Sport - Cricket

Australian flavour smells good

Mumbai: ‘Cricket Brand, Australia’ will be in full force right through the DLF-IPL Twenty20.

Though a handful like Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden, Brett Lee, Michael Hussey, Andrew Symonds and Simon Katich are set to tour West Indies later, the tournament will be left with a sufficient number of Australians to have an impact till the final.

Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath, David Hussey, Cameron White, James Hopes, Luke Pomersbach Brett Geeves, Shane Watson, Luke Ronchi and Dominic Thornley are the stars from Down Under who will stay put.

Justin Langer, committed to Somerset, will be available for the second season. Nathan Bracken with a damaged knee will be out of action, while Darren Lehman will fill in for South African Graeme Smith in two matches.

The Australians have been crowd pullers, ever since Mark Taylor’s men toured in 1998, on and off the field. They have absorbed local cultures in places like Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi and elsewhere in India.

The legendary Warne will play the double role as captain and coach and pass words of wisdom to the young recruits in the side.

Similarly McGrath can spend useful time explaining seam up, the art of swing and cut and accuracy to Delhi Daredevils’ Pradeep Sangwan, Yo Mahesh and fellow Australian Geeves, regarded as a specialist in sending down toe-crushers.

One can expect Adam Gilchrist to be kept busy and young Orissa stumper Halhadar Das would not lose the opportunity to pick the Australian’s brains. In short, the IPL will provide lots of opportunities to India’s first class cricketers, many of whom are young, to learn a lot.

After a careful study and advised by the knowledgeable, the franchise owners have picked a few unknowns like Rochi, Pomersbach and Thornley apart from White, David Hussey, Watson and Hopes. The surfeit of Australians is also evident in the presence of coaches like John Buchanan, Tom Moody and Greg Shipperd.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu