PRG's Thoughts

It was all fun and games in 2008. The IPL launched with the glitz and glamour combining India’s finest- cricket stars, Bollywood’s biggest and the business worlds titans. Whether it was Shah Rukh Khan or Mukesh Ambani, it frankly could not get bigger. But what has clearly emerged in the past 12 seasons is a hierarchy within the league. The Chennai Super Kings, Kolkatta Knight Riders and Mumbai Indian’s have separated themselves from the rest of the pack and while a lot of belief has been put in to the players a tremendous amount of credit must go to the management. KKR was a struggling franchise for the first three years of the IPL where they did not qualify for the playoffs even once. Then things turned around in 2011. They made the playoffs and eventually won the title in 2012. They are now two time champions and in most seasons a team that either makes the playoffs or just misses out. What happened? The management took some tough decisions. To release Soura...

It's the end of the year, that was twenty-eighteen, So what happened in sports, with your favourite team? There was the World Cup, and then regular seasons, 'Twas a great year for fans, here are my reasons. Lets start with the Cup, that comes every four years, As usual it ended, with England in tears. Croatia played well, and was the runner up, But in the end, the French won the cup. Neymar won an Oscar, Messi won nothing, Poor England prepared too early for homecoming. We've watched this next flick, since 2003, I'm talking about tennis, and the same old big three. Roger won Aus, Novak Wimb & New York, Rafa won the French, oh, what a shock! The time for new blood, is long overdue, Zverev, Thiem or anyone please come through. Four different winners, in four different slams, Women's tennis, is capturing the fans. Of course, the greatest had the greatest melt down, Oh Serena, you behaved like a clown. The Return of the Kings, is not a movi...

If the IPL were played during the time of the Mahabharat the Indian Media would have blamed it for influencing Duryodhan’s behavior. It would have happened and you know it. Duryodhan, being a prince and all, would have definitely owned a team or maybe even been a cricketer in the league. Then when he attempted to strip Draupadi in front of the whole court there would be debates on news channels connecting his IPL team to what he was doing. It’s like the two players who went to a rave in Juhu that got busted. Must be the IPL that sent them to the rave right? Because I am sure the owners of their team told them that they should attend a rave where there will be drugs. Or the owner who got in to a scuffle with security, it must be the IPL. Because lets be honest, we have never heard of Bollywood stars that have had similar problems. Am I right Saif and Salman? Why didn’t they go after Bollywood? But here- it must be the IPL. Finally, there is the player who allegedly mis...

Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I’d pick him. He is such a random choice simply because he has been around for so long. When I thought about this post I went through every Indian sportsperson who had achieved something this past year his name was impossible to ignore. Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is an odd choice for Indian Sportsperson of the Year. His career is so storied and the bar he sets himself is so high that he would really have to do something spectacular to even be considered. For Sachin to ‘wow’ us at this stage in his career, or set new marks and personal bests is unlikely right? Think again. Most runs in test cricket in 2010: Sachin Tendulkar (1396 runs) Most centuries in test cricket in 2010: Sachin Tendulkar (6) Both these records are personal bests. He has scored five 50s and six 100s in 19 innings. When a sportsman who is already considered one of the greatest of all time has a personal best year, can anyone else have a shot at Sportsperson of the year? If ...

As quickly as it came, it went. IPL III is over and like all great sporting events it left us with joy, sadness, anger, controversy and uniquely for this event, it left us with the question, will IPL survive? Here is my take on IPL III. Let me start with the final. SRT has been a god for years. There is no debate on what he can do with the bat, but I doubt the mans ability to lead an all star team against the Harris Shield champions. Fine, I know Raina was dropped twice, and yes Chennai did put up a good score, but sending Pollard in at # 8 is a sign that the captain had no clue what he was doing. That decision alone could have changed last nights outcome. Some men thrive in leadership when they are under pressure. Our hero is not one of them. At the toss when MS Dhoni was asked about pressure, he said the most pressure he had felt regarding the final was the pressure from friends who were hounding him for tickets. While I am sure that was exaggerated, he just demonstrated how cool and...

