Vijay Mallya's big outburst against Dravid and his team

[fineleg]

Vijay Mallya incites further controversy: "Biggest Mistake I did"

Controversy continues to surround the Bangalore Royal Challengers. Days after Charu Sharma, the franchise's chief executive, was sacked, Vijay Mallya, the team owner, has said, in separate interviews to the print and electronic media, that he regrets not being involved in the squad's selection during the auction and that he had other players in mind but went by the judgment of Sharma and Rahul Dravid, the captain. The IPL, Mallya said, has a corporate side to it and Dravid has to "do the best...and produce results." "My biggest mistake was to abstain from the selection of the team. Though I watch a lot cricket whenever possible, I am no cricket expert at the end of the day," Mallya told the Economic Times. "I had a separate list of players that I wanted. But since Dravid is such an iconic player I trusted his judgment. And Charu Sharma also backed him. "After seeing the final list, my friends told me it looked like a Test team," Mallya said. "But I backed both of them thinking that they advised me properly. Unfortunately in cricket, unlike in any other sport, the captain is the boss." "In fact in the second auction, when Dravid was absent, I wanted my set of players but Charu was very tentative and I was held back," Mallya told NDTV. "It was I who brought in Misbah-ul-Haq. "Later, when I questioned the team's performance, poor practice facilities and the lack of infrastructure were given as reasons. It was also said that there was no bonding in the team. I said to myself things can't continue like this. So I brought in Brijesh and who better than him to provide better practice facilities at the home base in Bangalore? "People have to understand IPL has a corporate side to it. It is not all cricket in the traditional sense. I just want to tell Rahul Dravid to do best he can with this team and produce results. Dravid doesn't enjoy being at the bottom of the league and neither do I." Bangalore's emphasis on Test performers was questioned before the start of the tournament, and their inability to adapt to the Twenty20 format has seen the side crash to six defeats in eight games, leaving them languishing at the bottom of the table. Sharma, sacked last week, was replaced by former India Test player Brijesh Patel. "I look at the mirror every morning and wonder why I was considered inadequate," Sharma told the paper. "I have no clue about why things happened this way. Mallya listened to Dravid who was responsible for choosing the team. No team is perfect, but did we get the team we wanted? No. The key players were missing at key times." The Bangalore franchise was bought by Mallya's United Spirits Ltd for US$111.6 million, making it the second-most expensive franchise in the IPL. Mallya also owns the Force India Formula One team.

[Gambit]

Mallya is pretty pissed with Dravid. According to IBN -

Mallya takes potshots at Dravid for IPL debacle

According to the 3 yr deal, is Dravid guaranteed to be BRC Captain and icon player for the next 3 years? And can Mallya sell his team before 3 years are up?

[Guest HariSampath]

Mallya can trade Dravid, but as Dravid's price has been fixed at $ 1 million + , who will buy him at that price ? So Mallya can probably pay the ransom amount of $ 2 millions to Dravid, ask him to stay at home and rescue the Royal Challengers team

[Tapioca]

"My biggest mistake was to abstain from the selection of the team. Though I watch a lot cricket whenever possible, I am no cricket expert at the end of the day," Mallya told the Economic Times. "I had a separate list of players that I wanted. But since Dravid is such an iconic player I trusted his judgment. And Charu Sharma also backed him

These sort of comments would be okay for us to make in a forum or for a joker like Jaywant Lele. It is atrocious when the boss of an organization goes in public with such comments about the people still working under him. The stacks of notes are of course stronger than the spine.

[Guest HariSampath]

whyis it atrocious...Mallya feels miffed that Dravid and his cronies looted his money, pulled in useless cricketers for big sums of money....and have made him the laughing stock of everyone...and he has every right to say anything, it is his team and the criticism is perfectly justified. Remember..."he who pays the piper calls the tune"

[Gambit]

Apparently, this is what Dravid had said to Mallya during the first auction -

"After the first round of auction in Mumbai, a few friends congratulated me on my Test team," Vijay Mallya, the franchise owner, said before the IPL. " I mentioned this to our captain Dravid and he laughed it off and told me that Test cricket is the ultimate test for any cricketer and if a player can do well in that format, then he can do well in all other formats, be it one-day matches or Twenty20."

:hysterical:

[Guest HariSampath]

:hysterical: Dravid's "vision" of T20 cricket....he sees everything according his own jaundiced view...now we can understand why Dravid plays 40 overs for 20 runs in ODIs...because test cricket is the ultimate test, and after the match whoever played like test matches will be adjudged the winner :D Someone should explain to Dravid the rules of the game and who is declared winners and why. So...Dravid thinks that very good test players make very good T20 players...LOL..this fellow has gone insane and must be checked by a psychiatrist before being selected for Indian team

[swami1984]

Apparently, this is what Dravid had said to Mallya during the first auction - :hysterical:

I'm going to reiterate this again. Except for Kallis IMO, Dravid DID NOT hire the test players who are currently in the best form (aka Sangakkara, Asif, Murali, Haydos, Symmonds, Hussey, Lee, GC Smith, DeVilliers etc). Had he done so, the team would have been in much better position. So I don't buy into the "test cricketers suck at T20" logic. Its just that Dravid didn't get the best test players, and his choices were questionable.

[Temujin Khaghan]

This explains why dravid was so reluctant to regularly pick his best player (yet to perform in IPL), Misbah ul haq. Apparently Misbah is the only specialist in the team, but he spent most of his time warming up the benches in the dugout. Maybe dravid wated to win matches without misbah's help.

