"The IPL"...Edition_6

Lo and behold the greatest cricketing spectacle known to mankind.....starting in a couple of days.....in it's 6th edition

And the mood of the nation is good.......on the back of a good test match series win.
test cricket is healthy and we can all enjoy IPL

Jalaj saxena, Rishi dhawan, baba aparajit, manan vohra, Ishwar Pandey, Parvez Rasool...the succeses of U-19 and FC have all been handed IPL contrcats.


Poor Kaif no takers for him....he has fallen a lot in the reckoning

Delhi will miss KP and Pune will miss Clarke.

-----------------------------------------------

IPL 6: What the nine teams look like

Wisden India staff · Feb 3, 2013 ·
view in double column


Kolkata Knight Riders, the defending champions, only bought Sachithra Senanayake and Ryan McLaren. © AFP

Close to $US 11.89 million were spent on 37 players, and at the end of a process that lasted almost five hours, this is how the teams look ahead of the sixth edition of the Indian Premier League:

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS
MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, M Vijay, S Badrinath, S Anirudha, Wriddhiman Saha, Shadab Jakati, Michael Hussey, Ben Hilfenhaus, Faf du Plessis, Albie Morkel, Nuwan Kulasekara, Dwayne Bravo.

Players bought or re-signed before the auctions: Baba Aparajith, Vijay Shankar.

Players bought in 2013 auctions: Dirk Nannes (600,000), Chris Morris (625,000), Ben Laughlin (20,000), Akila Dananjaya (20,000), Jason Holder (20,000).

Total 2013 Auction Spend: $US 1,285,000

DELHI DAREDEVILS
Virender Sehwag, Irfan Pathan, Naman Ojha, Ajit Agarkar, Unmukt Chand, Umesh Yadav, Yogesh Nagar, Shahbaz Nadeem, Pawan Negi, Manpreet Juneja, Mahela Jayawardene, Ross Taylor, David Warner, Kevin Pietersen, Morne Morkel, Andre Russell, Roelof van der Merwe.

Players bought or re-signed before the auctions: Kedar Jadhav, Siddharth Kaul, Sujit Nayak, Venugopala Rao, Gulam Bodi.

Players bought in 2013 auctions: Johan Botha (450,000), Jesse Ryder (260,000), Jeevan Mendis (50,000).

Total 2013 Auction Spend: $US 760,000

KINGS XI PUNJAB
Adam Gilchrist, Praveen Kumar, Piyush Chawla, Mandeep Singh, Parvinder Awana, Siddharth Chitnis, Nitin Saini, Sunny Singh, Bhargav Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, Paul Valthaty, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Harmeet Singh Bansal, R Sathish, Shaun Marsh, David Hussey, David Miller, Ryan Harris, Azhar Mehmood, Dimitri Mascarenhas.

Players bought or re-signed before the auctions: Manan Vohra.

Players bought in 2013 auctions: Luke Pomersbach (300,000), Manpreet Gony (500,000).

Total 2013 Auction Spend: $US 800,000

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS
Gautam Gambhir, Yusuf Pathan, Manoj Tiwary, Debabrata Das, Manvinder Bisla, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Rajat Bhatia, L Balaji, Iqbal Abdulla, Shami Ahmed, Pradeep Sangwan, Sarabjit Singh Ladda, Eoin Morgan, Brad Haddin, Brendon McCullum, Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee, Shakib Al Hasan, Ryan ten Doeschate, Sunil Narine, James Pattinson.

Players bought or re-signed before the auctions: None.

Players bought in 2013 auctions: Sachithra Senanayake (625,000), Ryan McLaren (50,000).

Total 2013 Auction Spend: $US 675,000

MUMBAI INDIANS
Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Munaf Patel, Pragyan Ojha, Ambati Rayudu, Amitoze Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni, Abu Nechim Ahmed, Aditya Tare, Pawan Suyal, Suryakumar Yadav, Sushant Marathe, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Aiden Blizzard, James Franklin, Mitchell Johnson, Dwayne Smith.

Players bought or re-signed before the auctions: Jalaj Saxena, Rishi Dhawan.

Players bought in the 2013 auctions: Ricky Ponting (400,000), Glenn Maxwell (1,000,000), Phil Hughes (100,000), Nathan Coulter-Nile (450,000), Jacob Oram (50,000).

