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How the IPL has moved the goalposts, creating a new paradigm in a multi-million dollar business

Ajay S Shankar and Judhajit Basu25-May-2009Behind the screaming fans, the strategy breaks and the DLF maximums, the IPL also appears to have triggered a significant churning off the field, in the bustling market of cricket. The hugely successful Twenty20 league has just wrapped up its second season, and player managers, franchise officials and investors admit that they are coming to terms with new trends and potential conflicts that are beginning to redefine their bottomlines.In a nutshell, the IPL appears to have initiated a paradigm shift within the multi-million dollar player-endorsement industry, where individual deals are now gradually losing ground to team endorsements. As a result, concerns are being raised at the shrinking individual player-endorsement pie, looming conflicts between personal and team brands, players being forced to endorse “under-value brands”, and contracts that are loaded against high-value cricketers, particularly from India.So much so that sources close to a few leading Indian players say they will push for crucial tweaks in the IPL’s player-franchise contracts after 2010, when the current three-year agreements come to an end.On the flip side, franchise officials say that they signed up leading cricketers for huge sums – Chennai bought Andrew Flintoff for US$ 1.55m and MS Dhoni for US$ 1.5m, and Bangalore picked up Kevin Pietersen for US$ 1.55m – not just for their cricketing skills, but for the brand value attached. Pietersen and Flintoff appeared for just 21 days in the 37-day tournament, but ended up taking home well over US$ 100,000 per game.”There is nothing unusual about these contracts,” says a senior franchise official. “The IPL contracts do not give franchises anything that is not standard throughout team sports worldwide.”Yet some key concerns persist within the industry, the first of which is the fear that a player endorsing a brand for his IPL team will be shunned by rival brands within the same product category after the tournament. “We are not directly involved with the event, but if you ask me whether it makes brand sense for us to get a player on board before or after the IPL, after him being associated with a rival company during the course of the tournament, I would say not,” says V Ramachandran, director, marketing and sales, LG, a leading multinational brand. “Every brand would want a unique association with the celebrity or the player – a prior association which the brand would like to protect. It’s purely a case of the players themselves being motivated in favour of the brand.”A case in point is the reported US$ 2-3m deal between Mumbai Indians and Idea, a leading Indian mobile service provider. Through this IPL, Idea has been using Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan together and individually in a TV campaign. Tendulkar, who is one of Indian cricket’s leading endorsement faces, is paid around US$ 1.02 million per season by Mumbai Indians, but according to market analysts, he would easily have got US$ 1 million if the Idea endorsement was an individual endorsement outside the league.”But now, Idea gets Tendulkar, Harbhajan and Zaheer in a package deal that they can utilise through the year,” says a player agent. “Obviously, the players don’t get a single rupee out of this, and also end losing out on personal endorsements from other mobile service providers.”Charu Sharma, the former chief executive of Royal Challengers Bangalore, agrees the players have no option in the current scenario but to come to terms with the “new reality”, at least for now. “The IPL was launched in a hurry last year, and most of the rules were made on the run,” says Sharma. “So it was clear even then that some areas were bound to blow out later on. In fact, these were exactly some of the reasons why the players refrained from signing their IPL contracts till the last minute last year. But we have to understand and appreciate that the IPL is still raw and evolving and these grey areas will be cleared out eventually.”Franchise officials point out that there are clear safeguards in the IPL’s player contracts specifying that brands associated with teams cannot imply that the cricketers are associated with them individually in any manner. “Most of the contracts specify that the players can be used for product endorsement and activation only during the IPL,” says a franchise official. “Besides, a team sponsor has to feature at least three players in any advertisements. There are enough and clear safeguards to protect the players.”But behind the fine print, says a player agent, is the fear that some sponsors may tend to project a particular player more in these advertisements. “Besides, it’s all about perception,” he says. “Once you see Sourav Ganguly or Ishant Sharma endorse a particular product for Kolkata Knight Riders, even if it is with other players, it gets embedded in the public mindspace. You can’t then go to individual households and tell them, ‘Look, this is a team endorsement and not a personal endorsement.'”

There are fears that a player endorsing a brand for his IPL team will be shunned by rival brands within the same product category after the tournament. Then, of course, there is the obvious conflict between personal and team endorsements. Another area of concern is that some leading players have been forced to endorse certain brands for their franchises in categories they have steadfastly refused to promote in an individual capacity

