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Chapter 1: What are the current issues in the IPL 2026 season?
Okay, now six teams can finish first. Eight teams can make the finals. This is absolutely mental. You're watching The Great Cricketer. You're watching The Asian Century. Come and see the Naughty Naughty Boys. Big cricket competition in India. Will that say that? Come on, Rhinestone. You heard it from the horse's mouth. I can be ready to run, mate. I would give him a ring job right now.
And he goes. From the Great Cricketer. Welcome back to another week of the Asian Century right here in the Great Cricketer. Hey, hit that subscribe button if you haven't already. You know what? Give it a smash. If you're enjoying the IPL 2026 this year, Pezza, topsy-turvy, everyone's winning, everyone's losing. I can't figure out who's good.
I can sort of figure out who's bad and who's naughty and somewhere in between all that. But we're having a good time, and we're sort of in the mid-season territory right now, trying to shuffling for position if this was a horse race, and in many ways it is.
And yet you can just see the finish line as well, can't you? Two teams eliminated, LSG, MI, see you next year. I'm sure they'll throw the cat amongst the pigeons in some of the games to go, mouthwatering prospects. Cat pigeons. Cat pigeon stuff. 16 games to go, eight teams still in contention, as you said. I mean, look at RCB, for example. You know, a bee's dick here, a bee's dick there.
They're fourth and not first. It's absolute cinema, the IPL. How the hell does CSK win off first place with a game in hand? That is mathematical, like, weirdness, tomfoolery. I don't even know what to say. BVK hits his first six in ten years.
Yeah.
He goes, CSK chased more than 180 for the first time in eight years. I don't know if anyone's said this yet, but he's batting getting easier. Corbin Bosch bowled a maiden in the middle of all of this. Bournemouth got a wicket. Just the one this week. See, it's weird. It's weird this year. It's weird. And against that backdrop, I think it's wonderful to hear they're expanding the IPL.
More games, more months, more absolute cinema. Wow.
Jay Shah, supremacy, baby. I want to start by, I think we should talk about RCBMI, one of the great games so far this week. Kroonopundia finishes 73 of 46 before BBK hits that six to make it go from nine of three to three of two. They actually scramble a second run off the last ball to end up winning the game. But Kroonopundia, a great story.
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Chapter 2: How is MS Dhoni's influence felt in the current cricket scene?
Virat Kohli's got a second ball duck. He's got a first ball duck recently. And he was asked to speak to the team after the game. And he said, thanks, Andy. It's Andy Flower for giving me a chance to do something in this game today. So if he's not scoring runs, he's still speaking to the team. And he's still looking fantastic. So we appreciate that.
That's funny. That's not bad from VK. Not bad from VK. Yeah, I don't mind that. Look, earnest comment alert, if that's okay. Oh, no. Here we go. I don't know. I don't know about this, but... I read via our friends at Crickbuzz that Colonel Pandya, Pandya, sorry, visibly emotional. He choked up. I mean, he's reunited, reacquainted with his MI teammates. That was two teams ago.
But he was reacquainting with... Kyron Pollard and his brother, Hardik. And, um, and they called it exactly. And they call themselves the engine room of MI back in the day. Um, he said, criminal, I still remember in 2021 when we were playing our last game, you know, the three of us, we held each other's hands and we felt like, okay, this is the last time we'll be able to play together.
Uh, and he was kind of, yeah, it was, he was like choking up as he was saying it now, like,
I just want to call that out, that like for a competition that, you know, and a format that's regularly derided as one that is the preserve of mercenaries, you know, cricketers who care little about their team, you know, the locale, they regularly find themselves injured after attracting base price in an auction, for example. That's coincidental. Yeah.
It's very important, and I do mean this, to call out that there's lots of places, lots of people who actually care about the game, care about their teammates. They forge connections. And, you know, there's no punchline or misdirection here. Like, you know, yes, auction mechanics and, you know, retention limits discourage continuity and connection. And Krunel has since played for LSG and now RCB.
But still, the point stands. They were close once. Tim David used to be close to MI. Indeed. And, you know, like the opposite of love isn't hate. It's apathy. Apathy. Hate is very close to love. And we saw this with Tim David.