When the lead story in the Economic Times is about the IPL spat and not about the RBI's credit policy it is safe to say that things have become a little bit cuckoo. But that is what cricket does to us and the truth is, this entire fiasco has a lot more to with economics than with cricket. After waiting a few days to let things unravel. Here is my take on the latest controversy to hit the IPL. If you don't know what is happening in this saga then either you have been away on an island or haven't picked up a newspaper in the past week. This has been nothing short of chaos. I could have written on a number of things related to this mela, but I chose these three. Lets get right in to it. Bye Bye Shashi Tharoor This man didn't know what hit him. He took on the king and got clobbered. Here is my issue with him. Fine, he did what he did. But why is he still talking about how his conscience is clear and claiming innocence? I mean seriously, give me a break. His girlfriend was ...

With over a quarter of the games of this seasons IPL done, here is my update. Bowlers dominating, best players, new teams worth 1700 crore. Here are the top 5 things so far (in no particular order) 1) Who said it is a batsman's game? I mean we all know that this format is tailor made for the batsmen but what is interesting this year is that the teams that are topping the points table are the ones with good all round bowling attacks. Bangalore with Steyn, Kallis, Kumble, and Praveen Kumar. Mumbai with Malinga, Zaheer and Bhajji. Deccan with Vaas , Symonds (who has bowled well), and RP Singh. On the other side of the table you have Punjab who has Sreesanth (struggling and inconsistent) and Irfaan Pathan who is suffering from a major crisis of confidence. Sure, the top teams have batsmen that are in great nick, but if you have bowlers who can pick up good wickets or bowl some really tight overs at crucial points, then the entire unit becomes that much stronger. 2) New Teams - When La...

IPL is back baby!!! And I love it!! You know, test cricket is the best form of the game and one day cricket has its moments, but IPL T20 has a different charm altogether. Season 1, Rajasthan Royals are the cheapest team with a bunch of no names and they win it all. Season 2, the Deccan Chargers who were the worst team in season 1 come back to win it all. The best part about this tournament so far has been that no one knows who is going to win. Could the Knight Riders pull off a Deccan Chargers? Will the Mumbai Indians finally make it to the semis? Will Delhi play well through the season and then crash again before the big game? Will Gilly be Gilly again? Will Bangalore go as far this year? The frenzy has caught on so much that a buddy of mine who takes any opportunity he gets to "bitch out" T20 called me this morning to find out if I will be at the match tomorrow. You can't escape it, IPL is back baby!!! And I love it!! Here are 10 things I want to see this year (in no ...

The disgust at India's exit from the T20 is keeping me up blogging at 1:30 in the morning instead of getting a good nights sleep. We were terrible. Every time we lose a match people throw out questions. Here are 5 that cropped up in my mind. They are brief, confusing and frankly, don't have any answers from my end. Please help me answer them because I am struggling. Firstly, hats of to England. I think Naseer Hussein put it best when he said that England were tactically beating India. They studied our eternal weakness of the short ball and exploited it beyond belief. Now for the questions 1) Why drop Irfan Pathan and keep Ishant Sharma? In the match against the West Indies Irfan went for 4.5 runs per over in his two overs and took one wicket. Ishant on the other hand went at 10.33 in his 3 overs with no wickets. Plus this gives you an extra batsman. Ishant went for a nice 9 runs an over today against England. It just seems that Ishant has not come to terms with this form of...

The IPL II came and went before we even realized. I can't believe it is over so quickly. I feel like I was just getting in to it and then suddenly we were at the final. Anyways, here are some stray ones on the event, all random and in no order as usual.  The Favorites - This is the second year in a row that the least favored team has won. This is good news for KKR for next year. Just goes to show that the pundits, bookies, bloggers :-) and whoever else don't know anything. T20 is going to be a sport where anyone can just show up and win. Can you imagine the least favored person ever winning a tennis Grand Slam or a Formula One Race? The IPL has given us that shock value two years in a row.  Mumbai Indians were terrible-  They were the 4th favorite team going in to the tournament and man did they disappoint. They had just 2 more wins than KKR. And KKR lost one match to a super over and one match on the last ball. Just saying guys, that a few shots or edges here or there and the ...

