The IPL's Most Valuable Player

This article has been cross-posted at Cricbuzz

Now that the IPL is done and dusted, we can all go back to our normal evening routines (even if there's a weirdly empty kind of feeling at 4 p.m. and you log on to Cricbuzz to check the latest score updates, only to figure out there is no match happening - not for the next week anyway).

We can think back to our favourite IPL memories - Shane Warne's ruffled look as he spun the ball in his hand before ripping one across the batsman; Anil Kumble's fiercely competitive streak that made the people who were calling for his head wonder why he retired; AB de Villier's masterful strokeplay and the rare delightful time when the commentary box was empty of Ravi Shastri, Ramiz Raja, Pommie Mbangwa, Ranjit Fernando and Danny Morrison.

However, discussions will continue unabated over who exactly were the 'best' players in this edition of the IPL. While there is no way to quantify the quality of runs scored or wickets taken, the pitch conditions and pressure situations et al, we can attempt to pull out numbers based on the quantity of runs scored, strike rates, economy rates and wickets taken.

Towards that end, this is an attempt to form an index for the 'Most Valuable Players' of the IPL.

Each player has been assigned points for batting, bowling and fielding, and the player with the highest number of points is, appropriately enough, IPL Version 2.0 MVP.

Batting Points:

The batting points were fairly straightforward to calculate. You have to take care of two parameters: the number of runs scored and the strike rate. The simplest way to do this is by multiplying one by the other, but there is a qualitatively better method and that is to calculate points based on the Relative Strike Rate.

The Relative Strike Rate is simply the ratio of a particular batsman's strike rate divided by the tournament's average strike rate. So if the average strike rate for the tournament has been 120.00 and Batsman A has a strike rate of 150.00, his relative strike rate would be 1.25.

The batting points are then assigned thus:

If R is the number of runs a batsman has scored, and S is his relative strike rate, the number of points B, the batsman will get is: B = R * S.

The only other thing that needs to be factored in to this is a batsman remaining 'Not Out' at the end of the innings. To make matters simple, every 'Not Out', contributes 10 runs to a batsman's score for the purpose of this analysis. Therefore, if N is the number of Not Outs, the formula becomes: B = (R+10N) * S

For IPL-2, the average strike rate has been 116.61.

The top 15 batsmen by this method, along with their batting point tallies per innings, are:

		Team	Runs	Strike Rate	B
1.	Matthew Hayden	Chennai	572	144.81	722.73
2.	Adam Gilchrist	Deccan	495	152.31	646.51
3.	AB de Villiers	Delhi	465	130.99	567.24
4.	Suresh Raina	Chennai	434	140.91	524.42
5.	T Dilshan	Delhi	418	122.58	470.92
6.	MS Dhoni	Chennai	332	127.20	416.69
7.	Brad Hodge	Kolkata	365	117.74	398.82
8.	Sachin Tendulkar	Mumbai	364	120.13	395.59
9.	JP Duminy	Mumbai	372	114.46	394.58
10.	Rohit Sharma	Deccan	362	114.92	386.31
11.	Herschelle Gibbs	Deccan	371	112.08	385.43
12.	Dinesh Karthik	Delhi	288	132.72	384.68
13.	Yuvraj Singh	Punjab	340	115.65	357.01
14.	Jacques Kallis	Bangalore	361	108.73	355.26
15.	Ross Taylor	Bangalore	280	134.62	346.31

Not too many surprises in the rankings, there! Most people would have probably had a similar list if asked to come up with their top 15 batsmen. However, it is nice to be able to put a number to the contributions of various batsmen.

The only team who doesn't have a batsman featuring here is Rajasthan. Their highest ranked batsman is Ravindra Jadeja who makes an appearance at No. 20 in the list.

Bowling Points:

For the bowlers, the parameters are slightly more complicated, as is the fact that straight multiplications will not work, because the lower a bowler's figures are, the better he has performed (a lower average/economy rate is better than a higher one).

