More money than sense in IPL-2
By Abdul Ahad Farshori
The curtain fell on the Indian Premier League last Sunday with a spectacular explosion of sounds and sights and a reinforcement of the belief that the cricket has taken a back seat to all the other stuff that is going on and off and around the field.

When Pakistan went to the resort town of Kuantan on the east coast of Malaysia earlier this summer, they knew fully well that the task assigned to them had little margin for error.

Their assignment was to win the 2009 Asia Cup hockey tournament that was played from May 9-16 and qualify for next year’s World Cup in India. Any failure to achieve that target would relegate them to playing in the World Cup qualifiers scheduled to take place later this year.

It was a huge challenge for an under-performing Pakistan team that finished at a poor fourth position in the five-nation Sultan Azlan Shah Cup that was played in April this year in the Malaysian city of Ipoh.

Pakistan had won the last of their three Asia Cup titles way back in 1989 in New Delhi and since then even the best of their teams had failed to lift the crown.

So when Pakistan coach Shahid Ali Khan declared that his team was capable of winning the contest in Kuantan, not many people were ready to believe him.

Just weeks later, they were proved right when Pakistan lost 0-1 in the final to Korea.

Shahid and his charges may not have been able to achieve their primary task which was to secure a spot for the 2010 World Cup by winning the Asia Cup, but they did prove a point ñ Pakistan were easily one of the best teams in the event and with a little more luck they would have won the title.

Although they fell short at the last hurdle, Pakistan underlined the fact that with the return of some of their senior players, they certainly are a strong team.

Pakistan’s performances against old rivals India and Malaysia were the highpoints of their Asia Cup campaign.

After a 2-2 draw against China in their opening game, Pakistan marched into the semifinals of the seven-nation contest by edging out India 3-2 in an exciting encounter that was easily the best match of the tournament.

In the semifinals, Pakistan were in explosive form and blasted the hosts 4-2 to set a date with Korea in the final.

The Greenshirts finally paid the price for their erratic attack against the Koreans, losing 0-1 in the final to end their otherwise exciting run in the tournament on a disappointing note.

"We were a bit disappointed after losing in the final," Shahid told The News on Sunday’ in an interview. "But thankfully an encouraging sign is that the boys showed a vast improvement in Kuantan," he added.

It is because of that ëvast improvement’, Shahid is confident that Pakistan will go on qualify for the 2010 World Cup.

Shahid’s charges are yet to know the complete details of their preparatory programme for the World Cup Qualifiers.

According to Asif Bajwa, the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) secretary, the reason why a complete programme has not been prepared yet is because Pakistan are yet to know the details of the qualifying event in which they will be taking part.

Bajwa, a former Olympian, has gone back to the drawing board in a bid to prepare a blueprint for success ahead of this November’s World Cup Qualifiers.

Bajwa, who was Pakistan’s manager at the Asia Cup, said that the PHF has lined up a Test series against England this summer and is also trying to confirm a similar assignment against Wales. An invitation has been sent to the Chinese hockey association for a series here or in Dubai.

The PHF secretary told this correspondent that a maximum number of matches will be lined up for the national team this summer in a bid to get it ready for the World Cup Qualifiers.

"There are three continental events still to go and once they are over by this August, we will know the exact details of the qualifying rounds and in which of them our team will be taking part," he said.

The first World Cup qualifying tournament will be held in Lille, France from October 31 to November 8, 2009. The second event will be held in Invercargill, New Zealand from November 7 to November 15, 2009 while the dates and venue for the third event is yet to be finalised. "Once we know the formation of the qualifying event in which our team will be competing, only then we can finalise our complete preparatory programme," said Bajwa, a former Olympian.

Pakistan are also planning to push for an extra Men’s Hockey World Cup spot for Asia.

Bajwa that he will send a proposal to the International Hockey Federation (FIH) and the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF), asking the international and continental hockey bodies to raise Asia’s World Cup quota ahead of the 2010 edition of the quadrennial spectacle. A positive response from the FIH would confirm a World Cup ticket for Pakistan, who finished as the second-best team in this month’s Asia Cup.

"Asia was once the powerhouse of world hockey and still has some of the finest talent and yet we have just one direct World Cup slot," said the former Olympian. "We will request the world hockey bosses to reconsider Asia’s World Cup quota and raise it to two," he added.

The 2010 World Cup which is penciled in for New Delhi from March 3-20 next year just about nine months away, it seems quite unlikely that the FIH would accept Pakistan’s demand.

However, the PHF is hopeful of a much more positive outcome.

"We would float the idea of increasing the number of competing teams from 12 to 16," said Bajwa. "If the Junior World Cup can have 20 teams, then why can’t the FIH add four more teams to the World Cup which is the most important event on the international hockey circuit," he said.

