Tag: Indian Premier League

Dhoni & Kapil: Indian Cricket’s Twin Towers

By S Kannan

Almost ten days after bidding goodbye to international cricket, Mahendra Singh Dhoni remains in the news. His involvement with the pyjama cricket’s latest edition — the Indian Premier League — brings excitement in the air.

Dhoni still makes news. Images of the genius keep flashing. From take-off in India to touchdown last Sunday in Dubai, where IPL will be hosted, Dhoni is all over. You find him smiling at airport immigration, you see him taking a quick swab test for COVID-19. The 39-year-old man from Ranchi continues to be a rage even though Indian cricket’s hottest property is supposed to be India captain Virat Kohli.

Dhoni belongs to a generation where cricket is not just about playing daring shots and hitting powerful boundaries and huge sixes. Dhoni is also the marathon man who played 90 Tests, 350 ODIs, 98 T20 internationals and is still hungry after playing 190 matches in the taxing IPL. His boyish green, despite the grey hair are still infectious, and the glovework behind the stumps still cunning.

To use statistics to understand how Dhoni dominated the world of cricket would be foolish. His magnetic attraction is there for all to see as even during the IPL, people will be glued to TV screen for his heroics as the Chennai Super Kings captain. Indian cricket has had many inspirational captains before, but Dhoni has risen even above a certain legend known as Kapil Dev Nikhanj.

To compare the two captains of two different eras is not the most appropriate thing to do. Yet, there is so much to learn from these inspirational icons who have been outstanding role models for millions of people in our cricket crazy nation, and across the world.

Both came from humble backgrounds, and smaller towns. Even though Kapil Dev is identified closely with Chandigarh, and Dhoni hails from Ranchi, the two are loved across every city in the world. Greatness in sports is difficult to be defined and can never be quantified’ it can only be portrayed just as a painter uses his brush on a canvas to reflect beauty.

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Kapil was the rustic Jat who brought swagger and pace into Indian cricket. Taking over the reins from legend Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev was the first fearsome fast bowler in Indian cricket after spin had been the flavour for decades. Kapil’s pace and seam movement while bowling, his own body motion on the cricket ground had gazelle-like grace. As a fielder, he was world class and a destroyer to the core with his batting, which was bold and beautiful.

When Kapil led a bunch of energetic players in the 1983 World Cup in England, few had imagined he would be holding the trophy at the Lord’s balcony after India defeated West Indies in the final. It was a defining moment in Indian sport, where a virtually unknown team, had conquered what was a long cherished dream.

Kapil was the inspiration which Indian cricket needed. His hunger and work ethic had to be seen to be believed. He bowled with pace, scored runs with flourish and was never ever found sloppy while fielding. He led from the front even though he never had a great bowling support from the other end.

Dhoni has been fortunate to have great bowling resources at his disposal. The rise of Dhoni to stardom was at the ICC T20 World Cup in South Africa in 2007. At that time, not many seniors wanted to go to the World T20. The gauntlet was thrown to Dhoni and he led it with the swagger of an inveterate gambler playing stakes in a Las Vegas casino.

People praise Dhoni even today for how he tossed the ball to Joginder Sharma for the last over against Pakistan in the final. That final over brought instant glory for both the captain and Joginder. The rest is part of folklore. Dhoni’s side won the title and India, the underdogs in T20 format, showed they were no minnows.

It was only a matter of time before Dhoni started asserting his influence on Indian cricket, even further, brick by brick. He took over in all forms of cricket, Test, T20 and ODI plus the huge workload in IPL later. As a man who was his own master, Dhoni believed firmly in one thing, no place for super stars. Players were picked on merit. This quality of his as captain was outstanding as he had no hesitation in dropping Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly as he felt their fielding was not upto the mark.

Any portrayal of Dhoni’s career minus a mention of coach Gary Kirsten would be incomplete. Their bonding and rapport was perfect. The captain and coach started plotting the big campaign for the ICC World Cup (ODI) which was held in India in 2011. The pressure was huge as the media and public built up the hype, invoking how Kapil’s Devils won the 1983 World Cup.

Dhoni, cool as a cucumber and blessed with nerves of a neuro surgeon wielding the scalpel, began the execution process. Beating Pakistan in the Mohali match was the icing on the cake before destroying Sri Lanka in the final in Mumbai on a steamy April night where Dhoni slammed the winning six to lift the title.

The journey was complete, in many ways, for Dhoni. Yet, the fire and hunger within, just like Kapil Dev, never abated. Dhoni led like a king and even though his record in Tests may not have been that enviable as Kapil Dev, he continued. He never took note of criticism and his relationship with the media was like that of a mature politician.

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And, when the time came for Dhoni to hand over captaincy slowly to Virat Kohli in 2015, he did not get emotional about it. He may have not been the same great finisher as one wanted in the World Cup in 2019 in England, but did not warrant the criticism from many senior players. He never played an international match after that, which was his own decision.

In comparison, Kapil Dev’s last few ODIs (1994) were a bit of a drag as his knees could no longer take the load. Post-retirement, Kapil became a great entrepreneur and settled down with wife Romi.

Another post where Dhoni pipped Kapil, in lighter vein, is biopic. A movie on Kapil Dev, with Ranveer Singh playing the lead role, has been shot, though in times of COVID-19 one is not sure when it will be released. Dhoni has already savoured that special feeling. The biopic MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, featuring late Sushant Singh Rajput was released four years ago. It generated $16 million and was released in 61 countries and four languages.