As I sit here at home with fever that is always on the move from 102 to 99 and then back up to 102.5, I notice that my fever is as inconsistent as the exit polls that are being shown on the news. UPA with 200+ seats and another channel with NDA with 200+. Then you turn it on a little later and the numbers have been reversed. The seat counting will end tomorrow, as I hope will my battle with the flu.   A lot of scenarios are being presented for what will happen in the next few days. The range of possibilities being shown is so wide that the number of Prime Ministerial candidates is more than the number of different opening batsman that the Mumbai Indians are trying out. Anyone could be PM.  But all said and done, at the moment, most people will say that either the UPA or NDA will form the government NO THIRD FRONT. Thank God for that one. Knowing that the third front will not come in to power is a major relief. And frankly, I am alright with either the UPA or the NDA. Yet, there still i...

Small tidbits of news that kept me entertained the last few days. Slumdog Kids, more election banter, IPL and sports in general. Random thoughts with no real focus. Did you hear about the Slumdog Kids? They excelled in their exams ...YAY!!!....... Frankly, who gives a sh*t. I don't mean to be rude to the kids, they were the best part of the movie, but seriously, I don't care how they scored in their exams. More importantly, by printing the exam results of these kids the press is really invading in to their privacy. Leave them alone guys, its not fair and its quite boring to read too. Let them lead their lives. How would you like it if your kids exam results were printed in the paper? Rahul Gandhi got himself in a nice little soup with the press conference the other day. He managed to offend some of the Congress's allies. Now Congress party members are saying he will not be part of the post-poll alliance discussions. Wow, threw the bugger under the bus right away huh Congr...

Why is there so much being made about Shahrukh Khan's comments about what Sunil Gavaskar wrote on John Buchanan? The super star actor is correct. King Khan has won 11 Filmfare awards for acting, he has endorsed almost every product in India and was at virtually every IPL game of his Kolkata Knight Riders. If only he had starred in Lagaan instead of Aamir, he might have been captain instead of M.S. Dhoni. What does Sunil Gavaskar know about cricket in comparison to him? All Mr. Gavaskar has done is scored 10,000 test runs, led his country on the field and is the probably the greatest opening batsman in the history of the game.   If you aren't sick of my sarcasm, read on... For those of you who have not watched the news in the past two days you missed Shahrukh Khan's rather aggressive response to an article by Sunil Gavaskar, in Sunday's Hindustan Times, on John Buchanan , the coach, of SRK's IPL team . It was a fair critique on the coach and his mentality, and was ...

Check out the sports page of the Times of India today, (sorry no link available for the article), Praveen Amre, the Mumbai Indians coach, says his goal is that his team reaches the semi finals of the IPL as the league toppers. As a Mumbai Indians fan it irks me that the aim of the coach is to reach the semi final. Err....Coach, why not aim to WIN the FINAL? I would understand this statement if Amre was the coach of the Indian Football team that was playing in the World Cup for the first time. Then it would be alright to just put up a good show. But in a cricket league where you have Sachin, Sanath and Shaun in your team. That is just weak. To think that the owner of this team only aims high and seems to always exceed his aims. In sports and in life you have the high aimers and the low aimers and usually, they get what they aimed for.  The High Aimers Have you ever heard Derek Jeter (the captain of the New York Yankees) talk about his team? For Jeter, his teammates and Yankees fans arou...

With the all-important issues of the IPL sorted out in South Africa the Government can now focus on other important venue changes. As mentioned in the Joke of the day in today's Times of India the elections are being moved as well.In fact this may not be a joke at all. Apparently venues being considered to host the elections include Nepal and Iraq. These choices are not without reason, Nepal because of its proximity to India and Iraq because it is easy to guarantee safety. Iraq has no Cricket, Football or any other sport being played at the moment and so things should be serene and ideal for the election of the world's largest democracy. Our politicians and voters may have to dodge a bullet or two while in Iraq, but lets be honest, that is at least safer than a T20 Cricket match. Other events that will require attention in the coming year also have alternate venues selected. Indian Idol auditions are going to be held in Bahrain, the Kala Ghoda festival has been moved to Times S...