Yay!!!

Andrew Hall, Justin Kemp and Johan van der Wath have won their appeals against an ECB block on them being registered to play in England this summer. The three South Africans had initially been refused registration after competing in the unauthorised Indian Cricket League.

Oh boo!

It is impossible to watch a match, any match, at Eden Gardens and not get in touch with Kolkata's soul. It is a soul in which throbs a fervent and positively partisan passion for cricket. Kolkatans have never bothered disguising their loyalty, and it just took two balls during the Kolkata Knight Riders match against Mumbai to encapsulate how this city responds to the game.

Kolkatans have never bothered disguising their loyalty, and it just took two balls during the Kolkata Knight Riders match against Mumbai to encapsulate how this city responds to the game.

Obviously Sambit Bal has decided to give the entire history of cricket in India a pass AND he missed out on Mumbai's opener against the Royally Challenged.

Why else would he write this fluff piece?

A heartening story

In a tournament gradually legitimising bizarre shots, chances are that spin-bowling’s most enigmatic eccentricity might pass unnoticed. Sumit Khatri is only a fringe-local featuring on the Rajasthan Royals’ extended roster of 25 and the only chinaman bowler in the IPL. But his oddity may be lost, especially since Khatri might not see any real action in the tournament. Even some cricket websites have slotted the left-armer as right medium-pacer or off-break bowler.

In itself, the above article is heartening.. Young kid with talent, being groomed by one of the legends of the game.

But what the above article ( and similar articles in various media outlets), in conjunction with the IPL, is doing is to bring to focus previously unknown players onto the public domain.

Think Abhishek Nayar. How many outside of the die hard Mumbai fans had either heard of or knew him before the IPL?

And because they know of him now, and have seen him in action, how many more will throng the gates come this Ranji season?

And that, I believe is one of the most important gains of the IPL - people can actually relate to players ( especially the fringe ones) and this, in turn can lead to better viewership of the Ranji's ( only because people will not only associate the player with their Ranji team but their IPL team as well and will be interested in the progress made by the said player during the Ranji and the off season).

As it is, the last two Ranji seasons have been phenomenal in terms of contests, but have done poorly in the ratings because of a lack of marketing and a lack of awareness of the players or the teams.

Taken together, there is something that the BCCI can capitalize on.

Will the BCCI step up to the plate and market the domestic season with even half the vigor of the IPL?

Taking stock

14 games into the IPL, Great Bong and Q, in their own inimitable ways, take stock

Huh???

The Indian Premier League (IPL) Tuesday suspended umpire Amish Saheba for two matches for speaking his mind to a newspaper about Kings XI Punjab pacer S. Sreesanth's on-field behaviour against Mumbai Indians in Mohali Friday night.

Farokh Engineer imposed the 11 match ban on Harbhajan solely on the basis of video evidence. Neither of the two umpires were queried on their version of the events.

"The referee studied video tapes of the incident and found the assault by Harbhajan was totally unprovoked. The footage exactly showed that Harbhajan went down the line, wishing all the players, shaking hands with a few players," said Lalit Modi, the commissioner of the IPL who is also a vice-president of the BCCI.

If Farokh Engineer did not deem it necessary to interview the two umpires and found the video evidence satisfactory to ban Harbhajan, why is the IPL ( and the BCCI) suspending Amish Saheba? After all, his statements to the press should not have any bearing on the judgment delivered.

And if they did have a bearing on the judgment delivered, what does it say about the processes put up by the IPL in delivering its judgments?

Did the IPL ban Harbhajan ( and more importantly, absolve Sreesanth) because it was the right thing to do or is the IPL playing to the galleries?

Cricket is Dead

Long Live Cricket

If

the Punjab Kinks XI have half a brain in the squad, they will be well advised to keep Sreesanth out of Mumbai on May 21.

The point had to be made

First, just because Harbhajan slapped Sreesanth doesn’t also mean that he called Andrew Symonds a monkey. It does not necessarily prove Sachin Tendulkar was lying when he gave evidence in Harbhajan’s favour in Australia. There is no correlation. Let us not get carried away.

Ashok Malik makes it. Succinctly.

The Mumbai Indians

are officially responsible for ruining my weekend.. When does the Ranji Trophy begin?