He was – Pacific Tripathi who plays for someone else.
Thank you for clarifying. He was fined 30% for what they're calling an obscene gesture, Tim David, from the dugout. Now, again, respecting copyright and IP, we went to chat GPT this time. He's the newest partner of CSK, by the way. Yes, yeah.
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Chapter 3: What controversies are surrounding players and their actions off the field?
Not that ChatGPT actually believes that when you ask it, but you have to prompt it three times. And he goes, you are right. Now, yes, so we don't want to use the match footage, but this was stick figure, Tim David, flipping the bird to MI, which is good. It's just good. That's feeling, that's emotion. And, of course, this always comes back to Virat Kohli.
People remember Kohli doing this and be like, why didn't Kohli get fined for this? And I obviously blurred that out for him because it was an absolutely obscene gesture. What's happened to his hand? Exactly. But they're wrong. Those people are wrong. Coley was fined, he goes. He was fined for that gesture and he was fined 50% back in 2012.
Now, that was over in England who can, you know, rape and pillage money from others. But we know that historically. It's 2012. Now, we can surmise then if Coley's 50% in 2012, Tim David is 30% now, the price of gestures is going down. That's why Elon Musk didn't get fined for his gesture ahead of the US election, which I put into ChatGPT.
I got something back and I thought, nope, let's not show that. Also, just in obscenities, Andy Flower, by the by, he was fine for an audible obscenity. So no love lost between RCB and MI, and I like it. There's nothing else to add there with Andy Flower, just like people are getting fine left, right, and center, and people care about it.
I think a lot of the stories so far this year have been boys being naughty. We've seen vaping. We've seen smoking. We've seen Vaibhav Suryavanshi having ice cream, a sugary treat before bed. Terrible idea. That's Nightmare City. Do you know what I'm saying? We're seeing Rajasthan managers using their phone. We're seeing people yelling, screaming in the face of children, fingers in the air.
I think we're kind of bored of the Sixers sometimes. But what we do like is off-field drama. Now, speaking of MI's troubles, which we sort of were, Suryakumar Yadav, out of form, out of luck so far this season, not to be confused with luck now. Thank you. And there's been some conjecture that he is going to be removed as captain of the T20 side for India.
He is currently the captain of MI because Hardik has been injured. And Shreyas to take over, who's not even in the side. Also, I've read that Sandry Sampson's a chance as well. So... I don't know what's going on, but given the legacy of who's won the T20 World Cup, there's been Rohit, there's been MS, and there's been Sky. You know, this is big for Indian cricket.
So the current and incumbent Indian T20 captain whose most recent performance was to lift the World Cup for India. Two months ago. Two months ago is at risk of losing his position as captain owing to substandard performances in half an IPL season. And not only that, he's going to give up that position to two guys that Gambier was never, ever going to select ever.
So you know you're in trouble when Shreyas and Sandu Samson are ahead of you in the pecking order. He has done something. Talk about naughty boys. I don't know what it is because if he's won the World Cup and that's his last performance and they're like, I don't know about you anymore. That usually elevates you to a certain… Generally that extends a line of credit, you know?
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of vaping and honey traps in cricket?
Sir Jamie Overton. Now, this is one of the great things about franchise cricket because Jamie Overton is a fine cricketer. You know, perhaps he hasn't got the love in England. that he deserves, but comes and plays his cricket in Chennai, almost at the Chinnaswami then. Chepik. Chepik, yeah. And, you know, now they're saying build the man a statue, such is his performance in T20 cricket there.
They're loving him. When you mention CSK and the people that the fans love, I didn't have Jamie Overton in the top 10 there, but it's good to see. It's good to see. I thought you meant to talk about Ervil Patel.
Well, Ervil Patel, who Ravi was calling Muscle Patel, which I've enjoyed during this innings, 65 off 23. You're thinking, well, that's pretty good. Yep. 65 off 23, pretty good. He was 42 off nine. Let's have a look at his first eight balls that he faced. Yep. One, six, six, six, six, six, four, six. Yes. That's definitely not in 4K. I've screenshot that with a potato. Yep.
