IPL 2008 Bowling Stats... A follow up

As a follow up of previous post, I decided to bring to you some interesting Graphical Statistics on the performance of bowlers on a team basis. There is a lot to talk about how teams fared overall on producing champions.

Well to start off with, let’s have a look on the where the top 50 wicket takers come from:



The above graph shows something funny! From the list players who featured in top 50 wicket takers list, the maximum numbers of players come from Bangalore Royal Challengers’ team, however none of these players were able to make it top ten wicket takers list, as depicted by the red pyramids. The teams that shared the top performers were Rajasthan, Chennai, Punjab and Delhi. Coincidentally, these teams were also the 4 semifinalists of IPL 2008. The below statistics is the indicator of the fact that bowling has a lot to do with overall team’s performance in any given tournament. Well this figure may definitely daunt the morale of King’s XI Punjab which has got almost toothless bowling attack this summer.
Now here is a food for thought, the “mock “report of who has taken maximum heat of the top performing bowlers:

Well the graphs represent that the most numbers of Best figure have come against Bangalore royal Challers. This is typically called joining the party when others are having fun. As apparent, Deccan chargers follow the suite. But the most surprising entry is Chennai’s. 6 out of top 50 bowling figures were against Chennai. Well Superkings, you definitely need to have a look here.
Now let us have a look as to what went wrong for the Superkings:
The pie chart almost clears all the doubts. Actually it was Rajasthan royal bowlers who took the maximum bite in the pie, i.e 3 out of six, followed by Bangalore Royal challengers and Mumbai Indians with two and one times each.

Taking a deeper look into the graph, Its Sohail Tanvir, who has done the maximum damage! Once again, Sohail Tanveer in News! This definitely makes way for the fact that Rajathan Royals are definitely going to miss Sohail Tanveer.

The IPL 2008 Bowling Statistics

Talking on the bowling front, there were some epic performances by Pakistani players. And bowling is something Pakistan stands out for! Well with the array statistics from different views, there goes the flurry of graphs depicting performances from IPL 2008.

Top Wicket Takers:


The IPL 2008 season saw Rajasthan royals dominating all through the series. Quite apparent by the fact that along with batsmen dominating the list in IPL 2008 batting statistics the bowlers also took the series by storm. The top wicket takers of IPL 2008 has Sohail Tanvir at the bottom (well just in the graph) with a maximum of 22 wickets. The second spot is shared by Sreeshanth and Warne and then we have several closely competing players as shown by the density of blue lines in Graph.

Economy and Wickets/match:

Well, taking a look at the economy perspective, Sohail Tanvir emerges out the winners in that stat too! With the best economy Sohail Tanvir tops the economy list too. An interesting thing could have been here is whether the total number of wickets taken is influenced by more number of matches played. Well to answer that question, the blue bars with wicket per match shows that Sohail Tanvir deservedly topped the list, as he averaged 2 wickets per match. A fresh ranking here has been done based on the average wickets per match. However, the ranking statistics is not much different from the ranking in highest wicket taker stats.

Best Bowling figures:

No prizes for guessing that. Sohail Tanvir who has topped the top two stats phenomenally makes way to top here also. However, it’s not just one, but two entries in the top ten best bowling figures stats. The “longer” blue bars represent runs and the shorter red bars represent the wickets taken.The top ten best bowling figure stats have 3 Pakistani bowlers. One thing that becomes apparent here is the contribution of Pakistani bowlers to the bowling dimension of IPL 2008. The cricking community could have got to see them in action this season too had it not been for those bloody terrorist attacks on Lankans!!!

An account of what I went thru- Superkings vs Daredevils

I was typing the below post as I was watching the match between Delhi Daredevils and Chennai Superkings. I was so overwhelmed with the thrill but since I was all alone watching the matching I couldn’t help but share it with someone. And who could be better than my readers… so there you go!

