Some thoughts on IPL 2.0

First of all, Lalit Modi is God. He is the Lord and Saviour. He should be elected the Prime Minister of India unopposed a la Saddam Hussein in his pomp. And when he realises that the country cannot be run from within the country, he must be allowed to transfer the entire bureaucracy at the shortest of notices to any country that bends over backwards in subservience for the greater good. After that he should be made Secretary-General of the United Nations. He should travel to all the conflict zones around the world, with his motley crew of IPL cameramen and commentators in tow. He will bring peace to the world with merely a flash of his toothy, lispy grin and that statesmanlike single arm wave.

Now that the sarcasm is out of the way, here are some of my thoughts in random order on the recently concluded Indian Premier League held in South Africa. There are quite a few so I am going to spread it over 3 posts. Here goes,

• If there are 2 brands I am forever going to stay away from post-IPL, they are DLF and CitiGroup. That's their reward for the gazillion and counting ‘DLF Maximums’ & ‘Citi Moments of Success’. This is not one but two product placements gone horribly wrong and never to be replicated ever again by any sane minded organization. Alas
• Inspite of the majority positive response the traveling circus received in South Africa, I personally feel that the IPL has to continue to be held in India, once a year, to sustain itself and also retain whatever little soul it could manifest. Without that it would just be a Premier League.
• It is not quite the free-for-all cashpot for all foreign players that was originally perceived. Case in point Owais Shah, Paul Collingwood, Charl Langeveltd & Mashrafe Mortaza to name a few who spent their entire/most time on the bench wondering what role the ringmaster of the circus had in store for them. The 4 foreign players-a-side starting cap makes it necessary to nurture and unearth a second line of local talent apart from your international players.
• The advent of T20 will lead to a dilution of some skills and their appreciation by viewers, especially the new ones. A Dravid/Kallis forward defensive shot is just not that relevant anymore. Infact they rather see Dravid play the horrendous paddle sweep that got him bowled round his legs in the final.
• Also I don’t see T20 over a period of time producing great players. Good yes but not great. The majority of high performers in the T20 format are what they are primarily because of their reputations built in the Test and 50 over format. Possibly with the exception of Yusuf Pathan. It sure can act as a platform to international selection like for Pathan and Shaun Marsh for Australia. But I am sorry I cannot see the likes of Robert Quiney, Tyron Henderson, Dwyane Smith, Roelof Van der Merwe, Swapnil Asnodkar, Ashok Dhinda, etc. being remembered down the years for their exploits limited to the T20 format. It will now and then throw up surprise packages like Dirk Nannes who capture the imagination more because of their story than their talent.
• One of the reasons why we got to see a higher proportion of close finishes this year from the one before was primarily due the nature of the pitches in South Africa. In a time and format of a game which is so heavily loaded in favour of the batsmen, the pitches have to play the role of a relative leveler of skills and also not allow mediocre talent to perform beyond its merits. Unlike in India where they inadvertently or deliberately act only as a step towards another slogfest, thereby reducing the quality of the contest.
• Yes the players want it, the broadcasters want it, the sponsors want it and more importantly the viewers want it, so go ahead ICC and create a window in the international calender for the IPL. Firstly so everyone can have a fair crack at it and secondly to avoid dilution in the interest and commercial value of your own baby, international cricket, when it clashes with anything Lalit Modi.
• Also ICC please make the T20 World Cup an event every 4 years like all World Cups across most team sports are meant to be. Especially when it immediately follows an overdose of IPL. Let us not go the greed, golden eggs, hen and knife path.
• Ravi Shastri and your partners in commentary crime, please stop the rabble rousing at the start of every game. Yes all of South Africa was ready for the IPL the moment it shifted there. You do not have to ask the cringeworthy question at your loudest at every venue again and again. Also the commentators need to stop building up every game as the most seminal and every moment as the greatest ever in the history of the game. As Harsha Bhogle and Richie Benaud have ably demonstrated over the years, good cricket commentary also involves knowing when to shut up. Amongst others, stop peddling IPL propaganda aka the magazine at every opportunity. There are no awards for being the best salesman at the end of it.

To be continued........

The Apple leap of faith

My first brush with an Apple product was way back in the early nineties when my father bought a Macintosh PowerBook 100 as his first laptop. The most enduring memory of it is that of me, my brother, sister and parents playing the laptop equivalent of Wheel of Fortune, called Phrase Craze. Spinning wheels and guessing alphabets to form words, it couldn't get simpler than that. Then there was a game which involved skinny people parachuting onto a hay stack or something of that sorts if I can vaguely remember.

But the Apple experience ended there as our first desktop at home in the mid-nineties was a Windows 95 PC which also had DOS. That introduced me to the legendary game called Allan Borders Cricket. Ah bless the creators of that game. My interaction with the PowerBook was only restricted to the games on it and also I did not know enough about computers to ever be able to pass on a judgement about a Mac vs a PC.

Fast forward to 2005 and I am looking to buy my first mp3 player. A flatmate of mine from the year before had been gifted what was the first generation iPod and could never stop raving about it. By the time I came to buying a music player, the iPod had already turned Apple's sagging fortunes around and was pretty much the rage. At that point, for a reason I cannot fathom now, I decided to buy an iRiver H10. I had decided to go deliberately against the flow and not buy an Apple iPod. I dont regret it but going back I may not have done the same again. It served me pretty well but than I outgrew the limitations of the iRiver. The biggest one being when transferring music onto it. Windows Media Player, like most Microsoft softwares, was a bitch to work with.

Time came for an upgrade and by this time it was time to go for an iPod. I chose the Touch, the first generation one as it was around 2007 that I got it. It was the first touch screen technology product I came across and it was an absolute treat to use. I have come across touch screen products from HTC, Dopod and Samsung, but none of them even comes near the ease of use of the Apple touch screen iPhone and iPod Touch. Also I would choose iTunes over WMP any day to manage my music.

Cut to 4 months back and I was growing sick and tired of Microsoft Windows in all forms (98, XP & Vista). I wanted out! The only good thing to come out of it was MS Office. The amount of times I have had to format my laptop and desktop is simply ridiculous. It sometimes begs belief how Microsoft can design a product which can be so easily hacked and screwed with by some geeks intent on raising hell. The errors, virus and security related problems had got the better of me. The only reason that kept me away from getting a Mac laptop was the fear of the unknown. How would I ever get used to another OS after using Windows for half my life!

But enough was enough and I decided to get a 13.3 inch MacBook a few weeks back. Exploring the flagship Apple store in London was like being a child in a candyshop. Around £900 later and I will never regret it. Today all I require from a PC to do for me is play music, movies, surf internet and process documents. And the Mac does that much more faster and sleeker than a Windows could ever imagine to. Pictures simply look better on a Mac. The iWorks 09 claims to look after the documents processing by offering compatabiliy with MS Office on Windows. That aspect is yet to be explored and tested. Even the way a MacBook is packaged only increases the excitement as to see what lies inside.


All said and done most Apple products out there simply offer superior design, feel, ergonomics, user interface, experience, satisfaction and a sense of style in everything they do. And you know what, the transition to the Mac only requires a few sessions and maybe a few tutorials on their website.

P.S. - My first post from a Mac!!