Indian Premier League – Resurgence of the Seniors
A lot had been said about Twenty20 cricket. It needs quick hitters, young blood who can hit it fast and big, this and that. They wrote off senior players saying it wasn’t their game. But what a better example to prove them wrong than the IPL 2009. Most of the major performers have been senior players. Their contributions have been of immense imprtance both on the field and off the field.
Though the tournament isn’t over yet, the Orange Cap has gone to Hayden for his superb knock throughout the season. He is a retired international player. So are Adam Gilchrist and Anil Kumble. Both of them have led their sides to the finals with some meticulous planning and execution. Both have done exceptionally well with the bat and the ball respectively. Gilly has also been one of the best keepers throughout the tournament.
There’s Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya, Brett Lee, Shane Warne, Muralitharan. All of them have done well in this form of the tournament. They have been the pillars of their team. Experience does play an important factor whichever form of the game it maybe. Great players always remain great. They are fast to adapt themselves to any form of cricket. This is precisely the reason these players are cricketing giants.
In the last match of the league stage, Kumble was celebrating his wicket like anything and when asked about it he had said that he had to do it otherwise they’d call him not suitable for T20. Funny side apart, it showed his determination to embrace the format. He had written in his column for ‘The Hindu’, that in T20 everything is about adapting oneself to frequent bowling and fielding changes. You might need to bowl one over spells and sometimes longer ones. And its all dependent on how you take it and adapt it.
One player who hasn’t been able to fire is Saurav Ganguly. He seems to lack the charisma he used to have earlier. Another player who hadn’t been given a chance to play this season is Glenn McGrath. This might be because they found a better ‘foreign’ bowler in Dirk Nannes, but he certainly doesn’t like sitting around especially when he wanted to prove his fitness. He is angry that he wasn’t given a chance even though Delhi Daredevils were through to the semifinals at an early stage of the league matches.
Overall, the Indian Premier League season 2009 has proved that age has got nothing to do with cricket. As long as you are playing good and are remodel yourselves with every game, you are never old.
To read our previous posts on IPL click on the following links.
IPL – Emergence of the Younger Players
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