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.

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

IPL V - what’s missing

All of us have a point of view on the  ratings that the IPL V is generating. Some of us, like me, are clearly cynical about the ratings where as some media buyers are comfortable as they believe that the absolutes are going up. Also such high ratings for 5 years in a row are good. The advertiser in me is not convinced because we look for the quintessential Cost per rating point. The fact is that yesterday on 26th April 2012 in one strategic break there was no paid commercial on Set MAX. Seems like advertisers are not amused as to the way IPL is going.

Are the rating poor or not is not the moot point. The issue is also about the management view point. I guess I am too used to the business TV where every quarter the top management comes on air and gives their view on way forward. I recently heard Sri Sri (he has wrested this title from LKM) Rajiv Shuklaji say that “aal iz well” on the IPL front. It did remind me of Aamir but did not inspire the same confidence that I got watching 3 Idiots. Sri Sri Shuklaji’s words seemed hollow. The complacency is disturbing.

I have been wanting to write a blog on IPL 5 for some time. The final trigger came last night when I was watching the match between DC and PWI with my son. He still has not come to terms with Sanga playing for DC (not KXIP) or Yuvi cheering for PWI (not KXIP). He told me (as I am not a football fan) that such drastic changes don’t happen in football and they don’t happen so often. So, the team’s identity and recognition is strong. He has a point. I had covered this issue in my blog last year as well. (read: Why IPL is such a bore this year).

We all understand that the auctions happened in 2011 because of 2 new teams and therefore the mess. What happened after that? The Kochi team went out and there was fresh auction and there were transfers as well. Murali has moved from CSK to KTK to RCB. Jadeja moved from RR to KTK to CSK. Pietersen moved from RCB to DC to DD. If these were the only changes most of the fans would have accepted them. But the list of the changes included big names like Mahela, Hodge, McCullum, Owais Shah, Parthiv and on and on.

Whilst the fans were grappling with these changes there is more of uncertainty added because of addition of players in the middle of the tournament. SL and England series got over and a lot of players landed up after one week or more. And next week we will see even more big names like Warner, Watson, Clarke, M Hussey, Harris and Bravo come over after the Aus WI series is over. And not to mention player exits. Malinga and Gilchrist are missing due to injuries and Albie Morkel missing due to personal reasons.

With all this can you identify yourself with the teams? Unless you are V Anand or have a chip fitted in your brain you are going to find it difficult for sure.

Do you find it very exciting to cheer for M Morkel, Pollard, Narine and Cooper. Why these names? These are the top 4 wicket takers in this IPL (till 26th April 2012). Out of top 10 wicket takers this season only 4 bowlers are Indian. And of them only 2 of them have played any meaningful cricket for India, Munaf and Chawla. So, who are you cheering for? Last year there were 7 Indian bowlers in top 10. Dont we as a society believe in hero worship. Who is the hero here? Unsung ones? Foreigners? I dont think that sounds exciting. Indian performance in batting is also poorer this year. 5 in top 10 vs 6 last year. Only 2 known names of Sehwag and Dravid. No SRT, No Kohli, No Raina. In the match that PWI won because of Dada’s bowling, the whole country went berserk in his praise. The same thing doesnt happen when Gayle hits hard. IPL needs Indian Heroes. And the Indian heroes are a tired lot. Not able to hit the big ones or the write length. (for more details on this read: How to kill the Golden hen - the BCCI way)

Finally, this IPL has shown the yawning gap between the international players and domestic ones in application on the field. A Steve Smith, Pollard, Hussey or Duminy bring certain amount of effort on the field which is superior to most Indians incl Raina or Kohli.

So, all these may or may not be acting on the conscious mind but possibly working at the back. Do I have answers for these or am I just raising some questions. I am not too interested in finding the solution because IPL has lost me. I will still watch some matches when I can but I am not dying to watch. I am not driving fast to reach home at 8.

Wish Shuklaji all the very best and hope aal iz well.

All stats given above are till April 26, 2012. IPL being dynamic, the stats change everyday.


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

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