[snaronikar]

Ahh at last Dhoni & Co lost. The place they deserved in IPL was 4th or 5th position. But lots of luck favoured them. Had he won the trophy, then god save the people of this country. They would have made him a god and worshipped with photos in their pooja rooms. This will also provide as an eye opener to people, that whenever Dhoni plays as captain, people will not expect him to win the matches.

[rks]

Originally Posted by normally_crazy

I guess 5 pm should be ok. If you have any doubts, try to reach by 1630. Parking will be all over the place so I would suggest not taking your car. But if you have to, reach early and find yourself a safe parking spot.

Had to take car because my son and two of his school mates (all 10-year-olds) were with me, plus wife. Late night return without own vehicle would have been problematic. Reached the stadium at 4-30 PM as suggested, avoided traffic jams and easily got parking near gate 7. The view was very good and the kids enjoyed the game. They insisted on seeing the prize ceremony and so by the time we reached back at Sion, it was 2-00 AM.

I couldn't work up all that much excitement as I did not follow the tournament. But it seemed to be quite competitive and the atmosphere at the ground was great.

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by snaronikar

Ahh at last Dhoni & Co lost. The place they deserved in IPL was 4th or 5th position.

That would still be several notches above RCB.

[maddy42]

I feel that the next ipl may have betting legalised.Its better to have someting legally done unlike hiding loads of money on illegal stuff

[finneyp]

IPL should have a system of relegation & promotion as in EPL.

In that case, RCB and DC will be relegated to ICL and Top 2 teams in ICL will be promoted to IPL!

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by finneyp

IPL should have a system of relegation & promotion as in EPL.

In that case, RCB and DC will be relegated to ICL and Top 2 teams in ICL will be promoted to IPL!

for that to happen, the world would have to be proved flat again. you are asking for the impossible finney. I enjoyed the ICL as well (Yeah, Chennai won that) , with or without the fanfare, but the BCCI is so against it.

[finneyp]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

I enjoyed the ICL as well (Yeah, Chennai won that) , with or without the fanfare, but the BCCI is so against it.

You never know John, anything is possible with BCCI!

After snubbing Kapil-da on the ICL issue, they have decided to fete Kapil and his World Cup'83 team on completion of 25 years of winning WC.

Also, when England Football Assoc can have 3 - 4 Football leagues, why not BCCI have the same in India too, a win-win situation for all!

[MaserQ]

Originally Posted by normally_crazy

I hear that Sahara is getting the Kanpur team and Anil Ambani getting the Ahmedabad team next year ?

This is Lalit Modi being interviewed on extra innings:

Anchor: So can we see more team in the IPL in the future?
Modi: No more teams for the next 2 years. After that one team would be added in the 4th year and 1 more in the subsequent year. We have to factor in that adding just 1 more team means playing 15 extra games.

[diabloo]

3 cheers to Dhoni cheers:

#If Suresh Raina had held a catch far easier than the blinder he took in the semifinal, Saturday...

#If Manpreet Goni had not snatched at a chipped return...

#If Chennai had managed to convert these, and other half chances, during the early phase of a clearly nervous Yusuf Pathan’s innings...

#If Balaji, who as the penultimate over wound down was seen looking nervous in the outfield and who, with ball in hand, held his nerve for three crucial deliveries hadn’t gotten cute with the fourth ball, attempting a back of the hand delivery when the full length was working just fine...

#If Parthiv Patel, whose heart is wide and waistline wider for a man of his years [He has a problem getting down to deliveries below his knees, the commentator of the time said; Parthiv’s tailor might agree, and his best friends will likely suggest he do something about it—his talent is not in question, he needs to make sure he isn’t let down by physical limitations] hadn’t added a free run to that wide with the silliest of fumbles...
In a game won by one run off the final ball of the match, those were too many ‘ifs’, and any one of them was enough to make the difference between defeat and victory. That brings me to my two favorite post-match moments:

#It is common in sport to see the losing finalists wandering forlorn around the ground while the winning team whoops it up; for a moment, the Chennai team seemed set to follow tradition. And then Mahendra Singh Dhoni waved them all together, brought them together in a huddle, and was seen speaking to them earnestly. The huddle ended in a whoop; the smiles came back and the players wandered off to congratulate their opponents, looking far more at ease in their own skins.

