I'm not a fan of  any form of sport and I nearly stopped reading your blog after the first para, but  the philsophical implications of your statements kept me going to the end...

"In Twenty20 a team needs slog support during the mid-overs (precisely overs 5 to 9) and then the acceleration beyond the 65% run rate inflection after the 12th over at a marginally reducing loss count. If you observe closely the composition of both the teams, the Hyderabad team was put together precisely to chase past the cut-loss gap. The Chennai team seems to be composed to create drag but the pitches on which they are playing it is not valuable, especially in Mohali.

That is why I think Hyderabad will win."

Someone said this comment of mine is not entirely comprehensible. Actually, it makes no sense at all. Just made it up to prove a point... which is that the fights and controversies have started.

In sports like Baseball, Soccer, American Football and Basketball - the leagues are structured such that 90% of the sport is played locally and 10% or even less in most cases Internationally. With the current International calendar being such, it would be difficult for such league games to be played for more than 2 months in a year. 

Money will talk and change behaviors. Since ICC is nothing but a group of cricket playing countries, the International schedule will change the day after the BCCI person starts, "You know, we have been thinking about this whole International schedule..."

There will be some audience for India matches...but it will be tepid.

Thanks for your comment. You make a very astute point and you missed making one. A typical cricket watcher doesn't really understand the nuances of the game. He or, increasingly, she wants to be part of the hype and hoopla. It is true that one good knock by a local boy will get him instant fame. The opportunity to attain fame and good fortune is now more democratic instead of being concentrated in the same 11 usual suspects that the country endured for long.

I don't think outsiders playing for the local teams really matters. There is ample evidence from US and Europe that locals will quickly start to identify with the imported players as their own and helping them win the tournament. Imagine Rohit Sharma playing for Deccan Chargers going out and thrashing the brash but untalented Bangalore Royal Challengers or the rich but weak-hearted Mumbai Indians. It won't be long before the locals start adoring Rohit and sure enough he will get all wrapped up in the adulation and affection, giving out interviews, trash-talking the opposing teams.

Hi Satya, 
Enjoyed your T20 triumph! Btw after I read this, Hyderabad Heroes won a cracker of a game in the ICL. Stuart Binny  (Roger Binny acc to Symcox) played a match winning T20 innings. Better still, he was a local boy. By his side was the Aussie veteran Jimmy Maher. I like the T20 leagues as they give the "almost there" guys of cricket a chance to shine.

cheers, naked cricket

To Mr. Satya Prabhakar

Yours is an article with completely a different and a novel perspective.
By 2015, international cricket, test and one-day formats will fade into oblivion: if the happenings take the routes you have narrated, this would be a reality.
A must readbale blog.

Naval Langa

Satya: There's much in what you say... people do identify first with the city they belong to. (That joke to start with was very apt)... 

But,here there's a bit of confusion. Apart from the captains, the teams are a virtual hotch-potch. The auctioning has Bhajji playing for Mumbai and Ishant playing for Kolkata, while Kaif plays for Jaipur. (if I've got that right - when they start buying payers from each other like the premier football clubs, the confusion will be total )

How do you account for this?

cheers,

Keshav

Great post - agree with Satya on all points. However, one must have to note that in order for this mass 'localization' of the sport to set in, there would have to be a drastic change in the International cricket calendar.

In sports like Baseball, Soccer, American Football and Basketball - the leagues are structured such that 90% of the sport is played locally and 10% or even less in most cases Internationally. With the current International calendar being such, it would be difficult for such league games to be played for more than 2 months in a year.  Therein lies a big difference, something which would have to be overcome for this mass local hysteria to set in...