All the High-Paying Jobs Have Moved to Bangalore
West Indies have learned what other industries have known for some time-- all the high-paying jobs have moved to Bangalore!
Deep Backward Point
Blog against the machine.
Tag: IPL
April 27, 2011
The Objective of Playing in the IPL
Ducking Beamers asks: what is the objective of a domestic player in the IPL?
But does it ever really translate into something more meaningful for these players? [..] Is it worth it for most of these players? Look at the top run getters and wicket-takers of 2009 — not many no-names there. A cursory look at the other seasons shows the same trends — a few low-fame players (Vinay Kumar, N. Ohja, A.T. Rayadu) — but not much else.
So, what is the objective?
Short answer: to increase your salary next year.
Long answer:
- There’s an off chance they make it to the internationals.
- They make a considerable amount of money.
- It’s not like they don’t contribute to a win, just because they don’t figure in the top 10 wickets/runs. Just take a look at today’s RCB v. DD match: Ojha, Rao, Mithun, Mohammed all played significant roles. And that’s where it gets interesting– if they do well this year, even if they don’t get selected for India, their IPL salary next year will go up considerably.
In fact, I would argue that in a tournament like the IPL where there is no real allegiance to the team, the goal of every single player is to be worth more next year.
April 26, 2011
How the IPL Helps the International Game
Image by Dhammika Heenpella / Images of Sri Lanka via Flickr
Malinga on his return to the international game in 2009:
“Because of the IPL I got a chance to come back to the national team,” he said at a media conference in Colombo. “After the injury nobody looked after me and I was not offered a contract. But thanks to the IPL I didn’t lose anything but I improved my cricket a lot. I’m saddened the way I was treated but not disappointed.”
The IPL takes a lot of heat for ruining the international game. Malinga’s retirement has been held up as an example of everything that’s wrong with the IPL, but without the IPL he may not have had a career to retire from.
April 12, 2011
How to Become an IPL Team Fan in Four Easy Steps
Ducking Beamers* wonders how to become a fan of an IPL team– the teams changed drastically year-over-year, there are only weak city-based ties and some teams are just plain bad:
This is my major problem with the IPL: why should I support one franchise over another?
In my opinion, it’s easy to pick a team. Here are my steps:
- STEP #1: Never root against Sachin Tendulkar.
- STEP #2: Make a list of all the players you love to watch. It doesn’t matter why you love to watch them. Maybe they swear a lot. Maybe they are good-looking. Maybe they slapped a player you hate. Maybe they actually play decent cricket. It does not matter. This is the IPL; the Filmfare Awards of cricket. It’s your license to be absurd.
- STEP #3: Remove all the bowlers from your list. IPL is a batsman’s game. Nobody likes watching the bowlers. Nobody.
- STEP #4: Find the team that has the most players on your list. The IPL is a cult-of-personality event, treat it as such. For me, that team is Kolkata Knight Riders, because it has Shakib, Eoin, tenDo and Yusuf. Kallis and Gambhir are just icing on the cake.
Now you have a team to root for! Wasn’t that easy?
And remember: the IPL is a Twenty20 tournament. Twenty20 is a fickle format, so be a fickle fan. If your team starts to falter, shift your allegiance to a team that actually plays well.
But until you know which team is playing well this year, my four-step program is fool-proof!
* I make it a point to attribute links to the individual who wrote the article, not their institution or company or blog (e.g. Bhogle instead of Cricinfo, Jarrod instead of Cricket with Balls, etc.). Ducking Beamers is not the name of a person, as far as I know. But I don’t know his real name.
February 1, 2011
Who is this Aaron Finch character?
Dirk Nannes on the IPL’s $300k surprise:
Yes, he drinks. Yes, he smokes. Yes, he blows bubbles with his gum when a bowler is running in to bowl. Yes he picks a fight with his quick mouth on the field. But he’s a damn fine cricketer and will always be one of the first picked in my team.
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