WHAT A BLASTER THAT THIS MAN IS?
If Kerry Packer and his channel 9 popularised one day cricket games, Lalit Modi's IPL has been stupendous sucesss inthe resctricted 20 over format of T20. I in fact stopped watching cricket when conspirators led by Greg Chappel thew out Saurav Ganguly arguably the best ever captain we had for a long time. I would not rate the world cup success of Dhoni as top class as others do and I rate the loss in the final on an earlier occasion as more satisfying and the 1983 triumph the pinnacle of our sports.
This time I watched Chris Gayle going after the bowling that would belittle the escapades of say Roy Fredricks when he was firing on all cylinders at Perth against Lille and Thompson. Not even Collis King's quickfire 87 in a world cup and even Master Richards' many blistkriegs would match the onslaught of Gayle. Such was this man's ferocity that he made bowling look very ordinary. We had seen big hitters in Jayasuria, Afridi, Shewag, Yuvraj, Kevin Peterson but this man is something extra ordinary. Credit must be given to CSK Spinner Ravichandar Ashwin who beguiled him to snick. But that never takes the sheen away from this Gayle storm as he is affectionately called. We need such band of cricketers to keep the game alive.
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