IPL parties: the inside story
A fall-out of India's early exit from the World Twenty20 is the negative publicity of the IPL parties
Kanishkaa Balachandran
25-Feb-2013
A fall-out of India's early exit from the World Twenty20 is the negative publicity of the IPL parties. MS Dhoni's comments about the parties taking a toll on the players' body is true, particularly for high-profile players like him who were top draws in every gathering, and perhaps had no option but to attend. One player, on the condition of anonymity, spoke to Heena Zuni Pandit of the Hindustan Times for a first-person account of a typical party night, and the demands that come along with it.
So you tell yourself, 'I'll go down for an hour', only, it's never an hour. Before you know it, it's 4am and you're heading back to your room, hurrying to pack up and head to another city, another game, another sponsor's commitment (which are endless), another shoot possibly and yes, another party. The problem is that you can never switch off mentally. Not on the field, not during the hours spent in airports when fans and the airport staff want an autograph, photograph or just a chat and not in the parties, where you'll be introduced to important people who will listen to you and perhaps, be important contacts who will make money for you.
The IPL gave the foreign players a chance to exploit the weaknesses in the Indian batsmen. Over six weeks, notes were being swapped and the results were out in the open in the West Indies. Sharda Ugra has more in Back Page Lead.
Like Rohit Sharma, the right-hander Ian Chappell once said could take over after Tendulkar. His rivals think of him as “talented but compulsive.” So give him the short stuff and he can be lulled into a flashy stroke. Sharma then, the verdict is, can face the short ball, but can’t resist it. The most common idea put out by the foreign players, regardless of the Indian tyro being discussed was, “Push them back, make them play”. This one’s a story of two halves.
Kanishkaa Balachandran is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo