DLF IPL Trophy - crowning glory or towering mistake?
May 22nd 2009 09:26
The IPL is the jewel in the crown of the BCCI, is it not? And why not? It has successfully propagated and adapted an idea (even if it was not completely original) and taken cricket to the masses. Cricket followers have had their fill of cricket during the IPL and the game has taken on a new dimension with various people wondering as to how Test cricket can be made as interesting as these T20 games.
And rare are the days when you are not treated to the sight of the DLF IPL Trophy itself - a trophy depicting the map of India in gold, inset with a plethora of diamonds and rubies and such precious stones. On the left side of the trophy there is a batsman depicted in the act of playing a cricket shot with his bat arc also being traced gracefully.
All these days the trophy did strike me as being singularly inelegant notwithstanding the lavish use of the precious stones. But only recently did I note something else which makes me wonder at the magnitude of the mistake.
No, it is not that the map of India is missing the state of Gujarat or that it is too gaudy to be symbolic of India. Such aspects have been addressed earlier (links provided) - Really Long Link But, no, that is not what this article is about.
Take a closer look at the batsman depicted if you will. The batsman is in the act of apparently executing a back foot square or cover drive. That the batsman is also right handed is something which we infer from the image. Now, there are two aspects which should interest the keen cricket observer. Why is the bat face turned inward in the follow through? Batsmen may try executing a shot and see how they end up holding the bat in the follow through.
Now, holding the bat - that is the key in this picture. Note how the right hand (the bottom hand) is holding the bat near the handle and the left hand is holding the bat on the other side. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a totally wrong depiction of a right handed batsman playing a shot through the offside.
A link to an image showing the trophy is provided below.
Really Long Link
[This article does not indict or otherwise malign the IPL or the creators of the trophy. It simply ventures to point out what appears to be a major cricketing flaw in the construction of such a prestigious trophy. ]
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Comment by Balachandhran S
Tricolour Prism
Thank you Kuldip. Appreciate the heads up. I hope you enjoyed reading this piece.