Predictions 2.0

Second round of matches - if you think it is the third round - collaboration is something that you want to discuss in your next leadership status. For those who are not in the know - the matches were pushed last week because calendars of some people became strangely and unreasonably busy. But, let's get to the main business:

a. Vandals vs. Challengers: Vandals should probably win this one. Challengers slammed a lot of runs in their last match but against a nothing bowling attack. It should be difficult this time around. Given that Challengers lack depth in all three the departments - should be a good start to the day for the Vandals (remember they are playing two games as are Challengers). It has been rumored that Craydit has been very unhappy with Byra's leadership in the one match and Craydit himself wants to get on the field as a captain. Just one advice - having a non playing captain is probably worse than choosing a woeful side.

b. Intimidators vs. Raptors: Interesting match up. Intimidators might win this one as well though. They are confident coming back from the win in the first round and the importance of players who can field cannot be overstated in any form of cricket - which they have (compared to the other team, of course). The Raptors will again be heavily dependent on See-na, Takla and Betaal. If Intimidators are able to take care of See-na's bowling they should be fine. The news from the dugout is that Einstein has been very encouraged to see Betaal cheerleading other players and he has 'earmarked' him for future 'mentor' roles in the team. Again one advice - don't take until round 5 to decide that because you might not play the playoffs but that might be a good thing for the players welfare.

c. Challengers vs. Ravens: Easiest match to predict. Three reasons: One, Challengers must have come off a defeat from their earlier match in the day. It is easier to defeat the already defeated by any measure of cricketing standards. Second, not sure how the leadership heavy team can play two matches in the sun. Most likely they will be ready give away their wickets while batting or ready to give away the runs while bowling, whichever proves to be the fastest way to lose. Third, Ravens' leadership had been in an "Engage and Inspire" mode for the last two weeks. It seems they are ready for all round sledging with the occasional cricketing help from Mansi, Aksar, Padega and Chota Shane.

d. Supernova vs. Vandals: Should be a good one, isn't it? I will change tack on this one from my previous stance on Supernova. They should win this - Hey Ram was in solid form last time and he should be able to do it for Supernova. It is also Vandal's second match which will make it harder for them. Vindaloo has to actually play cricket if they are to win this one which seems unlikely. Plus I hear Vandals will be missing their important bowler - Pupte.

So, lets watch!! Sorry, for the last minute update and I think I must bring up 'manage productivity' to my next leadership status!

2/3 on first Predictions....Not Bad eh!

ACL had a decent start then. One tight game, two close games – it was a good advertisement for ACL. It just makes you wonder if Lalit Modi had all this planned out! Back to the action though and let’s get on with what really happened on the field:

a.       Intimidators vs. Challengers: For Intimidators Damru scored big ably supported by BR Hills. Not only did Damru bat, he bowled as well. After Intimidators had scored almost 150 it was always going to be a matter of time before the Challengers’ batsmen perished trying the big shots. However, if there was an award for the worst bowling performance of the season – we got two strong nominations already. Going by the looks of it, they are sure to put in more such award winning performances!

b.      Supernova vs. Ravens: Ravens lost because of two reasons. First, they forgot to bring their prime competency to the game – which is as you know is sledging – and suffered an easy defeat. It is not all their fault though as Lalit had smartly got CM to officiate which made it terribly hard for Ravens’ to sledge freely. Second, they let off Hey Ram and paid the price. Curiously Another Bun quietly hid himself at long on. While Kallizaaban did attack the opposition (and massaged them back by dropping catches), Another Bun was happy sledging his own players.

c.       Vandals vs. Raptors: Raptors got the strategy wrong. They did not send in Betaal alongwith Takla at the top of the order. Raptors played as if they thought a 50 would be a good score. By the time Betaal joined Takla (and both excited themselves enough to play a few shots) any hopes of a decent score had already vanished and it was always going to be tough to defend. Vandals played exactly like an over – confident Indian team against Bangladesh and it required 58 balls to chase it down with half the side out. Vindaloo as usual was seen giving plenty of moral support, free advice and unwanted aggression without doing anything with the bat or ball.

Now that the first round it is back to the drawing board for some teams while other teams who have scraped might do them a favour by going back to their drawing boards as well. Let’s see what happens - will be back for Friday morning predictions!

(P.S.:

Raptors were seen wearing Yellow jerseys with an outline of a lizard on the front. I am sure they would have started out with Raptors but then would have broken it down to its principal components to make it a lizard. Can someone tell them that the time spent in getting weird jerseys might actually be better spent in practicing cricket?

Pyscat was emotional charged after registering the first win. I knew it – was the emotion. Firstly, ‘I knew it’ has already been patented by someone. Secondly, do you know that Supernova has as much chance of winning the ACL as N. Srinivisan resigning from BCCI office on moral grounds?

Craydit and Gladrags were conspicuous by their absence. Gladrags it seems wants to distance himself from the ‘sledging’ team. Someone reminded him that as a ‘leader’ he cannot condone these things. We might see him in an avatar of quiet sporting personality in the coming matches which would be interesting. Craydit for all purposes has resigned himself to the fate that in all certainty his team is doomed.

