IPL/CL syndrome now deeply hurting South Africa

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

The hand injury sustained by South Africa’s premier batsman AB de Villiers, during the ongoing Champions League tourney in India, has ruled him out of cricket for a period of four to six weeks.

He will surely miss South Africa's upcoming T20 and ODI series against Australia. He was due to make his captaincy debut for the country in the T20 encounter but his dreams were shattered after breaking the third finger on his left hand during fielding practice with the Royal Challengers Bangalore on September 28.

The injury indeed serves as a setback to South Africa's plans of starting a new era, with former opening batsman Gary Kirsten as head coach and de Villiers as captain in limited-overs version. Instead they find themselves pushed to a corner to work out a contingency plan right at the beginning.

The South African selectors or the management have not lashed out at the Champions League for obvious reasons but they certainly are feeling betrayed by this uncalled for and unnecessary exposure of their top guns at a time they should have been relaxing to prepare for the battle against Australia.

“We debated that at length and we will release the information around the captaincy at the same time as we release the squads, which will be early next week," Convenor of Selectors, Andrew Hudson, remarked in a diplomatic tone after chairing a meeting at the Wanderers.

“The Champions League hasn't been kind to us. Last year we lost Dale Steyn, Jacques Kallis and Albie Morkel and we can only hope we don't suffer more. What we are realising is that T20 is hard on players, it's intense. We're going to have accept that we will get injuries,” he added.

Well the South African chief selector at least expressed his concerns and recorded his apprehensions. The Indians, who have suffered the most due to the Indian Premier League as well as the Champions League, prefer not to open their mouth on this critical subject.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will not be speaking on the ills of the IPL or the CL because these are their babies and they have already done enough to suggest that international cricket or national glories come far below in their list of priorities. But I don’t think the other Boards will keep silent on this issue if the national interest would be compromised.

The South African cricket authorities have a responsibility to answer whether it was proper to let their players take part in the IPL or the CL instead of concentrating on national duties. Their reaction on the absence of de Villiers for the Australian series would be interesting to note.

Some of Australia’s top stars like Mike Hussey, Brad Haddin and Brett Lee are also being seen in action for their respective franchises in the CL. What would happen if they also get injured in some of the matches? Will Cricket Australia not stand up and explain what prompted them to let their star performers go there?

The only Board that remains above board at all times will be the BCCI because they seem to have been granted the license to play with the national interests. Nobody dared questioning them why the cricketers who were injured during the disastrous tour of England were allowed to play the CL. The follies of the BCCI will mainly hurt the cause of the Indian cricket for sure.

Getting associated with IPL appeared Tiger Pataudi’s greatest mistake

By Syed Khalid Mahmood

Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, a former Indian captain, is no more. Although he was indisposed for a few weeks there didn’t seem even slightest danger to his life that’s why his death came as a shock to the cricket fraternity.

‘Tiger Pataudi’ didn’t have an exceptional batting or captaincy record but he was revered for his fortitude, courage, leadership and never-say die approach. He was hailed as one character who redefined Indian cricket with his bold tactics.

Wasn’t it quite remarkable that a man, having lost one of his eyes in a freakish road accident, was able to come to terms with the fastest of bowlers of the world? Wasn’t it incredible that he managed to lead from the front even with one eye?

How much respect he commanded from his teammates was beyond words. He was a mentor of so many individuals who went on to make big. He had prevailed over the selectors to have a young guy by the name of Gundappa Vishwanath for the home series against Australia in 1969-70.

‘Vishy’ scored a century on Test debut and didn’t look back. He became the premier batsman of the country rather soon and Pataudi was credited to have fast tracked his entry in international cricket.

Pataudi was just 21 when he had to take up the Indian captaincy during the ill-fated tour of the West Indies. He was then the youngest-ever Test captain. He led India in 40 of the 46 Tests that he played. He could have played more but politics came into his way too.

It was Pataudi’s vision to play the spinners in attacking role when India struggled to find decent medium-pacers. Syed Abid Ali seemed the only available seamer to him with no support from the other end.

The famed spin quartet of Eripalli Prassana, Bishan Singh Bedi, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and Srinavas Venkataraghwan owed its monumental success to the leadership of skipper Pataudi who gave them the confidence and set the kind of fields that yielded wickets.

Pataudi was a practical person, who perfected the art of motivating his teammates and got the best out of them. He was shrewd in marshalling his troops and making the most of the available resources.

He led an honourable life all along. He was respected by the cricket community at the international. His association with the project of the Indian Premier League (IPL), however, seemed to have dented an otherwise clean career. It was probably his single greatest mistake to have been a party to the IPL whose founder Lalit Modi had to quit controversially.

My only meeting with Tiger Pataudi took place at a five-star hotel of Karachi when he had descended here for a veterans’ series in the late 1980s. Not surprisingly he was the captain of the Indian Veterans squad.

I had a nice and frank chat with him for about an hour as he spoke his mind candidly. The cricket conversation was enlightening for me as I was thoroughly impressed with his wealth of knowledge and the observations he made on some intriguing issues.

The only point where I dared having a difference of opinion from His Highness was when I discussed about remuneration for my articles getting published in Weekly Sports World of which he was the Editor. I had mustered the courage to enquire if I deserved to be paid for my articles. He couldn’t give me a convincing answer.

IPL causes India’s debacle in England

By Syed Khalid Mahmood



Different people have different theories about India’s disastrous campaign in the four-Test series in which they were whitewashed by England but in my opinion the Indian Premier League (IPL) was the main reason of the sudden decline of the top ranked country of the last two years.



No matter what the officials or the cronies of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have to say, the injuries to key players, resulting due to the excessive workload imposed on them in the form of the IPL, cost them dearly.



India at full strength could never have met this kind of fate of the hands of Andrew Strauss and company, who find themselves elevated to the number one position in ICC Test rankings. Whether they deserved this slot or not is another matter.



The results would have been different if India had the option of fielding their strongest eleven in the park comprising of Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma.



Due to injuries and illness India couldn’t field their best team in any of the four Test matches. They didn’t have adequate insurance because it’s never easy to replace the greats.



The newcomers, no matter how talented, skilled or promised, cannot be expected to emulate the likes of Sehwag, Dravid or Zaheer because it took them years to build their reputation.



The BCCI is solely to be blamed for having shifted its focus from cricket to commercialism. As they say excess of anything is bad. Heavy overdose of T20 cricket day in and day out was bound to affect the cricketers and the burnout has resulted in their recent humiliation in England.



Why the BCCI is joking with the public? Was there any sense of holding a new edition of the IPL, immediately after the 2011 World Cup? What was the point in staging a domestic tournament so soon after having hosted the most prestigious international event?



Wasn’t the BCCI making fun of its own cricketers by asking them to consume energies in the IPL when the tours of the West Indies and England were round the corner? What was more important to them, prestige or money?



Wasn’t it a crime as heinous as treason, depriving the national team of its best cricketers? Shouldn’t the BCCI officials be brought to book for having brought the game to disrepute?



The BCCI didn’t find problems in letting their top performing players abstain from international tours after ensuring that they made an appearance in nearly each and every outing of the terribly long IPL, whose credibility has always been in doubt.



The Indians survived in the West Indies because the home side was not threatening enough to make the most of the depleted visitors. Not England. A lot of key players were carrying injuries and it became evident from the day one of the series that India would struggle from the moment Zaheer had limped off the field.