The FIH last year decided to raise the number of teams for the Junior World Cup -- to be co-hosted by Malaysia and Singapore next month -- from 16 to 20. The move was hailed by the world hockey community and Bajwa expects a similar reaction to an increase in teams for the 2010 Men’s World Cup.

Even if the campaign is unable to yield positive results, Pakistan hockey shouldn’t lose hope. After all, things are getting better for it.

The Olympic Stadium Rome, was buzzing, it was party atmosphere as fans started taking their seats before the kick-off.

There was something different about this match, something that set it above all other matches of the season. A capacity crowd in the stadium and millions across the globe had waited for this very moment, it was indeed the UEFA Champions League final 2009 between the best two teams in the world -- Barcelona and Manchester United.

The fans held their breath as the match kicked off and the battle began between two teams who have the world at their feet at the moment. Barcelona were nominated as the home team and they were playing in their blue and red home kit. While, United were in white.

The match was personified as Messi vs Ronaldo, the best players on the planet. Messi plays for Barcelona and Ronaldo is the heart throb of a flamboyant United squad that has few equals.

It reminded people of the famous World Cup 1974 final between the Netherlands and West Germany. That match too saw a clash between two legends of the game, Dutch maestro Johan Cruyff and Franz Beckenbauer of Germany.

However, unlike Cruyff and Beckenbauer, Ronaldo and Messi were not in direct opposition. Manchester United’s Patrice Evra was given the herculean task of keeping the genius from Argentina quite. Evra had done it before last year when United met Barcelona in the semifinals of the Champions League.

But, Messi and Barcelona were on a revenge mission and so was their young coach, Pep Guardiola. Guardiola had replaced Frank Rijkaard at the start of the season and he revamped the Spanish side, offloading Ronaldinho and Deco in the process.

This however, provided Messi to become the new showman at Nou Camp after Ronaldinho’s departure. Also, Henry was promised first team football by Guardiola.

Barcelona swept everything aside right from the start of the season, they managed to score a staggering 150 plus goals and shred oppositions apart. They topped their Champions League group and in the pre-quarter-finals defeated France’s Lyon. In the quarter-finals they hammered Bayern Munich, while a last minute away goal against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge took them to Rome.

They also humiliated Real Madrid in La Liga and eventually won the Spanish title convincingly. They also won the Spanish King’s Cup and were eager to become the first team in Spain to claim a treble, something their rivals on the night had achieved in 1999.

Even Manchester United enjoyed one of the best seasons in their history as they lifted the World Club Cup in December last year and then beat Tottenham in the final of the English League Cup. They were on their way to claiming an unprecedented quintuple, but, the dream ended when an under-strength Manchester United team lost on penalties to Everton in the semifinals of the FA Cup.

United successfully defended their Premier League crown and were one trophy away from claiming four in a single season. United cruised through the group stage and beat Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan over two legs in the pre-quarter finals. Porto gave them a tough time in the last eight, but, a wonder strike from Cristiano Ronaldo saw them through to the semis, where they faced Arsenal. Surprisingly though Arsenal couldn’t put up a fight and United just steamrolled them to make it to the final.

But, in the final they were up against a team that could score goals at will, they were up against Barcelona. United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, deployed his main man, Ronaldo, up front and Giggs played in a supporting role. Rooney and Park played wide as Berbatov and Tevez sat on the bench. United were without Darren Fletcher who had played the defensive midfielder role to perfection all season, but, he was suspended for the match.

Barcelona’s problems were perhaps bigger as they had both their wingbacks out through suspension. Dani Alves and Eric Abidal had provided that extra width to Barcelona all year, but, they too could just sit on the sidelines and watch.

Rio Ferdinand was back in the centre of defence for United.

It was all about scoring first and exhausting your opposition out of the match. And, when one such chance fell to Eto’o he took it like his life depended on it. Barca were in front, and that was that.

Guardiola couldn’t allow Ferguson’s men to stage a comeback and he shifted Messi to the midfield. This allowed Barcelona to hold the ball more as United desperately searched for an equaliser.

Ferguson changed his tactics at halftime and sent in Carlos Tevez for Anderson. But, the problem was in the defence and there was nothing much Ferguson could do about it, he had fielded his regular back four. The writing was on the wall and when a diminutive Messi leapt the highest to head home the second, Barcelona fans were in ecstasy. Contrasting emotions spread across the stadium.

United were down and out, they were beaten by a better side -- better on the day at least. Ferguson’s dream of becoming the first manager in the history of the Champions League to retain the title failed to materialise, while his opposite number became the youngest manager in the competition to guide his team to glory.

