IPL 1st week thoughts

I thoroughly enjoyed my 1st week of IPL. For one thing, the convenience. I don’t have to stay up all night to watch the cricket, but can instead get up at a relatively convenient 7.30 a.m. California time, watch a full game of cricket, and still have most of my day to attend to work and other drudgery without the sleep-deprivation that normally attends periods when cricket is on. For another, the cricket. It is very nice to watch a game knowing that one’s emotional state at the end of it doesn’t depend on its outcome. For me, that is an entirely novel experience. Some impressions at the end of the first week:

Nail-biting? Not really …

One thing we should have learnt from the games so far is that just because you compress a game, there is no guarantee that it will be close. Of the 10 games so far, only 2 have gone down to the wire, while Deccan - Kolkata was closely fought. In most of the other cases, the result was fairly obvious a few to many overs before the finish. This is the case in most one-day internationals as well. This shows why Test cricket is the real thing. It is not just about the unfolding of drama or the ability to express different types of character or temperament – it is that Test cricket has thrown up some of the most absorbing and closely fought contests of any form of the game over the past few years, assuming that a sporting wicket has been prepared. This is why the BCCI’s attempts to kill Test cricket with terrible pitches is so asinine. Empirically, Test cricket has, if given proper conditions, simply thrown up more close battles around the world in the past five years that any of the quick and instant varieties.

I very much enjoyed the games that went to the wire – Mumbai v Chennai and Deccan v Rajasthan. But other than that, the excitement of the games really hasn’t been because they have been closely contested.

Superlative batting? Hmmm…

All the attention has been on the big hitting and the big innings. But much as the innings played by McCullum, Hussey, Symonds, Sangakkara and Viru have been fine, even exciting, that hasn’t been the highlight for me. All of these were efforts by fine players under conditions where the odds were stacked in their favor – flat pitches, short boundaries, a license to thrash the bowling, in a number of cases, lives given by fielders and umpires, uncompromising standards against the bowlers who are penalized for the slightest mistake … for me, Viru’s 150 in Adelaide is worth a hundred knocks such as those he played this week. This is not to belittle these batters’ achievements – after all, other big hitters like Adam Gilchrist and Shahid Afridi have come a cropper under the same batsman-friendly conditions. But other than McCullum, whose batting has a manic intensity that is morbidly riveting, none of the others really got my juices flowing.

So I have been lukewarm both about the excitement of the games themselves, and about the batting feats. There are nonetheless other things that have made me happy, some of which I outline below:

Superlative bowling? Absolutely …

While a batsman’s feats in 20/20 can be shrugged off or at least qualified, a fine bowling performance in conditions stacked against one is really worth watching. The T20 World Cup in South Africa was so exciting because conditions helped bowlers enough that good bowlers really thrived. Hence, RP Singh and Umar Gul were as integral to the success of their teams as Gautam Gambhir and Misbah-ul-Haq. Conditions here are stacked against the bowlers, and something that the organizers would do well to learn would be that sporting wickets in 20/20 wouldn’t be amiss. If you are indeed dealing with some of the best batsmen in the world, you shouldn’t have to completely rig the outcome in their favor in advance.

Given that the outcome has thus been rigged, for me the real highlights have been some of the bowling performances – Maharoof against Rajasthan, Afridi’s 3 wickets that gave Deccan a chance against Rajasthan, RP’s nerveless last over after being hit for many against Rajasthan, Warne’s 3/19 against Punjab, Pollock, Zaheer and McGrath all turning in tight performances, Manpreet Gony’s impressive calm against Mumbai, Rajat Bhatia’s ability to bowl wicket-to-wicket, Brett Lee’s fire and brimstone complemented by Piyush Chawla’s guile against Mumbai – all of these for me are worth more than the big 100s. Every ball counts in T20, so bowlers are really pressured and have very little margin for error. This is why someone like Sreesanth, whose bowling turns more retarded by the day, is proving to be such a liability for Punjab. Bowling the occasional unplayable delivery and following it up with tripe is something you can get away with in Tests or ODIs, but it just doesn’t work in this format.