Sushant Rajput has left, leaving many teary eyed, but if you want to see fiction on screen about the most humble Indian cricket captain, watch the movie before you see Dhoni in IPL action soon and marvel at the journey.

Money Talks: IPL Organisers Are Shameless

By S Kannan

In forty days, the Indian Premier League, cricket’s most hyped club tournament, will be roaring in the United Arab Emirates. Given the situation now in India, with COVID-19 surge, it is impossible to think of hosting any sporting event. Forget a tournament, even in the local area of your city, playing sport is still considered risky.

Ideally, in such a situation, where sporting action is near zero and even elite athletes preparing for the postponed Tokyo Olympics are struggling to get going, there is no place for cricket. Even Australia has postponed the ICC World T20, another blockbuster cricketing event.

Sadly, the mandarins who “head” cricket administration in India (read BCCI) by default, Sourav Ganguly and Jay Shah, have ensured the IPL takes place. Nobody minds watching the IPL, which is more commerce and less cricket. But the timing of the event is baffling and why are the organisers so desperate for a club event that it is being moved offshore to a country like UAE.

Ideally, if at all cricket has to resume in India, it has to be first at the club level, then national level. If things get better and the COVID-19 situation improves, one can think of international cricket, maybe in 2021. Ignoring the ground realities, the government has given the permission for the event to be staged abroad. There are many reasons why this permission should not have been given.

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For those familiar with off-shore cricket having been played in the UAE in the late 1980s and 1990s, images of Sharjah should be fresh in memory. The anti-India slogans, a mix of glitz and glamour, mafia dons appearing on stands, Bollywood starlets in the background, cannot be erased. Cricket in Sharjah then became synonymous with players from India and Pakistan being paid huge “benefit funds”. One is not sure how this money was generated but the benefactors did not mind it. However, once it became clear that cricket in the Gulf was not clean, viewers started avoiding it.

A similar heady mix was recreated in 2008 as IPL, bringing together cricket mania and Bollywood glamour. Money flowed in. Before the lockdown, brand values of top IPL teams as of March 2020, stand as follows: Mumbai Indians – ₹809 crores; Chennai Super Kings – ₹732 crores; Kolkata Knight Riders – ₹629 crores and; Royal Challengers Bangalore – ₹595 crores.

Clearly, the stakes are high, despite the fact the BCCI has lost its title sponsor (Vivo) for this season. The brand value of the Vivo sponsorship deal was estimated at ₹450 crores. As Vivo has now pulled out of this year’s IPL deal, owing to an anti-China sentiment post-Galwan valley clashes on LAC, the BCCI is hoping they can get a new title sponsors for even half that sum. Strangely, Patnajali is being touted as a front-runner for the slot.

For the sake of these big bucks, COVID-19 protocols are being compromised. Everyone knows that creating a bio bubble is not easy. That has been done in England and Europe for hosting football tournaments and cricket as well. It succeeded to some extent but there is still risk in a sport like cricket (IPL).

You can ban the fans from stadia in UAE and host the IPL just so that the broadcaster shows tamasha cricket which will be played in high temperatures and extreme humidity. It will be killing for the players. The players have not played any matches and their bodies, despite all training, will be still fragile. To punish the player’s body for holding IPL, a glorified club event, is shocking.

To put it bluntly, the BCCI and IPL governing council are shameless. For them, commerce is more important than health and safety. One galling fact is that even former greats of the sport like Sunil Gavaskar and even Rahul Dravid are batting for the event.

Even though the cases of COVID-19 have shown a decline, one cannot gloss over the fact that UAE had 62,525 positive cases. The recovery was 56,568 and death toll 357. As of now, it is the only country near India which has allowed tourists to fly in. The passenger only needs to have a negative COVId-19 test report 96 hours before boarding the flight.

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Cricket fans know the IPL has a huge sprinkling of foreign players, where Aussies, Englishmen, West Indians and Sri Lankan players compete. Australia has not opened its international borders and to imagine they will allow players to fly out for the IPL is bizarre. Yet, for the dreamers, the IPL will be on!

Another important fact which cannot be glossed over is how IPL cricket in the UAE is likely to generate huge volumes of betting. Even though sports betting is illegal in the UAE, anyone with a faint idea of how hyped cricket events operate, knows betting takes place in a very clandestine atmosphere. There have been instances of the IPL (2010) in India, getting into controversy because of betting, match fixing and spot fixing.

Is betting being given permission unofficially or are there other compulsions that cricket in the slam bang T20 format has to be played at any cost. The way things are, controlling betting even in domestic Indian football is impossible, as was the case recently in Goa.

Even when the IPL is played in India, there is concern over dubious men being seen near the dressing rooms. Players are under scrutiny and also who they talk to on the phone. People have still not forgotten the old incidents involving players like S Sreesanth and how Chennai Super Kings name was tarnished.

As far as international cricket is concerned, the world body (ICC) has mechanisms to check any shady activity. However, given the fact that the IPL is a glorified club event, there are no institutional checks over what goes behind the stadium. If you think this is for the benefit of players, you are mistaken. They are mere pawns who play to earn pay cheques while the shady characters will sweep big money.

That is IPL for you, where the common man claps and cheers while the dark underbelly operates without batting an eyelid. Raise your voice to stop this farce, at least for one year, when Corona virus has crippled millions.

(The writer is a senior sports journalist. The views and opinion expressed in the article belong solely to the author)