If reports are to be believed, John Wright could become the man that replaces the sacked Kolkata Knight Riders coach, John Buchanan.

"I'm 43 but wouldn't mind having a crack at it. I think I'll go okay but I am not sure if any side is desperate to take me"

Matthew Hayden, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, and Glen McGrath have got Steve Waugh thinking about the IPL.

And Steve Waugh has got me thinking.

If he can make a return to cricket, via the IPL, at the age of 43, then which other retired cricketers can do the same?

Here are my top 5 candidates whom I reckon could come back from retirement, play in the IPL, and also be succesful at it!

5. Lance Klusener (Age: 37, Best Fit: Royal Challengers Bangalore)

The IPL will more than welcome his big hitting and pace bowling, if only he lets go of his ICL contract. He can still hit the ball big, and when in full flow there isn't a bigger hitter than him in the game. Ideal for 20-20 cricket.

Royal Challengers Bangalore because of their liking for South Africans.

4. Ravi Shastri (Age: 46, Best Fit: Kolkata Knight Riders)

For starters, it will keep him away from the commentary box. I would rather see him hitting DLF maximums instead of calling them. I reckon he still can. His spin will be more than handy in a tournament where the spinners have picked up a lot of wickets.

Kolkata Knight Riders because Ganguly could do with a supporter and also so that he could get closer to the FIP and save his marriage from falling apart.

3. Mark Waugh (Age: 43, Best Fit: Rajasthan Royals)

If Steve Waugh can think about it, then why not his twin who was the better one in the shorter version of the game. I reckon Mark Waugh can still give many openers a run for their money, moreso in the IPL.

Rajasthan Royals because they could do with some more batting firepower and Shane Warne could do with an old mate.

2. Brian Lara (Age: 40, Best Fit: Mumbai Indians)

His ICL contract runs out next year and who knows, the IPL might just pick him up. The way he was hitting the ball just before retirement tells me that he still has it in him to light up a 20-20 game. If Sanath can do it at 40, no reason why Lara can't.

Mumbai Indians only because I would love to see two masters - Sachin and Lara - in the same team!

1. Wasim Akram (Age: 42, Best Fit: Chennai SuperKings)

More than anything, I would love to see him back! I saw him a year ago in an exhibition match held in Abu Dhabi and I'm telling you he can still trouble many batsmen. The pace might be a bit slower but the swing is intact and that too both ways and as late as ever. Add hi big hitting to it and one has the perfect IPL candidate.

Chennai SuperKings because for how much he praises Dhoni, he might as well play and perform for him. And something to do with big men (Flintoff, Oram, Gony, AB) being a part of the team.

Now its up to the IPL franchises to offer these guys contracts. No one said that only the retired Australians could be a part of it.

Honourable Mention:

John Buchanan (Age: 56, Best Fit: Whoever hires his family as well)

Might as well see him apply his theories on the field and on himself!

Saurav Ganguly looks so uninterested here, its not even funny.

It just shows that he doesn't give a damn about what John Buchanan has to say.

I think Ganguly is just about to doze off actually.

You can also see him looking at Buchanan's watch, probably wondering when this whole thing is going to end.

Not the speech Buchanan is seen giving, but this IPL season.

One man who truly wants out of it is Ganguly.

Stripped of the captaincy, stripped of the opening slot, stripped of everything - for no good reason.

And what happened when Ganguly finally got his opening spot back?

He scored more than what McCullum or Gayle have scored in any of the matches!

That should tell Shahrukh Khan something.

Maybe dada needs to be reinstated as captain next season.

Actually, why wait for next season, do it now.

And while he's at it, he might as well fire Buchanan and family too.

Its become so sad watching Kolkata Knight Riders play that only such bold actions will get people, or atleast me, interested in them again.

Picture courtesy Poshin.

They slipped to 4th place after being on top of the table for most of the IPL, but after today's victory over the Mumbai Indians, the Deccan Chargers are on top again. Just behind Delhi Daredevils on net run rate.

