IS IPL bigger than Country

after reading the title of the post you will know that what iam going to discuss here 

IPL when started everyone says that this was a very good initiative by BCCI and everyone praises them and also lot of people watched it,still the numbers are not lessen

but this IPL is now becoming bigger than the country,west indies cricket is in a deep problem we all know but as the IPL started they are attracted more towards it,latest example is Chris Gayle,the way he played in his firs IPL-4 game it was the Gayle we all know,but where was his form went in the CWC-2011 specially in the quater  final against Pakistan,we understand that Pakistan had a much quality bowler but still they are not the gully crickets they all are international cricketers,

his board didn't select  him and some other player for the first 2 ODI against Pakistan and that was a right decision he and other senior player didn't play well in the CWC-2011 and he had to wait for the second ODI to end and West Indies board also knows that he is a superb player they will call him and if they didn't than he can come to IPL-4 but for him IPL is bigger than Country.

Another person who does like this is the yorker specialist Malinga,he was one step ahead of Gayle ,he took retirement form test cricket giving reason of injury in his leg and says he is not fit for playing 5 days matches,now this is ok he can suffer from injury but if you suffers from injury why you are playing in IPL-4 and he is not playing he is bowling superbly with 150 kph speed now this is a joke on him ,his board told him to come to rehabilitation camp so he takes the smarter way to get retire from test cricket and iam shocked when sangakara supports him i don't know what's going on ...

malinga should learn from none other than his senior team mate muralidharan,murli was injured in the world cup and in the semifinal against newzeland he got a serious injury still he played against them and also played in the final.

so i talked about the other country player for whom IPL is bigger than country

but there is one player from India also who is a star performer in IPL but whenever chance was given to him to play for India he never performs well.

iam taking about Rohit Sharma yes he was the top performer for Deccan chargers in the last 3 IPL and in this IPL he is playing superbly for Mumbai Indians,i always like his batting style and lot of senior cricketers says that this boy got the talent but he is not using it properly,i should tell all of them that he is using it but only in IPL

lets see some records which will prove it.

He was one of the leading run scorers in the 2008 IPL season with 404 runs at an average of 36.72.

and in International T-20

From 2007-2011

he played 20 T-20 games and scored 388 with average of 35.27

he played in 67 ODI games and scored 1248 runs with average 27.13 with 2 hundred and 5 fifties

now above statics tells the story of rohit sharma

also i remind of the t-20 wc when sehwag was injured and quit from that wc sehwag quited after India's practice game was over and till practice game Rohit Sharma was opening the batting for India and when sehwag is out of team due to injury ,sharma was given chance to open the inning and he didn't perform ,he fells one time on short ball and if that short ball comes in IPL he will hit it for Six

iam not against any of this player but they should take their country in front not the IPL ,IPL is an entertainment cricket and a platform for new player to perform,

i think that one day there will be a 2 IPL edition in a year.

Cricket and all that jazz

I should start this post with a disclaimer. The last world cup I followed religiously was more than 10 years ago. The 99 World Cup. And this post is more about memories. 99 World cup was a refreshing break after the 10th board exams for most of us. Those were the days I used to know the names of Kenyan players too. For a person who took pride in the fact of being born in the year the country won the world cup, cricket was a natural obsession. But then the match fixing scandal broke. The idealistic teenager in me was frustrated with the scandals in the game especially heartbroken to know that the fiery team led by Azhar was not all that fiery really. And hence ended the cricket craze for me.

Subsequent World cups were a blur. And especially after players like Jhonty Rhodes quit, I didn’t have the incentive to watch even my favourite underdogs South Africa. With Sachin, it was love, hate, awe, disgust all the usual feelings that the average viewer has for him. And after that the only places I saw cricketers was in ad films. I knew the top brand ambassadors, but didn’t bother again for the one match/series wonders or the team fixtures. Gone were the school friends who would gush about how cool Shahid Afridi was. Even Shoaib Akhtar’s histrionics only held my attention very briefly. Gone was the craze for having a batsman’s average and a bowler’s previous best on my fingertips, today I have almost become the typical girl who doesn’t like cricket much. Not even aapdo Amdavadno chokro Parthiv Patel got me interested.

The only T20 memory I have is of Dhoni’s team passing by my Mumbai home and watching all the frenzy standing at the gate. The team under Dhoni seemed to be getting the same fiery edge that it had long ago. Suddenly my interest was revived, but never did it reach the extent of sitting down to watch even a fast paced T20 match.
But for the first time this year, I thought I would catch up on the IPL action. Felt like watching atleast all the Mumbai Indians matches, 3 years in the city makes you a devotee. The mongoose and its shenanigans seemed interesting. Plus the large screen set up at Press club, friends and the newly acquired habit of gulping cocktails proved to be some incentives. And just one tweet ended it all. This time there was no disappointment, just a quiet acceptance, a ‘this is the way it is’ attitude. But this scandal turned out to be much bigger, murkier. Match fixing seems almost tame now. Anyone who was anybody and their sons and daughters were part of this scandal. Older and hopefully wiser, there wasn’t much idealism left in me and hence not disappointed at all. Just waiting to see whether it would be Mahesh Bhatt, Madhur Bhandarkar or Ram Gopal Varma who would make the biopic on Lalit Modi. More importantly, who will play Sunanda?