Mercurial Messi ended the season as the top scorer in the competition. Messi also strengthen his candidacy as the best player in the world -- the title currently held by Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United.

Nabeel Naqvi is a staffer at The News (Karachi) nnaqvi2000@yahoo.com

The curtain fell on the Indian Premier League last Sunday with a spectacular explosion of sounds and sights and a reinforcement of the belief that the cricket has taken a back seat to all the other stuff that is going on and off and around the field.

May it be Lalit Modi’s speech, to Akon miming and Eddie Grant singing old tunes.

The basic question that arises is that what was the main reason or how else does one explain that the actual handing over of the trophy to Adam Gilchrist and the Deccan Chargers took place nearly two hours after they’d completed their six-run victory over the Royal Challengers Bangalore?

The ceremony was started by Lalit Modi after few words he invited President of South Africa Jacob Zuma for a speech that was barely audible, and in which he didn’t forget to thank the Bollywood celebrities – Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty.

Followed by another speech from Modi in which he thanked everyone including his wife and family, Akon, Grant and a dance routine from Katrina Kaif.

No-offence in thanking the celebs as they also own the teams but the point is where were the cricketers, the supposed super-stars of the show?

May be they were milling about near the dressing rooms, having a drink, some taking pictures, but mostly looking bemused as they tried to figure out when they’d collect their spoils or atleast be mentioned by anyone.

This seems to be one of the IPL’s many major problems. It has failed to draw its thin fine line between the entertainment provided by the cricket and the entertainment from the singing, dancing, drumming and DJ-ing.

Twenty20 for a sports fan is enough of an entertainment spectacle on its own without the rest of the junk that has accompanied IPL matches and is now being done everywhere with Twenty20.

For heavens sake, let the cricket be what it is don’t turn it in to a masala movie made just to reel-in money, that’s what the format was invented for in the first place -- it’s not as slow and as drawn out as Test cricket and it doesn’t have the boring middle overs bit from the One-day International game.

Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Sachin Tendulkar, JP Duminy, Anil Kumble, Shane Warne, Herschelle Gibbs, Yusuf Pathan, Virender Sehwag and Brett Lee are few of the players who are sufficiently skilled and exciting enough to carry off the entertainment on their own without so much of the dancing and music.

What was proved by the players in this tournament was, not-with-standing Modi and television producers’ desperate attempts to break up the game and insert seven-and-a-half-minute TV commercial time in the middle of each innings -- termed as technical time-out.

South Africa’s own domestic Twenty20 league is an example of sufficiently innovative (and reasonably so in terms of what it has offered off the field), so as not to overwhelm the action taking place on it. The cricket remains paramount and so should be the modus-operandi of the game.

While there are concerns about the pre-eminence of Test cricket and the survival of the One-day format, it may be worth asking if the Twenty20 if kept on going like this is at a risk of being swallowed up by itself, certainly in the case of the IPL which doesn’t appear to know what’s important, the music and the pageantry or the game.

IPL is not WWE but it’s slowly and steadily getting to that. Already television bosses from ESPN-Star who want to create a Twenty20 league in England have made demands about the number of Indian players that have to be present in each team.

That can’t be a good thing -- when television starts dictating the make up of the teams you may as well ask Shah Rukh Khan to pad up and hit the winning runs that will definitely boost the TRPs.

When Gilchrist and the Chargers eventually lifted that ostentatious trophy the Wanderers was barely a third full. That’s a damning indictment on Modi and the IPL for getting their priorities totally wrong. But then coming to the point their priority has never been the promotion of cricket, it’s always been money and they certainly made a lot of that in South Africa in the last six weeks.

But if the game was not as much fun in cricket terms, commercially it did well enough. It has been estimated that IPL-2 earned between Rs150 crore and Rs200 crore more than last time.

This includes broadcasting revenues which are expected to double and all teams will get very considerable fees in terms of central sponsorships as well as in stadia advertising and gate revenues.

Further the teams such as finalists Deccan and Royal Challengers Bangalore will benefit from increased valuations this year. Another benefit will accrue to the teams from the compensation they will receive from the BCCI for the shift in venue from India to South Africa.

As for the BCCI if the costs in conducting the tournament abroad has meant that extra expenditure has been incurred; however revenues and therefore profit is also expected to increase this year over last year.

The sale of the telecast rights of the IPL was the main source of the BCCI’s income which was renegotiated as per an out of court settlement. Advertising and franchisee fees are other areas where the BCCI makes its money. As of now, estimates put the figure of Rs225 to 240crore as being the collective profits for the franchisee teams; the increase coming mainly through an increase in broadcasting rights.