As you know ACL was also – I am a little emotional myself – ‘Inaugurated’. Given the massive importance of the event in the history of mankind it just made so much sense. I hear that multiple leaders blessed the ACL and encouraged the players in the presence of all the teams - represented only by either the owners/icon players. We might be receiving CDs of it in the coming weeks to have a piece of the history for ourselves.)

Round 1: Predictions

Match day! Predicting the outcome of the first 20% of matches (excluding the knockout stages) in any tournament involving 6 teams is always tricky. This calls for expertise and using the sophisticated technique of rolling the dice, here are my predictions:

      

     a. Intimidators vs. Challengers: This is going to be the closest match though an unexciting one. With both teams lacking good players and having a lot of unnecessary leadership, the outcome will be dependent largely on whether Byra plays better than BR Hills. I will go with Intimidators on this one though. With a lot of players who can field and bowl, they should surely win by a wicket or by a run.

b. Supernova vs. Ravens:  Supernovas are a team which is obsessed with maintaining the heritage and consequently they inherited players past their prime. With all round sledging capability of Ravens combined with a couple of good players in their prime they should win this contest. This is the best game to watch with Hey Ram’s cricketing skills and Another Bun’s/Kallizzaban’s different set of skills on display.

c. Raptors vs. Vandals: This match is between See-na vs. Vandals. If See-na fails, Vandals win. If See-na clicks and is supported by Takla and Betaal, then it could be a content. I am predicting a Vandals victory as it is very rare for a player to click both while batting and bowling which See-na has to do for this match to be a contest.

I will be back with post match debrief. Until then, bye!

Latest from the teams!

As you must have seen, an official ACL blog has come out with the explicit (read superficial) intention to communicate official (read censored) updates and messages. Given that bulk of the ACL machinations happen behind closed doors or private discussions it is no surprise that no official updates have made their way to the official blog. Clearly with ACL beginning this week a lot must be happening. This takes me to the purpose of this blog – to share with you all the updates that official updates cannot ever provide. So here it is:

a.     Craydit’s Moan: Craydit was moaning towards the end of last week. It is rumoured that he has been off to lift his spirits in a very relaxing place on the west coast of India. The reason for that has been two fold. A – The sponsorship deal with Iodex Pain Relief fell through. He is estimating the loss at ½ a box of pain balm for each person plus a cap that each player would have got for the dancing during strategic time-outs. Somebody needs to help him understand the difference between potential earnings and losses. B – All of his matches have been slotted to happen during the first two slots (i.e. in the heat). The chances of this accidentally happening is slim but that is how it goes in Lalit Modi’s ACL. The last match incidentally is against Supernova which means that Supernova has the best chance to do whatever they need to do to go to the knockouts against arguably the weakest team in the competition. Craydit, alongwith all the leadership in his team – Bypa, Ennit-IIMB, Bevda Bihari, No Shake Sutra, Raja Murad (DQ), etc., did appeal to Lalit Modi but after ‘due consideration’ it was squashed.

b.     Einstein’s Surprise: It is only this week that most of the teams owners/icon players realized that most of the players on their teams do not know each other/that they have to get real practice with a bat and ball. Einstein was really perturbed when Takla (he has joined back which has the drawback that everyone has to be careful about Betaal’s public displays of emotion for Takla) mentioned about real practice. He was of the opinion that as players have attended his and Basanti’s intense data mining sessions about cricket they should be able to do perfectly well on the field. Takla, witnesses say, really would have plucked out any hairs if he had any left. Sumi was looking lost all throughout; his role in the team is still work in progress.

c.     Let’s learn to sledge: That has been the mantra of Gladrags these days. Apparently he has been so happy with Another Bun’s and Kallizabaan’s sledging one on ones that he has entered into a dialogue with HR folks about launching an A&R LMS module on it. It is his contention that sledging can prove useful in having difficult conversations in many scenarios. Team members in Gladrags org beware – you might hear interesting words in the middle of a conversation. I support him in the noble effort – at least for the sake of watching it from the sidelines.

d.     Vandal’s Goal: Vindaloo has been proving himself to be an adept leader. He has been setting only one expectation with his players – defeat Supernova. By setting the bar so low, he has, in one masterstroke, set his team for exceeds expectation (in all probability Vandals should do it easily) and taken off all pressure of the ‘settled team’ tag. Strategic, but disappointing, don’t you think?

e.     Supernova’s Surrender: They know that they are one of the weaker teams and they have given up any pretence to competing. They are now looking up to Lalit Modi to deliver his value (8x the base price). He has been at it as documented in this post but how far it can go? Except for Heyram’s brilliance nothing can save the team from a bottom 2 spot. The only thing going for Supernova this time has been Psycat’s lack of involvement; I hear his enthusiasm is very dispiriting and disturbing for others. I would agree having heard of him running after ACL 1 finals.

f.       BR Hills steady steps: I love this team and they are doing all the right things. They started with the training earlier than others and it seems their players are already good at blocking the ball with the bat (while batting) and pitching the ball on the pitch (while bowling). This might seem fundamental but given the disorganization in others teams it gives them a great chance. The only worrying factor for BR Hills has been the unsolicited advice that team owner Black Label is freely distributing to him and his players. It is known that BR Hills has to take additional therapy sessions (himself and for his players) to remove the unnecessary advice.

