Rudi Webster appointed KKR mental skills coach

In a first-of-its-kind in the IPL, Rudi Webster, the renowned sports psychologist, has been appointed by Kolkata Knight Riders as their mental skills coach for the fifth season.

Webster, who has influenced minds like Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd, Greg Chappell, Brian Lara and Virender Sehwag, felt that there is a lot of value addition he can provide to the Kolkata players, especially in a pressure-filled Twenty20 environment where players "people tend to panic".

"A lot of people panic under these conditions. Usually, under pressure like that, people who stay calm and take step by step usually do better than people who panic and take bad decisions," Webster told ESPNcricinfo, explaining the need for someone like to him to sit on the coaching bench and an "asset" to have.

According to Webster, his primary job is to assist the coach and captain to get the best out of the players, and to help the players get the best out of themselves. The Barbados-born Webster, a former Warwickshire fast bowler with 272 wickets, had worked with the Indian team as a consultant during their West Indies tour in 2006 and briefly during the Champions Trophy later that year. It was in the West Indies where Sehwag, going through a slump in form and fitness, had a three-hour long chat with Webster, post which he admitted he had never chatted so "deeply with anyone." The transformation was immediate and Sehwag thanked Webster to clearing his mind.

The idea to get Webster came from Venky Mysore, the Knight Riders' CEO. Mysore, who joined the franchise last year, realised that the tight scheduling in an IPL season and a short time window was a big challenge for a team to come together. He consulted the pair of Gautam Gambhir and Trevor Bayliss, Kolktata's captain and coach, and the team management before calling up Webster.

"There is very little time for a diverse group of players to come together and get to know each other and then focusing on the common goals and align the individual objectives, which is a huge challenge," Mysore said.

There was also the possibility, at times, of a young Indian domestic player being overwhelmed in the presence of more experienced international players. "For an uncapped Indian boy to find himself in the presence of legends like Jacques Kallis or a Brett Lee in the set-up suddenly and say 'I am good enough' and be confident, it is always easier said than done."

	Performance is built on four pillars: fitness, technical skill, strategy and tactics and finally the mental component. The first three of those components is controlled by the fourth - how well you express the skills and how well you set your strategy is controlled by how well you use your mindRudi Webster

Hence, Mysore felt the best way to groom young players was to get a professional on board, like Webster, who had the credibility and experience to interact individually with the players and that could bring comfort to the squad. "He is someone who can relate to the players and make a difference because of his experience of having worked with so many great players," Mysore said.

Webster said the reason he took it up was because it was a "different and new challenge." According to Webster, the performance problems remain the same across all three formats, the only difference being the pressure is condensed into a smaller time-span. "It is much quicker. There's a lot more pressure," he said. "The pressure is compressed into a shorter time, so in some respects it is slightly different from the longer formats."

Asked how he aimed to bring about a change, Webster pointed out that everything in sport is linked to performance. "Performance is built on four pillars: fitness, technical skill, strategy and tactics and finally the mental component. You must be strong in all four of them if you want to play well," Webster said. And most are inter-linked. "The first three of those components is controlled by the fourth - how well you express the skills and how well you set your strategy is controlled by how well you use your mind."

According to Webster, in any form of sport - shorter or longer version - it is the mental skill that determines how well the athlete expresses his physical skill. And that is where his role, as a mental skills specialist, comes to the fore.

Because of the demands on the players in a pressure-packed Twenty20 match, dealing with pressure is more important than in the other two formats. And being mentally confident becomes vital in such a scenario, but players are not so well trained in that area. "It is the pillar (mental) that has been neglected," Webster said.

England stay No 1 thanks to Dunedin rain

England will retain the championship mace as the top side in the Reliance ICC Test Championship rankings on the cut-off date of April 1 after a rain-wrecked final day in Dunedin ended South Africa's chances of beating New Zealand in the first Test. South Africa needed to beat New Zealand 3-0 to overhaul England at the top of the table.

England, who will also receive a cheque for $175,000 (£110,000), have a greater financial incentive to retain the No. 1 ranking in future years. For the next three years, a total of US$3.8m (£2.4m) will be distributed in prize money with the side topping the table on April 1 next year receiving a minimum of $450,000 (£285,000).

The best series result South Africa can now achieve is a 2-0 win, which would keep them at 117 points, one behind England. South Africa will remain second unless they lose the remaining two Tests, in which case they would slip behind both India and Australia in the rankings.

England overhauled India to take the No. 1 ranking after inflicting a 4-0 whitewash last summer, but their hold on top spot has been unconvincing, beginning with their own humiliation in a 3-0 whitewash against Pakistan in the UAE.

Former India domestic spinner Uday Joshi convicted of abuse

Uday Joshi, a former India domestic player, has been jailed for six years after being convicted of sexually molesting a 13-year-old boy in Northern Ireland three decades ago, according to the BBC. Offspinner Joshi, 67, maintains his innocence and has lodged an appeal against the conviction.

Originally from Rajkot, Joshi had played 186 first-class matches for Gujarat, Railways, Saurashtra and Sussex between 1965 and 1983, claiming over 500 wickets. Currently an American citizen, residing in North Carolina, Joshi's offence occurred in August 1979, during his stint with Sussex - he was in Northern Ireland for the summer to play for a local club.

