Indian Premier League

[Arjun]

Didn't you see my batting order? Dhoni is batting at 4 and not opening .... it's Raina who is opening with Hayden, Hussey is at 3 while Oram is at 5 .... these guys need not be batting any lower than 6 coz it would be a waste of talent and opportunity

I think the above gives the team a better option of utlizing the 20 overs to their advantage

Raina as opening batsman is a no-show. He's played a lot at four/five/six, and isn't in the greatest form as of now. The idea would be to have openers open, middle-order in the middle and your best, in-form batsmen anywhere, for most overs.

 

[Arjun]

Bose is there on wikipedia in the Kolkata Knight Riders' squad.

Bose is not there in the Cricinfo squad page.

 

[Arjun]

Or possibly like this:

Sangakkara+
Pathan
Jayawardene
Yuvraj*
Srivastava
Hopes
Powar
Lee
Chawla
Sreesanth
VRV Singh

Does that team need seven bowlers? They can manage just well with five, and Powar and VRV Singh are misfits in this form of the game- can't field, unreliable with the bat (Powar's batting seems to have gone on an extended holiday) and are likely to go for far too many runs with the ball.

 

[Arjun]

De Villiers should be a shoe-in if only for his fielding (better keeper than Karthik as well). Play Sangwan as the third seamer in front of Marahoof. Will be interesting to see how Asif gets on, terrible death bowler so hopefully Delhi utilise him well.

Maybe Sangwan ahead of Asif, if he's a liability in the final overs. Maharoof can bat more than a bit, and very effective on the field, so he's a lot more useful. That would get in de Villiers as a wicketkeeper or batsman.

And what I'm reading about the PILCOM strategy (the GMR folks are turning this into some sort of Pakistan-India-Lanka Committee) is, in reader-friendly parlance, utter bull-spin. How on earth they can leave out a proven success like McGrath for some half-baked near-locals is far from logical.

 

[Arjun]

I don't recall anyone suggesting Parthiv or Vaas would open. That would be a strange decision.



To the extent that Irfan Pathan bats at seven, where he is unlikely to have much effect, when Karan Goel opens in that Punjab team listed above? I'm not getting at the 'open with specialists' argument as much as the 'leave world class batsmen at numbers five, six and seven' argument. You don't seem to recognise that Shaun Pollock could easily bat in the top order for many Ranji sides. The gulf in class is enormous.

There are some folks at different places, even here, who think Parthiv should open for Chennai. He's hardly world class. Opening with him is no different from opening with Vaas, though that's never been suggested.

With the kind of squads picked, you have openers picked locally, while the world class batsmen are predominantly in the middle-order. There are, of course, teams like Kolkata (this team will be in a really tight spot), Delhi and Mumbai, who have four openers, Indian and international. These world class batsmen, of course, can bat anywhere in the order, especially when in good form. We don't (at least I don't) expect the local openers or middle-order batsmen to fare too well outside of their specialist positions. Putting these two together, this will get a lot more out of the batting rather than push openers down. In most teams, the limitation is due to the composition of squads.

Pathan isn't an opener, and not quite someone who'll get you a century, or a fifty an innings. He's more a 24-off-13 hitter, more useful at that position. He'll add some shock value and power play at the top (like Gilchrist and Sanath), but it's a risky proposition. Karan Goel, though, has opened more than a few times. Pollock may make a few Ranji top orders, but those are Tier II teams that struggle to play out draws- far from teams from Mumbai, Delhi and Karnataka. We don't anyway expect him to do much against a world-class pace attack as opener, and that (Mumbai) team's bottom four isn't very strong- they also have Sanath and Sachin opening.

Looking at the scene, team by team-

• Chennai- Competent opener Mukund, not too great Aniruddha, weak middle-order options among locals, bar Badrinath.
• Hyderabad- Keeping in mind the foreign cap, we need at least three Indians in the top six. One is the competent Ravi Teja, then there's Venugopal, then promising young Rohit Sharma and finally, Shivlal Yadav Jr. One of them's an opener, and one's just not good enough.
• Bangalore- Cameron is a good choice, so is Praveen, and there's the established Jaffer. Slightly tricky scene there, but the rest bat in the middle.
• Kolkata- Ganguly and Gayle open, or else Chopra comes in. Tough scene, as we've already noticed.
• Mohali- Nice. No openers, bar Sangakkara and Goel, also Kaul, all non-regulars.
• Jaipur- Yusuf Pathan and Graeme Smith open, easily. Langer misses out due to the foreign limit.
• Delhi- Four openers. Top picks are Sehwag and Gambhir. Dhawan may bat lower down, and that other opener may not get a game.
• Mumbai- Easy- Sanath and Sachin.

 

[biased indian]

Punjab Kings? I like it, but it'll be hilarious when they play the Super Kings. Also hope they have a winning franchise as it'll only be a matter of time before someone dubs them the Queens.

Anyone have their logo?

Wouldn't mind a cricketing version of either of these:

 

[chaminda_00]

There are some folks at different places, even here, who think Parthiv should open for Chennai. He's hardly world class. Opening with him is no different from opening with Vaas, though that's never been suggested.

Only reason I suggested Parthiv to open the batting is that he regularly bats in the top order for his domestic side and even India A. Which seems to be your basic for selection anyway. Not saying he is best option, but he would be on par with the other youngsters in squad. If we had Vijay then I would selected him in heartbeat.

For guys like Pollock I would be suprised if he batted below five for his club. Vaas is at best a number 7, he hardly bats above six for Colts. I dare say we wont see many domestic Indian batsmen in the top 5 unless they are close to International standard, especially when many made the squad as 4 youth players.

