Gayle ensured the party began early on Thursday here in the Garden city.

Match 12 of the season, turned out to be a good home game for the team in red and gold.  RCB bowlers first set the tone by restricting the KKR to 154 with good medium pace bowling and the next half was the Gayle show in Chinnaswamy, Bangalore.

Couple of changes by both the teams getting into the match. KKR leaving out Brett Lee for Ryan Mcleran was an interesting swap. RCB winning the toss and put KKR in to bat. RCB medium pacers were right on the money, hitting the right lengths. Henriques and Vinay Kumar got the breakthroughs required and put KKR on the back foot. However we saw a promotion up the batting order for Yusuf Pathan and was clearly given the license to cut loose. It looked a good move till he hit one straight down the throat of the long on fielder  to a slower ball by Henriques. Manoj Tiwary joined the captain who was living dangerously and also was looking fidgety at the crease. He eventually gifted his wicket to Vinay kumar trying to slog one over mid-wicket not before scoring his 17^th 50 in IPL, most by any batsmen in the history of IPL. Tiwary tried to score some quick runs but the RCB death bowling was on display, hitting the Yorker length more often than not. Venky, the RCB bowling coach will be proud of his boys. KKR finally had to settle down to 154, at least  20 runs  short on this batting beauty at  Bangalore.

It was no brainier that when KKR came back to bowl had to get Gayle early. Narine was deployed  early  to bowl against Gayle. But the big man played him out instead of taking him on. It was clear that there is a lot of method to this batting madness of his. Narine did not leak runs but did not cause any damage either. Mayank Agarwal once again was disappointing. Captain Kohli joined Gayle and scored more than run a bowl before he got out to Balaji. The two Delhi boys Gambhir and Kohli got involved in the battle of words and had to be  separated by players. Anyone who has followed them in the past, would expect this from 2 hot headed passionate men. With Gayle there in the middle, it was matter of time before the action moved back to cricket, hitting those big sixes he is known for and he scored 9 of them. He literally murdered the bowling, so much so that KKR's dibley dobly successful bowler Rajat Bhatia was brought into the attack when the opposition needed 20 of 24 balls. His selection on lively wickets is then questionable.  ABD did not look at his best but was good enough to accompany Gayle to get RCB home with 15 balls remaining. Gayle was awarded man of the match yet again for his 85 of 50 balls. This victory puts RCB right on top of the table for the moment. KKR clearly need to get their team combination and strategy right for their away matches. 

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Dhoni and his men too hot for KXIP

MATCH 11:  KXIP vs CSK

The first home game of the season did not go as expected for Kings XI Punjab. The team looked lethargic on the field and was a no match to the formidable CSK who won by 10 wickets here in Mohali, Chandigarh.

Hussey scored 86 of 54 balls to take CSK  home by 10 wickets against KXIP

Opting to field after winning the toss, the men in yellow put in a solid performance. Dirk Nannes looked comfortable with new ball, giving  his team the important  breakthrough at the top of the innings and seems to have taken the place of Bollinger really well. Chriss Morris making his debut in IPL looked a good addition into the team. Bravo was effective with his slower ones, so were the spinners. Surprising to see Ashwin bowl only 3 overs. MSD will have a reason for the same like he has for most of his decisions.
On the other hand, the only time Kings XI looked in the game was when David Hussey and Gurkeerat Singh put in 56 run stand for the 4th wicket but looked a below par  team otherwise. The 19 year old Manan Vohra showed glimpses of his talent but did last long.  

Second Innings did not make for a good contest. Kings XI were poor on the field, the captain seemed  to have lost the spunk that he was known for. There was hardly anything going well for the team in red. Hussey and Vijay looked comfortable in the middle and did a fantastic job chasing the modest but tricky score of 138 with 16 balls remaining. The run rate would come in handy during the later stages of the tournament like it did last year where CSK sneaked through to playoffs based on run rate.

It looked all too easy for CSK. Darren Lehman, coach of Kings XI would be expecting the boys to put up a better show during their  next tie in Rajasthan  on Sunday.

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Cricket, a management tutor!

If asked a question. "What is the key in building a team?" What would your answer be. Lets think !!!!!!!  We often take up courses, read management books to understand the nuances of building a team.These are good ways of learning ,understanding or getting perspective about things. In today's world, sport is growing faster than ever. It would not be a bad idea to learn about BUILDING A TEAM from any particular sport. After all the word "Team" is the key aspect of any sport. Take cricket for instance.

