Opening Statement: The Indian squad features some real batting power houses but the bowling front seems to be compromised and the bowlers need to be in some really good form for India to strike the balance in the team.

Rested Players: The players rested for the not so important Zimbabwe tour are back and this adds a whole new flavor to the team. However, Sachin Tendulkar will be missed by his team mates and the spectators alike. On leaving out Yuvraj , I would go with Kiran More’s stance that he should have been part of the squad even if he was injured keeping the 2011 world cup in hindsight.

Combination: Dhoni’s captaincy is critical for India to do well in this tournament. He has been handling the troops long enough now to understand how to manage the strengths and weaknesses in the team. It is most important for Dhoni that he has both Viru and Gauti firing in the opening slot and everyone knows that it could be doomsday for the opposition if these two get going. The middle order then really comes in to play if they get India a good start. Although inexperienced at this particular format, but Virat , Raina and Rohit Sharma have proven their class act already and this is the ideal stage for them to feature in the absence of Tendulkar and Yuvraj. The bowling department really needs Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh in good form and the rest to support them but I feel Ishant Sharma and Irfan Pathan would both be missed.

Prospects: Indian prospects are heavily dependent on their batting and this in turn depends on the conditions and the form of their openers. The first match would set the tone of the tournament for India and it is a good opportunity for India to get their act together against Bangladesh which is the relatively weaker side.

My Playing Eleven: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra.

My first recollections of Lalit Kumar Modi were in the days when ICL began to emerge as a cricket league and BCCI directly felt threatened from it. To counter ICL, BCCI came up with the idea of IPL. I was always unaware why Modi was originally made the commissioner but generally it appeared as if it was his idea. Unconfirmed sources do tell us that he originally came up with the idea of league cricket in India way before the ICL came into being. Once the ICL threat settled in, BCCI started to look at ways to counter it and Modi’s idea was picked up. Since it was his idea, he was made the commissioner.

When IPL started back in 2008, cricket was a game merely watched on the TV. There were these sites like cricinfo and cricbuzz but it wasn’t a trend with the masses. Generally one would switch to a website when in office or when a certain match was missed. Credit must go to Modi and his team here, the way he changed things. It started off in 2008, then bettered in 2009 and in 2010 the ipl website launched delivered the best cricketing experience on web ever with a real ‘awe factor’.

I am not sure if it was Modi or some of his team members, but since he was leading the show, I have no hesitation in giving him the credit for revolutionizing the way cricket is being watched on the web. In 2010, IPL stuck deals with Google and aired the experience over YouTube. At times even YouTube fell short of the bandwidth required to manage such a huge audience. It is unknown how much was earned but the idea of serving ads on YouTube for the free broadcast is something only Modi and his team could think of in all those years. I recall visiting the ICC site during the world cup of 2007 and I could hardly find the world cup schedule. It was hidden somewhere ‘aloof and miserable’ and had to be downloaded as a pdf document. Even ICL had a useful website in their first season but they simply neglected it in the second and couldn’t really match up with IPL’s antics on the web.

As a commissioner of the hugely popular tournament, Modi adapted to the growing trends in the world of technology. Even the fact that it was his twitter account that created this controversy that led to his suspension, is something a technology lover like me would easily settle for. For me, it has always been good to watch the way he has carried the IPL image on the internet using social media and the IPL website. Also in 2010, Modi and his team tried a whole lot of new ideas including showing the final live at Lords in 3D and showing the matches ‘ad-free’ in cinemas. Some of these might not have been that effective but nevertheless some fresh ideas were much needed to modernize the way the game of cricket is being viewed.

One thing that I must not miss out while mentioning Modi’s services in bringing the technology revolution to cricket is the mobile front. For all focus of administrators of various tournaments before him, was on the TV rights, he almost gave birth to mobile rights in cricket. IPL second season saw releases of mobile content, live mobile streaming, mobile wap site with community features as well as a mobile application branded for IPL. Then in the third season in 2010, IPL kept up with the mobile tradition and this time also catching in on the Iphone fever with an IPhone app.

Many would argue if I should attribute the above credits to Modi. But I do have a reason for it. I have personally been involved in sports administration for a while and have had a chance to meet different cricket organizers around the world. Being a technology person as well, I have always tried to tempt these guys into bringing technology into the game; however, the responses have never been satisfactory. It’s always about following the same old trend and being cautious while experimenting. Also their lack of understanding of technology is one huge factor, things don’t move along. Watching the IPL creates new properties on the web, wap and mobile, I have always had a feeling that this is very much due to the ‘Lalit Modi factor’. This is something we can get from a progressive individual like him and not from the ‘regular administrators’ who would use their PA to type emails and it would take a day to teach them how to ‘tweet’ from their mobile. Let’s hope that even if he doesn’t survive the current battle, the trends set by him are at least continued by the successor, if not bettered.

The indications of an evident rebuff were seen when Pakistan T20 captain Shahid Afridi went under the hammer to start the auction. Shahid Afridi is one the worlds most wanted players, but no franchise was ready to add him up.  Richard Madley banged his gavel and moved on for other names as no bids were coming for Afridi. Shahid Afridi later claimed that IPL had made fun of Pakistani cricketers. Afridi said, “I feel bad for Indian fans, which are going to miss me playing cricket in IPL this year.”

The silence inside the Trident Hotel spoke a million words of a full scale political war. It seems that IPL has made fun of Pakistan by treating them this way. Pakistanis are World T20 champions and the attitude franchise owners opted was disappointing.

Sohail Tanveer became the second victim. He was the leading wicket taker during the first edition of IPL in 2008. When his name was announced by the auctioneer, the silence continued from franchisers. Tanveer was disappointed with the auction because some franchises had shown interest in singing him in the weeks leading up the auction. Tanveer said that if franchisers don’t want us playing in IPL then they should be clear about it in the first place. He later added, “They mean to say none of our players are good enough to be in IPL”.

The decision taken by franchises is based on political grounds rather than cricketing sense. They should be ashamed as they have hurt image of cricket as sport. At first, Indians made the fuss about visa clearance and then the security issues were raised. The IPL commissioner Lalit Kumar Modi is trying to deflect attention away from this issue. He claims that each team was having their own strategy during the auction. The key factor involved in the auction was availability of the players. The franchise owners have also agreed with Modi that the decision to snub Pakistani players was based on availability for the entire IPL season.

The players like Afridi, Tanveer, Razzaq and Gul are still available during the IPL. They have no international or other domestic commitments; even then they were left unsold. Preity Zinta, owner of Kings XI Punjab, also claimed that availability of players was the only decision making factor during the auction. Any how, the current situation after the auction still portrays that some biasness was shown during the auction.

After enjoying two successful editions of IPL, Lalit Modi is going to face a tough situation this year as he has to face the obligations from PCB and Pakistani players. Whatever is claimed by Lalit Modi and franchise owners, one thing is for sure that IPL can no more claim to be the best cricket league in the world.

If players like Muhammad Kaif and Damien Martyn are purchased on basis of their T20 performance then how it could be possible to leave the entire team of World T20 Champions unsold? The Indians are still unable to answer this question.

The cricketing circles and fans in Pakistan still believe that the auction was completely biased and was based on political tensions between India and Pakistan. Pakistani players have high values and are the best in T20 cricket in the world.