As you know now a lot of things are happening. I will back for you on Friday morning with match day predictions. Until then thanks for tuning in and adios!

Buzz in the Camps!

Hello fellas!

A week to go before the ACL begins and this post will help you know get upto speed on what each team has been doing. Also, more has come to light about the ‘transparent’ auction process which has to be shared with this community. Without further ado then:

a.       Psycat’s Supernova: Psycat has officially entered into the Limca Book of Records for being able to make happen one of the most incredible events in the history of mankind - bagging Hey Ram, again, and the ACL supremo, again, for Supernova. Data scientists are busy calculating the chances of that but initial reports suggest that it is at least as impossible as Sreeshant quietly celebrating after taking a wicket. To add to it, if we check the probability of Psycat bagging two key Supernova’s members - Anti Jonty & Unclekar, again in this auction, reports conclude that it is as unlikely as Manmohan Singh smiling. So, congratulations to Psycat. After this exciting event and a few parties thrown by Lalit Modi at the cheapest ‘hotspot’ it seems Supernova has forgotten that they also have to come out and play their matches. Given that their current approach to training is to have no training  at all they might be better off forfeiting their matches. But as is always, with Lalit Modi onboard, any sudden revision of rules to prop up his team is a distinct possibility.

b.      Kalyan’s Intimidators: Easily the most inclusive of all teams. Their strategy was to buy any player who no team was interested in. With 90% of their buys costing 20% of the purse they had half of their auction money left when they were asked to stop bidding after they had got 14 players for themselves. It was a good strategy but they missed the fine print of ACL rules where it says that they can only play 11 players in any match. After coming to know of this – Intimidators have gone into damage control mode and BR Hills is offering weekend conditioning sessions on the basics of cricket like holding a ball, fielding a ball and holding a bat. It is left to be seen how much they learn from it though and how much the Intimidators can intimidate on the field. My favourite team though because of the inclusive culture!! Go Intimidators!!

c.       Vandals: The most settled team. They have a top 3 batting unit and a top 3 bowling unit in the ACL. The inside story that is emerging is that Vindaloo and Nerdy have been devising ways to get the better of others for quite sometime now. Nerdy has been seen making ‘casual’ talk with team owners and icon players before the auction week as an outsider to the ACL. Armed with the choices and bets that other teams had in mind and Vindaloos knowledge of players, little wonder it is that all of Vandals bids came just about correct (although why frustoo madrasi was bought is subject to much speculation). However, the ‘settled team’ thoughts have perhaps gone to their heads. It has been talked about they just need to turn up for a match to win. If they keep this up, surely they will be like rabbits caught in the headlights when the ACL starts.

d.      Raj’s Raptors: This team has got a couple of good players with a couple of absolutely rubbish players. How they are going to perform is anybody’s guess at this moment. Einstein has been busy teaching decision trees and algorithms to its team to be able to distinguish a bad ball from a good ball. It is also rumoured that Basanti has been hired by Einstein as a data researcher to mine insights from opposition players’ social networking sites. Innovation is an admirable trait but as you can tell, it can easily become a nuisance. Players are, it appears, already disillusioned and are thinking about creating self - help conditioning camps for themselves under the guidance of the obscenely enthusiastic and ‘fun loving’ Betaal.

e.      Ravi’s Ravens: This is the team that has good belief in their abilities and are very focused on using it. In the auction, Another Bun was grumpy throughout and with most of their first choices taken by other teams there were valid reasons for it. However, they immediately started team development conditioning and coaching. Kallizaban and Another Bun are having closed doors one on one mentoring statuses with their team on A- being a team player and B- sledging hard. Given the limited cricketing skills in the team this is undoubtedly the best possible approach. This makes sure they sledge throughout the match as a team and even if they lose, who cares – they did their best (sledging is independent of cricketing skill, experience and match conditions, you see). Not every team can come back from a defeat with the same feeling. My second favourite team!

f.        Chirags’ Challengers: Craydit was a happy man throughout the auction. What he was happy about though nobody knew especially with the fantastic buys he got. Recently, from trusted sources, it has come to light that he has been able to bag two big sponsors. GWS Sweet Chariot has agreed to give half a samosa to each player if they reach the semis and one samosa each if they reach finals. The second sponsor is Iodex Pain Relief subject to the condition that they promote this product during the strategic timeouts. Craydit has been heard referring to these as significant stepping stones to the team’s success. The current team building exercise that the team is involved in is preparing the skit/snap dance that they will be presenting to the Iodex Pain Relief in their final round of negotiations. I like this clear sense of purpose – my third favourite team.    

The rumor is that managing communication through streamlined channels has been suddenly added to G&Os of a lot of people. Do prepare yourself to hear lot of ‘official’ statements and press releases. So typical!

Adios

(P.S.: You know where to tune in for the truth behind the statements.)