The Champions League T20 format and schedule may not yet be out, but the teams that are definite out of the tournament are the ones from England. With the English first class dates clashing with the Champions League T20, the ECB has decided not to send their two sides for the tournament, and this means that there will be only ten teams in the tournament.
However, that does not prevent the ECB from going ahead with their T20 Cup, or the Friends Provident T20 Trophy that got underway on the 1st of June, with the game between the last year’s winner, Sussex and runner-up Somerset.
And much like last year, Sussex hammered Somerset at Hove, after piling on 155/7 in 20 overs. Luke Wright’s 39 at the top of the innings was the highest score, but that was enough for the side to win by 52 runs. Craig Kieswetter celebrated his call-up to international cricket with a 47, but none of the rest including captain Marcus Trescothick got going and the hosts won easily.
Sussex then won their second game of the tournament as well, as they beat Middlesex by 28 runs. Middlesex had contracted Adam Gilchrist for this season, but he failed with the bat.
In two of the other interesting games, Loots Bosman messed up the Yorkshire bowlers with a 50-ball 94, to win the game for Derbyshire by 65 runs, whereas Hampshire made heavy weather of the target of 115 set by Kent, before winning with two balls to spare.
The format of the tournament works like this. The 18 counties are divided into two groups based on their location, called the North Group and the South Group. Each of the nine teams in each of the groups then play against each other twice, on a home and away basis. Based on the results and the points table, the top four sides from each group qualify for the quarter-finals of the Friend’s Provident T20 tournament.
These eight sides then go on to play in the quarter-finals, and then, the winners of the quarters will play in the semi-finals and then the final. Earlier, both the finalists went on to qualify for the Champions League T20, but for this year, that will not be possible and hence the sides will probably not be motivated enough for the same.
Earlier, this tournament was called the T20 Cup, and has been played since 2003. Surrey won the inaugural edition of the tournament, and then, they were runner-up in 2004, before being losing semi-finalists in 2005 and 2006. The 2004 edition was won by Leicestershire, who then went on to win it again in 2006, with Somerset winning it in 2005 under Graeme Smith. Kent won in 2007, Middlesex in 2008 and Sussex are the defending champions by beating Somerset in 2009.
Warwickshire have entered the quarter-final of all the editions except 2006. Any guesses who will win the tournament this season?
The Aussie selectors’ decision to continue with Michael Clarke hardly came as a surprise, despite all the debate and speculation surrounding the same. After all, Clarke is no Mark Taylor to retain his place by the virtue of his captaincy alone, and many of the Clarke-critics had thought that this was the best opportunity to groom a new guy in the role. Unfortunately for them, it did not happen.
Consistency and continuity:
Like has always been the case, the Australian selectors have always been an epitome of continuity. There have been many examples in the past as well, starting from the times of Mark Taylor, and even after Ricky Ponting became the first ever Australian captains in more than half a century to lose two Ashes. The captain did not get the sack, and that was probably because the selectors had faith in the guy.
In fact, this is a trait that runs in the Aussies. Why the players, even the selectors were spared after some shocking selections throughout the previous edition of the Ashes. It was almost a given that the selectors would be given a boot after the Ashes fiasco, but they were persisted with and the side was soon on their winning ways again.
The same logic seems to have been applied to the Clarke, the captain of the T20 game.
Future captaincy prospect?
The other reason why I can think of the continuation of Clarke as a captain is because one gets the sense that he will also take on the responsibility of the role from Ricky Ponting in the other formats of the game once Ponting is done with the game.
Now, personally I think that if Clarke were to be chucked out of the T20I format without being afforded the rightful opportunities, this could end up inflicting some confidence issues on him when he takes on the bigger role of leading the side in Tests and ODIs. And given the way things are, there do not seem too many others in the Australian camp that could take up the role of the captaincy in the other two formats of the game.
But what about back problems?
That is the one point that can be rationally brought into the conversation. Clarke’s career hasn’t been injury free and his back has given him enough trouble to last a lifetime. He has almost quit bowling as regularly as he did earlier, and the question that seems to be worrying some of the experts is that the excessive load of T20 cricket, both, as the captain and a batsman, could make life miserable for the talented batsman. And if Clarke does decide to play in the IPL, things could become even more tough for someone with the back issues.
On a notice?
All said and done, the two T20Is against Pakistan, to be played in England, will be a litmus test for Clarke. Another couple of failures could make him susceptible to a lot of blame again and that could well make it difficult to sustain him as the captain of the side.