Gul heroics edge Shakib's in thriller

Pakistan 262 for 8 (Hafeez 89, Jamshed 54, Gul 39, Shahadat 3-53) beat Bangladesh 241 (Shakib 64, Tamim 64, Gul 3-58) by 21 runs

Pakistan built, nearly self-destructed and counter-attacked with the bat. Bangladesh built, nearly self-destructed and counter-attacked with the bat. Pakistan's base was strong enough to weather the near-self-destruction. Their counter-attack proved sharper in the end as they stopped hosts Bangladesh short of what would have been their highest successful chase at home.

Bangladesh produced most of the unexpected passages in the game. They reduced Pakistan to 198 for 7 from 135 for 0. They recovered from 135 for 5 to become the favourites towards the closing stages of the game. But when it came to the critical moments which decided the match, Pakistan proved superior.

Umar Gul smashed his highest ODI score of 39 from 25 deliveries to convert 198 for 7 into 262 for 8. With Bangladesh requiring 39 off 40 with five wickets in hand, Gul and Saeed Ajmal took 5 for 17 between them to ensure that Shakib Al Hasan's heroic innings ended in frustration and disappointment.

More to follow ...

75 overs Bangladesh 113 for 3 (Tamim 50*, Shakib 5*) need another 150 runs to beat Pakistan 262 for 8 (Hafeez 89, Jamshed 54, Shahadat 3-53)

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Shahid Afridi lasted one delivery with the bat but struck in successive overs to leave the new cautious avatar of Tamim Iqbal and the Bangladesh middle order with a climbing asking-rate. The hosts' chase was on course at 90 for 1 in the 21st over when Afridi bowled Jahurul Islam and Mushfiqur Rahim in the space of five deliveries as Pakistan edged ahead at the halfway stage of the Bangladesh innings.

Till Afridi's strikes, Bangladesh would have had Misbah-ul-Haq worried with the planned manner in which they went about the chase. With Tamim clearly looking to anchor the innings, Nazimuddin and Jahurul did the attacking.

Nazimuddin drove and flicked with gusto, and hit Umar Gul out of the attack. Fourteen runs came off Gul's fourth over, the eighth of the innings, as Nazimuddin smashed a couple of fours on either side of a superbly timed flick that sailed over deep square leg for six. Jahurul kept the runs coming after Nazimuddin's departure.

Both batsmen were well-set when they gave away their wickets. Nazimuddin slashed a wide delivery to third man while Jahurul was bowled as he missed a slog off a flighted Afridi delivery. Afridi dealt a bigger blow to Bangladesh when he bowled Rahim who tried to cut his faster one.

At the other end, Tamim went on accumulating serenely, finding the boundary every now and then to keep the required-rate in check. He got to his fifty off his 75th delivery, and the landmark brought a prolonged pointing of his bat towards someone in the stands. Tamim's eventual selection for the Asia Cup had come after a tussle between the chief selector and the Bangladesh board president. Not only was Tamim proving a point with his innings, he was also keeping Bangladesh in the hunt.

50 overs Pakistan 262 for 8 (Hafeez 89, Jamshed 54, Shahadat 3-53) v Bangladesh

Pakistan's batting crumbled without warning or justification, but their openers had laid so solid a platform that even a collapse of 7 for 63 could not prevent them from setting Bangladesh a challenging target on a slow Mirpur surface.

Pakistan's innings could be summed up as accumulation, panic and aggression. After Mohammad Hafeez and Nasir Jamshed put on 135 at close to five runs an over, Shahadat Hossain and Shakib Al Hasan brought Bangladesh back with a flurry of wickets. It was now Pakistan's turn to hit back from 198 for 7. Umar Gul smashed a quick 39 at No. 9 to lift his side to 262, which is far more than what Bangladesh have managed to chase in a day-night game in Mirpur in the past.

Hafeez and Jamshed were scarcely bothered by the Bangladesh bowling after Mushfiqur Rahim asked Pakistan to bat. As it often happens, a run-out was needed to break the big opening partnership. As it does not often happen, batsman after batsman suddenly found ways to implode.

In a sign of what lay in store for Bangladesh, Younis Khan succumbed to a leading edge off Shahadat after playing his flick early. Shahadat, who had been average till then, immediately found some menace and produced two sharp bouncers to lure Hafeez and Asad Shafiq into fatal pulls.

Umar Akmal, never one to change his hit-everything style, slog-swept his wicket away to Shakib, who was to get more reward for being the bowler who troubled Pakistan the most. Shahid Afridi did not get the time to display hisbrand of hit-everything, as he bunted a return catch to Shakib first ball. Drama has a way of somehow squeezing itself into everything Afridi is involved in. Shakib fumbled the catch on the first attempt, prevented the ball from touching the ground on the second, lobbed it up into Misbah-ul-Haq's helmet and still had enough balance left to take the rebound on the third attempt. Misbah himself did not get the opportunity to use his crisis-recovery skills as he was soon bowled through the gate.

It was left to Gul to show that his ODI batting average of 9.28 did not reflect his flicking and pulling capabilities. After his lone counterattack, he walked back with his highest ODI score, having taken 16 runs off a Mashrafe Mortaza over, the 49th.

Pakistan would have never thought that they would need Gul to bail them out after the start given by Hafeez and Jamshed. Hafeez put his lean run against England behind him with a patient knock - his first fifty in ODIs in four months - and along with his latest opening partner, Jamshed, gave Pakistan a strong start to their Asia Cup campaign. Jamshed, whose last game for Pakistan was in August 2009, justified his selection ahead of Azhar Ali with a busy innings that afforded Hafeez the space to overcome his scratchy beginning.

