Falling in love with T20s

Vinayak Padmadeo

Advertisement

Sitting in a cramped hall of a New Delhi five star hotel, S Sreesanth jokes, “I was honoured that Preity Zinta took me in Kings XI Punjab, with Tom Moody as coach. I think that was one the highest paychecks then. Yes, I got a bigger paycheck with Big Boss, but the first IPL contract was very important for us.”

Sreesanth was bought by King’s XI Punjab in 2008 for $6,25,000, a little over Rs five crore at the current exchange rate. Virat Kohli was signed by Royal Challengers Bangalore for $50,000 as he was an Under-19 player when the first IPL auction was held.

When we landed in South Africa, no one gave us a chance. I saw a sports broadcast where the studio guests were saying that ‘India has no chance as there is no experience in the bowling team and Dhoni is a new captain. It motivated us to do better every single time we set out foot on the field. This current team is also being criticised for doing badly in the Asia Cup. I believe they can also use the disappointment to win in Australia. It still is a very good team. —S Sreesanth

The success story of T20 cricket in India was built 15 years ago to the day, in Johannesburg, when a young team led by a relative greenhorn skipper

in Mahendra Singh Dhoni lifted the inaugural World Twenty20 World Cup by defeating Pakistan in the final.

Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh were the relative ‘veterans’ in that new-look team. Top players such as Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly had skipped the tournament, which came a few months after a disastrous 50-over World Cup campaign in the West Indies, where they were bundled out in the group stage.

Caught!

September 24, 2007: Sreesanth pouches Misbah-ul-Haq’s mistimed scoop at short fine leg to complete a memorable five-run win over Pakistan. The 50-over World Cup ignominy was forgotten. India celebrated.

“I never thought I would drop the catch, but I was conscious that whatever happens, I will have to stop Misbah taking the second run. Thankfully, I completed the catch and we won,” Sreesanth says, 15 years after that triumph.

“That catch that helped us win that World Cup made a lot of difference to Indian cricket, especially to the lives of cricketers. Because of the win, we got IPL,” he adds.

Yes, the IPL changed fortunes – of the players as well of the officials of the Indian cricket board (BCCI). Overnight, from being the biggest opponent of Twenty20 cricket, BCCI made a U-turn and embraced the newest brand of cricket.

A year before the famous night in Joburg, in 2006, BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah and vice-president Lalit Modi opposed the idea of a T20 World Cup. But with the now-defunct ICL signing up domestic players – roping in even Kapil Dev as chairman – the BCCI had to respond. It hiked the fees for the domestic cricketers and came up with its own copycat league, the IPL. Victory in Johannesburg pushed the popularity of T20 cricket high, almost guaranteeing the success of the IPL.

The IPL now is a behemoth for which the International Cricket Council (ICC) has created a separate two-month window on the international calendar.

Money-spinner

In June this year, the BCCI sold IPL’s overall media rights for the 2023-27 cycle for Rs 48,390 crore. The stunning bidding war made IPL the second-most lucrative sporting product in the world, behind America’s National Football League. The BCCI’s current net worth is reported to be a little over Rs 18,000 crore, making it the richest cricket body in the World. Well, these riches came on the back of famous victories at the inaugural T20 World Cup in South Africa.

Former India international Lalchand Rajput, team manager at the 2007 T20 World Cup, says the expectations were low, but the team was motivated and worked hard for success. “We even practised bowl-outs, at which, we found, the slow bowlers were very effective. In the bowl-out win against Pakistan, their fast bowlers missed, while we used the likes of Robin Uthappa and even Sehwag, who were not used as bowlers,” Rajput said.

Similar path?

Sreesanth sees a similarity between the 2007 team and Rohit Sharma’s current team that will take part in the T20 World Cup next month in Australia.

That year, India went into the tournament after a morale-sapping exit from the 50-over World Cup, losing to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Sharma’s team is also heading the T20 World Cup after a disastrous campaign in the Asia Cup.

“When we landed in South Africa, no one gave us a chance. I saw a sports broadcast where the studio guests were saying that ‘India has no chance as there is no experience in the bowling team and Dhoni is a new captain’,” Sreesanth says. “It motivated us to do better every single time we set out foot on the field. This current team is also being criticised for doing badly in the Asia Cup. I believe they can also use the disappointment to win in Australia. It still is a very good team!”