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Auctions

why pakistani players were rightly not picked

by paddle on January 20, 2010 · 9 comments

in India, Pakistan

the buzz in the blogosphere today has been the issue of pakistani players not being picked up by franchisees in the IPL Auction. I say that it was a fair call. The teams were justified, IMHO for not spending money on players from across the border.

WHY? The secular, freedom loving, peaceful being inside you just asked. How can I say this at a time, when the whole world has been blogging, face-booking and tweeting in support of the contrary.

The only explanation I have right now also happens to be the most plausible one. It goes by the name of Return of Investment.

These franchisees are owned by multi-million dollar companies and individuals. The least that they fathom is to know how to manage their hard earned money. Buying a player, that too for just one year (it is important not to forget that all the player contracts will be churned after this season ends), becomes a very important call.

A Call not just justified by the player’s popularity, or just his talent. The driving factors in such a scenario are ‘utility’ and ‘availability’. The latter is where the team owners were in a fix regarding the players from Pakistan.

While Shahid Afridi would have been in everyone’s dream team, the reason why he was not picked is because the franchisees knew that the current India-Pakistan diplomatic stand is unclear to say the least. What if, at the last moment, the Pakistani players are not allowed to cross the border?

Who will account for the money lost then?

What say you?

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beyond the test world, straight into ipl

by paddle on January 10, 2010 · 0 comments

in Uncategorized

Murray Goodwin

First of all, here are the final shortlisted players for the auction to be held for the Indian Premier League, preceding its third season:

Mohammad Aamer, Shahid Afridi, Saeed Ajmal, Umar Akmal, Rana Naved-ul Hasan, Imran Nazir, Abdul Razzaq (all Pakistan), Shakib Al Hasan (Bangladesh), Sulieman Benn, Darren Bravo, Daren Ganga, Wavell Hinds, Kieron Pollard, Kemar Roach, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Lendl Simmons (all West Indies), Doug Bollinger, Brad Haddin, Phillip Hughes, Ashley Noffke, Jason Krejza, Ben Laughlin, Graham Manou, Damien Martyn, Clint McKay, Adam Voges (all Australia), Shane Bond, Grant Elliot, Nathan McCullum, Lou Vincent (all New Zealand), Rizwan Cheema (Canada), Zander de Bruyn, Justin Kemp, Rory Kleinveldt, Yusuf Abdulla, Wayne Parnell, Vernon Philander, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Johan van der Wath, Vaughn van Jaarsveld (South Africa), Murray Goodwin (Zimbabwe), Thilina Kandamby, Nuwan Kulasekera, Thissara Perera, Chamara Silva, Upul Tharanga, Kaushalya Weeraratne, Chanaka Welegedara, Nuwan Zoysa (Sri Lanka) and Ryan Ten Doeschate (Holland)

Of course, Chris Cairns is not there.

Now, Uncle Jarrod Kimber of Cricket with Balls hit the nail on the head when he said this:

The IPL is doing for minnow cricket what the NBA did for Asian basketball and might do more than the ICC ever has

Three players, out of the 51 selected for the final auctions for IPL Season 3 (IPL 2010), belong to non-test playing nations.

The lives of these three players, if they are bought at the auction, will never be the same again. There are enough leads to suggest that they might not be picked, but there is hope nonetheless.

The three players are:

Rizwan Cheema – Canada
Murray Goodwin – Zimbabwe
Ryan Ten Doeschate – The Netherlands

Why they are the lucky ones?

The answer is that they are not. They are here on the basis of their performance. Here, take a look:

Rizwan Cheema
A hard hitting batsman. Let the world know of his arrival by hitting a 61 ball 89 against the West Indies, which consisted of ten 4s and six sixes. Haven’t seen him at all, but do hope to soon. His last innings of some significance has been in his second most recent ODI, a knock of 76 runs from just half the number of balls. Not bad. Considering Kenya are no pushovers, specially in tier II.

His T20 record is not much to speak about, but he has played only 4 games. Though it includes a 43 ball 68 against Sri Lanka.

He is quite a handy medium pacer as well.

Murray Goodwin
Everyone knows him. So no point in featuring. Just figured among the non test playing players. My bad.

Ryan Ten Doeschate
Interesting selection. The Netherlands beat England in the T20 world cup this year, with the stars being de Grooth and Ten Doeschate. Doeschate has been a regular performer for the Dutch as well as for Essex.