[Temujin Khaghan]

...Alas its too late

[swami1984]

So...Dravid thinks that very good test players make very good T20 players

Hey I buy into that - except for Kallis, test batsmen and bowlers (who are/were currently considered amongst the best) are doing quite decently in IPL. GC Smith Warne Asif McGrath Symonds Zaheer Khan Hayden Hussey Gilchrist Sehwag (though he is icon) Sangakkara Murali Pollock gimme a team with any four of these guys and they will perform on any given day in the IPL (provided Asif isn't banned for drug use :) )

[Guest HariSampath]

^ Players like Sehwag, Gilly, Symmo, Warne, Murali, Pollock, Sangakkara, Hayden, McGrath in the above list are all attacking cricketers even in the test format...and thats hardly an argument to be made in favor of test cricketers doing well in T20. The kind of Logic Dravid has been using is for players like Geoff Boycott who were great test players but will struggle in ODIs/T20s...in fact this is behind Dravid choosing Chanderpaul, Jaffer, kallis, Kumble etc. Its like saying "Bradman would have been devastating in ODIs because he was great in tests...so everyone great in tests would great in T20/ODI"...absolute nonsense. "All dripes are stripes, and some stripes are drupes, so all drupes are dripes"....Its time Dravid went back to some high school math and learnt set theory....A union B intersection C etc...

[swami1984]

^ Players like Sehwag, Gilly, Symmo, Warne, Murali, Pollock, Sangakkara, Hayden, McGrath in the above list are all attacking cricketers even in the test format...and thats hardly an argument to be made in favor of test cricketers doing well in T20.

I think we're driving to the same point here. One can't say that test players are not fit for T20 format (players like Smith, Sanga, Hussey aren't really attacking, but theyre doing good in IPL)....its just that Dravid chose the wrong players To begin with, its unfortunate he didn't pick ANY player who has recently played a test for Australia. The only major Aussie international he picked (Bracken) got injured. Let's face it, there is the direct correlation between having at least 2 good Aussie players in your starting XI and winning games

[Guest HariSampath]

@ swami1984... so according to Dravid, the best Indian batting lineup for T20 will be Jaffer, Sehwag, Dravid, Sachin,Laxman and Ganguly ???? :hysterical: This is why I say Dravid has lost it and is suffering from some cricketing delirium

[IndianRenegade]

Mallya still has been really kind to Dravid as far as speaking out in the press. It is not that this team is hopeless. It still has potential to perform, but there again Dravid spoils the party by taking some stupid decisions. Like keeping Misbhah away - yes - he hasn't fired in the couple of games he has played, but his record in T20 format is enough justification to play him until he regains his lost touch which won't be far. When dravid can play himself after 2 consecutive golden ducks & with no strong T20 background, why can't he play Misbhah? Having players like C. White in the XI and promoting himself up the order, is pure nonsense. When C. White finally came out and started firing Dravid & his openers had already made the job too difficult by playing innings like 5/6 (11). I am sorry to say this, Dravid is not the same great cricketing mind when it comes to T20.

[Guest HariSampath]

I think we're driving to the same point here. One can't say that test players are not fit for T20 format (players like Smith, Sanga, Hussey aren't really attacking, but theyre doing good in IPL)....its just that Dravid chose the wrong players To begin with, its unfortunate he didn't pick ANY player who has recently played a test for Australia. The only major Aussie international he picked (Bracken) got injured. Let's face it, there is the direct correlation between having at least 2 good Aussie players in your starting XI and winning games

But why even bring in the "test cricket" factor here? ....This is T20, and Dravid, if at all he had any intelligence , would have simply chosen very good T20 players...and not worry about whether they were good test players or not. It is not even a case of choosing the "best test cricketers" as you put it...the yardstick here is not to see things in a test cricket perspective. T20 is quite simply a format when everything has to be done in a very short time. Dravid's argument that if one is good in tests it means he WILL have to be successful in T20s is total bullsht...and the team which he selected was also along similar lines...total bullsht, just as he himself is total bullsht in T20s

[Guest HariSampath]

The Only explanation for Dravid's selections is the short man theory. If you are very short, say 5 feet ht then obviously you would rather stand with those who are similar in ht or just 3-4 inches taller....but why would you stand next to ppl 6 ft 6 in and appear even shorter than the 5 ft ?? This is why Dravid chose the Jaffers, kallis , Chanderpauls etc as his top batters.

[IndianRenegade]

The Only explanation for Dravid's selections is the short man theory. If you are very short' date=' say 5 feet ht then obviously you would rather stand with those who are similar in ht or just 3-4 inches taller....but why would you stand next to ppl 6 ft 6 in and appear even shorter than the 5 ft ?? This is why Dravid chose the Jaffers, kallis , Chanderpauls etc as his top batters.[/quote'] :giggle:

[Ram]

Poor guy Rahul, last 14 months, starting from his resigning from the test captaincy after the Eng 2007, have been absolutely terrible for him. And fcking what does Mallya and his honchos know bout cricket? Or are there lots of individuals who know more bout cricket than Rahul Dravid, the former India captain and one of world's best ever batsman? T20 is a lottery, if its your day, it is your day, or too bad it isnt. No one team has kept winning for ever and we have seen how even the supposedly strong teams have suffered. And worse, DC, with the seemingly the best squad is bottom of pile. With a bit of luck, BRC could EASILY landed up with a couple of more victories. BRC's squad wasnt ideal, but its not the worst either. Rahul's only problem was that key players like Kallis and White have failed to turn in any sort of performance. What can he do for it? And atleast for this, I admire SRK. Even though the KKR havent been doing THAT well, he has kept silence and not come out and given such damning assessments of his players and captain.

[yoda]

Mallya should fire himself for not getting involved in team selection.