On IPL 2008

My opinion on IPL matches:

1. Well organised, damn well marketed
2. Lalit Modi demonstrated amazing energy, travelled almost non-stop, solving trivial to huge issues everywhere.
3. Yuvaraj & Rahul Dravid - didnt perform well as captain; VVS was damn lucky to get away.
4. Fielding ability - let down by most teams
5. Best match - Mumbai Indians Vs Punjab; Punjab's bowling in this match was disaster !! Run Outs saved the day :)
6. Players to watch out - Yusuf Pathan, Gony, Dhawan, Badrinath, Ashok Dinda,
7. Players to chuck out - Agarkar, Chanderpaul
8. Captains not remembering their team mates name continued to be a bad joke until they started noting down on paper !!
9. Repeated episodes proved that there is no great dressing room interaction as hyped !!!

On controversies

1. Bhajji - Sreesanth slap row was the worse one could have imagined. Really bad.
2. Rest of controversies like Ganguly-SRK spat, umpiring issues were hypes of media more than the nature of issue.
3. SRK's dug out row was a bad joke on hero in a serious movie.
4. Vijay Mallya's outburst and his retreat did not add any value to his image.


Improvements required:

1. Abolish cheergirls tamasha and replace with chennai sangamam like concept
2. Walk around the stadium by players can be introduced as a routine to facilitate photographing, autographing etc...
3. Two players in fielding side can be given base ball kind of glove. This would bring some more interesting twists in a batsman's match !!!
4. Picture Clarity to help decision making pls.... Ganguly - Smith catch episode, Mumbai Indian Smith-Marsh Run-Out re-plays are notable failures !!!

Prediction for next year:

1. ICON player concept could go
2. Two more cities could come on board
3. More filmstars especially female stars could join the party
4. What about Official betting... think it would add lot of fun !!!