Looking forward to IPL V

Disclaimer: The disclaimer appears upfront so that anyone of you who don’t want to read these notings under, Beyond Randomness, can do that right away.

I am not a cricket expert, though I have sometimes found Harsha inspiring (not after I found him yawning after a movie premier earlier this week). I am a regular indian who loves to watch his cricket with an occasional drink. As I am an MBA, I tend to over analyse the happenings around me. Pl do not expect any sense of humor in this article after decades of my peaceful existence in matrimony. Finally, do not expect any original ideas over here. Though I can assure you that the writing as a whole is completely original.

This article has been inspired by the falling TVR (aka Television Rating) of the IPL4. Actually not. The inspiration happened when I read Shri Shri Lalit Modi (aka the god of making money via cricket) talking about the falling rating. Wonder why is he blaming the current administration for the falling ratings. The ratings fell because Lalit wanted to make more money (presumably for BCCI) and created 10 franchises. Because there were 2 new franchises they needed players and it required re-auction of all the players. For better understanding of this issue, please read my previous blog, Why IPL is such a bore this year

Coming to the core of this article. I really want to see IPL V. Thats because next year there will be no Cricket World Cup of the 50 over variety. I would not have had the opportunity to rave about M S Dhoni and his greatness, as espoused in my blog, Demonstrating leadership away from limelight: the MS Dhoni way. So, to fill the emptiness in my evenings, I will want to watch IPL V. BUT, for that I have some thoughts as to how to make the next edition more interesting:

Buy Back: First things first. Need to rectify the errors of the past. If 10 teams is a bad idea as also espoused by the Glycodin man (aka Chirayu Amin), reduce them to 8. Chirayu tried to cough 2 teams out of IPL but Glycodin prevented the same. Now like a good corporate (who buys back the shares of its own company when the market price is lower than its own estimate), BCCI needs to go ahead and buy back 2 franchisees. They can create artificial boundaries to help them buy these back at a lower cost than what Sahara Shri paid them. It would definitely help.

Advertising for teams: The teams need to create anthems or advertising not just on the ethicity but also with the names of each of the players. As even towards the end of the tournament, we still argue about which player belongs to which team. Set Max can take cue from Khatron Ke Khiladi as to how they show name of all the participants.

Controversy: This IPL has been woefully low on controversy. This is not good sign for any successful event. Some controversies had a good beginning but fizzled out at the end. SRK not picking up Dada, Warne and Dixit spat have been no news at all.Liz Hurley presence did create some stir so did presence of Dale Styn’s girlfriend. But these sensations were at the wrong place, nothing to do with TVRs. The story of Gabriella Pasqualotto getting sacked for writing a blog was spicy. But her blog is a disappointment. No real news in it. Wonder why she got sacked! The BCCI machinery is missing the suspended IPL commissioner (aka Lalit Modi). Some action will be required next year.

Sack: if some cheerleaders needed to get a sack, these are the ones who are from the Sahara camp. Bharat Natyam and Kuchipudi is an insult to such great dance forms. We are better off with the sexy gyrations as part of the entertainment. What we need is that the TV Camera should focus more and more on the eye candy in between 2 overs.

Retirements: This part of the article changed today after I saw Warne bowl his last over in competitive cricket. He was spinning the ball like it was a top. Rohit, one of the finest talent in Indian side (is he in the Indian side?) was bamboozled by the old wily fox (aka Warne). So, Warne cannot be allowed to retire and so cant Gilly, after his century the other day. But heading my list or retirements is Sunny Gavaskar from the commentary box as he should allow Rohan his space in the sun. Let him become a successful commentator, atleast! And why not Ravi. He is no longer the most handsome cricketer (ever since Virat took the crown from him). And all those bimbos (is it a sexist statement?) who feature in the studio during Extraa Innings can go!!!

Now some serious cricketing suggestions (just in case you thought the points above were frivolous)

UDRS: I have become used to UDRS as it doesnt tolerate errors. And I hate errors. Today, Tendulkar getting a reprive was yet another instance that all forms of cricket must have UDRS to keep the pressure on the umpires.

Foreign player rule: I genuinely feel that BCCI should enhance the number of foreign players to 5. The cricket will become more competitive and interesting. Such talent sitting on the sidelines is a bad idea. The Rahul Sharma, Valthaty and Iqbal Abdullahs of the world will still find their place in the sun, if they are good. They dont need this kind of artificial protection.

Extra Points:  To make the game more interesting, we need to incentivise teams winning with a large margin. So, if you win with 20% balls to spare, you get 3 points instead of 2. Currently, winning on the last ball and with 4 overs to spare are the same things. It can make the journey to the playoff stage more unpredictable.

Strategic time out: We dont need this nonsense at all. I have nothing more to add on this point.

