THE FINAL HURDLE: Royal Challengers Bangalore's captain Daniel Vettori and coach Ray Jennings will hope to add silverware to the cabinet for the first time. Photo: K. Bhagyaprakash
Royal Challengers Bangalore will seek to finally find silverware for its bare trophy cabinet when the Champions League T20 begins here this week. The team reached the semifinal stage of the competition's previous edition and has also made two IPL finals, only to lose on each occasion.
At the media conference on arrival here on Monday, captain Daniel Vettori said his side was hopeful of landing that elusive tournament victory. “You come to any tournament and you want to look to win,” he said.
One step further
“We made the final of the IPL, so this is a chance to go one step further. We recognise that we've got a pretty good team and we need some individuals to really step up like they did in the IPL. There are probably a number of guys who didn't perform as well as they would have liked; this is an opportunity.
“I suppose it's a little different for me than it is for Ray (Jennings),” Vettori said of previous campaigns.
“I've only been with the team for one season. We're pretty proud of our IPL season last time; it was a pretty new team apart from Kohli and a couple of others. But this is an important tournament and it's one we want to win. No matter what team you play for and how long you've been playing, you just want to win.”
Coach Ray Jennings, meanwhile, argued that it wasn't necessarily a disadvantage that some of his players had not played competitive cricket since the IPL. “Look at Chris Gayle,” he said.
“He didn't play cricket for four months and came back, got a hundred (in his first match), and took the player of the tournament. So if that same process takes place it could be a blessing in disguise. Only time will tell.
“The state of the mind of the cricketer is the bigger issue for me as a coach. Players never lose their talent; they tend to get stale and too much cricket sometimes puts them in a bad frame of mind. Freshness is a very funny thing. If you freshen the mind up, you become fresh in your talent.”
The South African also disagreed that IPL sides were severely disadvantaged compared to domestic teams from Australia and South Africa. “The local State sides have problems as well,” he said. “They don't have a blend of different ideas, or (knowledge) of Indian conditions, whereas our guys have played in Indian conditions a lot more. There are positives and negatives from both sides.”
Focus on starting well
Warriors may have reached the final of the Champions League T20 in South Africa last time, but captain Johan Botha admits repeating the feat in India will be difficult.
“Last year, it was nice to play in our own conditions but it's going to be a bit tough here,” he said at a press conference on Monday. “No one's going to say ‘You were in the final last year, here's the final again'. If we can reach it again, it'll be a great achievement; but we're obviously aiming to be in the semifinals.”
“Once you're there, you're two games away from winning the tournament. If we can do it this time, we can prove to people that last year wasn't just home ground advantage. The key to such a short and intense tournament is to really start well. Our focus is to start well and get two points on Friday night.” The South African outfit will miss the services of regular captain and talismanic batsman Davy Jacobs, who has opted to represent Mumbai Indians in the competition, but Botha feels Warriors will cope with his absence.
“We've known now for a few months and we've got over it as a team. Davy did do well last year in the Champions League but after that he was injured quite a few times. In our local Twenty20, he had a bit of an up and down season. Davy was captain and a good guy to have around the team but we've got young guys who can cover for him and hopefully one of them will seize the opportunity like he did.”
Muhammad Butt 2 days ago | Comments (0)
COMMENT - And shocked I was, not by the retirement itself which was inevitable given the countless injury problems and endless tussles with the team management and board but by the fact that he gracefully announced his retirement and more importantly stuck by his word. After all he is the quintessential bad boy of Pakistani cricket and his off-field shenanigans get as much coverage, if not more, than his on-field exploits so it came as a pleasant surprise to see a legend of Pakistan cricket bid farewell on his own terms.
The same however cannot be said about some of his more illustrious and some not so illustrious teammates (yes, Shahid Afridi, I’m looking at you). A player should look to exit in such a way that the fans ask “why did you?” rather than “why don’t you?” However the Pakistani cricketers, off late have taken it upon themselves to change this age old question to “why this time?”
Shahid Afridi is the most recent victim of this highly contagious virus which threatens to destabilize the already dilapidated national cricket team. Intelligence and common sense have not been Afridi’s best suits in the best of times so it comes as no surprise that Mr. Afridi -whose greatest achievement is not the fastest century in ODI’s as some people would have you believe but managing to stay in the team for 15 years after continued inept performances - issued a conditional retirement citing the boards disrespectful behavior as the reason for his decision.
Funny he should talk about respect since there are several incidents in his career where he has allegedly showed disrespect to both his teammates and the game itself. The current PCB regime under the ‘astute’ leadership of Ijaz Butt is perhaps one of the worst boards to have held office but is conditional retirement really the step forward?