Building a  cricket team
The game of cricket is played between 2 sides having 11 players in each. It involves different aspects with batting, bowling and fielding being the main ones. Each one very different from other. We cannot have all 11 best batsmen in the country in one team. Neither can we have all 11 best bowlers available at that point in time to play in the same team. It does not work that way.It is never the best 11 players, rather it is the best combination of 11.The team needs to have appropriate number of players for each department of the game. Cannot have all members with similar skill in the team. The most often selected combination is 7 Batsmen and 4 Bowlers. In Cricket, batsmen can get out which means he cannot bat again in the innings but bowler can bowl as many overs as you wish(Nowadays, there is a limit on number of overs in certain formats of the game) and hence more batsmen than bowlers. 7::4. i.e. 7 batsmen and 4 bowlers. Striking the right balance is key.


Wicket-keeping is most specialized role in cricket. Wicket keeper will have to stand behind the stumps for the entire game when his team is on the field. It is a tough task, physically draining and requires very high level of skill and concentration. Wicket keeper being important, finding a place for him in the 11 is essential .Identifying roles which need specialized skills is important.It means that you will need to alter you earlier selected combination of 7::4 until and unless you expect the wicket keeper to be an ALL ROUNDER i.e to also play as a front line batsmen in the team. But if the wicket keeper cannot bat, it is safer to go in for 6:1:4 combination.i.e. 6 Batsmen , 1 wicket keeper and 4 bowlers.If the keeper can also bat its an advantage, but sacrificing a keeper for an extra batsmen is always dangerous. Never compromise on key Roles. Also identify other specialized roles if any. The roles which are fairly important but not mandatory. Facing the new ball and bowling with a new ball in Cricket requires fair amount of skill than others .They need to master the art of dealing with the new ball. Now the question is how many such skilled players will you have in the team. Generally it is 2 openers and 2 new bowl bowlers. Neither all 6 batsmen need to be openers nor all 4 bowlers need to be new ball ballers. 2 each should be sufficient. All members need not possess the skills.

All teams generally have a designated number 3 batsmen who would come into play on fall of a wicket. The role of this batsmen becomes critical, if one of the or both the openers get out early in the innings.This is one of the most demanding roles in batting as you need to don multiple hats depending on the situation of the game. Historically openers job has to "See off the new ball" i.e to be there until the ball has lost its shine. Not always can they do it. Hence it is also important that the number 3 batsmen to possess the skills required to deal with new ball. It is also important to have a backup.

Cricket is generally played at different times in a year in different part of the world where in conditions are different. The pitch, the weather and the ground conditions are all different across the world. Some conditions will be batsmen friendly and some of them would assist the bowlers. You generally require an extra batsmen or that extra bowler in the team depending on the situation . The team think-tank is often in the state of ambiguity with this position.Who do we drop to fit in this extra player? A bowler or a batsmen? In such a case, it is always helpful if we can have an all rounder. Who can bat as well as bowl. He need not possess the specialized skills but be fairly good with both batting and bowling. He would provide the right balance to the team. It is good to have a member having multiple skills.
Cricket matches, especially test matches goes on and on. Most of the times you have long innings played. May be because of the track being flat or may be because the batsmen are showing no signs of getting out. As a opposition, what best you could do is to keep bowling in right areas. "Keep it there, thereabout!" is what the captain the would tell the bowler. No fancy stuff, keep it simple, stick to basics. Keep bowling, Keep bowling, Keep bowling... Generally spinner or a first change bowler is nominated to do this. Need to have a marathon player in the armoury.The key here is to go on and on without much thinking about the situation of the match.
With evolution of cricket, fielding is slowly but steadily becoming a key aspect of the game. Finding a place for such roles is tricky because fielding has an impact on the game but alone cannot help you win matches or help you put up a fight. Hence very rarely do we see a player being part of the 11 only because of his fielding abilities. It is donned by some one whose primary skill would be batting or bowling. Its is not possible to have dedicated player for each role. Need to find one from within the team to do it for you. It is interesting to know that there is a lot of thought put in identifying roles and then selecting a player to fit the role. We have almost covered all the positions in the 11 member team. If there is any position we have not touched upon, those are the ones which are generally kept open for youngsters.Keeping in mind the future, having a young talent in the team is important, they generally have fresh ideas and always bubbling with energy. Its important to have youngsters in the team who can learn from the seniors.

