"old wine-new bottle"

Whoever coined the phrase, “Age is nothing but a number” was absolutely right. Whether you are 18 or 80, you are never too old or too young to seize the day.

Well, these above lines are for none other than the 2 great people of world cricket who are legends in themselves. They are Adam Gilchrist (former Australian wicketkeeper) & Anil Kumble (former Indian leg spinner & Captain).

You must be wandering that it’s been sometime that these two heroics have retired from cricket, so why this man is talking about them?

Well, “There is no smoke without fire”.  Indian premiere league’s (IPL) 2^nd edition in South Africa forced me to pen down my admiration for both theses cricketers. Its not that I am not a fan of these two. Due to my love for cricket, Anil Kumble has always been my favorite player for his “do or die” attitude. While I always looked up to Adam Gilchirist for his perfection behind the stumps and his cult batting style.

Both of them after giving their loads of contribution to the world of cricket chose the retirement mode when they were at their peak and their fans couldn’t stop asking for more. Their retirement broke many hearts; even I was too upset with it. This is because in any sport, when a sportsman took retirement it means “he is gone-forever”. You’ll never get a chance back to watch him playing again. That’s why sports are more energetic and powerful as players put everything they have, in it as who knows when retirement time comes. But Indian premiere league which is referred to as an Indian domestic tournament though no less than any international tournament gave these two guns an opportunity to get back to the cricket field for some live action.

In IPL 2009, Adam Gilchirist (Gilly) was made the captain of Deccan Chargers Hyderabad while Kumble (Jumbo) was not the desired choice for captainship for his team Royal Challengers Bangalore. His counterpart from England, Kevin Peterson got this job. Before the starting of this mega tournament, everybody marked 20-20 for young legs. Most suspected the capability of players aged above 34. The tournament kicked in style and on the very 1^st day in a match B/W Bangalore & Rajasthan, Kumble bagged 5 wickets for 5 runs which are till now the best bowling figure in IPL 2009 and 2^nd best overall after Sohail Tanveer’s 6 for 14. Due to his splendid performance, Rajasthan got out for 58 runs which is the lowest ever total by any team in 2008/2009. It was very clear that jumbo will not be easy to handle.

On the other side Deccan chargers (DC) registered 4 consecutive wins under Gilly & were sailing at the top spot with 8 points. The team which fetched only 2 wins for themselves under VVS Laxman in IPL 2008 looked solid with only 1 motive: to lift the IPL trophy. Some superstitious people attributed their earlier wins to their newly selected blue color dress compared to their colour cream and black in IPL 2008. But their captain behind the stumps with his green coined eyes looked harder and hungrier for the win than any body else in the team.

After there 1^st win Bangalore lost match after match and they once again looked weak as they were in IPL 2008 (winning only 4 matches under Rahul Dravid and finished 2^nd last in the points). Due to the England-West Indies test & one day series to come by, Kevin Peterson called off. He chose to play for his country rather than in IPL. This gave Kumble a chance to lead Challengers & the team bounced back to victory in a nail biting match against Punjab.

There were ups and downs, infact less downs for team Deccan in the tournament but under the extraordinary guidance of Gilly they were able to give power packed performances when needed the most to remain in the semifinal run. Gilchirist himself took the charge in many matches and batted destructively. He was the 2^nd highest run getter in the tournament. He scored 495 runs, 77 runs behind Mathew Hayden.

Kumble’s Bangalore lost the momentum in between but in the late league matches they thrashed every team which came their way. They chased 180+ runs to beat Team Kolkata and they then defeated the 3 strongest teams- Delhi, Chennai & Deccan in a row. Jumbo’s experience on the ground is such that he didn’t allow these 3 teams to cross 130+ score in those 3 matches. As a result, Deccan & Challengers both made it to the Semis.

But it was never easy for both Deccan & Challengers. In semi finals they had to face formidable Team Delhi which lost only 4 matches out of 14 and Team Chennai which had smitten other teams. But despite Delhi’s huge potential they couldn’t make it to the finals as Adam Gilchirist created history by scoring the fastest 50 of IPL & going on to score 85 off 35 balls against them. He led his team to victory on his own terms. He is the 1st person to score 900 runs in IPL.  In the 2^nd Semifinal match, Chennai the obvious choice for win against Bangalore lost their ground to Jumbo. He was very calm & composed on the field in that match and his batsmen did not let him down and chased the given target firmly.

The tables were turned, what could not be expected took place. The IPL 2 final match was going to be played between the 2 weakest teams of IPL 2008. The 2 teams finished with last (Hyderabad) and 2^nd last (Bangalore) rank last year.

The downturn was only because of change of captains. Both Kumble & Gilly were able to extract performances. And extracting performances is the trait of a leader.     

Gilly used RP Singh, Rohit Sharma & Pragyan Ojha very well. RP Singh finished with highest number of scalps (23) in the tournament. While Kumble got Kallis, Taylor, Parveen Kumar worked for him very well. He himself got 2^nd highest number of wickets in the tournament, i.e. 21.

Well, in all if we see, IPL 2009 will be remembered for players aged above 34-35.

Players like Mathew Hayden, Murlidharan, Symonds, Kallis, Sachin and Shane Warne contributed to the high performance graph of senior players. Hayden (a retired cricketer) was the highest run getter, while Warne another retired player is the coach and the captain of team Rajasthan (which won IPL 2008). He looked dangerous and keen in his performances this time too. Some 35+ aged people didn’t get the chance to play like Mcgranth, Shaun Pollock, and Chaminda Vaas. Saurav Ganguly (India’s most successful captain) wasn’t thought capable to lead Team Kolkata. As a result the team slipped to the last position with 3 wins.

The 3^rd edition of IPL is round the corner and I am looking forward for some out the box action from these guns.

So its better that we don’t underestimate these aged people. It’s just your desire and attitude that matters the most. And as some one said “life starts at 40”.

But from IPL, we can learn a lesson. In India, the population above 65 i.e. retired age is above 50 million. They are the resources which is going unused. So much money is being spent on pension schemes. Though this force will not be efficient in the physical work but there can be a field where they can outperform any one.

Just think about it. Old is Gold!!!!  


"The article was written at authors home"


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