A tremendous batting performance by Delhi Daredevils have just set the tone right for a big match between the champions of previous season. In a mammoth score of 189 for 5 in 20 overs, there was hardly any contribution by the most talked about Gauti-Viru opening pair from Delhi. The major contributions came from AB De Villiers and Dilshan, who created 105 and 50 respectively. Ab De Villiers century is the 7th IPL Century and also the first one in this season.

Chennai Superkings have started the chase in style. With Hayden hitting the ball all over the park, the team looks well in hunt for the mammoth target!!! Raina has come in to join the party with 41 runs in just 27 balls.

The live commentary begins...

"The heart beats are up, the ones with weak heart had better kept off this match. As Chennai Superkings require 190 runs to win, the game is evenly poised at the moment. However, for them runs are coming in trickle when they should have come in floods!!! It’s now two overs left and 24 runs more to be made. As unnerving as all the Chennai superking’s match. The same was the condition in the match against Mumbai.

At the climax, Chennai loses Badrinath. Now Chennai requires 22 runs in 9 balls with 4 wickets in hand.

Gony has been promoted upper in the batting order. And a much needed sixer by Gony. Now the Chennai superking’s need just 15 runs in 7 balls.

That’s out!!! Gony run out off the last ball from Vettori. Now 15 runs required in 6 balls. The match is definitely on the steepest cliffhanger.

Well , its back to back two wickets lost by Chennai. They no more look in hunt now."

A great chase put up by Chennai Superkings. Delhi Daredevils definitely will be happy with the way things have turned out in final overs. They were successful in uncovering the weak lower order at the time when it was needed the most. For the Chennai superkings some of the great performances have gone waste, including the fastest fifty by Hayden.

Scores

Delhi Daredevils: 189/5 in 20 overs
Chennai Superkings:180/9 20 overs

Statistics of strategy - IPL Match 1, A Threadbare Analysis

IPL match statistics or for that matter any statistics present a lot more than common viewing can perceive. As an audience what we perceived from Chennai Superkings defeat at the hands of Mumbai Indians in the IPL 2009 opening edition was the fact that Tandulkar perfomed extremely well and helped Mumbai Indians to reach to a good total. In reply, the Chennai Superkings fell short by 19 odd runs!!! Well this was the vanilla picture of the scheme of things that went behind the making of match, but then there was much more to it. This is where we make use of IPL opening match statistics to figure out less obvious details.

To start off the discussion, there goes a question... Why did Chennai SuperKings chose to ball first? Answer: They knew that batting through initial overs will be tough in damp conditions and they may end up having two top batsmen from Mumbai camp, i.e. Sachin and Jayasuriya.
Now the next question, Did this work? Before commenting on that lets have a look at the contribution of runs each batsmen from Mumbai Indians made to the total:

Well the Graph makes it evident that Sachin’s contribution to the total is max. However, Sanath Jayasuriya failed to make a mark. So that partially proves that Chennai SuperKing’s strategy was half right. But wait a moment, Looking at the strike rate statistics of Jayasuriya and Nayar as opposed to Sachin’s strike rate would give a different picture at all.

Taking into consideration the statistics both the graphs, the fact that is obvious is Sachin was playing calm and an anchor’s part while the other batsmen were having a go at the bowlers. Sachin’s strike rate went up only in the last few overs, what is most remarkable here is the fact that Sachin scored only in sixties even after playing through all 20 overs.
Now taking a look at the bowlers statistics, Flintoff proved to be costliest of all bowlers conceding 44 runs in 4 overs, contributing to nearly 25% of total runs made by Mumbai Indians. A better strategy could have been frustrating Tendulkar to go for big shots. This would have definitely disturbed the overall game plan of Mumbai team and could have had them dislodged at a cheaper total.

Finally, a look at Chennai Superkings’ batting statistics, they weren’t bad at all, but then there weren’t any big quick innings from anyone and once again the batting depended heavily on Hayden and Dhoni’s performance which is clearly not the best signs for the team!!!

