The World cup, 2011 has entered the third week, and this time there have been no major surprises, except for Ireland who have managed to cause quite a stir by causing the only upset of the tournament till now by beating England in a game that saw more than 650 runs being scored.

Before the World Cup had actually started, India, England, and Australia were the likeliest to lift the world cup, and in that order too. In the past three weeks, nothing has changed. Most teams have played as was expected from them.

The team that seems to have run into a spot of bother is England. They have not been able to win a single match comfortably. In their first match against Netherlands, they were set a stiff target to chase, and it took some them 48.4 overs to win that game. In their second match against India– a match between two great batting sides – they faced the daunting task of chasing a score of 338 to win. To their credit, they put up a great batting performance, but could not manage to convert their effort into a win. The game however turned out to be the most exciting this world cup has seen, and ended in a tie.  Then, once again against Ireland, England gave a demonstration of how good a batting side they were, but once again they floundered in the fielding department and allowed Kevin O’Brien to run away with the match. Finally, their batting collapsed in Chennai, on a pitch that was helping bowlers for a change, but this time England managed to bowl well and beat South Africa in a low scoring match. Having four close games back to back so early in the tournament can be draining for any side. Even before the tournament, one could hear whispers about England’s best having come just before the World Cup during their tour of Australia. These whispers have gained strength now, and England will have to overcome this additional mental block in order to become the champions.

South Africa is a side that has had the capability of winning almost every world cup they have played, yet they have never managed to do so. For many years, they have carried the nickname of “chokers” and Graheme Smith, along with his teammates, has worked hard over the past couple of years to shed that image. However, it seems like that they might need more work before they are able to do so. They were doing well in their match against England, but could not convert a good effort into a win. It looks like the proteas have still more work to do before they can become a World Cup winning side.

India makes up for the one sixth of the world population, and cricket is the one of the few games that India plays well. Therefore, it is no surprise that a large number of cricket lovers are rooting for India this time around. Many people would love to see India win, if for no other reason than to see the World Cup in the hands of the little master. Sachin Tendulkar has consistently been one of the best batsmen in world cricket for the last twenty years, yet he has not been able to be a part of a world cup winning side. He would love to change that, and so would his fans, especially since this  is going to be the last world cup for the great man. Emotional reasons aside, this Indian side definitely has the batting firepower to post huge totals on any pitch, but the bowling and fielding departments seem to be lacking the edge. However, no bowling side seems to be comfortable bowling on these batting friendly pitches, and India might be able to make the best use of familiar grounds and familiar conditions.

Australia, however, will try their best to dash Sachin’s dreams and would be looking to win their fourth successive  world cup in a row. Even though the Australian side has lost the unbeatable image they had been carrying for long, they still seem to be one of the strongest contenders for the World Cup. They are good in both the bowling and the batting departments and it will be a challenge for any side to beat them.

Before the World Cup started, no one would have given either Pakistan or West Indies much of a chance of winning the World Cup, but both the teams have proved in the games they have played till now that they will be no pushovers. However, both these sides do not seem to have what it takes to win the World Cup. They might be able to pull off some good matches, but winning the World Cup seems to be a long shot for them.

2011 is India’s best chance to replicate the achievement of the Indian cricket team that brought home the cup in 1983. However, India needs to be wary of Australia and England who would try to do everything in their power to keep India away from the cup that matters.

Kallu Koylewala limped into the living room of his house. “Imarti Rani,” he called out to his wife in a shrill voice wiping the sweat from his bald head. Imarti came into the living room from the kitchen smelling of turmeric and garlic. She looked at her husband’s dark face, his dhoti and kurta, which were white when she had given them to him in the morning and were now almost blackened with coal dust.

He took out a wad of 500 Rupee notes and gave it to her.

“What, the notes are smudged in coal again. You know the sabzi wala and doodh wala don’t accept these blackened notes of yours. And whenever I go to the kirana wala, I hear those jealous women whispering amongst themselves that we have black money. Why don’t you do something about it?” She screamed waving the wooden rolling pin at his face.

“Keep them inside and get me a cup of tea,” said Kallu as if he didn’t hear anything. Imarti went into the bedroom mumbling something. She lifted the mattress on the bed revealing a zip underneath. She opened the zip and plop, out fell a couple of wads of coal smudged 500 rupee notes. She shoved them all inside the mattress.

She came into the living room again and placed the tea cup with a rattle on the table. Kallu flicked a channel and the TV started to broadcast a 20-20 cricket match. “Are you listening,” said Imarti looking at the bowler on the screen who was rubbing the ball on his thigh. “The other day Sharmaji’s wife was telling me, that these big business men are all converting their black money into white money by purchasing these cricket teams. Why don’t you do it too? All the money has started falling out of the mattress now.”

“Shut up and don’t talk stupid,” said Kallu looking up at Imarti. “If somebody hears that and reports it to the IT department we will be in jail.”

“Then don’t tell me if there’s no milk or vegetables tomorrow. No one is ready to accept this black stained money. They all want their money to be clean.”

“They are all jealous of my money. Now stop screaming before the IT department raids our house.”