The other area of concern is that some leading players have been forced to endorse certain brands for their franchises in categories they have steadfastly refused to promote in an individual capacity. For instance, Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, widely considered role models in Indian cricket, have always refused to endorse liquor brands – until the IPL. Tendulkar now has the Royal Stag logo on his team jersey and Dravid promotes Royal Challenge.In the same vein, brand analysts say, the IPL has seen some leading players endorse “under-value” brands, which don’t match their stature. Again, Tendulkar’s case is a prime example – for Mumbai Indians he endorses Luminous Batteries and Zandu Balm, which are brand types that he has not normally been associated with.”That is the other worry,” says a brand analyst. “If the value of a franchise falls, and if it fails to attract enough sponsors, as happened with some teams this time due to the recession, they could end up signing cheap deals. This will then have a domino effect on the player’s individual value. Why would anyone sign up a player individually for X amount when you know that you can get him through a team deal for less?”Then, of course, there is the obvious conflict between personal and team endorsements. For instance, Virender Sehwag endorses Pepsi but has been backing Coca-Cola in newspaper advertisements for Delhi Daredevils. Ishant Sharma, a rising youth icon, has to promote Coca-Cola’s Sprite, when he has a personal contract with Pepsi. MS Dhoni endorses Peter England, a suiting brand, for Chennai, but individually promotes Siyaram, a rival brand. Significantly, some of these roles will be reversed in another month when the ICC World Twenty20, of which Pepsi is one of the main sponsors, gets underway in England.Lathika Khaneja, who manages Sehwag, says that players should be insulated from such situations. “In fact, Sehwag asked me ‘Is Pepsi upset?'” says Khaneja, director, Collage Sports Management. “But they can’t be because there’s the ICC World Twenty20 coming up. These are not rules made by Sehwag, they are made by the ICC or the IPL, and you’re paying a lot of money for those rights and you expect to get something for it.”Yudhajit Dutta, who manages Dhoni, and Khaneja, insist that the franchises are right in trying to maximise their investment. The IPL awarded the Mumbai franchise to Reliance industries for their top bid of US$ 111.9 million, Bangalore to the UB Group for US$ 111.6 million, and Chennai to India Cements for US$ 91 million last year. That apart, most of the eight teams have spent US$ 7 million each on purchasing players through three official auctions.”All these players have been paid quite a lot of money to be playing for their respective teams,” says Dutta. “So I think they [the teams] should get something back as well.” Dutta’s Mindscape Maestros, incidentally, are also the exclusive marketing managers of the Chennai franchise.Franchisees like Vijay Mallya have paid top dollar for the big names on their teamsheets and will be justified in asking for returns beyond mere playing ability•AFPA chief executive with one of the eight franchises takes the argument a few steps forward. “One, all this is new and real money for the players, not projected figures on an Excel sheet,” says the official. “This money did not exist for them before the IPL, and obviously, they have not been paid such sums just for their cricketing skills. A part of the franchises’ thinking while signing players like Pietersen and Andrew Symonds is that they are famous superstars with brand appeal across the world, especially because the second IPL has opened up the possibility of the league going global.”Besides, this is standard practice worldwide in team sport, says the official. “For instance, an Olympic sponsor can use that precious logo for four years.”Beyond this clash of words and views, however, is the big-picture market consensus: all these mini conflicts and trends point to a major shift in where all the money is headed. “Ultimately, we are looking at a scenario when team endorsements will matter the most,” says Charu Sharma. “The players and their agents will have to work around that.”Player agents agree and point to the tie-up between Aircel, a mobile services provider, and Chennai Super Kings as a significant pointer. Aircel first teamed up with Chennai and then signed up Dhoni, the India captain, for a personal endorsement deal to extend that association. “Aircel first endorsed Chennai Super Kings last year and only after that did they take Dhoni on board.” says Dutta, Dhoni’s manager. “It’s the team first.”There is still a long way to go before an acceptable balance is struck, says a player agent, and till then there are issues to resolved, possibly after the next IPL, which is tentatively slated for March 2010.”I don’t believe there is a time restriction on the franchise or its partners for using player identification,” says a player manager who handles two leading players in the IPL. “This is a grey area and an obvious area for change in the future. What I suspect is going to happen is that some modifications will be made in this area after the 2010 season. Ultimately, guys like Dhoni are going to need to sit down with the IPL to work out some clearer parameters, like more than three players in the adverts and their use only 30 days before and after tournament.”

The UDRS is currently being used in New Zealand and Australia, but not in India, where Sri Lanka have been on the receiving end of poor umpiring decisions

Cricinfo staff05-Dec-2009Muttiah Muralitharan has said the ICC should ensure that the umpire decision review system is implemented in every Test series. The UDRS is currently being used in New Zealand and Australia, but not in India, where Sri Lanka have been on the receiving end of poor umpiring decisions.”Had the review system been there, we could have been in a better position. Everything went against us,” Murali said. “Dilshan couldn’t capitalise on day one. Those are things that matter at the end of a Test. The ICC should open its eyes and just put the review system in place for all the games. We endorse the review system because the pressure is off the umpires.”Tillakaratne Dilshan, batting on 109, was adjudged caught at bat-pad in the first innings in Mumbai though replays showed a sizeable gap between bat and ball. Dilshan was then given out lbw in the second innings, after padding up to an offbreak from Harbhajan, and replays indicated the ball would have missed the stumps by a considerable margin. During India’s first innings, Sri Lanka were unfortunate not to have Rahul Dravid caught behind off Rangana Herath and Sachin Tendulkar was fortunate to survive a close lbw appeal against the same bowler.”At the moment the pressure is more on the umpires and if they make a mistake everyone will complain,” Murali said. “The review system in the future is a must. In two other Test series happening in Australia and New Zealand it is on, but it’s not happening here. I don’t know how many decisions went against us, I didn’t count, but there were many occasions we have been unlucky.”Despite the bad decisions against Sri Lanka, Murali said India had “played really well”, “put pressure on us, and didn’t allow us to bowl to our plans” to take control of the final Test. At the end of the fourth day, Sri Lanka had lost six second-innings wickets and were trailing by 59 runs. That they are still fighting was due to their captain Kumar Sangakkara, who defied the bowling by scoring his first century in India.”It’s a brilliant captain’s knock,” Murali said. “He’s still at the wicket and if he hangs around for more time he can make a difference tomorrow.”Muralitharan said although it had not been “a rosy series” for him it could happen to any bowler. “I took nine wickets for 550 odd runs. Overall, we haven’t got that many wickets in this series and that’s why India is on top.”

