Font Size 
IBNLive Chat:'IPL succeeded because of hype, novelty'
Published on Mon, Jun 02, 2008 at 18:48, Updated on Mon, Jun 02, 2008 at 19:13 in Sports section
Tags: Indian Premier League, Twenty20
GLAM GAME: Avid cricket buff Sanjay Jha feels that the IPL form will make seniors like Dravid and Dada redundant.
Other stories in the section:
Fists of Glory: Boxing and cricket are brands apart
The glorious threesome of Indian boxing speak on their journey so far.
High drama, action, entertainment, shocks - the just-concluded Indian Premier League had it all.
Has this glamourised form of cricket taken the attention away from the game itself? Has it helped make the peripherals of the game (the debate over cheerleaders for one) more important?
Has this instant format of cricket actually done more harm than good to the game?
IBNLive.com organised a chat with Sanjay Jha, Founding Editor of CricketNext.com in order to get answers to the above.
Arvind Singh Dotiyal: How will we be able to recognise the real classical cricketing talents who match the likes of Sachin or Kapil in the fast format of the game?
Sanjay Jha: Arvind, that will happen only in Tests and to some extent in ODIs.
Laxmikant: IPL is a good thing for cricket but here we saw more media hype than cricket. The involvement of film stars, industrialists can harm cricket. One good thing about IPL is that Indian players will become smarter and intelligent by playing this series. Making IPL a bi-yearly event is a bad idea. If we do that it will decrease the value of cricket. Finally I want to say that "excess of anything is Bad". So we need maintain cricket as a game, and not as business.
Sanjay Jha: Laxmi, I totally agree with you. In IPL, commerce dominated cricket, unfortunately.
Shiv: Don’t you think that Baroda deserves a team in IPL?
Sanjay Jha: Shiv, Baroda has a lot of talent. I am sure IPL will be forced to increase its franchisees by year 3.
Arvind Singh Dotiyal: Although we saw a lot of young talent coming out in T20 like Yousuf Pathan, Asnodkar, Goni etc, I doubt whether they will be able to perform equally well in ODIs and Test format?
Sanjay Jha: Arvind, I am equally sceptical.
Asad: Is Amit Mishra good enough to play for India in Tests and ODIs?
Sanjay Jha: A little more experience, and why not?
Krishna: Is this the end of the road for the seniors? Both Dravid and Ganguly have not even been considered for the Asia Cup irrespective of their decent show in IPL. Ganguly had 4 match-winning performances and displayed why he is still one of the most feared batsman. Do you think there is a motive behind this?
Sanjay Jha: I think there is this obsession that the shorter form needs players from the under 25-category, Krishna.
Anand: Sanjay, you seem to say you have been forthright on your blog on Sachin but you seem to have a very biased view on Sachin - you don't lose an opportunity to bring him down. Is it a question of sour grapes?
Sanjay Jha: Anand, that is not correct. I do so because no one else does. And Sachin is great, but he is human. He makes mistakes. I was the only one who defended him on the Ferrari car issue and several others in the past.
Krishna: It is great to have the youngsters, thanks to IPL. However, don’t you think we need a great mix of seniors and juniors? I am yet to see Robin Utthappa, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (once in a blue moon) and many so-called juniors stay put for 50 overs and finish a match; they just can’t work on an innings except for small cameos. They are good T20 players but that’s about it. Don’t you think we should still have a Tendulkar, Ganguly in the team?
Sanjay Jha: Frankly, I think the seniors played here because they were asked to and made icon players. Personally, they will not like to be in the T20 team.
Sharathchandra: No, it has done more good than harm. It just proved that like in any other games, cricketers, too, have to be completely fit and very energetic in order to perform. Why Bangalore did so badly is because of players who were not very fit and energetic, who were not able to bat very aggressively, not able to bend or dive to stop the balls, not capable of scoring more than 8 runs an over, etc. In 20/20, players who did well were those who were fit, young, energetic, and flexible. So there’s no place for players who are not fit, not young, not fast on his feet, not aggressive etc. No place for players of Rahul Dravid, and J. Kallis' calibre.
More Headlines from Sports
| Related links: | |
Total Comments: 0
Read Comment | Post Comment
Be the first to comment.