This season has been a good one for the Chargers, and very different from the one they had last year.

Some time back I wondered what was different about the Chargers' campaign, but that was a very non-serious look.

More seriously, what has clicked for them this year?

Some suggested Edwards made a difference, but he lost the last game for them and now he's gone and doing it for the Windies.

Gibbs form was also suggested but he's failed in the last few matches including today.

Gilchrist is no doubt leading from the front, but is it Darren Lehmann who has been calling the shots behind the scenes?

I've noticed him in all the games and he's always seen in the middle of the Chargers' huddle before the match and during the tactical time outs.

At other times, he's always scribbling something on his note pad.

Note to Buchanan: note pad, not laptop.

Lehmann was considered God in the Australian domestic circuit. A lot of the Australian internationals also rated him highly as a strategist.

For a long time Ricky Ponting used him as the man to make a decision on the field.

Even Shane Warne has spoken highly about Lehmann's cricketing sense and used him as a motivator last season besides giving him a few games for the Rajasthan Royals.

I believe Lehmann has been one of the major drivers behind the Chargers' turnaround.

I agree that the Chargers were unlucky last season ending up at the wrong end of many close matches, but it takes more than misfortune to lose 12 out of 14 games!

Lehmann has probably instilled the confidence in the team and probably has some defined roles as well for the players, just like Warne does for his Royals.

He's probably not a coach per se but more of a motivator and mentor and its surely done the Chargers a lot of good.

I was bored so decided to drink some milk.

Then I thought about milking.

That's when this came up - Between Shahrukh Khan, Shilpa Shetty, John Buchanan, Shane Warne, and Sunil Gavaskar, Whose Milking Who?

Have a read.

Failed former cricketer.
Making a living by telling international cricketers to do what he couldn't.
Made out to be a super coach by the Indian media.
Milking the owners of his franchise through nepotism.

These are the few things that Sunil Gavaskar has said regarding John Buchanan.

A bit uncalled I think.

Failed cricketer or not, Buchanan is arguably the most succesful coach cricket has ever seen.

So to say something like that is not justified.

It is one thing to criticize his ways and theories, another to criticize the man.

Had Gavaskar only talked about how worthless the multiple-captain theory was, it would have been fine.

To go on and attack the man behind it, the way Gavaskar has done, is not justified in my view.

What's more is that Gavaskar has blamed Buchanan of nepotism claiming that "he is milking his owners", i.e. Shahrukh Khan.

Now if Shahrukh Khan was being milked, I'm quite sure he would have known that.

I don't think that Buchanan has been able to talk Shahukh Khan into hiring support staff that may not be required by the Knight Riders.

Not at all.

SRK may not know his cricket, but he surely knows how to do business.

For Gavaskar to blame Buchanan like that and suggest that Shahrukh is being milked is not only naive but utterly foolish.

Isn't Gavaskar part of the IPL Governing board?

In that case he should have definitely not spoken like this.

And if he sincerely thought that the "poor owners" were being milked then why didn't Gavaskar try and talk to SRK about that?

Surely that would have been the wiser thing to go.

SRK is also not one to stay quiet.

His response was to tell Gavaskar to buy a team of his own and implement his ways.

Now if that were to happen, we can be sure that Gavaskar will not include Rohan Gavaskar and his mumbai pals in the plan. Would he now.

One person I would really like to hear from regarding all this is Shane Warne.

When will the King of Spin speak up?

Oh and one more thing. Gavaskar has criticized the Indian media as well of giving Buchanan and other things undue importance.

The same Indian media that Gavaskar is a part of!

Ishant Sharma: I want the fine leg up in the circle.

Saurav Ganguly: Don't ask me Ishu, Chris is your bowling captain. Ask him.

Ishant: Chris, fine leg up please.

Chris Gayle: Dude I'm not the fielding captain, ask Brendon.

Brendon McCullum: I think fine leg should be at the boundary.

