The Volts Are Everything That's Right & Wrong About CLT20

As T20 tournaments go, the Champions League T20 is one of the least glamorous T20 competitions going around. Despite being run by 3 of the 4 biggest cricket boards in world cricket, the tournament has never really gained traction among the fans.

Every edition, the tournament throws up a fairy tale story of a side full of players most people haven’t heard of, thrilling everyone with their performances. Trinidad & Tobago nearly won the inaugural edition, thanks mainly to Kieron Pollard. Interestingly, Pollard had failed to draw a bid from a single IPL franchise earlier that year. The next year, he went for $750,000 plus whatever secret winning amount the Mumbai Indians bid for him during the auction. In 2010, it was the Warriors from South Africa who made the final despite missing Jacques Kallis who was with his IPL side. 2011 belonged to the Trinidadians again, with Sunil Narine announcing himself on the world stage. Less than a year later, he was voted Player of the Tournament as his side won the IPL. Last year, it was the Lions who came through a group comprising the Sydney Sixers, Chennai Super Kings & Mumbai Indians. They even made the finals before falling to the Sixers who won every single they played in the tournament. The 2013 edition is yet to reach the main group stage, but the Otago Volts look a really good side. Sterner tests await the Kiwi side, but it’s the manner in which they’ve won their matches that shows they’re strong contenders for a semi-final place.

One might think that the prospect of watching the best T20 teams in the world would appeal to those who happily lap up domestic T20 competitions, but attendances and TV Ratings suggest something entirely different. It never had to be this way. Look at the UEFA Champions League. Granted it’s a property that has built its name over a period of decades, but then so did the various football leagues like the EPL, La Liga, and Serie A. In contrast, the Indian Premier League opened to packed stands and never before seen ratings for domestic cricket in India. The Big Bash League routinely sees bigger crowds than you would see when Australia play teams other England & India. Rightly or wrongly, the tournament is important enough for Cricket Australia to spend a considerable time talking about while its test team is playing the Ashes. Even the Caribbean Premier League was played in front of packed stands and the kind of fanfare one seldom sees at international matches in the West Indies. Why is it that people are happy to watch their domestic teams play in their domestic T20 league, but aren’t that excited about watching them play against the best T20 sides in the world?

One of the reasons might be that the tournament has over the years become more & more about ensuring teams from the IPL play as many matches as possible. The reasoning behind this is simple: India is the biggest market and this market wants Indian teams. One doesn’t quite know if less people would tune in if the organisers didn’t tweak the rules every year to ensure that IPL teams have the best chance of going as far into the tournament as possible. But it is farcical to have 4 out of 9 IPL teams making this tournament. It is also a joke that different sides get to play different number of overseas players, with the IPL teams being allowed to have twice as many overseas players in their XI compared to any of the other sides. This is especially damaging given that virtually every player has ‘chosen’ to play for his IPL side in the tournament ahead of his ‘home’ team. Let’s go back to the Otago Volts for a second. The Man of the Match in each of the Otago Volts matches – Brendon McCullum, Ryan ten Doeschate, Nathan McCullum, is contracted to an IPL team that isn’t part of the Champions League T20.

The official line is that it is always the player’s choice. But if a leaked BBM conversation between Kieron Pollard & Sundar Raman is to be believed, and it must be taken with a considerably large helping of salt given that it was Lalit Modi who leaked it, even when a player wishes to play for his home side which is willing to bear the cost of it, he is forced to choose otherwise. And when all else fails, the organisers make up rules on the go. Don’t have enough decent local players? No worries, just say one of them is injured & we’ll let you play 5 overseas players. Oh no, that player you said was injured just scored a hundred in a domestic game while your international stars are struggling? We’ll let you bring him back & you can go back to playing 4 overseas players.

It is difficult to tell if the average cricket fan even knows about these things, let alone be bothered by them. But it is clear that the tournament hasn’t struck a chord with cricket fans around the world. Would it have done so had the organisers put competitive balance ahead of what seem to be ill-conceived short-term plans? Would it have helped grow the sport if they could even give Associate Nations like Ireland and Afghanistan to send their national side & gain invaluable experience, and if one may say so cynically, a vote for the BCCI at the ICC table? We’ll never know. For now, all we have are the Otago Volts. Cherish them, because there’s a good chance the likes of Hamish Rutherford & Jimmy Neesham will be playing this tournament for their IPL side next year. That is, if there is another edition of the Champions League T20.

