Challenger’s Crash To Opening CL Defeat

IPL side Bangalore Royal Challengers crashed to defeat in the opening match of the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 against South African outfit Cape Cobras.

A swashbuckling innings of 99 from 52 balls by JP Duminy saw the Cape Cobras cruise to a five-wicket-win at a packed Chinnaswamy Stadium after Bangalore posted a testing target of 181.

Bangalores Ross Taylor smashed 53 not out as his side posted 180-4 and when Herschelle Gibbs fell first ball the home side looked on course to open the tournament with a victory but they didnt count on Duminy’s solid performance. The South African dragged the total down to 18 required from the last twelve balls before smashing two boundaries and a six off Roelof van der Merwe and Vinay Kumar. The 25-year-old only missed out on his century because teammate Rory Kleinveldt drove the winning runs with two balls remaining.

The victory comes as a huge blow to the Challengers who were tipped as one of the favourites to win before the $6,000,000 prize fund tournament began.

Considering this defeat who do you tip as the favourites to win the competition?

The IPL teams have both strong squads and home advantage but what they dont have a great deal of, which the other sides have in abundance, is team togetherness.

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Club Versus Country

Back in July Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar joined the long-standing debate over players choosing the IPL over representing their country. 

Gavaskar, a member of the IPL’s governing council, said while delivering the Dilip Sardesai Memorial Lecture in Mumbai. “The IPL could not be the ultimate goal for players and pointed out the worrying trend among young cricketers to pull out of domestic matches in order to be injury-free ahead of the tournament. “That is what we have to be very careful about, the IPL being seen as the be all and end all, not the India cap,” he said.

 With Andrew Flintoff recently turning down an England contract to become the worlds first freelance cricketer, how many more players will be following in his footsteps and choosing to play twenty20 cricket all over the world, instead of fulfilling an international career with their birth or adopted nation. Flintoff quit Test cricket to concentrate on playing in domestic twenty20 leagues to earn vast sums of money. It is as simple as that. The question is, do you think it was right or wrong?

On the other side of the coin, look at it from Flintoff’s point of view. Having played in only one IPL tournament he has yet to really enjoy the vast sums of money available to him and with his fitness a constant concern and a jeopardy to his future earning potential, who could blame Freddie for believing that it is time to earn himself a healthy retirement fund knowing that in a few years time his body might not be in the right state to allow him to play cricket at all. So answer the question again. Was Flintoff right to choose club over country in this situation?

Flintoff England Career In Doubt

Andrew Flintoff could turn down an England contract in order to play more domestic twenty20 cricket. The burly Lancastrian, who is currently on crutches recovering from knee surgery, retired from Test cricket at the end of the recent Ashes series but was due to continue with England in limited-overs cricket.

However, the 31-year-old is keen to play twenty20 cricket in domestic leagues worldwide and could turn down an ECB contract in order to do so, threatening his International future.

The all-rounder will spend the next few days in Dubai discussing with his agent whether or not to sign the ECB deal.

Chandler told the Observer newspaper that Flintoff would play for Chennai Super Kings in next spring’s Indian Premier League, while pursuing deals with domestic teams in Australia, South Africa and the West Indies.

However, that sort of schedule would restrict the number of appearances he could reasonably be expected to make for England as they look to build a team capable of challenging for the 2011 World Cup. If he refuses to sign his ECB deal, he would effectively become a freelance cricketer – and the first English player to do so, since the central contract system was drawn up back in 1999.

IPL Final Thoughts

So how do people feel the IPL went? I personally do not think it was as successful as last years in creating a euphoric excitement. Despite the English Twenty20 stars coming into the teams I do not think the tournament gained as much media coverage as it did in the first year. This may have been due to the tournament being held in a neutral country.

It certainly lacked the atmosphere from the crowds in which  it gained from being in India last year.

Let us know your thoughts…..