The day and moments and jubilance belong to India but let me take a paragraph to acknowledge the great wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist. He has provided entertainment and joy for the cricket followers in the last decade or so and is probably rated as the best wicket keeper of all time.

I wud like to put it in this way .. “IPL and ICL favour indian cricket more than any other nation’s cricket”

But ..
BCCI and henceforth ICC should embrace ICL … its more of ‘oligopoly’ than ‘free market’ they are endorsing rite now by not legalising ICL. Once they are comfortable with other leagues .. i can see great future for league cricket otherwise it will be just another “colonial” state of affair. Problem for ICC is that they worry about conventional cricket. My soultion is ..

1) ICC should grant 2 months for league cricket rite now .. in future they can extend this according to demands but not more than 3 months. Remaining 9 or 10 months shud be available for tour and triangular matches.
2) They shud not regulate the revenue and player’s income in these legues … though they can have their own profit by these matches.

Harbhajan is once again in the limelight after his comments against CA, Mathew Hayden and Gilchrist. I wonder how these Australian players would be coping under pressure and the stress that they will get from crowd behaviour in India when they play for IPL?

For CA it is not possible to play in Pakistan despite their own countryman and Pakistan’s coach Lawson giving them repeated assurances that it is safe for them to play. The Australians have made up their mind not to play in Pakistan and all this time delaying tactics is nothing but a waste of time. We all know they will not come and, I wonder why everyone is waiting for the cat to come out of the bag and say meaow?

People are more interested in seeing the players cat-walk on the IPL stage wearing their price tags. Talking of today’s auction Misbah’s name is on the top of the list and that is because he was at the centre of everything during the WC T20 in SA last year. But, it is not likely that he will fetch a big price tag.

The whole set-up is a drama, the big Indian players have been made icons so that they automatically get 15% over the highest bidder or the player who is sold for the highest price.

India’s foreign policy and foreign exchange policy has been remarkably better than Pakistan’s and they are not only keeping themselves in the centre of everything but, they are also saving their foreign exchange by putting the highest price tags on their own players. One may call it a hyperbolic farce or a smart decision, the fact is this whole IPL affair is more in favour of India than any other country.

Some people are naive in comparing this IPL cricket with European soccer leagues or even ice hockey leagues of North America, the point is, the soccer and hockey fans follow their clubs and their players and they are not too many.

But, here the players have been divided in 5 teams and those who support their players cannot support the team. For e.g., those who support Dhoni may not like to see him playing against Tendulkar or those who support Afridi may not like to see him playing against Malik or Younus Khan. So, the loyalties are divided and this will soon diminish the interest.

Entertainment is not the only part of cricket it is much more than that. Only time will prove when this fad will be over.

Looking at the result of Sindh and Federal Area match, one must applaud at the sporting declaration made by the Sindh captain Shahid Afridi.

He could have easily gone in to bat and clubbed a few sixes but he gave them a fair chance and thats the difference between his captaincy and Malik’s. Malik is a selfish mean guy who is now under fire for altering the pitch by ordering the grounds men to shave off the grass. That is so selfish and so mean of him to do that, only Malik can do such a thing. Because he is a Meesna!

People who often praise Kaneria and criticize Afridi should see the difference between the two of them. Afridi bowled his heart out to get 5 wickets for 55 runs whereas, Kaneria gave away 157 runs and took only 2 wickets.

Afridi by any standards is a better player than Danish Kaneria and in test matches he is overlooked and ignored by the Captain and the Selectors in favour of Kaneria. Malik does it deliberately in order to secure his own place in the team. It is about time for the selectors to take note of this anomaly and keep Malik on the sidelines.

Federal Areas 295 (Majif 72, Zaidi 87, Khan 5-56) and 322 for 9 (Umair 106, Afridi 5-55) beat Sind 222 (Afridi 70, Tanvir 5-58) and 394 for 4 decl (Latif 74, Iqbal 105*, Rizwan 71) by one wicket

A tenth-wicket stand of 13 between Usman Saeed and Shehzad Azam guided Federal Areas to a tense victory over Sind on the final day at the Diamond Club Ground in Islamabad.

Set a target of 322, Federal Areas were boosted by opener Umair Khan’s 106 before Shahid Afridi tilted the scales with his legspinners. Federal Areas were well placed at 262 for 5 before losing two wickets in quick succession without any addition to the score. Afridi later pegged away with quick lower-order wickets to give Sind a very realistic chance of winning, but the last-wicket pair hung on. Azam, the No.11, hastened his side’s victory with a quick 12 which came off five deliveries, including two fours. Afridi finished with figures of 5 for 55 off 21 overs.

Earlier, Faisal Iqbal carried on from his overnight score of 77 to score a century. He remained unbeaten on 105, off 160 balls, before the captain Afridi made a sporting declaration. Faisal’s overnight partner, Rizwan Ahmed, managed to add just one run to his score of 70 before he was dismissed by Sohail Tanvir.

Punjab 723 for 4 dec (Misbah 208*, Mahmood 94, Malik 60) beat Baluchistan 375 (Alam 84, Sadaf 55) and 220 (Alam 48, Aslam 51, Ahmed 47*) by an innings and 128 runs

It took just 15 deliveries for Punjab on the final day to complete the formalities and seal a comprehensive innings and 128-run victory against Baluchistan in Sialkot. Baluchistan were on the brink of defeat overnight on 207 for 8 and the overnight pair of Imranullah Aslam and Tanvir Ahmed managed to add 13 more before Junaid Zia sealed the deal. Aslam fell shortly after reaching his half-century before Zia struck again the next ball to send back Azharullah, the No.11.

I’m no one to judge, but lately your arguments have been very strong and well reasoned. I agree with you that the Indian public holds Warne and Gilly in high regard. Warne was always very popular in India and Gilly is not a confrontational person anyway, so he has not been in the limelight as much as other Aussie cricketers during these recent controversies.

I think IPL and ICL are good for Indian cricket, but bad for all other cricketing nations. The players are happy with the money. Indians are benefiting from this in many ways:

1) General revenue
2) Youngsters playing side by side with and observing greats like Lara and Inzi, as well as home greats like Sachin
3) Youngsters benefiting from international coaching/strategy
4) Everyone making lots of money
5) Good prospects for sponsorship for companies- good for businesses
6) Publicity for grounds/cricket associations
7) Something that will excite and entertain the Indian public, will improve the popularity of the game
This will be very good for Indian cricket because this will help develop aggressive and risk-taking players into becoming Uthappas and Dhonis.

The only negative effect of this IPL and ICL for Indian cricket is, that members of the national team will suffer from physical and mental burnout. But largely speaking the positives greatly outshine the negatives.

It will be interesting to see where BCCI is going to invest these money that are coming from IPL. $2 billion is no less money by any account … if they are going to renovate 4-5 stadiums then still there will be plenty of money left. Cricket academies are ongoing projects which are funded by earlier income that they got from selling their broadcast right(to Nimbus) and sponsership(Nike, addidas, sahara and all). All eyes must be on this large sum of money. One good thing from this administration is that they are not hidding board’s income. Its all up there among public to see .. but the big hurdle(accountability of investments) is still ahead.

Hope you don’t mind me correcting, coz the correct expression is:

When your mouth is full of Benjamin’s……

US$100 bill has President Benjamin’s picture on it.

Yes, how can he when his mouth is stuffed full of money -

This is a welcome development. However, it will be interesting to see just how much of the revenue is invested- I would like to see some sort of quantification and numbers in the near future.