Krazzy 4 IPL

There is a scene in the movie Krazzy 4, in which Arshad Warsi tells the other three passengers of the car (Irfan Khan, Rajpal Yadav & Suresh Menon), that it’s the first five and last ten overs of an ODI game that are very interesting, exciting and provides the maximum entertainment and should not be missed at any cost. He gets worried as they wait in the car for Juhi Chawla to come and expresses his anger that they are going to miss the starting overs of the match, listening to which Suresh Menon innocently poses an interesting question - then why do they play the middle 35 overs?

That scene though intended to be funny and evoke laughter from the audience, could not get the kind of response the director might have liked for the simple fact that the audience at that time must be thinking about the Twenty20 matches which essentially removed 30 of those middle overs. If the response to the first five games that are played at the time of penning this article is any indication of shape of things to come. IPL will be a stupendous success for every one involved right from the TV Audience to the Stadium spectators and from the big money throwing sponsors to attention grabbing celebrities.

Though the popularity of the new format which makes the players from both sides adapt to a totally different strategy to come on top of their opponents, I believe the players can still come out good as long as they continue their regular batting and bowling styles with minimum adjustments like looking for a single while defending if you are batsman and not bowling short pitched and extra deliveries if you are a bowler. Those who took the game with those basic principles like Brendon McCullum, Mike Hussey, Glen McGrath and Muralitharan flourished whereas established players like Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Saurav Ganguly and Wasim Jaffer must have had two minds about their approach to the game when they came on to crease and perished without really making any impact on their IPL debuts.

The grand opening and the packed house at Chinnaswamy stadium brought huge smiles to the BCCI Chiefs and muted the skeptics who were till then wary of the success of the biggest shake-up in International cricket since Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket. Cricket Administrators on the other continents have already working extra hours to cash in on the opportunity that this new form of sports entertainment provides.

Brendon McCullum’s electrifying innings of 158 not out of 73 deliveries for Knight Riders in their total of 222 for 3 which helped Kolkata beat Bangalore’s (not so) Royal Challengers in the IPL Kick-Off game as it set up the tone for the month and half long tournament and SRK’s dance in the VIP stands. The record total was easily surpassed by Chennai Super Kings the following day in which Michael Hussey hit 116* of just 54 balls in a total of 240 for 5.

All eight teams of the League have already played at least one game and Kolkata Knight Riders seem to be the favorites to emerge as the champions as of now with two wins from their two outings and they have not yet called for the services of Chris Gayle & Umar Gul. On Paper Rajasthan Royals team looks like the weakest link of the tournament. Of course they are still waiting for the arrival of Graeme Smith, Dimitri Mascarenhas & Morne Morkel.

At a personal level my biggest disappointment so far has been unfortunately my home team, the Deccan Chargers, though they were caught on a really bad wicket at Eden Gardens. Like the movie ‘Krazzy 4’ with a great star cast backed up by Roshan family members and item numbers by Hrithik, SRK & Rakhi Sawanth failed to impress the audience with a slow narration by debutante director Jaideep Sen, the star-studded Chargers line up too failed to muster a decent score on a turning wicket with an unimaginative batting display. I sincerely feel the availability of Shahid 'Boom Boom' Afridi should bring a new vigor into the team when they play their home opener at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium at Hyderabad against Delhi Daredevils, who are fresh from their very convincing victory against Rajasthan Royals.

Coming to the Telugu Cinema World: No big releases this week and a couple of comedy movies and another couple of dubbing films failed to deviate the attention of cricket watching public and attract them towards the theatres. A sizable portion of the big drop in box-office collections of all movies especially the matinee, first show and second shows can definitely be attributed to the BCCI, who I doubt will have any complaints about that and will surely be laughing their way to the Bank.

BTW, the music of Dil Raju/Bommarilu Bhaskar/Allu Arjun combination PARUGU, really rocks. This is Mani Sharma’s best music composition for a very long time where melody rules and the lyrics can be heard. Nammavemo Gaani, Hrudayam Vorchu Kolenidhi and Ennennenno Voohalu songs are realy good. Other three songs of the album too though can not be termed as great are better than most of the songs heard in recent times.

This Week’s Trivia:

Couple of days back (April 19th 2008) Faqeer Ali, son of Former Indian Cricketer and a native of Hyderabad, Syed Abid Ali and son-in-law of India’s former wicket keeper Syed Kirmani, under tragic circumstances suffered a heart attack and died on the field while batting fluently at the time for Tracy United Cricket Club in a NACL(North California Cricket League).cricket match at Fremont , California, USA.

I extend my heartfelt condolences to Abid Ali & Syed Kirmani and all the family members and friends of Faqeer Ali. May his soul rest in peace

Cricket and Cinema: My passion and obsession:
.• JALSA on Celluloid and on Cricket minefield
.• Cricket and Cinema connections

About Vijay Jeedigunta: Vijay Saradhi Jeedigunta is a great fan of Cinema and Cricket and follows them as passoinately as any other Indian in spite of living in US for last 14 years. He Lived in Hyderabad,Graduated from Osmania in Electrical Engg and worked for Allwyn and Dr. Reddy's Labs before moving to USA in 1994. Before going to US he worked on some Doordarshan Documentaries and won the best TV Reviewer award for his Eenadu column called 'Cinnithera Chidvilasam'. He also had small stints as All India Radio's Official Statistician for Reliance Cup and some ODIs and Test matches. He was also a frequent contributor to Deccan Chronicle in their weekly sports page. He lives in Bridgewater, NJ with his wife and children. Currenlty employed by IBM as Managing consultant, he spends his spare time writing for dreamcricket.com. He also participates in a weekly radio show on cricket for EBCRADIO (1170 AM) in New Jersey. To know more about him you can visit my profile on orkut at http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=15920368379975419443 and his cricket blog http://cricketestats.blogspot.com You can send all your inquiries and suggestions to [email protected]