Total 2013 Auction Spend: $US 2,000,000

PUNE WARRIORS INDIA
Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Ashish Nehra, Murali Kartik, Ashoke Dinda, Rahul Sharma, Manish Pandey, Raiphi Gomez, Mithun Manhas, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ali Murtaza, Harpreet Singh, Anustup Majumdar, Krishnakant Upadhyay, Mahesh Rawat, Shrikant Wagh, Dheeraj Jadhav, Eklavya Dwivedi, Angelo Mathews, Alfonso Thomas, Wayne Parnell, Marlon Samuels, Luke Wright, Mitchell Marsh.

Players bought or re-signed before the auctions: Ishwar Pandy, T Suman, Udit Birla, Steve Smith, Tamim Iqbal.

Players bought in 2013 auctions: Michael Clarke (400,000), Abhishek Nayar (675,000), Ajantha Mendis (725,000), Kane Richardson (700,000).

Total 2013 Auction Spend: $US 2,500,000

RAJASTHAN ROYALS
Rahul Dravid, Ajinkya Rahane, S Sreesanth, Ashok Menaria, Stuart Binny, Siddharth Trivedi, Ankeet Chavan, Shreevats Goswami, Ajit Chandila, Shane Watson, Shaun Tait, Brad Hodge, Brad Hogg, Kevon Cooper.

Players bought or re-signed before the auctions: Harmeet Singh, Dishant Yagnik, Owais Shah, Samuel Badree.

Players bought in 2013 auctions: James Faulkner (400,000), Fidel Edwards (210,000), Kushal Perera (20,000).

Total 2013 Auction Spend: $US 630,000

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE
Virat Kohli, Vinay Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Saurabh Tiwary, Abhimanyu Mithun, Arun Karthik, Karun Nair, S Aravind, Mayank Agarwal, Vijay Zol, KP Appanna, Harshal Patel, Syed Mohammad, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Muttiah Muralitharan, T Dilshan, Daniel Vettori, Andrew MacDonald.

Players bought or re-signed before the auctions: Abhinav Mukund, Sandeep Warrier, Sunny Sohal, Prashanth Parameswaran.

Players bought in 2013 auctions: RP Singh (400,000), Moises Henriques (300,000), Jaidev Unadkat (525,000), Pankaj Singh (150,000), Ravi Rampaul (290,000), Christopher Barnwell (50,000), Daniel Christian (100,000).

Total 2013 Auction Spend: $US 1,815,000

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD
Ishant Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Parthiv Patel, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Akshath Reddy, Akash Bhandari, Amit Mishra, Anand Rajan, Ankit Sharma, Ashish Reddy, Bharath Chipli, Biplab Samantray, Dwarka Ravi Teja, Veer Pratap Singh, Cameron White, Chris Lynn, Dale Steyn, Rusty Theron, Kumar Sangakkara.

Players bought or re-signed before the auctions: None.

Players bought in the 2013 auctions: Thisara Perera (675,000), Darren Sammy (425,000), Sudeep Tyagi (100,000), Nathan McCullum (100,000), Clint McKay (100,000), Quinton de Kock (20,000).

Total 2013 Auction Spend: $US 1,420,000

your kidding right?!

Its not the greatest cricketing spectacle known to mankind at all!

CF wrote:your kidding right?!

Its not the greatest cricketing spectacle known to mankind at all!

when you add up all the numbers in the OP with $ signs preceding them....you might conclude that Edition_6 exceeds all other spectacles put together

The advent of Warner, Lumb, Marsh, Narine, Pollard, D Christian, Fad Du Pleiss, Watson, Jadeja, Rahul sharma on the international scene was fast-tracked by IPL...and the resurgence of Smith( aus), Gayle, Samuels, Smith ( WI) are all owing to IPL.

and IPL gave the super-star-dom to KP.

We'll see what Glen Maxwell at a Million dollar can offer....or how the mystery spinner Senanayake from SL will fare this IPL

for A PURE CRICKETING SPECTACLE, any test match is better IMO.

CF wrote:for A PURE CRICKETING SPECTACLE, any test match is better IMO.

Test match has it's own beauty, grace...charm, test of skills...but it's not a bash nor a spectacle.

comparing test cricket to IPL is like comparing "an afternoon visit to Museum" with a " night out in a club"

I thought Gilchrist retired. These 40+ year olds always hurt my argument that cricket is a sport

a true cricket fan rates test matches as the pinnacle of the game!

t20 is hit and giggle.