Ishant: Push mid on back, and bring fine leg up. Trust me.

Brad Hodge: He's right, it makes sense, let's do this.

McCullum: Hodgey, your not an on-field captain, don't speak out of turn. fine leg is good as it is.

David Hussey: I back you Brendon, go on Ishu, bowl!

Ishant: Dada, yeh kia ho raha hai!!? (what the hell is going on?)

Saurav Ganguly: Don't ask me man. John se jaake pooch! (Go ask John)

Ishant: John, sir this is madness. Its crazy out there on the field. We should have only one captain.

John Buchanan: If you have a complaint, register it with Matthew. We'll feed it into the system and analyze it along with other complaints as well as with the benefits of multiple captains. Then we'll decide if we want to continue with this or not.

For the first time in history, cricketers are going to be up for grabs on the trading floor next month when the IPL trading window opens up.

And Shoaib Akhtar is the first cricketer to be put up for trade by his franchise.

According to John Buchanan that is.

That wouldn't go down too well with Shoaib, especially with him trying his best to prove a point to his critics.

His reaction is yet to come and I don't think it will be a good one.

After all he was playing for "bade bhaiyyas" Shahrukh Khan and Saurav Ganguly.

Saurav and SRK probably deliberately stayed away from announcing this and let Buchanan do the dirty work.

And it probably is Buchanan's decision as well given the "closeness" between SRK, Saurav, and Shoaib.

Here's a quote I saw on Cricinfo. It's John Buchanan, Australia's former coach, reacting to the review/referral system:

"Cricket ought to initially clean its own backyard and then strive to secure a place in the Olympics. I consider it miserable that the decisions of the authorities are questioned. I'm totally against the referral system and Twenty20 cannot be a part of the Olympics as the referral system is against the spirit of the Games."

Wow! Questioning the decisions of the authorities is "miserable"??? Which ex-Soviet state did he grow up in? (The rest of his statement is equally bizarre, and I'll leave discussion on that for another time).

Cricket fans have had just about enough of the horrible decisions (intentional or not) by the so-called "elite" umpires, as well as seeing the culprits not taken to task for their failures. So they have put enough pressure that a system is finally in place to provide reasonable correction. It has its quirks but, just like with everything else, those will smooth out over time and increased usage.

So Mr. Buchanan, stop acting like a Communist Dictator and embrace the democratic movement of cricket fans worldwide. If you are afraid that Australia will suffer since less-than-honest Australian fielders and umpire bias (in favour of Australia) and will be exposed by the system, don't be. Australia is still an awesome and unparalleled team, even without those advantages they have enjoyed for quite some time.

The biggest debate around the cricket world this week has revolved around Kevin Pietersen's Switch-Hit.

Before I go on with my 10 paisas, I would like to point out to this news piece that dates back to over 5 years ago.

Shortly after winning the World Cup in 2003, Australia's coach John Buchanan came out with a future development plan of sorts for cricket's future in Australia.

As the article states the key objective was to "think about how the game is played and how we can play it differently".

John Buchanan's response to the "playing it differently" was "develop ambidextrous players who can field, bat - and possible even bowl - right and left-handed".

John Buchanan went on to say that by the next World Cup, which was held last year, Australia would have players who would be able to use both sides of their body.

He described Ian Harvey as one who can throw with both hands, and Adam Gilchrist as one who can hit the ball left handed as well as he does right handed.

Before going on, I want to ask my 1st question.

Why didn't the ICC or the MCC or anyone else question the legality of ambidextrous players who could bat and / or bowl either right handed or left handed?

Was it because no one thought that would ever happen?

We didn't see that skill on display at last year's World Cup, but we did see it during the 1st ODI between England and New Zealand when Kevin Pietersen switched his grip, switched his stance, and hit Styris for 6. Not once but twice. (Link above).

But that isn't the first time Pietersen has played that shot. This clip shows Pietersen doing exactly the same to Muralitharan in a test match played in 2006.

