So Who Is The Fake IPL Player??

As much masala the IPL is providing with its high voltage on field action, over the past two weeks cricket fans have been getting their daily fix of off-fieldmasala through the blog of the "Fake IPL Player", someone who claims to be providing "andar ki khabar" titbits of the travails of the Knight Riders. Fakey, as I call him affectionately, is supposedly a member of the KKR, whether of the playing or the non-playing squad is still an arguable point, and he certainly has done his bit to dish out the dirt on one and all, including those not in the KKR squad, per se.

I am one of those who have always believed in the fallibility of the cricket superstars, considering them to be normal men like you and me, with normal weaknesses and fallibilities like you and me. So most of the tidbits in the blog posts don't really come as a shocker; power and ego struggles, camps within camps, skirt chasing, gossip mongering - what is there that we don't see in every team, not necessarily linked to cricket or any other sport, whether it be in our own offices or our neighbor's?
The only thing which makes this blog unique is its openness in tearing reputations to shreds, its total lack of humility and don't-care-attitude about what the consequences will be once, as always happens even with the best of them all, the identity of the blogger is known. Starting off with sarcasm and humor being the weapons of choice, the blog has become steadily nastier in its commentary, and the last couple of posts have been totally of the "gloves off" kind.
I am not a legal expert but the fact that not even a single person in the blog has been identified by name seems a pretty good cover against legal charges, if ever they arise. Yes, so one thought thatKishen Kanhiya was one of the commentators known for his liking of the fairer sex, but hey, I never said it was him. So, Appam ch****** was slapped in the last IPL by Meera Bhai? Ok, so what does the imaginary "Indians in Philadelphia Limited" IPL I talk about in my blog have to do with Sreesanth getting slapped by one "Meera ke Bhajan" in the last "Indian Premier League" cricket related IPL? Is there even a cricket tournament called the IPL going on? Hey, I didn't have a clue, honest!
I like the blog, honest! It is bold, nasty and interesting and I definitely go to it every now and then to see if there is a new post on. Obviously, like many others, I also cannot help but wonder who the blogger is? I am very clear about one thing - it is someone very close to the action, most probably in the KKR squad, and it is someone very obvious. The blog is getting too personal and nasty for it to be just someone doing this for kicks; it smacks of someone so pissed that he wants to take the rest of them down. It smacks of someone who has been humiliated and wants revenge. The blog is vindictive towards some, passive about others, and derisive about yet others who might not be directly responsible for the humiliation but against whom Fakey nurses some grudge for some slight someday, somewhere!
I see the person who provides the information and the person who uploads the blog posts to be two different people. The information provider is very likely a senior member of the KKR squad who knows what is happening even if he is not in charge, while the writer (and uploader) of the blog is most likely a friend in the media. The names chosen for the various people in the blog posts have obviously been chosen with great care, to make it sound off-the-cuff but still managing to let everyone know who exactly it is. That is not a simple task in itself and shows that this is not just casual blogging going on by someone who has a couple of extra hours on hand. This is a much planned effort, being executed with precision, and there is a lot of anger hidden behind the blog's supposedly "cool" Fakey.
While the "media friend" might not really have too much to lose, and much to gain, with the expose that will eventually happen, what makes it interesting is that the information provider will obviously have to face more serious consequences. As suspected, if the information provider is a member of the KKR, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that he will not be in the KKR squad next year, and no other franchise might be willing to touch him. Heck, for whatever reason if you can kick your team in the balls once, you can kick them again, even if the team is different. In addition, in cricketing circles - at least the decent ones - his name will be mud as he contributes his bit and more to show that cricket can just be as dirty and masaaledaar as the latest Bollywood flick.
So it is obviously someone for whom the millions at stake are not as important as the revenge factor is! It is obviously someone who doesn't give a damn what those (decent) cricketing circles think about him. It is someone who has money, a means of livelihood outside cricket, and hey, if who I am thinking of is correct, then I am sure he will find cricketing circles who will welcome one of their own with open arms and think that he was absolutely spot on with this "Fake IPL Player" business. "He showed them that he cannot be screwed around with", they would tell each other in glee, displaying the same self-righteousness with which they booed the Indian cricket team and supported the opposition not so long back when their beloved icon was left out.
Fakey, in one of his last couple of posts, has already expressed an intention to cut himself off from all forms of cricket (playing, I would assume) and also reveal himself on the last day of the KKR schedule of matches. This effectively means that on the day (or night) of the last league match for the KKR - since they have as much chance of moving to the semi-finals as a Nutty-Buddy ice cream has of lasting five minutes with me - we should know who Fakey is, always considering he keeps his word and there are no new twists to the tale.
I would be surprised if the blogger was not who I indicate, because otherwise the nastiness and venom in the blog doesn't make sense. If it turned out to be the bus driver of the KKR squad who was doing it to amuse his nephews and nieces, it would come as a dampener. Even if it was someone who was doing it just for kicks, I would be looking towards a cover up operation because baby, the cut here runs deep.

Anyways, May 20 is the day I am waiting for! As I said previously, I like the blog if not the blogger.

Will New Zealand finally break the World Cup jinx against Sri Lanka?

New Zealand's rugby fanatic media woke up on Saturday to the breaking news that their cricket team had finally got rid of their bogey side, South Africa. Their elation was tempered after the realization that the semi-final was against Sri Lanka, who they have never beaten in any knock-out game at an ICC event!