We can talk about different roles in the team, skills of different players , having people with lot of energy, having people with different ideas, having mentors. But the job is not complete until its finished.Its always easy to start but hard to complete. Moliere, famous french playwright once told "Long is the road from conception to completion". It is key to have a person in the team who can takes things to completion . Need to have a finisher.

If you search for words like "Key", "Important" or "Vital" in this article, you would find a plenty of them. Which is direction reflection of each role being key or important. All roles in the team are Necessary but not sufficient . Its only when each member in the team contributes , the goal can be achieved. Each and every member in the team plays a crucial role in the success of the team. After all what captain expects from everyone is to be totally passionate about the game. "Give your best. Give 100% leave the rest to me", he would generally say.


When you have a team, there is always a player who leads and motivates the players, gets the best out of them, makes plans and strategies and is nominated as the Captain of the team. It is important to believe in your captain and follow him. 

There is lot of hard work done in achieving the success. Players spend dedicated time on practising,learning, exploring and various other things as part of the preparation for the match. But once every thing is done. It is equally important to celebrate . Everyone should take time out for celebration.It adds an excitement and a lot of fun to life.It allows us to remember the things in life that truly matter. If not for anything it lets us talk to others with whom we had little conflicts due to difference of opinions during the course of the match. After all it all ends with sharing a laugh together.

Cricket after all is not a bad tutor. 

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A moment of enjoyment, I would like to forget!

It was the match between Mumbai Indians(MI) and Royal Challengers Bangalore(RCB) in the season 3 of IPL. This top of the table clash was played in the resurgent Brabourne stadium in Mumbai. MI were chasing a modest score posted by RCB and Sachin Tendulkar the captain of MI was the main stay of their batting and hence getting Sachin out early was key for team RCB. It was any bowlers dream to get Sachin's wicket. Vinay Kumar, medium pacer from Karnataka put up his hand that day and got Sachin bowled around the legs while trying to play the leg glance. The entire Mumbai crowd went silent as RCB fans started celebrating at the fall of Sachin's wicket. Watching the match from my living room back in Bangalore, I started celebrating too ."Yeahhhhhhhhh", I screamed at the top of my voice in joy. Joy of seeing the back of Sachin. I was sure that we now stand a good chance of winning our away game. Being a resident of Bangalore and a hard core RCB fan the celebration was very evident.



Celebrations done! Cricket resumes.
After all the celebrations I sobered down to realize that I had just celebrated the downfall of the my all time favorite cricketer who I looked up to all my life.I was in total disbelief and finding it hard to believe what just happened.
I started watching cricket in early 90's at the age of 6 when Sachin had just played 2 years of International cricket. Even then, this young extremely talented charming cricketer from Mumbai was already in the hearts and minds of all the Indian cricket fans. As kids, Tendulkar was our 
hero. We all picked up our bats wanting to bat like Sachin. I have not seen cricket without Sachin and I believe that people in India follow cricket because we feel proud that we all are citizens of a country to which Sachin belongs.
All this added to what I was already going through and the question from my mum did not help me any bit. She politely asked me -"Sachin Out! But why are you happy". This question was evident as she had seen me grow into a huge Sachin fan. In reply I told her - "Ma, I am Bangalore supporter and please do not ask any questions to me when I am watching cricket!". The answer I gave was just to get out of the situation. In my mind I knew that whatever happened was unusual, it had never happened to me before. The format of IPL had bowled me over. Mr Lalit Modi, architect behind IPL had once told that - "The success of IPL would be determined if Delhi celebrates when McGrath gets Sachin Out ". McGrath was then playing for Delhi Daredevils and I must admit he was able to achieve it at least in my case. Passion for the team I support took over the emotions I had for my hero. We Indians are generally emotional when it comes to cricket. We love our heroes and especially Tendliya, he is no less than a GOD in the cricket crazy country like ours. We pray to him when we are in trouble and rarely pray to god. We think Sachin can get us out of trouble every single time.

We all love you. Keep Playing forever!
I still love my cricket as much as my heroes. But when it comes to this special person, nothing else matters. All loyalties would take a back seat and would wholeheartedly support my biggest role model, role model of my generation and I hope for generations to follow. In spite of knowing that he is a human,  I just hope Sachin never retires and keeps serving the country as he has done all his life.