Pietersen switched his stance, stood like a left hander and played a reverse slog sweep and sent the ball over the ropes for 6.

And the picture on the right shows that Pietersen has played that shot in matches before the 1st ODI between England and New Zealand.

Why didn't anyone question its legality then?

Was it because it was a reverse sweep and not a shot hit over the bowler's head?

Even before Pietersen, I distinctly remember one Jonty Rhodes do exactly the same. He played the reverse sweep different than most batsmen.

While the reverse sweep was largely played by turning the bat in the hand and sweeping the ball the other way without a change in stance or grip, Jonty Rhodes used to change his grip and stance, in effect becoming a left hander, and then play the sweep.

I couldn't find clips to prove that, but I do remember some commentators questioning if that was allowed.

Why didn't anyone check the legality back then?

Is the hue and cry, which has thankfully been cleared by the MCC, all because Pietersen sent the ball sailing over mid off, or was it mid on, rather than sweep it?

Whatever the answer to the above questions, all it does is goes to show that one day the ICC might be concerned over an issue that has been totally ignored in the past.

In either case, as Sledgehammer points out in his last post, thankfully common sense has prevailed and the MCC have termed the switch-hit legal. Even though I feel there was no need to check for its legality since it has been played for some time now.

What needed checking or revising were other rules that go flushing down the drain if a batsman deploys the switch-hit.

Rule 1: Bowlers switching hand of delivery

That article in which John Buchanan talks about ambidexrous players concludes with "You've got to inform the umpire or they might see it as cheating. If you told the umpire and the batter knew, that's be fine".

That refers to the bowlers switching their hands before the delivery.

This is the first rule that I believe needs to be looked at and ammended or added or whatever it is the MCC does.

The rule in my view should imply that a bowler needs to declare the side of the wicket he is going to bowl from (i.e. over or around) but he doesn't need to declare which hand he is going to deliver from.

It's simple really, if the batsmen can switch from right to left or vice-versa, the bowlers can too.

Rule 2: The Wide Ball

A ball delivered down leg is a wide even if it misses the batsman or the stumps by an inch. This is fine, though what happens to deliveries bowled on the off-side, which becomes the leg side when a batsman switches?

Surely they should not be wide.

But then deliveries bowled down leg side, which becomes the off-side when a batsman switches, should also not be wide.

Rule 3: LBW

A ball that pitches outside the line of leg stump rules out the LBW. But then what about the ball that pitches outside the line of leg stump, which becomes the off stump when he batsman switches?

That should not rule out the LBW.

And the ball that pitches outside the line of off-stump, which becomes the leg stump when the batsman switches, should also not rule out the LBW.

The batsmen have a lot of things going their way in ODI cricket, and its high time the rule makers do something for the bowlers.

Som, who openly criticizes the use of the switch-hit and considers the plight of the bowlers, may not be as against it if these rules were implemented.

Nor would the others who think its unfair.

It hasn't happened yet but I can see it coming.

Shoaib Akhtar landed in India yesterday to play for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League. He would have left Pakistan thinking that finally he is going to be doing what he's always wanted.

He would have thought he would party with SRK and his cronies every night and in between play a few matches too.

He must have thought that finally he would not have to provide any sort of justification to any captain or coach about anything.

He would have thought that he'll just run in, bowl 4 overs a day, and party away.

He must have thought that the IPL will be one big party.

And on top of all this, he would have thought what better than to get paid for all this.

What more did he want.

Little did Shoaib know though that a man by the name of John Buchanan, who also happens to be the coach of KKR, and the same man who took an entire Australia team to a boot camp against the wishes of a certain Shane Warne, was waiting for him in Kolkata.

This is what Buchanan had to say on learning that the Shoaib Akhtar had arrived:

“Obviously, Shoaib has a reputation, not only on the field but off it too... There are rules in place and there are ways in which the team has been operating. The rules are the same for everybody and there won’t be exceptions, no matter who you are. As long as Shoaib understands what’s in place and abides by the rules, there shouldn’t be any drama.”

