Is Kohli the victim of excessive self-belief by trusting his own rhetoric?

One week ago, James Anderson’s delivery crashed into Mohammed Shami’s stumps and India had lost the last test match and, with it, the series against England. As was to be expected, analyses followed in an attempt to make sense of our loss. Mike Brearley, who is now justly acknowledged as a leading thinker on the game, wondered whether Virat Kohli had become too dominant a figure in Indian cricket. The corollary was clear – was this affecting India’s ability to function as a team? An excessively strong personality as a captain could suppress a counter view in the team.

This refusal to entertain any other point of view came across in the reactions of the captain and the coach, Ravi Shastri, of the Indian cricket team. Both of them insisted it was not as devastating a defeat as the final scores would suggest. One cannot help but think that it is that very attitude that was the root cause of our defeat. It really looked as if captain and coach were in denial. It is interesting to see how we arrived at this stage.

Download Business Standard IOS App for daily updates on News

IPL 2017 gets bigger with sponsors, key players missing in the 10th edition

Amid much fan-frenzy, and competition among sponsors and players, the Indian Premiere League turns 10 this season. And organisers are preparing for a big celebration for the landmark edition, which kicks off on Wednesday. Unlike past editions, the 10th season will host eight different opening ceremonies, one before the first home game of each franchise, IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla announced on Monday.

After Pepsi terminated its contract with IPL, Vivo Electronics bagged the title sponsorship for two years in 2015. Business Standard had earlier reported that Vivo will pay Rs 100 crore a year, against the Rs 80 crore Pepsi was paying annually.

Broadcaster Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) has signed up 11 sponsors, including Amazon, and it is targeting over Rs 1,200 crore in advertisement revenue from the 10th season.

E-commerce major Amazon, mobile handset maker Vivo and telecom giant Vodafone will be the presenting sponsors, while Ceat, wire-maker Polycab, Yamaha Motorcycles, Vimal Pan Masala, MakeMytrip, Parle Agro's Frooti, Voltas and YES Bank are associate sponsors.

However, the only regret for some fans of the cricket extravaganza this year is going to be the absence of some blockbuster names in the game. Thanks to international cricketing calendar getting busier with every passing year, the players are getting more prone to injuries. Even before the start of the touranment, injuries have already started bothering the franchises as well. Many star players could give this year's IPL a complete or partial miss.

The biggest among missing names in IPL 2017 is Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Virat Kohli, who is out due to his shoulder injury. Kohli, however, is likely to return on the field by the second week of April.

K L Rahul, Quinton de Kock, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mitchell Marsh, Murali Vijay will completely miss the tournament due to their respective injuries. While Umesh Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja are likely to regain fitness, they would be missing some of the initial matches. Lasith Malinga is on a national duty and might miss the first few matches, while J P Duminy pulled out of the tournamnet citing personal reasons. (READ MORE)