When Reputation Trumps Reality

The Indian Premier League is showing more & more signs of coming of age, with players on opposite teams taking on one another. I can imagine the purists shaking their heads at players jawing each other, but from the league's perspective it can only be good news as it shows players are willing to look beyond nationalities and stand up for themselves and the team they are part of.

Most of us remember the spat between Harbhajan Singh & Sreesanth which led to the former being suspended for the remainder of the first IPL season, thereby increasing his team's chances of making the semifinals. There was another incident in 2010 involving Harbhajan when he gave Tirumalasetti Suman quite a send-off and was fined for it.

But for the most part, Indian players who were regulars in the national team seemed to only pick on the lesser names. They were easy targets as the average fan neither knew nor cared much about these no-name players who were part of the IPL mainly because the rules say that every team can have at most four international players in the eleven. Also, you did not have to worry about the awkward situation in the Indian dressing room as most of the uncapped players will likely never play for India.

Manvinder Bisla is one such player. There is a good chance the 2012 IPL Final will be the highlight of his career. His "Jyadrath moment" as Arnab a.k.a. Greatbong calls it in this discussion before the start of this IPL season. You know you aren't a popular player when even fans of your team think you're not good enough. Thankfully, Bisla doesn't care much for reputations. It's why he urged Shane Watson to throw the ball when the bowler shaped up to rip one at the stumps (Here's the video of the entire game. Jump to the 2:05:10 mark to see the incident).

But he didn't stop there as he gave Watson's captain Rahul Dravid a piece of his mind. Now, we don't know if Watson or Dravid said anything to Bisla since the cameras never captured it. What the cameras did capture was Bisla's captain Gautam Gambhir pointing to the umpires who started the duel. It is quite clear in the video I've posted in the last paragraph.

However, that's not how most people saw it. Since Gambhir has built up quite a reputation of being a hothead who picks fights with opposition players, it was assumed that he "sledged" Rahul Dravid. Since Rahul Dravid has the reputation of being one of the nicest guys in world cricket, everyone was up in arms that a nobody like Bisla was "sledging" the great man.

Firstly, nobody knows what Bisla said to Dravid. Since Dravid is captain of the Royals, he is responsible for the conduct of his players. That includes Watson. One could say that Bisla should have complained to the umpires, but then he was never the instigator so the responsibility for whatever happened should have been on Watson. Infact, Watson was captured on camera mouthing off to presumably Gambhir or Bisla after the umpires intervened.

Secondly, everyone would have praised Bisla had he taken on an opposition captain who was either not Indian or wasn't as respected as Dravid. I don't see how Watson's actions should be seen any differently depending on who his captain is. Neither do I see why Bisla should temper his protests just because Dravid was the opposition captain.

I am glad Bisla didn't, and I commend Gambhir for standing up for his teammate. There are a lot of occasions when I feel he lets his emotions get the better of him & gets into needless arguments. This wasn't one of those times. I hope more of these lesser known players stand up to the big names in the future. But what I hope for a lot more is for fans to look beyond their heroes and see a situation for what it is.

IPL 2013: Home/Away Records and Lazy Punditry

A recurring narrative during this IPL season has been that of how home teams have won most matches. We have so far had 46 matches of which 33 have been won by the home team. Four teams - Bangalore (6-0), Hyderabad (4-0), Mumbai (4-0) and Rajasthan (5-0) are yet to lose at home.

It made me wonder if there has been such a pattern in the league in the previous seasons. Apart from Rajasthan in 2008 & Chennai in 2011, I cannot remember any side winning all their home games in a season. So I had a look at the results from all the IPL seasons held in India i.e. 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and as it turns out, the highest home win % is indeed from this season. The next highest was in 2010 when the home team won 55% of the matches. Here's a chart showing the numbers season by season.

Commentators have been discussing among themselves and asking players about why home teams have been winning so many matches. There have been the usual explanations of how teams prepare pitches at their home venue to suit their style of play.

