ipleague gets its own domain : www.leggully.com

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http://www.leggully.com/

Please visit us there

 

Its 16-16 now

Well, If someone thought 20-20 was pretty fast, now ready to witness a 16-16 match. Curtailed by rain  the match between Royal Challengers vs Knight Riders is going to be 32 over affair. Can we get it any shorter than this please. Come on, give me a break. How hard could it be to bowl 8 more overs with an extra 40 mins. This is getting ridiculous. Oops, the match is in Kolkata. That might be a reason for this short match. Remember the floodlights, they dont hold for too long.

Gavaskar quits as the chairman of ICC cricket committee

Asked to decide between his media commitments (commentary) and the ICC job, Gavaskar chose the media commitments. He will be back at the IPL providing his valuable insights in commentary. I guess he is missing praising Sachin Tendulkar. Because that will be out of context on a ICC job. Gavaskar’s decision comes after ICC found that he is having a conflict of interest in two different roles and has to chose between the two. With so much cricket being played and so many lousy commentators around Gavaskar has found a niche market and a non-fungible job for himself. His position as a commentator will not be challenged for a while as there is realy dearth of talent. That does not mean that Gavaskar is a good commentator. Far from it, he fills the words in the commentary by pronouncing the names of the players correctly and fully. For example if Ganguly misfields, this is what Gavaskar would say. Saurav Ganguly, the former captain of India has misfielded, which has resulted in a run for his team. He is also called as prince of kolkata, mind you. True he uses that many words. You can check as he will be back from Dubai to entertain us all.

Long live Gavaskar.

PS : I guess, IPL pays the commentators handsomely. Or else, why would he quit an executive postion?

Long live IPL. If it wasnt for IPL, Gavaskar might have thought twice.

Gavaskar resigns as ICC cricket committee head

Ravi Bopara turns down IPL offer

English cricketer Ravi Bopara turns down an IPL offer to play for his country. He is not centrally contracted by the English board and is free to play for IPL. He turned down a six figure dollar amount to continue playing for Essex and hoping to be selected to the national team. He was part of the T20 world cup team for England but could not play because of an injury. Bopara says IPL offer is tempting.

Bopara should be praised for his single-minded goal of getting into the national team.

Unable to blog

I am not able to blog yesterday because of some contingencies. I will try to make that up in the next two days. Some exciting matches coming up Super Kings vs Deccan Chargers today. Also Shoaib Akthar is ready to play for IPL as his ban is suspended. This is awesome. I did not know that you can “suspend a ban“. That is the best oxymoron I have heard in a while after “Microsoft Works“. Anyway, Shah Rukh will be a happy man and Knight Riders deserve a better run and Shoaib might bolster the bowling attack who already have Ishant Sharma and Ajit Aggarkar.

Other big news is Misbah-Ul-Haq might not play for Royal Challengers as they are advertising alchoholic brands. That would be a blow for the Challengers if they have to pull Misbah out. It wouldn’t hamper their chances at the champioship at all because they dont have any chances whatsoever.

One more news Ishant Sharma is fined 10% match fee after hitting a stump. This is ICC level 1 offence which deals with destruction of ground equipment. I guess they will buy a lot of stumps for the rest of life with that money. Ishant Sharma joins the elite list of Harhajan Singh, Sreesanth, Saurav Ganguly, Shane Warne who are either reprimanded, suspended or fined.

 

Video : Warne vs Ganguly, the whole episode

The whole episode with the Greame Smith catch and Ganguly’s wicket.
 
 

Tamil movie industry adds itself to the growing list of IPL haters

Not exactly haters but people who either don’t like it or dont want to like it. Looks like the movie industry has no audience for the late evening shows, courtesy IPL. Well, can you blame the audience. You have a team that plays good cricket, you have roped your favorite star (Vijay), you have the most wanted player in the international arena (Dhoni), above all you are playing good cricket and winning the matches. Why would anybody watch a movie when you can stay back and watch live cricket on TV.Both movie and an IPL match take the same time. I would prefer the match for the sheer entertainement value it is providing. Few matches were close so far but I think we are yet to see the best.

This is not a reason to really worry. You just have to time your release around IPL.

