The "silly points"

A blog by Â(c)hinaman

As if this was unexpected.

Tension in the Bangalore camp

Cricinfo staff: May 11, 2008

Mallya’s biggest mistake

Controversy continues to surround the Bangalore Royal Challengers. Days after Charu Sharma, the franchise’s chief executive, was sacked, Vijay Mallya, the team owner, has said he regrets not being involved in the squad’s selection during the auction and that he had other players in mind but went by the judgment of Sharma and Rahul Dravid, the captain.

“My biggest mistake was to abstain from the selection of the team. Though I watch a lot cricket whenever possible, I am no cricket expert at the end of the day,” Mallya told the Economic Times. “I had a separate list of players that I wanted. But since Dravid is such an iconic player I trusted his judgment. And Charu Sharma also backed him.”

Anyone who buys a Twenty20 franchise that has Rahul Dravid as the “icon”,
might as well sign a suicide note alongside the franchise agreements.
Vijay Mallya has walked into this with his eyes wide open.

Not the shrewed businessman,
I only see a fool parting easily with his millions.
US$ 111.6 million for the franchise – US$1.035 millions for Rahul Dravid.
Blimey, that is serious money.
It is not the money,
it is the ignominy of his stupidity that will be hurting him more today.

Dravid’s reputation as a ‘class’ batsman has been so inflated with hot air
that he is now considered an “icon player” for Twenty20s.

He had no choice but to accept -
couldn’t admit he was not capable … walked into a trap he had set himself.

A player that only knows how to ‘build innings’ by the time he builds his 20/20 wall foundations,
the whole match will be over, all 40 overs of it, not just one innings.

Rahul Dravid, a player, who is only good for test cricket,
in an ODI team, just about manages to hide his incapabilities for short format cricket.

It was a power struggle that made Chappell give him the captaincy, not for ODI capabilities.
And then spent the rest of his tenure trying to build a team around him,
experiments after experiments that failed -
like a round peg in a square hole that it was bound to wobble off was inevitable.

So I get deja vu, when I read this.

Dravid blames batsmen for poor show
Rediff India Cricket: May 13, 2008 10:37 IST

A dejected Rahul Dravid blamed poor batting for his team’s ordinary show in the ongoing IPL but chose to keep mum on team owner Vijay Mallya’s criticism of their team selection decisions. “That is true that we have not been able to click. It is disappointing. Batting has been an area of concern,” Dravid said at the post match media-meet.

“I do not want to speak publicly on the (Mallya’s) comments. Selection and performance are two different things and people have to perform so that the team gets on to the winning track.
…
Dravid said all their efforts to get a winning combination have proved futile so far.
“Everybody expects players to perform but sometimes it does not happen. We tried so many combinations and we are yet to figure out a winning combination,” he said.

Experiments, or call it various combinations it is the same thing.
And when it fails, blame others. It was only a year ago we had heard it.
Mr Mallya (or his advisors) cannot blame anyone else for their own short memory.

Dravid, Charu Sharma had their own plans: Mallya
Rediff India Cricket: May 12, 2008 14:08 IST

The liquor baron said he had some players in mind but Dravid and Sharma completely ignored them and went ahead with their own plan. “I had my own list (of players) but the fact is Rahul Dravid and Charu Sharma had their own list and at the end of the day, I decided to take the back seat,” Mallya told NDTV.

Of course he won’t.
He has made it an art of keeping players out of a team who will show him up.
He built a team around him, who like himself, was more suited for a five day match.

This time it is a format that asks for different batting; like he is incapable of.
No Greg Chappell to hold his hands and make rhetorics to mislead management.
His incapabilities have been found out, no one else to blame for the failures but himself.
He has no more of “other options” – he himself has become one.

Feel sorry for him? No, not me.
I have written before,
that I had seen through his dishonesty trying to hold onto his captaincy
and that it would all come back one day to haunt him; I didn’t have to wait too long.

As you sow, so shall you reap. Holds true for everyone, Mr Mallya.

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