Dhoni and the English Premier League

I have very little interest in European football, partly because it is very fast and often ferocious for a laidback and subdued guy like me. It doesn’t bring into play the words respect and gentlemanliness. Oh! Oh! the sight of people trying to run amok. They can dance their way elegantly, after all! Like the Brazilians used to. When I first heard a kid use the ‘F’ word while missing a smash on badminton court a few years back, I looked at him with wide eyes. The kid’s grown up and still uses the word quite frequently. He has a lot of top cricketers to back him, those bred especially in T20 leagues, and my eyes don’t widen anymore. We live in times of brazenness --- damn the result and get it all out here itself. So when MS Dhoni was announced brand ambassador of English Premier League, I wasn’t surprised. He is the hottest property despite his IPL team being in hot water and what Uncle Srini had to go through. EPL wants a share of a bigger, non-elitist Indian market. They know the man to go to. He is the symbol of a new small-town India, where people now have the money and time to splurge on entertainment. The economy may be in doldrums for now, but the sentiment is always strong to borrow a phrase. We’ve seen how Dubai has successfully experimented with the expert commentators in Arabic. I quite liked the studio set-up, a local expert sitting in traditional robe and keffiyeh head-gear and another in two-piece suit – a perfect mix with plenty of passion in their comments. I can imagine this happening here and if the Hindi commentary is good, it can give cricket a run for its money. So, is Dhoni hitting the axe on his own foot as the adage goes in Hindi. Is he feeding something that can grab cricket’s market-share in the real India? For some additional change! The cricket board doesn’t seem to think so. Or they must be thinking that cricket has just got too much ingrained into the souls of people, thanks to IPL.

Yuvraj Singh: India discard, not yet Pune's

The prying eyes searched for Yuvraj Singh here as his team Pune Warriors India took the field for practice at the Sawai Man Singh stadium rather late on Saturday by which time the temperatures had sank enough to allow a little warm-up for even the most aged players. The cool evening wouldn’t have drawn out much body salts. In fact, the long-retired SA paceman Allan Donald, now the coach of Pune Warriors, came out of that session with little sweat. No one, however, could spot the ageing Indian southpaw. It was a day when he was excluded from India’s Champions Trophy squad and the attention had to be on him. Yuvraj Singh is among those few who make massive headlines on their comeback bids. Ever since he made his sterling debut in 2000 and promised brilliance, he’s flattered to deceive on quite a few occasions. But everytime he has come back strongly, he has conjured up elegance and ferocity together, something hardly any India batsmen, at least in the past twenty years, has been able to display. On the eve of his first international – a T20 --- after comeback from cancer late last year, the shots came through, even though age betrayed him on the field. MS Dhoni earnestly cried to people to not put extra pressure on him. It couldn’t be helped. He is a star and the comeback was another of his admirable efforts that caught everyone's fancy. In the ongoing T20 league, Yuvraj has shown those beautiful strokes only in patches and hasn’t impressed with fielding nor with his slow left arm spinners. That explains why the selectors decided for a wind of change. Despite that, Pune Warriors count him as their premier player. Of course, a team at the base of the points table can’t afford to think otherwise! Can they? Donald cleared all doubts saying that Yuvi will play. “Yes, he will,” he asserted, nodding his head in incredulity. “He wasn’t there for the practice, but he’ll definitely play.” Donald has had to do quite a lot of defending for his team. Try as he might, they just don’t win. And with Rajasthan Royals up this time in their backyard, it'll be a task. Although he put in some words showing optimism, he wasn’t exactly sanguine. “That’s the painstaking thing of being a coach,” he conceded towards the end of a press meet and then also mentioned frustrations of being a coach. Well, guess, it is time for Yuvraj to wipe frustration, his and Donald’s.