None of the above performances though are a match on Mohammad Asif’s against Deccan, and for me, watching him bowl has been the single highlight of this week’s cricket. It is hard to believe that he has just returned after a long injury. There is so much that Asif teaches us. First, that bowlers can win matches in T20 cricket, something he has shown with great consistency. Second, that you don’t have to be an express fast bowler to be effective. But what makes Asif special is that he is not just a metronome, like McGrath or Pollock. He can genuinely move the ball both ways with an identical action, he has all manners of subtle variation, and so the control is coupled to genuine talent. If he stays fit, this man is going to be an all-time great. In my mind, the greatest fast bowler I have seen in the last 25 years has been Wasim Akram, precisely because he could operate the ball as if it was on a string. Asif is one bowler who I believe could, if he stays on track, end up being spoken off in the same breath as the great Akram.

This is also why Delhi are looking like such a team to beat – because they have made some of their best investments in getting quality bowlers. Everyone talked about Deccan’s power signings, but in this format, under these conditions, a power hitter like Andrew Symonds can on any given day be matched or outshone by a much less expensive power hitter like Yusuf Pathan. Bowling quality however is much harder to match, and Delhi’s depth in bowling is hard to match. This is a strength for Kolkata as well, who will be bolstered by Umar Gul’s arrival to partner Ishant Sharma. And once Bangalore have Steyn with them and Kumble fit, they will become increasingly hard to beat. A team like Deccan just doesn’t have that bowling strength.

New types of camaraderie

Also wonderful to watch has been star players from different national teams gelling together in their teams. Everyone has been talking about whether the nationalist Indian fan will turn overnight into the parochial Indian fan. But what about professionals like Jacob Oram diving like a goalkeeper to take a catch for Chennai; or superstars like Stephen Fleming or Mahela Jayawardene sitting on the bench; or Shahid Afridi getting all hot under the collar and pushing his players to do better? Of Matthew Hayden acknowledging Dhoni’s “aura” or admitting that Raina’s innings was better than his?

One of the nicest sights for me was watching Viru run and envelop Mohammad Asif in a huge hug after he picked up a wicket against Deccan. It is hard to imagine that just five years ago, we weren’t playing cricket against Pakistan; that in the past decade, having Pakistanis play in India meant risking pitch vandalism by Shiv Sainiks protesting their presence in the country. For me, nationalism v regionalism isn’t the issue; what is at issue is that Indians and Pakistanis playing on the same team as if best friends is such a non-issue. If cricket can bring that about, then that is really something to cheer about.

Captaincy profiles

It has been very interesting for me to watch the different captains in the tournament, because, as with bowlers, T20 allows very little recovery time for captains, who are forced to think on their feet. A certain type of leadership that could be very successful in Tests – valuing consistency, loyalty to players, playing the percentages – could amount to very little in T20. I think there are four types of captain in the league now – the commanding; the intuitive; the conservative; and the clueless; as follows:

i. The commanding

Viru and Ganguly. These are two people who are obvious captaincy material, and who have had considerable experience captaining teams in the past. Each of them now is in charge of a quality team, and their experience and ability shows in the ease with which they handle their teams. Their teams are so well balanced that they do not necessarily need to do anything special or clever or cute; but they do need to stay on top of the situation and not take their foot off the pedal, and they have done this exceedingly well.

ii. The intuitive

Dhoni and Warne. These are also people who are obvious captaincy material, which has been recognized at the national level in Dhoni’s case but never was in Warne’s. Both of them have great cricketing brains, but are probably more quixotic captains than a Viru or Ganguly. Each of them has a challenge in terms of the teams they lead – Rajasthan is one of the most inexperienced teams in the league. Chennai has a quality batting line-up, but its bowling is not quite in the same league as Delhi’s or Kolkata’s, and it will soon have to do without Hayden and Hussey in the batting department. What is crucial about Dhoni and Warne is not their experience, but their ability to inspire. Dhoni has managed to pull together superstars like Hayden and youngsters that no-one had heard of like Gony, and get the best out of both. Warne has managed to get a young team to pull punches far above their ability on paper.

Indeed, for me, watching Rajasthan under Warne has been most enjoyable. This is a team that mostly comprises youngsters from small-town India – Rajasthan, UP and the like – many of whom don’t even speak much English. But he has given them encouragement and responsibility and brought out the best in them. The likes of Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Siddharth Trivedi and Dinesh Salunke are blossoming under Warne’s leadership, and the way the youngsters mobbed him after he hit the winning runs against Andrew Symonds shows that he has managed to garner not just their respect but their friendship (though even he hasn’t managed to wake Munaf Patel from his stupor). Warne was never given the chance to show his leadership skills for Australia, and I wonder now what the Aussies mightn’t have managed under him. But more to the point, I wonder whether in his experience with Rajasthan we mightn’t be seeing the making of a future India coach?