As entertaining as the IPL matches are supposed to be…

As scheduled, The IPL Season 2 went underway on April 18th 2009. After all the pain, opposition and news, the IPL this season was surely the most anticipated event. The spirit of IPL, i.e. the opening ceremony for IPL set the tone for the event. But what actually stole the show were the events on ground. Living true to its image, IPL matches have sent a new wave across that no amount of predictions can get the IPL results in your kitty well before the grand finale. A screen shot of current standings from the cricbuzz website amused me more than anything else.

At the outset, the screenshot is the mere representation of the standings after day 1 of IPL Match. A closer look at the screenshot would show the contrast the standings are to its predecessor season, i.e. IPL 2008. The Rajasthan Royals that were at the top followed by Chennai Superkings in IPL Season 1 are now languishing at the bottom two positions, while the Royal challengers Bangalore, who were widely hailed as underdogs are happily at the top of the chart, followed by Mumbai Indians, who too had bad outings last year.Moral of the story: IPL has lot more surprises in store for all of us. Better not give a shot to predicting who the winners are!!!

Kings XI Punjab - Team Statistics and Schedule

The charismatic Punjab team is back in action again! Through its incarnation in the form of Kings XI Punjab, the state has got more than an opportunity to exhibit its vibrancies. With the most flamboyant Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh to lead the side and the most beautiful dimple cheeks actress Preity Zinta as owner, what more could have one asked for. The team boasts of a formidable batting line up with Yuvraj Singh as the person who has caught the imagination of cricketing world with his six sixes in an over.


Kings XI Punjab performance last year:


With overall 10 wins, the team finished second behind Rajasthan Royals. The team not only had top scoring batsmen, but also the best NRR to complete the game with. When It comes to bowling, Kings XI Punjab had 3 bowlers- Piyush Chawla, Sreeshanth and Irphan Pathan in top ten wicket takers list. Kings XI Punjab showed an all round performance and deservedly got the second rank in IPL Season 1.


The Odds this year


IPL season 2 could be tough for Kings XI Punjab, with Marsh and Lee missing, the team looks pretty weak… But wait a minute, did I miss what Yuvraj can do to any team? Yes, right from batting, bowling and fielding, Yuvraj can shock the opponents in any department. With promising new comers like Karan Goel and seasoned players like Sangakkara and Jayawardane, the team again looks in the hunt of cup this year too.


Some quick facts about Kings XI Punjab


Team Coach: Tom Moody

Owner: Preity Zinta/Ness Wadia
Captain: Yuvraj Singh


Kings XI Punjab Team for 2009:


Karan Goel
Taruwar Kohli
Mahela Jayawardene
Kumar Sangakkara (w)
Yuvraj Singh (c)
Ravinder Bopara
Yusuf Abdullah
Piyush Chawla
Vikram RV Singh
Irfan Pathan
Vikramjeet Malik
Tanmay Srivastava
Wilkin Mota
Ajitesh Argal
Amanpreet Singh
Brett Lee
Burt Cockley
James Hopes
Luke Pomersbach
Ramesh Powar
Ranadeb Bose
Ravikant Shukla
Ryan Ninan
Sahil Kukreja
Shaun Marsh
Simon Katich
Sunny Sohal
Uday Kaul

Strengths:

An allrounder in the form of Ravi Bopara can pop up surprises
A formidable middle order
A fresh young bowler Burt Cockley, who according to the coach Tom Moody has been bowling consistently at 140+!

Weakness:



The team’s bowling attack lacks tooth with no Sreeshanth, Brett Lee and James Hopes.
Absence of Shaun Marsh in first few matches.


Schedule

IPL 2008 Statistics and Analysis- Highest Scores & Top Scorers

IPL 2008 was unfairly loaded towards batsmen and thus it becomes obvious that there were some of the great batting performances and match winning scores. Mining the Statistics for previous year’s IPL, I obtained some interesting figures as below. To start off with the routine stuff, while Shaun Marsh topped the list of top scoring batsmen followed closely by Gautam Gambhir, Brendon Mc Cullum Topped the list of highest scores in an innings. But you will definitely be interested in knowing who took the heat of all these batsmen. Well then there are some details on that too.