And, #2, at the post match presentation, when Dhoni was asked to pick the turning point of the match, he refrained from mentioning a single one of those moments listed above; refrained, too, from waffling on the lines of ‘If X had used some commonsense...’, as a more illustrious name had done recently. Instead, he said [twice] that the team had lost, that mistakes had been made with bat and ball and in the field, and implied that there was no point, no need, to pick any one player, any one mistake, for public castigation. When making leaders of men, this is the kind of stuffing you need.

Smoke Signals

I not surprised that Dhoni has a World Cup in his kitty, while the illustrious is still searching for one for past 20 years.

Originally Posted by diabloo

When an MI bowler bowled a wide in the last over, Sachin made a hue & cry over it in the presentation ceremony. Today he was in the stands and watched a CSK bowler bowl a wide in the last over. Dhoni didn't mention about that.

Maybe Sachin got a lesson is sportive behavior.

.... I like that Royals won, because it underlines a lesson Indian cricket has never been able to learn—that it is not so much about having the world’s best batsman and the world’s best opener and the world’s best number three and such; it is about being able to forget the self, set aside individual agendas, and work as a unit towards a common purpose; it is about a captain who spends as much time or more with the raw unknowns who need his inputs, his strength, as he spends with the stars; it is about being able to rise above individual limitations and become, through that process of alchemy we, for want of a better word, call ‘leadership’, greater than the sum of the individual parts.

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by diabloo

I not surprised that Dhoni has a World Cup in his kitty, while the illustrious is still searching for one for past 20 years.

Make that 24 years.

The Illustrious One has just said that he thinks he has quite a few more years of cricket in him and has no plans to put his bat aside. He wants to have one more go at the World Cup. Bye Bye 2010 - Dhoni can hope for 2014 if he is still around (and if the Illustrious One is still not around).

One can only hope now that the Illustrious One will go the way of The Illustrated Weekly - disappear from the newstands one fine morning.

[diabloo]

One interesting fact about this IPL is that franchises who invested heavily in their captains, made to the top .

RR - Emerging Media understod the importance of captain. Hence they picked up Shane Warne cheap and made him both the captain & coach.

CSK - India Cements bought Dhoni, the most expensive player to captain the side.

DD & KXI - Insisted Sehwag & Yuvraj be icons and got them removed from auction and made their captains.

Deccan Chronicles understood the tangle they were getting into and got Laxman off the icon list. But they couldn't remove him from captaincy.

Mallya, SRK & Ambani wanted IPL mainly for surrogate advertising and didn't really bother about icons & captaincy.

Result: Mallya was livid that in cricket, it is the captain who makes all the decisions on the field.

Due to BCCI's (decree) insistence of icons & captaincy, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai & Kolkatta, never really had any chance of making it to the top.

As things stand, they don't any chance next year too, since the I-CONs want try their hands once more

[finneyp]

Originally Posted by diabloo

Mallya, SRK & Ambani wanted IPL mainly for surrogate advertising and didn't really bother about icons & captaincy.

In fact, only Mr.Mallya abused IPL by promoting his liquor brands!
There was no surrogate advertising, it was very open advertising!

How did Ambani & SRK got into surrogate advertising?
Didn't see the word 'Reliance' or 'SRK' anywhere.

[diabloo]

BCCI has asked SRK not to come to stadium to promote his movies. So SRK thought he can promote his movies thru' IPL. But he didn't have any movie sthis time.

Mukesh Ambani wanted to be one up against his brother. When that happened, he was happy.

Originally Posted by finneyp

How did Ambani & SRK got into surrogate advertising?
Didn't see the word 'Reliance' or 'SRK' anywhere.

[ntomer]

Originally Posted by finneyp

Didn't see the word 'Reliance' or 'SRK' anywhere.

On the stage where all the closing ceremony tamasha was held, Reliance written was very prominently.

\N

[diabloo]

SRK showing his love at the award ceremony. After this ICC asked SR(monkey)K to behave himself at the ground.