mere funde

The Times of India had an article today on how the IPT TV ratings have slipped after an initial bang. Was it unexpected? Not really. The IPL is supposed to be modeled after the league structure in soccer. However, there remain major differences between the two.

Soccer is a sport where club rivalries have been established over decades, with most major clubs being more than five to six decades old. The international matches are few and far in between, with only one major international tournament every two years (the World Cup and the Euro Cup/Copa America). Therefore the level of interest in the club as well as the international matches remain very high. One the other hand cricket has since its beginning been a sport which has seen inter-country rivalry rather than inter-club rivalry. So the legendary tourneys have been the Ashes and the Indo-Pak series earlier, and the Indo-Australia series nowadays. Other than in England, the league structure is not very widely watched in countries that have high TV audience, i.e, the Asian countries (the Ranji trophy being an example). Further, there is enough international action with almost one large tournament every year (World Cup, Champions Trophy and now the T20 World Cup).

Next is the fact that the IPL T20 league is an overdose in a sport that already suffers from excesses. Lets take India for example. It played nearly 10 Test and 40-50 ODIs last year, exlcuding the T20s. Which means nearly 100 days of cricket every year. 8 teams in IPL will play close to 60 matches over a period of 7 weeks. Which means you would be watching Indian cricket every 2-3 days, in a year that is (and I haven’t even included the ICL). Compare this with UEFA Champions League where 32 teams from different nations play 122 matches over 8 months. There are saas-bahu soaps that are on TV lesser number of times than cricket for God’s sake!! [There goes the argument that "yeh saa-bahu toh roz hi aata hai"].

I think these would be major factors in reducing the viewership of cricket in general, and IPL T20 in particular. And I haven’t even started on the atrocious commentary (Arun Lal - Stop talking for Christ’s sake!!) and pathetic production (We are taking a break, no we are not, no we are done for the day!). And did I hear someone say overdose of advertisements?

blogathonindia , blogathonindia1

Today happens to be the birthday of the God of millions of Indians like me. Happy Birthday Sachin .

Maybe we should petition for it to be declared a national holiday

… the God is back where he belongs!

…thou shalt be missed.

Of the current crop of Aussies, Gilly and Lee are the only two I like and while I rejoiced today for India, a part of me was sad that this brilliant cricketer shall not play again. To me he remains the best all-rounder I have ever seen. I still remember the Mumbai test where he and Hayden clobbered the Indian attack mercilessly, to take it away from India’s grip after India was totally in command.

Goodbye Mate. You were one of the best that ever wielded the willow!

I am a sucker for good sports writing. And below is a nugget I stumbled upon the web. Link via Cricinfo - The Surfer.

Laxman’s walk to the crease is all purposeful, rolling-shouldered, Johnnie Walker advert. Once there, he combines a stillness of demeanour with a bustle of run-seeking. Unlike in Sydney, his innings at Perth wasn’t filled with strokes that picked the ball 13 cms from outside off and sent the disoriented thing to mid-wicket, but he could still look like he was batting for pleasure. At the end-of-day press conference, he remarked bafflingly that he enjoyed playing under pressure. Perhaps he thinks the words are synonyms.

Another one, a quote from Sir Garry Sobers, on receiving a threat from Dennis Lillee, to Ian Chappell. This one comes before the famous 245 he scored for the rest of the world against the Australian side.

Well.. he’s got the ball, and I’ve got the bat and we will see.

.. and have kicked some Aussie ass along the way!!

The Indian team has proved to the Australian team, and a lot of other critics too, that Sydney was no flash in the pan, and that, hadn’t it been for the umpires, the series would now would be at a more interesting turn.

The fortunes swung a lot through out the match, but India maintained the upper hand for most of it, and did not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory for once.

I am so, sooooo happy!! Yay!!

… declared out (wrongly according to Cricinfo) by the umpires, yet again. I think they can add another statistic to his career. Done by the umpires that is!

 ”Batsmen usually say to each other ‘you take care of this bowler etc’. [In] this match the Indians might have to say ‘you take care of Bucknor, I will take care of Benson’.”

Ian Chappell on commentary during the final day of the Sydney Test following two doubtful decisions that went against India.

A wife walks into the lounge room where her husband is watching the match on television. “New Zealand is winning,” he says. She responds, “What, aren’t the umpires playing?”

Source.

PS: I was away to IIT Roorkee for campus recruitment. More on that and the events at the SCG later.

… was the only question a nonagenarian, who entered the SCG at lunch on a wheelchair, wanted an answer to!

“Commit all your crimes when Sachin is batting, they will go unnoticed because even the Lord is watching.”

As they say, in cricket, there are mere mortals, and then there is one Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. Enough said.

The Boxing Day Test at the historic MCG. And India playing Australia. If there is one country that gives Australia any competition whatsoever, despite rankings, it is India. And India haven’t done too badly for itself on the first day.

At 337 for 9, the Aussies find themselves in a rare situation. So complete has been their domination of the game that before this test, Gilchrist had not batted on the first day of a test for more than a year! If it was Ganguly in the first test of the last tour, it is Kumble this time with his first day 5-wicket haul.

Australia are not even on the back-foot, let alone being down. But they are in unfamiliar territories. A position they haven’t really been in for a long time.

Seems like we have an interesting second day’s play tomorrow!