Indian Premier League - General Discussion

[SaiSrini]

If bcci can allow 50% of crowd in Chennai and Ahmedabad in test series against England Then why not in IPL?

The Cricinfo article says that in IPL, chances of fans getting closer to players is high and so bio bubble could be breached. Utter rubbish, I say! If two international teams can play games in Chennai and Ahmedabad and be kept away from the fans and keep the bubble intact, can be easily done in IPL too.

I have a strong feeling that they are trying to strip off any kind of home advantage that teams might enjoy due to the crowds that come to the stadium. Even though teams dont play in their home stadiums, there are players in teams that can enjoy a quasi home support because of where they hail from (for e.g. Ashwin, Karthik can get home support in Chennai; Rahul, Mayank can get home support in Bengaluru; etc). So they are basically removing all kinds of possible home advantage that there could be, in the initial part of the tournament. I've a feeling they will bring back crowds for the knockout stages when teams are done with the qualification scenarios and when home advantage doesn't matter anymore.

 

[Khan Sahab54]

The Cricinfo article says that in IPL, chances of fans getting closer to players is high and so bio bubble could be breached. Utter rubbish, I say! If two international teams can play games in Chennai and Ahmedabad and be kept away from the fans and keep the bubble intact, can be easily done in IPL too.

then why was the crowd allowed in the test series. and there was no positive test in england and india's camp.

 

[SaiSrini]

then why was the crowd allowed in the test series. and there was no positive test in england and india's camp.

I agree too. That’s why I said I feel it’s a rubbish excuse.

Also vaccination has kickstarted big time for seniors in India. By the time April comes, it should’ve gone much farther than today. The fear of crowds was that the younger folks visit stadiums, contract the virus and take it back home to the elders. But with elders getting vaccinated, they’d be fighting it off even if they get it. It’s ideally time now to play with 50% crowds and maybe keep the hotspots out (eg. Mumbai). But the BCCI thinks otherwise

 

[Velocity]

Watching Hasaranga bowl in the Sri Lanka series, it is clear that teams have made a major error in not even trying to go for him. He has a world class googly and is a hard hitting finisher. Pretty much the perfect T20 player. CSK in particular could have benefitted from nabbing him at base price if they were going after Gowtham instead of Mo to solve our wrist spin issue.

Agree, Hasaranga would've been a easy steal for any team to get a good legspinning allrounder into the mix at a low price. I think given SRH were going for an overseas allrounder in the auction, (eg. Tom Curran) or even a spin bowling allrounder (Gowtham), I think Hasaranga could've paired well with Rashid Khan and provided us with some power hitting down the order which is something Mujeeb doesn't provide. If he keeps up with this form a couple of teams will definitely go for him next year.

 

[ddrap14]

power hitting down the order which is something Mujeeb doesn't provide.

He can hit a ball very well indeed...

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

Well that is an interesting approach to this years IPL. If there are limited venues and not everyone has a home, no one plays at home. Unlike @SaiSrini's view of this, I feel this is bang on and super impressed. Look at how PSL was in shambles and had to postpone the tournament. I however agree that atleast 10-25% crowd should have been allowed. I feel IPL is too big a business and they will not risk a hiccup. Playing 2 teams in a bubble with crowd and playing 8 teams with 20-30 people contingent per team which means handling 250 people is a different story altogether. Vaccine or no vaccine, 2021 is still not the year to be open and brave. We still need to have some precautions in place. I would happily take a closed door IPL vs an IPL riddled with covid cases.

Also remember, while the matches will be on, Kolkata will be having elections as well. Its more to handle. A lot of factors go in and we cannot get emotional over MSD playing in front of home crowd or not.

Lets see how this goes, hoping for a cracker of a season.

 

[ddrap14]

I would happily take a closed door IPL vs an IPL riddled with covid cases.

This, exactly. Look at the PSL vs UAE T10. One was just chaotically mismanaged.

 

[Velocity]

I personally think limited venues and no one playing at their own ground is the right decision. In these COVID times, all teams need to respected equally given that SRH, RR, PK aren't playing at their home grounds anyway. Can't feed into the sentiment of "Dhoni can't play at his home ground at Chepauk" or the fans at Wankhede not seeing Rohit bat. We live in different times and as @WutUpMahGlipGlops said, 2021 is not the year to open everything up. India itself will take at least the next 2-3 years to being near some semblance of Covid recovery and there are more risks associated with hosting in India than the last edition in the UAE.

As for the crowd aspect, I think there should only be a very limited crowd and them following Covid guidelines. In the recent matches against England far too many people had their masks off and sitting in clusters among themselves, which could be potentially be disastrous for a Covid outbreak and could potentially affect players as well. It's particularly important that everything, including the bio-bubble is managed tightly and allow for any breaches, as there was some in the PSL and could've potentially been the reason for their Covid outbreak.

 

[Sherlock Holmes]

when it was decided to allow 50% crowd in ind vs eng, scenario was different as covis cased were at an all time low

but due to the recent surge in india, the situation has changed and that is why the stricter norm to not allow crowd during initial stage

the situation in PSL might also have been a factor to decide no crowd thing.

and these are just the current go. i am pretty sure if situation improves by april, we can see crowds back again.

just be a little tolerant with the organiser, it is not a happy-go-lucky task to organise such a big event.

have faith in any decision may by the authority. it worked tremendously for the fans and brought to all of us IPL 2020 at such a time when there was still panic around.

they are working hard to provide us a great tournament. so just have a little tolerance and faith before coming up with criticism.