Each format has its own importance. Personal preference for me is for test match cricket. I like ODIs when there is a balanced game between bat and ball, and I do watch T-20 every now and then. But I don't think a special preference for test matches would give you any special certificate as a true cricket fan or anything like that.
Test matches need the money for it to survive, the limited over formats bring the mony into the game. So if you really favor test match, it may not be prudent to knock T-20 at every given opportunity. T-20 also involves a test of the player's skills, but not at the level of what a test match could do.
There are a lot of things that I really don't like about the IPL, the strategic timeout, the DLF nonsense and so on, but like it or not, it has its place in the global cricket fabric for sure.

CF wrote:a true cricket fan rates test matches as the pinnacle of the game!

t20 is hit and giggle.

a cricket lover...enjoys cricket in all it's form.

an entertainment seeker values a "trip to museum or arts gallery"........as much as a slick action movie as much as a clubbing night out with guys n gals.

One who limits himself to arts galleries and museums...might be called a fuddy-duddy bore

I am not sure what annoys me more, KPF or people who say that true cricket fans have to enjoy test cricket more than any other format (usually the same who then say other such rubbish such as "test cricket is the only real cricket" or "T20 is just hit and giggle"). The corollary being that if you dare enjoy other forms of the game as much or more, than you're not a true cricket fan. It betrays a complete lack of understanding of the subtleties of T20 (yes, there are some), the difficulties in playing it, the skill required and the innovations which it has helped bring on. Not to mention what it has done for the popularity of the sport world-wide.

It is perhaps not coincidence that the last couple of years have produced IMO consistently the most interesting test cricket of my lifetime (with the caveat that the Australian side of the early 00s was great to watch, but they produced somewhat one-sided contests, and were pretty isolated).

I personally enjoy watching all forms of cricket, at all levels. I don't feel this makes me not a true cricket fan (surely much the contrary). The IPL has its share of things which annoys me (but so does test cricket, not least the incessant drinks breaks), but I have absolutely nothing against T20 as a format - it is interesting in its own way, but you have to be a bit open minded to accept that maybe.

Mike Selig wrote:I am not sure what annoys me more, KPF or people who say that true cricket fans have to enjoy test cricket more than any other format (usually the same who then say other such rubbish such as "test cricket is the only real cricket" or "T20 is just hit and giggle"). The corollary being that if you dare enjoy other forms of the game as much or more, than you're not a true cricket fan. It betrays a complete lack of understanding of the subtleties of T20 (yes, there are some), the difficulties in playing it, the skill required and the innovations which it has helped bring on. Not to mention what it has done for the popularity of the sport world-wide.

It is perhaps not coincidence that the last couple of years have produced IMO consistently the most interesting test cricket of my lifetime (with the caveat that the Australian side of the early 00s was great to watch, but they produced somewhat one-sided contests, and were pretty isolated).

I personally enjoy watching all forms of cricket, at all levels. I don't feel this makes me not a true cricket fan (surely much the contrary). The IPL has its share of things which annoys me (but so does test cricket, not least the incessant drinks breaks), but I have absolutely nothing against T20 as a format - it is interesting in its own way, but you have to be a bit open minded to accept that maybe.

Of course the same poster rated Ojha ahead of Jadeja based on the performances in the Ind-Aus series, so probably shows how much of a "true cricket fan" he is.

I prefer Test cricket in general but only good Test cricket. If the pitches are like the ones in SL or the ones in NZ for the recent series, I'd rather watch T20.

I can't disagree with Mike's post.

That said, I personally don't enjoy the IPL. The TV coverage spoils the good matches, and there are quite a lot of matches which I would call 'dull' (I know that is true in all forms, but perhaps more so in T20 where bad matches don't have the additional interest of being able to see batsmen scoring 100s etc.). I also think its overlong.

For that reason its likely that I'll be following county cricket more closely.

