The search for India’s Michael Clarke

At the outset it seems a premature topic to write upon. A lot of you might think, why so soon..? Considering what Mahendra Singh Dhoni has done over the past few years some might think this is outright rubbish. But in the midst of enjoying a "Captaincy Calm" phase and a bright set of youngsters knocking on the selection door, we must not fail to realize that barely any of the bright young talents are captaincy materials. India must do similar to what Australia did with Michael Clarke. They have to find a good player who can also be a captaincy material and groom him. As much as captaincy is about instinct, a lot of it can be thought as well. Let’s look at the options.
He has been handed the ODI captaincy in Dhoni’s absence, but Suresh Raina has not showed great promise as a captain. He is more of a text book captain and lacks imagination to improvise and create a result out of tense situation. He needs to play and captain in domestic games to convince every one of his leadership abilities.
He might be credited for changes the fortunes of the Kolkata Knight Riders but Gautam Gambhir still has so much to prove as a captain. His temperament resembles more like that of a manager in a software company. Bossy, Orders, always angry and always complaining. The emotions that he shows on the field are quite not Gangulyesque as what some might think he is. This was on full display during the IPL where KKR rose and fell with his temperament. Plus his age is against him.
So that pretty much leaves with one choice and that’s Virat Kohli. He is young, confident and brash much like how Clarke was when he started. A lot of experts feel he has what it takes to be captain. His attitude is a problem although he has worked on it significantly. He did a fair job as a stand in captain for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. But then a lot more needs to be done and this is where BCCI can help by giving him more responsibilities and making him change his attitude to suit the needs of the team.
Personalities like Saurav Ganguly and Mahendra Singh Dhoni are excellent captains and outstanding leader of men. India has been extremely lucky that they had and still have an outstanding set of senior batsman and led by capable men. But its time BCCI realize that may not be third time lucky to get a brilliant leader out of nowhere. They have a mould one.
Will BCCI do a Cricket Australia..?

IPL4 – Champs all the way

Let’s face it; this has been the boring of all IPL’s. It proved that not even IPL can top a World Cup Win. But beyond the Cricket overkill and the seemingly unstoppable no of lop sided games (Including the final) the real reason for the IPL flop show is the lack of quality in the teams. So it’s ironic that season 4 is won by the team that processed the best of all round qualities, the Chennai Super Kings.

Bangalore relied too much on Chris Gayle, Punjab left too much to do in the end, the newbies threatened for a bit and faded away, Mumbai and Rajasthan were inconsistent and Kolkata rose and fell with Gautham Gambhir’s temperament. Delhi and Deccan… Well… No comments. Perhaps Chennai’s victory is best summed up by Harsha Bhogle’s tweet after the match

“Eventually the best team, the best organized, the best selected and the best led won the IPL and that is how it should be”

An in depth analysis will reveal that CSK is also the team that had fewer distractions from their job of playing cricket. No controversies, No spotlight grabbing owners, No glamour. They won because they played Cricket and one that is of the highest quality. Their batsmen and bowlers did not top the list yet contributed collectively. The fielding was of the highest standard and led by a magnificent captain and a shrewd coach. In fact CSK’s victory was sealed in the transfer market (I prefer the term to the much cheaper sounding, auction) when they bought most of their own players back. I had predicted that it’s going to be CSK all the way and that’s exactly it turned out to be. This is what happens when you have team owners who are involved in Cricket for the past 60 years. It feels proud to be a CSK fan.

Much of IPL’s lack of quality is because of the organizing. Four years running and there is not a single defining rivalry in IPL. The quality would be much better if they let clubs (Again, a better term than franchisees) build their own teams through transfer market rather than stupid auctions. Only then we will be able to see a healthy rivalry and contests like Manchester United-Liverpool or Real Madrid-Barcelona in the IPL. CSK showed that IPL can only be won by quality, not glamour and glitz or star studded players. It’s about time other teams follow suit. Until then IPL will continue to be a grand circus.

Short and Sweet, The best team won IPL Season 4… Period..!

CSK ku Wistle Podu

IPL Auction – Chennai Super Kings Retrospective

Successful sports clubs in the world have one thing in common, players who stand by the clubs for a long time. Kenny Dalglish, Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes (Manchester United), Paolo Maldini (AC Milan) & Michael Jordan (Chicago Bulls) are famous examples. But in a goat market that is IPL, it’s always going to be tough. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) was arguably the most disappointed team as they had the best dressing room atmosphere among all of IPL’s teams. Thankfully IPL had player retention policies. So CSK did what they could do best at the recent IPL auctions. First, they retained 4 players who would have commanded high prices at the auction. Second, they went after the same players who formed the crux of the team for 3 years. Yes they lost Murali and Balaji but most importantly they retained 7 players of the original team. This combined with the services of new recruits like Dwayne Bravo and Scott Styris is sure to help the cause.

1. Michael Hussey 2. Murali Vijay 3. Suresh Raina 4. Subramaniam Badrinath 5. Srikkanth Anirudha 6. Mahendra Singh Dhoni 7. Albie Morkel 8. Dwayne Bravo 9. Ravichandran Ashwin, 10. Doug Bollinger 11. Sudeep Tyagi

Check the line up again. 6 batsmen, 2 all-rounder and 3 bowlers along with a captain cool makes it a well balanced and formidable team. You’ll almost miss the fact that Dwayne Bravo is a new recruit and not a CSK player before. The same old, happy dressing room is back. No settling down business here. It helps that CSK’s owners, India Cements, is involved with cricket for more than 50 years. So while other team members would be ‘getting to know each other’ CSK would be gunning for glory from day 1. My money is on CSK, not just for this year, but at least until the next auction. Chennai Super Kings ku whistle podu!!!