Old is gold

...they really are! When T20 was invented, it was supposed to be a young man's game. You need to run more, field great and more often than not bowl some which inadvertently meant that you need to have bundles of energy. But someone forgot to tell this to the pros!

Look at the oldies of the tournament. To be frank to every one involved, it is they who are setting the tournament ablaze. Look at Kallis, Sachin, Ganguly, Gilchrist, Symonds, Murali...the list goes on. None of them are on the right side of 30. But, they are putting every inch of their sport wisdom to good effect. And how! It is no exaggeration to say that it is only because of these that their respective teams are in the hunt for glory.

What is it that's adding skates to these oldies? One common thing in all these greats' DNA is the will to prove detractors wrong. Someone told Ganguly he's not fit in the scheme of Indian team. And he proved them wrong. Someone told Kallis, Sachin that they are not made for T20. Result? All those are now busy eating their own words.

Does this prove that there is room for any one as long as he can showcase his worth? The answer is an emphatic yes. How otherwise could you explain the so-called young game of IPL watching many of the energetic youngsters steamrolled by the golden generation? I would like to stick my neck slightly out and say that the orange and purple caps might end up in the laps of the oldies. Watch out...

T20 - pleasure or pressure?

IPL has opened up too many discussion topics...freelance cricketers, separate window for IPL etc. But one issue that always has been at the forefront, ever since T20 came into existence...Is T20 the pleasure version or the pressure version?

We often hear cricketers saying that they enjoy playing out there and try to take things easy. I very much doubt it. Because, what with the intensity in the middle plus the pressure to perform or perish, more often than not cricketers are under pressure.

T20 was supposed to be the pleasure version of the game. This shortest version is a pure treat for the tv viewers and spectators alike, however, is it so for the players? May well not be the case...

Test matches are won or lost in a session. There is pressure in a test match to not lose an upper hand in a session lest you shall be playing catch up. One-day Internationals are won or lost in a passages of play. Initial 20 or the middle overs or the slog overs determine the result of the match. And when it comes to T20, it boils down to every over, if not every delivery. We have seen how a big over or a maiden over or even a couple of dot balls have changed the complexion of the game.

What does this mean? The intensity is so huge that what feels like pleasure for you and me is doubly pressurizing for the players in the middle. That could well be the reason why we see seemingly simple mistakes from the players. T20 isn't about power plays...it's about pressure plays!

IPL teams and the formation 4-3-2-2

It certainly isn't soccer but no less than that. Every team in IPL has to look at all the pieces and play the puzzle to the best. And guess what, the team that has the best formation looks, at least on paper, set to go.

IPL3 has seen the likes of Mumbai and Bangalore set the tempo. Though a bit inconsistent, Delhi seems to have found the momentum at the right time. Being someone interested in numbers, I was wondering what thoughts went through the franchisees and the coaches before getting to the field.

Coming to the formation...it is common knowledge that you can have only 4 foreigners in your team. Every franchise has loads of foreigners to fill this and in fact, abundant riches to fill this quota. Next come the 7 slots for Indians. More or less, each franchise has 2-3 Indian players and 2-3 upcoming stars. This leaves us with 2 slots for the unknowns or the players in wilderness.

This means the sector combo of the rising stars plus the local unknowns make up the important chunk for the teams to perform. If you look at the various teams and have a look at this segment you would find that this is what differentiates the teams:

Chennai: Jakati, Tyagi, Badrinath, Gony, Parthiv, Ganapathy, Joginder Sharma

Bangalore: Manish Pandey, Vinay Kumar, Praveen Kumar, Uthappa, KP Appanna, Mithun

Hyderabad: RP Singh, Mohnish Mishra, Suman, Venugopala rao, Jaskaran, Anirudh Singh, Rahul Sharma

Mumbai: Rayudu, Tiwary, Dhawan, Sathish, Murtaza, Tare, Nayar

Rajasthan: Trivedi, Naman Ojha, Munaf Patel, Jhunjunwala, Dogra, Raut, Narwal

Punjab: Piyush Chawla, Bisla, Kaif, Shrivastav, Powar, Sodhi, VS Malik, Luv Ablish

Delhi: Mishra, Sangwan, Umesh Yadav, Dheeraj Jadhav, Mithun Manhas, Rajat Bhatia, Ladda

Kolkata: Monoj Tiwary, Saha, Pujara, Agarkar, Kartik, Shukla, Vignesh, Iqbal Abdullah, Parmar

If you see the trend, the teams that are doing well (Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi) have some deep pockets of reserves. And more so, the players in the differentiating pool have performed admirably well for them. If you look at the teams vying for the wooden spoon or the ones struggling for consistency, you find that the pool itself is inconsistent.

No wonder, Sachin insisted on investing in Indian youngsters in IPL2. Mumbai are reaping good benefits already. Interesting to see if this pays off till the end!

IPL --> World cup

Is it another coincidence?

IPL -2 was supposed to be the launch pad for an Indian team making its way to the top of the pile. They did end up top of the pile...but an inverted pile. Injuries to their main players during the IPL meant that we did not have our favored XI...

Deja Vu... it still is early days but the scene is almost like a pick-off from an SRK reincarnation movie. This time the injuries are more...Dhoni, Gambhir, Yusuf...are we the prickly twigs or are we injury prone close to big events?

Question marks revolve around the reasons behind having an IPL tournament breathing down the world cup's neck or having two world cups back-to-back. And yes, the ever-ready answer from the selectors injuries are part and parcel of the game make sure that the blame is not on the IPL.

Coincidence??? Whatever it is, it does not augur well...However, the twilight in the whole episode is that we have injuries at the beginning of the tourney which means the players have good time to recurperate...did some one say optimitic?