….

I don’t know a guy can play 3 games with a hairline fracture over the course of 10 days before he has to be ruled out of the tournament.

Do I speak about cricket now, or do I just rant my heart out?
I never thought I’d hate watch the games my team played in the IPL. Let me start there.

Every sports team goes through this phase. When you’re big, you’re BIG. And when you fall, its going to be catastrophic. Particularly in times when there’s a transition and its time for a new guard to take over the reins. You’re going to face criticism, go through a rough couple of years, but most of all, you’re gonna be bleeding fans.
That last part though, is something that is good. Cause in my book, the one’s that leave are the plastics. And that’s okay. But the OGs who’ve been backing the team since day 1, remain cause its bounded to them in a way I can’t put to words. I know its definitely not just me, it can’t be.

And just like the rest, CSK will be losing fans too. But unfortunately for them, it won’t be the casuals who’s here for the Aura farming. They’ll not lose the people who are filling the stadiums for one man. They’ll not lose the mad men and women who plead and cheer for a wicket while victory is in sight to see one man walk into the ground.

On a lighter note, let me underscore our hypocrisy. You can’t blame your rival team saying they buy umpires while you literally re-write rules every season to accomodate a player for your convenience.

Let’s see how far we’ve fallen shall we?

• Sent your most loyal player to the auction and let him retire being unsold. Fella held your middle order for over a decade, and has proven to the be the one sport in your 11 that you have problems with every year.
• Celebrate fall of wkts as I’d mentioned earlier. How demoralizing would it be for the guys who actually built the chase over an hour?
• Quite possibly sacked 2 captains. The only ones who had any chance of leading at all.
• Shove your age old squads down their throat and expect them to conjure magic like only one person does.
• Celebrate the sacking of said captains and rejoice when the 43 year old uncapped retired trophy winning player who is solely keeping wickets. Just for a second think about how it sounds?
• From backing players who fail throughout a season, to retiring them out in the middle of the innings.
  
  You gotta realize this frenzy is a problem. You can’t have commentators plugging in this when two unrelated teams are playing. Where’s the cricket ffs?

THIS IS NOT THE CSK WAY

Hell, this is something RCB or Delhi Daredevils or Kings XI Punjab would do. When they were motivated by the business or were clueless about the game. Guess who’s leading the table now. I’ve always believed that RCB does not stand a chance at winning the trophy because the focus is too much on 1-3 players who the team touted to be bigger than team.

We are riding the coat-tails of a man who is being sold as bigger than the game itself!

I don’t feel the Yellove

I started rooting for this team when I had no idea what the rules of the game was. I did not like the yellow color, but it grew on me and became synonomous with an identity. I got through 2 surgeries watching them play through thick and thin, watching MS come and finish games for us. I skipped the IPL in 2016-17. I stopped watching Bilateral tourneys or following the ICT as I grew up. But these two months, rooting for this team, the highs and the lows is definitely something I look forward to every year.

I would still root for them if they are failing while trying. But this is just delusional. Or intentional business. The latter I would respect, and walk away.
The former I pity, and mourn.

Between watching the game to the last ball believing that MS will finish the game, or atleast go down swiging, to turning it off when MS walks in to bat knowing he’s not even going to try to win, I got old.

With all due respect, my man should move away from Aura farming and stick to strawberries.

As bad as CSK is doing, if you’re celebrating MS’s return as captain, you’re part of the problem. I wish we lose the remaining games in a humbling manner. Raze and rebuild. CSK is the only team to have never gotten the wooden spoon out of the original 8 teams. I think its time we go into the history books once again.

MS should’ve honesly walked away in 21. Pushed his luck and got through to 23. I can’t term what’s going now as anything more than greed. Or maybe he’s just trying to see how far he can sell his craze through to a generation of fans in delulu.

Atleast for CSK, the IPL has moved away from sport to sports entertainment. Hell, if you want goosebumps in a stadium, watch wrestling ffs. Even WWE has succession plans in place well in advance!
I might just stick to that.