So far the IPL organisers have tried to exclude the players' unions from discussions about security. Given that a number of players were very recently the victim of attempted to murder (not to mention what happened in Mumbai before) that's more than usually atrocious. Still, better to avoid the massive risk that Tim May or whoever is a Bolshevik.
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The Official IPL Thread
How does player selection work in the IPL? I think I read that teams bid in an auction on foreigners every year? Does that mean the Indian players stay put each year or are they auctioned too? Doesn't that mean that you have entirely different squads each season? -
The Official IPL Thread
The States are demanding more security from the central government for the tournament. They want the army to take control of the security set-up, but the Home Office are saying they don't have any Paramilitary to spare due to the national elections. So the likely hood is that the IPL will have to be postponed till after the elections, perhaps till April 30th or later.Comment
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The Official IPL Thread
Oh my.
But it would be wrong to stifle a guffaw, or even snigger if the IPL were to collapse if the players refused to turn up.
(Or if it were delayed, the likes of the ECB turned round and refused to release players from their central contracts)
Oh no. That would be wrong.Comment
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The Official IPL Thread
To answer Gramsci's question, "star" Indian players were included in the initial auction, while other domestic players are essentially free agents. Drastic turnover in rosters (at least when it comes to name players) is limited by the fact that the auction process is based on multi-year contracts (two years in most cases, I think).Comment
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The Official IPL Thread
The new concertinad match schedule now includes a lot of daytime matches which will lead inevitably to falling advertising revenues. Then you have to wonder if the business model still makes sense.Comment
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The Official IPL Thread
I don't know what the mood of India is but it's possible people really will get behind it in a defiant way- rather like the big crowd turning up on Monday to watch the postponed Grand National a few years ago. But certainly, it can't help, and I expect sponsors are pretty keen to negotiate very hard anyway.Comment
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The Official IPL Thread
IPL to be played outside India:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/7957614.stm
Possible venues include England. Yeah, that'll be fun in April.Comment
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The Official IPL Thread
The BCCI and Modi have discovered that April in England is often cold and wet.Comment
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The Official IPL Thread
If the cricket nabobs are serious about promoting the game outside of the usual cricket countries now would be an opportunity to play one or two IPL games in the US for instance. There's no question it would be a big draw among the ex-pats. I know the start times have to sync with prime time back in India, but this is an unusual situation and so what if one or two games are televised early or late India time. It's not as though they're going to lose their audience.Comment
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The Official IPL Thread
I doubt that they could prepare wickets in time.Comment
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The Official IPL Thread
Why does one get the impression that the ECB have rushed into whoring themselves out in a bid to host this without consulting anyone or weighing up the practicalities? I mean it's not as if they've done that before in the past few months.
Desperate, visionless men. I'm glad it looks likely to be going to SA instead.Comment
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The Official IPL Thread
As uneasy as I am at defending the ECB, I'm not sure that's an entirely fair impression. Rather, I get the idea that the ECB were as aware as anyone with even a passing knowledge of an English spring that hosting a cricket tournament in April was never going to work, but they felt it was better for the IPL (and BCCI) to come to this conclusion themselves.Comment
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The Official IPL Thread
So, wait, what's the deal here...do they all play in South Africa but keep their Indian franchise names? Or are they going to get new homes and names for a year? Do the Kolkata Knight Riders become the Cape Town Kinght Riders?Comment
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The Official IPL Thread
All tbc.Comment
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The Official IPL Thread
The working assumption for them playing it in England would be that the franchises would keep their current identity, in part because scheduling conflicts meant that none of the teams could have played all of their "home" matches at the same ground.
They have more flexibility in that regard in South Africa, but given the emphasis that the IPL has placed on trying to capitalise on city/regional rivalries in India, my money is on them keeping the status quo.
Whatever they come up with, it will be weird in a number of ways.Comment
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The Official IPL Thread
As Andy says, the wickets problem is likely to have had some effect. Having sat through the Stanford Super Series, I can vouch for the fact 20-20 isn't marketable on inappropriate pitches- ie pitches where bowlers can have the status of equals in a contest, rather than that of servants tossing the ball up to lordly batsman for their amusement.
Mind you, with the swinging ball keeping low, it would have given quite a boost to the Campaign For Real Wicketkeepers. Maybe the Bombay Bullets or whoever might have come in for Andy Brassington or Colin Metson.Comment
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The Official IPL Thread
Tubby Isaacs wrote:
Ok, explain this to me. I take it that 20-20 is primarily a fast-bowling kind of game. But if spin bowling allows one to win, why not indulge in it? Are there rules against it or something? I recognise it's less marketable, but if football's any guide, winning's more important than entertaining the fans - so why would teams not take any advantage available to them?Having sat through the Stanford Super Series, I can vouch for the fact 20-20 isn't marketable on inappropriate pitches- ie pitches where bowlers can have the status of equals in a contest, rather than that of servants tossing the ball up to lordly batsman for their amusement.Comment
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The Official IPL Thread
AG, 20/20 is designed as a batsmens game, with lots of boundaries crashing to all sides. It doesn't really matter whether it's off fast, slow or medium paced bowling. As such it works pretty well - and the bowlers only have to bowl 4 overs each, so their humilation is brief.
It doesn't work so well on bowler-friendly pitches, where the ball is moving significantly in the air or off the pitch, and it works worst of all on stodgy, slow, low pitches where its easy to stay in, but difficult to find the boundaries.
England doesn't have many of the latter pitches, but playing 20/20 in England in April could easily lead to lots of teams being bowled out for under 80. Which negates the point of 20/20. South Africa probably has much better pitches.
Absolutely agree that teams will try to win more than entertain, but on good batting pitches there really isn't a way to grind out the equivalent of a dull 1-0.Comment
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The Official IPL Thread
Well, now that it's on, we should probably have some kind of OTF fantasy 20/20. There's a bunch out there; anyone know a good one?Comment
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The Official IPL Thread
Etienne's right that, contrary to what I put there, what should have really scared the organisers would have been the prospect of slow pitches where batsmen can stay in provided they don't play any attacking shots. An English seaming track might have led to some interesting "you might as well have a go" batting. David Gower's team once played a test series like that.
There was something in the Independent yesterday suggesting that it might be less to do with conditions than that Sky have an exclusive contract for cricket played in England.Comment
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The Official IPL Thread
Ha ha, KP has joined the franchise with the largest amount of South African players, including Kallis and Boucher.
I reckon this IPL thing will flop in South Africa. I hope I'm right.Comment
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The Official IPL Thread
Has anyone signed Jesse Ryder?Comment
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The Official IPL Thread
Bangalore.Comment
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The Official IPL Thread
When you talk about bowler-friendly and batter-friendly pitches...does this just signify "wet" and "dry", or is there more to it than that?Comment
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