IPL 2: No Respite From The Rain

First Cape Town. Then Durban. The rains Gods decided to play a trick on Modi. And these were the lasting first impressions of IPL 2.
Lalit Modi stated broadly that the IPL 2 was moved from India to South Africa and not England as expected because weather would dictate seventy per cent of the matches in England. But it appears the Gods have decided to trick him.

Rain marked the first few minutes of the IPL 2 telecast, so much so that the audiences were forced to watch some rather unappetizing stuff on television in the form of the IPL 2 pre hype when what they really wanted was an opening ceremony and two blockbuster matches to mark the beginning of that blazing summer.

And rain has continued to have a say on day four, to the extent that the second match of the day between the Mumbai Indians and the Rajasthan Royals, a humdinger by all measures, did not even get underway. The Kings XI Punjab team must now stop strategizing in the dressing room and see an astrologer that will tell them the rituals to perform to appease the rain Gods that have marred both their matches thus far that have seen them on the losing side.

But they had better not consider the numerologist that Shah Rukh Khan approached. After all, it has meant that the KKR team lost the ‘Kolkata’ tag to their name on their jerseys, Sourav Ganguly lost the captaincy because the numbers (and John Buchanan) did not favour the team and SRK is even facing hate slogans from the irate Kolkata fans.
Incidentally rain also played its part in one match in the IPL’s inaugural year, washing away the match between the Delhi Daredevils and the Kolkata Knight Riders in Delhi to deny the KKR team a chance to make it to the semi finals.

Many who have played or lived in South Africa consider April the wrong time of the year to be playing cricket. The pitches have run their course and rain will run through the month, or so they foretell. Modi may have gambled on a few games being lost to rain rather than have the entire IPL 2 wiped out in England.
But even he would have been surprised to the extent that rain has been the highlight of the first few days, sadly wiping clean the many brilliant performances that peered through the clouds in between. It does not make a lot of sense when Twenty20 is being played out to shorten the time but then the rain is keeping fans waiting for virtually the same time as a one day game. Besides having two games in a single day is equivalent to a limited overs match. So, until the Deccan Chargers game against the Bangalore Royal Challengers gets underway, perhaps in Dubai and Abu Dhabi that fans will soak up the sun for the Pakistan v Australia ODIs.
In the mean time, rain keeps the ground staff busy.

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