The 'meteors' - 5 one-time wonders of IPL

In the movie “The House Bunny”, Anna Farris described beauty through make-up as a meteor, saying that “It flashes and burns bright, but then it disappears”.

I ask you, can we say the same of the IPL?

No, I am not criticizing the IPL. That has been done too often, indeed by yours truly multiple times in the past. Instead, I set out to look for the meteors that the IPL creates; the ones that shine so bright for the span of the tournament, only to vanish into obscurity for ten months till the next meteor shower begins.

Paul Valthaty had an extremely good season in 2011. He wasn’t the first person that the IPL made seem like the next big thing. After all, it does take something special to score 463 runs at an average of 36. However, this was never translated into anything big. He went from Mumbai to Himachal Pradesh in the domestic setup, and didn’t do much there. In fact, he hasn’t played a single domestic match since the last IPL. He was unable to continue his IPL heroics in the last year’s edition, scoring only 18 runs in five matches. Never in the fray for a national team spot, one is left to wonder, what long term benefits did the IPL bring him?

Manish Pandey entered the history books as a 19-year-old boy who scored the first ever century in T20 cricket by an Indian. It’s no mean feat. He played only five games that season and batted only four times but scored 168 runs at an astonishing average of 84. He played a big part in Bangalore’s rise in IPL 2 but was never considered for national team selection. The closest he came to the national team was the Under-19 World Cup winning squad but even there he didn’t do too much. Still in the Karnataka team, one is left wondering, was Pandey just another one-hit wonder from the IPL?

On the back of a strong performance in the first edition of the IPL, Manpreet Gony was perhaps the first flash in the pan the IPL produced. An apparent anomaly in the trend of one hit wonders as he was selected for the Indian team, everything became normal again when he was dropped from the national team after just two matches in the 2008 Asia Cup, where he took just two wickets in those two matches. In the IPL, he was unable to show the same form, and has not been able to convince any franchise to stick with him, playing for three teams in the span of five years. I personally do not see him making a comeback into the national side, even with our current pace bowling problems.

Sreenath Aravind was the highest wicket taker for RCB in IPL 4, taking 21 wickets in 13 matches. Obviously talented, he earned a call up for the home ODI series against England in 2011, though he did not play a match. Indeed, I had never heard of him until some research on internet revealed to me his existence. Since IPL 4, his fate seemed to have taken a turn for the worse as he did not play a single domestic match in 2012 and only managed one cap in IPL 5. The last match he played was in the Corporate Trophy earlier this year, where he didn’t take a single wicket in the 5 overs he bowled. Other than a few interviews, a paycheck and maybe a little hype, I can’t see what good the IPL did him.

Saurabh Tiwary was another member of the Under-19 World Cup winning squad in 2008, but was thrust into the limelight in IPL 3 when he scored 419 runs at a good strike rate of 135, which included three half centuries for the Mumbai Indians. He was rewarded with an ODI call up and played three matches but only scored 49 runs in his two innings. He moved to RCB in IPL 4, but scored only 187 runs in 16 matches with a strike rate below hundred. He showed that the IPL giveth and the IPL taketh away, like all of the gentlemen I have mentioned have shown.

There are more like them. The list goes on. One can argue that the IPL has brought success to some; Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Murali Vijay and many others have done well in the national side, but they were all selected on the back of good domestic performances. The only possible way I can see the IPL bringing players to the national fray is the famous ‘CSK conspiracy’, but that is a topic for another day.

With IPL 6 starting in a few hours, one is left to wonder whether the IPL will continue to produce more Baha Men (the creators of “Who Let the Dogs Out”), or will it – for the first time – produce someone who’s here to stay?

Let the meteor shower begin.