IPL-Premier Impressions!

After all the brouhaha and the media hype,the IPL finally kicked off this weekend.First Impressions -well neat.

Why neat? well when I first started watching ICL, I absolutely loved the talent some of the local boys started showing.The fielding standard was awesome,and somehow I felt the commitment was more there.I think after watching 3 editions of ICL ,I can pick few guys who would be in the mix for India in future,but such a pity that they never will be allowed to show their wares.
R.Satish,Ganapathy Vignesh,TP Singh,Stuart Binny,Ibrahim Khaleel were absolutely stunning.Their all round skills were special ,not to mention the exceptionally high fielding standard of all of them.

The ICL had a mission.They not only wanted to make money,but they had a genuine concern to bring up standards of Indian domestic players.So they hired all the external support staff,physio,mental trainer ,fielding coach etc,and their effects clearly showed.So ICL is like the good guy who will end up finishing last.

The IPL on its first day of launch bragged something about the same thing,the domestic players and stuff,well thats all nothing but a cock and bull story.The IPL will never do anything to actually improve the standard of the domestic players -trust me on that.They will go back to domestics probably having gained experience from mingling with the international players but they would not have added anything new to their game.

The reason is simple,Each IPL team has 4 internationals,3 Indian players fixed .That means a chance for 4 of them and they will be rotated among the 8 -10 domestics in the squad with the result that each of them gets 3-4 games.Thats not enough.(An Opening bowler Akhil does not get to bowl in Bangalore's opening match,An hopeless bowler like Cameron White does.Case Closed)

The IPL to reiterate is nothing but a money making exercise,but its fun.You know that; but I am telling this to people who are going to say something about bringing domestic standard up.This will never happen.The ICL players,if you get them back to domestics by some miraculous fairy,then I can assure you atleast 15 of them would be future Indian prospects.Never anything similar for the IPL.

The fielding standards of the IPL barring one or two sucks by the way.Even good fielders like Yuvraj,Hayden suck.The domestics suck more.No initial games ,nerves jangling excuse can be given .The ICL players rocked from the start

However having said that I am going to watch every match of the IPL.For starters its cricket,for seconds, it brings some of my favorite Australian players into the mix.One of the things I have started following closely is the Aussie domestic cricket over the past few years.David Hussey has become an all time fave of mine (and I dearly wish he played for chennai) , over the past year,while I would not budge my seat if any of Ashley Noffke,Dominic Thornely and Luke Ronchi play.I hope to see Shaun Marsh and another person whom I have labelled as the future superstar -Luke Pomersbach get a game or two.I do not want to see,Glen and Shane play-Dont ask me why,but hey they are the past and I want to see new talent.

So thats that.
Pros -
Its fun.
Aussie domestic players in the mix
Lalit Modi - Concept was already there,but he really did pull off a nice coup with the hype

Cons-
Retired players
No Chance for an Indian Domestic to up his game.
Lalit Modi -No official Permission to cricinfo and other news agenices.
The IPL Website does not work most of the time by the way.
Set Max is Worst Max .
-I do not like ladies to host anything during a Cricket Match.Barring Anjum Chopra (DDs only bright move ever) who having played the game actually makes better comments than Arun Lal ,The rest of the ladies are hopeless.
-They do not know the game of cricket can be clearly seen by the questions they ask
-Set Max have some one called Lekha Washington (starring with Simbu in Kettavan),who very clearly thinks DuckWorth is some kind of exotic dish.When interviewing Asad Rauf,today during the flood light failure (who Set Max graciously labelled as Aleem Dar),she asked him which team he was supporting.Egads - he is an umpire,No one ever asks an umpire who they support,thats basic ethics,basic presentation even a 10 yr old knows that.You are adding these ladies to add to the oomph,don't do that,Have a cricketer there to ask these questions,I am sure you wont even lose your audience by 1 person.
-She later went on to ask an assistant coach of Kolkatta questions like,Which is your fave team apart from kolkatta,who else is strong,which is ur fave ground and tons of blah .There was not on cric related question.Heavens he is an aussie domestic coach,I would like to hear him say something technical not sprout nonsense.
-ICL by the way does the same interviewing actress who have no freaking clue of cricket . remember Atul Wassan asking some actress who is she supporting today,and she had no clue the teams which were playing.She replied the guys with the green outfit!!!