IPL is all set to begin in a few mins and as expected a lot of hype has been created around it. There’s still a huge buzz around though it was unfortunately shifted to South Africa. Buchanan’s ‘multiple captains’ theory has already raised a huge controversy with everyone willing to joing the raging debate. Further, Shane Warne has set the world on fire with announcing a young, unknown Kamran Khan as the next big sensation of IPL. Though I am not as excited as I was for India-NZ series or the fantastic contest between Aus and SA for about four months, nevertheless, I would be following this tournament sporadically.
Here’s a list of a few things that would make IPL a success for me.
1. Battle between Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne: What a fascinating clash this would be!! It has been long since we last saw them competing against each other. People would always remember the thrashing that Sachin handed to Warnie and the latter calling him a nightmare. Didn’t get much to see two of them in the last edition of IPL as Sachin had to miss a match due to his injury and in the other match, he just faced 3-4 balls from Shane Warne, but I am very much looking forward to the engrossing battle between the two.
2. Dravid scoring at a Strike rate of 200: Yes, you heard me right!! Okay, lets get a little realistic here – Dravid should score at a SR of 140-150. As it is, he would be leaving in couple of weeks, however, really want to see him hand a thrashing to the bowlers in the matches he plays. Ofcourse, he can do this, He has done it in the past. There’s no reason why a man who could score 92* of just 56 balls against England can’t do this. He just has to get out of mindset of playing every ball along the ground. Come on Rahul, show it to the world!!
3. Kolkata Knight Riders finishing 8th and Punjab Kings XI 7th: No other result would give me more satisfaction than this as it would be a good lesson for all those who are trying to associate Bollywood with the game of cricket. I would love to see Shahrukh Khan or Preity Zinta lose all their money in this IPL and somehow they are forced to sell off their team. Atleast, the telecast would be more focussed on the cricket field rather than on Shahrukh Khan shouting ‘Karbo Larbo Jeetbo’ on each boundary or wicket for Kolkata or on Preity Zinta hugging or kissing all the Punjab players without even understanding the basics of cricket. Let’s just make it clear to everyone that Cricket and Bollywood are two separate things and it should remain so. And yes, no points in guessing why I want Punjab to finish above Kolkata!!
4. Chennai SuperKings not doing well: I have nothing against Chennai or the players representing it. However, I would prefer Chennai to lose as Dhoni (or the Indian team) has been consistenly winning for a long time and the ‘Law of Averages’ is bound to catch up with him some time. I believe the loss in IPL would compensate for the extended winning run for India and Indian team would then continue to do well after IPL. Weird thinking, right?? Yes, but then that’s the way I sometimes think!!
5. Less Sensationalization by Commentators: Andy Zaltzman has perfectly defined the commentating skills of the present day commentators. It is a high time that the commentators should stop going berserk on each and every action that takes place on the cricket field. For God’s sake there should be some difference between the commentators and cheer leaders!! In last IPL, I remember Ravi Shastri talking about how reverse swing can make a difference to the outcome of the match. Reverse swing in a 20-overs game??? Ravi, do you really believe what you say?? Do you expect that batsmen are going to care about not pressing their front foot too across incase the ball reverses!! Huh, think before you speak!!
6. A grand finale between Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals: Reason – Point #1. Oh! I am so much obsessed with these two players!! But then why shouldn’t I be?? They are two of the modern day greats and I have grown up watching these two people mesmerize the world. This is yet another opportunity for them to show that they are still the champions and it would be foolish to write them off by calling T20 as the game of youngsters. I believe IPL this time around would be the tournament for seniors and there can’t be two better guys to lead the way.
[...] week as the tournament is still wide open and anything can happen from here on. And for my wishlist at the start of tournament, some of them have been fulfilled. Further, some of them have changed [...]