DesiPundit

First, Ashok Malik has the best take on tamacha-gate I have read yet, 

If Indian cricketers – “new”, “aggressive”, “super-confident”: choose your adjective – want to give it back when assailed or want to occasionally needle a batsman as he walks to the crease, I have no problem with that. There is an ocean that separates such acceptable gamesmanship from plain boorishness. Waving his bat, exercising his pelvic muscles mid-pitch, screaming and shouting, bearing his teeth, grimacing menacingly without reason, Sreesanth is the most visible face of this cricket boor; at least on television. The face, let us accept, is ugly.

The IPL is now 10 days old. Greatbong does a SWOT analysis of the eight IPL teams,

However formidable that roster may be, Chennai’s actual strength comes from its Indian personnel —three reliable T20 batsmen in Parthiv, Raina and Badrinath forming their batting core. Not to speak of the most potent weapon of them all: Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Here is a man who understands the T20 game like no other, makes excellent spot decisions, stays cool and agile, and most importantly does not let his batting or glovework suffer due to captaincy. Unlike some “icon” players who have been automatically foisted upon their franchises as captains without having proven themselves first in the format and consequently have embarrassingly underperformed, Dhoni (he officially is not an “icon” player) has, so far, led from the front. 

Can any discussion on IPL be complete without talking about cheerleaders? Patrix clarifies his position on Peter Foster’s much discussed article,

Although I think there are plenty of options to contextualize sports entertainment for India, cheerleading would be the last thing on my mind. Let us be clear, employing cheerleaders is less of entertainment and more of titillation; pun intended and just because NFL uses them to attract fans doesn’t mean the IPL has to literally cut-paste everything that NFL does. If they had put as much effort in coming up with creative ideas as they did in creating their media contracts, we would definitely have something that is both fun and enticing. After all, we are the country that remixed Bollywood golden oldies. where is Himesh Reshammiya and the item girls when you need them