THE NEW NIZAMS OF IPL

Hamad Hussain

The new Nizams of Indian Premiere League 2009 i.e. Hyderabad Deccan Chargers exacted the trophy by beating Royal Challengers Bangalore in an intense and breath-taking final. DC were the deserving champions of the IPL Doosra. Gilly has turned the fortunes of the team big time which had finished at the bottom of the table last year.

The cornerstone of Gilly’s success in IPL Doosra is very simple. He revealed some of the secrets of his success during his press conference, "The first thing I said at the start of our first meeting was, 'Guys, we're all in it together'. That was my first line of our inaugural team meeting and yeah, we're all going to enjoy this together."

Gilly also revealed another important phrase which he told to his team mates, “Make sure every ball is the most important thing in their life at that moment".

Gilly has given the credit to his franchise for believing in him and keeping their faith on his thoughts and plans. The franchise backed the changes Gilly wanted in the team.

The core change was [coach] Darren Lehmann, who was his team mate for many years and also shared room with him in many tours. Lehmann has a wonderful cricket brain and he is one of those coaches who has passed Level 3 Coaching course from Cricket Australia Centre of Excellence, Brisbane. Gilly also brought Australian fielding Coach Mike Young and fitness trainer Steve Smith in his team.

All these changes eventually paid off as Gilchrist not only lifted the trophy but also asserted Golden Player of the Tournament. RP Singh snaffled Purple Cap for grabbing 23 scalps in 16 matches. Rohit Sharma declared Citi Under-23 Indian Player of the Tournament.

The pattern of the inaugural IPL event continued as again a team with an Aussie skipper ended up being the Champions. The success of Aussies in IPL is quite evident as many Aussie players were the stars in this tournament like Hayden, Gilchrist, Symonds, Hodge, Nannes etc.

Another interesting thing in IPL Doosra is the performance of the retired Aussie players like Warne, Hayden and Gilly. They were the star performers for their franchises. One can say that Sehwag had missed the trick by benching McGrath. It will remain the big ‘IF’ of the IPL Doosra.

Royal Challengers Bangalore have also shown tremendous improvement in their performance under the captaincy of Anil Kumble. Dr Vijay Mallya must be very happy and satisfied man as his team finished runners-up this season and have qualified for the $60 million Champions Trophy.

The head was rolled in IPL Doosra which effect positively in the team performances except for Kolkata Knight Riders. Gilly lifted the trophy for Deccan Chargers, while Kumble took his team to the final whereas McCullum failed to make any impression to lead his side Kolkata Knight Riders to some point of success. We can expect that more heads will be rolled in the next edition of IPL to improve the performance of the teams.

Yuvraj Singh was the big disappointment as a captain of Kings XI Punjab. He was not only botched to motivate the team but his attitude was somehow over-aggressive and humiliating with his team members. He failed to lead from the front which cost his team and franchise the tournament.

Mumbai Indians who started the tournament as one of the favourites for the title again disappointed not only their fans but also their team owners. The performance of MI again raised the question mark on captaincy skills of Sachin Tendulkar who was once lacked creativity in his captaincy and looked very confused about his tactics and plans.

Despite the fact that Rajasthan Royals finished 6^th on the points table, Shane Warne was very impressive with his captaincy as RR weren’t in the field with their full strength side and missing their two key players, i.e. Sohail Tanvir and Shane Watson. RR hang on to win close encounters against Mumbai Indians in last over and Kolkata Knight Riders in the Super Over. RR player Yousuf Pathan won three Man of the Match awards in IPL Doosra which is the highest in the tournament.

Delhi Daredevils made their way to the semi finals on the back of the performance of overseas players. Sehwag was also looked confused and nervous in the semi final and the batting power of DD also failed to fire in the all important game.

Chennai Super Kings had a very mix tournament. The performance of CSK remained up and down right throughout the tournament. Albie Morkel of CSK, who was playing on his home soil, proved to be the biggest flop of the tournament. CSK were heavily relying on Hayden, Raina and Murali. Apart from these three players, everyone failed to make an impression during the tournament. There have been questions raised on the tactics of Dhoni and also his own performance during the tournament who also failed to repeat the heroics of the inaugural IPL.

Kolkata Knight Riders had a forgettable season again. The team were involved in every controversy and failed to put up a good show on the field. Right from the controversy of Buchanan’s four-captain theory to the racism in the team, the management failed to unite the team and as a result, KKR finished last in this tournament.

Lalit Modi has done it again. IPL Doosra is a big hit despite of the fact that it was played outside India. It was his bold initiative to keep IPL alive by taking it to South Africa. All the credit goes to him. He is the man with vision who believes in what he thinks. He makes things happen for him. The great planner is now looking to launch a shorter version of the tournament which makes two IPL tournaments every year, which is great for the game we call “Cricket”.