India’s poorest record among all home venues is in Bangalore, while Australia have enjoyed the conditions here

Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan08-Oct-2010India’s thrilling one wicket victory in the first Test gives them an unassailable 1-0 lead in the two match series, and given their track record in defending series leads at home, Australia have an unenviable task ahead: since 1990, India have taken a series lead 16 times (minimum two-match series) and relinquished it only on four occasions, the last coming against England in 2006, when they lost the final Test in Mumbai.The second Test, though, is being played in Bangalore, which is one of India’s least successful venues. India last won a game at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in 1995 and have lost four of seven Tests played since. In contrast, Bangalore has been one of Australia’s best venues in India: they have won two of their last three Tests here, and dominated the previous encounter in 2008 which ended in a draw.

India’s poor record in Bangalore can be seen by comparing their overall batting and bowling performances at various home grounds over the last couple of decades. Kolkata remains India’s best batting venue, closely followed by Delhi and Mohali. The Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai hasn’t been a good venue for the batsmen – it hosted an extraordinarily low-scoring game against Australia in 2004 – but has been an excellent ground for Indian bowlers. Bangalore, on the other hand, has been pretty tough for batsmen and bowlers. India have conceded more than 400 runs in the first innings in each of the last four matches played in Bangalore, and their bowling average there is the highest among all venues.

Among the Indian batsmen in the current squad, only Sachin Tendulkar, who is closing in on 14,000 runs in Tests, and Virender Sehwag have performed well in Bangalore. While Tendulkar scored a superb 177 in a loss against Australia in 1998, Sehwag’s double-hundred in the Test against Pakistan also failed to prevent defeat. Rahul Dravid averages just 21.69 on his home ground, and hasn’t scored a single century in 13 innings. VVS Laxman has been India’s best batsman against Australia in the last ten years, but averages just over 26 in Bangalore, with no hundred in 11 innings.

Among the Indian bowlers, Zaheer Khan, who picked up eight wickets in the previous Test and became only the fifth Indian bowler to reach the 250-wicket mark, has been India’s best bowler in the last three years. India will also rely heavily on Harbhajan Singh, who has been the highest wicket-taker in matches played in Bangalore in the last decade.The Chinnaswamy Stadium has been Australia’s best batting venue, and most of their batsmen have excellent records here. Simon Katich scored half-centuries in 2004 and 2008, and together with the in-form Shane Watson, will be a big threat to the Indian attack. Michael Clarke made a century on debut in 2004, while Ricky Ponting scored a hundred in the previous match in Bangalore. He averages over 50 in Bangalore, which in sharp contrast to his overall average in India which is just 22.30.

Mitchell Johnson bowled superbly the last time India played Australia in Bangalore, and will lead an otherwise inexperienced attack. While Australia will be pleased with Ben Hilfenhaus’ impressive performance in Mohali, they will be concerned about Doug Bollinger’s injury, which kept him out of the final session of the first Test.Bangalore has been a venue where fast bowlers have performed better than spinners over the last decade, which is another reason why Australia will fancy their chances here. The average for pace bowlers is considerably lower than spinners, but spinners have been more effective in the second innings, picking up 35 wickets at an average of 29.28. On the last four occasions, the team winning the toss has batted first and dominated the match, which suggests that Ponting or MS Dhoni will look to do the same in a match that will decide the series.

Taking the batting Powerplay with tailenders at the wicket; plans to bowl maidens when defending 184; five outside the circle when an Associate nation is eight down – surely Pakistan are being too cautious

