Anand Krishna’s musings

The much hyped DLF IPL premiered as scheduled on April 18th, with lots of fanfare. The inaugural game between the Kolkata Knight Riders and Bangalore’s Royal Challengers was the most one-sided so far, with Bangalore collapsing. All teams have played at least one game over the past 4 days and most games have been quite entertaining for the paying public. As I watched parts of a couple of the games, I was letting my mind wander about how this short burst of new found camaraderie will play out after the IPL. Several thoughts crossed my mind:

1. Some teams have captains of their national sides or state sides- and naturally bring a lot of experience. The captains of the IPL team will undoubtedly benefit from the advice of their senior team-mates.
2. But just as equally, players will start to get to know each others’ strengths, weaknesses and so on- and that might come in very very handy the next time the players turn out for their respective national sides.
3. An Australian (just to take an example) in Team X may be able to give his team-mates advice on how to bowl to another Australian from Team Y given the latter’s weaknesses. And such knowledge will be useful far beyond the 6 weeks or so of IPL 2008.
4. Players will better understand Indian culture and perhaps Symonds may hear Bhajji (or other Indians) saying “teri maa ki…” or whatever more often. This cultural assimilation may also mean that a Sri Lankan or a New Zealander may become au fait with Hindi phrases and may put this knowledge to good use the next time India plays the Kiwis.
5. The youngsters from India get a terrific chance to play with legends of the day and some from the years just gone by. By observing a McGrath or Shane Warne in action a lot can be learnt.
6. Sadly, not all is as hunky dory as the above. The hectic match schedule and heavy traveling that is needed increases manifold the risk of injury- to Indians and foreigners. For India, which is at the end of the season, this may not be as a big a deal as it is for say the South Africans, who are scheduled to tour England and Australia in the next few months.

All told, I think the IPL is a good platform for T20 and will help breathe life into this form of cricket. I just wish the ICC would define a clear window for next year, so that the teams have their full complement of foreign players to choose from.