India’s defeat in the Super Eight stage of the tournament was surprising enough. One thought that they possessed the team to take on the rest and yet, they lost rather badly. What made the Indian fans squirm even more was that the side showed no intent, and in lost all their three Super Eight games, rather convincingly.
So, what went wrong with a team that had only in 2007 lifted the trophy?
Fatigue factor?
MS Dhoni had pointed out to the IPL parties as one of the reasons why the Indian side could have been affected. And while the others have dismissed it as a frivolous excuse, the fact is that Dhoni was not too off the mark. It was not only the parties, but the tournament itself, that would have contributed to the fatigue factor.
The team looked jaded from the very start, and there had been reports of the players sleeping off whenever they got the opportunity to do so; and in the end, there was a definite lack of intent while they played even in the last, all-important T20 game.
Strange Captaincy:
Make it very, very strange. How else would you define the manner in which an extra batsman was chosen for the two successive games, and yet, the side decided to field first. With five, regular and irregular spin bowlers in the ranks, the least that Dhoni could have done is to bat first, allow the batsmen to score the runs without any kind of pressure and then unleash the slower bowlers.
Then again, there were some others like not sending Yusuf Pathan up the order in crucial games, Dhoni batting down the order at Barbados and promoting himself at St. Lucia, something that cost him the tournament in the end.
Short Ball woes:
In the previous edition of the ICC World T20, the side had struggled with the short ball. The bouncers were played so badly by the Indians then, that there was much hue and cry associated with the same. One year on, nothing had changed. Nothing whatsoever. Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Murali Vijay, all of them batted like they had no clue to whatever what was happening out there.
What was surprising is that the selectors had continued to choose the same set of players who had struggled earlier and that cost the Indian batting dear.
Selection and Bowling form:
What shoddy selections. On tracks that were supposed to play real quick, the side had gone in with only four pace bowlers; one of whom was injured before the tournament, and the other, a youngster making his first trip. This meant that the side had hardly had enough personnel to take on the opposition.
Then again, Zaheer Khan looked out of sorts, and apart from Habhajan Singh, the others had a moderate form going for them.
With all of the above, it is only natural that India did not win a single game in the Super Eights!
As one counts down to the third season of the Indian Premier League, we preview the chances of the eight sides in a four-part series. In this part, we bring you the chances of Mumbai Indian and Deccan Chargers.
MUMBAI INDIANS:
Strengths:
The Mumbai Indians have never qualified for the semi-finals of the IPL before and will be looking to get there for the first time. Their biggest strength would be the hard-hitting batting of three of their top-order batsmen in Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya and the newly recruited, Kieron Pollard. If two, or even one of them get going and go the distance, the Mumbai Indians will be in very safe hands, and on Indian pitches, life would be much easier for these guys who like to hit through the line of the ball.
Weaknesses:
Their inability to finish off games is their biggest liability. In both the editions of the tournament so far, the Mumbai side has lost some really close games, and they will need to overcome that by showing a killer instinct that they are hitherto lacking. Tendulkar was never a great captain even while leading the Indian side, and under his captaincy, the Mumbai team hasn’t done too well either, thanks, mainly due to the hunger to close out the games. This needs to change or else it may see a change at the top as well.
Players to watch out for:
Pollard. He is hugely built, and can slam the ball a fair distance. He can bowl 3-4 overs as well, with his brand of medium pace helping captains in the middle overs, while he is one of the better fielders in the side.
DELHI DAREDEVILS:
Strengths:
When a team has such a balanced line-up like Delhi Daredevils, it is not a big surprise that the bookmakers have put them as favourites to win the tournament. The opening four batsmen, are by far, the most explosive in the format of the game and there is a reasonable chance that only three out of Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Dave Warner will make it to the playing eleven. Warner’s form in the KFC Big Bash and the few T20Is that he played for Australia will mean that it could be a tough decision to leave him out of the side. The bowling lies in the hands of Dirk Nannes, and the other Indians in Pradeep Sangwan and Ashish Nehra, all of whom are good, left-handed pace bowlers and with Daniel Vettori and Amit Mishra in the spin department, it looks like they will be a team to watch out for.
Weaknesses:
Not too many perceptible ones. But the lack of an all-rounder is probably one of them. Also, they have a new captain in Gautam Gambhir and that will mean that there will be a lot of pressure on him to perform – Delhi have been semi-finalists in the previous two editions of the tournament after all.
Players to watch out for:
The aforementioned four batsmen aside, the Daredevils will depend on their little known Indian players in Sarabjit Ladda, Kedar Jadhav and Joginder Singh.
Why was he not given the captaincy?
