Begin of the Extravagenza!!

Its a week of new starts in the world of sports. And the population on this planet is ready to rejoice.

The first event that starts tomorrow is the IPL or the Indian Premier League, the shortest version of  cricket so far. I am not at all a huge fan of this form of the game. I prefer the longest version of the game, the test cricket. I feel that a five day game gives enough time for a team to prove their strength. Of course, I am not the one to buy a ticket and watch the game at the stadium for five whole days(who has that much time these days?), but I do follow the progress of the game through media, when two strong teams are playing each other. I feel the 20 over version is sort of a hit or miss affair, with the luckiest team ending up as champions. People get fascinated by this series due to the amount of entertainment provided in the shortest possible time. And hats off to the organisers, who have come up with such a brilliant idea for generating higher revenues to the players involved, and have managed to make this affair a grand success.

The second sport that starts this weekend, is the one which fascinated me much more. The Formula 1 Circus is back, and along with it has come back Micheal Schumacher the seven times world champion of this sport. Also I am happy for the new face from my country, Karan Chandhok, and an upgraded version of the car from my favourite team, Force India.

Nothing creates more buzz than the return of Schumi after two years out of the sport. This has offset the drop in enthusiasm about formula 1, due to many different rules introduced. One of them being the ban on midrace refuelling. This has taken away most of the excitement, that was generated due to strategic fuel loads in the car. Now there won’t be any strategies for pitstops. All cars will be loaded to maximum, and will go round and round till tires wear out, forcing a change, which normally happens almost around the same time for cars with similar tyre compound. Overtaking during pit stops will be minimal, and will lead to the pole position driver winning quite frequently. Where’s the excitement in that?

Karan Chandhok is signed up as a driver for the team HRT(Hispania Racing F1 Team). Its a good opportunity for the youngster, who has been aspiring this position since long back, and have put in lots of efforts towards this. Though we do not have any over expectations from him, since its the debut of him and his team, we do expect him to prove his worth and consistency.

And before I end, its good to see that Force India has begun its season with good performance at the test drive. They had put up a very notewrothy performance last year, being in points with a podium finish. I will put down my money on this team to be up amongst the middle order(or may be among the top, who knows!!).