Following is the bar chart representing the Top Scorers of the IPL 2008 tournament:

Now you will definitely be interested to know that from which team the top scorers came from! Well bellow is the distribution of top 50 scorers in the tournament and the team the belonged to. The Blue bars represent the statistics of distribution of top 50 players scores wise. The red bars include the no of top ten players that came from each team. For example, 3 of the top ten scorers were from Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2008.

Below is the list of Highest score in an innings and the top ten highest scores.The blue bars indicate the top scores and the red bars indicate the number of balls taken to achieve the same

Now let us check against which teams were the maximum no of highest scores hit. Here, the cones show the number of highest scores hit against each team. For example, against Kings XI Punjab, tean of top fifty highest scores were hit, followed by Deccan Chargers taking the maximum heat.

Chennai SuperKings Team, Stats and Schedule

Well you may not associate much of cricket with Chennai. But the fact that Chennai has been home to many Indian cricketing legends sets tone for the most spirited team of Indian Premiere league. Runners up of IPL 2008, the Chennai Super Kings team looks all set to grab the cup in IPL 2009. The team boasts of having the best captain that India ever had, to lead the side! Under the inspirational leadership of Dhoni, the team bagged some of the greatest wins in IPL 2008 season.



Chennai Super kings performance last year:



The team did register some of the most emphatic victories last year, including the one with 9 wickets victory over Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab. Its journey to Semi Finals consisted of 7 victories and then a victory over Punjab in Semis. Though the team may not have had the best NRR or high number of wins, but Chennai Super Kings definitely clinched the matches in time when it was required and thus stood out as the most opportunistic team of IPL Season 1.



The odds this year:



Well, after going through the review of IPL 2009 day 1 match, the experts did claim that bookies have gone all out on Chennai Super Kings. Though the match results went in favor of Mumbai Indians, notwithstanding, Chennai Super Kings continue to be favorites. The team carries an image of “fighter” for itself, which is something that definitely keeps them afloat in spite of all the odds.



Some quick facts about Chennai Super Kings



Team Coach: Kepler Wessels





Owner: India Cements





Captain: MS Dhoni





The Chennai Super Kings Team for 2009:



Matthew Hayden
Parthiv Patel
Suresh Raina
Subramaniam Badrinath
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c) (w)
Thilan Thushara
Jacob Oram
Andrew Flintoff
Joginder Sharma
Manpreet Gony
Ravichandran Ashwin
Albie Morkel
Laxmipathy Balaji
Muttiah Muralitharan
Makhaya Ntini
Abhinav Mukund
Mike Hussey
Arun Karthik
George Bailey
Murali Vijay
Napoleon Einstein
Palani Amarnath
Shadab Jakati
Srikkanth Anirudha
Stephen Fleming
Sudeep Tyagi
Suresh Kumar
Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan
Viraj Kadbe

Strengths :



The very fact that they missed the Last IPL season in a cliffhanger match, makes them the favorites this year too.
The inspiring leadership of Dhoni
Presence of in form Andrew Flintoff
Presence of Mat Hayden, Raina and Dhoni forms a formidable batting lineup



Weakness:



Too much of dependence on Dhoni and Hayden as far as batting is concerned.
Pace spearhead, Oram and Ntini have not made much of news last year.



Schedule

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) - Team, Schedule and Stats

The first thing that comes to the mind of any Indian when he hears the name of Kolkata is sports. What more can be required to set a tone for the right team than having a cricket frenzy state like West Bengal to support you and when this kind of fanfare did not suffice, the team drew all the attention by the very fact that the king of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan was the owner of the team.


Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) performance last year


The team did start with a bang. With Brendon Mc Cullum from New Zealand beating Dravid’s men black and blue, Kolkata Knight Riders started on a high note. The team also managed to take away way few of the following IPL matches. However, the team failed to keep up the high expectations set by them as the IPL T20 series progressed and finally weren’t able to make it to top 4 for semi finals. The failure was attributed to factors like absence of Australian players and Shoaib Akhtar in all the matches along with many other reasons.


Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) News...


The team had to hog the lime light. No doubts that. A team owned by Shah Rukh Khan along with Juhi Chawla and her husband, led by Sourav Ganguly and followed by West Bengal couldn’t have just remained low profile. The first fingers were raised when SRK was found breaking the rules by supporting the team down to the ground. The debate was about to cool down when there were blames by Shane Warne on Sourav Ganguly for arriving late to pitch, when the team locked horns with Rajasthan Royals. There were also rumours that Umar Gul had said that Ganguly does not know to lead.
All this was in IPL Season 1. But for Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) IPL Season 2 is no different. The team is already in lime light for the off field tension due to multiple captaincy theory advocated by John Buchanan. The issue was about to get resolved amicably when SRK and the Indian cricketing legend Sunil Gavaskar went in for war of words.


The odds this year...


The Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) team may not have performed well last year, but this year it stands a fair chance to make it to last four, given the fact that it missed the spot by fraction last year. However, we keep our fingers crossed on such deductions. After all a team with such a calibre deserves to be there and on the top of that who does not the IPL to retain its glamour quotient by having owners like Shah Rukh Khan in fray???


Some Quick Facts on Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR):


Team Coach: John Buchanan


Owner: Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawala and Jay Mehta


Captain: Sourav Ganguly


The Kolkata Knight Rider Team for 2009:


Sourav Ganguly: Left hand batsman, Right medium
Ishant Sharma: Right hand batsman, Right medium
Chris Gayle: Left hand batsman, Off break
Brendon McCullum: Right hand batsman, Wicket keeper
David Hussey: Right hand batsman, Off break
Shoaib Akhtar: Right hand batsman, Right arm fast bowler
Ricky Ponting: Right hand batsman, Off break, Right medium
Ajit Agarkar: Right hand batsman, Right arm fast medium
Murali Kartik: Left hand batsman, Slow left-arm orthodox
Umar Gul: Right hand batsman, Right arm fast medium
Tatenda Taibu: Right hand batsman, Right medium, Wicketkeeper
Salman Butt: Left hand batsman, Off break
Md Hafeez: Right hand batsman, Off break
Iqbal Abdulla: Slow left-arm orthodox
Siddarth Kaul: Right hand batsman, Right arm medium
Akash Chopra: Right hand batsman, Right arm medium
Cheteshwar Pujara: Right hand batsman, Leg break
Yashpal Singh: Right hand batsman, Right arm medium
Laxmi Ratan Shukla: Right hand batsman, Right arm medium
Sourashish Lahiri: Right hand batsman, Right arm offbreak
Rohan Banerjee: Left hand batsman, Right arm medium
Debabrata Das: Right hand batsman, leg break googly
W P Saha : Right hand batsman, Wicketkeeper
Ranadeb Bose: Right-arm fast-medium bowling
Ashok Dinda: Right-arm medium-fast bowling


Strengths:


Top seed foreign players
Aggressive leadership of Sourav Ganguly backed by experience of Ricky Pointing
In form Mc Cullum and Gayle
A great bench consisting of promising players.


Weaknesses:


Pakistani players may noe be allowed for IPL Season 2
Apparent ridge between the coach and captain
Sourav’s own performance will be under scanner.


The team will lock horns on...

The Kolkata Knight Riders' match schedule

The IPL Rules...

The Indian premiere league has set in a new pitch altogether for the recently introduced format, comprising of twenty overs each and named as Twenty 20 cricket. The IPL rules are more or less based on the standard Twenty20 format rules; however the IPL rules introduce some of the interesting rules too. The teams in this series have been created by bidding for the players by the people or franchisee who are supposed to own the team. However even the creation of teams are governed by standard IPL team rules.

Following are the set of rules laid down by IPL for choosing teams, conducting IPL matches and the revenue sharing.