Well, from what I have seen, the pitches at Wankhede and Sawai Mansingh Stadium aren't too different from those at Chinnaswamy, yet Bangalore lost at both those venues while they have won all their matches at home. In any case, the pitch factor would have been in effect in each of the previous seasons so why didn't we have more results going in favour of the home side until this year?

There is also the explanation that players get tired from all the traveling and living out of a suitcase during their road trips, but again that's been the case in all the previous seasons as well.

There have been some sub-narratives within the main one of home teams dominating matches. The first is that the Kolkata needed to exploit their home advantage in order to make the playoffs, and that their failure to do so has pushed them to the brink of elimination.

If the pundits had bothered to find out, Kolkata did not make the 2012 playoffs on the back of winning on doctored pitches at home. Infact, they had a 3-4 record at the Eden Gardens (Their game against Deccan was rained out). So the problem for Kolkata this season is not that they are 3-2 at home. The problem is that they are 0-5 away so far when they went 7-1 on the road in 2012.

They had a scoring rate of 7.53 runs an over in 2012, while they're scoring at 7.59 runs an over this season. However, they're giving away 7.66 runs an over this season as opposed to just 6.89 an over in 2012. There is no real explanation for it because their roster is virtually the same. While they are missing Shakib Al Hasan this season, he played less than half their games last season. They don't have the services of Wasim Akram this season, and while I think they were wrong in letting him go, I am talking from a position where I have no idea what Akram brought to the team.

The other sub-narrative is that of Chennai being unbeaten on the road while everyone else is struggling to win away. Mahendra Singh Dhoni was asked about it and he talked about how the squad was more of a family instead of a professional set up, and how the management knew its cricket through being involved with the sport for years. How the players weren't asked what went wrong after a loss, but were told what went wrong.

While all this is true for 2013, it has been true for previous seasons as well. Yet, Chennai have at various points in the past struggled away from home. They had a 2-5 away record in the 2010 and 2011 seasons. So why are they 4-0 this season while the rest of the league is a combined 9-33 in away games?

There are two very obvious reasons for it. The first one is that they are simply the best side in the league this season, a status they haven't had in the five seasons prior. Sure they're the only side to have made the last four in each of the previous seasons. But they haven't finished top of the table in any of them. They are better this season because of a number of reasons. They have a deeper and more quality batting lineup this season than any of the previous ones. Ravindra Jadeja is playing better than he ever has. Chris Morris has provided them a fast bowling option they have lacked in all but 2010 and 2011 when Doug Bollinger was at his best. Most importantly, they finally have Michael Hussey for the entire season. Why is he so critical? Well, he only has the highest average of all Chennai players. He averages 43.77 which is more than 7 runs higher than their next best batsman. Infact, they dropped him for one game this season & promptly lost to last-placed Pune.

The second reason for Chennai being unbeaten on the road is the opposition they've faced. Delhi, Kolkata, Pune and Punjab are the bottom four teams in the league. In Mohali, Delhi, Kolkata & Pune, they are a combined 7-11. Take out their losses to Chennai and they're still only 7-7. On the other hand, the four teams Chennai have yet to visit are a combined 19-0 at home.

None of this is meant to suggest that Chennai will lose all their remaining away games. Will they win all their remaining road games? Probably not. Will they all of a sudden be struggling because they're on the road? Definitely not. It would be foolish to think that the least flawed of the nine teams would turn into an average side just because the opposition is strong. All I'm trying to say is if the experts are willing to do something other than offer cliches and peddle sponsor names during their commentary stint, they can easily tell the viewers why Chennai have the kind of record they do.

The Wankhede was right, Kohlisaab

Anyone who has been to a game in Mumbai knows how partisan the crowd is. For years, foreign teams have been abused during matches at the Wankhede. Truth be told, they're abused at other venues as well but the people who are paid to offer opinion would like us to think otherwise. The difference is only in the degree and type of abuse meted out.

There have even been instances where crowds have turned on the home team itself, most famously when the Eden Gardens crowd jeered Sunil Gavaskar after he dropped Kapil Dev & when Greg Chappell dropped Sourav Ganguly. More recently, we've seen Indian fans rejoice at the fall of an Indian wicket just because it meant Sachin Tendulkar would come out to bat.