Does Buchanan really think there won't be any drama? Especially if he's ordering Shoaib to live by the "rules"?

He must be kidding seriously. He talks about the reputation that Shoaib has off the field and it is that reputation that is going to lead Shoaib to bite Buchanan's ear off.

All of Shoaib's past coaches have had a problem with him. Be it Miandad, the late Woolmer, the coach at Nottinghamshire, the man who coached the ICC World XI, everyone. And all of them have had problems because of Shoaib's lack of respect for authority.

Buchanan, with that statement, has already stamped his authority. And you can see it coming. A slap, a bat, a punch, even a bite. I see it coming.

For Shoaib's sake and the sake of Pakistan I hope Shoaib has cleaned up his act. I know what I'm hoping for is like wishing for hell to freeze over but I still hope for Shoaib to stay away from controversies and deliver on the field.

He himself has promised that by saying:

"I have been able to overcome this traumatic situation and return to the field because of IPL chairman Lalit Modi, Knight Riders owner Shah Rukh Khan and captain Sourav Ganguly. The way they stood by me, fought for me and empathised with me is unbelievable. I will never let them down in my life."

If he doesn't want to let them down he will have to clean up his act. He will have to deliver on the field.

The title of this post is something I don't wish to read about. I hope to see Shoaib Akhtar make the headlines with a bunch of wickets and match winning performances. I hope to see pictures of Shoaib celebrating wickets with Ganguly and not of him dancing with him.

I hope to read about how Shoaib took KKR to the semifinals. And hopefully to the IPL title.

Well, his former captain Wasim Akram believes that Shoaib will perform. This what he had to say:

"Once Shoaib sees the crowds, and of course the babes around, I think he will be able to perform."

Welcome to the IPL Shoaib!

Yesterday I did a post on the Aussies taking the IPL by storm. Shaun Marsh and Dominic Thornely were the latest signees to the league.

That wasn't the end of the Aussie signing spree though.

One of the commentators on that post mentioned that the dominance of Aussie coaches in the IPL has led a number of domestic players to join the IPL. Very true I think.

The latest Aussies to join the IPL are Micheal Buchanan and Matthew Mott. Micheal is the son of former Australia coach John Buchanan and he joins his father at the Kolkata Knight Riders as the teams strength trainer.

What in the world is a strength trainer? Is he going to train the likes of Saurav Ganguly, Ricky Ponting, and Chris Gayle to become stronger?

Matthew Mott is the New South Wales' coach and he also joins the Kolkata Knight Riders as John Buchanan's assistant.

And so the Aussie invasion of the IPL continues. There could yet be more though.

In a recent survey held by the Australian Cricketers' Association, 47% of the nationally contracted players said that they would consider early retirement to play in the IPL or the ICL. 49% of the players with state deals said the same.

I believe that this is going to have quite an impact on Australian cricket in the future. All the Aussies could well be thinking that this is India's plan to strip them of the world dominance that they have been on for over a decade.

Pakistan's domestic cricket is already suffering with the cream of domestic stars opting for the ICL. Even though this year the Aussies in the ICL were the ageing ones like Jason Gillespie, Damien Martyn, Jimmy Maher, and Micheal Kasprowicz, theres no reason why younger ones won't follow suit in the future.

A weakened domestic structure in Australia is bound to weaken the international team.

I say the ICL because in the same survey, 75% of the contracted players said that the ICL was good for the game. Now this is a surprise! I had thought otherwise since majority of the Aussie bloggers call it evil. The players obviously think otherwise.

Here is a further case for lifting the ban off the ICL and accepting it as an open competitor.

If the best players of cricket in the world feel that a league, labelled as rebel, is good for the game and that they would even consider early retirement to play there, the rebel label needs to go sooner rather than later.

The BCCI and the ICC need to wake up already.