The factors I have taken in account while awarding points for bowlers are:

1. The number of wickets taken and the strike rate

2. The number of balls bowled and the economy rate.

The reason for clubbing the factors as above is that for any given economy rate it is more credit-worthy for a bowler to sustain it over a higher number of balls - i.e. it carries greater weight to return an analysis of 4-0-16-0 than 1-0-4-0. The method followed is similar to that for the batsmen, and involves relative economy rates. The Relative Economy Rate (E) of a bowler is the tournament's average economy rate divided by his own. So if the tournament's average economy rate has been 8.00, and Bowler A has bowled his overs at 6.00, his Relative Economy Rate will be 1.33.

If O is the number of balls a bowler has bowled, he would then get O * E points for economy rate.

For his wickets, the points are assigned thus:

Each wicket will fetch him the number of points (W) that an average wicket has cost in the IPL, i.e. W = Total number of balls bowled/ Total number of wickets taken.

This would then be multiplied by his Relative Strike Rate (S1), which will function on the same principle as the Relative Batting Strike Rate, and the Relative Economy Rate. The reason the wickets taken are multiplied by the relative strike rate is so that a part-time bowler who might have picked up a stray wicket or two does not get inordinately rewarded for the same. Therefore the total number of points a bowler gets (B1) is:

B1 = (O*E) + (W*S1).

To homogenize the ratings between batsmen and bowlers, B1 is multiplied by a constant so that both can be measured on the same scale.

For IPL-2, the average economy rate has been 7.31, while the average strike rate for bowlers has been 21.07. Each wicket has been worth 25.67.

The top 15 bowlers, with their normalized ratings are:

		Team	Balls Bowled	Runs	Wickets	Econ Rate	Strike Rate	B1
1.	RP Singh	Deccan	358	417	23	6.99	15.57	480.53
2.	Anil Kumble	Bangalore	355	347	21	5.86	16.90	456.26
3.	Ashish Nehra	Delhi	306	346	19	6.78	16.11	396.24
4.	Lasith Malinga	Mumbai	297	312	18	6.30	16.50	382.61
5.	Pragyan Ojha	Deccan	321	348	18	6.50	17.83	371.22
6.	Munaf Patel	Rajasthan	209	241	16	6.92	13.06	361.66
7.	Irfan Pathan	Punjab	302	390	17	7.75	17.76	328.57
8.	Yusuf Abdulla	Punjab	168	241	14	8.61	12.00	316.77
9.	Muralitharan	Chennai	300	261	14	5.22	21.43	316.69
10.	Pradeep Sangwan	Delhi	280	360	15	7.71	18.67	286.58
11.	Dirk Nannes	Delhi	297	372	15	7.52	19.80	286.05
12.	Shadab Jakati	Chennai	174	217	13	7.48	13.38	284.68
13.	Amit Mishra	Delhi	252	294	14	7.00	18.00	279.98
14.	Shane Warne	Rajasthan	300	365	14	7.30	21.43	267.68
15.	Harbhajan Singh	Mumbai	264	256	12	5.82	22.00	256.60

There aren't too many surprises in this list too, though Lasith Malinga has suffered due to his team's early exit - a few more games and wickets and he could well have been heading the table. RP Singh just about manages to edge the titanic Anil Kumble into second place, and that is the beauty of numbers - though most people would pick Kumble as the bowler of the tournament, pure numbers without qualitative analysis give the crown to RP Singh.

The only thing that remains is to factor in the fielding points - which I have taken as 15 each for a catch or a stumping - and arrive at the combined value of each player in the IPL.

