IPL is here to stay, says Dravid

The Bangalore Royal Challengers may have cut a sorry figure in the inaugural Indian Premier League but captain Rahul Dravid has no doubt that the Twenty20 extravaganza is here to stay. After the side completed their campaign with yet another defeat, Dravid looked back at the tournament and said though organisers put up the show in a hurry, the event looked good enough to last. "Definitely this IPL tournament is here to stay. It was designed in such a short span of time and hopefully it will come with better colours next year," said Dravid. When asked about his team's performance, Dravid said, "It has given all of us lot of learning. We require some special skills to play in Twenty20 games and it's for the youngsters to know how important it's to hone these skills when they are back in this format next year." He felt crowds have been fantastic in this tournament. "Though unfortunately we could not play well here the crowds have been fantastic in these matches," said Dravid. In their last league assignment, Dravid's team went down to Sachin Tendulkar-led Mumbai Indians by nine wickets. In the rain-truncated tie, the Mumbai side restricted the hosts to 122 for nine in 18 overs before they went on to overwhelm the target with two overs to spare. Dilhara Fernando wrecked the top order with a four-wicket haul which also earned him the Man of the Match award. The strapping pacer later said varying the pace did the trick for him. "Change of pace is very important in Twenty20 matches," said Fernando, who grabbed 4 for 18 in his four overs. "It's important to vary pace in this format of the game as it helps to break the rhythm of the batsmen," said the curly-haired Sri Lankan. "I have learnt a lot from bowling in these matches and sharing the dressing room with the likes of Sachin (Tendulkar) Sanath (Jayasuriya) and (Shaun) Pollock have been very fruitful," he said. Coach Lalchand Rajput, who accompanied Fernando, was of the view that IPL had provided a fine platform for the youngsters to showcase their talent. "The youngsters I feel have been benefited a lot from this tournament sharing dressing rooms with senior cricketers and international players. The wealth of knowledge that has been shared in the dressing room is tremendous and in the years to come they will turn out to be better cricketers," said Rajput.