Mike Selig wrote:I am not sure what annoys me more, KPF or people who say that true cricket fans have to enjoy test cricket more than any other format (usually the same who then say other such rubbish such as "test cricket is the only real cricket" or "T20 is just hit and giggle"). The corollary being that if you dare enjoy other forms of the game as much or more, than you're not a true cricket fan. It betrays a complete lack of understanding of the subtleties of T20 (yes, there are some), the difficulties in playing it, the skill required and the innovations which it has helped bring on. Not to mention what it has done for the popularity of the sport world-wide.

It is perhaps not coincidence that the last couple of years have produced IMO consistently the most interesting test cricket of my lifetime (with the caveat that the Australian side of the early 00s was great to watch, but they produced somewhat one-sided contests, and were pretty isolated).

I personally enjoy watching all forms of cricket, at all levels. I don't feel this makes me not a true cricket fan (surely much the contrary). The IPL has its share of things which annoys me (but so does test cricket, not least the incessant drinks breaks), but I have absolutely nothing against T20 as a format - it is interesting in its own way, but you have to be a bit open minded to accept that maybe.

some people have grown up a few years in maturity...in the 3 months I was away

http://www.thatscricket.com/news/2013/03/31/sachin-spots-talented-pacer-gets-him-ipl-contract-066927.html

Is Javed Khan India's next Express Pace sensation ??

In a very Pakistani fashion...tendulkar plucks out a 20 year old express pacer from anonymity and throws him into IPL.

Not to be mistaken with the Javed Khan who plays for Mumbai as a seamer....who we saw against Eng also in the practise game.

IPL is an excellent platform to test bowlers.....and the temperament of batsmen...in what's always a pressured situation.

Shelsey93 wrote:I can't disagree with Mike's post.

That said, I personally don't enjoy the IPL. The TV coverage spoils the good matches, and there are quite a lot of matches which I would call 'dull' (I know that is true in all forms, but perhaps more so in T20 where bad matches don't have the additional interest of being able to see batsmen scoring 100s etc.). I also think its overlong.

For that reason its likely that I'll be following county cricket more closely.

There are a lot of close matches in the IPL. Do follow, I think it'll be good this year.

Wonder how much this IPL will have a bearing on Champions Trophy selection. Unlike the World Cup, where pretty much anyone could predict the squad beforehand (apart from the inexplicable selection of Piyush Chawla) there are very few guys who can consider themselves as automatic picks for this Champions Trophy.

^ More than IPL the Aus series performance will have a bearing on Champions Trophy selection from India
CT will see Pujara, Dhawan and Vijay enter in contention.....for they all scored at a rather fast clip in tests....showed inning building capabilities...and because of their test match techniques will come in reckoning in what will be presumed more seaming conditons.

Not sure about Vijay in ODIs, the other 2, yes.

Think they should open with Dhawan and Pujara in ODIs. Kohli at 3, then Yuvraj, Raina, Dhoni, Jadeja.
Hopefully the IPL will give Praveen Kumar the space to find some form. Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar, PK and Shami could make the bowling unit. Hopefully the IPL would let them all find enough game time and some good form as well.

KP will be missed, so is the case with Jesse Ryder. Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers will be there.
I would be watching out for 2 foreign players in particular. The 2 are from South Africa. Quinton de Kock, and Chris Morris. I feel those 2 are serious tallents who can have good international careers in all formats.
Remains to be seen as to how much game time will young de Kock would have as Kumar Sangakkara is likely to take the gloves for his side. But I am expecting Morris to get decent game time, he's a pretty sharp bowler, and he can hit it miles.

msp83 wrote:Think they should open with Dhawan and Pujara in ODIs. Kohli at 3, then Yuvraj, Raina, Dhoni, Jadeja.
Hopefully the IPL will give Praveen Kumar the space to find some form. Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar, PK and Shami could make the bowling unit. Hopefully the IPL would let them all find enough game time and some good form as well.

I'm not so sure about Yuvraj in England, maybe Tiwary or Rayudu?

Does anyone knows who are Ben laughlin, Jason Holder, Aiden Blizzard, nathan coulture-nile, Alfonso Thomas, Mitchel Marsh, Kevon Cooper, chris Lynn, Rusty Theron


i see Owais shah, Morgan, azhar Mehmood and Dimitri Mascarenhas as the English palyers in this IPL ...although Mascarenhas seemed way over the hill even 2 seasons back.
sad for Lumb, wright that they have been forced to miss out.

