After some great cricket and some horrible related incidents during the first three months of 2018, the time has come for a commercial pause. Well, not exactly for millions of avid fans! They have been waiting patiently for this more commercially viable form of cricket since last season. It’s been April-May for more than a decade, and no one can stop these fans for going crazy with this sports movie-style entertainment.
Well, we are talking about the 11th season of the Indian Premiere League-2018 T20 Cricket tournament from April 7 until the end of next month. Many fans would be excited this time for the return of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) with former Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni back as CSK captain and Ajinkya Rahane replacing the corrupted Steve Smith as RR captain. Zeeland captain Kane Williamson replaced the corrupt David Warner as captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), before Shikhar Dhawan was chosen for the position. Pune Rising Supergiants and Gujarat Lions who played for the past two years after CSK and RR’s two-year suspension for a cricket scandal failed to qualify this time.
The internationally famous cricketer buying and selling, euphemistically called auction, saw most of the regular players retained adding some new and exciting ones. England cricketer Ben Stokes became the most expensive foreign player, while Indian pacemaker Jaydev Unadkat the most expensive national; both players are bought by RR. Some known faces remained unsold, including Lasith Malinga, Martin Guptil, Hashim Amla, Ishant Sharma, and many others. Destroyer Chris Gayle somehow found a spot in Kings XI Punjab in the third and final round of the auction. The old warhorse Yuvraj Singh also found a place in this team which is led this time by a new captain, Ravichandran Ashwin. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) ruled out Gautam Gambhir, who is being overtaken by Delhi Daredevils (DD) as captain. The sensation of the T20 Tri-Series final against Bangladesh in Colombo on March 18, 2018, Dinesh Karthik, whose 8-ball 29 won India the Nidahas Trophy, becomes the captain of KKR, which would definitely bring joy to many Kolkata fans. India captain Virat Kohli continues to lead the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), while Rohit Sharma also remains the captain of Mumbai Indians (MI). The opening match between MI and CSK will be played in Mumbai on April 7 and Kolkata will see its first match on April 8 between KKR and RCB. The other locations will be Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Mohali assigned as home locations for the different teams.
This commercial pause in terms of IPL-2018 can be seen as a much-needed relief after scandalous developments in international cricket recently. While the India Vs South Africa cricket series in South Africa was a high point in competitive cricket, the test duel between the hosts and Australia cricket reached the lowest level.
Although India with Virat Kohli lost the 3-round series against South Africa 2-1 during January 2018, cricket was very competitive with constant ups and downs. India nearly won the series with some superlative bowling performances, and many Indian fans believed that with more batting apps, India would have seen the end result in their favor. South Africa won the first and second rounds very close, while India won the final rounds convincingly. And then the Indians were unstoppable wiping out South Africa in both the one-day series and T20. Australia played the Test Series against South Africa during March 2018 winning the first and losing the second. The series was improving at the time despite David Warner’s ugly off-field showdown with South African goalkeeper Quinton de Kock during Test 1 in Durban.
The ball handling incident occurred on March 24, 2018 on the third day of the third round in Cape Town involving Cameron Bancroft, then Captain Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner, both at as much as in leadership. . The cold-blooded, deliberate tactic shocked the entire world, cricket and non-cricket alike, with outright words of condemnation coming from each and every one, regardless of the highest or lowest positions of authority. Cricket Australia was quick in their action and the players involved accepted the punishment with many public tears, but without attractive intentions. According to the most recent information, Cricket Australia wants to put all the caps on this most outrageous event, which is possible because, as mentioned, the players are not going to appeal against the punishment imposed. Of course, many questions related to this embarrassing episode would go unanswered forever.
Meanwhile, the Afghanistan cricket team qualified for the ICC-2019 World Cup against all odds and beat Ireland in their final outing. The other qualifier is the West Indies, surprisingly.