Whether I or anyone else thinks such behaviour is justified or not is irrelevant. Fans who come to the stadium do so at the cost of their time and money. It is their passion that ensures the players now get paid the kind of money that they wouldn't have dreamt of a decade ago. The endorsements they have, the central & IPL contracts they've earned are a result of millions of people turning up to watch them play in sub-standard facilities in ridiculously oppressive weather conditions and being treated like they're a nuisance. These fans have a right to voice their opinion as long as they don't resort to physical violence.

So when Virat Kohli points a finger at the Wankhede crowd after being heckled because he refused to withdraw a run out appeal in which Ambati Rayudu's bat was knocked away off Vinay Kumar's foot, I can't help but disagree with him. Here's what he had to say:

"I don't know what is wrong with people in this venue. It feels a bit weird because at the end of the day you play for India and you don't come here to be hated," Kohli said. "It has happened to a few players in the past as well. I don't know why they get so worked up during IPL. IPL is not the end of the world. They forget that the players they are booing for also play for their country."

First off, I remember the Chinnaswamy crowd boo Gautam Gambhir a few weeks ago at the post-match ceremony after he got into an altercation with none other than Virat Kohli. An altercation that Kohli could have easily avoided. Instead, he chose not to. So while he got worked up & got into an argument with a fellow Indian player during an IPL game, a tournament that is not the end of the world according to him, he seems to think the crowd shouldn't.

What is even more alarming is the subtle implication that a player can be booed if he doesn't play for "their country". So if you're an overseas player, you're fair game if one goes by Kohli's reasoning. In a more evolved & globally aware environment, his words would have been considered bigoted.

Here's something more he had to say:

"It is only creating hatred among the players. When I come back and play for India, they are going to cheer for me. It doesn't work that way."

Newsflash, Mr. Kohli: This is exactly how it works all over the world. Footballers get abused, some of them racially, when they play an away game in their league. The same players are egged on just as passionately when they turn out for the national side. If you think it is okay for the crowd to heckle your opposition in an international game, you better not complain when that crowd heckles you when you're playing on the away team in a club game. And if you think the IPL is not the end of the world, don't pick a fight with your national teammate when you get out. It doesn't give you the right to tell the fans what they can or can't do, but atleast your stance would be consistent and you won't end up looking like a sore loser.

The Wankhede was right, Kohlisaab. And they got under your skin, which is exactly what home advantage is all about. The sooner you come to terms with this, the sooner you'll be able to evolve into a leader capable of captaining the Indian team if that is what you aspire to.

The Season of Shame - II

(This is the second part of my review of Indian cricket over its home season. Part 1 is here)

With the test leg of India's season over, it was time for the Limited Overs Internationals. India were in a weird place wherein they would go top of the ODI and T20 rankings if they won their remaining matches in the year - 2 T20Is each against England and Pakistan and 1 ODI against Pakistan.

Ofcourse, India ended up splitting both T20 series (if you can call them series) and lost the first ODI to Pakistan. What was frustrating, though, was the management's insistence on picking players who were either out of form (Gambhir) or not suited to the format (Rahane).

While T20s can be a bit unpredictable, it is the 50-over format in which India have done really well. But with both openers (Gambhir & Sehwag/Rahane) being out of form & Virat Kohli suffering his first real lean patch since 2009, it was imperative for the captain to push himself up the order. Instead, we had Yuvraj Singh coming in at 4 every game with Raina at 5 while India's best ODI batsman batted at 6 (He even batted at 7 in one game). India's score when he came in to bat in these ODIs: 29/5, 70/4, 63/4, 198/4, 119/4, 144/3, 158/4, 49/4.

Yuvraj seems to be having the same problems as he has always had, in that he struggles against offspinners as 5 of his 8 dismissals were to offspinners. He finished his ODI leg with a duck today, which brought his average to 20 with just 1 fifty in 8 innings. I think he has been back long enough for people to question his place in the side, or at the very least where he bats.

