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Talented assortment of players

We have the makings of a team that will challenge for a top-four spot, writes John Buchanan

— PHOTO: AP

READY TO DELIVER: With his pace and height, Kolkata Knight Riders’ Ishant Sharma can trouble the best of batsmen.

Since I first heard of this concept, the Indian Premier League (IPL) and its proposed delivery, to the time where we are only hours away from the inaugural game, my excitement continues to grow.

The Twenty20 game is still new in format as well as acceptance. The franchising of teams is very new to cricket, especially the resources that have been ploughed into the eight franchises here in India. And the city-based approach to teams as opposed to countries or regional provinces is something basically foreign to cricket.

Mix in a dash of industrialist power, some media might, and the entertainment of Bollywood, and we have an incredible product which, if managed correctly by the administrators of world cricket, has the capacity to take the game to all parts of the world.

In fact, my picture of the IPL is that within three-five years, there will be about eight-ten zones around the world with about 10 franchises in each.

In a ‘window’ like April-May or September-October, all zonal playoffs will be completed, allowing the winners to play in the World Series, under a roofed stadium in Dubai, or Telstra Dome Australia, or United States, or India, or wherever there is the capacity to guarantee TV, media, sponsors, spectators and players a final series to crown the champions of the world.

A mountain to climb

For now, though, my concerns are with the Kolkata Knight Riders franchise. From behind the scenes, we can see there has been a lot done in a very short time; but there remains a mountain to climb yet. One of these mountains is to bring this diverse group of players together, and create a unit which will play consistently well and therefore be hard to beat.

The team is headed by Sourav Ganguly, Ricky Ponting, David Hussey, Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle, Ishant Sharma, Umar Gul, Murali Kartik, Mohammed Hafeez, Tatenda Taibu, Ajit Agarkar and Salman Butt — a very talented assortment of players, albeit with not too much Twenty20 experience.

Once we add to this some of the local boys in Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Ashok Dinda, Riddhiman Saha, Rohan Banerjee, Debabrata Das, Saurasish Lahiri, Ranadeb Bose, Hokaito Zhimomi, some other very good players such as Aakash Chopra, Cheteswar Pujara, Yashpal Singh and some youth in the shape of Iqbal Abdullah and Siddarth Kaul — we have the makings of a team that will challenge for a top-four spot come the end of the season.

The first week has gone well with the gradual arrivals of Agarkar, Ganguly, Sharma, and Hafeez, with Gul, Butt and Gayle still to arrive.

Obviously the loss of Shoaib Akhtar is something outside our control, and we are monitoring his current case with the PCB closely. Competition for the first squad picked for Bangalore on April 18 and the first home game against Hyderabad on April 20 was fierce. We have opted for a side with a formidable top-five batting component and a bowling attack that has the pace of Sharma and Dinda, the variety of Agarkar, Shukla and Ganguly, plus a very good balance of spin with Kartik, Hussey and Hafeez.

Dangermen

As for the opposition, Royal Challengers Bangalore are an all-round team with few standout players, but the possible danger men are Zaheer Khan, Mark Boucher, Cameron White, Abdur Razzak and Misbah-ul-Haq. And looking ahead to the Deccan Chargers, they must be one of the favoured teams to take out the tournament with Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Herschelle Gibbs, Shahid Afridi, Rohit Sharma, R.P. Singh and Chaminda Vaas, plus a strong bench.

Of course, like all teams, they can only select four international players, but they have a depth of talent to cover their final eleven.

In just over five weeks we will know which teams have understood Twenty20 best; which teams have had the depth necessary to win tournaments; and overall how successful the inaugural IPL has been. I have little doubt that what we are all about to view will be an amazing spectacle from start to finish.

(Gameplan)

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