Osman Samiuddin at the Premadasa Stadium03-Mar-2011Pakistan dodged a bullet, for which there will be some relief. That the bullet came from a gun they were pointing at their own head will bring only resignation and bemusement. It is what they do every now and again, though it must be said they don’t usually miss. John Davison spoke before the match of Pakistan being the kind of side that has a “poor day” very often; he spoke only fact. Against Pakistan, Associates can always dream.Pakistan played as if spooked by a ghost. Shahid Afridi admitted that the defeat to Ireland four years ago – which he missed because of a ban – flashed through his mind when Canada were batting. “I told my boys that we must play for a win, to not be negative, we will win this game, work hard and don’t worry about the result,” he said.Predominantly the batting was poor, wracked by nerves and unclear thinking. In any case, Pakistan, despite three wins, have been overcautious in this tournament, playing a line-up that bats till eight; if seven haven’t scored, it’s very rare the eighth will, yet they persist with an approach that, traditionally, suits them as well as the sun does vampires.The clouds and pitch at the Premadasa were doing a little bit, so panicked shot selection was inevitable, something Afridi realised would not cut it against better teams. “There was poor shot selection and it was a very poor batting performance. If we want to play good cricket against good teams then we must improve. It’s a good wake-up call for us.”Shahid Afridi has taken 14 of the 29 wickets Pakistan have taken in the World Cup so far•Associated PressA third failure for the openers Ahmed Shehzad and Mohammad Hafeez will be taken all the more seriously given that two of the games have been against Associate sides. Afridi, though, was more critical of the middle order. “We had a very good opportunity for me, for Abdul Razzaq, for Misbah-ul-Haq and Umar Akmal to carry on batting; we could have scored more runs but we didn’t. We need a good start.”The condition of the pitch was such that we needed to bat with patience. It was a totally different pitch and the sun didn’t come out. There were clouds and the ball was stopping so there was a need to wait while batting and we couldn’t do that. If we had spent time at the wicket runs would have come.”But where was the sense in not taking the batting Powerplay when Misbah-ul-Haq and Umar Akmal were set, or when Afridi and Abdul Razzaq were together? In no scenario can it be right to take the Powerplay when Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal are at the crease. It appears that Pakistan plan beforehand to take it after the 40th over and don’t readily budge from that plan, no matter what the situation of the innings.To see no slip to the possibility of a Saeed Ajmal doosra when Canada chased, or as many as five men on the boundary when they were eight down, only completed the picture of a quite unnecessary defensiveness. The team’s plan was to bowl “maiden overs, so that their required rate goes higher,” Afridi said, and you can see some smidgeon of logic in that. But against Canada? and when you’ve only got 184 to defend?Afridi’s bowling, at least, was much sharper than some of the moves he made as captain, and a second five-wicket haul in three games keeps him comfortably in the leading wicket-taker’s spot in the tournament so far. With 14, he has taken nearly half of all Pakistan’s wickets in three games.Conditions, he acknowledged, are ideal for his fastish spinners. “I try to bowl wicket to wicket and I get spin on these pitches where it skids, so I’m getting wickets. The conditions are very good: perfect for spinners but also good for fast bowlers if you hit the right areas.”If there was a system to Pakistan’s performances, then it would have been tempting to conclude that they have gotten a shocker out of it early, without any real damage in the long run. If they haven’t done that yet, they have at least put themselves on the verge of a quarter-final place.

It was here that a Test was tied and the then-highest one-day score was made, but Chepauk is much more than just the sum of its records

