Road to IPL 2009.

[cowboysfan]

Bingo, was a problem for them last season too. Maybe Mallya should devote some of his resources into scouting or recruiting some of the better Indian players instead of making hilarious trades like Zaheer for Uthappa.

why do you think its a hilarious trade?.brc really needed a indian batsman who can score freely and they had a surplus of bowlers.uthappa is also a local boy so this trade is a no brainer.zak is not a good t20 bowler-particularly in india.

 

[pup11]

How's this for a team for Rajasthan?

Asnodkar
Yusuf Pathan
Kaif
Jadeja
Watson/Henderson/Mascarenhas (o)
Watson/Henderson/Mascarenhas (o)
Niraj Patel +
Warne (o)
Sid Trivedi
Munaf Patel
Tait/Morne Morkel (o)

I quite like the look of that. I'm not sure who'd open with Asnodkar, perhaps Watson/Langer. I'm assuming Smith is injured.

I am pretty sure Quiney would open with Asnodkar and if Smith is injured they would probably sign a replacement player for him too, Langer or Watson are better off in the middle order, but the team still looks very good and seems to have a lot of options and a pretty good balance to it on paper.

 

[Precambrian]

Asif banned for one year from the IPL.

 

[inbox24]

Asif banned for one year from the IPL.

'Sif bro.

 

[Isura]

Yeah not joining IPL last season has proved to be a brilliant move for him (even though it wasn't a decision taken due to cricketing reason), and good on him too, as a player his stocks have really risen in the last one year, and he has really stepped up a notch as a player, i think same is likely to happen with Mitchell Johnson, that's whenever he decides to join the IPL, he too has come a long way as a player in the last one year, and if he continues to improve on his all-round game, he too would be worth a fortune.

Pretty risky for a fast bowler at Johnson's age (already past typical career peaks), and he had a late start to international cricket. It only takes 1 injury and he gives up a lot of lifetime earnings. Really, bowling 4 overs every other day for a month doesn't seem too stenous. OTOH I don't know how much endorsement money he stands to make in Australia, but I can't see how the IPL hinders that.

Makes more sense for younger guys like Warner (especially batsmen, spinners rather than fast bowlers) to pass up the IPL.

Agreed.

One of my comments that was moderated by the IPL website was pretty much just this. There is no legitimate performance based evaluation that would put a price tag of $900,000 on Ishant Sharma and $300,000 on Glenn McGrath. None. The number one goal of the franchises right now is to get their product out there and well known. To do that, they need big Indian stars, and big international stars. So the value of a player is not necessarily based on his performance, but overall value he brings to the brand of the franchise. Whether this changes when IPL is a more mature product, and the teams are mostly focused on winning is a different story.

On the other hand, the owners could simply be muppets and may have no idea how to run a cricket team (very likely). The optimal winning strategy would be to get a lot of good players in the $300,000-$500,000 range and remove any weakspots in your team, rather than splurge on two guys and then have nothing behind them.

Very good chance IPL owners/managers don't know what they're doing. They should really hire outside consultants who understand how to value cricketers beyond strike rates and batting averages. Optimal long-term strategy is certainly to home-grow talent for cheap, and buy 2-3 star foreign players. Ultimately, winning will bring in the most revenues. This has been shown in baseball for example. A playoff appearance in baseball generates about 10 years of additional revenue.

 

[Precambrian]

Pretty risky for a fast bowler at Johnson's age (already past typical career peaks), and he had a late start to international cricket. It only takes 1 injury and he gives up a lot of lifetime earnings. Really, bowling 4 overs every other day for a month doesn't seem too stenous. OTOH I don't know how much endorsement money he stands to make in Australia, but I can't see how the IPL hinders that.

Makes more sense for younger guys like Warner (especially batsmen, spinners rather than fast bowlers) to pass up the IPL.





Very good chance IPL owners/managers don't know what they're doing. They should really hire outside consultants who understand how to value cricketers beyond strike rates and batting averages. Optimal long-term strategy is certainly to home-grow talent for cheap, and buy 2-3 star foreign players. Ultimately, winning will bring in the most revenues. This has been shown in baseball for example. A playoff appearance in baseball generates about 10 years of additional revenue.

Glorious post.

 

[Isura]

How about this XI?

• Uthappa
• Shreevats Goswami (WK)
• Taylor
• Ryder
• Pietersen
• Dravid
• Praveen Kumar (RMF)
• Raghu (OB)
• Kumble (LBG)
• Vinay Kumar (RM)
• Steyn (RF)

When Pietersen and Steyn depart, Shakib and possibly Bracken may step in. The real problem is lack of adequate local players to fill in. They have some top batsmen in their overseas roster, but they'll lose a lot of them to international duty.

I don't rate this team very highly. Uthappa is inconsistent and really not that good. Taylor and Ryder are unproven in this format. Dravid isn't very good. That seems like a long tail too, starting at Dravid. Bowling attack is solid, but they will depend on Pietersen a lot.

 

[Athlai]

I don't rate this team very highly. Uthappa is inconsistent and really not that good. Taylor and Ryder are unproven in this format. Dravid isn't very good. That seems like a long tail too, starting at Dravid. Bowling attack is solid, but they will depend on Pietersen a lot.