Ever since they bowed out of the first round of the ICC World T20 tournament in England, the Aussies haven’t been playing too much T20. That is, if you discount the two abandoned T20Is against England at Manchester later, in the same year.
Now, after that long hiatus, Australia will take on Pakistan in a one-off T20I and the difference between the line-ups from the World T20 of 2009 and this game, is as much as chalk and cheese. And the biggest of them all is the fact that Ricky Ponting has decided to call it a day from this cheese-burger format of the game, and allow the reigns to fall in the lap of Michael Clarke.
The change was almost assured after the Aussies bowed out of the World T20 early, for the second time in running. Clearly, the side wasn’t respecting the format as much as they should have and the results were there for everyone to see. And with Ponting having a rather rough time of it with the bat and as a captain, one could be assured that something had to give. And in a deed which reeked of a trade-off that Ponting had with the selectors to prolong his career in the other two formats, he decided to hang his T20 Kookabura bat.
However, I am still surprised by Ponting’s successor in this format. While there is no doubting the talent of Michael Clarke in the sport, there are other issues that Cricket Australia needed to ponder over, and cater to.
For one, there is an issue of Clarke’s recurring back illnesses which has kept him out of a few games in the previous years. Of course, Cricket Australia has a reasonable rotation plan in place, but when one is the leader of the side, the breaks are quite few and far between. Especially, given that Clarke has been tipped to succeed Ponting in both the other, and the more important, formats. This would mean that in around one year or so, when Ponting walks his way into the sunset, Clarke would take on the mantle of leading the side in even the Tests and the fifty over format.
So, how will Clarke be able to manage the three sides and a persistent back trouble then?
Then again, there is as much a case for White as there is against Clarke from taking over. There is every evidence that White is a natural leader, which can be gauged from the fact that he has led almost every side that he has been a part of. Right from the Under-19 days, to getting the role for his first class Victorian side, he has been in the thick of things. And it is not only the fact that he is the captain, he has one of the most amazing T20 records in Australia’s domestic T20 tournament – the KFC Big Bash T20.
Ever since the inception of the T20 tournament, there have been five editions of the same played, and the Victorian Bushrangers have been a part of the finals in all of them. What’s more fabulous is that the side has triumphed in four out of those five finals; White being the captain for all five!
Probably, and so reminiscent of the manner the Australians have been testing their bench strength, one could see White and Clarke shuffle around the captaincy as well. Probably, the selectors are only getting Clarke ready for the main job later. Probably, Clarke does have his sights on an IPL slot sometime down the line...as a captain!
One would almost have thought that the Indians had invaded their neighbours. In the end, it was only a bunch of Pakistani cricketers not selected for the third edition of the IPL by the franchises that caused so much furore in the Pakistani parliament that there have been talks of boycotting anything and everything remotely Indian.
The potential embargo could involve cricket matches – which already do not exist – hockey games, which occur once in like a gazillion years, and even Bollywood films. Or at least that is what most voices that matter in Pakistan are suggesting. Phrases ranging from insult to the Pakistani cricket team to insult to the country as a whole have been doing the rounds, as some players have termed it as a ‘conspiracy against Pakistan as a whole which was being hatched for the last three or four months.’
Really now, while being hurt and disappointed at not been selected for one or other franchise for the IPL and not making that quick buck is only justified, the rest of the jamboree that seems to have followed is nothing short of over-reaction.
The critics from Pakistan have pointed fingers at everything plausible. The Indian Government, the IPL functioning committee and the franchises have all been blamed, and for someone observing it as a neutral, one cannot understand what the shenanigans are all about.
It is a private tournament, which like any other multi-national company in the world is not governed by what the government says. At best, it can consult the government and any decision that it has to take has to be its own prerogative, not the government’s. This was evident in the previous year’s IPL when the tournament had been shifted to South Africa despite the government asking them to postpone the whole tournament.
That leaves the IPL and the franchises, and one cannot see how a collective decision to exclude the Pakistanis would have benefited either one of them. In fact, the IPL committee would understand that the presence of Pakistani cricketers and the ensuing following of the game in that country would make for better revenues for the league. And one cannot see any real motive behind conspiring to deliberately do this after strategising for a definite period of times.
The hard and cold fact is that the performances of the teams depend on players who would be there through the entire duration of the tournament; players for whom the franchises did not have to worry too much about after having a lot on their plate already. So, if the visas of such players did not arrive on time because of the cold vibes existing between the two governments, then, it sure could have been an issue for the team unity; apart from adding to the unnecessary things to ponder about for the owners.
