HAMID HASSAN IN IPL?

For a change, none of the minnows caused an upset this time round and we have the top 8 teams contesting in the Super 8s. Despite not winning, the minnows definitely put up impressive performances.

Ireland almost got through... only to lose out to rain. Afghanistan impressed all and sundry, especially with their bowling performance against South Africa. They look a very promising side for the future. Zimbabwe have made rapid progress in the last few months. Their performances in the warm up matches were very impressive (they beat Australia as well as Pakistan). Bangladesh, though they gave Australia a slight scare, were again the least impressive of all the underdogs.

In fact, Bangladesh is the only team amongst the top 8 seeds for the tournament not featuring in the Super Eights (they were seeded above Australia by ICC for this tournament, by the way).

These strong performances by the smaller teams is very heart - warming. It instills a belief that cricket has a future... that there may come a time that it will not be played competitively between 8 countries only. The likes of Ireland, Afghanistan, Holland, Canada, Scotland, et cetera have some promising young talents, who need to be groomed well by ICC to ensure that they can become forces in international cricket at the big stage in time to come.

I had an idea by which even the Indian Premier League can play a part in their grooming. From next year, each team can have upto 12 foreign players in their squad (it was 10 upto this year). If IPL makes it mandatory for each team to sign 1 associate / affiliate player, it would be great for the players, their teams and cricket as a whole. Even if these guys do not get a single game, it would be hugely beneficial for them just to train with the top names in the world of cricket.

The likes of Hamid Hassan or Kevin O'Brien sharing the dressing room with a Sachin Tendulkar or a Jacques Kallis can be made possible by IPL... and I hope someone from the IPL Governing Council reads this blog or stumbles upon this idea from some other source. Because it's certainly worth a try!