Asif’s bowling has been the single highlight of the week; but for me, Warne has been the player of the week. And let’s not forget, he’s bowled pretty well also.

iii. The conservative

Dravid and Laxman. They have played by the book – fine in Test cricket, but often makes the difference between victory and defeat in this format. Dravid’s decision to open with himself and Jaffer in the opening game was a case in point; or his decision to go with seniority and replace Kumble with Sunil Joshi rather than throwing in a youngster like KP Appanna, which is the sort of thing Warne has been so good at doing.

A classic example of Laxman’s conservatism was his decision to bowl Symonds in the last over against Rajasthan, even though he had gone for 30 in his last over against Delhi, because there was no one else who was as experienced to bowl it. That’s precisely the point. Dhoni didn’t given Joginder Sharma the last over in the T20 World Cup because he was the most experienced; he gave it to him because he backed him, and made sure the bowler knew that. If Dhoni had been leading Deccan, he wouldn’t have thrown the ball to Symonds, but to Sanjay Bangar. Bangar is not a bowler who inspires fear in the opposition. But he is a wicket-to-wicket bowler, someone who has not conceded 17 runs in an over in this tournament; a senior pro who is part of the team’s think-tank; someone Shane Warne would know less about than his former Aussie teammate. And he would have gone to Bangar and told him to back himself and enjoy himself and just do what he does best, which is bowl wicket-to-wicket. And Bangar would have won the game for Deccan.

I have great respect for Laxman as a captain. I had argued that he should have been made India’s Test captain, and I have seen him captain one-day sides with great aplomb. But T20 has such fluctuations in short periods of time that the best captains are those who can actually make those fluctuations happen instead of simply responding to them. And just as Laxman is yet to prove that he can be a successful batsman in this format, so too is he to prove that he can be a successful captain.

iv. The clueless

Yuvraj and Bhajji. Neither of these players have much captaincy experience, and Yuvi has basically become India vice-captain on the back of his performances. And the only way they know how to lead is by example. Yuvraj batted well against Rajasthan, but was completely out-thought by Warne and Dhoni in Punjab’s first two games. Bhajji showed the strength of character to nearly biff Mumbai to victory against Chennai, but was so overwhelmed with captaincy on the field that he bowled his most economical bowler – himself – two overs short. When one thinks of Dhoni captaining and keeping wicket, which involves attentiveness and involvement as a player for every ball in the field, and compares that with Bhajji’s striking inability to multi-task, the difference in leadership skills becomes evident. I think Bhajji will be the happiest person when Sachin returns to lead Mumbai.

Meanwhile, it is not surprising that Punjab lost their first two games in spite of their obvious talent. Until Lee fired them up today with his bowling, Yuvi had just not brought them together, and he is just not getting players like Sreesanth to pull their weight. Compare that to Warne, who is getting far less talented players to play far above their capabilities. Someone like Dhoni would by now have dropped Sreesanth. But such changes aren’t being rung by Yuvraj, and even having a fine coach in Tom Moody hasn’t made a palpable difference to strategy on the field. Unheard of players who haven’t done much like Sunny Sohal and Wilkin Mota are getting games, while under-19 stars like Tanmay Srivastava and Ajitesh Argal, or Punjab stalwarts like Pankaj Dharmani, have not yet had a look in.

Prospects

I also like to pay attention to India prospects who catch my eye, and IPL is a perfect occasion for doing so. Success in T20 doesn’t necessarily mean success in longer formats of the game; so for instance, I’m not convinced that a Joginder Sharma will ever be an integral part of our plans for the 2011 World Cup, regardless of how many final overs he successfully bowls in T20. But being able to hold one’s own in such illustrious company certainly does indicate some ability and a temperament that can deal with high pressure situations.

A lot of Indians have shown promise this week, but for me there have been three stand-outs (other than established players like Viru, whom one already knows about – though it must be said that most of the established Indian players haven’t done too much to write home about).

The first is Suresh Raina. The talent was always there, but I for one thought he was overrated, not least because I was convinced that anyone that Greg Chappell likes so much has to be a flop. Certainly, he was thrown in at the deep end too soon, and ended up sinking rather than swimming. But his time in domestic cricket has clearly helped him mature as a batsman, and he looks ready to make a return to international cricket. Raina and Rohit Sharma would complement each other beautifully in the middle order.

