Chendu Tak

So much has already been said about the IPL that it seems like a matter of redundancy to discuss about it. Anyone and everyone claims to be an expert on the subject and I am sure whatever you may end up reading here will only give you a feeling of deja vu because someone would already have said it before. The IPL's success has made so many people join its bandwagon that it appears difficult to stay in the cricketing world and yet being immune to the infection that is the Indian Premier League. 

However, I do intend to make a couple of observations that apparently nobody has made till date (and even if someone has, the source probably wasn't popular enough to claim a few minutes of television primetime). The rules and regulations governing the selection of the playing eleven in the IPL has conjured a new breed of players which I call the 'Chendu Tak' players. They are not only new faces but also new names which is quite surprising seeing that they directly get to compete at what is arguably the highest platform in the cricketing world. Whoever had heard of a Dinesh Salunke before he bowled in tandem with the great Shane Warne in the first edition of IPL? Who could have imagined that one day the name Jakati would flash across the nation's newspapers after he dismantled the opposition with a 4-wicket haul? Wasn't Ashoke Dinda a mere non-entity before he bowled his heart out for King Khan's team last year? These are not the only ones....Swapnil Asnodkar, Manpreet Gony, Dhawal Kulkarni, Sreevats Goswami, Pradeep Sangwan - all have only IPL to thank for their spirited survival in the world of cricket. The true brilliance of IPL doesn't lie in Sanath Jayasuriya knocking the ball all over the park or Virender Sehwag making the bowlers looks like helpless schoolboys - it lies in the recognition and appreciation of the hidden talent that the afore mentioned youngsters represent. Is it not talent when you are asked to bowl the last over for your team with a billion people watching you from their living rooms? Is it not talent when you fearlessly walk up the pitch and slam the likes of Akhtar and McGrath for a six? Is it not talent when you are asked to handle the same kind of pressure that Tendulkar and Lara have admirably borne for a decade and a half? 

The name 'Chendu Tak' as such has a rather commonplace origin. When I saw the ball in inexperienced hands during a match featuring Mumbai Indians, I nastily commented that the MI team selected the players on a 'Chendu Tak' basis. Chendu Tak actually means throw the ball and in that selection procedure (which is completely a creation of my ever-fertile imagination), the stalwarts of the MI management toured the dinghy gymkhanas of Mumbai and simply asked the local boys playing there to aim the ball at the stumps. If a lad hit the middle stump at the first go - bingo! he was in the MI team for the IPL. Ofcourse, then it was just a sarcastic outburst at the advent of these hitherto unknown players making it to such a prestigious tournament. But after watching a few matches of IPL I realized that it was these 'Chendu Tak' players who were at the heart of IPL. It was they who anchored teams and chased dreams. It was they who gave many established players a scare with their daredevilry. It was they who gave the competition its unique edge. The IPL truly belonged to them and God-willing, it will always be.

PS: Seeing the crowds at the IPL, one wonders how much effort one needs to put in nowadays to appear on the television as a part of the crowd focus. Either you have to do something crazy or something special. Gone are the days when a simple banner of 'Thank You Doordarshan' or 'Arun Lal is GOD!!!' could get you a couple of minutes on the television....