Shakib had said in the lead-up to the tournament that Bangladesh's target was to win the Asia Cup. The former captain backed up his words in the field and troubled Pakistan's openers the most. Shakib apart, though, Bangladesh's attack was steady at best and allowed a visibly struggling Hafeez to work himself into some form.

Hafeez's footwork was non-existent at the start; he played away from his body and needed 12 deliveries to get off the mark. Mortaza, back in the national side for the first time since the Australia series in April 2011, kept Pakistan in check. Bowling with a slightly changed action that made him fall away in his delivery stride, Mortaza got some nip and bowled with control.

Pakistan had managed 17 off the first seven overs before Jamshed, who favoured the on side, swung Shafiul Islam past short fine leg for four. Hafeez found his timing in the same over when he whipped Shafiul from outside off between mid-on and midwicket.

Shakib came on in the tenth over and immediately bothered Hafeez. A drive fell just in front of short extra cover. Three deliveries later, an appeal for a catch at slip was turned down as Hafeez advanced down the pitch to defend.

That was as close as Bangladesh came to breaking the stand. As Hafeez and Jamshed brought up their fifties, Bangladesh's decision to bowl on the flat pitch seemed set to hurt them further, until Jamshed's slow response to a call for a single gave them an opening. They barged into it whole-heartedly, but would not have accounted for Gul the batsman.

Watson confident as Australians arrive in West Indies Brydon Coverdale

Three days ago, Shane Watson was preparing to lead Australia in the third tri-series final against Sri Lanka in Adelaide. A victory, an early-morning departure and several flights later the Australians have arrived in St Vincent for a six-week tour of the West Indies and Watson said acclimatising quickly would be one of the biggest challenges ahead of Friday's first ODI.

Watson will captain Australia for the five-match ODI series in the absence of the injured Michael Clarke and it will be his first overseas tour as leader. He believes Australia can carry their good form from the Commonwealth Bank Series into the Caribbean tour, although they will be without Clarke and are waiting on the fitness of the fast bowler James Pattinson, who has a strained buttock.

"Hopefully, we can produce some very good cricket for the fans over here," Watson told reporters in St Vincent. "We have just come off a very big series in Australia, and hopefully, we can continue the form that we showed and bring it in the games against West Indies.

"We are always confident. We know that if we are at the top of our game, we are going to be very hard to beat. Right now, the most important thing is to make sure we have recovered from our long flight and make the best of the next couple of days to make sure we are ready to go for the first match."

Australia have a vastly different squad compared to the last time they toured the West Indies. Only five men from the one-day group that whitewashed West Indies 5-0 in 2008 have made this trip: Watson, Michael Hussey, David Hussey, Brett Lee and Brad Haddin, although Haddin is now the backup wicketkeeper in the ODIs behind Matthew Wade and might not play in the 50-over series.

West Indies have also had plenty of changes since then and their squad for the first three ODIs also features only five men who took part in the 2008 series: captain Darren Sammy, vice-captain Denesh Ramdin, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Kemar Roach. West Indies face a tough task to defeat Australia, having not won an ODI series against anyone but Bangladesh, Zimbabwe or the minnows since April 2008, when they beat Sri Lanka 2-1 at home.

"Australia are a very competitive team, so they will be looking to come at us hard," Pollard said. "But we just have to take on board all of the preparation that has been put in place for us and it into the series and try to do our best."

Pakistan have the advantage - Misbah

Misbah-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain, has said that his side's recent exposure to Asian conditions compared to the other teams in the Asia Cup will play as important a role as coach Dav Whatmore's inside knowledge.

Few people are better qualified to coach a side in the Asia Cup than Whatmore, a man well-versed with the teams in the tournament. Born in Sri Lanka, the Australian has regularly shown an affinity and ability to work in the subcontinent.

His first major international coaching assignment was guiding Sri Lanka, a team regarded as minnows even in the early '90s, to the World Cup back in 1996. Then came an even bigger challenge in 2003 - of moulding the also-rans of Bangladesh into a competitive side. In four years under his charge, there continued to be many heavy defeats but memorable highs as well, including the shock win over Australia in Cardiff and the wrecking of India's 2007 World Cup campaign.

This was followed by a few years at India's National Cricket Academy in Bangalore, and coaching stints with the India A and Under-19 teams, including Virat Kohli's World Cup-winning one in 2008. Two seasons in charge of Kolkata Knight Riders imparted him more knowledge of the ways of Indian cricket.

Now he completes the subcontinental quartet by taking over as Pakistan's head coach. His first opponents are Bangladesh, the side he led in his previous international job. Misbah, though, said that another factor will be as crucial as Whatmore's inputs.

"He is contributing, but I think the main thing is we are playing a lot of cricket against Bangladesh," Misbah said. "We just had a series here [in December], we know each other, we know the strengths and weaknesses of each other. He can give us some input, but the players already know each other well."

Coaching Pakistan is one of the most exacting jobs in cricket, even for someone with Whatmore's vast experience, but he seems to have begun well. Misbah said the initial interactions between coach and team had been positive. "The sessions we have already had, it has gone well. The players are professionals, the coaches are also professional. We have to just gel together quickly, understand each other quickly. I see it going well."

Misbah highlighted several reasons for the Pakistan team to be confident of its chances in the tournament despite coming in after a 0-4 drubbing in the one-dayers against England previous month. "When we played some time back here, the team played really well in these conditions," he said, referring to their clean sweep of Bangladesh in both the Tests and one-dayers three months ago.

