IPL 2009 News & Updates | IPL 2009 Videos Highlights, match dates and timings

So now that it is knocking at the door, hammering it down really, what can one finally look forward to from the Indian Premier League? I don't know about you but I am waiting for some cricket to take place. In recent times you might have thought that the IPL was a new movie, a music video, a new page 3 toy or a non-banking finance company. You can put what you want on the cover of the book, it only sells if the story is good and that is how it is going to be with the IPL where cricket is currently the step child grudgingly allowed into the family photograph. The cheerleaders might be good, the ads might be brilliant but it is those boring run-outs and catches, those mundane inhabitants of the real world, that determine who wins and who loses.

I know this sounds boring but the first thing I would like to see at the IPL is where the boundary rope is. If it is pulled in too much and hitting a six becomes an on-demand activity, cricket will cease to be a contest. It will be like one of those movie stars hitting twenty goons at one time. The World T20

championship told us that the bowlers had a role to play and it is the opportunity the bowlers are afforded that will determine how good the cricket is. Taking wickets was a very important part of the mix. It was wonderful to know.

I'd be curious to see how the big names go because I believe that this tournament is the opportunity for the little known, and less expensive, cricketers to shine. I believe every team should have discovered a

new star by game six or seven and it will be fascinating to try and predict who those players will be. If there is any lesson at all from the ICL (apart from the fact that the cricket should be on a channel that is in people's houses), it is that you underestimate any player at your own peril. These young men are audacious and love the big stage. And so when the lights come on, I expect some of them to slip into the front row.

And therefore return on investment will become an interesting way of judging players. How different will the star who costs 900,000 dollars be from the modest 50k man? And by the end, as the league matures and as learnings become apparent, people will start calculating whether it is better to have three players at 200,000 each rather than one at 800,000? Would the Arsene Wenger approach at Arsenal, where you are

forced to look at value for money, become popular or will the free-spending Chelsea style still survive? Indeed would young boys and girls start talking about supporting Mumbai Indians and Deccan Chargers instead of Liverpool or Man U? I would like nothing better than that. But there is no doubt that return on investment is a far better way of judging players than their price. A Shahrukh might be expensive but he delivers profits.

There are a few new captains around and their style will be something to look forward to as well. Mahendra Singh Dhoni backed his instinct in South Africa and let his young men take centre stage. In an extremely dynamic situation, where one over is five percent of the total, tactics become critical. In small games there is no sanctity to batting positions or indeed, to who bowls when. Opening batsmen complained that middle order players were taking over their jobs in one-day cricket. Well, in T20 a stage might well come where there are no openers and no middle order players, just batsmen who can bat anywhere. Robin Uthappa may be no.2 one day and no.7 on another and he must be equally good. No.6 might turn out to be your key batsman with shots we haven’t seen so far. We already know that the 'V' behind the wicket keeper is a reality where once it meant a player was playing straight down the ground. More new shots might emerge. More previously accepted ideas of safety might fly out of the window.

And what of the bowlers? Who is a good bowler? There will be no warm up deliveries, no gentle looseners and sleight of hand might be as useful as the perfectly delivered outswinger. Bowlers might pause in their delivery stride and release the ball after the batsman has committed himself. Learning to bowl straight might be a factor in the bowl out; indeed the regular bowler might not find a place there, replaced by someone who does, or can only do, very little.

It will be different, it will evolve its own subtlety but it will still remain a real contest.

As posted at Espnstar