World Cup Review

World Cup review - Part 1 - Australia, Bangladesh, England, India & Ireland

28 years ago, I was rudely woken up by relatives screaming "We have won the World Cup". It is quite likely that Saturday's final between India & Sri Lanka also ended around the same time as that game in 1983. I was well awake this time around!

I can't recall exactly when I started following cricket with a lot of interest, but I definitely recall watching games from the 1985 World Championship of Cricket in Australia keenly. I did watch at least 1 day's play of the India v Pakistan test at Chepauk in 1987 and definitely remember Azhar taking a blinder of a catch. I can't recollect if it was off a spinner (Maninder) or off a medium pacer (Raju Kulkarni), most likely the latter since I didn't bunk school, and the last day of the test was on a Sunday. The 1987 tied test at Chepaukenthralled me. A few months earlier, I had read an account of the final over of the Brisbane tied test. Around the same time that the India v Australia game was coming to an end, with India in a winning position (50-odd runs to get with 5 wickets in hand), I was at my music class, and wondered aloud if a tie was possible. Needless to say, I got thrashed when umpire Vikram Raju's finger went up.

Back to the present though. The final was an excellent exhibition of classy batting by Jayawardene, who Istill believe to be over-rated in comparison to Sangakkara, nice partnerships (Sangakkara-Dilshan, Mahela-Samaraweera & Mahela-Kulasekara, Gambhir-Virat & Gambhir-Dhoni) and a fair amount of power-hitting at the end.

Now that the tournament has ended though, teams & individuals need to introspect into whether they have achieved what they set out to.

Australia needs to take a serious look at their approach to grooming spin bowlers. Under Ricky Ponting's captaincy (possibly because of his limitations when it came to playing spin bowling in tests), the only time he used "spin" with some degree of seriousness was when he was washing his clothes. They've never identified any sort of backup options for Shane Warne other than Stuart "watch-me-bowl-a-half-tracker" MacGill. They need to find at least 1 more young batsman to play alongside Watson, Clarke & Ponting. It is rare for Aussie ex-captains to play on for too long after they've quit as captain. While Ponting may play on until the 2013 & 2014 Ashes, it is quite likely that he'd have quit ODI cricket by then.

Bangladesh need to have a rethink about their domestic cricket structure, and ensure that the top 25-30 players get a lot more exposure to cricket against first-class teams from countries that are better than them. It's quite obviouso that the talent is there, but they're not progressing beyond an odd upset every World Cup and getting thrashed by the rest of the stronger sides. Given their proximity to India & the vote that they bring to India's table at the ICC, I can't understand why they don't engage in some quid pro quo for test & ODI tours to India, and for IPL sides to pick their players.

England performed extremely well against the stronger sides, but lost it against the weaker ones (and barely survived against West Indies). This seems to indicate that it isn't a skill problem, but an inability to understand how to play limited overs cricket. Constantly complaining about the schedule doesn't get them anywhere. The Ashes-World Cup schedule was known well in advance, and they had the better part of 3-4 years since the 2007 World Cup to have a squad of 20-odd quality players to pick from. They have the bowling. Anderson, Broad, Ajmal Shahzad, Tremlett & Swann are a pretty handy lineup. But the batting is far too unidimensional with Strauss, Trott, Bell and Collingwood providing at least 2 too many 'bat 30+ overs' batsmen & only Pietersen, Bopara and Morgan providing the flair.

India won despite a bowling attack that was under threat of being smacked around every game, and a fielding unit (barring 2 or 3 players) which was ever willing to help opponents convert 1s into 2s, 2s into 3s, routine saves into 4s, etc. There's absolutely no doubt that they were the best side of the tournament, and they defeated all the top sides barring South Africa (England, perhaps conveniently, don't count). Yet, players like Virat Kohli & Sreesanth need to think about their game, and what they want to achieve. It is bizarre that Kohli, at 22, is unable to adapt his game to a situation where he goes in at #6 with a couple of overs left to go. He has to realize that he may not go in at #4 with 30 overs to go every time! Similarly, Sreesanth needs to realize that this was his 'last chance saloon'. He only had 2 opportunities to prove that he can be an effective #2 or #3 bowler in ODIs, and he fluffed up both times. If his strength is around generating late outswing, why did he pitch it so short on a very flat batting track in the final? Ashwin has most likely become the 2nd choice spinner, and I'd expect that he gets a lot more games over the span of the next 6-10 months to show that he can do a good job.

Ireland had at least 2 opportunities other than the game against England (v Bangladesh & v West Indies) to show that they should be given many more opportunities to compete against good sides, and also that a World Cup was better off with them than without them.

Cricket icons

Sachin Tendulkar skips West Indies tour

Sachin Tendulkar's decision to skip the West Indies tour altogether (he had already opted out of the limited overs leg) to spend time with his family is bizarre, and unprecedented.

He has so far skipped 3 test tours completely because of injury - Sri Lanka 2001 (fractured toe), Zimbabwe 2005 (not yet fit after elbow surgery) and West Indies 2006 (not yet fit after shoulder tear).

So this would pretty much mean that his last act in a test match in the West Indies was being bowled by Pedro Collins for a brilliant 86, triggering a collapse that ended with West Indies winning the series 2-1.

52.6 Collins to Tendulkar, OUT: Sabina Park erupts! super delivery on the off and cutting in, the ball stayed a touch low, Tendulkar tries to defend it but can't get down in time, the ball crashes into the off and middle stump, the Indian ship is sinking!