After reaching back home all Australian cricketers are of the opinion that playing on the same side with Indian players has helped mend strained relations.
“It’s been an incredible experience. It’s been one that’s broken down the cultural barriers that perhaps existed through the course of this summer but also, more than anything, it’s been a hell of a lot of fun to play in,” Australia’s star batsman Matthew Hayden, who played for Chennai Super Kings, told reporters in Brisbane.
In fact after the bitter exchange and strained relations between the two teams during the recent tour of India - Hayden is not at all happy with Harbhajan’s punishment and the total affair.
“I think it was a pretty disappointing thing. I just think we’ve all tried to move on from anything to do with taking a backward step in the way last summer went on,” Hayden said.
Hayden was also charged by Cricket Australia for breaching the Code of Behaviour as he mentioned Harbhajan as an “obnoxious little weed”.
As Australians prepare for the upcoming test at Brisbane, Hayden said he needed to make “big adjustments” to be prepared for the West Indies tour that will have three Tests and five One-Day Internationals.
Apart from Hayden, other Australians who played in the IPL include Ricky Ponting, Brett Lee, Nathan Bracken, Cameron White, Michael Hussey, Symonds and retired greats Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist and spin wizard Shane Warne.
This is indeed one of the positive effects of their two week participation in the Indian premier League. Needless to say both sides learnt a lot about each other and many barriers disappeared during their stay. Also the fans enjoyed a team work never seen before which was much beyond regional and national barriers.
Speaking to the Independent, London, former England captain David Gower said though Twenty20 is here to stay, “six weeks’ razzle-dazzle is not enough to consign over a hundred years of Test cricket to the dump”.
“You must be off your rocker. Twenty20 is here to stay and will energise the game around the world, but players, however grateful for IPL and, in the future, EPL cash, still know that they will be judged by their record as Test players,” he said. As such he does not considers IPl as a threat to Test Cricket.
Asked whether the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) should allow England players a crack at the IPL next year, he replied, “The ECB might well make some concessions to their contracted players re the IPL, but a lot depends on how plans for an EPL develop. Until those are clear we need to hold fire.”
Gower also said England are clear favourites for the upcoming series against New Zealand, “having rediscovered the winning habit in the nick of time in New Zealand”. New Zealand, he added, “will be reliant on the usual few”.
“England should be thinking in terms of a clean sweep, but who knows what the weather gods have in store?”- he added.
Bangalore Royal Challengers v Kings XI Punjab at Bangalore
Kings have won four on the trot while Challengers’ bowlers had a superb outing in their win over Deccan Chargers. It seems to be all set for a mouth watering clash in this Indian Premier League match toady.
Men at the Helm
Yuvraj is very aggressive while Rahul is cool and calm. Yuvraj has shown vulnerability in pressure situations as in the match against Knight Riders when Hussey and Saha had clubbed a few out of the ground while Dravid hasn’t been as innovative as some of the other captains on seen.
We have the bat
Punjab’s batters, the likes of Marsh, Hopes and Yuvraj look better suited for the shortest version of the gentlemen’s game but a slightly dodgy pitch at Chinnaswamy like the other day in the match against Chargers could sway the match in Challengers’ favor with Jaffer, Kallis and Dravid lining up.
We have the ball
Bangalore’s balling unit looks much stronger than Punjab but Kallis has been struggling big time while Pathan has come good for Kings XI. It is also being seen as the battle of the two Indian left armers, Zaheer and Pathan, who are the leading wicket takers in the league as of now. It only lets us keep wondering what if Lee was still here, Lee v Steyn!
Patrolling Party
Fielding throughout the tournament has been of the highest standards. Challengers Kohli, Jaffer and Dravid and Yuvraj and Marsh for Punjab probably make it to the five best catches of the league as yet. What more can one ask for?
High on betting meter
Punjab are high on betting meter with odds of about 4 to 5 on 7 while Bangalore have odds of about 10 to 11 on 8. But it looks like a still tighter fight.
Who gets the tick?
Both pans of the balance hang at similar heights. It will require a very big score from Punjab or a charismatic balling performance from Bangalore to tilt it on one side.
Karachi : Sohaib Akhtar has finally cleared all hurdles and now he can take part in IPL. Earlier the Pak board has enforced a ban of five years on him which prevented him from playing IPL as the rules et in by the IPL governing body states clearly that no player can take part unless he gets a NOC from his home country Cricket Board.
Earlier Shoaib lost his appeal against the ban after which he appealed to the Pak Cricket Board to allow him top play for IPL which was heard yesterday. The Pak board was lenient and has been kind enough to kept his suspension in abeyance for a period of one month - which perfectly allows him to play for the Kolkata Knight Riders the IPL team for which he has signed initially.
The news was cheered by the owner of the Kolkata Team - Shahrukh Khan as also the team mates who are currently in dire need of a miracle to push them up from the very end of the team position table in the tournament. With Ishant Sharma bowling at his peak with Knight Riders , Sohaib’s inclusion definitely adds a fire power to the team but with the top batting order failing on each of the last three instances one has a doubt if Sohaib’s inclusion will really make a major difference to the performance.
An arbiter
on Saturday passed an interim order restraining Pakistani player
Mohammad Yousuf from participating in the Indian Premier League (IPL),
an Indian Cricket League (ICL) lawyer said. PTI - Mumbai reports.
“Justice (retd) Dr B P Saraf passed an
interim order restraining Yousuf from participating in IPL in any
manner,” said ICL’s lawyer Hitesh Jain.
Jain said now there would be a final hearing, which is likely to commence in July.
Yousuf and ICL are caught up in legal
wrangle, as the Essel Group-bankrolled ICL alleged that the player
breached his earlier contract with them and signed up for the IPL.
The dispute then landed before arbiter
Dr Saraf who, on December 15 last year, restrained Yousuf from playing
for any rival league till further orders.
Though Yousuf signed up for IPL, he was not picked up by any of the IPL franchise teams.
Advocate Jain said Saturday’s order was
a first of its kind in Indian sports. “It is significant for IPL too,”
the ICL laywer said.
At this stage, no penalty has been
imposed on Yousuf, but the arbiter may contemplate such action at the
time of the final decision, he added.
Lets wait for a final decisison and see if he allowed to play the tournament which is already half way.
