IPL is back & so is the disappointment of Indian Football

The Oaktree Post
By Abhijit Mahida · Mar 25, 2024 

In the mid-90s, Piyush Pandey, Amrit Mathur and Arun Lal reached out to a cricket administrator in Rajasthan and pitched him a cricket league, that followed the structure of NBA in America.

The Rajasthani bloke was a certain guy named Lalit Modi, and the league was the IPL. Piyush Pandey, in it’s presentation then, described IPL as “A carnival outside the boundary line, pure cricket inside”.

Can’t describe it better than that. And with that, the IPL’s back, Monday is back, and so is The Oaktree Post. Let’s go.

IPL is back baby!

5 matches are over in this tournament, and with each team having played 1 match, the table is pretty much on expected lines. All the matches have been won by the home teams, and 2 out of those 5 matches went down to the last ball.

But if you haven’t followed any IPL news in the last 2 weeks, here is a quick refresher: Hardik Pandya left GT and came back to Mumbai, and did the impossible - disappointing the fans of both the teams, equally. GT now has a new captain in Shubhman Gill and SRH has appointed Pat Cummins as their new cap. PBKS surprisingly do not have a new captain, while DC and KKR see their old captains return after injury. RCB is doing RCB stuff, stuffing their team with top-order batters and foreign bowlers. Rajasthan looks like the most stable team, with all their bases covered, while CSK saw a change of guard. Dhoni has moved on and Rututaj Gaikwad is at the helm.

All this to say -- the carnival is back baby. And my team is playing tonight against PBKS. Ee saala…?

434 Reasons to Celebrate

All is not well in Indian Football. In January, the Asian Cup happened, and while the expectations were low, the Indian side managed to disappoint even then, and ended up last in the table without scoring a single goal.

However, the results were pushed aside, as we were supposed to play in the Round 3 of the World Cup qualifiers in March. The opponent was going to be Afghanstan, and frankly, the fans expected nothing but total domination.

The away match came and went, and the result was the same - no goals by India. It ended in a draw, but one that was not pleasing to look at. Coach Igor Stimach parked the bus and didn’t attack, and the players were also lacklustre in play.

We now play Afghans at home tomorrow. The hope is to see some attacking play and score a couple of goals to be in contention for Round 2 of the World Cup qualifiers.

A Special Mention

Who can forget the iconic duo of Gaurav Kapoor and Navjot Singh Siddhu during Extra Innings T20! Well, our beloved co-founder GK is at Cricbuzz but Mr Sidhu is back in the commentary box on Star Sports.

As a refresher, this is my favourite clip of his, where Sidhu Paaji just goes on a Shayari juggernaut for Ranbir and Deepika.

From The Sidelines

• 🇮🇳Sharath Kamal to be India's flag bearer, Mary Kom named chef de mission at the Paris Olympics.

• 🏐In its third season, the Prime Volleyball League (PVL) has its third champion with Calicut Heroes beating Delhi Toofans.

• 🏓G Sathiyan became the first Indian to win a men's singles trophy at a WTT Feeder Series event.

Looking Forward

• 🏏IPL matches are happening every day, on JioCinema/Star Sports.

• ⚽India plays with Afghanistan on Tuesday, 26th March, at 7:00 PM. Watch it on Star Sports and Jio Cinema.

That’s it for this week. I hope you have a good week ahead, and I hope my team, RCB, gives me less trouble this time.

Here’s to sports, the ultimate truth,

Abhijit Mahida.