Suresh Menon17-Nov-2010The original Doubting Thomas lies buried here; and Chennai is the land of doubting Thomases. “Will Tamil Nadu ever win the Ranji Trophy again?” (they won in 1954-55 and 1987-88) has been the most important cricketing question for different generations of players. St Thomas, one of only three apostles to have a church built over his tomb (the others being St Peter in Rome and St James in Galicia, Spain), came to India in 52 AD; the Santhome Basilica in Mylapore contains his mortal remains.The Marina, which connects the basilica to that other famous place of worship, the Chepauk cricket ground, is by popular reckoning the second longest beach in the world, sometimes elevated to first place by locals. Neither is true, but it’s a good claim and teeters on the verge of accuracy, like many stories about Chennai cricket. The most enduring is the story of the Pongal Test at Chepauk. Of 30 Tests, only nine were during the Pongal week in January – the last in 1988. But a mixture of nostalgia and repetition has converted false memory into tradition. Of the nine Tests at the nearby Nehru Stadium (1956-65) four were during Pongal.It began with the Europeans versus Indians Presidency match in 1908, an annual fixture from 1916. Europeans won eight matches, the Indians 15, occasionally thanks to imports like CK Nayudu. MS Dhoni leading the Chennai Super Kings to the IPL title is part of tradition too.Chepauk is in Triplicane, known for the Parthasarathy Temple, which is some 14 centuries old. That’s as many Test centuries as Gundappa Viswanath made, as the Chennaiite will point out, for he is the most statistically aware of fans. Such an easy familiarity with figures is also tribute to a son of Triplicane, the mathematician Ramanujan.India’s first Test win came here in 1951-52 and it is the venue where India have won the most, 12. Chepauk has seen cricket since at least the mid-19th century, and was host to one of only two tied Tests in history. It was here that the first Ranji Trophy match was played, Madras beating Mysore within a day thanks to AG Ram Singh’s 11 for 35. The game was insured for Rs 3000 but the collection was just Rs 800 and the Commercial Union Assurance Company had to pay up. That ended any insurance company’s interest thereafter.If Indian cricket has a spiritual home, it is Chepauk and the MA Chidambaram Stadium, a month younger than Eden Gardens, Kolkata, India’s oldest Test venue, still in use. The Gopalan Gates are a tribute to MJ Gopalan, a double international, who, having to choose between the Olympics hockey tournament in 1936 and the cricket tour of England the same year, chose the latter. He was the Adonis of Chennai cricket, an all-round sportsman who won titles in tennis and table tennis and excelled at the Indian game of too. A contemporary cricketer, Cotar Ramaswami, also played Davis Cup tennis.From Gopalan and Ram Singh to Srinivas Venkataraghavan and Kris Srikkanth to S Badrinath and M Vijay is an unbroken line. Yet some of the more interesting players were to be seen in the local leagues.There was Tyte, for example, who ran in like Frank Tyson but bowled like Subhash Gupte. Or the offspinner who came in from the right of the umpire and bowled over the wicket – or, in local parlance, bowled “right arm, all over the wicket”. Once, a batsman dismissed cheaply at No. 3 shaved his head and came in at No. 7, pretending to be his brother.Then there are the classics passed down from generation to generation. Of the opening batsman dismissed first ball of the match returning to the pavilion saying, “He is swinging it both ways.” Or the batsman picking up the stump that had been sent flying halfway to the boundary and passing it on to the incoming player with the encouraging words, “There’s nothing in his bowling”.Through all this, the one-day international was slow in coming to Chennai. India’s early home matches were played in non-traditional centres. Before Chepauk’s inaugural match – the World Cup opener against Australia in 1987 – India had played 121 one-day internationals.India lost that match by one run. Australia batted first. A boundary by Dean Jones was accepted as a six by Indian captain Kapil Dev at the break and the scores adjusted. In cricket too, no good deed ever goes unpunished.But this being Chepauk, ODI records piled up, like Saeed Anwar’s brilliant 194 which stood as the highest individual score till Sachin Tendulkar’s double-century in Gwalior last season.Chepauk, though, is more than its records. That is perhaps why officials were not keen on building a stadium on the outskirts of the city despite the offer of more space and modern amenities. You don’t uproot a temple just because you might have more parking space elsewhere.