Taylor is a bit more proven than you think...

 

[Precambrian]

Dravid was too not too bad in the last IPL.

12th best run scorer with 371 runs @ 28+, SR 125.

 

[Nate]

Dravid was too not too bad in the last IPL.

12th best run scorer with 371 runs @ 28+, SR 125.

Haha and there it is! Did you ever watch any matches? Cost Bangalore so many matches with his strike-rate, only ever came 'good' towards the end when the pressure was off iirc.

 

[Athlai]

Haha and there it is! Did you ever watch any matches? Cost Bangalore so many matches with his strike-rate, only ever came 'good' towards the end when the pressure was off iirc.

Na I disagree he kept his side being disgraced time and time again. None of his teammates stood up, Taylor was there for only a part of the stadium (gun though) and Boucher was consistent.

By no means did Dravid lose Bangalore 'many' matches. He didn't win many either though, just kept them from total disgrace.

 

[Precambrian]

Haha and there it is! Did you ever watch any matches? Cost Bangalore so many matches with his strike-rate, only ever came 'good' towards the end when the pressure was off iirc.

No mate, 124 is still a good RR for a batsman like him. Graeme Smith, Ganguly, Shikar Dhawan, etc all had a lower SR than him and yet won matches for them. Dravid tried his best but hardly got support from his teammates.

 

[Nate]

Na I disagree he kept his side being disgraced time and time again. None of his teammates stood up, Taylor was there for only a part of the stadium (gun though) and Boucher was consistent.

By no means did Dravid lose Bangalore 'many' matches. He didn't win many either though, just kept them from total disgrace.

No mate, 124 is still a good RR for a batsman like him. Graeme Smith, Ganguly, Shikar Dhawan, etc all had a lower SR than him and yet won matches for them. Dravid tried his best but hardly got support from his teammates.

C'd, seem to remember him absolutely struggling whenever he was at the crease. Will watch some footage and see where I'm getting it from.

 

[Athlai]

C'd, seem to remember him absolutely struggling whenever he was at the crease. Will watch some footage and see where I'm getting it from.

Cos his team were dropping like flies around him. Totally dire besides Taylor, Dravid and Boucher. And Dravid wouldn't have made it into most other teams at all.

 

[Precambrian]

C'd, seem to remember him absolutely struggling whenever he was at the crease. Will watch some footage and see where I'm getting it from.

He started off pretty badly, but came good especially in the second half of the tournament, but by then sadly RCs were gone.

 

[Nate]

He started off pretty badly, but came good especially in the second half of the tournament, but by then sadly RCs were gone.

Dravid only ever came 'good' towards the end when the pressure was off iirc.

Astonishing.

 

[Precambrian]

Astonishing.

Nothing to discount his efforts.

 

[pup11]

I think its pretty easy to blame Dravid for Bangalore' dismal run last season, but tbh he and Zaheer (to a lesser extent) were the only local players to contribute anything whatsoever to the side, rest of their local blokes sucked big time, and that's one of the prime reasons the team was so piss poor.

Dravid tried everything he could but he could never get the team combination right, but this season they have got blokes who can play with plenty of flair and that would definitely help their cause.

Btw how many foreign players are allowed in a team's squad, is there any limit on that or not?

 

[Precambrian]

10 I think. At a time only 4 can feature in the playing XI.

 

[Nate]

Haha and there it is! Did you ever watch any matches? Cost Bangalore so many matches with his strike-rate, only ever came 'good' towards the end when the pressure was off iirc.

This was my comment, which people seem to have misinterpreted.

First Match against Kolkata Knight Riders
It was always going to be a massive chase, but Dravid really set the tone for the season, first out, clean bowled for 2.

Second Match against Mumbai Indians
This is the real start of my argument. 32 off 33 was hopeless and without some crazy hitting from Boucher, Bangalore would've been beaten. I rewatched Bangalore's innings and Dravid looked all at see. You can read a description of his innings here.

Third Match against Rajasthan Royals
Owned, second ball of the game. By Watson no less.

Fourth Match against Chennai Super Kings
When Dravid came in, now at number seven after struggling at the top of the order, they needed 36 off 21 balls, which admittedly was a big ask. He got out first ball.

Fifth Match against Delhi Daredevils
Rahul scored 38 off 30 balls here, which wasn't a bad effort. Bangalore went down by ten runs though and Dravid just could not force the pace. Talk of why Boucher didn't bat higher was everywhere.

Six Match against Deccan Chargers
Dravid scored 26 (19) down the order again. It wasn't an amazing knock, but it would be harsh to criticise him for it.

Seventh Match against Kings XI Punjab
66 off 51 balls. Great innings as the rest of the side, bar Kohli, collapsed.

Eight Match against Kolkata Knight Riders
Dreadful, dreadful innings by Dravid here, costing his side the match. 5 off 11 at a crucial point. Disaster

At this point, Bangalore had only 2 wins from 8 matches and were mathematically out of finals contention. Rahul Dravid, the captain, was averaging just 21 at a strike-rate of only 113. There is no doubt that Dravid cost his side a lot of opportunites and looked very poor at the crease.