Over the past three months, India have been playing in Australia, while Sri Lanka have been touring South Africa and Australia, places where the pitches are vastly different to the ones likely to be served up in the Asia Cup. "We have a bit of an advantage in that we have been playing in Asia recently," Misbah said, before qualifying his statement. "But India and Sri Lanka have played a lot of tough cricket, and will return mentally tougher from there."

Misbah also urged his players to remember the team's outstanding record over the past year-and-a-half, instead of focussing on the recent limited-overs defeat to England. "Every game, every series is a different ball game," he said. "If you look at the series before, we have won six in a row and never lost a series. So this is part of the game. We were playing with one of the top sides in the world. What we want to do is just forget the one-day series, look forward and just play what we were playing before that series."

Another advantage for Pakistan is that, unusually, they seem the most settled team of the tournament. Bangladesh's prime minister had to step in to resolve a row between their chief selector and the board, Sri Lanka are still tussling with their board over payments due and have a mere four days between the end of their previous series and this one, and India have had a torturous tour of Australia which was plagued by rumours of a rift between senior players.

Today's press conference began with a stern reminder from Pakistan's media manager that the questions should pertain only to the Asia Cup. He needn't have bothered. Given the off-field issues bothering the rest of the teams, Pakistan's build-up has been smooth and controversy-free, with the appointment of the experienced Whatmore the only source of headlines.

Our target is to be champions - Shakib

Fans in Sri Lanka may still be coming to terms with the narrow defeat in the CB series finals, those in India may still be coming to terms with the retirement of one of their greatest batsmen, but for fans in Bangladesh, the Asia Cup can't start soon enough. Tickets went on sale four days ago, and the response has been hearteningly enthusiastic.

Another sign of the fervour for the tournament was in evidence at Shakib Al Hasan's press conference today. It was a routine pre-match media interaction, but a horde of around 70 reporters, photographers and cameramen, a large proportion being locals, filled out the press conference hall at the Shere Bangla stadium.

The zeal for cricket remains high though it has been a dispiriting 12 months for Bangladesh cricket, with many reverses after the high hopes going into the 2011 World Cup. Shakib was bullish about Bangladesh's chances in the Asia Cup. "Our target? To be the champions," he said. "We want to play our best cricket, though we are not able to do it all the time. It is possible at home. This tournament is a good place for us to know where we stand in world cricket at the moment."

There hasn't been any international cricket in Bangladesh for three months, but Shakib felt the Bangladesh Premier League had made them ready for the Asia Cup. "We had very good preparation, not as a team, but in domestic competitions. If we play to our potential, I'm hopeful we can do well."

Bangladesh were swept aside by Pakistan in the one-dayers three months ago. Their only victory over Pakistan remains the famous one in the 1999 World Cup. "We haven't won against Pakistan for a long time but in the last series we had a good chance in the third ODI," Shakib said. "We did well in the second Test. This is an opportunity to prove ourselves."

Pakistan's success in that series, and over the past year, has been built on their troika of tweakers - Mohammad Hafeez, Saeed Ajmal and Shahid Afridi. "Their three spinners will be a challenge for our batsmen," Shakib said. "If we can put up a reasonable total, our bowling can hold the opposition."

Besides strong opponents, Bangladesh have to deal with plenty of off-field issues as well. The naming of their captain for the Asia Cup was delayed by a day, prompting speculation that perhaps Mushfiqur Rahim would be punished for his disparaging remarks about the BPL. The drama over the exclusion of one their best batsmen, Tamim Iqbal, lasted several days, revealing a dispute between the chief selector and the board president that has now been resolved, at least temporarily, after the prime minister's intervention.

Hasn't all this affected the team's focus? Shakib vehemently denied it. "We have not discussed the issues in the dressing room so it won't distract us in any way with regards to our preparation in this tournament."

Bangladeshi fans retain a craving for cricket despite the regular defeats and the many controversies. An early victory for Bangladesh will be reward for their perseverance, and also the shock the tournament needs to lift its profile outside the host nation.

Dravid walks off, sad but proud

Rahul Dravid's retirement from international cricket was announced at his home ground, the Chinnaswamy Stadium, in a function room filled with more than 200 people. Family, team-mates, friends, KSCA members, officials and journalists had gathered - as did fans watching a live broadcast on national television - to mark the end of a remarkable career and a "reassuring presence" in the Indian team. Dravid, the second-highest run-getter in the history of Test cricket, possibly the last of India's classical Test batsmen, was a cricketer who successfully straddled the old school with the new age, becoming a pivotal figure in the growth of India's Test team in the 21st century.

The press conference began on schedule and, within three-quarters of an hour, Dravid left the room and international cricket as he had walked in. Swift, smooth, business-like, and, on Friday, to the sound-and-light burst of camera flashbulbs. The significance of Friday's announcement will be understood only six months down the line, when India play Test cricket for the first time in 16 years without the most reliable one-drop in their history.

The decision to retire was not sudden, he said; the period of contemplation had lasted over a year as he assessed his game series after series. The disappointment of the Australia tour had not given him any 'eureka' moment around his decision to leave the game. "I didn't take the decision based on one series… these decisions are based on a lot of other things, it's the culmination of a lot of things. I don't think it's based on what happened in the last series. For each one it comes differently, for me it's come with a bit of contemplation, a bit of thought, with friends and family."

On his return from Australia, Dravid spent a month, taking the "emotion" of the result in order to "look at things dispassionately... and so I came to this decision and when I came to it, I was very clear in my mind." The decision had been easy as it was difficult, that he had known "deep down" that it was time for the "next generation" to take over.