An ambush on a mountain, India’s other wicket-keeper, Shaun Marsh takes the orange cap and more in a review of the action from the sixth week of the IPL

Dustin Silgardo20-May-2011The whimpering exits
Not even Ravi Shastri’s booming proclamations of the IPL’s global success, or the iridescent saris of ‘s presenters could draw attention away from a sobering truth: with two weeks to go, the four play-off qualifiers had already been more-or-less decided, leaving a slew of largely-pointless encounters to be played out over the fortnight.Such is the IPL’s unwavering commitment to drama though that, apart from Deccan Chargers and Delhi Daredevils, who were decent enough to firmly eliminate themselves, all the teams were left with the slimmest of chances to qualify for the play-offs. The number crunchers salivated over the permutations: if this team beats that one by a landslide, and the other loses all their games and has their net run-rate hijacked by a bout of incompetence, and if so and so match is abandoned due to an invasion of hyenas, then …Unfortunately, no-one had informed the teams of the valiant recoveries still possible. In Indore, Rajasthan Royals were already giving their fringe players a turn, making six changes as they lost to Kochi Tuskers Kerala by the second-largest margin (in terms of balls remaining) in IPLs. Rather than be buoyed by the outside shot that win gave them, Kochi rolled over for Chennai Super Kings, with even the usually-belligerent Brendon McCullum scoring at less than a run a ball. Pune Warriors made the least pretence that they were still in it – captain Yuvraj Singh looked about as upbeat about things as Munaf Patel does when diving on the boundary – and duly lost to already ousted Deccan Chargers. The fact that Sourav Ganguly was dismissed for a five-ball duck encapsulates how completely unromantic the week was. By the end of it, the same four teams who looked likely to qualify at around the halfway stage were all but through.The IPL turns into an after-school special
One team that did keep their hopes alive was Kings XI Punjab. The catalyst for their resurgence from five-straight losses was not Adam Gilchrist’s renaissance, nor the change in location to Dharamsala, nor even the Australianism that permeates through the side. It was, as David Hussey will stand testimony to, a pep talk from their franchise owner Preity Zinta. And she wasn’t just offering them cash bonuses to win. She was, in fact, reminding them of what wonderful human-beings they all were, and how proud she was of them. “Everyone’s so talented, we can match up with every team in the world … it doesn’t matter whether you win or lose, you just have to put on a great show,” a poker-faced Hussey quoted her as telling the team. The result of that speech was a four-match winning spree; what an effect a little reassurance can have. Perhaps, the franchises should prepare for the play-offs by giving their players some cookies and warm milk accompanied by a bedtime story.An argument against Twitter
There hasn’t been anything pretty about the public fallout between Shane Warne and the secretary of the Rajasthan Cricket Association, Sanjay Dixit. From Dixit pompously writing an article branding Warne a flawed genius to Warne suggesting he should have gifted Dixit his new brand of undergarments, it crossed the fine line between a difference of opinion and a puerile spat. The ugliest repartees, though, were saved for the Twitterboards.Shane Warne has been a lot of things in his career, but he’s always maintained a certain level of machismo. Imagine then what a young fan must think of Warne’s whining that he is going to tell on someone to a blue-fronted Amazonian parrot. “@PingPongHurley but just wait till end of IPL and I will say everything he promised and went back on his word about to the royals …” Warne posted. Dixit, meanwhile, has chosen to take on the persona of a self-appointed superhero. “Fighter of the bigger battles” his profile on Twitter reads before linking to a resume in which he claims to have “masterminded Rajasthan’s cricketing revival” and “brought discipline to the IPL.”And of course, the past-master of controversial tweets could not be excluded. Warne’s statements that the IPL was missing Lalit Modi, sent the former IPL commissioner into a tweeting tizzy.Ambush in the mountains
During the World Cup, Chris Gayle broke the story of West Indies’ team bus being hit by stones in Bangladesh on Twitter. His reaction was a bit alarmist: “This is some b*******,” his tweet read. “Bangladesh stoning our bus!!! Freaking glass break!!! This is c***, can’t believe … what next bullets!” After Royal Challengers Bangalore’s loss to Kings XI Punjab in Dharamsala, he tweeted: “Boy .. Kings Punjab ambush us in the Mountain 🙂 we walk into a serious trap … bullets flying all over from sniper gilly [Adam Gilchrist]!”It is unclear whether or not Gayle intentionally used the metaphor as some sort of twisted jibe at the Bangladesh incident, or whether he has an unhealthy obsession with gunfire. Either way, the reference was disconcerting, if not insensitive, considering events in Pakistan in 2009. Kiss teeth Mr Gayle.Wriddhiman Saha outplayed his India rival Parthiv Patel in Chennai•AFPThe third left-hander
Before that game in Dharamsala, there was a spotlight drawn so tight around Gayle it barely cast a shadow on the rest of the players. With 436 runs in seven innings, he had earned it. Adam Gilchrist scratched around for eight balls before exploding in a burst of light that immediately drew attention away from Gayle. By the time the game was done, Gilchrist’s 106 off 55 balls, and Gayle’s subsequent duck had combined to result in a clear shift of the limelight.Meanwhile, somewhere in the background, in a dim cut, Shaun Marsh continued the form he seems to have been in since the first season of the IPL. Marsh’s 79 made him the leader in the race for the orange cap this season, a prize he won in 2008. Just how Marsh’s achievements in IPLs seem to go unnoticed is a mystery. With 1254 runs in 27 innings, he is the only batsmen to average more than 50 in IPLs (minimum of ten innings), and his 12 scores of fifty or more are second only to Jacques Kallis’ 13. Kallis has played almost twice as many games.The Wankhede does a Jaipur
A statement from Sachin Tendulkar about the state of the Jaipur pitch after Mumbai Indians’ match against Rajasthan Royals was the first frame in a series of events that has culminated in Shane Warne being fined $50,000. Mumbai, quietly, bowed out of the fracas early in the piece, but the irony of the state of their own pitch for their match against Deccan Chargers was inescapable. The ball turned, kept low, and Amit Mishra and Pragyan Ojha bowled eight overs for 34 runs between them, as Mumbai fell 10 short of Deccan’s 135. “The ball was gripping quite a bit, and that was not to our liking. It was stopping and coming,” Tendulkar said of the track. It remains to be seen whether the IPL’s pitch inspection committee will be represented at Mumbai’s next home match.The No. 2s
MS Dhoni has been rested for the limited-overs leg of India’s tour of the West Indies, and with the amount of cricket scheduled for the next year, it is likely he will be judicious with when to play. That opens a spot for a second wicket-keeper in the India squad. Parthiv Patel and Wriddhiman Saha are the current picks for the Windies tour, but Dinesh Karthik showed glimpses of the batting form that once made him India’s first choice, with his blazing 69 off 33 balls in Punjab’s game against Kochi. If one went by price-tags, the $2.1mn Robin Uthappa might be considered in the running. His last three scores, though, are 1, 4 and 12.Parthiv and Saha had their shootout in Chennai, and it couldn’t have been more one-sided. Parthiv, captaining Kochi, missed a catch and two stumpings, one of Saha. Saha went on to score a vital 46 off 33 to take Chennai Super Kings to a winning total. In response, Parthiv managed six runs in seven balls.

The guiding principle of Law 7 with regard to pitch preparation is simple: conditions should be as similar as possible for both sides throughout the match – and there can be no argument that this has not been achieved