So, taking into account batting, bowling and fielding, the Most Valuable Players of this year's IPL have been:

		Team	Batting Points	Bowling Points	Fielding Points	Total Points
1.	Adam Gilchrist	Deccan	646.51	0.00	270	916.51
2.	Matthew Hayden	Chennai	722.73	0.00	75	797.73
3.	Suresh Raina	Chennai	524.42	149.18	105	778.60
4.	AB de Villiers	Delhi	567.24	0.00	195	762.24
5.	Rohit Sharma	Deccan	386.31	253.17	75	714.48
6.	Dinesh Karthik	Delhi	384.68	0.00	255	639.68
7.	Irfan Pathan	Punjab	229.78	328.57	60	618.34
8.	RP Singh	Deccan	11.30	480.53	105	596.83
9.	T Dilshan	Delhi	470.92	46.91	60	577.84
10.	Jacques Kallis	Bangalore	355.26	136.53	75	566.79
11.	Brad Hodge	Kolkata	398.82	135.04	30	563.86
12.	Anil Kumble	Bangalore	54.88	456.26	45	556.14
13.	Herschelle Gibbs	Deccan	385.43	0.00	165	550.43
14.	Yuvraj Singh	Punjab	357.01	117.02	75	549.03
15.	JP Duminy	Mumbai	394.58	92.88	60	547.46

A word about Matthew Hayden and AB de Villiers: The men have been in such awesome form that they have outperformed people who have brought bowling, batting and fielding skills to the table. They were, without a doubt the batsmen of the tournament, and had Delhi performed better in the semi-finals, AB could well have given Hayden a run for his money. No less impressive are RP Singh and Anil Kumble who have made it to the table largely due to their bowling efforts. Everyone else is an all-rounder of sorts with Gilchrist and Dinesh Karthik being the wicket-keeper batsmen, except for Herschelle Gibbs who also makes it to the top 15 due to his batting.

Adam Gilchrist has been the star Aussie though. In much the same way as last year, a retired, legendary, all-time great Australian cricketer, led a bunch of initial no-hopers to IPL glory. People will remember Gilchrist's innings in the semi-finals when they talk about IPL 2.0, but do not forget that he ended the tournament as the second

highest run-scorer - and that after scoring a duck in the finals. In some way, it was fitting that he fell to Anil Kumble, seeing whom perform would have given immense joy to many an Indian fan.

Appropriately enough, the winner of the Man-of-the-series is also the Most Valuable player by a quantitative analysis - which might go some way towards demolishing Navjot Sidhu's oft-quoted dictum about statistics, viz. "Statistics are like bikinis - they reveal a lot, but not the most essential parts!"

Disclaimer: Yes, I know - I've put that pic up, just to get more hits on the site :-)

IPL Predictions

this article has been published here

With IPL version 2.0 all set to dazzle its audience in the same manner that IPL 1.0 did, it’s time to stick one’s neck out and jump into astrologer territory and make predictions for what will unfold. There is the risk of ending up with egg on my face, but there is also the infinitely satisfying reward of having an ‘I-told-you-so’ smirk on my face to consider. So here goes (drumrolls reaching a crescendo) – Ladies, Gentlemen and those who merely watch the cricket to ogle at the cheerleaders – the predictions for how teams will fare:

The four semi-finalists this year are likely to be the following:
Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Daredevils, Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals.

Here is why:

Both Chennai and Delhi have used a smart buying strategy and built a very good core of Indian players. Bearing in mind that of the playing XI, seven have to be Indians, this is a hugely important fact.

Mumbai and Rajasthan are also well balanced, and with Rajasthan you have to take into account the X-factor of Warne’s charisma and the franchisee’s talent-spotting ability.

To take my prediction (and my sticking-out-neck) further, Chennai and Delhi are the teams that I see contesting the finals on the 24th May. They edge out the other two, simply because they look better balanced in all the departments of the game – they have powerful batting lineups and bowling attacks with considerable teeth. Mumbai and Rajasthan are also brimming with potential – and I can’t wait to see how Ryan McLaren and Graham Napier of Mumbai and Tyron Hendersen of Rajasthan perform – but they’re not quite at the level of Chennai and Delhi.

I see Punjab and Hyderabad at the bottom of the table this season. Hyderabad has a very weak bowling attack, and as last year showed, an awesome batting line-up on paper is no guarantee of even an average performance. Their batting would need to click in every match for them to have a chance at all – and I don’t see that happening.

