After the first couple of rounds of Indian Premier League got over, albeit a bit rain-drenched, the first orange and purple caps had gone to two cricketers who had been retired from international cricket for a while now: Matthew Hayden and Anil Kumble. Just in case you did not know, the highest scorer and highest wicket taker in IPL receive the orange and purple caps, respectively, and the duo were the frontrunners till Tuesday before they were taken over by Rahul Dravid and RP Singh, respectively.
Not bad, considering that T-20 is perceived as a young man's game. But then, some of the golden oldies have acquitted themselves quite well in the first week of the event in South Africa. While Hayden has now come up with scores of 65, 44 and 57, Rahul Dravid showed he was determined to make amends for last year's nightmare with one classy innings after another.
Sachin Tendulkar, who was there for a better part of the last IPL as an "inspirational figure" for Mumbai Indians, also showed he meant business by anchoring the innings on course of a crucial win against Chennai Super Kings on the opening day. And yes, there is Adam Gilchrist giving an extra edge to Deccan Chargers with his trademark batting and leadership, somebody who has gone on record saying that he still feels like a school kid as soon as a new season beckons.
Heading the list of old and the beautiful would, of course, be none other than Shane Warne himself. Last reported to be playing poker in some corner of the world (and we refuse to believe that he was just doing that), "Warnie" seems to have come back with an infectious energy for the game - if the diving catch he took at mid-off to get rid of Dravid the other day was anything to go by. Not to speak of his mesmerising spinning skills, which are very much intact.
All that brings us back to the question asked most often: how old is actually old for the T-20 game? Granted, the frenetic nature of this game suits the young and the adventurous more, but it takes one more than that to counter the challenges of sporting wickets and different conditions.
Hopefully, the IPL 2 in South Africa can just do that - show that there is always room for class in any form of the game.
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