If ECB didn't impose legal / emotional / unwritten restrictions.....and their availbailiyt for atleast 50% of the season was certain
I would pick following 11 addtional English players:

1) Finn, Broad ( as an allrounder), Swann for 450K+
2) Lumb, Wright, Prior 250K to 450K
3) Woakes, Onions, Bairstow, Meaker, Monty 100 to 250K

and offcourse KP is already a multimillion dollar Brand in IPL.

that's a 16player contingent from england

msp83 wrote:Think they should open with Dhawan and Pujara in ODIs. Kohli at 3, then Yuvraj, Raina, Dhoni, Jadeja.
Hopefully the IPL will give Praveen Kumar the space to find some form. Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar, PK and Shami could make the bowling unit. Hopefully the IPL would let them all find enough game time and some good form as well.

Don't rule out Gambhir yet.....he was back in frame after his hundred against visiting Aussies and we saw he was in the squad of 14 for the final test...and had he not had jaundice....he would have opened in T4 at Delhi.

Vijay is a tremendous striker as he has shown in IPL......can build the inningsd as he showed in tests and a Chennai player...who are the favored first amongst equals these days......so he will defnitely be in the reckoning.

Praveen Kumar is on Parole...out of favours with Dhoni and BCCI.....and with the advent oh Bhuvanesh and return of Irfan to the fold before he was injured.... and availability of a fit sreesanth in the "swing bowlers slot.....PK is as good as over.

Yadav is fit and coming back and I hear aaron will be back in the later stages of the IPL...suddenly India seems to be troubled with the good problem of pelnty in both batting and seam bowling

msp83 wrote:Think they should open with Dhawan and Pujara in ODIs. Kohli at 3, then Yuvraj, Raina, Dhoni, Jadeja.
Hopefully the IPL will give Praveen Kumar the space to find some form. Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar, PK and Shami could make the bowling unit. Hopefully the IPL would let them all find enough game time and some good form as well.

Yup.

CF wrote:a true cricket fan rates test matches as the pinnacle of the game!

t20 is hit and giggle.

I still can't help but laugh when I read this term "true cricket fan" even though I have read it time and time again.

KP_fan wrote:Does anyone knows who are Ben laughlin, Jason Holder, Aiden Blizzard, nathan coulture-nile, Alfonso Thomas, Mitchel Marsh, Kevon Cooper, chris Lynn, Rusty Theron

Laughlin is that guy who bowls a load of slower balls isn't he? Not sure I rate him TBH, a bit of an aussie Dernbach (although bowls off-cutters rather than back of the hand).

Blizzard is a hard-hitting top-order batsman (left-handed) who can get you off to a flyer. Unlikely to play the substantial innings, but good for a quick 30-50 if he comes off.

Coulter-Nile is a talented sportsman, but at this stage a bit of a bits and pieces. His bowling has serious pace (he's one of those who bowls quicker than the speed-gun suggests), but lacks control and at time variety; very good athlete; hits the ball miles down the order, but too often tries to hit out from the get-go, so gets out for nothing. Still learning his game. I think he could be a very good player in time, if he improves.

Thomas is a premium T20 bowler who swings it at the start and usually bowls pretty well at the death. I think he may be the leading wicket taker in T20 cricket, which tells you how good he was. My gut feeling is he's on the way down, although how fast that slide will be remains to be seen.

Mitch Marsh is another talented guy from Aus, who is still finding his feet. Batting all-rounder I guess you would say, he's got the ability to be a proper batsman, and bowls brisk medium-pace, although IMO he's very hittable in this format. I guess a medium-pace equivalent of Steve Smith a couple of years ago (Smith's batting has come on as it looked like it could since)? Not as good a fielder mind.

Cooper is one of these T20 specialists from the West Indies. If I'm honest I don't think much of him.

Theron is a "heavy ball" medium pace merchant, slightly short of international class but could be handy in the IPL. Often bowls at the death.

The other 2 I haven't heard of.

KP_fan wrote:i see Owais shah, Morgan, azhar Mehmood and Dimitri Mascarenhas as the English palyers in this IPL ...although Mascarenhas seemed way over the hill even 2 seasons back.
sad for Lumb, wright that they have been forced to miss out.

