XI Things learned from the Irani Trophy and the Champions League T20

I wanted write about the 1962-level disaster that was the Indian tour of England. The wounds are still raw though and the horrible flashbacks of Alistair Cook batting endlessly and Dhoni being forced to bowl his medium pace filth for lack of bowling options and the general air of surrender and resignation all point to a severe case of PTSD — as with most other Indian cricket fans.

Forced to find some cricket that would soothe the searing pain from these open wounds, I turned to the thrills and spills of the Champions League T20 and the slightly less thrill-y but equally spill-y Irani Trophy match between last year’s winners Rajasthan, and the Rest of India.

Many hours of cricket watching later, here’s a random collection of some thoughts that occurred to me.

1. Despite the best efforts of the BCCI to rig the CLT20 to favour the IPL teams like this, this, and this, two IPL teams barely made it through to the semis. When the tournament’s next in India, I think the BCCI will mandate compulsory amputation of one limb for every member of all non-IPL team. And KKR will still find a way to balls-up their semis chances.

2. The skill gap between the best Australian, South African, English, and West Indian teams and the IPL teams (minus the mercenaries) is huge. If, as Aakash Chopra wants, the winners of India’s unknown, unheralded, and uncared for Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy are invited to the CLT20, it will be general embarrassment all around.

3. On the evidence of the Irani Trophy, Rajasthan’s Ranji Trophy win last season was probably more due to dumb luck and everyone else going “meh it’s only the Ranji Trophy.” Being thrashed by 404 runs by what is essentially an India C team is a nice way of being welcomed into the “Super Group” of the Ranji Trophy.

4. Fielding’s still a low priority for your average Indian first class cricketer. From embarrassing dolly drops while catching to unathletic running and lethargic diving and sliding, the average 25 year old Indian cricketer, whether in the irani trophy or in the champions league, fields worse than the average 35 year old cricketer from pretty much elsewhere.

5. The best Indian spinner plays for the Somerset Sabres.

6. Deepak Chahar‘s just got a taste of the pain of the sophomore year of first class cricket. 46-6-237-0.

7. MSD’s decision to bench Varun Aaron (0-73 & 1-44 v Rajasthan) for the England ODIs seems inspired. The selector’s decision to send him to England in the first place, not so much.

8. South Africans are chokers. Period.

9. Many more people would have genuinely tuned into CLT20 if Shah Rukh Khan had not skull-f**ked us three thousand times a day with his lame ads tied in to pathetic attempts at flogging that over-hyped, Rajnikant-wannabe, definitely-dull-as-ditchwater Ra-One.

10. Airtel sponsored the Irani Trophy over the Champions League. This is either very encouraging for Indian cricket or very bad for the career of someone in the marketing division of Airtel.

11. Arun Karthik is the new Javed Miandad. That doesn’t mean Daniel Christian is the new Chetan Sharma, because it is the Champions League T20 and no one really gives a damn.

Much as the powers-that-be would insist that the England tour thrashing was a one-off and we should all calm down and take a deep breath, the underlying dread of more pain to come cannot be shaken off.

Watching the Irani Trophy and the first couple of rounds of the Champions League have done nothing to dispel the doubts.