He finishes with a 13-ball 50. That's the equal fastest with, I think, Jaiswal has that record? Yeah, Jaiswal. 13 balls. Our Australian colleague and friend, Josh English. Josh English. He hit a 17 ball 50, which obviously costs LSG the game. He batted for too long. Anyway, Errol Patel, he pulled out a note after scoring 100, which was a nice message to his father.
And it said, this is for you, Papa. That's right.
That was on Mother's Day, by the way.
Yeah, I know. We're seeing this more and more, aren't we? We're seeing guys pulling things out from the pocket and celebrating milestones. We sure are. And we thank our friends at Crick Tracker, who we've never spoken to or met before, but for this graphic. So it's Abhishek Sharma did it last year. Raghu Sharma did it this year. Erva Patel did it.
Now, obviously, Cameron Bancroft did that as well. Now, if he'd just written a note on that piece of paper, then maybe we wouldn't be here right now. It was a note. It was a note.
It was a note. We finally figured out what the excuse was. There was no text.
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Chapter 5: How does the performance of players affect team dynamics?
Great stuff. I mean, anyone that has ever played cricket at any level knows that it's all for Dad.
It's all for dad.
Yep. But of course, what's the connection to the father, you know, the, the dad.
That's what I was going to ask you because it's like, you've got, you've got 42 off nine lighting it up like a B back in the day. Oh gee stuff. You know, a 13 ball 50 equal fastest. He does it, um, with a couple of injuries went on sold in 2025. Yes. Um, Sandra didn't make runs. They're chasing over 180, which they never do. So everything's coming together. He gets the note out.
He does it for dad. But there's still something missing. If you play for CSK, you do something good. Where is the genuflection and the real honouring? An explanation.
And the explanation how this happened. So let's have a look at the quote here. He said when I spoke to... When I got out early in a couple of matches, we were sitting together in the dressing room and I asked him, I'm getting out early. What should I do to convert the good start? He said just one thing. I don't have any doubt in your skill. Whatever doubt is there, it is in your mind.
So just stay clear and try to hit the right ball at the right place. Hit the right ball at the right place. That is. That's how you do it. Isn't that amazing? It's been a huge week for MS Dhoni because this headline caught my eye, Pezza. MS Dhoni tops taxpayer list and he sees 20,000 crore tax collection. So let's have a look at the body of the article here. Thank you, TB.
Former Indy captain MS Dhoni has added another remarkable achievement to his legacy off the cricket field after emerging as the highest individual taxpayer ever. for Jack and Bahir combined during the 2025-26 financial year. It's been an incredible year. He hasn't played any games, but, you know, he's paying tax. People like that.
I'm serious. That's actually one of the more, like, admirable achievements, to be honest. I mean, most of the billionaires on our planet tend to – get their tax to zero and play and pay less than people who actually, you know, um, could use a little bit of a hand. So at least he's, what's, what's, what's MS doing is, is the point. Yeah. Move that money around.
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Chapter 6: What are the recent performances of key players like Virat Kohli?
But it's especially incredible because this innings, as far as I understand, I've done the maths on this. It took place in CSK's seventh game against LSG. Yeah. Right? And this was Ervil's. How many games do you think Ervil's played in the IPL? It wouldn't be six. It wouldn't be eight. Say it. Seven. And he reached his record 50 in which over? It'll be the seventh over. How many sixes did he hit?
Seven. And in that power play, he took CSK to one for 90. Seven.
Tell it for a reason.
Seven. Now, it's been a huge week for legends giving advice. People would have seen RCB, LSG. LSG on a six-match losing streak before this game. Coley gets dismissed by an absolute beauty by Prince Yadav. Yes. What a name, by the way. One of the greats. One of the greats. So this is the headline from Princeyadov. Princeyadov uses Coley's own advice to dismiss him in key LSG win.
So you're thinking, okay, we've seen what Dhoni said to get Ervil Patel in the right mindset, Muscle Patel in the right mindset. Right ball, right place. Right. So what's Virat Coley said? I was talking to Virat after the last game and he told me to stick to my lengths.