It is just not ICC who needs to provide a window for IPL. Movie industry too has to provide a window for IPL.

IPL Century makers leave IPL

It is sad, but true. The 3 of the 4 century makers of IPL so far will be leaving tonight to play for their respective teams. The century makers of IPL so far are :

1. Brendon McCullum (Knight Riders)
2. Andrew Symonds (Deccan Chargers)
3. Mike Hussey (Super Kings)
4. Adam Gilchrist (Deccan Chargers)

Of the above list McCullum, Symonds, Hussey are leaving tonight. Symonds and Hussey who belong to Australia are leaving to Australia to get ready for their carribean tour. McCullum who plays for New Zealand will be leaving for his team’s England Tour. Gilchrist who has already retired from international cricket will be staying back.

It is ironic that all the four century makers are from outside India and the only Indian who came close to a century was Virendra Sehwag. It would also be interesting to see how the respective teams perform now that they will be gone. Let us check out who will be better served and who might miss out.

Super Kings will be worst hit as they will be losing Mike Hussey and Mathew Hayden. They still have Stephen Fleming who has already retired but that might not be enough. They are falling short of an international batsman. They might fill the other spot with Makhaya Ntini but that do not help with their batting. It all goes back to MS Dhoni’s form and how Fleming will perform along with Suresh Raina.

Kolkata Knight Riders will be hit as Ricky Ponting and Brendon McCullum will be leaving the team and there is not enough firepower left. Salman Butt and Brad Hodge might fill up the spots left by Ponting and McCullum but they might not be as devastating as Ponting or McCullum would be.

Deccan Chargers,  you might believe that they would be affected by $1.35 million player Andrew Symonds leaving, but it can work in favor of them. They have Herschelle Gibbs warming the benches. Do you remember the six sixers he hit in a one-day international? That is a very dangerous prospect. I think he was on the bench for the last match because they did not have an option or they were having too many options. That looks resolved now. Other thing is they are chosing between Scott Styris and Shahid Afridi. But now that Styris is gone they have an easy option of picking Afridi. This might make their bowling look a little weak but Symonds was expensive in earlier matches and any other player would have done the same.

Now that the current top teams Super Kings and Knight Riders are grappling with the australians leaving, Deccan Chargers and Rajastan Royals could be the new favorites.

Video links not working

I have changed the theme on wordpress and am checking all the links if they are working fine. I found that the video category is not working. It is not showing the youtube video pane in the site. I will try other things to get that back. If not, I will go back to the previous theme.

Cheerleaders are neither cheering nor leading

That’s the latest on IPL. Politicians are objecting cheerleaders of IPL because of the obscenity.
Who decides obscenity anyway. Is it the double-tongued politician who doesn’t know what they stand for and what their allegiance is. Well, I don’t think so. You do not get to decide anything unless you run the government properly. Even if you run the government properly, this aint China.

Doesn’t these guys have bigger and better things to worry about. I dont know, how about this list to start with:

1. Impending general election
2. How to pull the government down
3. Rising food prices
4. Inflation
5. Global warming (this is not a hoax, this is real)

Now, in the defence of cheerleaders, its the sweltering heat of Indian summer which prompted them to wear clothes like that. They are really cheering for their teams. Whenever a batsman hits a four or a six or a wicket falls they jump and jive and burn more calories than the players. If you cannot appreciate their efforts then maybe you can switch off the television or change the channel to “Kyon Ki Saas bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi”. If people who are coming to grounds are complaining (which I highly doubt) then please, dont go. But, please don’t spoil the fun for others. Besides, Mallya had spent some serious money on them. Now you are going to ban them. I don’t think so.

If it is politicians I can understand they dont know what would be their winning point, so they jump on everything. Funny thing is, Shahid Afridi is of the same view. He thinks cheerleaders are a distraction for the batsman. Really? Why do you want to concentrate on the girls in pom-poms when your team needs you and you have a task in your hand and most importantly someone is paying $675,000 for you to play.

Get over it and start playing Shahid. Deccan Chargers need you.

Update : Maharastra government suggested animated characters instead of cheerleaders. I find that obscene and vulgar.