Tag Archive for ‘Twenty20’ at Asian Window

Tag Archive for 'Twenty20'

Cricket vs the Taliban

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on June 23, 2009

in Conflict, Cricket, Pakistan and Terrorism

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Will a glorious sport rescue Pakistan from the Islamists? Tunku Varadarajan in Forbes:

As Pakistan fights for its survival against the barbarian Taliban–who would turn that fragile quasi-democracy into an Islamist state so extreme as to obliterate all girls’ schools from the face of the land–its people find themselves possessed of a weapon with which to vanquish the forces of darkness. I speak here not of drones or tanks or helicopter gunships, but of the glorious game of cricket.

Pakistan’s national cricket team has just won the World Cup in a version of cricket called Twenty20, a dynamic, novel form of the game that might be compared–for the benefit of American readers–to a three-inning baseball game, short, eventful and innovative.

The cricket victory is the best news that Pakistanis have had since the departure from power of their military dictator, Pervez Musharraf; and unlike the latter event, which only ushered in a long period of uncertainty and violence, the former offers clarity, light and a shot at redemption from evil. More:

Going, going…

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on February 6, 2009

in Cricket

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At the IPL auction, English stars Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff go for $1.55 million apiece. Cricinfo has the details

Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff, the England stars, were sold for US$ 1.55 million each at the IPL auction on Friday, making them the highest-paid cricketers in the Twenty20 league. However, it was Mashrafe Mortaza, the 25-year-old fast bowler from Bangladesh, who stole the show in Goa after attracting a winning bid of US$ 600,000 from the Kolkata Knight Riders that was exactly 12 times his base price of US$ 50,000.

The other stars of the auction were JP Duminy, the South African batsman, who was bagged by Mumbai Indians for US$ 950,000 (base price: US$ 300,000), and most unexpectedly, Tyron Henderson, the Middlesex allrounder, who was bought by Rajasthan Royals for US$ 650,000, which was over six times his base price of US$ 100,000.

For a list of players sold, click here.

Cricket’s new revolution

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on June 2, 2008

in Cricket

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It’s official. The first IPL tournament is a hit and hosannas have been pouring in on how cricket will never be the same again. Mihir Bose in BBC

Twenty20 cricket may teach us very little on the field of play but, off it, the Indians have built a model which will undoubtedly change world cricket.

I must confess that a week ago when I arrived in India I was sceptical as to what the Indian Premier League meant – but its impact soon became clear.

The Indians have now got a tournament that, even before the semi-finals, had been watched by more than 100 million on television, while the final alone was expected to attract some 30 million.

Crowds have packed out stadiums and the final saw 55,000 fill a new stadium two hours’ drive from Mumbai.

And in IHT, Huw Richards on frugal Rajasthan’s big win

The Rajasthan Royals, which had already proved itself the best team over the length of the qualifying tournament, showed that it was also the best in the clutch as it took the inaugural Indian Premier League title in Mumbai.

It beat the Chennai Super Kings in a desperately tense final on Sunday, reaching its target of 164 to win from the final ball of its innings of 20 six-ball overs when Sohail Tanvir struck the single run it needed.

As in last year’s first-ever World Cup in the Twenty20 format – when India’s victory created the excitement that led to the creation of, first, the rebel India Cricket League, and then the officially backed the IPL – the organizers were treated to a final that was everything they could have asked for. Chennai battled to its limit. Rajasthan won because Tanvir and its captain, Shane Warne, both chiefly bowlers, kept their nerve when asked to score the final 21 runs from 14 balls.

On the record: Jeffrey Archer

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on June 2, 2008

in Books

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Bestselling author Jeffrey Archer is a man of many parts — he was captain of the athletics team at Oxford, he ran for his country, and was a Conservative MP at 29. He wrote his first novel, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, in 1976. Since then he has kept producing works that always topped the charts. His stint in jail for perjury saw him write a well-received prisoner’s diary, and, adapting the tales he was told by fellow prisoners, he put together a short-story collection called Cat O’ Nine Tails. Archer was recently in India to promote his latest book A Prisoner of Birth. In an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV 24×7’s Walk the Talk, he speaks about cricket, of which he is an avid fan, about politics in the UK, and about getting on in life without being in the dumps over the mistakes one makes.

Wonderful to have you here in a bookshop in Gurgaon, Landmark, in a mall.

Yes, which wouldn’t have been. When I first came to India 15 years ago, there wouldn’t have been a mall.

•You said you never came to India because you were never invited. You need an invite to come to India?

I thank Landmark very kindly. They said, ‘We would like to do a proper tour. We know you have been to India, but we would like to take you around the country because you’ve got a lot of fans here.’ And I said, ‘Well, I have seen the figures from the Kane & Abel days, which is 30 years ago. And they said, ‘Oh, they are buying more now that you are even more popular. So we would like you to come over.’ So I had just done Australia for the fifth time, and I had just done America for the seventh time.