Shaun Marsh, son of the Aussie opener Goeff Marsh, has just been signed up by Priety Zinta's Mohali franchise for the IPL.

Its been quite a week for the young Aussie - after being named in the ODI squad for the Windies tour, earlier today he received his first contract from Cricket Australia.

Whats interesting is that Shaun Marsh joins Luke Pomersbach in the Mohali team - the 2 Western Australians were suspended earlier this season for a late night drinking binge by WA. One can expect some late nights then in and around Punjab once the IPL kicks off.

Marsh and Pomersbach will have to be wary though as Mohali is coached by Western Australia coach Tom Moody who has Trevor Penney as his assistant, also his assistant at WA.

Dominic Thornely, another successful Australian domestic cricketer, was also lapped up today by the Mumbai Indians, who had earlier signed on the Western Australian wicket keeper Luke Ronchi.

Glenn McGrath is one of the first international cricketers to arrive in India for the IPL and has already started training with the Delhi Daredevils. Delhi's coach, the Victorian Greg Shipperd, has also arrived in India and held the team's first training session yesterday.

Aussies have definitely taken the IPL by storm.

• Shane Warne is the only non-Indian captain the IPL has.
  
• 4 of the 8 IPL coaches are Australian - John Buchanan, Tom Moody, Greg Shipperd, and Shane Warne.
  
• Australia is the only country from where the largest pool of domestic cricketers have signed on with the IPL - those mentioned above along with the Victorians David Hussey and Cameron White. There are a couple of others that I'm forgetting right now.

Despite such an Aussie dominance in the IPL, Uncle J Rod refuses to believe that it will be a success. Forget Aussie dominance Uncle J, they've got Victorians here as well.


The IPL kicks off in 9 days.

The teams are ready; they've all got their names, their captains, their coaches, their players, their multi colored uniforms; the players have started arriving, training sessions have started, the schedule is in place, and arragements for the opening ceremony are being finalised !!

It sure will be quite an extravaganza !!!

I used to love the show in the 80s. Micheal Knight and Kit were heroes in their own right and I used to follow their adventures week in week out. Micheal Knight then moved on from chasing bad men to chasing bikini clad women and Knight Rider died.

I heard recently that Knight Rider was relaunched and a pilot has been aired with Micheal Knight's son and a new Kit.

But a different kind of Knight Rider was launched in India today.

It was the launch of Shahrukh Khan's Kolkata Knight Riders!

Finally we have an interesting name from one of the IPL franchises. After Super Kings, Royal Challengers, Royals, and Indians; Knight Riders is a refreshing change. And who else than King Khan to come up with something like that.

Team owner Shahrukh Khan, Team captain Saurav Ganguly, and Team Coach John Buchanan launched the name, logo, jersey, mascot, and anthem of the Kolkata team today.

• The logo is a golden helmet.
  
• The jersey is in black and gold.
  
• The mascot is a tiger called 'Hoog Lee', which King SRK announced as "not Bruce Lee, not Brett Lee, but better than all the Lees".
  
• And the anthem is in bengali with the lyrics "Karbo, Larbo, Jeetbo Re". Translated that means "we will do it, fight it, and win it".

Trust the king of entertainment to make his team the most interesting one out of the lot!

A video of the anthem has also been shot and SRK joked about John Buchanan learning some Bollywood steps for it. I can't wait to get my hands on that video - apparently Shoaib Akhtar, Ganguly, and King Khan all make an appearance in it.

Watch out IPL teams, the Kolkata Knight Riders mean business and they are ready to Rock n Roll!!

Shoaib Akhtar has been visiting orphanages, schools, and other places on the current India tour in a bid to shed his 'bad boy' image. In one of the recent school visits, he proposed to a 12th grade Indian school girl, who accepted! Now how does Sania Mirza, who claims she has been 'bowled over' by Shoaib Akhtar feel about this? And is proposing to a school girl shedding Shoaib's 'bad boy' image?