 

[Smudge]

How so ?

There's been some ridiculous call of racism in this forum but this one's right up there.

Seems to me more of a tit for tat reaction... aren't you a journalist or somthing ?

What does my occupation have to do with anything?

"We have Sehwag and Gambhir opening, then we have two Sri Lankans, we've got two Pakistanis, the way we planned it. There would already be a good rapport within the team from day one.' said Shetty.

He's basically saying sub-continental players will get on better than if there were Australians/NZers in the team as well.

Yes, he said he doesn't want players coming in a few days before but the Sri Lankan and Pakistani players still have to do that.

Let's turn it round. If the IPL was in Australia (therefore called the APL, for argument's sake) and one of the franchise bosses said "We have Hayden and Maher opening, then we have four New Zealanders, the way we planned it. There would already be a good rapport within the team from day one". How would that go down in the subcontinent? Like cold sick, I'd imagine.

And please note, R_D, I said "borderline racism" not outright. There's a difference.

 

[duffer]

Good lord, grey and red? Man, I know guys who could MS Paint better logos than that in about 10 minutes. Thought they could do better.

 

[duffer]

Let's turn it round. If the IPL was in Australia (therefore called the APL, for argument's sake) and one of the franchise bosses said "We have Hayden and Maher opening, then we have four New Zealanders, the way we planned it. There would already be a good rapport within the team from day one". How would that go down in the subcontinent? Like cold sick, I'd imagine.

And please note, R_D, I said "borderline racism" not outright. There's a difference.

I don't see the situation as racist, more in the ignorant category.

Although it's a nice theory that Asians will get aling better with other Asians and that it might be smart to have a reasonably "similar" composition in the team to avoid conflict it's very misguided.

I've worked in office places with a good mix of Indian, Sri Lankan and majority Aussie(white) people and see no difference whatsoever in chemistry. If anything conflicts are more on a personal issues level rather than on any cultural or race based divides.

 

[R_D]

What does my occupation have to do with anything?



He's basically saying sub-continental players will get on better than if there were Australians/NZers in the team as well.

Yes, he said he doesn't want players coming in a few days before but the Sri Lankan and Pakistani players still have to do that.

Let's turn it round. If the IPL was in Australia (therefore called the APL, for argument's sake) and one of the franchise bosses said "We have Hayden and Maher opening, then we have four New Zealanders, the way we planned it. There would already be a good rapport within the team from day one". How would that go down in the subcontinent? Like cold sick, I'd imagine.

And please note, R_D, I said "borderline racism" not outright. There's a difference.

I was merely interested in how it borders on racism. Personally i wouldn't think it would make a big difference if a franchise said that NZ n Aus players get along better than players from sub-cont..... we already have players coming out and sayin that in there biographies but no uproar about racism really. We have Aus players claiming they get along with Eng team and enjoy there after the game beers etc while the Indian team is reserved doesn't mix with them etc. I think its natural to expect people from similar background to have a better raptore together than people from different background. Doesn't mean its always going to happen though. Agree with Duffer that its more in the ignorant category.


As for your occupation... naturally journalist tend to read more into situation than there is.

 

[Smudge]

Generalise much?


It seems so.

 

[ret]

Raina as opening batsman is a no-show. He's played a lot at four/five/six, and isn't in the greatest form as of now. The idea would be to have openers open, middle-order in the middle and your best, in-form batsmen anywhere, for most overs.

Raina has played in the top order for Ind .... so he has that ability

 

[silentstriker]

Let's turn it round. If the IPL was in Australia (therefore called the APL, for argument's sake) and one of the franchise bosses said "We have Hayden and Maher opening, then we have four New Zealanders, the way we planned it. There would already be a good rapport within the team from day one". How would that go down in the subcontinent? Like cold sick, I'd imagine.

Not really, I'd understand why. Most people expect subcontinental players to struggle overseas and vice versa. And there certainly is a huge cultural difference between the subcontinent and outside, and the variation between the countries is much less than between outside.

 

[NZTailender]

All this IPL and ICL stuff is just a big pile of money making vomit. So in the interest of cricket, why would anyone want to play in vomit?

 

[Prince EWS]

All this IPL and ICL stuff is just a big pile of money making vomit. So in the interest of cricket, why would anyone want to play in vomit?

 

[silentstriker]

All this IPL and ICL stuff is just a big pile of money making vomit. So in the interest of cricket, why would anyone want to play in vomit?

Can't believe people still remember vomitgate.

 

[R_D]

Generalise much?


It seems so.

ironic...

Let's turn it round. If the IPL was in Australia (therefore called the APL, for argument's sake) and one of the franchise bosses said "We have Hayden and Maher opening, then we have four New Zealanders, the way we planned it. There would already be a good rapport within the team from day one". How would that go down in the subcontinent? Like cold sick, I'd imagine.

 

[honestbharani]

Surprising. After all, the people who selected (bid for) the players are not Board officials, but businessmen, and the Chennai team is owned by a local.

A team HAS to have 4 under 22 players, Arjun.

 

[Arjun]

Good lord, grey and red? Man, I know guys who could MS Paint better logos than that in about 10 minutes. Thought they could do better.

Since I've worked with photo editors to digi-paint, I'd dispute that MS-Paint thing, as you can't paint curves like that. To go one-up-

• Anybody can copy-paste and do better
• Photoshop (even GIMP) trainees can do better

But that's actually a good logo.