It was tough to leave "the life I have lived for 16 years and, before that, five years of first class cricket. It is all I have known all my grown life … it wasn't a difficult decision for me because I just knew in my heart that the time was right, and I was very happy and comfortable in what I had achieved and what I had done. You just know deep down that it is time to move on and let the next generation take over… "

Dravid entered the function room straight into a scrum of photographers, looking almost apologetic at having caused such a fuss. He was dressed in his India blazer and seated on the podium next to BCCI president N Srinivasan and his former team-mate, captain and now KSCA president, Anil Kumble. The walls around him were lined with portraits of Karnataka's Test players, in the front row of the audience were members of his family, team-mates and the cricket community of the city.

He began by reading out his statement, his voice steady as he listed the people who'd played a part in every stage of his career - coaches, selectors, trainers, physios, officials, team-mates, family, even the media. He ended with the Indian cricket fan. "The game is lucky to have you and I have been lucky to play before you… My approach to cricket has been reasonably simple: it was about giving everything to the team, it was about playing with dignity and it was about upholding the spirit of the game. I hope I have done some of that. I have failed at times, but I have never stopped trying. It is why I leave with sadness but also with pride."

With the statement ended and applause breaking out, Dravid looked at his wife in the first row. There was both relief and calm on his face and something other than television lights reflecting in his eyes. After the contemplation and the deliberation, the conversations with people he trusted, it was over.

Dravid became the first of India's senior-most cricketers - including Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman - to quit the game after a season of speculation surrounding their future. His decision follows a poor tour of Australia but he enjoyed a prolific run through 2011, scoring five centuries - including four in the Caribbean and England. However, he is set to captain Rajasthan Royals in the upcoming IPL season.

The biggest surprise of the afternoon, however - far more unexpected than even the finality of Dravid's retirement - was to follow. It came from BCCI president N Srinivasan: a man famous for an undemonstrative, glacial public face made an emotional and heartfelt speech. He spoke extempore of an "irreplaceable" cricketer, his voice wavering more than once. Srinivasan recalled having watched Dravid "grow from the days he played club cricket in Chennai, from the Ranji Trophy days … to the time he captained India". Dravid, he said, was an "ambassador for the sport, for the Indian team and for India".

"None of us really want to see such great players go away, we like to think they are permanent," Srinivasan said. "I think that deciding when to retire is possibly the hardest decision Rahul has ever faced. It is not easy to say adieu…"

Kumble called Dravid one of Karnataka's "finest cricketing sons" and spoke of his "reassuring presence" for India in the dressing room and on the field. It was Kumble who got Dravid to eventually crack his first smile of the afternoon, when he said the KSCA would now "expect to see you often in the association wearing the administrative hat." There were also a few tips on life after retirement, Kumble telling Dravid that apart from being busier "with exceptional demands made on your time, your ability to say no will be challenged like never before".

Sitting in the audience was Dravid's former team-mate Javagal Srinath, the current KSCA secretary, who had walked into the room before the event to check if the arrangements were in order. Dravid's immediate future includes six weeks of the IPL and he offered no clues as to whether he would take up a post-retirement life as coach, administrator or commentator. "I truly believe that some time away from the game will be good for me, I've played the game for 20 years I've lived in a cocoon, in a surreal world, this world has been away from reality in some ways." He did say though that because he loved routines, his return to the real world could include his new routines that involve dropping his sons off at school and shopping for groceries.

Among Dravid's contemporaries, both Kumble and Sourav Ganguly retired just after Test matches and Dravid was asked whether he had not wanted to end his career that way, walking off a field of play. "Just to keep playing for the sake of playing just one Test match, I didn't think was right." He said he was sure of his reasons to play cricket: "I needed to play for the right reasons... to win Test matches for India. I've done that for 16 years and I feel the time was right, I've had a great run. I have given this some thought … at the end of the day when a player has to go, he knows he has to go and I didn't feel the need to drag it on longer [in order to have a farewell Test]." Dravid was replying to questions in three of the four languages he speaks, taking particular pride in receiving special applause from the back of the room for working his way through a fairly long answer in Kannada.

Along with his wife, sons and brother, Dravid had walked onto the Chinnaswamy field for a short while just before he came in to speak to the media. The stadium was his finishing school before his graduation to Test cricket, and the adjacent NCA nets turned into a trusted training ground over the past decade where Dravid had always showed up early to work on his game.

Now retired, he will finally be free of the 7am gym and nets sessions. But what about the pure love of just batting? Of striking the ball with bat? Wouldn't he want to steal into the nets just for a hit or two? Dravid paused for a moment, smiled and then said: "Probably in the quiet. I'll come very late at night."

On the day he left the international game, this became the perfect final image of Rahul Dravid. Not that of the obdurate competitor in the arclights of cricket's 'surreal' centre. But of the "reassuring presence", of the craftsman in the quiet of dusk, of the man who never stopped trying.

Kallis unconvinced by ball-tracking technology

A review in the penultimate over of the third day's play sparked another debate about the Decision Review System, with Jacques Kallis saying he "is not convinced by the predictive path" of the delivery shown by the ball-tracking technology. Doug Bracewell said members of the New Zealand squad were also "a bit iffy" about the accuracy of the DRS.

The incident under scrutiny was an lbw appeal off Bracewell against Jacques Rudolph which was upheld by the umpire Aleem Dar. After consultation with Kallis, Rudolph asked for a review and the pitch map showed the ball had landed just outside leg stump, resulting in Dar's decision being overturned and Rudolph surviving.

