Blog Posts by Aakash Chopra

This edition of the IPL, like all the previous seasons, has brought many lesser-known domestic cricketers to the fore. While Harmeet Singh produced a match-winning final over against Kolkata Knight Riders, Shahbaz Nadeem cleaned up both Levi and Jacobs against Mumbai Indians. Rajat Bhatia too continues to bowl miserly, even as many others catch the eye. These unknown commodities of Indian cricket, who one wouldn’t have heard of otherwise, have been rightfully hogging the limelight. Besides bringing money into the pockets of many domestic cricketers, the IPL also brings recognition—both being scarce to an average first-class player.

One successful season in the IPL justifies their years of toil in inhospitable conditions.
 
While it’s convenient to get carried away with the ones who are doing well in the IPL, it will be grave injustice to forget the top performers of the domestic season. It’s unbelievable that the top three run-scorers—Robin Bist, Vineet Saxena and Abhinav Mukund, of the Read More »from Who deserves national colours?

Morne Morkel bowled two immaculate yorkers to clean up Kallis and Tiwary in two consecutive deliveries. Dale Steyn’s pace was a bit too much to handle for the dangerous Richard Levi. Lasith Malinga made Manish Pandey dance to his tunes before ending his misery.

If you missed seeing these dismissals and were told that all this happened in South Africa in Test match cricket, you would have readily believed. Fortunately though, all this and more has happened in this year’s IPL and for me, that’s been the highlight of the tournament.

Fast bowlers are not only making their presence felt but also winning matches on their own.
 
Is this a new trend?
T20 cricket, especially in the subcontinent, is considered to be a batsman’s game. The matches are played on flat pitches and grounds are relatively smaller. Hence bowlers are expected to play only a supporting act. The lead actors are always the ones with the willow in their hand, or so it is believed.

But whatever we have seen so far in IPL-V Read More »from Fast bowlers are winning matches in IPL

Many believe the IPL to be a nothing but ‘hit and giggle cricket’—it is cash rich, fast, colorful and entertaining. Yet, not really cricket. Players with a specific skill set rule the roost while the sponsors and franchisees make hay while the sun shines. The audience too seems to revel in its larger than life persona. Reason enough for the purists to look the other way. But is it really that flimsy? The league, now in its fifth edition, deserves a closer look.
 
As incredible as it sounds, an IPL season is make-or-break for a lot of cricketers. I’m not talking about the million dollar babies of the IPL, but the Robin Bist and Parvinder Awana’s of India’s domestic cricket, who’ve done ever so well in the previous Ranji season. The IPL is their big ticket to stardom.
 
Audience

If one really wants to know the importance of the IPL in a domestic cricketer’s life, you’d do well by being a fly on the wall of a state team’s dressing room for an entire season. While the world, quite naively Read More »from IPL - A look at the silver lining

When the first draft of the Indian Premier League was outlined, its engineers would’ve hardly imagined it would turn into the mania it has become today. Come IPL and the cricketing world - second only to the global soccer family - will be swayed by a spectacular exhibition of a brand of cricket that has dared to rewrite the gospels of the game. The IPL has, in many ways, turned cricket into a thriving industry. It has turned the game from an international sport into a global one. The incentives of playing the IPL are far more enticing—not just money, which is huge, but also the exposure is unequaled. The flip side of it all, though, worries purists like me. Besides the debate about the chaste culture of cricket being disturbed, it’s the long-lasting impressions on technique and temperament that are far more worrisome.
 
Indian cricket’s biggest produce, the IPL, as it readies for its fifth edition, demands interpretation and analysis. The point to consider is the bearing it has had on Read More »from Pros and Cons of the IPL

The sight of India’s batsmen No.3 and 5, Kohli and Raina, bowling the last two overs of a one-day innings in the CB series in Australia was rather disturbing. One could understand had they been summoned in the second innings after the match was virtually won. But throwing the ball to them in the first innings of the match and that too when the Sri Lankan batsmen had already scored plenty was a cause of worry. What made it worse was the fact that the Indian skipper hadn’t miscalculated the overs, for the regular bowlers still had a few in the kitty. So, the only logical reasoning behind such a move had to be the lack of faith in the frontline bowlers.
 
But, you wouldn’t blame the captain, after all. Our bowlers had leaked way too many runs in the final overs in all the preceding matches. The gamble of trying Raina and Kohli was radical indeed but not bereft of logic.
 
Lost resources
 
Post the World-Cup victory, India has lost much of its bowling resources. It’s about time we realise that Read More »from Time to blame the bowlers

It's been over a week since Rahul Dravid hung his boots. Yet, tributes to his illustrious career are still pouring in, and so they will be for some time to come. Greats often leave behind such legacies — of tales and memories, unforgettable and eternal. I’ve read over a dozen by now, written a few too. Yet, there’s still a lot to be told. Like the time I spent with him during my first international series against New Zealand — when he’d tried to, so self-effacingly, probe me a bit about Tuffy’s and Vettori’s bowling, whom I’d played during the warm up matches. A rookie like me giving Dravid a trick or two to play the Kiwis had certainly been embarrassing. It’s only now that I realize that to be a great, one ought to stand among, not above.

And then, at the last practice session on the eve of a big match at Adelaide, Dravid was nowhere to be found. Not even in the nets which had been a must for him before the match next morning. Where was he? Was he not supposed to practice? Get into the

Read More »from In the great man's shade

While much of the Indian domestic season is remembered for the big hundreds scored by batsmen on rather lifeless surfaces, it would be a good idea to look out for men who swam against the tide and yet went unnoticed.

Though there are a few bowlers who did better than the rest, my pick of the season are two faster men, who bowled relentlessly at a reasonable pace. They made the batsmen hop and jump if there was bounce on offer. They even searched for reverse swing when the track was too dry to offer lateral movement. On those rare occasions when the track assisted seam bowling, they pitched the ball fuller and troubled the best of the lot.

Ashok Dinda and Parvinder Awana are the ones who impressed the most amongst the new crop of medium/fast bowlers.

Dinda, the man from Kolkata, burst onto the scene only because Ponting insisted on having him on-board for the Kolkata Knight Riders. Initially, a net bowler, he bowled a lot better and, more importantly, a lot quicker than a lot of bowlers

Read More »from Dinda and Awana should be nurtured

The benefits of playing with the Kookaburra ball are negated by the Duleep format. (Getty)How good is the Duleep Trophy? On paper, a tournament between five zonal teams comprising of the best players from each of them ought to be good, right? Then why are the voices calling for the scrapping of this coveted tournament getting louder by the day? Since most of these appeals are straight from the players, something must be hugely amiss. It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee.
 
What is it about the Duleep Trophy that displeases its participants? Has the standard of competition reduced? Is it crowding the domestic calendar? Or has it ceased to make sense? Let’s delve into the issues plaguing this premier domestic tournament.
 
Knocked Out

A few years ago, the Duleep Trophy was at its peak with its round-robin league. All zones played each other on a home and away basis, which gave players enough opportunities to perform and tested their mettle in different conditions. Since the tournament was at least four weeks long, the assortment of players would begin to function as a team,

Read More »from Time to lay Duleep Trophy to rest