year? The second set of matches will only start once the first set of league matches have been completed.

What’s new on Technology?

HD has been great to watch the matches. Ultra slow mo cameras have brought a new zest to watching the game with the way the bat moves after the impact of the ball. Or the calculation of the distance of the 6. Love all of it. But what’s new this year or even next?

Commentary:

I prefer to watch IPL on mute. The commentary is going from bad to worse. The studio is no better. As if Siddhu was not enough we have this import called Isa Guha? Why, pray tell me why? Titillation should be limited to the cheer girls and not on commentary, please. Need some serious improvement.

Speed of the game:

Game has to be faster. It is becoming slow and boring. Stiffer penalty for captains for not completing the overs in time is called for. Strategic time out needs to be brought down to one only. Most importantly, can we get field umpires to decide more, rather than going upstairs, as if going to heaven, for every decision?

Repetition of old points:

Now come the points mentioned last year as well. 5 foreigners are required in the playing eleven. The game will be far more exciting to see all the class that the world can offer. You can limit it to not more than 3 from one country to still keep it “Indian” Premier League. The Indian players will be served well to see Smiths of the world field like their life was at stake if the ball crossed the boundary. Chandilas of India need to fight for their spot against the Narines of the world. That is true competition. And I trust that the deserving Indians will compete and compete effectively. That will be good for everyone. The viewers will love a better game and that will get more money to the game. That’s when the Jadejas of India will not get overpaid just because he is Indian and an all rounder,

Points for winning it big has to be brought in. Why not? If you beat someone comprehensively, you must get a bonus point for sure. It will definitely add some “masala” to the points table.

PS: need to prevent the player burnout. Can we introduce a clause where we say that no player can play more than 75% of the league matches (12 out of 16 max cap). This is not my original idea though.

PPS: Can we ask some players to retire gracefully? Sachin, Ganguly, Gilly, Vettori?

Enough for now. I do look forward to your feedback on this piece. You can also connect with me on twitter via @agrawalsanjeev