This is the silly season of cricket, so being to the point (literally) and maybe even inane, is quite in. So here’s my take on why the Champions League T20 isn’t justifying the pre-event hype… as yet.

1. T20s… just too blah
Whatever anyone says about the death of Tests or ODIs, perhaps people are finally waking up to the fact that one T20 game is pretty much like the other. Yawn…

2. Where are our He-Men?
We Indians like our desi big brands. Other than a few good men, Dravid and Kumble in Bangalore, or Gambhir and Sehwag (and to a lesser extent Nehra and Karthik) in the Daredevils, there’s not much for Indians to get starry-eyed about. (Except in that cool boat ad). No Sachin, Dhoni, Yuvraj, Bhajji, Ganguly, Zaheer or even poor Ishant.

3. Phoren teams? So what?
When we don’t care about our own domestic cricket (am sure Neo isn’t even asking for the ratings of this year’s Challenger Series) what chance of our caring about cricket or cricketers from clubs most of India has never even heard of?

4. Howzatt! You mean, ‘Who’s that’?
We Indians also like our designer foreign brands. And they’re not around. No Smith, Ponting, Hayden, Flintoff, Pietersen, Warne, Vettori, AB… and no melodramatic Pakistanis! Okay, so we have Gilchrist holding the Deccan flag aloft and Gibbs disappearing before he can say hello for the Cobras. Then there’s Brendon McCullum (traitor!) on for Otago, that quiet Kallis, and a subdued, shorn Kallis. Not enough, mate.

5. Big-ticket event doesn’t equal big crowds
Basically, despite the tournament being cricket’s richest prize, the BCCI-IPL is treating the event just like they treat domestic cricket in India — with disdain. Outside of the corporate Read more…

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Remember Mario? Yes, the famous video game character. Once you start playing it, you don’t feel like leaving it till you have gulped every coin, earned several lives or popped out those hidden powers. It’s mesmerizing, isn’t it? And what is more exciting about it is that I can restart, control or may be discard it whenever I want - seems quite familiar with BCCI’s attitude towards most of the cricketing activities by the ICC.

The on-going BCCI vs WADA tussle ruled the news bulletins for obvious reasons. Top Indian cricketers – MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh - took a stand against the ‘whereabouts’ clause in the latest code by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and BCCI, expectedly, backed it. In an emergency meeting, the cricket body, rejected the clause that required it players to reveal their location one hour each day for three months in advance for out of competition tests. The reasons it cited were that the clause was unreasonable, it invaded players’ privacy and violated the Constitution of Indian.

So, what’s the big deal about it? Well…BCCI is the only sports body to do so out of 571 sporting organizations ranging from International Olympics Committee, International Paralympic Committee, International Sports Federation and the code has been approved by UNESCO.

Take this. They say it’s an invasion of privacy. Yes it is, but then why would a world organization change a clause for a country’s cricket body, not even the sports ministry, if I may say so. Considering the fact that the revised Anti-Doping Code came into being on January 1 this year and July 31 was the deadline to sign the code, why did BCCI and players wake up late Read more…

Administrator WADA BCCI, Bhajji, Blogs.CMDN.com, Christiano Ronaldo, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Harbhajan Singh, ICC, IRTP, MS Dhoni, Roger Federer, Tiger Woods, UNESCO, Usain Bolt, WADA, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer