Some IPL/Cricket headlines

• KKR were hit by absenteeism too

No one can accuse the Kolkata Knight Riders management of only being fanciful. Over the past few days, team owner Shah Rukh Khan has shown an admirable sense of humour even after the cause was lost, and John Buchanan has shown remarkable candour in expressing a fresh idea that would seem like it is negating his original, controversial one.

While the long sms to his team members after the Knight Riders had lost to Delhi earlier this week was replete with exhortations to do better, Shah Rukh ends the missive with a pointed post-script: "and stop dropping catches," he writes, "that will help." This reflects the ability to laugh at oneself (after all, he owns the team), but is also tinged with some regret at what might have been given a little luck and greater discipline.

The greatest quality about sport is that it teaches you how to cope with defeat, which is impossible without a sense of humour, and builds up fortitude for future endeavour. Irony, of course, is part of the human condition. If everything went clockwork, where remains the charm of life?

I have not been a subscriber to the multiple captains theory (that was ultimately scuttled) which several analysts argue started the turmoil in the Knight Riders camp. But it must be accepted that the team's travails are not only due to that controversy alone. True, the players would have been uneasy with so much going on around them over which they had little control, but the team had also been hit the most with absenteeism, and has also lacked any luck.
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Ricky Ponting, David Hussey and Shoaib Akhtar are the three players missing this season, and while there can be some compunctions about the last-named, this is as splendid a trio of players as in any team in the IPL. To overcome their absence, the KKR needed extraordinary motivation, and some luck.

Unfortunately, they had neither.

If the performances of all the teams in the first half of the tournament had to be benchmarked, KKR are obviously the worst -- but not by that much. Some other sides like Mumbai, Bangalore and Punjab have swung violently from one side to the other, but they are still in contention for a place in the semis. Though by the end of the tournament, some could finish lower than KKR. That's how the cookie crumbles -- in sport as in life.

Perhaps even more interesting -- given the background -- was Buchanan's statement that Shane Warne or Adam Gilchrist should captain Australia in the Twenty20 World Championships. The two players are long retired, and it is too late in any case to make changes now, but his argument in this instance also scuttles his own theory about multiple captains being more efficient in Twenty20. And supporting Warne, so long his critic!

Buchanan also argues, and I think quite correctly again, that key players of any team should be kept fit and available for Test matches, which means that retired players who are still fit could be considered for T20. For Buchanan (I presume), T20 is good, rewarding sportstainment, but Test matches are the 'real thing', which old-timer cricket lovers and some current players and administrators would readily agree too.

Already, there is a brouhaha about the delay in Chris Gayle joining the West Indies team in England. The defeat in the first Test will undoubtedly accentuate the criticism against the West Indies skipper to extend his stay in the IPL because he had no time to acclimatise. But then, this argument collapses against Ravi Bopara's splendid hundred, and Fidel Edwards' superb bowling in the first innings.

I reckon unless this contradiction is bridged early, there will be a tug-of-war between players and administrators over it in the near future.

• McCullum mum on quiting captaincy (interview after the 39th match)

Asked to pinpoint reasons behind the team's spectacular slide, McCullum said, "It's hard to put your finger (on any one thing). We haven't played consistently well across the board during each game."

"We get our batting going well and our bowling and fielding let us down. We get our bowling going well and our batting lets us down. We are not consistent across all the areas of the game," he said.

McCullum, however, had no complain against any individual.

"This is certainly not because of lack of trying, guys out there are trying as hard as we possibly can. Unfortunately things aren't going our way," he said.

"The way we played tonight, that makes me very proud to be a captain. You walk off with smile on your face and positive body language because you know that you have had a team that had given everything that they possibly had," he added.

• Watching too much IPL might get you killed by your dad

"Sandesh, who was pursuing computer repairing course, was watching the IPL match at his house when his father Meghnath arrived home at around 10.30pm yesterday, winding up his job," a senior police officer said.

"Meghnath asked his son to switch off the television as he was tired and wanted to take some rest. But Sandesh refused to do so following which Meghnath shouted at him and warned him," the officer said.

"Furious Meghnath went to the kitchen and returned with a knife. He then stabbed his son on his chest with the knife, injuring him seriously. When the incident occurred, the victim and the accused were present inside the home," police said.

• "The Chinese mean business"

"The team has taken me by surprise. The Chinese are no nonsense people and they mean business," she said. "It is only a matter of five to 10 years before they bridge the gap with teams like Australia and England."

Unlike India, where cricket is a religion, the sport is alien to most Chinese and is being developed from scratch in that country.

Maben says the women's team has proved that it is not necessary to watch a sport on television to understand it. "The girls didn't know anything about it. Cricket is not popular in China and they don't watch it on TV. But by just watching me demonstrate a few skills, they have been able to learn and are slowly improvising on the strokes.

• All but over for KKR; Daredevils go atop
  

Johannesburg: Delhi Daredevils followed up their disciplined bowling with a clinical chase to thump Indian Premier League's favourite punching bag Kolkata Knight Riders by seven wickets and reach the top of the points table here on Sunday. Chasing a modest 124, the Daredevils cruised to 125 for three in 17.1 overs with David Warner (36) and AB de Villiers (40 not out) shining with the bat to fashion a win that helped the Delhi outfit (14) replace Chennai Super Kings (13) at the top of the points' chart.

Asked to take first strike on the Wanderers pitch, Sourav Ganguly (44) and Ajit Agarkar (39) waged grim battle as the Knight Riders fumbled and faltered their way to an unflattering 123 for eight in their allotted 20 overs.