The second is Yusuf Pathan. I think that developing more all-rounders is going to be crucial to 50/50 success going towards 2011, and Yusuf has come off a terrific year for Baroda in the Ranji Trophy with both bat and ball. It is nice to see him carry that form into the IPL. He is a clean striker of the ball, and far more than a part-time off-spinner. And he shows all the commitment of his brother.

For me, the third is Shikhar Dhawan. He was Robin Uthappa’s contemporary for India under-19, but while Uthappa immediately got snapped up into the national side (on the strength really of a single 100 in a Challenger Trophy game in late 2005), Dhawan has been languishing on the domestic circuit. Well, prolifically languishing, as he has been piling up the runs for Delhi. I think Dhawan looks like a far more complete batsman than Uthappa technically, and I am impressed by the calm and unfazed manner in which he goes about his business. Over the past 3-4 years, two of the most talented batsmen to come through the ranks in India have been Dhawan and Ambati Rayudu. We have managed to destroy Rayudu through negligence; we cannot afford to let the same thing happen to Dhawan. He is only 22, and hopefully a strong performance in the IPL will make him much harder to ignore.

Tripe

It has been most enjoyable for me to watch the tripe that has emanated from respected cricket journalists in England and Australia around the IPL, stuff that has ranged from the unctuous to the apoplectic. Gideon Haigh unfavorably compares IPL to some charity game for his local club that collected $538, which apparently makes the latter worthy of some higher moral order compared to the former. Christopher Martin-Jenkins compares T20 to a 100 meter race and Test cricket to a marathon and claims that obviously anyone would rather watch a marathon (hello???) … before making his own moral point that England cricketers would be better off doing “the hard yards” than rushing off to IPL riches.

I am as willing to be critical of global capitalism as the next man, and I certainly see lots of legitimate worries that should surround the IPL, especially around player burn-out. But, as Prem Panicker on rediff has been consistently pointing out, I don’t see why things should be posed as a stark choice between T20 and Test cricket, as if the success of one necessarily means the demise of the other. And I certainly cannot stand the way in which these commentators adopt the moral high-ground, as if IPL is beneath them.

The attitude of the Haighs and CMJs of the world – both amongst the most respected of cricket writers – is petty, inaccurate and insulting. Sure, cricketers are attracted to IPL for the money – and if CMJ could hit 61 off 28 balls against international caliber bowling, he’d be attracted to IPL for the money too. But who are these journalists to presume that is all they’re in it for? Surely the challenge of a new format, of pitting one’s wits against the best in the business, of forging new ties of friendship and collegiality, all have some part to play? Glenn McGrath, during his time playing for Delhi, is trying to extend the breast cancer charity he has set up in Australia to India. Who is Gideon Haigh to say that raising $538 for the Yarras’ cricket club is more worthwhile than that? The fact remains that two decades ago, India was the one place most foreign cricketers didn’t want to tour; now they all want to come here. To decide that it is all because India now has the money is as inaccurate as it is demeaning – both to Indian cricket, and to the players that make these choices. And to sit and write long-winded articles about the death of morality and the death of cricket-as-we-know-it all in one breath just makes some of these writers, whom I have had great respect for over the decades, sound little more than jealous old farts who are steeped in colonial nostalgia, for a time when a stiff upper lip was worth more than a crisp dollar bill. But it is still fun to see that the IPL has winded them up so much.

And so…

Verdict – jury still out, but good fun so far.

Performance of the week – Mohammad Asif v Deccan, though Lee ran him close today against Mumbai.

Player of the week – Shane Warne, without a doubt.

Biggest disappointment – Laxman’s captaincy.

Most ridiculous moment – Shane Watson getting man-of-the-match for a dime-a-dozen 72 against Punjab, when Warne had sizzled with 3/19 on the same day.

How about? – scrapping the DLF maximum sixes award and replacing it with a maximum maidens award? There have only been 5 maidens this week, compared to 100+ sixes, attesting to the fact that maidens are about 20 times harder to bowl than hitting a six; and probably 20 times more valuable as well. Hats off to Glenn McGrath, Ishant Sharma, Manpreet Gony and Irfan Pathan, the maiden bowlers this week, who have been amongst the real unsung heroes of this week.