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Cricinfo's goof-up has made my previous post completely redundant. Here's the new IPL format:
Group A: Team 1, Team 2, Team 3, Team 4, Team 5
Group B: Team 6, Team 7, Team 8, Team 9, Team 10
Now, here's how it will work. Each team in Group A will play 2 matches each (home and away) against the four other teams in Group A. Similarly each team in Group B will play 2 matches each (home and away) against the four other teams in Group B. That makes it 8 matches for each team and 40 matches in all.
In addition, each team will play 2 matches (home and away) against any 1 team (chosen randomly) from the other Group. And finally, that team will also play 1 match each against the 4 remaining teams in the other Group (2 at home and 2 away). So, for example, if Team 1 plays 2 matches against Team 6 from Group B, then they will play 1 match each against Team 7 (say home), Team 8 (say away), Team 9 (say home) and Team 10 (say away). This means another 6 matches for each team... making it 30 matches in all.
Therefore, totally, there will be 70 matches in the league stage... 14 matches for each of the 10 teams (7 home and 7 away). And despite the teams being divided into 2 groups, there will be just 1 combined league table. Then there will be the playoffs. The format for playoffs is also different and slightly confusing.
Play Off Match 1: Rank 1 team on the table will play against Rank 2 team on the table. The winner of this match becomes the Finalist 1.
Play Off Match 2: Rank 3 team on the table will play against Rank 4 team on the table. The loser of this match will be the No. 4 team for the tournament. And the winner will be guaranteed a Champions League spot. But the winner does not enter the finals straight away. The winner will still need to play another match to qualify for the finals.
Play Off Match 3: The winner of Play Off Match 2 will take on the loser of Play Off Match 1. The winner of this match will enter the finals.
Finals: The winners of Play Off Match 1 and Play Off Match 3 will contest the finals of the Indian Premier League.
The format is unique... nothing like this has ever been seen before in the history of cricket (and maybe, other sports as well). But it is confusing. Keeping the essence of this format the same (i.e. 14 matches per team - 7 home and 7 away), I have a better format in mind. It would be much easier to understand as compared to the one explained above. Here it goes:
Each team should be required to play 2 matches (home and away) with every team in the other group and 1 match each with the remaining teams in their own group. This would mean that Team 1 would play 2 matches against Team 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. In addition, it would also play 1 match each against Team 2 (say home), Team 3 (say home), Team 4 (say away) and Team 5 (say away).
See, I did not even require a new paragraph to explain the entire format. Its much easier to understand than the one decided upon by the IPL Organising Committee. If only I were paid those salaries... sigh!
Moving on, I quite liked the new Play Offs format. It is a little weird to read at first, but it makes a lot of sense. Teams that finish Rank 1 and Rank 2 on the table are the ones that have performed consistently throughout the tournament. So, it is slightly sad if they have one bad day on the day of the semi-finals and do not get a chance to compete for the big prize. In the new format, they will get another chance... if they were to lose their Play Off Match 1, they will get another chance to try and win the Play Off Match 3 and still qualify for the finals.
And fittingly, Teams that finish Rank 3 and 4 will have to win three consecutive matches to win the IPL (instead of two consecutive matches as it stands in our traditional semi-final and final format). I will reiterate that I like this Play Off format... it makes a lot of sense to me! The deserving get an extra chance... and the undeserving have to pass an extra test to show that they deserve!
Reports suggest that this new Play Off Format was suggested by Adam Gilchrist as an extra incentive for teams to finish Top 2 on the table. In our current format, once the teams have qualified for the semis, they take it slightly easy and rest a few important guys. In IPL 3, Mumbai Indians played almost a complete new-look squad in their last IPL league match against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata. They were so depleted that they had to be captained by Dwayne Bravo... the man who himself was not a regular feature of the playing XI.