His achievements are summed up by what cricinfo has to say about him:

He broke David Hemp’s record for the competition’s highest score by hitting an unbeaten 259 and finished with the extraordinary average of 228.66 including four successive centuries. He also finished as the Netherlands’ leading wicket taker in the tournament. He followed this up by performing admirably in the 2006-07 World Cricket League where he topped Netherlands’ batting and bowling averages. Born in South Africa, he cites Jonty Rhodes as his hero, and has played for Western Province. He is of Dutch descent, though, enabling him to qualify under the European Citizenship law to play county cricket. He has completed three seasons with Essex after being discovered during a pre-season tour, and he has become something of a cult figure amongst the Essex supporters with his huge hitting, skiddy bowling and big smile. Consistent performances led him to be shortlisted for the inaugural ICC Associate ODI Player of the Year in 2007.

A voice from within tells me that none of the three will be bought at the auction. But miracles do happen. If even one of these manages to pull off a Mortaza.

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Chris Cairns vs Modi – why both are correct, part 1

by paddle on January 9, 2010 · 0 comments

in Uncategorized

modi vs cairns

This is part 1 of a 3 part series on why both Modi and Cairns are right in this public altercation. Despite all this, it isn’t exactly a win-win.

Part 1: Why Christopher Cairns is right.

Lalit Modi had an interesting tweet fly out of his twitter account yesterday. It was to the effect that Chris Cairns would not be a part of the IPL Auctions to be held soon. The reason – he was allegedly involved in match fixing and the IPL could not afford to be associated with anyone with a tarnished image.

Upon receiving the tweet I was appalled at first. Something did seem out of place. When did Chris Cairns fix a match? Weren’t the Black Caps supposed to be among the jolliest of cricketers around? In fact, they are too jolly to be allowed to compete at the world stage.

Remember the time when the ICC decided to constitute a whole tournament, the Champions Trophy, just so that New Zealand could win something to keep the motivation going.

If you ever had the time to Google “New Zealand Players involved in Match Fixing”, you won’t find much to write home about, apart from a few incidents in non-cricketing sports, and maybe this blog post. These are good people we are talking about.

But if that is so, then why the sudden furore about match fixing?

Why does Lalit Modi allegedly think that Chris Cairns was allegedly involved in Match Fixing? The answer lies in one decision which the Indian Cricket League (ICL), the rebel league of which Christopher Lance Cairns was an enthusiastic participant for 2 seasons, took.

You see, sometime in October 2008, this piece of news shocked the world, or tried to at least:

The Indian Cricket League on Monday announced the suspension of former India batsman Dinesh Mongia and former New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns in a two-line statement issued by its press office. The two players represented the Chandigarh Lions, of which Cairns was the captain, in the ‘rebel’ T20 league. South African Andrew Hall has been named as the team’s replacement skipper.

But, while ICL officials were tight-lipped on the issue, declining to come on the record to reveal further information on the suspension, a senior source in the league told The Indian Express that the step had been taken due to allegations of “under-performance” against the players.

According to the source, an enquiry has been ordered and, if found guilty, both players would be penalised. “Till then, they’ve only been suspended,” he said.

“Under-performance is a serious threat to ICL. We’re worried over players with hefty contracts taking their association with the ICL too lightly and not performing to their potential. Under-performing cricketers set a bad example for others and bring the league to disrepute. But the honeymoon period for such players is over.”

Source: The Indian Express Website..Oct 28, 2008 at 2343 hrs

Interesting. The fact that Indian Express seems to be one of the very few newspapers which covered this angle of the story. Other publications went with the more default “Cairns reported for the camp unfit, and Mongia knew about the former being unfit” theory, if you didn’t already know.

The important issue here is that the ICL never officially stated that the said players were involved in Match Fixing or Underperforming, but there were sufficient under-the-surface rumours, of course inadmissible under the court of law.

Hence, Chris Cairns appears to be right as it will be difficult to prove that he was involved in match fixing. Thus, the allegations would, in a fair legal scenario, be baseless.

Coming Soon: The other half of the story. Why Mr. Modi is also right.

Watch this space.

Dinesh Mongia is also barred from the IPL, but he is not bothered. Allegedly.

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