1. Total strength of team can be no more than 16 players, a physio and a coach.
2. No team can have more than 4 foreign players in the playing 11 and no more than 8 foreign players in the squad.
3. Each team needs to have a minimum of 4 domestic players and not less than 4 players from the BCCI under 22 pool.
4. Each region will have an Icon player who has been established as a legend in Indian cricket. There was a fixed price for Icon players, i.e. INR 4 crores or 1 million dollars.
5. The rest of the 77 players will be up for bidding, which has been divided into eight categories. Categories A-D will have of top seed players. E comprises wicketkeepers, F will have all-rounders with G consisting of specialist batsmen and H having specialist bowlers.
6. The maximum amount each franchisee can spend is $5 million
7. All the players will be compensated with a base annual salary, which is the price on which players have been bought on the day of bidding.
8. Icons are paid 15% more than the highest paid player in the auction.
9. The BCCI pool of under-22 players should be compensated with a minimum annual salary of US$20,000. The other domestic players will have a minimum base salary of US$50,000.
10. The time appointed for trading/swapping of players for the coming three years will be February.
11. No foreign players may be bought prior to the auction
12. There are also certain restrictions imposed by Cricket Australia on the number of players playing for each side. The demand by Cricket Australia is that no team should buy more than 2 Cricket Australia centrally contracted players or more than 2 players from the same state association of Cricket Australia.
Of all the above rules, some of the interesting IPL rules are:
1. Each team will have to bowl a minimum of seven bowlers. With each of the six bowlers bowling three bowlers each and the seventh bowler can bowl 2 overs
2. The batting team can call off their extra players to bat till the end of 20 overs. However , only 11 players are allowed to bowl or field
3. The batting team can continue to bat till the end of 20 overs even if it has completed the target on posed by the other team.
4. A match can be declared complete if and only if all the 40 overs have been played.

Revenue Sharing model of IPL

Till 2017:
54% - franchisee and the team management
40% - IPL
6%- Prize money

After 2017:

45% for franchisee
50% for IPL
5% for prize money

Well now before you ask me why have I listed all the IPL rules... Let me tell you that in the crunch moments, that invariably all IPL matches have... Your knowledge of rules may help you remain on the top of all heated up discussion!!! What say?

IPL T20 Schedule April-May 2009

Well, Well, Well ... so we are up with the final schedule of IPL matches. After all the speculations, news and views; The Indian premiere league being played in South Africa have just came out with its schedule (Well may be I am pretty late on that... But then an important news like this couldn’t have been left out on a blog that centres on IPL Schedule)

Week 1 and Week 2



Week 3 and Week 4

Week 5

So there you go... The IPL Schedule is up and so are the timings of matches... Now you know exactly at what time you need to settle down with a cup of coffee (or whatever you may like to have lol) before your idiot box. And ya... it no April 1st prank!!!

Indian Premiere League- the Game vs The Name

Just when we had started adoring IPL for the quality of matches, the level of professionalism and the precision of organisation, there comes a jolt. A jolt due to a practice, which puts a name at a higher priority over the game. The very concept of icon players in IPL season 1 was brought in to flare the spirit of regionalism and there was of course no harm in it, because its on regional sentiments blended with the love for cricket, the IPL organisers cash on. I suppose IPL matches will do a greater justice to the talent show if the decision of the skipper sis made a function of the on field performance instead of it being made a function of birth and past records.

The furore over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) team manager cum Coach Buchanan’s plan to have multiple captains in one team was reasonably justified. But then why was there a furore at all? Because we re averse to change and we are just not ready to experiment or because the West Bengal Icon player Sourav Ganguly was getting sidelined with such an experiment? What pains the most here is the fact that the idea has been turned down even before it getting to field but yes, it has been blown out of proportion by press and media already and has started garnering tough response from the fans across India.