While it is easy to say that politics and sport should not be mixed, it is much more difficult to implement it. Gone are the days when cricketers or sportsmen could live in that cocoon of safety despite the existing threat to the world security; and in the prevailing scenario, it is only evident that the Pakistani cricketers touring India – or vice versa – would elicit an unnecessary security threat to those concerned.
Lee was missed by NSW Blues and crashed out
It was almost inconceivable at the start of the tournament. But, unless Lalit Modi comes up with a wildcard concept for the defending champions of the Champions League T20 tournament, they will not be participating in the second edition of the tournament, having already bowed out of KFC Big Bash T20 with only two points in four games out of a possible five matches.
The NSW Blues campaign had begun on a positive note and was almost akin to their performance in the Champions League T20, when they crushed Tasmania by 31 runs in the first game. The win was built around a similar batting prowess of their two openers in Phil Hughes and Dave Warner – both of whom smashed quick-fire half centuries – and captain Moises Henriques’ knock of 37 in the end.
The Tasmanian reply had begun well, what with 44 added for the first wicket off only 20 balls. However, once the first wicket fell, the rest of them capitulated to almost next to nothing to hand the Blues a winning start to their competition.
And it was not as if they were in a lot of trouble in their second game either. The Blues had batted first again against Victorian Bushrangers, and piled up another 178, but against the previous Champions League T20 qualifiers, the target fell short. Victoria had Brad Hodge, Matthew Wade and David Hussey gelling well to guide the Bushrangers to a narrow win with two balls to spare.
It was only in their third game that their wheels began to come apart, as the Western Australian Warriors absolutely bagged them with an imposing score of 198/1 in the 20 overs. This was built around the first century of the tournament by Shaun Marsh and his first wicket stand of 168 with Wes Robinson. Almost playing like they had given up even before the chase had begun, the Blues saw only two of their players getting into double figures and capitulating to 71 all out!
At the start of the Blues’ fourth game, South Australia were leading the points table with eight points from four games, who were followed by Victoria and Western Australia with four from four, while Tasmania had two from four. Both, New South Wales Blues and Queensland had two points from three games, and it was evident that this match between NSW and Queensland was a virtual quarter-final. The side winning the game would go up to four from four matches and tie with Victoria and WA for the second spot, whereas the losing team would be out of the tournament.
As it turned out, the game was reduced to a nine-over a side match due to rain and inclement weather. The Queensland innings began with an early wicket of James Hopes, but Andrew Symonds spanked a 38 off only 21 balls and combined well with Chris Simpson who took the game away with 14-ball 34. In the nine overs, Queensland had got to 110.
Any hopes that NSW would be able to make a match out of it evaporated in the first eight balls of the game, when they lost Phil Hughes, Dave Warner and overseas recruit Dwayne Smith all in the space of those many deliveries! Daniel Vettori then celebrated his first game in the Big Bash with a two over spell that cost only seven runs and that effectively broke the back for the Blues; 56/7 in nine overs.
Incidentally, this last game was watched by almost 30,000 fans, which was a record for domestic T20 cricket in Australia.
Victoria and Queensland then won their respective final games to get through to the Preliminary Finals, whereas South Australia is already through to the final and will face the winner of the Bushrangers and Queensland. South Australia, which has the likes of Shahid Afridi, Kieron Pollard and Shaun Tait in their side have already qualified for the Champions League T20.
The Indian Premier League is a good two months away, but there is already a little buzz around the player transfers and the forthcoming auctions. However, the biggest piece of news coming from the IPL camp is that out of the list of 97 players that had put in their names in the ‘probables’ hat for the auctions, the league has gotten one Chris Cairns out of the list.
And the reason? “For his alleged allegation as we have zero tolerance for this kind of stuff,” as put by succinctly by Lalit Modi. The more interesting bit here is that allegations against the Kiwi all-rounder had come during the unsanctioned, and a rival to the IPL, Indian Cricket League.
Make no mistake, the BCCI must be lauded for not using a line like, “ICL is an unauthorised league and hence, we do not take match-fixing in that league as authentic enough.” After all, fixing a match, is a cricketing crime by itself and whether or not the tournament is authorised should not be a deciding factor here.
However, I have another problem with this decision. And that has to do with the fact that as far as the reports, there was an allegation of match-fixing, which was neither proved, nor proclaimed in the media. The official reason for his ouster from the league then, had been that he had hidden an injury, and continued playing in the league. So, isn’t this a case of using the yardstick of being guilty till proved innocent?
And if at all Cairns – or anyone else – had actually been involved in match-fixing during the Indian Cricket League, it is a mighty surprise that it has not yet come out in the public. Nothing more than rumours have so far! Let’s hope there is more coming our way from this story so that there is a clarity regarding what actually happened for the stakeholders of the game.
