Indian Premier League - A worry of a captain or an opportunity for an youngster

IPL is drawing the attention of the promising cricketers with lucrative offers. Chennai splashed out $1.5 million (773,700 pounds) for Dhoni while Hyderabad paid $1.35m for Symonds.Indian paceman Ishant Sharma was bought by Kolkata for $950,000 and his partner Rudra Pratap Singh fetched $875,000 and was bought by Hyderabad. The matches played in 20-20 format are more exciting and
less time-consuming than the ODIs. In such matches the team has to perform above than their best and execute their winning strategy in the limited 20 overs.Also the youngstars have to prove their mettle to make a mark in world cricket.

The IPL offers are even more higher than the income earned by a cricketer from international matches.The adverse impact is that it may lessen the interest of a player in ODIs and domestic cricket due to fat packages in IPL matches. So Ponting was concerned when Andrew Symonds was in a fix whether to play against Pakistan in the coming Aussie-Pak series or earn a whopping pay(5.3 cr) fromthe IPL. He complained that ICC should have adopted the twenty-20 format earlier.He held the opinion that the IPL temptation could spoil the composition of the National team. Such concerns may also rise among the other captains of other international teams. Now such a situation has arrived that the shine of the ODI and test matches may be faded away by the IPL business. CEO of ICC Malcolm Speed said that the International cricketers are coached and developed by their countries and they are in demand by the IPL but their primary obligation is to their country.He also warned cricketing nations the schedule of the billion-dollar Twenty20 tournament should not dictate the international fixtures. Even Mohammad Kaif said that no cricketer worth his salt would consider it more important than donning national colours.

But such cash-rich offers may spellbind any novice or virtuoso. If the schedules coincide or if the time span between the international matches and IPL matches is small then a player may not get suffcient time to be with his home team to get the strategies or practice (suppose for a test match) and it can lead to both his failure and that of his team. Even differences in earnings can droop some players chosen in the IPL. Also it will be very hard for a player to relinquish such offers especially if any international match comes in the way. I am not against the IPL , but measures should be taken by ICC to favour everyone and every condition to preserve the integrity of the international matches from all angles.

Ganguly's omission from the One day team.Is it justified?

 On Feb 12 edition of The Hindu, I came across the article titled 'I have acceptedmy omission'. After reading the article , I hold the opinion that it was not judicious
to exclude Ganguly from the ODI team in the current Tri-Nation Series in Australia.I am very happy with the performance of the Indian Cricket Team in the test series
against the mighty Australians.In the one day matches, the team is delivering its best by defeating Australia. 

The recent loss of the India to Sri Lanka hasn't disheartened me because I know that India will certainly recover its loss. All that bothers me is the absence of
Ganguly in the squad. India set a competitive target of 195 in 29 overs to Sri Lanka which I felt was a very difficult target to chase.The bowlers are not the only ones to be blamed for their poor performance.I believe the presence of Ganguly could have made a difference. I am not against the promotion of young players in the team.But all I want to say that had Dhoni taken some tips from Ganguly in the field, the situation would have been different. Dhoni is not as experienced as Ponting or Ganguly or Stephen Fleming. 

 So the presence of an experienced captain in the team is a must. Also Ganguly was not at the worst of  his form. He played really well in the past series against Australia and Pakistan. It would have been better if Ganguly could replace Yuvraj(who is not at the best of his form).