This trend of conditional retirements can be traced back to those of Mohammad Yousuf and Abdul Razzaq. Both stalwarts announced their retirements in 2007 as a show of protest after being omitted from the T20 world championship squad. The selection committee at the time was justified in their decision to omit the duo; Yousuf hardly fits the bill for a T20 cricketer and Razzaq who in theory should be ideal for the format was going through an indifferent period with both bat and ball.
But instead of putting their heads down and trying to win their place, the duo decided, not only to retire but also join ICL knowing full well that this would jeopardize their chances for the other formats as well. While Razzaq reconciled and made his way back into the team, Yousuf was hell bent on redefining the term “mood swings”. Normally so decisive when it comes to judging the line and length of the cricket ball, Yousuf showed uncharacteristic indecisiveness when it came to calling it quits.
After being cajoled back into the team and subsequently made captain, Yousuf decided to retire, again, in the aftermath of the disastrous Australian tour where the PCB slapped him with an indefinite ban. Yousuf, in May 2010, went on to say that, “I will not change my decision about the retirement.’’ But surprise surprise he did exactly that two months later. "I am available any time for my national team."
Growing up and playing mohalla (street) cricket while in my teens, I often came across children who in their attempt of a hissy fit would take their bat/ball/wickets when not given a run out but that was exactly that – mohalla cricket played by a bunch of pre-teens but when grown men start the same histrionics, one begins to question their sanity – and their motives.
Conditional retirements appears to be the latest bargaining tool for our cricketers in their quest for player power and if not nipped in the bud, the situation may well spiral out of control with other players looking to get their demands fulfilled by issuing similar conditional retirements. They should in fact look to take a cue from the so called bad boy of Pakistani cricket and learn a thing or two about manning up.
The same however cannot be said about some of his more illustrious and some not so illustrious teammates (yes, Shahid Afridi, I’m looking at you). A player should look to exit in such a way that the fans ask “why did you?” rather than “why don’t you?” However the Pakistani cricketers, off late have taken it upon themselves to change this age old question to “why this time?”
Shahid Afridi is the most recent victim of this highly contagious virus which threatens to destabilize the already dilapidated national cricket team. Intelligence and common sense have not been Afridi’s best suits in the best of times so it comes as no surprise that Mr. Afridi -whose greatest achievement is not the fastest century in ODI’s as some people would have you believe but managing to stay in the team for 15 years after continued inept performances - issued a conditional retirement citing the boards disrespectful behavior as the reason for his decision.
Funny he should talk about respect since there are several incidents in his career where he has allegedly showed disrespect to both his teammates and the game itself. The current PCB regime under the ‘astute’ leadership of Ijaz Butt is perhaps one of the worst boards to have held office but is conditional retirement really the step forward?
This trend of conditional retirements can be traced back to those of Mohammad Yousuf and Abdul Razzaq. Both stalwarts announced their retirements in 2007 as a show of protest after being omitted from the T20 world championship squad. The selection committee at the time was justified in their decision to omit the duo; Yousuf hardly fits the bill for a T20 cricketer and Razzaq who in theory should be ideal for the format was going through an indifferent period with both bat and ball.
But instead of putting their heads down and trying to win their place, the duo decided, not only to retire but also join ICL knowing full well that this would jeopardize their chances for the other formats as well. While Razzaq reconciled and made his way back into the team, Yousuf was hell bent on redefining the term “mood swings”. Normally so decisive when it comes to judging the line and length of the cricket ball, Yousuf showed uncharacteristic indecisiveness when it came to calling it quits.
After being cajoled back into the team and subsequently made captain, Yousuf decided to retire, again, in the aftermath of the disastrous Australian tour where the PCB slapped him with an indefinite ban. Yousuf, in May 2010, went on to say that, “I will not change my decision about the retirement.’’ But surprise surprise he did exactly that two months later. "I am available any time for my national team."
Growing up and playing mohalla (street) cricket while in my teens, I often came across children who in their attempt of a hissy fit would take their bat/ball/wickets when not given a run out but that was exactly that – mohalla cricket played by a bunch of pre-teens but when grown men start the same histrionics, one begins to question their sanity – and their motives.
Conditional retirements appears to be the latest bargaining tool for our cricketers in their quest for player power and if not nipped in the bud, the situation may well spiral out of control with other players looking to get their demands fulfilled by issuing similar conditional retirements. They should in fact look to take a cue from the so called bad boy of Pakistani cricket and learn a thing or two about manning up.
