So the show begins!

Gideon Haigh told recently, "T20 is a TV property masquerading as cricket".

Once cricket becomes a TV product, it is sure to bend to viewers needs and show what they would want to see. So all the effort goes to make life hell for bowlers and the work light for batsmen. The boundary rope is brought in considerably increasing chances of hearing the now too plentiful "DLF maximum".  Then there is the mongoose bat to deal with any venom from the bowler's end. The broadcaster's are leaving no stone unturned to allocate more airtime to advertisers than the actual action. The latest move is to show the ads playing in the big screen between balls. Shrewd indeed!

Whatever maybe the promotion or the place, it all boils down to the quality of the product. IPL will continue to grow and build more muscle. Its star cast ensures quality cricket, and at the end of the day it is the competitiveness which is the main USP. I only hope that bowlers get to have more say in the scheme of things and not imagine that going under 10 RPO is decent.

So the next one month is packed with intense action. All the more reason for every Tom, Dick and Harry to gossip, write, comment, criticize, blog, discuss, and what not. So the show begins, and only time will if the IPL will get bigger than the EPL or the NBA!

Pitch Report

On to some stuff from the cricketing world. Kevin Pietersen is quite worried. Andrew Strauss has been "rested" according to sources. But English captains have been removed for other reasons recently. So KP is rightly worried that Strauss has not done a Terry. So will they shake hands when they meet again (Considering that Terry and Wayne Bridge hardly exchanged looks)

Pakistan have hit rock bottom. To give their team a better record in the current season, ISI is organising the anonymously sponsored "Four Nation Stan Cup" featuring PakiSTAN, AfghaniSTAN, TurkmeniSTAN and UzbekiSTAN. By the way Afghanistan are favourites considering they chased 494 to win a first class game against Canada.

New Zealand are researching hard to clone Daniel Vettori. Who would not considering the batting-bowling-fielding-captaincy options provided by a single player. But Sourav Ganguly says the move will not work since it will mean having multiple captains in the same team.

The latest security demands have come from the umpires. They have asked Lalit Modi to provide them with helmets during the IPL considering the belters Indian curators are so famous for. And people new to cricket are asking how come the World 2020 is happening in 2010!