Bracewell was surprised by the decision as, to the naked eye, the ball appeared to have pitched on leg stump. "I thought it was pretty dead. I was going for the inswinger and trying to hit him on the pads and I think everyone thought it was out," Bracewell said. "I think they made a mistake [with the pitch map]. I don't see how the ball swinging back in can pitch outside leg and hit middle stump."

Kallis said he was prompted to persuade Rudolph to seek a review because he had faced Bracewell for most of the day and noticed that he occasionally delivered the ball from a slightly wider position. "I thought the one thing it might have been was that it could have pitched outside leg, coming from that angle," Kallis said. "Fortunately, I was right."

Kallis agreed that in asking for the review he brought to light two major concerns about the DRS. Is there a strategic way to use the system and is it performing its primary function, which is to minimise blatantly incorrect decisions? The answer to both, according to Kallis, is yes.

Because South Africa were in a dominant position at the time of the appeal, Kallis said they were able to ask for a review of a decision they might otherwise have accepted. "We had two reviews and I thought this [Rudolph] is a big batter so with those 50-50 calls I said to him, it's worth a call," Kallis said.

"That system is there to take out the shocker. Maybe with your first review, it's 50-50. Generally captains will say, 'Let's take a risk,' and then the second one you use a lot better. You probably take a little more of risk on that first one."

Kallis also stressed that the main function of the DRS was to eliminate obvious errors, because he remembered playing "in the old time when you got given a bad decision and it can change careers." He said that he "understands" there was a place for a review system, but remained sceptical on its exactness.

"How accurate it is, I don't know. Have decisions improved? I think they have but we have got to accept that there are probably one or two that, as cricketers, we will think 'I'm not so sure', but maybe that's an improvement on absolute shockers which is what you wanted to take out of the game. We are getting that right to a degree but I am not convinced how accurate it really is."

Like many of his Indian counterparts - who have opposed the DRS in its current form - Kallis said what bothers him and his team-mates is the legitimacy of the predictive path, because of height and line.

	"Sometimes when it hits the batter and you think that's close and it ends up being a long way away or vice versa. I don't think there are any guys that are 100% sure that that thing is as accurate as they want to make it out to be. They keep saying it but I'm not so sure and I think 99% of cricketers will say that."Jacques Kallis

On day two, South Africa reviewed an lbw appeal which had been turned down off Imran Tahir against Daniel Vettori. The ball-tracker showed that the delivery would have missed leg stump comfortably, which seemed unrealistic because of the amount of turn on it. "A lot of us looked at Dan's one yesterday and it was closer than what I thought the DRS had it," Kallis said. "It might not have been hitting or it might have been clipping leg, and the right decision was made in the end but [showing that it was] missing leg by that much surprised all of us."

It is instances like these, where the predicted path differs vastly from what is expected that has caused "plenty" of members of the South African team to be concerned about the system. "Sometimes when it hits the batter and you think that's close and it ends up being a long way away or vice versa," Kallis said. "I don't think there are any guys that are 100% sure that that thing is as accurate as they want to make it out to be. They keep saying it but I'm not so sure and I think 99% of cricketers will say that."

South Africa, including Kallis, accept the system as it stands but Kallis said he believes the players should be allowed to speak their minds about the DRS. "We are still allowed our opinion as cricketers and we are still allowed to say how we feel sometimes decisions go."

Kallis also had a suggestion to improve the system. "Maybe what they can do is have the review system that shows where it pitched and where it hits and let the third umpire make the call from there so you still give benefit of the doubt to the batter," he said, stressing that the need for the on-field umpires is still there despite the technology at the game's disposal.

"You don't want to take the umpires' job away but you do want the right decision. The predicted path, for me, is the worry. The Snickometer and Hot Spot and everything else is pretty decent."

Is the IPL still a summer blockbuster?

In its short but eventful life, the IPL, with its combination of cricket and entertainment, has resembled an unstoppable juggernaut. Above all, it has been television-ratings gold, attracting a wide audience, including women and children, that has mostly ignored the longer versions of the game. Even film ticket sales dropped in its wake, with production houses choosing to withhold new releases until after the IPL. Its domination was total, and it seemed like nothing could slow it down.

Until this season.

The 2011 IPL produced the lowest television ratings of any of the four seasons, an average Television Viewer Rating (TVR) of 3.91 per game, down 29% from 5.51 a year ago. Even the final, which pitted the defending champions, Chennai Super Kings, against Royal Challengers Bangalore, failed to draw the bumper ratings of years past, despite the presence of India's captain, MS Dhoni, and Chris Gayle, this season's most explosive and exciting player. Their contest drew a TVR of 6.96, healthy by normal standards but pale in comparison to the 12.85 rating in 2010. It was also the first final to draw a single-digit rating.

The comparatively low numbers represent the first signs that there could be trouble in paradise, and provide empirical data to back up the general perception that this IPL season was lacklustre and suffered in comparison to India's victorious World Cup campaign, which preceded it. But while media experts and the various stakeholders in the league admit there are concerns to be addressed, the consensus seems to be that there is no cause for alarm because the IPL is still the best property on television.

Sundar Raman, the chief executive of the IPL, was measured in his reaction to the ratings when he spoke to ESPNcricinfo two days before the tournament final. Among the reasons offered by media experts for their decline was confusion among fans because of the shuffling of players between teams, but Raman didn't think that was much of a factor. He thought the lack of close games and the increase in the number of afternoon games were likelier culprits.

"I haven't had the opportunity to go into the depth of the analysis, which I will certainly do after the season is over to understand what we can do better, and [if there is] anything that will ensure that we get more number of people watching more amount of time."

Perhaps the problem was how high the bar was set in the first few seasons. "[The 2011 season] was not according to expectations," R Gowthaman, the managing director of Mindshare (part of Group M, India's largest media agency), told ESPNcricinfo. "Definitely below par. If you think of any other programme that will give you a four rating for non-stop [episodes] over six weeks, you won't find anything. Its own performance is its own bane."

Rohit Gupta, the president of Multi-Screen Media (MSM), which owns Set Max, the channel that broadcasts the IPL, differed with Raman, in that he felt the new teams and players switching franchises could have been factors, along with more afternoon games, and cricket fatigue caused by the World Cup. But he said these problems could be fixed.

"There is no World Cup next year. You are familiar with the teams now. Had the reach come down, then there would have been a concern. That means people are moving away from the IPL. That would be the larger concern."

Gupta pointed out that the reach, the absolute number of people who watched the tournament, had risen from 55.48 million last year to 58.83 million. "It shows that people are interested in the IPL. The only thing is they have spent less time than last year."

Set Max is expected to rake in about Rs 1000 crores in revenue this year, a 25% jump over 2010, but they will probably have to scale back their expectations for next year, according to Gowthaman. He expects that 2011 "will be hanging on the head as the Damocles sword in terms of [the] pricing" Set Max can charge for advertising spots next year, but says advertisers wanting a better deal are about as far as the repercussions will go.

"We are now used to consuming 200 days of cricket. After two series, the West Indies series and England-India series, we won't feel as tired as we are feeling now about the IPL. The mood will be completely different at the end of the year when it comes to the bullishness of the tournament."

	"Eventually only sport survives. If you celebrate Barcelona today, it has everything to do with the sport. No entertainment show lasts forever. It has five seasons and then it starts fading"Brand consultant Santosh Desai believes cricket should be the spotlight of the IPL

Despite the lower ratings, Abhijit Avasti, national creative director of advertising firm Ogilvy & Mather, said the league delivered for those advertisers who came up with the right approach. O&M were responsible for the Vodafone 3G campaign, which, he said, got a great response.

Avasti doesn't believe a show should be judged solely on the basis of ratings. "If I was to evaluate a media property, I wouldn't get into too much granularity. Otherwise you reach a level where you are evaluating a serial and you say only when one chacha [uncle] comes on, people watch." Rather than going into such detail, he prefers to pick a programme that has the nation's attention, and thinks Twenty20, which requires less time and attention than one-day or Test cricket, is "a great platform for brands to make noise on".

Away from the television screens, the franchises had reasons to cheer as well. Arvinder Singh, the chief operating officer of Kings XI Punjab, said his franchise met all their targets and business objectives. He too was sceptical about regarding television ratings as the key barometer of the league's success, saying they are essentially a numbers game. He also thought the World Cup's impact on viewers was a circumstance unique to this year.

"[The IPL] is the biggest sporting event in the country. Nothing comes close to it, really speaking. It is well documented. Well known. The IPL is after all the IPL."

Venky Mysore, the chief executive of Kolkata Knight Riders, was surprised by the television ratings and the empty seats at some of the playoff games, but remains convinced of the league's long-term prospects. While ratings may have dropped, Mysore said ticket sales for Kolkata were very good, and that the franchise's social-media initiatives had proven to be hugely popular ("Our community is growing at a rate of between four to five thousand a day"), demonstrating that interest in the league is alive and well. Kolkata have built a strong platform of sponsors, and Mysore expects to not only break even this fiscal year but possibly even post a profit.

At the same time, he said it was important to realise the league is not a start-up anymore, and that it can no longer take the fans for granted. "We have to earn interest. Demonstrate that we can add value for them." In order to accomplish this, he said he would like to see more collaboration between the franchises and IPL management - perhaps the franchises could be given a place at the decision-making table - as well as more transparency. "I'm very bullish about the future," he said, "but for us to really continue to build on this, it has to be a joint responsibility."

Raman said it was unlikely the BCCI would give the franchises a formal role in the running of the league, but that the league would consult with the franchises on an informal basis.

Not everyone is convinced the IPL has taken root in the hearts and minds of India's cricket fans, though. Santosh Desai, the head of Future Brands, a brand consultancy firm, believes the club-versus-country debate could grow louder if India were to suddenly lose a series or two, with a potential for a backlash against the league as a result. His prescription is to abandon the notion of "cricketainment" and allow cricket to occupy the entire stage.

"Eventually, if you look at sport across the world, only sport survives. If you celebrate Barcelona today, it has everything to do with [football]... No entertainment show lasts forever. It has five seasons and then it starts fading."

Desai believes the key to building the future of the league lies in giving the franchises the wheel; in giving them a chance to build their own identities and giving fans a reason to not just follow them but to become loyal in the way a Barcelona or Manchester United fan is loyal - because of what the team represents.

That is why he thinks the IPL missed a trick when they reshuffled the teams. Not only did it confuse the fans, most of whom were suddenly forced to root against their favourite players, but it also smacked of shaking up the cast on a soap opera to create new storylines (for example, Ganguly and Kolkata), and got in the way of treating the IPL like a sport.

"They lost an opportunity. There is such a thing as too much cricket. There is something like too many sixes."

Still, like the others, Desai believes the IPL's problems can be fixed, and that the odds are in the league's favour. A lot of money has been invested to make the league the grand spectacle it is, and there is no doubt about India's passion for the sport. If meaningful rivalries can be developed between the teams, and the franchises continue to build their fan bases, the IPL should expect to settle in for a long innings. Yet after this season there is the possibility, if slim, that its continued success is no longer a sure thing.