Jane Cable24-Jul-2011Having watched all three days’ play of Hampshire’s LV County Championship game against Nottinghamshire I can honestly say that the pitch was a result pitch and no more. The guiding principle of Law 7 with regard to pitch preparation is simple: conditions should be as similar as possible for both sides throughout the match – and there can be no argument that this has not been achieved.Danny Briggs and Samit Patel would probably agree. In fact, they would probably like to roll this pitch up and take it with them because both have made their best Championship figures. First Briggs took 6 for 65, then Patel followed with 7 for 68. The pitch was used and dry but the home side made no secret of that fact and both teams picked their bowlers accordingly.The pitch panel sanctioned Hampshire for excessive turn, and there were of course many balls which spun. With first-class spinners like Patel, Briggs and Imran Tahir bowling most of the overs that is hardly surprising. It is also true to say that the bounce was variable, but not dangerously so. In the main the rogue ball has kept low, such as the Shreck delivery which had Dawson lbw in the first innings, and a couple of seamers early on day two which had pitch inspector Tony Piggott racing to view the analyst’s footage.But what exactly were Mr Piggott, his colleague Mike Denness and ECB pitch consultant Chris Wood looking for? They could be seen pondering the strip before and after play on the final day but the detail of the ECB’s pitch regulations is not in the public domain. Why not, when every other rule relating to the conduct of matches is painstakingly reproduced on the ECB’s website?There is a precedent for the eight-point deduction which Hampshire have now received. In May this year Warwickshire suffered the same fate for the pitch they prepared for their Championship game against Worcestershire when the panel declared the pitch had demonstrated ‘excessive unevenness of bounce and should be rated poor’. However this was probably not an unreasonable verdict given that Vikram Solanki had been taken to hospital after being hit on the head by a rising delivery.The pitch at The Rose Bowl this week has hurt nothing more than the pride of a few batsmen. The new ball has taken wickets, and so has the old. Thirteen wickets in a day? What of it? Do the powers-that-be want bland Championship run-fests or games where the balance between bat and ball is restored?If pitches like The Rose Bowl one are to be ruled as substandard, it is nothing short of another nail in the coffin for the four-day game. Hampshire v Nottinghamshire was a fascinating, edge-of-the-seat match when, even with a whole day lost to rain, a result was possible right until the last over. And for that the groundsman should be commended.

Plays of the Day from the first day of the Chittagong Test between Bangladesh and Pakistan

Nitin Sundar09-Dec-2011The surprise move
Few things are stranger than a captain winning the toss and bowling first on a subcontinent shirtfront. Opening the bowling with a spinner after attributing the toss decision to early-morning moisture is one of them. Mohammad Hafeez ambled in with the shiny new ball to become the first spinner in 42 years, and the first ever from Pakistan, to bowl the opening over of a Test. The move was sound, given Hafeez had dismissed Tamim Iqbal for two ducks in the ODIs. Misbah’s decision to bowl came a few hours after Australia had sent New Zealand in to bat at Bellerive Oval, the first time in six years that they chose to field after winning the toss.The play-on
The Bangladesh innings wasn’t the best advertisement for shot selection. It ended with a particularly strange stroke from Nasir Hossain. He moved across the stumps and tried to lap Abdul Rehman over the leg side. He could not get entirely under the ball, though, and ended up scooping it from the top of the bat straight up for a simple catch. To add injury to insult, the ball grazed Hossain’s jaw on the way up, leaving him in pain.The commentary gem
Shahadat Hossain is known to grunt as he delivers the ball, and today he was louder than ever. Yet, there was little in the bowling – be it pace, bounce or movement – to suggest he was putting in more effort than usual. After a series balls in the mid-120s, accompanied by increasingly noisy grunts, the commentator Shamim Chowdhary quipped that the decibel levels may have gone up, but little else had.The confident take
With Pakistan closing in on the lead by the end of play, Bangladesh began to get a little desperate for wickets. Mahmudullah got Taufeeq Umar to repeatedly edge his offbreaks into the offside, but the ball kept eluding Shahriar Nafees at slip. Eventually, one went Nafees’ way, and he began to celebrate after pouching it. The umpire wasn’t convinced though, and Taufeeq stayed rooted to the crease with a wry smile. Quite rightly, too. Replays confirmed that the ball had landed well in front of Nafees before he collected it.

These two Tests are vital for England if they want to be considered worthy No. 1s, but history is in Sri Lanka’s favour