IPL final: visionaries rejoice as T20 is a hit

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on June 1, 2008

in Cricket

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The stage is set for the grand blockbuster finale tonight as two of cricket’s biggest superstars, M.S. Dhoni and Shane Warne face off tonight in Mumbai. Stephen Brenkley in The Independent says IPL has changed cricket forever.

The inaugural Indian Premier League reaches its climax today. But it had long ago changed the face of cricket forever. Like it or loathe it (the former considerably outnumber the latter) the tournament is not only here to stay, it seems ready to grow and grow.

Its progenitors have been bowled over by the dramatic events, the sceptics apparently knocked for six. Live crowds and television audiences have both met targets, albeit with caveats.

The IPL has regularly had the biggest audience share on Indian cable television. Attendances approached capacity in almost every franchise. It has also been a hit on TV worldwide, including the UK, despite the lack of English players.

And for details on tonight’s match, CricInfo has the dope here.

Cricket entering new golden age with greed its greatest enemy

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on April 30, 2008

in Cricket

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In The Times, UK, Christopher Martin-Jenkins, Chief Cricket Correspondent:

Cricket is in ferment again. It often is, but the first thing to understand about what we had better now call the Twenty20 Revolution is that it will not supersede Test cricket.

I keep reading that “cricket is the new football”. That is odd because that was what was being said in 2005, when the Ashes series was gripping a wider than usual proportion of the British public, just as last year’s ICC World Twenty20 tournament in South Africa captivated much of India’s vast population or the explosive fast bowling of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson enthused Australians, among them Kerry Packer, in 1974-75.

Cricket’s popularity ebbs and flows, like the game itself, but it keeps flowing. Not because it is the new football, but because it is the old cricket, a series of duels between a batsman and a bowler in a team context and varying conditions, a game demanding as much skill, fitness and courage as most others and greater discipline, technique and intelligence than any.

Change for a twenty

Published

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on April 13, 2008

in Cricket

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No one dares argue with the money. But will T20 end up changing the game forever, asks Rohit Mahajan in Outlook

If money is the mortal enemy of the soul, as is believed, then cricket could be in danger of losing its soul. On April 18, when the inaugural Indian Premier League Twenty20 begins in Bangalore, cricket, as purists love it— with its bucolic beauty and quaint traditions—will metamorphose into Tamasha Cricket. The mix could be the newest opium for the Indian masses: adrenaline-pumping sport and heart-thumping Bollywood, gyrating dances and lusty sixes, sporting geniuses and dashing superstars. Sport must intermittently reinvent itself—the lure of money is difficult to resist—but soon a day may come to pass when we even fail to recognise cricket as we knew it.

And, elsewhere in the same issue, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the most expensive player in the Indian Premier League speaks to Rohit Mahajan about the unique blend of cricket and entertainment

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian One-day and T20 captain and the most expensive player of the Indian Premier League, is a man who doesn’t mind speaking his mind. He talks with conviction and frankness, dealing with each question with his customary placidity of mind and work. As we wait for the unknown in the IPL to come to light, Dhoni, in an exclusive interview, shares his views on this novel blend of entertainment and cricket. Excerpts:

What kind of changes will come into Tests and One-dayers as an effect of Twenty20 cricket?
It will depend on what form of cricket you are playing. There were Test matches to begin with, then came One-dayers. There are not too many changes in the basic approach, but yes, people started scoring at a much faster rate in Test matches as well. Three runs an over is considered the benchmark these days–if you score at over three an over, you have the upper hand, otherwise you’re slightly on the back foot.

Let the bidding begin

Published

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on February 20, 2008

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Seventy nine cricketers to eight franchises in the Indian Premier League go under the hammer today. The Times has the story:

The last time Richard Madley was in the newspapers for a cricket auction, he was handling the sale of a collection of ties and saucy seaside postcards once owned by Brian Johnston. Today’s auction is rather less frivolous. When Madley, a lifelong Glamorgan supporter, starts work in the ballroom of the Oberoi Hilton in Bombay, $40million (about £20million) will be at stake.

Madley, an auctioneer with Dreweatts, the British firm, will handle today’s sale of 79 cricketers to the eight franchises in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the new Twenty20 competition that will start on April 18, and anticipation has become feverish.

“I’ve just been mobbed outside the hotel,” Madley said yesterday. “They say that cricket is a religion here, but it appears to be a bit more than that.”

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And for all the dope on IPL, Hindustan Times has a dummies guide:

What is the IPL ?
The Indian Premier League is a professional twenty20 cricket league created and promoted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and backed by the International Cricket Council.

Franchises
The IPL works on a franchise-system based on the American style of hiring players and transfers. These franchises were put for auction, where the highest bidder won the rights to own the team, representing each city. The auction took place on January 24, 2008 and the total base price for the auction was $400 million. The auction went on to fetch $723.59 million.

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