In this edition of Indian Premier League (hence IPL) the favourites will be Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super kings as the Chennai team won then the last edition of IPL4 and Mumbai is the close second. IPL inaugurated by Lalit Modi in 2008 to reduce the challenge forced by Indian Cricket League started by the Zee TV. Modi is no more at the helm of affairs and lots of controversies and dramas and now IPL is surving all these and going to start on April fourth of this year. In the first match the two time block buster champion Chennai will take on Mumbai in an exciting affair. IPL five has now has nine teams with the newer ones form the last season will be the Pune from Sahara groups with a new stadium , their own one to be justified as the case for it improved positions in comparison to the last edition where the Pune team stays one top form the bottom. BCCI increase the Pune team trading window to February 29 and also they have the opportunities to play the five foreign players subject to the approval of other franchise members. There was some controversies during the auction and the Sahara team withdraw form the auctions and later all the differences walked out within BCCI and Pune team of Sahara. IPL is all about entertainment , the entertainment with cricket of scoring high scores more than two hundred and also entertainment in all the fonts and that can be boost for the IPL an the success within for it. It is a challenge for the BCCI to attain to this and to make this the optimum efforts to make it more success as it is good for international cricket and for the healthy relationships of international cricket.
After lacklustre performance in the away series of England and Australia, ours bowlers and most of the batsman are out of form IPL is competitive and outs players can regain confidence and can get back their form by playing non stop competitive cricket. As Sunil Gavaskar had told a cricketer had to play relentlessly so that he would be reinventing himself from time to time. IPL has given opportunities to young and budding cricketers to play with the professionals and improve their play level to the maximum elasticity level. India is now comfortably chasing the target in One day international and fielding standard is now one among the best, these are positives but there are above mentioned negatives too. Bowlers are now mixing the deliveries with ease and now thinking about each and every delivery but the negative side is due to continuous travel they are getting tired and injury scarce is more now. Now the payers are psychologically examined and the strategy and its implementation are now becoming the part of the game plan. IPL is the city based franchises and Indian fans are slowly following the clubs but what about other smaller cities like that of Bhubaneswar, Patna ,Indore , they are choosing from any of the team to support. Shewag, Dhoni, Tendulkar has been icon players for their respective teams and they are performing and they are now synonymous with their respective franchises. In these three area the icon players and the fan followings are tremendously followed and this seems that IPL is slowly gaining momentum. What the IPL management is to aim at is not to go for any controversies and it should be away from the controversies other wise its reputation and the brand value can be reduced. IPL should be related to play and entertainment, as if anything goes to media especially the electronic media then it goes to the viral in negative ways and this can be harassing for IPL. This IPL may be the last one for Dravid , who retired after a disastrous tour of Australia and he has moved to Rajasthan and it is for sure he will paly at his best to get back the pride of Rajasthan who had won the first edition of IPL under able leadership of coach and mentor Warne.
What should IPL management do , as in case of every management, the managers should stay behind , they are like directors in a bollywood movie , they should be behind the scenes , away from the glares of electronic media and doing their job relentlessly. In this edition I want the fast bowler Sresanth to bowl fast and aggressively and taking wickets and come back to India team and same is for the Harbhajana and Uthapa to get back to the form as it is essential for the health and performance of Indian team. This year the favourites are definitely Chennai and Mumbai but the dark horse can be Bangalore. Delhi must hope for a better show this time as they are last in the previous edition, This time their batting is stronger with Shewag and Warner at the top followed by Pieter son, Mahela and Ross Taylor and in the bowling font Morne Morkel and Umesh Yadav in their disposal. The bad part is that in the first part of the tournament the absence of top cricketers and how Shewag able to manage and taste the success in these matches remains to be watched and his captaincy will be tested due to lack of resources in the first part of the tournament.. Bowling strength of Delhi are Irfan Pathan , Agarkar, Yadav ,Morkel, Varun Aron .
Pune the new entrant form the last season , marred with controversies and now it seems to be settled . It has no Yuvraj but still thi team looks good with Ganguly is the captain but I doubt the now abilities of him having struggling to get back his perform and that may affect his batting form, the squad is full of all rounder's which can be a boon or sometimes the curse so Pune have to be trading with caution while team selection. The last year disappointment Graeme Smith at the top , Uthapa, Ryder , Nehra and leg spinner Rahul Sharma. Smauels , Luke Wright are some of the prominent players in the line up that can spring surprise and bounce back form a difficult situation.
The Punjab team can be a difficult opposition as captained by Gilchrist and this depends has too much dependence with over seas players and this can be a catch twenty two situation for this team as if they are able to get back to their highest form then they can post a bigger challenge . Gilchrist, Paul, Marsh , David Hussey , Abhisekha Nayar , Stuart Broad, VRV Singh , Power some of the potent weapon in this team. They have lesser known domestic players those who had made their mark in some part of the tournament.
