My IPL Preview!

I've been waiting for this second season ever since the last one got over. Cliched as that sounds, however, it is true. If you know me well, you know that I am a glutton for cricket of any kind (my wife will reaffirm that). If you don't know me, this is another thing that you learn about me from reading my blog.

The Indian Premier League is a dream that I've always had and I am ecstatic about it becoming the greatest ever cricket spectacle. I am a great fan of the English Premier League of Soccer and the formation of this league in cricket makes the sport so much more appealing.

Cricket has never really had the club flavour to it in our part of the world (Indian Sub Continent) though domestic cricket leagues are well marketed and followed in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and of course England where it all began. The IPL though has the best flavour as it is a short format that packs in the most excitement.

The next big thing to watch will be the Champions League later this year after last year's event had to be cancelled after the Mumbai tragedy. Having said all that, the second season of the IPL has already had a ton of bad publicity because of its shifting to a foreign land amid all the chaos and confusion of the elections in India.

To me, this is a blessing in disguise because after what happened in Mumbai in November and in Lahore earlier this year, I don't think it would have drawn a lot of participation from the international stars if the games were played in India. The media has been very critical of the moves made by the tournament commissioner Lalit Modi which I have written about at length in an earlier piece. I feel that everyone should have opinions, however, I don't have to accept everything that people say and I am sure a lot of you who read this may not accept my opinions either.

Focussing on the games, my big picks for the year are going to be David Warner (Delhi Daredevils), Kevin Pietersen (Bangalore Royal Challengers), Brendon McCullum (Kolkata Knight Riders), Andrew Symonds (Deccan Chargers), Andrew Flintoff (Chennai Super Kings), Tyronne Henderson (Rajasthan Royals) and Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai Indians).

Tendulkar, I must make a special mention off as he has chosen to play only at the club level and not at the national level. This is the one format of the game that Tendulkar has not exceled in yet given the few games that he has played. His current form from New Zealand has shown us that he is now playing in the 'hot zone' and he is a proud man who would want the Mumbaikars to make some serious inroads at start of the tournament.

From the bowling perspective, I think both Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh (Mumbai Indians) are going to be a handful while Ishant Sharma (Kolkata Knight Riders) is going to use his speed to extract additional bounce from the now benign tracks of South Africa.

I feel the second addition is going to be a balance with a little in it for all departments of the game batting, bowling and fielding and I do not think the average score for most games are going to be in excess of 150 - 155 runs. Astute captincy and strategy employed by the coaching and management staff are also going to play a big part in how the games pan out.

With a lot of retired players still proving their class at the highest level, the second edition is going to be a challenging ones for the likes of Glen McGrath, Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble to name a few who have been out of the game for a while now.

I certainly hope the young guns like Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja make the right kinds of impact on the tournament. I also hope that guys like Rohit Sharma, Robin Utappha and Irfan Pathan get a kick in their pants and start performing or else the big monies will soon dry up. The same goes for Robin Uthappa, I wouldn't be surprised if other teams adopt a similar strategy like the Rajashthan Royals did with the dumping of Mohammed Kaif.

This one is going to be a great one folks. Seldom have sequels done well in Hollywood or Bollywood, however, the IPL is only going to get better with each new edition.