* * * * *

Early next morning Imarti was woken by a loud banging on the front door. She ran to the door covering her head with her saree pallu. As soon as she opened the door she gave a short cry of bewilderment, horror and surprise all at the same time. In front of her stood eight tall men all wearing grey Safari suit and dark glasses. Every one of them had thick black hair combed so tight that not even hurricane Katrina would be able to ruffle them.

“Is this where Kallu Koylewala lives,” asked one of the men.

Imarti couldn’t say anything. She just gawked at the eight well-built, tall men.

“Yes I am Kallu Koylewala,” said Kallu almost tumbling into the living room pulling a dirty vest over his pot belly.

“We are from the IT department and we have been informed that you have a lot of black money and that you are trying to convert them into white money by buying a cricket team. And your wife will also be a stakeholder in the team.”

Now both Kallu and Imarti were gawking at the men.

“All the money that I have got is this,” mumbled Kallu and pulled out a few coal smudged ten rupee notes from the pocket in his pajama.

“Mishra check if the money is black,” said the man who had spoken first.

Mishra stepped forward, took the money from Kallu’s hand and looked closely at the black stains all over the notes.

“Yes sir, it’s black money,” declared Mishra.

“Mr. Kallu we will have to search your house,” said the boss.

Imarti slapped her forehead, sat down on the floor and started crying. Kallu fell on the sofa clutching his chest.

The men spread out all over the house and started to turn it upside down.

“Sir, I have found it,” Mishra’s voice came from the bed room.

They all ran into the bedroom. Mishra was standing clutching a handful of black, stained five hundred rupee notes and with the other hand he had raised the mattress. The zip was open and several black stained notes were trying to get out of the opening.

“Mr. Kallu you will have to go to jail for this. And since your wife was supposed to have a stake in the cricket team you were talking of purchasing last night she will also have to go to the jail,” said the boss looking gravely at Kallu.

Imarti gave a shrill cry of horror mixed with pain and flopped onto the ground again.

Kallu tried to explain but all he could say in between sobs was “Sir… errrrr… no money… errrrr no cricket team… ummm… please… my life… errr.”

But the men were not ready to listen to anything. Mishra tugged the mattress and brought it into the living room. The men followed him, followed by Kallu who was now pleading with the boss with tearful eyes and folded hands. A huge crowd had gathered out side Kallu’s house.

The boss took a look at the crowd and then at Kallu who was now wailing like a dog who had lost his bone on a chilly winter night.

“Stop crying. Speak to Mishra may be he has a way of making things right.” said the boss.

Kallu got up and looked at Mishra expectantly. Mishra whispered something in Kallu’s ears. Kallu nodded and wiped the tears from his face.

“But how will you make all my money white,” asked Kallu.

“Leave that to the experts,” said Mishra.

Mishra nodded at his boss. The boss nodded in reply. The rest of the six men nodded at each other.

“Get down to work,” ordered the boss.

Mishra closed the front door and the windows.

The men tore open the mattress. Tripathi started counting the black five hundred rupee notes and stacked them. Mishra asked Imarti to get some clean rags and some water.

They all sat down on the floor and with the rags dipped in water started wiping the black stains off all the notes. The boss sat on the sofa watching a cricket match on the TV as Imarti got busy in the kitchen.

It was eight in the evening when Mishra polished the last note and put it on a stack.

“Sir we are done,” declared Mishra, stood up and stretched his full body.

The boss looked at the neat piles and smiled satisfactorily.

“Mr Kallu we have done our job it’s your turn now, get us a briefcase,” he said.

Kallu produced a battered grey briefcase from under the sofa and handed it to him, who in turn passed it to Mishra, who in turn got down on his knees and started stuffing the briefcase with the stacks of notes until there was no space left.

Mishra closed the briefcase with a loud click and nodded at his boss. The boss nodded in reply, all the men nodded at each other.

“Mr. Kallu, we are sorry for all the trouble we caused you and we are happy to say that all your money is clean,” said the boss with a grin and shook Kallu’s hands as if they were long lost friends.

Kallu managed a smile looking at the few stacks of notes left on the ground.

The men opened the door and came out. A horde of people, journalists and news reporters greeted them with a loud noise. The news reporters thrust their cameras and microphones at the boss’s face.

“We have interrogated Mr. Kallu Koylewala in the latest Cricket scam. We have not found any black money at his place. We are happy to say that Mr. Koylewala is clean,” said the boss generally addressing the crowd with his right hand raised, as if taking an oath and the battered briefcase in his left hand.

I can still remember, as a kid, when I started learning the rules of the game called cricket, I saw a young, lean, kid moving around with the likes of Kapil Dev on his tour to Pakistan. I was learning the game, and it was nice to see a kid of nearly my height playing for the country – at that age it made me feel that even we could play with the so called “season ball”. Watching the likes of Waquar, Wasim and Imran Khan bowl bouncers to this kid, and the determination of this kid to go on and score a fifty against them, was just a start. There were many more centuries to come later.

