By Rahul Banerji
This is turning out to be a humdinger of an Indian Premier League out in the deserts of Araby, the IPL 13. No one was quite sure how it would work, but if early days are anything to go by, let’s all just strap in for the ride.
It has been entertainment to the max, the 30-second download app variety, as opposed to the desktop browser version.
Two tie-break finishes in, what, 10-12 games already? Unheard of totals being chased down in situations teams of a few years ago would have packed up their tents?
It’s a brave new world out there.
So records have gone down like unguarded wickets in front of Boom-Boom Bumrah. Need to better 223 (Kings XI Punjab)? Yah, goddit (Rajasthan Royals). That chase was the best-ever in IPL – actually any T20 league – history.
There are more to come as fitness, mobility and game time get dialled in match after match.
Old guard
Hoary old coots like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, AB de Villiers, David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan et al were expected to hog the limelight. Instead, they are being shoved aside.
Rudely.
By a new generation bred on IPL firepower and IPL money dreams. Willing to work their backsides for it too, they are.
Running like hares between the wickets, chasing balls down like greyhounds, bowling like a tribe of Gandalfs.
If in one game it’s a Shubman Gill, in another it’s an Ishan Kishan. Or a Devdutt Padikkal of the splendidly-named Bellary Tuskers when away from the IP. Or even the seemingly out-of-sorts Rahul Tewatia, of the aforementioned RR.
The leggie struggled for a good proportion of his 31 balls at the crease for the Jaipur boys before turning on a flame-thrower that incinerated the Chandigarh-based Kings XI Punjab in the space of seven deliveries.
Bumper crop
Just as a by the way, 2020 is turning out to be a particularly fertile year for God’s Own Country. Led by the ever more graceful Sanju Samson, Kerala has thrown up a bumper crop of exciting young stars at this IPL.
It’s no longer just the Sachin Babys, S. Sreesanths (God bless his hot-headed little soul) and K.N. Ananthapadmanabhans (now an umpire and standing in the IPL).
There are now the Basil Thampis, Vishnu Vinods and Sandeep Warriers to take their place. A new crop that’s coming along nicely, and making an impact as well.
And just as this mulched-up, steroid-driven version of cricket was hitting its stride, Mr Madras, the life-loving, globe-trotting Dean Jones, was snatched away by the ultimate dismissal.
The effervescent Australian, who redefined batsmanship and fielding with spades of typical Aussie grit, fell to a heart-attack in a Mumbai hotel, leaving a giant void in his wake.
Epic effort
Jones will always remain associated in the mind for his epic double-hundred that set up Tied Test II in the searing heat of a Madras (now Chennai) late summer.
Sitting in the stands it was hard to imagine any level of activity, leave alone one that was gradually shutting down his body but Jones, driven by some caustic comments from his skipper Allan Border, hung on.
Wracked by cramp and dehydration, vomiting by the side of the Chepauk pitch, he batted on and on, eventually taken to hospital to recover from that searing ordeal.
Jones went on to become a genuine Aussie hero that day, and for many days in national colours thereafter, taking the game to new levels with his unyielding passion for the game.
And this mind you, in the days of Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards of the West Indies.
Dean Jones was also a fine golfer, having worked his way down to a 2-handicap at one point. By all accounts, his golf bag was as well travelled as he was.
In fact, one of the last videos of the much-loved commentator was of him beating fellow-Aussie Brett Lee in a chipping competition in their Mumbai hotel corridor, Lee going ‘OB’ and Jones sending a delicate little chip to within two feet of the target.
The news of ‘Deano’s’ passing almost instantly brought back memories of 13 years ago, and another cricket-related related death that cast a giant shadow on another cricket tournament, of Bob Woolmer.
Shock death
Pakistan’s coach at the ill-fated 2007 ICC World Cup in the West Indies, Woolmer died in his hotel room in Kingston a day after they were knocked out of the tournament.
Woolmer’s death sparked off a firestorm of speculation that consumed what was to be a doomed tournament.
I was in Trinidad on assignment for The Asian Age following Team India and their fortunes. My colleague Moses Kondety of The Deccan Chronicle in Kingtson keeping tabs on Pakistan was asked to stay on and follow the investigation.
It was a shambles in every way and looking back, I have to wonder what would have transpired had social media been as active in 2007 as it is now. Pakistan lost their first two games, including to Ireland, and that was that.
Bizarre stories
Suddenly, a tournament designed to provide easy passage for India and Pakistan was bereft of its big draws, even as the Woolmer investigation caromed from one bizarre theory to another.
In the end, it was all for nothing. A long-standing heart condition and the pressures of being Pakistan’s coach at such a high-profile event took their toll on the genial South African who played his cricket for England.
Wild stories emanated from Pakistan and Jamaica though, helped along by publicity-happy Kingston cop Mark Shields. They ranged from a betting syndicate, a cricket mafia, or even an enraged fan being responsible.
All of it was a lot of shooting in the dark by fevered imaginations and the cricket bandwagon rolled on to its finale in Barbados some weeks later.
As it will once again a month or so down the road in the deserts of Araby.
By then hopefully, we will have seen a few more humdingers, and a lot of fresh faces out to push the cricketing envelope still further.
Also read: Stray thoughts on an IPL with some big differences
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