Friday 30 May 2008

Martin, eat crow


Provocation often comes from unexpected corners and in this case, Martin Crowe’s observation – Dravid had the 7th best side to work with in IPL – provided the fodder for thought.

Martin prepares a list where he meticulously catalogues what ailed the Bangalore Royal Challengers -- Murphy’s Law, Katrina Kaif’s omnipresence, Nargis (not the actress but the cyclone), soaring oil price, aftermath of China’s earthquake, Arushi Talwar’s assassins, Vikash Yadav, Dawood Ibrahim, Osama, ISI, CIA…

To cut it short, it’s apparently a tsunami—oops forgot to say, that too features in the list -- of reasons that swamped the side in the IPL.

A look at the list and you nod your ahead in appreciation and utter a word. Comprehensive.

Just pray it convinces Vijay Mallya, who is in a foul mood following a fresh USD 5 million jolt after Kimi Raikkonen ended Adrian Sutil’s dream run in Monaco Grand Prix.

Indeed, you can’t blame Mallya for feeling that Martin’s cousin Russell would have done a better job, making gladiators out of the Bangalore players, while adding glitz at the same time. And Russell too was interested in IPL, even though as franchise owner.

Seventh best team to work with Martin? I thought every team started equal and only after the league phases ended that calculators – in their case fingers sufficed – were out, points were tallied and teams were ranked accordingly!

Selective amnesia, Martin?

Flashback May 5 and Martin crowed in this interview “This team is my ideal IPL team.”

May the real Martin come out, please?

He lends shoulder to Dravid and says The Wall had a poor team to start with. But who picked the team in the first place? Mallya said Dravid went ahead with his own list, completely ignoring the players he wanted. And we are yet to hear a denial from Jammy.

Trying to lend a helping hand, Martin only invites more eggs and rotten tomatoes for Dravid.

Dravid maintains IPL has been a learning curve. I guess the lessons include -- why search for foes when you have friends like Martin?

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

superb post Som.... I read that piece by martin and it was ridiculous... his views are so idiotic that one feels next year they are going to have the same result.

straight point said...

rather than focusing what he was saying, which as you have aptly exposed som, i tried to interpret what he didnt say in between lines...

1. martin will be there next season as well

2. dravid wont have any say in selection in next season...

3. so the deal is already struck with dravid that he wont be there next season...at least for BRC...coz i don't see him accepting puppet job...

4. they are aggressively going to bid for viable T20 players...

5. will end up being DC...

Anonymous said...

Thnx Scorpicity. Martin fell from grace from my eyes.

Anonymous said...

SP, exactly so. Even though I don't expect Mallya to be convinced yet.
Noticed something? A Kiwi, who happens to be a Martin and almost happens to be a Crow, guzzling Kingfisher...hello, is it Discover Channel?

Anonymous said...

Being the topcat, and spewing out the necessary dollars for his new 'business' the onus was on Mallya to employ the right advisors, I am assuming he is not a cricketer himself.

Mallya cannot blame anyone but himself.

The team was not the 'seventh worst' it was the champion of the inappropriates. There were many predicting the outcome of this team, fairly accurately. The reference to a test team was spot on.

Someone had to go with Dravid as the icon player (in 2020s!!!); he drew the short straw. The rest of the story was scripted from there on.

I may be wrong, but players are contracted for three years, and franchisee cannot change teams for that period.

Som said...

Welcome Chinaman. Players could be bought and sold when the trade window opens in February.
But you would sell only when someone is interested in your player, isn't it?
I'm afraid BRC branded players would hardly find any taker, which will be worse for Mallya because he has to pay them anyway for the term contracted.

straight point said...

what have you done with your 'maal' maalya...

Q said...

I believe the New Zealanders over at sportsfreak will tell you that Martin has a history of saying stupid thing like these.

He says that they need more players suited to the 20-20 game.

Where do they intend to get those from?

Som said...

Q, Mallya surely didn't attend that history class! else he would not have made the blunder.