Delhi Daredevils vs. Deccan Chargers (Deep Insights)

Clash of the Titanics.

19th match: Royal Challengers Bangalore v Kolkata Knight Riders at Durban - Apr 29, 2009 (12:30 local, 10:30 GMT)

Cheering last years' Delhi Daredevils.

My two friends Gayatri and Vasudev face a strange predicament. And even though they’re still in junior school, I can empathise with them. My situation isn’t too different from theirs. Apart from never having grown up beyond the junior school years, there’s this not-so-little uniform issue which gets my goat.

It’s like this – Gayatri and Vasu are two very colourful kids, still going by the change in their sports’ uniform colours, you’d think they belong to the rainbow nation school. Red-Blue-Green-Yellow, think they’ve run the gamut, and they’re still only in what, class 3, class 2.

And here I am, only in 1st class, if you take last years’ first IPL Season to be KG A or KG B.

Having lived in Delhi all my life, and mostly happy with that choice, it was a no-brainer, and I settled on the Delhi Daredevils.

Somewhere between the offseason and the IPL pre-season, came the adidas sale, and the daredevils at 50% (also documented here). What do I do? I buy. Not because it was 3D’s Ts, but man, wear red and black, and you’re part of some ancient sports’ cult. Even if you’re not, what the heck.

And then comes this bolt outta the blue: they swap the black for blue. Not on. Now while there is a perfectly stupid logical reason for this, like colourology, numerology, or idiocy-logy, all to win the cup, it’s not on. Here we are, spending part of our beer budget on cricket club Ts, and they do this. What next, Red, blue and black, a ménage a trois?

So here I am cheering last years’ Delhi Daredevils, which in my opinion looked better then, in more ways than one.

Fake IPL Player and the movies.

I think the 'Fake IPL Player' blog is a hyped KKR-Bollywood stunt. The blog could be assembled by more than one guy, but with the final go-ahead from the big boss – anybody who’s read Akash Chopra, self ridiculing style will be thinking, is it him?

Just think back to his U.K. Diary in Hindustan Times – they pulled no punches. Chopra, at no point, made excuses for himself as a player, or the reason behind his cricket cum business trip, playing some lowly league cricket on deathly damp pitches where no sane cricketer would dream of a pitch inspection leave alone a game.

Then there’s the almost aloof Murali Kartik, done time in the counties again, picked some of that wry English humour, have you M?

And what about SRK, back to school, theatre, bring some of that drama into his team?

Either way KKR don’t lose – they’re the only team that has been in the news through-out.

Look at the build up in the blogs, the almost Hitchcockesque tension, as if the fake IPL player will be stabbed blogging in the shower.

Either way, this is masti. And that’s what the IPL is? For a test match, the 12th man can write a book. Leather bound obviously.

Bored Cricket Crazy Indians (BCC!) posted the 'Fake IPL Player' even before fake could post it.

The IPL Effect

Guard, can you tell those DLF Maximums to get lost.

(click on image to enlarge)

Notes: In the IPL, DLF Maximum is the term used to call a sixer. A sixer, also Chakka in Hindi, is also the term used for a eunuch. Can't believe i wrote this, but then, i can't believe they say it.

JATMAN

A scribble and a song, here you go, Jatman!

Wrong

You can tell that some days are meant to be wrong.

From the instant you wake up, you can smell the wrongness in the room.

It’s the day when the aphids decide to bloom, and gain immunity to poison.

It’s the day when a management guru's honda blocks your exit route.

It’s the day when mercury seeps through the concrete and makes it hotter inside than it is outside.

It’s the day when traffic in a silent tucked away slice of suburbia beats that beyond the walled city.

It’s the day when Delhi’s longest school bus sharpens its reversing skills against your patience and the neighbourhood hedge.

It’s the day when the management guru blocks your entry route.

It’s the day when the aphids greet you again.

It’s the day I learnt Che pulled out of IPL 2.

Mallya gets high on India's heritage

Che for Dummies

When your name’s Cheteshwar Pujara and you’re trying to make it in the big, bad world of Indian cricket....Read more here

The Terminal.

It’s imperative to show the cricketers we care, not with an Archies’ card, but with far more inventive methods within our grasp.

I for one, never let go of a ‘we care’ opportunity, usually it’s subtle, thoughtful yet laden with impact.

Take for instance that chance encounter with Venkatesh Prasad in the summer of ‘96, when he was one of the boys, and so was I.

It was terminal 2, at the IG Airport Delhi, he was off for the England series, and I to an undisclosed location.

Yet there they were, across a crowded terminal, the bunch of them Indian team wallahs.

Prasad still had that glazed look, and he was searching for well-wishers in the mid-distance.

Which is where I was, what to do?

As 10 metre distances don’t accommodate handshakes, even for the long reaching Venki, and security was beckoning, (yes, there was security even in those days)…

I raised my right arm, arrow straight, halfway as in Venkatesh Prasad’s bowling action, poised to bowl, the perfect wave, but with an obvious twist.

What did Venki do in return – He raised his arm, arrow straight, halfway as in Venkatesh Prasad’s bowling action, poised to bowl, the perfect wave, but with an obvious twist.

People say Venki talks about that wave even now.

I say, he must get over it, and concentrate on his coaching.

Read about Prasad in 2009, how he's changed

Little Bhajji + Sachin have a chat

With thanks to Straight Point

KP + wife on tour

also read:

KP gets a net

KP not to tour without wife