Andrew McGlashan in Galle25-Mar-2012The Test rankings say England remain No. 1 – and on April 1 they will receive the cash bonus for holding that position – but it is becoming a weak grip on top spot. There is actually the chance that a few days after the cut-off the positioning at the top will change, if South Africa take the series against New Zealand, as is looking certain, and England lose by the same margin, or greater, against Sri Lanka.So, these two Tests are vital for England if they want to be considered worthy No. 1s, rather than fleeting visitors much as South Africa were two years ago. This is the sort of series that England should be starting as favourites to win. They have a formidable bowling attack – strong enough not to be able to include Steven Finn in all likelihood – and a batting line-up where six of the top seven average over 40. But they had those same strengths before facing Pakistan in the UAE and the end result was a 3-0 whitewash.No team has managed to win consistently away from home in recent years, which is why the top of the Test rankings remains fluid. It also needs remembering that it took even Australia a while to crack the subcontinent, the reason why their series victories in Sri Lanka in 2004 and India in 2004-05 were such celebrated triumphs.”We have got a point to prove, we need to bounce back after those results against Pakistan but we aren’t focussing on the world rankings,” Andrew Strauss said. “It’s of no great consequence to us, if you focus too much on that you take your eye off the game of cricket you are trying to play. Sri Lanka are a very good side, especially in their home conditions, and we’ve got to be very good to overcome that. That’s plenty for us to focus on, the rankings will take care of themselves.”These days Sri Lanka have lost the fear-factor they brought to the field when Muttiah Muralitharan was in the team and, even in home conditions, the bowling attack does not match-up favourably against England. Whichever four bowlers Sri Lanka pick, none would play ahead of England’s quartet. They have won just one Test – albeit a famous victory against South Africa in Durban – since Muralitharan’s retirement and lost their most recent home series 1-0 against Australia at the start of their rebuilding phase.Still, this will be a mighty challenge for England. Under Mahela Jayawardene, returned to the captaincy in place of Tillakaratne Dilshan, Sri Lanka showed heart and fight in the recent Commonwealth Bank Series, coming within 17 runs of taking it off Australia. If they can bring that same verve into the Test game they can be a force, although the job of sustaining a performance over five days rather than 100 overs is obviously tougher. But history is in their favour.England’s record in Sri Lanka is poor: three wins from 11 Test and one of those came in the inaugural meeting in 1982. They have not bowled Sri Lanka out twice on these shores since Galle in 2003. That is why what Nasser Hussain achieved here in 2000-01 was such a significant achievement. In an era before England started challenging Australia again, it was that era’s greatest success, especially as they had to come from 1-0 down.Ian Bell needs to arrest his string of low scores in 2012•AFPSince then contests between these two teams on Sri Lankan soil have reverted to type and consecutive 1-0 victories in 2003-04 and 2007-08 don’t do justice to the home side’s dominance. In the first of those, England gained huge credit for two backs-to-the-wall draws – starring such names as Chris Read, Gareth Batty and Richard Johnson – to keep the series level before being overwhelmed by an innings in Colombo.Four years later they came within 20 minutes of saving the first Test in Kandy – during which Muttiah Muralitharan became the leading Test wicket-taker – but never came close to challenging in the next two. They were bowled out for 81 in Galle only to be saved mostly by rain, although Alastair Cook did manage an impressive second-innings hundred.Cook’s innings was the only hundred of that series for England, but that was one more than they managed in the UAE recently against Pakistan. Eoin Morgan was the batsman to pay the price by being dropped for this series but the others were given a vote of confidence, and rightly so, based on their records. Two more Tests of failure, though, and further positions will be under severe pressure.At least during the two warm-up matches most of the top-order spent time in the middle with Cook, Andrew Strauss and Jonathan Trott making hundreds. Ian Bell’s problems continued, however, with his three innings on tour totalling 25 runs, and he needs to show he is not regressing back to the Bell of pre-South Africa tour of 2009, since when he has evolved into a wonderful Test batsman.Sri Lanka’s batting should be the least of their concerns: Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Thilan Samaraweera provide a powerful middle order and they possess the explosive qualities of Tillakaratne Dilshan at the top, while Dinesh Chandimal appears to be the future of Sri Lanka’s middle order. However, they are coming into the series just days after completing three months of one-day cricket with the Asia Cup.Failing to reach the final in Dhaka did them a favour, allowing a few extra days at home before they met up in Galle on Saturday. Yet it seems bizarre that a visiting side can have better preparation than the hosts for a Test series. That is not to say, however, that Sri Lanka can’t bring an end to England’s brief time at the top.

ESPNcricinfo presents the plays of the day from the fourth day in Port-of-Spain where rain had a major impact

Daniel Brettig in Port-of-Spain18-Apr-2012Dual drop of the dayFidel Edwards has been short of fortune during this Test and his dry run continued in the fifth over of Australia’s second innings. Bowling a short of a length delivery that cramped Ed Cowan for room, Edwards coaxed an outside edge as the opener tried to force off the back foot. The ball flew straight to Darren Sammy at slip, who dropped it. The ball’s downward path was not without a chance of a second grab, however – Carlton Baugh dived across but, unfortunately in keeping with his untidy work behind the stumps all match, was unable to close his gloves around the ball in time.Near run-out of the dayCowan received a rare loose delivery from Kemar Roach on 9, a full toss that he pushed wide of mid off and set off for a single. Misjudging the speed at which the ball reached Edwards, Cowan left Ricky Ponting in dire danger of being run-out for the second time in as many Tests, again the victim of his partner’s overzealous search for runs. So far short was Ponting that he appeared to give up the run, letting Edwards’ throw decided whether or not he would continue batting. However Edwards was narrowly off target with his return, and Baugh had not made it up to the stumps in time to retrieve it and complete the run-out.Doosra of the dayShane Shillingford has so far shown accuracy and persistence in Trinidad, and on the fourth day he also showed he was patient enough to hold back a variation for an entire innings. For 49 overs in the first innings and eight in the second, Shillingford kept more or less to off breaks, relying on the natural deviation and variation to be found in a co-operative Port-of-Spain pitch. But in his ninth, Shillingford revealed a top-spinner/doosra that gripped and bounced significantly, beating the outside edge of Ponting’s bat and thudding into his thigh. Happy with how it had come out, Shillingford bowled another before the over was done.