Indian cricket's big-money, big-name Icons are big flops in the IPL

The IPL has delivered action, excitement, breathtaking moments and powerful hits to the galleries, and even out of the park  … agreed! So far so good. The cricket carnival has given the viewers what it promised in the beginning. With the Bollywood stars and the bouncy cheerleaders adding glamour to the occasion off the field, Indians are indeed celebrating the IPL.

But one worrying factor in the tournament is that the majority of the teams are excessively dependent upon their overseas players for their dominance, spirited fightback or even mild resistance. Barring the dark horses of the tournament, Rajasthan Royals – led by the spin magician, master tactician and inspired captain Shane Warne – all the other teams seems to be struggling to survive in the race without their overseas stars whom the sponsors spent big money on.

Unearthing young Indian talent was one of the main aims of IPL, other than just countering ICL. Not that there haven’t been some real diamonds unearthed. Manpreeth Goni and Vidyut Shivaramakrishnan from Chennai Super Kings and Swapnil Asnodkar from Rajasthan Royals have been among the finds of the series.

But the fact that teams are huffing and puffing in the absence of the all-stars from abroad is very much evident in the recent defeats of the Chennai team, which was once topping the chart with four consecutive victories.

The departure of the overseas trio of Michael Hussey, Mathew Hayden and Jacob Oram for their international assignments was too much for the Chennai captain Dhoni to handle. Now they have crashed to the second successive defeat in the tournament. Young Palani Amarnath and S. Badrinath have done their best, but the sense of security and strength that the overseas trio gave the captain, team and sponsors cannot be replaced.

Kolkata Knight Riders have also been badly hit by the departure of Ricky Ponting and Brendon McCullum half way through the tournament. They were off to a roaring start but lost focus on the way and internal struggles and lack of co-ordination within the team have taken their toll, with Umar Gul coming out with damaging comments on Sourav Ganguly’s captaincy.

The Laxman-led Deccan Chargers and Yuvraj-lead Kings X1 Punjab are also not free from the clutches of dependence on foreign talent. It will be extremely difficult for Yuvi to dream of victory without their batting mainstay Kumar Sangakkara and bowling mainstay Brett Lee.

Mumbai Indians started tasting victory when they had South African Shaun Pollock as captain. With the ban imposed on the short-tempered Harbhajan Singh, the team as a whole started looking more disciplined.

Apart from Dhoni, all the players with Icon-status have been a huge disappointment so far. Rahul Dravid and Ganguly are far from impressive, while the great Sachin Tendulkar has not even been able to take the field. The lesser-paid overseas players are hogging the limelight while the heavily paid Icons have been found wanting.

Rajasthan Royals are the only team in the tournament so far, free from all controversies and, above all, “FREE FROM DISAPPOINTING ICONS”. They are indeed led by Australian Warne and are very much dependent on his innovative captaincy. But the young Indians, like Munaf Patel and Asnodkar, are benefiting greatly from his leadership.

Warne is a captain-cum-coach for them and the team is responding well to his ideas and objectives. Right now, only this team seems to be strongly in the race for the title. They don’t have the threat of losing players as they have young Indians at the heart of the side. The team is free from many big names in international cricket who could be called back any moment for their international matches.

Right from the beginning, foreigners have taken centre stage in the mega event with their magnificent performances, be it the explosive century by McCullum for the Knight Riders and the recent  six-wicket haul by Sohail Tanvir for Rajasthan Royals against Chennai.

It has been the overseas players all the way, with rare flashes of Indian brilliance in the form of Dhoni’s captaincy, Asnodkar’s batting and Goni’s bowling. Hopefully, the latter half of the IPL will belong to the host players and they will live up to the expectation of playing on a truly world stage.