Champions league CLT20 stage round recap

What happened thus far, a look back..

• Great inauguration, amazing choreography by Shaolin Monks and others.
• Boring speech which was booed by the audience; started clapping before he could finish. (Mr.Modi)

• MATCH1 - JP's great innings of 99, deserved a century.. An innings punctuated by traditional drives and pulls, no slogging.. A 105m hit for SIX that landed above the big screen.. RCB went down to this brilliant knock..

• AUSSIE might - Victoria and NSW impress with big wins that could put them in the next stage.. Thumping win against Delhi and Eagles respectively.. Showed their class and the strong domestic set up at display..
  

• IPL teams go down - 3 losses in as many matches.. RCB lost to JP's knock, Delhi to pitch and Deccan to Alfonso Thomas. A last ball thriller, from being 99 for 7 to chase down 153 speaks of Deccan's bowling strength...
  

• Empty stands await matches involving non-IPL teams.. Provokes Gavaskar to question the future of CL T20 in the absence of IPL teams in the 2nd round.. 
  

• Cape Cobras and NSW through.. Cobras went past Otago to become the 1st team to enter league stage.. NSW showed their might over Sussex Sharks a day later to qualify to the next round.. 2 champions are through.. 
  

• Amidst all questions and speculations, Delhi put up 170 on board, on a pitch where 120 is a par score thanks to Viru and Karthik.. Qualify for the league stage by gaining an unassailable Net Run Rate..
  

• RCB follow suit.. 2 IPL teams get through.. 
  

• The lesser teams bow out, Otago from Newzealand and Wayamba from SriLanka bid good bye to CLT20 earning USD200,000 each..
  

• Trinidad and Tobago surprise the world with back to back wins.. Deccan had to listen to their team music/ theme music - 'GO chargers GO chargers'.. The IPL champions GO out of the tournament.. 
  

• A super 'SUPER' over, 9/1 from Eagles and 0/2 from Sussex.. Cj De Villiers picks up 2 in 2..  Reason given from sussex- we are new to super over and have never played in it before.. ( do we give them practice matches for this too? Ridiculous)..

But what has left an impact,

 JP Duminy's brilliant 99 will be talked for sometime to come.. Unforgettable innings.. No slogging.. This gives the message that players need not change their stroke play but only change their mindsets in T20..

Laxman's knock of 40 odd has left not only Harsha Bhogle dumbfounded but also many of the cricket fans.. Laxman stepping down the wicket or playing a cross bat shot/slog was definitely not a treat to watch but leads us to say please save them from T20 gimmicks.. We would rather watch him score 20 in a test match than to see him slog his way to 50s in T20..

Where's the hype ? Where are the sponsors ? We never heard a ***** Maximum, or ******* 4s... 6s were plain sixes and 4s were plain fours.. Refreshing.. (Yes, Modi is still the man behind the tournament, no changes there)

Empty stadiums for matches not involving IPL teams.. That is a  worrying sign for the future of CL.. We can just brush away the thought saying this is the first year and people would take time to understand and identify with the teams involved..

STAR.. An anthem 'yeh cup kahin nahi jayega' (this cup will not go anywhere) and India bounced out of T20 World cup.. 'All the best India' campaign and India crash out of Champions trophy.. 'Diwali hogi cup wali' campaign, Rangoli (colours) to depict trophy from RCB, sweets stacked one above other for Delhi and a rocket firecracker turning into a cup for Deccan.. The most unrealistic campaign that of DC has ended.. As RCB and DD don't carry points they need to win all their matches to get into semis.. So, will STAR make it 3 out of 3..

Focusing on League stage, A1, A2, B1, B2 form League A and C1,C2,D1,D2 form League B..

                        LEAGUE A                           LEAGUE B
                     Trinidad and Tobago                     RCB
                      Somerset CCC                            Cape Cobras
                      NSW blues                                  Delhi Daredevils
                      Diamond Eagles                           Victoria Bushrangers

KPL

Yet another cricket tournament in India and another one in the same format as that of IPL..

ICL was the first to roll out city based teams all owned by the Zee group, IPL took it to unimaginable heights based on city loyalties and teams being owned by franchises..

The latest addition to that is Mantri KPL, 8 teams, 8 owners, 8 districts in Karnataka.

 

• The league shall have 8 teams from 8 locations that will compete in the KPL

• Each team shall be represented by a Franchisee and shall be a consortium of 3-5 districts allocated geographically, referred to as the catchment area.
• 16 day tournament with 2 matches every day from 16:00 to 19:00 hrs & 19:30 to 22:30 hrs (Day/ Night) 
• Each team shall play the other once, with the top 4 teams qualifying for the Semis and thereafter a final . Total - 31 Matches (28 League matches, 2 Semis and 1 final)
• The tickets are priced as Rs.49 and Rs.25, which is done in order to lure even the reluctant fans to the stadium.

The inaugural ceremony which ironically took place after a match was played comprised of laser show, "fusion" dance and the usual opening ceremony talks from the sponsors and organizers.. 

As has become customary, fusion dance supposedly a blend of traditional and modern dance hit the floors  but the latter was inconspicuous in its presence ..

 

  

It was no surprise that the eight participating teams lined up on the park for a ringside view of the cultural performances that were full of energy, if nothing else.

With fellow State Ministers Goolihatti Shekar and Katta Subrahmanya Naidu, as well as KSCA president Srikanta Datta Narasimha Raja Wadiyar and secretary Brijesh Patel in attendance, Transport Minister R Ashok declared the KPL open.. (after a match was completed)..

Laser show was organized which was the highlight of the ceremony as that was the only part that was visible from all parts of the stadium..

 

  

This is the layout of the stadium, the white line in the ground indicates the place where the stage shown in a picture above with "yakshagana" artistes performing was put up.. ( the pic has a Mantri banner )

 

 Clearly, 3/4 the of the stadium was cut off from the action and moreover the stands in front of the stage was more or less vacant with only the dignitaries occupying the pavilion stand, (yellow in color in the layout)..

Poorly organized function.. KSCA and KPL have tried to emulate IPL in every aspect and have failed to do so.. The event lacked brilliance and was not well organized.. The controversial and debatable strategic time out is also a feature of this tournament.. "COPYING" couldn't get worse !! IPL had specifically put the time out in place to cater to the increasing demand from the sponsors for ad space, cricketing perspective of the time out was debated across all sections and many prominent international stars did not find any positives in it.. KPL is not of the stature of IPL and neither does it have a crowded ad space, the only "ad" that is played in between overs is KPL anthem.. 

KPL which is looking at

• An opportunity to encourage cricket talent from the districts of Karnataka.
• A competitive platform for young, aspiring cricketers at the grass root level. ;

did not feature any of the stalwarts of Indian cricket who were from the native Karnataka.. Fair enough, Rahul Dravid was away with national duty but Kumble, Srinath, Prasanna, Chandrashekar, Syed Kirmani could have launched the event but were not to be found.. GR.Viswanath though was at the event because he happened to be the match referee..