All in all, I must admit that 74 matches is certainly better than 94... but still quite a lot. It would have been even better had the tournament been even smaller... but alas, that is not to be! Lets hope that the new format, the new auction that will reshuffle squads, and the new teams keep us interested in this marathon tournament for long enough to reach the finals.
I think you are at the wrong place, Johan!
The venue shifts to Harare as India take on the hosts Zimbabwe... seeking revenge for the humiliation meted out to them in the first game of the tri - series. In another part of the world, West Indies will seek to salvage some pride by trying to beat the South Africans in the 5th ODI to be held at Port of Spain.
The Sulieman Benn incident left me completely muddled... I mean, have you ever heard of anything like this before? I was never ordered out of a cricket game even in school... even though I was pathetic. This was a top-flight One Day International! What's wrong with the West Indies? Is this the same team that was once represented by the likes of Gary Sobers, Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd and other men who gave it their all for the team and their captain?
I pity Chris Gayle's situation. He is a man with capability of being a part of most top international teams. Sadly though, he does not have many such men at his disposal. He may get a once-in-a-while exceptional performance from the likes of Dwayne Bravo, but that's about it. The likes of Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul are also not as consistent as they used to be... and the biggest problem is that when one man performs, the others fail. They just don't seem to remember how to click together as a team.
I do have a suggestion... totally mad though it may seem! DISBAND THE WEST INDIES!
Why do all the islands have to play under the banner of the West Indies Cricket Board? All the other teams play for the pride of representing their nation... what do the Carribbean cricketers play for? Pride of what? The pride of Carribbean cricket's rich past seems to have been sadly forgotten and swept deep under the carpet.
I had this idea when I saw Trinidad and Tobago perform admirably in the inaugual edition of Champions League Twenty20 last year. They played with a fervour that was possibly better than that shown by the World Champions England last month! And I guess that it was because they were playing for their country... with their countrymen. They didn't have to compete for their spots with other nationalities and also suffer problems with a cricket board that governs cricket in several countries!
If Trinidad and Tobago or Barbados or Jamaica or even St. Lucia or St. Kitts represented themselves in international cricket instead of representing the West Indies, I believe it would do a lot of good for the game. They may not be world beaters straight away... but I feel it will encourage the growth of cricket in that region. The politics will reduce drastically and the competition will be a lot healthier.
And to top it all, it will also help if cricket is to be represented in events such as Olympics. West Indies cannot win a medal... but Barbados certainly can.
I don't know if anyone has thought of this idea before or if it is going to be implemented any time soon... but I really do think it is worth a shot! Simply because, the current situation seems completely hopeless... there is simply no light at the end of a tunnel! And when you see a glow there, it just turns out to be an oncoming train!
Something's got to be done... and something's got to be done fast!
All good things come to an end... this one also did! India had created a world record of having won 18 consecutive ODI matches chasing... that very skill in which it was once considered that India was shabby.
But on this day (20th May) four years ago (in 2006) at Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica, it came to an end... it came to an end with a slower yorker from Dwayne Bravo that beat Yuvraj Singh all ends up to rattle into his stumps... and sent India to an excruciatingly painful 1-run defeat.
Four years is a timespan between two World Cups... but for India, this four-year gap represents a different era altogether. This was a time when Rahul Dravid led the team. India had not played a Twenty20 till then. Irfan Pathan was considered a match-winner then... and regularly sent to bat at No. 3. Yuvraj Singh was lean and fit (can you believe it?)! Some guy called Mohammed Kaif also played cricket for India. Modi meant Narendra Modi (a politician always in news)... and not Lalit Modi! Preity Zinta, Shilpa Shetty and Juhi Chawla might not have owned a cricket jersey then... let alone a cricket team! And yes, the legendary Trinidadian Brian Charles Lara also played cricket and captained the West Indies side.