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PP's PODCAST : My First Experience with podcasts

PODCAST TOPIC :
Can IPL and Test Cricket Coexist.

Creating my own podcast is one thing I always wanted to do and here I am. My first ever podcast and it had to be something to do with cricket. The sports I love the most.

But after listening to it I laughed all the way for reasons you would know in case you listen to this. 

Nonetheless I am happy that I at least got started and the next time I do it I would be 1 podcast experienced and hopefully would have learnt form mistakes.

Love what you do, do what you love !

Note: This is follow up of my first blog.

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Can IPL and Test Cricket coexist

IPL & Success
After three seasons of IPL , it is amazing to see success of IPL as it is growing every season . Today, we have more Indians following cricket than ever before. We have more people visiting stadium to watch matches than ever before. Some have preferred watching IPL matches in the stadium to watching a Bollywood flick in a cinema hall, which they would have done otherwise. During the 45 days of IPL , Cricket becomes sheer entertainment. Its Business time!



With Success comes Questions
But the success of IPL has brought in a lot of Questions , and the most asked question is "Is IPL a threat to Test Cricket?". The answer is Yes. The major worry is NOT about early retirement of Test cricketers. We have seen McGrath being sidelined By DD in 3rd season of IPL. IPL teams a re looking for fresh young legs. SO, is the worry about getting sponsors or it about viewers not wanting watch Test Cricket anymore . No, it is about the money involved in IPL. We can solve all the other problems if we can fix this issue in particular, the money earned by players. It is is humongous. And hence players lose the motivation to play International and Top Quality Test Cricket, where the player salary is not low compared to the IPL salary.
Let's take a step back. Understand IPL.
Now , one thing to understand here is, this is INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE. The idea is to get the best cricket players in the world to work in tandem with local cricketers , so that the local boys get a chance to learn from International players , share their experience , learn to play on a bigger stage and hence making the local players a World class talent. The question to ask here is why would international cricketers take time out of their busy schedule to help the local talent in INDIA. There is no strong reason or motivation for them to do so. OK ,Lets Introduce money into picture. And ask the same question again.Answers would now be different. After all its 45 days ,After all its T20 cricket . Its fun time. If International cricketers can find time, Welcome to IPL. So far so good.


Bidding involves huge Money
International cricketers get money to share their experiences,Play top quality cricket and the local cricketers get opportunity to share the dressing rooms with biggies of the game and to play on a bigger stage which otherwise only 15 of them get a chance to do so . So why would you want to pay a huge amount to a local cricketer who is already in a WIN WIN situation . There is no strong reason to do so except for the fact that the player because of his talent would come at higher price in the bidding process. That is the only reason possible.

Now can we solve this problem . If Yes. How ?
Cost & Earn are 2 different entities
The Bidding amount of a player and his salary should be 2 different entities with no relation to each other.
For e.g. Manish Pandey might COST you more than a Ricky Ponting. After watching 3 seasons of IPL it might make sense as we have approximately 80 international cricketers but 40 to 45 Indian cricketers to select from .And the Max Limit of 4 international cricketers in the playing 11 also justifies the statement. But, by any stretch of imagination it does not mean that Manish Pandey should EARN more than Ricky Ponting.



Grading System . Nothing to do with bidding
There should be a model on similar lines to decide the pay of the different players based on their Experience or No of Matches player for the country or it could also be the No of years a player has served his country.Have the Grading System for all the cricketers, international or Local. For E.g. Class A : Sachin Tendulkar, Jaque Kallis, Ricky Ponting...
Class B : Umar Gul, Brendon Mccullum, Ajantha Mendis... Class C : David Hussey , Virat Kohli , Eion Morgan...
Class D :Manish Pandey , Shaun Marsh, Rusty Theron..
Class A being highly paid than Class D

More accomplished = Higher Pay
Using this model or any other model on these lines might work as BCCI is not deprived of any amount. BCCI would continue to earn the huge Bidding amount. Only more accomplished cricketers earn more and enforces all cricketers, international or local to also play Top Quality Test and International Cricket to earn big anywhere in the world.

People responsible.
As a promoter of Cricket , its also BCCI's(Owner of IPL) responsibility to take care of Test cricket along with IPL.

As viewers, fans we would want to watch both IPL and Test Cricket and lets enjoy the game as we have done all our lives. Hope we get to watch both IPL and Test Cricket in future.JAI Cricket!

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