Flintoff sale rigged at 2009 IPL auction - Modi

Lalit Modi, the former IPL commissioner, has said he was arm-twisted in to rigging the 2009 player auction to ensure Andrew Flintoff was sold to the Chennai Super Kings. N Srinivasan, the BCCI president and the managing director of Indian Cements, the company that owns the Super Kings, dismissed Modi's allegations as lacking in "substance or truth".

Modi, who was sacked as the league's commissioner on charges of financial irregularities and is currently based in London, also claimed that the exclusion of Pakistan players from the 2009 IPL season was because of "arm-twisting" by BCCI officials.

"I shouldn't have let that [the rigging of Flintoff's sale] happen", Modi said during an interview to CNN-IBN, an Indian news channel. He also said the IPL was no longer the level playing field on which it was built, and that rules were changed to suit the bigger franchises. He conceded there was a lack of transparency and said the tournament had moved far enough from its basic principles to affect its long-term viability.

Srinivasan, who was BCCI secretary at the time of the 2009 auction, denied the allegations. "All I can say is that there is absolutely no substance or truth in what he [Modi] is saying," he said. "If he is talking about 2009 why is he saying all this in 2012."

The most damaging of Modi's statements concerned Flintoff's auction. Asked whether it had been rigged, he said: "Yes that is a fact. I made it clear that time. That onus was on me and as chairman I should have not allowed that to happen then. I was arm-twisted to allow Andrew Flintoff to go to Chennai Super Kings. I'm to blame for that. It's a fact."

Chennai bought Flintoff for $1.55 million at the auction in Goa, making him the most expensive player at the time alongside Kevin Pietersen. In buying JP Duminy for $950,000, Mumbai Indians had effectively ruled themselves out from the bidding for Flintoff, and Royal Challengers Bangalore did not enter the bidding for him at all. Rajasthan Royals tried to keep pace, but after buying Shaun Tait they had only $1.5 million left in their purse. The Deccan Chargers showed no interest in Flintoff, and Chennai eventually got him. Flintoff, however, played only three matches in the 2009 season before returning home injured. Knee surgery then ruled him out of the 2010 tournament.

In the interview, Modi also commented on the absence of Pakistan players from the 2009 tournament. They played the first season in 2008 but the Mumbai terror attacks in November that year put their future participation in doubt. Some Pakistan cricketers were part of the 2009 auction but they did not attract a single bid from any of the eight franchises. Modi said "arm-twisting" by the BCCI "that nobody should pick them" had led to the shut out of Pakistan cricketers.

The BCCI has been under scrutiny and criticism following the decision by Sahara, the sponsors of the Indian team and owners of the Pune Warriors IPL franchise, to pull out of its association with Indian cricket. Pune Warriors did not take part in the IPL's supplementary auction held in Bangalore on February 4. Modi said that in the light of the Sahara dispute, he would not have allowed the auction to take place. "I would have not allowed the rules to be changed at first place. There would have not been a problem with Mr Subrata Roy or anybody had the rules been consistent."

The pullout he said was "a big blow" for the BCCI, which was struggling to retain its sponsors. "We cancelled the contract with Nimbus without encashing their bank guarantee. With Kochi, Sahara, Nimbus and Sony contracts going down, it's close to Rs 10,000 crores [approximately $2 billion] loss to BCCI."

Modi also criticised the IPL's decision to allow the franchises to retain up to four players after the contracts expired at the end of the 2010 season. Chennai and Mumbai Indians were the only teams to retain four players.

"The retention clause was only for first three years. All players were supposed to go back to auction after first three years," Modi said. "In the fourth year [2011] that did not happen and they allowed the players to stay back. That became a problem... [it] was at the detriment of the new teams. When the new teams come in, that's a problem for them and I had pointed it out last year. If you pull out few things the entire model is going to fall apart."

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Modi kills his own dream

Lalit Modi turned up on India's TV screens again, earnest, confessional, talking about what had happened to the IPL and Indian cricket in his absence. One IPL team has pulled out, two more are in arbitration, a fourth in litigation, the BCCI has dissociated with its broadcast partner Nimbus, lost its team sponsor Sahara, the team itself is losing and rights are hard to sell. Modi spoke forcefully about a list of the errors committed by BCCI's honchos in the IPL and its discriminatory practices that worked against all but the two strongest teams and even admitted to wrongdoing on his part - of being "arm-twisted" by "senior BCCI officials."

During his tenure, Modi was the IPL's chief mascot and the BCCI's most energetic fund-raiser, earning the clout to twist a few arms himself. Not the meek accessory he says he was in the cases of Flintoff and the Pakistan players. Unlike the IPL's current governors, Modi ensured that the league always looked like its marketing plan. It was a shiny, megabucks, high-octane package of cricket and glamour that drew big spenders towards its bonfire of vanities. To make that happen, though, the IPL's rules became its bendy toys - starting in Modi's time itself. Sometimes the rules were applied, sometimes rejigged, to suit a few beneficiaries. Money from public auctions "tie-breakers" was kept private and team ownership patterns were equally opaque and could never really be understood.

Now in exile, Modi's new marketing strategy is to become the IPL's lone truth-teller when he is in fact the man who wrote its source code. What he said on TV is merely affirmation of what was largely known: that the IPL's glitter disguised a closed-door clique of the wealthy who, rather than playing by the rules, played with them.