 

[abhi_jacko]

It really feels like its been less than 6 months to the last IPL. Wait ...

 

[SaiSrini]

I see that quite a few here seem to be happy with the IPL's decision to play without crowds and play at neutral venues. I still dont agree. IPL and India have shown last season that they have handled the bio-bubble in a far better manner than their counterparts in PSL. Secondly I have mentioned this here - vaccination of elders has already started big time and it is them who need the protection than the younger folks who are going to frequent stadiums. Even if you play in neutral venues, playing without crowds is absolutely silly... I don't buy this "8 team tournament vs bilateral series" excuse that Ganguly is giving. Even if other teams practice outside in practice facilities, they are still in a bubble.

The real reason is political where they had to keep out some venues and the resulting uproar by those franchises for a level playing field has resulted in this 'neutral venues' and 'stripping of crowds' feature. And today, Ganguly has hinted at the likelihood of the crowds not allowed for any part of the tournament. Jay Shah gave a damage control statement saying that crowds could be allowed at some point of time. But a few days later when all the limelight around the schedule has died down, Ganguly comes out and hints at no crowds.. Trust me, this is all calculated!

Anyways from a personal CSK fanbase perspective - I hope this doesn't make MSD prolong his IPL career just to sign off in front of Chepauk. I would rather have him sign off this year and let the team start afresh in the mega auction next year and rebuild their legacy which did take a beating in the last season. He can take up mentorship for CSK like what Sachin did with MI!

 

[SaiSrini]

It really feels like its been less than 6 months to the last IPL. Wait ...

Does it feel too short a time? Somehow all the cricket in between has made me feel like its been too long

 

[wasteyouryouth]

I see that quite a few here seem to be happy with the IPL's decision to play without crowds and play at neutral venues. I still dont agree. IPL and India have shown last season that they have handled the bio-bubble in a far better manner than their counterparts in PSL. Secondly I have mentioned this here - vaccination of elders has already started big time and it is them who need the protection than the younger folks who are going to frequent stadiums. Even if you play in neutral venues, playing without crowds is absolutely silly... I don't buy this "8 team tournament vs bilateral series" excuse that Ganguly is giving. Even if other teams practice outside in practice facilities, they are still in a bubble.

The real reason is political where they had to keep out some venues and the resulting uproar by those franchises for a level playing field has resulted in this 'neutral venues' and 'stripping of crowds' feature. And today, Ganguly has hinted at the likelihood of the crowds not allowed for any part of the tournament. Jay Shah gave a damage control statement saying that crowds could be allowed at some point of time. But a few days later when all the limelight around the schedule has died down, Ganguly comes out and hints at no crowds.. Trust me, this is all calculated!

Anyways from a personal CSK fanbase perspective - I hope this doesn't make MSD prolong his IPL career just to sign off in front of Chepauk. I would rather have him sign off this year and let the team start afresh in the mega auction next year and rebuild their legacy which did take a beating in the last season. He can take up mentorship for CSK like what Sachin did with MI!

It took a handful a people to bring down the PSL. That will have huge implications on Pakistani cricket if they can't rearrange. If they start the IPL and have to postpone it because of a couple of people they are unlikely to have time to rearrange until after the T20 World Cup which ends in November. BCCI aren't going to risk losing out on TV money for the sake of having crowds.

8 teams vs a 2 team series makes perfect sense, particularly if those teams are going to be travelling around the country.

 

[Bevab]

@SaiSrini a colleague of mine was bed-ridden for days after getting sick and still feels discomfort with his breathing. Younger age groups are less likely to suffer serious complications but there will be people who still will feel the effects. In addition, this "elders will be vaccinated and protected" discussion when the vaccine is not completely effective in total prevention in the first place does not make much sense. This is even if there is adequate coverage of all elders by the time the IPL rolls out which is very unlikely.

I agree that the ultimate decision is political and not motivated by any means from a health perspective but their excuses are valid, even if they are not in good or complete faith.

As for CSK, our batting is the one which seems to fare better versus spinners than pacers on paper. I would rather take a bowling attack of Hazlegod, Chahar, Thakur and Curran with Ngidi in the reserve over one that has to rely on Tahir being there as the only attacking spinner and a finger spinner in Mo and Gowtham. Our pace department is in a better place than our spin department. The real question mark remains over our ability to score off the pacers. Somebody like Faf could become really important to be there at the end and take on the quicks in that scenario.

 

[abhi_jacko]

vaccination of elders has already started big time and it is them who need the protection than the younger folks who are going to frequent stadiums.

Sorry, but this is not true. Vaccination of elderly has started, yes and they are the more susceptible group. But its not like the remaining age groups are completely immune or resistant to it. My uncle in his 40s (without comorbidities) and my cousin in his 20s were hospitalized for 2 full weeks and still haven't recovered fully.

We all saw there was zero social distancing being followed in the Tests and half the folks were not wearing masks. Its not just a matter of securing the players, but keeping the people safe as well. It makes no sense to allow crowds in the next couple of months, as they will be critical. Good sense has prevailed for BCCI in this regard - and I am quite surprised, because otherwise the Bengal election rallies are doing the exact opposite of practicing caution against covid