I firmly believe that a player with stature like Sourav Ganguly should hardly get affected by what position he gets to hold in a club level match!!! I read some sites quoting “Ganguly’s wings have been clipped” or for that matter “IPL has no regards for legends”. But is that justified? Whether Ganguly’s being a nominal captain and not a functional captain erase all his records? Will it erase the memories of that Taunton century where Ganguly along with Dravid scripted history against Sri Lanka in a world cup match or for that matter many such memories associated with dada’s peak performances? No right! Then why is this mean claim that a position decided by a foreign coach would demean Ganguly? What definitely matters here is, an innovative idea like having multiple captains in one team, one for toss, one to handle batting while the other looks after bowling attack “COULD” have actually changes the way we perceive the game and the way it has been played all this while.

Had it not been unconventional but convictional captaincy of M.S.Dhoni, India would have continued to languish at an average position of fifth and sixth in a rank table comprising of just seven to eight competent teams. What made him different and so successful was not only his on field performance but an ability to bring positive changes to the game and stand by his decision for getting the change. Results: A hundred percent success, more entertainment, high quality performance and of course a more proud Cricket playing India!!! The changes that Dhoni has brought in has not only contributed to the nation’s success and cricket but has contributed to the Game as a whole.

So the Moral of the story... Let us not mix the stature and fame of Icon players with the demand of current times. The only constant is change and positive changes can only be brought by innovation. Lets try being more innovative than just being fundamentalists! The same goes with change in captain for teams like Deccan chargers of Hyderabad and Royal challengers of Bangalore. Because as true cricket fans we should make sure that IPL not only succeeds in making news but also succeeds in redefining how Cricket is played... And does it sound all that new to a country that had once defined civilization and culture for the whole world???

India to host IPL matches 2009!!!

So the buzz is, “IPL is coming back”... and the news is about to be made public in couple of days from now. This would mean that Indians will have an opportunity to catch the IPL matches live in their own home grounds, the local advertisers will get an opportunity to gain publicity and of course the part of Bollywood that’s not at all involved in this extravaganza will have to bear up with empty multiplexes....
But hold, before you just start celebrations remain informed of the fact that it’s not official yet, speculations are still on and anything may happen. You Mr.Lalit Modi right?

And how come!!!

Now before you flood me with questions like why, how, what, where and all those blah blah, I’ll brief you about what went in background. Well the speculations for keeping India as IPL venue began when it was made known to the organisers that even South Africa will have its national elections beginning from April 22nd due to which the African government has said that it won’t be able to provide security to the venues where IPL matches are slated to be conducted and thus the organisers will have to manage all the security themselves. Keeping this in mind, an emergency meeting was called at 11 am on Wednesday morning in Mumbai, between all the franchisee reps, BCCI and the IPL commissioner MR. Modi.

The decision on considering the rescheduling of IPL matches came just before the PM, Mr.Manmohan Singh was about to leave for G20 summit in London. The was Centre and state governments have agreed on considering the prospects of hosting IPL matches up to four days before the elections in the respective centers in every state, and immediately after polling ends in the given centers. As reported by Asian age, Hyderabad, Vizag and Nagpur have elections on April 16, Bengaluru on April 23, Mumbai on April 30, Jaipur and New Delhi on May 7 and Chennai and Kolkata on May 13 and thus the matches can be organized if planned accordingly.
The states that have begun to respond favorably are Andhra Pradesh, where the state police have reportedly agreed to provide security immediately after the April 16 elections. The Asian age reports also say that Hyderabad, where the polling will be held in the first phase, will be chosen as the venue for the opening match in place of Mumbai as according to the original schedule.

Guess who is relieved….

The whole of congress, along with Mr. Chidambaram in particular looked relieved as the news floated across. As it was congress was being held up by BJP just before election for not bein able to provide security to the events like IPL in country.
And the day is...

By the way can someone please remind me... which date was Wednesday? 1st April right?
Well sorry for the prank, but its 123india.com to be blamed that gave me the idea of this prank. Sorry if I have hurt the emotions of an IPL fanatic. No offense intended!!!