Change Hyderabad to Punjab in the above paragraph and you have the story for the King’s Eleven, except that their batting, if anything, looks weaker than Hyderabad’s on paper. Punjab will be sorely hit by the absence of Brett Lee, James Hopes and Sreesanth – leaving their bowling looking like an orphaned child. They sorely need Shaun Marsh to be fully fit and available, which also doesn’t seem likely.

The Bangalore and Kolkata outfits seem to have got their strategy wrong. After Pietersen leaves, the Bangalore captain would be Jacques Kallis – whereas he hasn’t done enough last time to merit an automatic selection in the starting XI. Including him at the expense of either Boucher, or Cameron White or Ross Taylor might not be the soundest strategic move.

As for Kolkata, their balance – like last time – doesn’t look good enough. They will also be sorely hit by the absence of Pakistani and Australian players. And Chris Gayle is available for only 2 weeks. If that wasn’t enough, Buchanan (who probably needs to stop reading Sun Tzu’s ‘The Art of War’ and start reading Don Bradman’s ‘The Art of Cricket’) has stirred up a hornet’s nest with his multiple captain theory. Somebody ought to tell the man, that captains are not like orgasms – multiple ones are not a good idea.

It's a Mad, Mad World

[this article has been published here]

There are times in life when everything you do seems pointless. You reach for something, only to find that it has eluded your grasp, you say something and nobody understands you. The world in general looks topsy-turvy.

And then you pick yourself up off the floor, try to stand steadily - and if you're lucky, get helped/carried/dragged home so that you can sleep off the after-effects of 20 straight tequila shots.

However, sometimes the world doesn't seem to make sense even when there is an acceptable level of blood in your alcohol system. It still feels as if you're viewing the world through a tequila haze.

Sample this:

Mohammed Azharuddin (that great patriot), has now found the ideal platform for himself. He can now be in one of the few places in this country where his crimes seem like those of a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar, in comparison to the deeds of his soon to be colleagues.

"Former Indian captain Mohammed Azharuddin has begun a new innings. He has joined the Congress and is likely to contest from Hyderabad in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Azhar says, 'I have always been a fan of the Congress party, the Gandhis." [Link]

If the prospect of a man who has been pronounced guilty of selling his country while doing a job that others would kill for is the cake, then the icing is this interview, where Azhar says "I am good at making speeches."

Having grown up watching Azhar being far more eloquent with the bat than he was with his tongue, especially when he muttered 'webattedbadlybowledbadlyandfieldedbadly' after every Indian defeat (a number of which he had probably himself engineered), I thought that the interviewer did a commendable job at not laughing in his face.

Those who have seen Azhar the batsman, speak of his wonderful timing, elastic wrists and sublime strokeplay.

Those who have been hurt by Azhar the bookie, speak of his wonderful timing, elastic wrists and sublime strokeplay and where they can all be shoved.

Meanwhile, that master of self-effacement - Anil Kapoor - has said that Slumdog Millionaire is like his story. [Link]

The critics will point to the fact that losing your mother in riots, growing up as an orphan, being almost blinded and having to steal to survive while growing up, are as far removed from Mr. Kapoor’s childhood – which he spent attending Our Lady of Perpetual Succour High School in Chembur (one of the more upscale schools of the time) – as modesty is from his persona.

But what the heck – every Slumdog has his day.

And if the day is long in coming, some people go looking for it – by er… climbing a tree:

“Tense moments prevailed at Saidapet sub-jail here when two inmates, accused in robbery cases, climbed a tree, in protest against not being produced in court for a long time.” [Link]

You would think that this kind of monkeying around would be appropriate only for certain members of the Australian cricket team who shall remain nameless. Apparently not.

One can’t really blame the prisoners though – maybe they were inspired by the story of cops having to refund bribes with interest.

“Eleven years ago, when SHO Gulshan Rai and assistant sub-inspector Rao Ramkumar winked at murder accused Mukesh Kumar, asking the terrified man to shell out Rs 30,000 to escape torture at the police station, they hardly knew they would one day have to actually return to the victim not just the principal amount but add interest of a healthy 9%.” [Link]

Personally, I’m rooting for the day when Monday mornings are declared illegal. That would tie in nicely with the tequila haze.

