IPL XI 2009

Team of the Week

The selection is of the players I found most exciting and would want to represent me (in the form of Richie Benaud's XI selected in 2001) while also retaining the balance required to succeed.

I have decided not to limit my selection to 4 internationals due to the constraints this would put on picking batsmen where the Indian players did not excel and most innings were held up by international batsmen.

1. A. Gilchrist (c)(wk)
2. S. Tendulkar
3. A.B. De Villiers
4. T.M. Dilshan
5. J.P. Duminy
6. D. Bravo (all)
7. I. Pathan (all)
8. D. Vettori (all)
9. A. Kumble
10. R.P. Singh
11. S.L. Malinga

• Gilchrist gets in ahead of Hayden based on his innings in the semi-final which I consider to be one of the best I have seen in any form of the game. I thought Tendulkar would provide a reliable foil to his aggression.
• De Villiers, Dilshan and Duminy were the most consisent batsmen of the tournament and guided their sides middle overs with skill.
• Bravo and Pathan were the best allrounders and Vettori is selected to make the point that he should have played more often than he did (although he wasn't given the chance to perform, as a NZ supporter, I am quite aware of his consisent skills in any form of the game)
• Kumble provides wrist spin to Vettori's finger spin and showed great experience throughout. Singh gets in on stats and Malinga made batting so uncomfortable that he makes a fine variation to the bowling attack.

Please post your comments here as I may have made mistakes or forgotton some unfortunate player

Join me next Thursday for another XI

Out with the New and in with the Old

Hello and welcome back to my blog

THE IPL IS OVER... for another year (unless you count the Champions League in October) and to be honest I am glad – now I can get some sleep. More importantly our attention can turn to the real cricket played in England from July 8th when Australia will defend their Ashes urn.
As for the IPL and its effects on Test cricket, my comments last time covered this but since then I’m glad to see many of them were backed up by articles in the NZ Herald by Dylan Cleaver (see his great line about cricket/rugby in paragraph two of his article) and Paul Lewis. Cleaver makes some good points about how little the Black Caps players influenced the IPL (written before Ross Taylor screwed up Bangalore’s Final victory) but unfortunately continues the media trend of inflating the Jesse Ryder ‘issue’.
However Lewis holds the standard of sports journalism above such pettiness with his balanced article about the fate of Test cricket. He draws attention away from the IPL – rightly pointing out that Tests were in trouble long before the BCCI captured the sport – to the fall of West Indians cricket and debacles like Stanford. I would recommend reading this article (especially the opening quip about cow urine).
This brings me to the Ashes. For Test cricket to survive it must be competitive and this series should be nothing but competitive in my opinion as two evenly matched sides will clash from July till September (although less star-studded than 2005).
Geoffrey Boycott expressed his opinions on his radio show last week, specifically the clear move away from the aging Andrew Flintoff and the tried-and-tested Ian Bell. I believe that for England to succeed they must have Anderson and Sidebottom leading the attack – Broad is not a Test bowler of high class yet – and Swann must be the first choice spinner. After seeing him operate against the West Indies I have no doubt that he is best suited to exposing Australian weaknesses against finger spin.
Of the Baggy Green, watch out for Stuart Clark, if he is fit, he is similar to Terry Alderman in the 1980s who picked up buckets of wickets in two tours of England where wicket-to-wicket seam bowling is devastating. The boy Hughes will be interesting as we will see just how far the comparisons with Don Bradman can extend.
As we draw closer to July 8th I will provide more prediction on this intriguing contest. As for the 20/20 World Cup – after so much IPL I couldn't care less to be frank and I intend to watch only the New Zealand games.

Leggies and Wrong’uns

The Leggie this week is Paul Lewis whose article on IPL and Test cricket was well written, balanced and provided plenty of thought-provoking information on that controversy.

The Wrong’un is, surprisingly, Ian Chappell whose piece on Cricinfo.com, while insightful when talking about the Australian squad, completely missed the point of this Ashes contest by raising the Flintoff vs. Lee factor as important this time round. I would point out to him that the Edgebaston photo was taken Four years ago and both men have passed the age of 30 since then – the age at which their fast-bowling art begins to decline. This Ashes series will be for the next generation of cricketers.
Also look out for my new posting on Thursdays each week when I will state a ‘Team of the Week’ for people to debate. Predictably I will have my IPL XL for 2009 so as to rap up that topic for the year (hopefully)

Well that’s it from and I hope to see you again
It’s good bye for now

Time to Take a Stand

Hello and welcome back to my blog

Just when I thought that the IPL would fit smoothly into the world of cricket the two begin to reject each other and I fear that Test Cricket as we know it will be the innocent victim of the chaos. While the excitement and credibility of the IPL begins to plateau in 2009, the controversy hasn’t yet reached its peak as more and more the question of money over tradition is on the mind and tongue of the players.
The ICC must act soon to protect what remains of the international game as we begin to see the effects of the money-driven circus. A clear priority must be stated by the governing body so that some direction can be given to the game once again; Test cricket as it is now or accept the blank cheque of 20/20 cricket and begin to dismantle the international system. If not the often toothless or bought-off ICC, then the individual cricket boards must decide for themselves where they stand.

The problems are well highlighted in the Chris Gayle situation where the West Indies captain first decides to join his team a mere two days before a two test series in England (in order to play more IPL) and then suggest he would not only give up Test Cricket himself for 20/20 but has no problem with the old game fading altogether. Gayle’s actions are a little extreme but it does highlight some terrible truths about the situation the game finds itself in where money begins to dictate terms more and more (a concept I believe has little place in sport).

Closer to home, the New Zealand Herald found that 45% of our players believe an IPL contract to be the pinnacle of a cricket career and a staggering 61%, retrospectively, tailor their skills towards the 20/20 format. While 77% still think that playing for their country remains important the attitude towards their skills troubles me as this trend will have a large, negative impact on Test Cricket because only in this game are all the skills of cricket truly required in order to succeed – slogging will only get you so far! Andrew Strauss voiced this point in the face of Gayle’s comments and perhaps some hope remains.

On the topic of the skills involved in Test Cricket, one individual asked me why the players don’t take their 20/20 attitudes into the longer form of the game – the aggression especially – to make it more appealing. I do have an opinion on this matter but I would dearly like to have comments from anyone interested as I believe it to be a crucial topic. I will not judge the comments but use them to gain a more balanced discussion.

Finally, this week I wish to introduce a new segment to my blog posts:

Leggies and Wrong’uns

I will identify certain opinions in the media that would suggest a person who knows what they are talking about (a true leg-spinner) and those who do not (that masquerade as a leg-spinner thus becoming a wrong’un).

Last week Peter Williams wrote an article for the NZ Herald about the retiring all-rounders of the game in the face of injury and IPL contracts and although some point were good (if cliched) he made the mistake of stating Shane Warne retired from Test cricket to prolong his ODI and 20/20 career. Any cricket lover knows it was the other way around as he retired from ODIs in 2003/4 and 20/20 didn’t exist at the time (internationally). Williams should have used a better example. On this occasion he is a wrong’un.

The leggie for this week is Geoffrey Boycott who identified the general lack of enthusiasm in the West Indies team in touring England as a different angle on the Gayle business. This was backed up by comments from the WIPA (their players association) President that pointed out that the team is only touring because Sri Lanka pulled out (for the IPL) and their players were disappointed in losing out (again) on a full IPL themselves.

Also just to reply to a comment on my last post, one Murray Mexted would possibly be too much for cricket commentary to handle (or would the cheerleaders be too much for him to handle?).

Well that’s it from here and I hope you join me again
It’s good bye for now