India had won the previous match (while chasing again) by 5 wickets with 1 ball to spare at the same Sabina Park ground. There was a feeling that Rahul Dravid will choose to bowl every time he wins the toss, no matter what the conditions. He did win the toss... he did choose to bowl. India did well in restricting West Indies to 198 for 9 in 50 overs... leaving Sarwan stranded on 98* at the end of their innings. Again, it was that Irfan Pathan fellow who impressed with his bowling... grabbing 3 - 45 in 9 overs (including the prized scalp of BC Lara).
India lost regular wickets till 60 for 4 in 17 overs. Then Raina and Yuvraj forged a 64-run stand when I typed an SMS on my cell alerting everyone that India had won 19th in a row batting second. When Raina went and soon the score became 134 for 7, I saved that SMS to drafts... determined to open it only when India sealed the deal.
As the game got closer to its climax, I became more alert (despite the fact that it was about 2 in the night in India). When No. 11 Munaf Patel was to face Bravo on the first ball of the final over with India needing 11 and Yuvraj on the other end... I was on my wit's end. I still recall that over clearly. That scrappy single by Munaf to the keeper, that outside edged four to third man by Yuvraj attempting a wild slog followed by a beautiful cover drive for a four that would have been called beautiful no matter what continent were you in... and then that ball! Needing 2 runs of 3 balls and Yuvraj on strike... I had opened my drafts folder on my mobile phone. What happened next meant that I had to edit that message before sending it to people who followed cricket through me.
West Indies had to get Yuvraj out to win... there was no other option (save a run out)! Yuvraj looked sublime on 93... it took a special delivery from Bravo to deceive him! Yuvraj was distraught... on his knees at the crease long after the match was over. Bravo was over the moon... but that is where he is every time he does something special. Not only was India's streak broken, even India was broken! They went on to lose their next 3 matches... and losing an ODI series 4-1 to West Indies was embarassing even then!
It was a fabulous match that did not end on a happy note for me. But looking back at it, I am glad that I had decided to stay up till 3 at night to watch it... it was worth the sleep deprivation that I put myself through.
I know that the majority of cricket watching public was happy and satisfied with the New Zealand - Australia Twenty20 International yesterday. And unaware about the West Indies - Zimbabwe Twenty20 International that also took place.
In my last blog, which was written when the WI-Zim match had just begun, I was praising Sulieman Benn's 3rd best match haul in T20Int of 4 for 6. But by the time the Zimbabwean innings ended, Benn's effort had been relegated to 4th best by team mate Darren Sammy, who returned with 4 for 26 in his 3.5 overs.
And then started the pathetic show. West Indies batted out entire 20 overs chasing a target of 106. Blasphemous! 106 should be chased down in 10 overs. Why bat the entire 20?
But hang on, West Indies managed just 79 for 7 in 20. What!? Thank God Chris Gayle was rested for the match. He would have quit cricket! I am scared for Mumbai Indians. Their star recruits, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo, scored 1 run between them in 5 balls, both falling to Greame Cremer, an unknown Zimbabwean leg spinner. May be Cremer should have been recruited by the IPL franchisees - would have saved them buckets of bucks!
Getting back to the point, isn't it truly and mind - bogglingly pathetic that a team with that bats out 20 overs in a Twenty20 match ends up with just a measly 79 runs for 7 wickets (run rate 3.95) with their captain-wicketkeeper-batsman Denesh Ramdin unbeaten in the end for a heroic 23 off 37 balls! I mean, this kind of performance truly puts India's run rate of 4.20 in the Eden Gardens Test into perspective.
Nevertheless, the result was a great one for Zimbabwe, though it does nothing to hide the fact that they are woefully lacking capable batsmen. I definitely believe that revival of Zimbabwean cricket and their re-entry into Test cricket will be hugely beneficial for the game. They have produced some outstanding cricketers in the past - my favourites being Heath Streak and Andy Flower.
With Streak and Andy's brother Grant Flower having assumed coaching responsibilities with the national team now, Zimbabwean cricket is certainly taking steps in the right direction. Lets hope that the win over West Indies is a sign of the good times that lie ahead.