Behind The Green Lens

A car journey generally provides for a lot of things – boon companionship, good music, varied scenery, maybe the thrill of hitting a new high on the speedometer.

What you don’t expect is one person suddenly ordering you to stop, then getting off and creeping stealthily towards a bush across the road – camera in hand.

No, he doesn’t work for the CIA, and there is no terrorist hiding behind that bush.

What there is though, is a rare kind of butterfly that is seldom seen anywhere outside a few miles radius of the area we were driving through.

An encyclopedic knowledge of fauna and an alert and unbelievably keen eye have helped the photographer to spot it.

That’s right – he’s actually seen and identified a butterfly that is 30 paces away, from a car moving at 60 kms an hour.

Welcome to the world of Jignasu Dolia – observer extraordinaire, passionate

photographer and qualified wildlife biologist.

In this day and age of hectic schedules and stressful deadlines, his work seems almost an anachronism.

Not for him, the daily rush of life or the headlong charge into an activity. He would rather prefer to wait, with infinite patience, for the time of the day when the sun is bright but not too harsh, risen but not yet overhead and butterflies are out but not at their flying best. Because all these elements have to come together in a fine balance to get that one perfect shot of a butterfly with its wings spread.

It requires care, it requires skill and it requires an ability to blend seamlessly into the wild. Above all it requires a love and respect for nature at her purest.

Jignasu has had that love since early childhood. Almost as soon as he could climb out of his crib, he wanted to climb trees. When he could learn to string together a sentence, he wanted to understand the grammar of animals. When he could distinguish sounds, he wanted to hear the symphony of waterfalls.

His perceptive lens is ever on the look out for some of nature’s lesser known

treasures – a spider weaving his web, a snake in repose, a scorpion crawling out from under a pile of debris – whose luster often gets lost in the shadows of the charismatic tiger or the majestic elephant, but whose beauty once discovered is impossible to forget.

His passion is not limited by the equipment available, or lack thereof. You can own the finest equipment, but you still need to be able to spot a gecko [picture shown above] that’s camouflaged by a leaf, hidden on a bush, at the bottom of a neighbour’s garden, on an unfamiliar island that you’re visiting for the first time (the Andamans, since you ask).

It is that ability to sense the moment that lets him go beyond nature and allows him to capture and freeze human emotions. Whether it be a lady in the mountains of Uttarakhand [formerly Uttaranchal] who exudes beautiful simplicity, or a girl with dreadlocks living in a stone-hut, fascinated by the arrival of a man with a camera, or just two young girls, whose smiles defy description and who symbolize so purely childhood innocence [picture below], they have all formed a part of Jignasu’s world.

He has traveled through various forests and countrysides – camera always in hand, and eyes always on the lookout. Nature has filled him with awe everywhere, and he has been driven by a passionate desire to share that.

From among the many, many photographs that he has collected over almost a decade, a select few are on display at a gallery in Pondicherry.

But this time he has gone beyond the wish to merely share his pictures, because it is not only his pictures that are on display. It’s a message that he wishes to share through them – that of safeguarding India’s natural heritage. Of creating a sense of pride and responsibility towards India’s wild habitats. Of realizing that each one of us has a stake in the natural world, and that as stakeholders, we have a duty to preserve it.

A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. Find the remote that controls your daily life, hit the pause button, and come soak in the several thousand that these will evoke.

Join Jignasu Behind the Green Lens.

Jignasu Dolia has an M.Sc in wildlife biology and is a published author. His paper on butterflies in coffee plantations has been published in the peer-reviewed ‘Animal Conservation’ journal (February 2008)

His photos have been published in “India Naturally”.

He also won second place in the 2007 Society for Conservation Biology Student Award Competition.

His pictures are displayed at an exhibition cum sale at Pondy Cre’Art, 53B Suffren Street, 1^st Floor, Pondicherry 605001 from 13^th March.

A wider selection of his photographs can be viewed here.