Apart from the Cairns saga, the IPL transfer window opened to a very lukewarm response. Till date, not too many transactions have taken place; Owais Shah (originally from Delhi) has been exchanged with Moises Henriques (from Kolkata) whereas Manoj Tiwari, also from Delhi earlier was taken up by Kolkata. While the Tiwari buy-out makes sense given that he is originally from Bengal and will help in building up the brand for the Knight Riders, what is surprising from Kolkata’s point of view is the Henriques was allowed to go for another foreign player.
For one, Henriques is the captain of the New South Wales Blues T20 side in their KFC Big Bash back home, which was very evident in the manner he performed with both, the bat and the ball during the Champions League T20. His all-round skills would have been of utmost utility in the tournament, and one would have almost seen a clamour for buying him out at the auctions. One almost feels that the management has missed out on a trick or two here.
Secondly, one could have understood if the exchange would have taken place in order to free up a slot for the foreign player. In this case, it is a foreign player that has been chosen for Henriques, which means that the Knight Riders will be left with no freed space for anyone extra from the auctions either.
On the 28th of december the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash will set to rock Australia and the world with quality competition.
You may have seen them in the CLT20...
VB Bushrangers
RTA SpeedBlitz Blues
Along with more teams:
XXXX Gold Queensland Bulls
PKF Tasmanian Tigers
Retravision Warriors
West End Redbacks
Dates:
Starts 28th of December 2009
Final played on 23rd January 2009
Watch at T20cricket.Asia soon for an Official Schedule for the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash!
- December 23, 2009
- article by admin
- 0 comments
Finally makes peace between N. Srinivasan and Lalit Modi
There are two cricketing rivalries which have stood the tests of time, an Australia-England one that plays for the Ashes, and an India-Pakistan one that plays for everything and cricket! However, if ICC’s latest World T20 qualifiers are anything to go by, then, there could be another big one that could be added to the aforementioned list; something that could go on to assume colossal proportions in the years to come!
USA will be taking on Afghanistan in the Middle East in February, as a part of the qualifiers for the ICC World T20 that will be played in the month of April next year. The tournament is an eight-nation tournament, with the top two from them going on to be the part of the main event in the West Indies in 2010 in April.
The ICC World T20 is a 12-nation tournament, and the top ten countries – all the test playing nations – have already gained automatic qualifications. Apart from these ten, the top six countries in the world, and two special invitees from the ICC are featuring in this qualifier. These include Afghanistan, Scotland, Ireland, Kenya, Netherlands, UAE, USA and Canada. While the remaining six are direct qualifiers for these qualifiers, USA and UAE have been doled out special invites. USA and Afghanistan have a political history going on for the last decade or so, and this match could spark off a new cricketing rivalry in the future.
Group A consists of Ireland and Scotland apart from these two, whereas Group B has Kenya, Netherlands, Canada and UAE. The top two from each group will then join a Super Fours group where each team will play the others once – except the team qualified from their own group – and the top two will not only qualify for the finals but also for the ICC World T20 – the T20 equivalent of the World Cup.
Back in India with the Indian Premier League, the BCCI has finally ended all speculations about the future of Lalit Modi as the chief of the tournament. He has been assigned the job since 2012, after it had been claimed in the media that he had lost his job. It was a long-standing feud between Modi and the secretary of the cricket board, N. Srinivasan that had led to these speculations, but the President of the Board, Shashank Manohar has laid all this to rest.
While the ego battle – or whatever else can be used to describe it – is definitely something for the Board members to rectify internally and move ahead, I wonder whether there is any ‘Succession Plan’ in place in the eventuality that Modi does end his reign as the leader of the pack. Because, while handling the BCCI is one thing, it is quite a different and a more challenging issue to handle a tournament of the magnitude of IPL without someone with the desired expertise.
In the meantime, Modi has also announced that the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League which will be played in 2011, will have two extra teams. There will, thus, be ten sides, and 94 games in all, making it a really grand event. However, what will not be so grand will be the fact that every side will thus play a minimum of 18 games, and hence travel as much through the couple of months through the length and the breadth of the country. Fatigue and tiredness will be a concern for all the players, as will be injury issues and fitness woes. Whether the rule that the Indian players can play a maximum of 12 games will make too much of a difference will remain to be seen, but the increase in the matches will definitely have its effect on viewership as well, as the viewer-fatigue is as big an issue as its players’ counterpart.
So, will there be a rule regarding the maximum number of games a fan can watch as well? Now that would be an interesting call, won’t it?!
