I told you so – and its about performance not favoritism

So a little gloating given the results.
Sorry but cant resist given that I’ve got my biggest day predictions (Mumbai and Delhi) as well as the bottom of the barrel right. And of course Rajasthan Royal’s magic and calling out that the weary old legs of the Deccan chargers wont last all the way. Enough said but feels good :-)


The objective of this short post is though to reinforce that emotion and nostalgia have no place in the IPL; its all about performance. If only Sangakarra and Gilly had embraced this faster. Shane Warne got there (late) and Tendulkar (just about) but Gambhir, Dhoni, Kumble have done it and it shows.

1. Jayawardene should have been dropped a game ago. Yes Sanga, he’s your old captain, buddy and Sri Lanka team mate but he just cost you some games mate. (and almost the chennai super over with a harebrained heave after a six off the first ball).

2. Laxman is a fish out of water in T20. Actually he’s like a fish in alcohol mixed with hydrochloric acid or something. Those embarrassing pulls & heaves – not to mention the weary fielding. Please put him out of his misery. Now. Gilly, you still have a chance – even Venugopal (shudder) might be better. And oh, keep a close eye on Gibbs.

3. Thank God Damien Martyn is back home after his $100k lottery – give me a friend like Warne; easiest money ever made. 3 in 3 after he's left the shores (ok , a stretch correlation but none the less). Tendulkar struggled to justify another Lankan but realized that there is a veterans tournament somewhere worldwide & that Jaya has a place there.

4. Contrast. Delhi benched McGrath last year, dropped Dilshan when he flopped (even though Gambhir was injured) in 2010. Chennai (and Dhoni) will drop their nostalgia brigade any moment they don’t perform. Maybe  they could have taken a faster call on replacing Jacob Oram but in any case Bollinger (good addition) wasn’t available till the end of the month. And Kumble’s Bangalore – the oldies are doing well but you can rest assured that if Dravid fails a couple of times , he will be out.

So there you have it – perform or perish. Oh, i forgot Ganguly & KKR - for a reason. He’ll take swift action against non performers - except himself. But as i have bet on them, he’s scoring runs (albeit ugly) I’ll leave him be :-).

Especially as they just won 3 minutes ago – but then, i told you so ….