It's just not cricket

There ARE other teams(we'd have no-one to play otherwise) and here's where all-comers can discuss the wider world of football......

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Winter Hill White
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It's just not cricket

Post by Winter Hill White » Sun Oct 12, 2014 5:24 am

The latest attempt by football to challenge cricket’s dominance in India starts today with the “opening ceremony” and first game in the Indian Super League. It has almost happened in previous years, but it looks like it will actually happen this time. It is following what seems to be the usual format for sport in India these days; big companies/wealthy individuals bid for a franchise, there is an American Football style draft to formulate the squads and then the league is completed in a fairly short period of time with games happening every day. In recent years, they have followed this format for badminton, hockey and, er, kabbadi. They’re going to do a pan-Asia league in tennis as well in a couple of months. And not forgetting the big daddy of them all – the IPL in cricket.

Whether this will lead to football gaining any popularity here in India is not clear. Interest in football is concentrated in a few areas of India – Calcutta and the North Eastern states, Goa and Kerala. There is a regular domestic league – the I-League – but the standard is pretty poor and nobody much watches it. The Indian national team is fairly feckless, presumably hampered by the organisational problems that afflict much of sport in this country. There are not really any stand-out players, but there are a couple of tremendously named players – a goalkeeper called Shilton Paul and a midfielder called Climax Lawrence.

Anyhow, there are quite a few Bolton connections in the upcoming league; Bernard Mendy will be running around aimlessly with Chennaiyin FC; Trevor Morgan will be a coach working under David Calamity James at Kerala Blasters; Peter Reid has been brushing up on his swearwords in Hindi to coach Mumbai City – among his players at Mumbai will be Andre Moritz and Nicolas Anelka.

Other foreign players/coaches signed up for the league include Luis Garcia. Mickael Silvestre (he was a pundit, along with the Peters Crouch and Shilton, on Indian TV for the recent World Cup), Marco Materazzi, Zico (the real one, not Tony Kelly), Robert Pires, bookies favourite - Michael Chopra, Iain Hume (didn’t he score for that horrible Birkenhead rabble against Bolton in one of those cup games?), Freddie Ljungberg, Joan Capdevila, Kostas Katsouranis and David Trezeguet.

The team I shall get to see is Delhi Dynamos (given all this franchise based sport in India, there is a serious concern about running out of suitable team names beginning with D for Delhi teams). Watching the Dynamos, I shall be treated to a forward line of Morten Skoubo (2 games on loan at West Brom in 2004), Mads Junker (one goal for Denmark in 2010), and at a somewhat higher level to the previous two – Alessandro Del Piero.

I don’t know what the quality will be like; for every “marquee signing” like Anelka and Del Piero, there will be a load of mediocre players to make up the numbers. It will be interesting to see if the league is just a one-off or has some staying power.

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Re: It's just not cricket

Post by Little Green Man » Sun Oct 12, 2014 5:51 pm

No Venky's Vanderers then?

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Re: It's just not cricket

Post by mummywhycantieatcrayons » Sun Oct 12, 2014 11:45 pm

Interesting - thanks, WHW, it's the first I've heard of it.

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Re: It's just not cricket

Post by boltonboris » Mon Oct 13, 2014 10:30 am

My mates brother is manager of Bengalaru FC and won coach of the year last year, so always keep an eye on their results.. Don't think they're able to go after the same calibre of players as other teams (despite winning the title last year).. But it'll be interesting to see how they do this time round
Last edited by boltonboris on Mon Oct 13, 2014 12:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: It's just not cricket

Post by boltonboris » Mon Oct 13, 2014 12:46 pm

Edit: Just noticed they are Champions of the I-league and haven't been granted entry to the "super league"
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Re: It's just not cricket

Post by Winter Hill White » Mon Oct 13, 2014 12:53 pm

Boris - Ashley Westwood? I've got a mate who is a Crewe fan, and we were talking about him. Quite a few Brits (and Dutch as well) seem to be involved in coaching out here.
Bangalore were originally due to have a team in the ISL, but they were replaced by Chennai for some reason.
Hopefully, the Indian I-League players who are taking part will benefit from playing with foreign players and coaches with lots of experience. Don't know if any of the Bangalore players have made any of the ISL squads. Sunil Chhetri at Bangalore is a bit of a legend in Indian football.

The first game last night ended with Atletico de Kolkata beating Mumbai City 3-0. Mumbai is Peter Reid's team. Didn't hear any "Cheer up, Peter Reid" coming from the Kolkata fans. The biggest cheer seemed to be for the free-kick vanishing spray! To be fair, Mumbai were without their two best players, Anelka and Ljungberg. Although I had read something different in the paper, it seems that Anelka still has to serve a couple of matches suspension for his "quenelle" gesture. The most striking thing about last night was the attendance - 70,000. While Kolkata is one of the football heartlands of India, that is still an impressive figure.

MWCIEC - I'm out here for work. I've been in Delhi for three-and-a-bit years.

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Re: It's just not cricket

Post by Winter Hill White » Mon Oct 13, 2014 12:56 pm

boltonboris wrote:Edit: Just noticed they are Champions of the I-league and haven't been granted entry to the "super league"
Yes - the Super League is operating separately from the I-League. The teams are created just for the tournament. Some of the teams do, I think, have link-ups with I-League teams, as well as link-ups with European teams.

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Re: It's just not cricket

Post by boltonboris » Mon Oct 13, 2014 12:59 pm

Yeah mate, it's Ash.. I used to play footy with his brother (decent player too)
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Re: It's just not cricket

Post by jaffka » Mon Oct 13, 2014 2:43 pm

do you know his sister Samantha?

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Re: It's just not cricket

Post by mummywhycantieatcrayons » Mon Oct 13, 2014 4:13 pm

Winter Hill White wrote: MWCIEC - I'm out here for work. I've been in Delhi for three-and-a-bit years.
What do you do, out of nosiness?
Prufrock wrote: Like money hasn't always talked. You might not like it, or disagree, but it's the truth. It's a basic incentive, people always have, and always will want what's best for themselves and their families

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Re: It's just not cricket

Post by Athers » Mon Oct 13, 2014 4:25 pm

Imagine Alessandro Del Piero turning up to play in your back yard, amazing! Ha.
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Re: It's just not cricket

Post by Burnden Paddock » Mon Oct 13, 2014 5:13 pm

Athers wrote:Imagine Alessandro Del Piero turning up to play in your back yard, amazing! Ha.
Well, he'd have to move the rabbit run and trampoline first!

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Re: It's just not cricket

Post by H. Pedersen » Wed Oct 15, 2014 6:36 pm

And people think MLS is a retirement league. I had no idea Pires was even playing.

Actually, according to Wikipedia, he hasn't played since 2011.

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Re: It's just not cricket

Post by Winter Hill White » Thu Oct 23, 2014 7:42 pm

http://www.indiansuperleague.com/news/6 ... -pune-city

"Andre Moritz was the star of the show as he bagged a hat-trick"

:shock:

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Re: It's just not cricket

Post by boltonboris » Fri Oct 24, 2014 8:00 am

Good standard then?? Jesus..
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Re: It's just not cricket

Post by 2399 » Sat Oct 25, 2014 6:38 am

It get's shown here live on Fox Sports in Australia!!!

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Re: It's just not cricket

Post by Vertigo » Tue Oct 28, 2014 3:46 am

I happened to catch a glimpse of one of the first games. Seemed like a giant hack-fest. Many broken bones to be had in that league!

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