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

Why IPL is such a bore this year?

To start with, who am I to write such a piece and even believe that someone can read this. Here goes my biodata. I am a cricket enthusiast, whose wife thinks he is a bad influence for turning children into couch potatoes. She wonders if I had so much passion for cricket why I got into corporate India instead of being another Harsha Bhogle. Here is more, I have two sons, who love MS Dhoni when he wins for India and hate him when he plays for CSK. What? All of this doesnt sound anything special about me? All of this is very typically Indian. OMG, I give up.

Wait, I am one of few Indians who watched India play and win all their World Cup knock out matches in the stadia. In January, I also said that investing in Cricket World Cup merchandise is a better idea than investing in IPL merchandise and finally in the second week of April I stuck my neck out and said that IPL 4 is going to have lesser rating percentage compared to the previous edition.

As I stuck my neck out early in the season and now am laughing myself to the bank courtesy some wins made over the office lunch table (bad debts not yet provisioned for). Question remains as to why I said what I said. I guess some of you who know me will call it plain, vanilla contrarian approach which has come true. Others who don’t know me will now have a nick name for me, Paul the Octopus. But the reality dawned on me when I read the following piece in cricinfo today relating to preview of a match tomorrow. Pl note that the parenthesis have my comments and not the original piece.

“In the last three years, Kolkata provided moments of hilarity, a chaotic management model, and a sense of pathos. (No such excitement is there this year. Though some say that Pune is the new KKR. But where is the Fake IPL player, where is the sulking SRK) Everything changed this year and here they are hovering at the top. Their batting was solid in the first half of the tournament and their bowlers have won the last two games for them. Brett Lee (What is a Punjab player doing) has sizzled, L Balaji (Isnt he a Dhoni man) has almost turned the clock back to his past, Iqbal Abdulla (which country does he belong to) has continued his form from the last domestic season, Jacques Kallis (the Mallaya man) has continued to be solid and Yusuf Pathan (the guy Warne discovered) has been steady and the bowling department has prospered. Three men - Gautam Gambhir (the Delhi local boy), Kallis, and Manoj Tiwary (dont remember his team)- have tallied over 220 runs, and Yusuf Pathan and Eoin Morgan have not been really required to flex their muscles yet. Things are looking good for Kolkata.”

As things look good for Kolkata, the same is not the case with IPL 4 as far as ratings are concerned. Ratings are down 22% over last year. The situation gets worse as the ratings are down 27% over last 10 matches.^

Player recognition is the biggest issue. Some illustrations are given above, We have 5 foreign captains amongst 10 teams. Last time it was 3 out of 8. The star players dont play for their own cities. Gambhir is a Bengali gentleman, Yuvraj is not a Punjabi munda, Dravid is not a Bangalorean, VVS now belongs to Kerela. Dada has been forced to take a sabbatical. Who is T R Birt and Klinger (names I heard in the DD and KTK match on 2nd May). And then to top it all we have ten teams. It is beyond simple human ability to configure all these changes in one’s head without the use of a computer. These new teams even seem to have somewhat funny names, Kochi Tuskers Kerala and Pune Warriors India. Incidentally both eams changed their names post the initial announcement.

Unpredictability makes the game more interesting. All of us agree with the same. Isnt there a limit for everything. If the points table is like a deck of cards getting shuffled after every deal (match), you obviously dont have any favourites. You actually start calling the game a lottery. Do you remember the days that online lottery used to be telecast “live” on television. I never liked watching the same.

And where is the Razzmatazz and the chutpatah flavour of the past. Shilpa thinking that Warne is a fast bowler. Harbhajan slapping Sreesanth. The joke is still that Sree cried because he did not get a hug from the franchise owner. SRK sulking and not watching the match. The IPL commissioner’s charismatic presence at almost all the matches and the well talked about parties with the Fake IPL player adding his two bits. What we now have the Pune Cheerleaders doing Bharat Natyam on a cricket stage.

After the high of India winning the world cup, it is not a great thing to watch the stars battle against each other. Cheering for Malinga is now very different from last year. Do we also have some tired players around. To avoid controversy, I will not name them. But your guess will be better than mine. Beyond criticim we do have some constants though. The richest lady’s presence at the games. Sachin’s hunger for runs and the CSK team which barring Murli looks the same. But these constants are not enough for IPL 4 as the ratings are down about 20% over last year. BCCI and Sony may be laughing their way to the bank but this is not good omen for IPL franchise. This is not the way that you would treat the hen that lays golden eggs.

PS: you can also connect with me on twitter @agrawalsanjeev

^ As per article in Cricinfo dated April 28th. http://www.espncricinfo.com/indian-premier-league-2011/content/story/512936.html