None of the openers played with any amount of assurance, although an 83 from Rohit Sharma brought out all his fanbois. Some of them even drew a parallel between his numbers and those of Sachin Tendulkar before he opened the innings. Ofcourse they conveniently ignored the fact that Rohit had opened in ODIs before albeit on just three occasions. Sure enough, he was out today driving on the up for just 4 runs. Ajinkya Rahane put up a very mediocre run of scores, although I fail to understand why people expected someone with a List A average of below 40 to do well in ODIs in the first place. It's the same with Rohit Sharma who averages slightly less than Rahane in List A matches but has played 87 ODIs while players like Pujara couldn't make the squad until the England series despite having a List A average of just under 57!

Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Mohammad Shami gave the fans something to be happy about. Both seem to possess the accuracy and discipline essential for being an international bowler. Kumar can even bowl long spells as Dhoni has bowled him out at the start of the innings on more than one occasion. What impressed me about Shami was he decided to attack Nasir Jamshed from around the wicket right from ball one. Jamshed had looked at ease against the Indian seamers as none of them really had threatened his stumps, pads and either edge of his bat until then. After scoring a hundred in each of his last 3 ODIs against India, he looked really uncomfortable and was beaten time and again by all the bowlers. For some inexplicable reason, he was dropped for the first ODI against England and India promptly lost the game.

Among the spinners, Ashwin continued to be erratic and should be a cause for concern going forward. It's a pity that the selectors don't consider Pragyan Ojha good enough for LOIs because he is a better bowler than Ashwin in all formats. Fortunately for them, Ravindra Jadeja had a terrific run in the ODIs. It's high time people realise he is a bowler who can bat a bit rather than the other way round.

While the 1-2 and 3-2 scoreline reflects the performance of the respective sides, I feel that an Indian team with the right personnel and right batting order would have beaten Pakistan 2-1 and swept England with plenty left in the tank. The Champions Trophy is in June and India aren't scheduled to play any ODIs before that. Not the best way to prepare but then I seem to be one of the few who seem to care about that competition.

This has been one of the worst home seasons for Indian cricket. Probably the worst since Tendulkar made his debut. The side needs to undergo a massive overhaul in tests and a few changes in LOIs, which brings us back to the upcoming Border Gavaskar Trophy and the squad I think India should pick.

1. Mahendra Singh Dhoni
2. Virender Sehwag
3. Ajinkya Rahane
4. Cheteshwar Pujara
5. Virat Kohli
6. Subramaniam Badrinath
7. Ravindra Jadeja
8. Ravichandran Ashwin
9. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar
10. Umesh Yadav/Ishant Sharma
11. Pragyan Ojha
12. Shikhar Dhawan
13. Rohit Sharma
14. Pankaj Singh
15. Mohammad Shami

After 3 years without a hundred and a tendency to cost the team wickets with his running between wickets, it is time for Gautam Gambhir to make way for someone else. While I'm not a fan of Rahane in LOIs, I feel he has been kept out of the test side way too long given his record in first class cricket. Although the selectors should have told Sehwag to shed some of that fat long ago, they can still do it and pick him but make it clear that a bad series against Australia would lead to him being dropped and out of contention for the South Africa tour unless he dazzles them by putting in some hard yards in County cricket post IPL. Shikhar Dhawan can be the reserve opener.

The middle order should see Virat Kohli move up to number four as there is no place for a struggling Tendulkar in the side. I am well aware that the selectors will never do this. However, I can't make my picks based on what they will or won't do. The number 5 spot should go to one of Rohit Sharma, Subramaniam Badrinath or Manoj Tiwary. I am tempted to go with Badrinath at 5 with Rohit as backup. Harsh on Tiwary but he didn't exactly have a great season before he got injured. Neither did Badri, but has been consistent for much longer than any of his peers and has shown that he can put a price on his wicket better than any of the younger batsmen.

Ravindra Jadeja won a place in the test side with excellent performances with bat and ball. He outbowled two of the frontline spinners in Nagpur so he retains his place. While Mahendra Singh Dhoni hasn't done too well of late, any decision on his future in tests should be taken after this series. If he doesn't do well, the selectors should announce his replacement as soon as the series is over rather than wait till the eleventh hour like they did with Laxman. Again, I know they are unlikely to do any of this.

The spinners retain their places although with Ashwin it's more down to a lack of viable alternatives more than anything else. If he has a bad series Ojha should go ahead of him for the spot of first-choice spinner, although recent history suggests the selectors are unlikely to do it. I don't see the need for a third spinner as Jadeja is more than capable of bowling long and accurate spells.

