SLC Premier League a realty soon

The Sri Lanka Cricket Twenty20 Premier League which was conceived by the D.S. de Silva Interim Committee will finally be delivered when the tournament takes place from August 10 to 31 in Sri Lanka.

When everything was set for the tournament to be born last year, it suddenly ran into complications and had to be deferred if not abandoned. Now that the Upali Dharmadasa' SLC is all set to deliver this 'baby' come August 10, cricket fans will no doubt be delighted.

As to how the Twentyy20 baby will grow over the years,or whether it will be short lived will be interesting to watch.

Worrying question

But the worrying question on every sports fans lip is: Can the SLC Twenty20 equal the Indian Premier League Twenty20 or could it better than the Indian one? Well it is too early to hazard a guess and it will be worth waiting and watching.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India's Premier League, which is in its fifth year of existence, has gone from strength to strength and indications are that it will get better and better as the years roll by.

Cricketers, officials, commentators and everybody who is somebody is frightfully keen to get involved in the IPL because there is not only the glamour and excitement attached to this novel tournament, it is also lucrative and pays high dividends.

Second best

Some cricketers are so keen to honour their contracts with the IPL that playing for their country comes second. The IPL is dollar studded and to think that there will be any other tournament, that could equal or better it will be wishful thinking.

The BCCI has made their Twenty20 a real cricketing carnival. It is a colourful event and every game has been well contested and every venue has seen massive crowds.

It is well organized and well patronized in every aspect. The players and the umpires are colourfully dressed and the dancing ladies are eye catching. All of which goes to make the tournament a classic event.

Sidhu a big hit

Top class commentators, some of them former cricketers are describing the action very cleverly and are interesting to listen to. But the former cricketer who is worth watching and listening to is Navjot Singh Sidhu.

Sidhu now a BJP Member of Parliament who is doing pre-match reports is colourfully dressed at all times and his well chosen and witty words keeps the viewers interested and in laughter at times. His gesticulations prove that he is a great entertainer. TV viewers crave to watch him.

Incidentally during his playing days he was a dashing right handed opening batsman. With twinkle toed footwork he faced both pace and spin with great dexterity and was a treat to watch when he had bat in hand.

He was also an excellent cover fielder and he used to dive Jonty Rhodes like, which made commentator Sunil Gavaskar tag him 'Jonty' Sidhu. One batsman who relished facing Muttiah Muralitharan and hitting him all over the park was Sidhu.

Interesting to know

It will be interesting to know how many times Muralitharan captured Sidhu's wicket in his 800 wicket record Test haul. As usual, and which is a common trait in humans, there will be the frustrated who would want to belittle and condemn the IPL. But the majority has nothing but praise for the wonderful organization and the clever conducting of the matches. As for us the IPL is a CLASS ACT.

Pakistan strong squad

Pakistan cricket which is enjoying its best years after a very long time have named strong squads for the Twenty20, 50-over and Test series against Sri Lanka beginning next month in Sri Lanka.

After a training camp, the Pakistani selectors headed by Iqbal Qassim, relieved Misbah Ul Haq from the Twenty20 captaincy, but retained him in that position for the five one-day internationals and the Three match Test series. Misbah took over the captaincy when Pakistan cricket was in the dumps. By example and leading from the front Misbah along with former opening bat, who turned coach Moshin Khan made Pakistan a champion squad once again. Misbah has had a wonderful run with victories over Sri Lanka and England in Desert Country and carried away the Asia Cup beating Bangladesh in Bangladesh. A victory over Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka must be his longing.

Surprising omissions

But surprising omissions from the Pakistan line ups have been wicket-keeper batsman Kamran Akmal, Abdul Razzack and Mohammed Younus. It must be understood that the selectors are doing an unenviable job.

They are allowed only a certain quota of players and always endeavour to pick the best available. In the process they are reluctantly forced to leave out some players. That's when the selectors earn the curses from the players left out. Razzack and Akmal have over the years served Pakistan cricket well. Razzack as an all-rounder and Akmal as a wicket keeper batsman. The selectors would have discussed long and hard and would have regretted their dropping. It cannot be helped. That's how it goes. Razzack and Akmal expressed surprise at their being left out.

Heavy scoring

Former heavy scoring batsman Mohammed Yousuf, formerly known as Yousuf Youanna who was called for training and who was looking forward to resuming his career again also finds himself in the wilderness.

Youanna's dropping may seem like the end of his career. It was career studded with runs and more runs while it lasted and he erased many batting records in the process. One bowler in the Pakistan squad that the Sri Lanka batsmen will fear and the crowds will yearn to watch is off spinning sensation Saeed Ajmal. Improving with each game he teased and lured the Lankan batsmen in the desert.

It was his high class spin, with a demoralizing doosra that helped Pakistan win the series against us. He is a hard working bowler who has the intelligence and guile to succeed on any wicket. He won't be any different on our wickets.

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