If ECB didn't impose legal / emotional / unwritten restrictions.....and their availbailiyt for atleast 50% of the season was certain
I would pick following 11 addtional English players:

1) Finn, Broad ( as an allrounder), Swann for 450K+
2) Lumb, Wright, Prior 250K to 450K
3) Woakes, Onions, Bairstow, Meaker, Monty 100 to 250K

and offcourse KP is already a multimillion dollar Brand in IPL.

that's a 16player contingent from england

I'm always astonished that Mascarenhas doesn't get smashed all over the place. I'm not sure about Monty in T20, and Woakes surely not. On the other hand guys like Buttler and that leftie from Yorkshire (Ballance was it? or Miller? the one who smashed it around on finals day) would be worth a shout. Maybe Paul Stirling as well in time.

Calling Azhar Mahmood english is stretching it a bit though...

IPL you say? Isn't it in rapid decline with regards to TV ratings? The only thing I'm waiting for is the England-NZ test series! Less than 100 days till the Ashes as well!

Mike Selig wrote:

KP_fan wrote:Does anyone knows who are Ben laughlin, Jason Holder, Aiden Blizzard, nathan coulture-nile, Alfonso Thomas, Mitchel Marsh, Kevon Cooper, chris Lynn, Rusty Theron

Laughlin is that guy who bowls a load of slower balls isn't he? Not sure I rate him TBH, a bit of an aussie Dernbach (although bowls off-cutters rather than back of the hand).

Blizzard is a hard-hitting top-order batsman (left-handed) who can get you off to a flyer. Unlikely to play the substantial innings, but good for a quick 30-50 if he comes off.

Coulter-Nile is a talented sportsman, but at this stage a bit of a bits and pieces. His bowling has serious pace (he's one of those who bowls quicker than the speed-gun suggests), but lacks control and at time variety; very good athlete; hits the ball miles down the order, but too often tries to hit out from the get-go, so gets out for nothing. Still learning his game. I think he could be a very good player in time, if he improves.

Thomas is a premium T20 bowler who swings it at the start and usually bowls pretty well at the death. I think he may be the leading wicket taker in T20 cricket, which tells you how good he was. My gut feeling is he's on the way down, although how fast that slide will be remains to be seen.

Mitch Marsh is another talented guy from Aus, who is still finding his feet. Batting all-rounder I guess you would say, he's got the ability to be a proper batsman, and bowls brisk medium-pace, although IMO he's very hittable in this format. I guess a medium-pace equivalent of Steve Smith a couple of years ago (Smith's batting has come on as it looked like it could since)? Not as good a fielder mind.

Cooper is one of these T20 specialists from the West Indies. If I'm honest I don't think much of him.

Theron is a "heavy ball" medium pace merchant, slightly short of international class but could be handy in the IPL. Often bowls at the death.

The other 2 I haven't heard of.

KP_fan wrote:i see Owais shah, Morgan, azhar Mehmood and Dimitri Mascarenhas as the English palyers in this IPL ...although Mascarenhas seemed way over the hill even 2 seasons back.
sad for Lumb, wright that they have been forced to miss out.

If ECB didn't impose legal / emotional / unwritten restrictions.....and their availbailiyt for atleast 50% of the season was certain
I would pick following 11 addtional English players:

1) Finn, Broad ( as an allrounder), Swann for 450K+
2) Lumb, Wright, Prior 250K to 450K
3) Woakes, Onions, Bairstow, Meaker, Monty 100 to 250K

and offcourse KP is already a multimillion dollar Brand in IPL.

that's a 16player contingent from england

I'm always astonished that Mascarenhas doesn't get smashed all over the place. I'm not sure about Monty in T20, and Woakes surely not. On the other hand guys like Buttler and that leftie from Yorkshire (Ballance was it? or Miller? the one who smashed it around on finals day) would be worth a shout. Maybe Paul Stirling as well in time.

Calling Azhar Mahmood english is stretching it a bit though...

Thanks for the elaboration on those names that were thus far anonmous to me.

Pakistanis are not allowed to play in IPL....and Azhar Mehmood plays because he is a UK citizen and passport holder.....so he is technically and English player as far as IPL is concerened.

Spinners have been identified as extremely useful so even the likes of Van der Merwe, Vettori, Botha, Badri, senanayake have contracts plus every side has one or two local spinners.....Nadeem, Apanna, Iqbal, rasool, Powar, Karthik, Ojha etal.