Coming to the seamers, I think it would be a major risk to pick Zaheer Khan given his injury problems. There is no news on Umesh Yadav but if he's fit, he plays in the 11 alongwith Ishant Sharma. If not, either Pankaj Singh or Bhuvaneshwar Kumar should make their debut with Mohammad Shami getting the final spot. It might be a risky move but Pankaj Singh has ticked all the boxes without being considered for a place, while Bhuvaneshwar Kumar has also been consistently among the wickets in first class cricket.

I fully expect India to win this series given how inexperienced the Australian side is likely to be. Of their top 7, Clarke is the only one to have played test cricket in India. It is anybody's guess as to which pace bowlers will make the trip as there are major injury concerns for a number of them. Nathan Lyon is their first-choice spinner and with all due respect to him, he isn't as good as either of the England spinners. Expect a close series with India winning by either 2-1 or 2-0.

Michael Hussey and the Myth of Padding Averages

Disclaimer: This post will be entirely stats-based so anyone who finds them repulsive is better off not reading it.

Just how good is Michael Hussey? He isn't the most talked about batsman in world cricket and after a Bradmanesque start to his test career his test average has settled at a more human 53.26. Having played all his international cricket in an era which has seen an increase in averages and scoring rates, it is a very good but not a great number. What is amazing, though, is that this is still the tenth highest average among batsmen who have played 60 or more tests. Three of the batsmen above him  - Kallis, Sangakkara, Tendulkar - have played a lot of their cricket in the same era, so they have benefited just as much as Mr. Cricket. Infact, even with a very generous cut-off of 60 innings in the last 6 years, Hussey has the sixth best average. The 3 batsmen mentioned earlier are ahead of him, a testament to their calibre and their status in the pantheon of batting greats.

But this isn't what makes Hussey so good. It is his ability to seamlessly go from one format to another taking hardly any time to change his approach to batting based on the format that sets him apart from any cricketer of this generation. Among batsmen who have played atleast 160 ODIs, Hussey has the second best average and the eleventh best strike rate. The argument used against most batsmen who bat in the lower middle order is that they pad their averages by virtue of remaining not out. It is one of the most cliched excuses given against batsmen who time and again show the skill and composure to score quickly at the end of an innings and yet remain unbeaten. Historically, as well as since Hussey's debut, batsmen in the top 4 have averaged more than those batting from 5 to 7.

Batting Position	All-time
	Innings	Average	Strike Rate	Not Outs
Openers	12666	32.3	70.17	4.74%
3-4	12413	33.85	71.69	10.36%
5-7	16526	26.61	75.13	19.56%
Batting Position	Since Hussey's Debut
	Innings	Average	Strike Rate	Not Outs
Openers	4366	32.23	78.19	4.54%
3-4	4267	34.34	75.11	10.05%
5-7	5731	28.57	79.15	18.32%
Batting Position	Hussey's Numbers
	Innings	Average	Strike Rate	Not Outs
Openers	2	36	69.23	50%
3-4	20	62	85.71	25%
5-7	113	48.51	88.91	30.97%

As one can see, the batting averages of batsmen in the top 4 have remained more or less same. However, there has been a considerable increase in their strike rates. It's not something unknown to us, most of the changes in playing conditions in ODI cricket have been to the benefit of batsmen. The fact that batsmen in the lower middle order pad their averages due to greater frequency of remaining unbeaten is also offset by the fact that they can't score as big as batsmen before them and at times have to sacrifice their wicket in trying to score quickly.

Finally, the shortest format of the game and once again Hussey is right up there in the list of batsmen. He has the third best average and fourth best strike rate among batsmen who have played 15 or more innings in T20 Internationals. What is amazing about this is he usually bats in the middle order for Australia (he has batted at 4 or below in 19 of his 20 T20 innings) while he usually opens the innings for Chennai Super Kings, for whom he averages 43.27 at a strike rate of 122.

I don't know how much longer Hussey is going to be around. Any talk of his place in the list of batting greats would be premature and should happen once he has retired. Until then, we can just marvel at his performance across all formats, and how on earth did 9 IPL teams allow Chennai to buy him for just $425,000.