People from my generation have actually grown up watching this legend, and I take pride in being a part of the generation which saw this Little Master play. Pardon me for being a sadist, but I feel bad for the generations who will not be able to see this legend play, and there, for sure, will not be any legend like Sachin ever again.

Sachin, who is an icon for many, me included, has never let his fans down. The way he conducts himself on and off the field is the mark of a true sportsman and a thorough gentleman. A politician, who tried to gain some mileage recently by criticizing Sachin’s remark on being an Indian first and then a Maharashtrian, is now trying desperately to salvage some image of whatever is left after the recent election debacle. Like Mathew Hayden once said “I have seen God, he bats at number 4 for India”, we the lesser mortals can only admire this legend play.

One need not go too far into history, Sachin’s recent innings of 175 against Australia was a superb knock. It was, however, sad that India did not win that match; it is disappointing to see such a great innings go waste. To quote my mother, “The other batsmen of India have absolutely no manners to not finish it for Sachin”. Yes, he is loved by all generations.

Another such innings that I remember was against Pakistan in a test match series being played in India, he batted like a true champion. Even though he was in excruciating pain, he tied a waist band and went ahead to fight for his team to win. India lost that match too – by 17 runs.

Sachin has always been a team man, and fought hard for his team. In a triangular-series in Sharjah, playing against Australia, India needed to win the match, and that too with a healthy run rate. Sachin was the batsman the entire nation was pinning their hopes on. The match was interrupted because of a desert storm while Sachin was batting with Azharuddin. For the entire duration of the storm, Sachin could be seen concentrating and focusing on the task ahead, with his helmet on, sitting and waiting to go in to bat as soon as the storm stopped. India did go on to qualify for finals, and went ahead to lift the cup too, thanks to two brilliant centuries by Sachin.

Sachin will be always remembered as a demolishing opening batsman, but he was not always an opening batsman. It was in a series in New Zealand when he first emerged as a great opening batsman. Since then, it’s only Virendra Sehwag who has shown the shades of aggression that Sachin had.

Not only with batting, Sachin has turned out to be a useful bowler (leg break, off break, medium pace, googly) too. The Hero cup final bears testimony to his talent to bowl the crucial final over and win the match for India. He has got enough five-wicket hauls to be counted as a useful all rounder.

His greatness cannot be counted, his commitment to the team cannot be measured. Be it attending his father’s funeral during the World Cup and coming back to play some tremendous knocks for his team, or be it helping India to qualify for the finals, time and again, single handedly in many a series, he has been always the lone man pushing India through on multiple occasions. Once when Sachin was asked to do an advertisement by Prahlad Kakkar which portrayed him to be above the game of cricket, Sachin politely refused. Yes, he is a billionaire, and the most humble one I have known, and he realizes that he is not above the game itself which has given him so much.

I used to believe that here was one great cricketer who deserved to be a part of a World Cup winning team, and we came pretty close to winning one in 2003, but that was it. The current team offers some hope, and hopefully Sachin’s dream of being a part of World Cup winning team comes true. The prayers of a billion fans got out to keep Sachin doing better, and raise the standard of the legend that he already is.

To the Lord himself, and 20 years of great Cricket, I offer my humble salute.

Indian Premier League , the money spinner for BCCI, courtesy Lalit Modi, is expanding and how. With the huge success of the tournament , IPL organizers have decided to rope in more teams for more excitement, more matches and – not to forget – to rake in more moolah. So, as of now, Nagpur and Kochi are up for grabs, and the news has been conveniently leaked to the media. “Discussions” regarding the auction have started, and the remaining Bollywood bandwagon who missed the bus last time are all geared up to jump in. Heading the list is Salman “Sallu Bhai” , closely followed by Ajay Devgan and the lovable-but-gone-astray-Munna Bhai, Sanjay Dutt. This time, however, the bidders will have to roll out a lot more dough than their counterparts had to during the first edition. The price they will have to pay, by some estimates, is going to be in the range of $200 million or above.

IPL has now become the most attractive investment for venture capitalists, film stars, and organizations like Reliance, and why not? With a turn over of around $4 billion, IPL is larger than some of our largest IT companies employing millions of people. But now, the discussions have started – has T20 taken the whole cricketing world by storm? Are we staring at the end of Test cricket?

Well, it’s too early to answer these questions satisfactorily, but one thing is for sure – Lalit Modi has definitely managed to create an Indian brand that could easily give the English Premier League a run for it’s money, and that too in a span of only a few years. It has also brought to the fore many talented youngsters, who otherwise would have to sweat it out for a few more years before even thinking about raking in the kind of money they are already.

On the other hand, purists, who initially despised and now fear T20 because of it’s growing dominance, still feel that the Test cricket is the “real cricket”; everything else is just fancy innovation for commercialization. This is true to some extent, but there is another school of thought that says that IPL was needed for the game to prosper, survive the onslaught of faster, more riveting games, and with time evolve with the audience.

Be it T20, Test cricket or ODI, one thing is for sure as long as we have people like Lalit Modi in our country, cricket will remain the talk of the nation! Hope the cheer spreads to other games too.

(Images from the  IPL site)