Friday, June 10, 2016

VB Chandrasekar TNPL

 VBC becomes owner of TNPL team
2010- 'Do you call that cricket' (on IPL)
2016- 'It is a breeding ground for spotting and grooming talent' (on TNPL)
Many years ago, in the aftermath of quitting CSK, VB Chandrasekar ( what ever he does he will remain one of my favourite cricketers from the 80s) had remarked to me ‘Do you call that (IPL) cricket’? Yes, if it was not cricket ( that we had all come to live with), it was fine not to be part of it. 'It is not real cricket'.

How things and perspectives change in life. And how we, as human beings, grab luring opportunities letting go of our past comments and our philosophies on even things that are so close to our heart ( and real cricket is for VBC).

Over the last couple of months, VBC grabbed a high profile Tamizh commentary opportunity to take IPL  to the Tamizh households. He was away from his VBCA flood lit summer camp most of this summer instead engaging in an IPL commentary stint from the studios in Bombay.

And yesterday he has become a proud owner of a TN PL (PL) team.  Do you call this cricket in 2010 has now in 2016 become ‘this is a great talent spotting arena’. 

'TNPL is where you can spot talent and groom them for the future'!!!!

Michael Holding remains one of the very few prominent past cricketers to publicly make his displeasure known (about T20) and to stick to that and stay away from the financial lure.

The lure of Name and Fame and the possibility of huge bucks in the long term (and may be a return to IPL once CSK is back) has got VBC back into the Premier League much against his stated views on PL and this shorter form of cricket.

One hopes he will have a longer stint  in this shorter form than he has had with the Indian team (as a player), the IPL (as a mentor) and the TN team (as coach) now that he is the owner and has the ultimate decision making power.

14 comments:

  1. We used to play street cricket in Srirangam in the 1960s. There was a player by name Venkatraman.

    We used to call him 'Patta Four Pataatti Bowled'. If he connected it went to the boundary. If he did not, he would be bowled. His claim to fame in street cricket was that he swung wildly at the ball and sometimes when he connected, with his power, the ball went over the huge walls of the Srirangam temple and we had to go all the way around the streets to get the ball back from inside the temple.

    He would have been an ideal T20 player today.

    Cricket or Temple- it is all about money today.

    So Mr. Chandrasekar going after this despite his earlier comments is no surprise.

    Sampath

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  2. I was just thinking about you this morning and wondering if you will write an article about this development! :-)

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  3. Good read.

    Is TNPL big in terms of investment. Is it going to have foreign players.

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  4. Sorry to be stating this. How many cricketers has his academy produced??

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  5. Crisp article with candid view. Appreciate your frankness.

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  6. Point I am trying to say is he's not good at nurturing talent

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  7. It is all about money. Many of our parents have always ridiculed us saying 'cricket sooru poodadhu' it is paying for so many of the present and past cricketers now due to the 20/20 format. It is keeping so many cricketers from retiring including our beloved writer (not for money in his case).

    Make hay while the sun shines.I wont blame him only blame the circumstances.

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  8. GOOD ONE PRABHU.  

    THEY ARE NOT PROMOTING / NURTURING THE CRICKET.  SIMPLY LOOTING BY ALL MEANS.

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  9. Why are you surprised at all ?

    This is the standard line of any astute professional cricketer ;)

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  10. Oh, okay. Did not know that. I believed in VBC a bit:-)

    Prabhu

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  11. Dear Shri. Karthik,

    He may not have produced too many as a coach, though as a captain he did get the best out of a lot of players.

    Prabhu

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  12. Dear Shri Vijay (don't know why you have your id as DOG)

    I have only expended in cricket.

    And there have been no takers for me even in the 30 man league squad in the last 2 years.

    Prabhu

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  13. I think TNPL will have only TN state players for the moment. Investment will be in crores each year.

    Prabhu

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