Monty is far superior to many of these spinners and given his proven success on Indian pitches...would be a covoted purchase...inspite of his batting and fiedling shortcomings.

Deary me, KP_Fan is back spamming the boards.

To use someone else's catchphrase: "I'm Out"

VTR wrote:Deary me, KP_Fan is back spamming the boards.

To use someone else's catchphrase: "I'm Out"

It only took him 4 months to recover from England beating India!

True - classic troll, ran for cover the moment his own team started losing to the team he hates most.

Most on here are true fans following their team through thick and thin. Also most couldn't give a flying **** about the IPL.

VTR wrote:True - classic troll, ran for cover the moment his own team started losing to the team he hates most.

Most on here are true fans following their team through thick and thin.

Also most couldn't give a flying **** about the IPL.

then what are those doing on this thread

Anyone doing the cricinfo fantasy IPL game? http://games.espncricinfo.com/fantasy/homepage.aspx

I read that Irfan, RPS, Zak, Yadav and Munaf are all making a comeback from injury into IPL.

such high are the stakes in IPL that when with niggles and injuries...they rest from FC / preserve themselves for IPL

Aaron is expected to join later half of the IPL season

At $700000, Australian Kane Richardson has been an expensive buy in the IPL this year. He's no proven international performer as yet, and considering that, its real huge money invested on him. I read he's bit of a Yorker expert. Could anyone throw more idea about this youngster?

on a slow pitch Kolkata restrict Delhi to 128

Suni Narine is to T20...what Warne and Bedi were to test cricket----geniuses...wizards in the craft of spin bowling.

Lee produced a beauty to clean bowl Chand off an out-swinger.
Chand is looking increasingly exposed as an opener against quality seamers....as we see more of him.

Unfortunately Delhi has plenty of seamers and not enough slow bowlers to exploit the pitch.
140 with 2 good spinners would have been handful.

This started already? Hardly been any build-up or advertising on ITV. Loving the headline on Cricinfo: "IPL devours all but England." Damn right.

Duty281 wrote:This started already? Hardly been any build-up or advertising on ITV. Loving the headline on Cricinfo: "IPL devours all but England." Damn right.

There was intended pun on England's isolation on this subject

Narine 4-13....class in limited overs....KKR 58-2

KKR are on course I see. 101-4. Haven't watched the game as yet, but happy to see Shahbaz Nadeem performing for DD. He had a fine first class season for Jarkhand, some good performances here on the big stage of IPL would bring him the much deserved attention.

Nadeem's first wicket was of a rubbish half-tracker suggests cricinfo. But the other wicket came of a sharply turning ball.

msp83 wrote:Nadeem's first wicket was of a rubbish half-tracker suggests cricinfo. But the other wicket came of a sharply turning ball.

it wasn't a rubbish...but yes slightly short....that because of the slowness of the pitch.... didn't connect well as batsman pulled.


In the end Delhi's pace and seam bowling was countter productive...had they had some more quality in their spin bowling say like Chennai....128 was worth a challenge.

who is the asian commentator in the ITV studio otehr than ramprakash?

Aakash Chopra

Duty281 wrote:IPL
you say? Isn't it in rapid decline with regards to TV ratings? The only
thing I'm waiting for is the England-NZ test series! Less than 100 days
till the Ashes as well!

FWIW, the IPL final last yr had more viewers in the UK than the Eng-WI Test on the same day.

^for that matter a moderately viewed IPL gets an audience more than the population of England.

a sold out game of cricket on Indian TV exceeds the population of rest of the cricketing nations put together probably

ShankyCricket wrote:

Duty281 wrote:IPL
you say? Isn't it in rapid decline with regards to TV ratings? The only
thing I'm waiting for is the England-NZ test series! Less than 100 days
till the Ashes as well!

FWIW, the IPL final last yr had more viewers in the UK than the Eng-WI Test on the same day.

Not surprising really, the IPL is on free-to-air TV, the England-WI test was on subscription TV

KP_fan wrote:^for that matter a moderately viewed IPL gets an audience more than the population of England.

a sold out game of cricket on Indian TV exceeds the population of rest of the cricketing nations put together probably

Again, not a surprise since the population of India is something like 20 times the population of England.

Again, not a surprise since the population of India is something like 20 times the population of England..

again puns, sarcasms, the art of the implicit and subtle are like water on ducks back for some