He actually misheard that. I think Virat said stay in your lane.
Now in this game, Mitch Marsh, the bison himself, he had 111 off 56. Let's go to Instagram. Let's say LSG celebrated the Indians.
Did he die? That looks like the picture of someone who's left the earth looking down at us. You look after the hood, I look after the skies. I saw that with Ben Robert Smith and Desi Freeman. Now that's going to make sense. Don't look that up.
Don't look that up.
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Chapter 7: How do social media and influencers impact cricket culture?
It is 8 p.m. Australia time on the East Coast or 3.30 p.m. IST if that's where you're watching us from.
The bespoke live experience, you know, like the only other time you can get that live experience is if you see us in theatres, more on that, you know, later. But whereas this show, for example, is this is heavily scripted, this show, and rehearsed. I mean, we've gone through three dress rehearsals and this is the final product.
I'm wearing a wig. Anyway, this show is brought to you by NordVPN. If you're missing out on your favorite show because it's not available in your region or if you're trying to keep your private time private, well, let me introduce you to NordVPN. You can grab your exclusive NordVPN deal by going to nordvpn.com forward slash TGC.
to get a huge discount off your NordVPN plan plus four additional months on top. It's completely risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee. There is also a link in the... It's actually a pinned comment, I think it is, on this video. If you just want to hit the link and you don't want to type in those words, hit the link, make it easy for yourself.
You can keep your security and info encrypted. Nord gives you threat protection for your malware and your pop-up ads. It's risk-free. There's a 30-day money-back guarantee. NordVPN.com forward slash TGC. I want to talk about Punjab. who were flying up until they weren't. They've now lost four games in a row.
They are still fourth and only one point off top, but I guess equally probably one point off 11th, given that there's only 10 teams in the tournament. That's quite an achievement. But it's not all bad news because once again, a huge week for the Aussies really so far this week, but Cooper Connolly scored his first IPL 100. We'll go to Punjab's Instagram this time. We see him with his awards.
after a wonderful innings. Wonderful stuff from Punjab. They also posted this on their account, celebrating him being the youngest overseas Centurion in the IPL, beating Quinton the Cock and David Warner. That's good company. By a full, well, I suppose about, yeah, almost a full year.
Yeah, let's call that a year. Let's call it a year. It's not at all, but let's do that.
Now, they also showed him as a robot, which is apt. Because everyone is sponsored by AI now. So that's all looking pretty good. He's a cyborg. What the fuck is this? Cooper Connolly's a cyborg. He's basically Terminator. But he's looking good. Anyway, now in that game, that was Sunrisers, Sunrisers Punjab. And the main story, you know, for us was Cooper Connolly.
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Chapter 8: What is the future of the IPL and its expansion plans?
Just to be clear. I'm glad they kept that going to a fifth one. Yeah, that's right. Anyway, look, it has been quite tumultuous recently for Punjab, which I think is sort of how we like it. I mean, they have been consistent the last two years more or less, but before then. Which we felt uncomfortable about. It did a little bit. We like the chaos of Punjab, don't we?
And Uzi Chahal is doing his best. We saw this headline, and one former player thinks that he should be in jail. Uzi Chahal should be behind bars. Okay. Ex-spinner slams Punjab star after alleged vaping row. That's Laxman Sivar, the man himself, has demanded action after a viral clip allegedly showed Uzi Chahal vaping on Punjab's King's Flight.
The former spinner said that Chahal should be behind bars for his actions. Let's have a look at the video that's going around.
It's in the app, the bottom. There he is.
Aware of the camera and just had to hit. Bro, just got a hit. I love you, Z. I understand Siva's point because, you know, like it's illegal in India. You know, if whatever it was, you know, just a regular person just doing that, you know, he should be behind bars. Now, you know, we saw Ram Parag do this recently. I'd say maybe half the IPL probably doing this, but, you know, behind closed doors.
So, but Chahal doing it on a flight when there's a camera crew around. That's pretty brazen. That one's pretty brazen. Behind bars is a little strong for me, but, you know, my opinion doesn't matter.
We're going to come to this later. There's a bombshell story that's come out that I'd like to address. Not on TGC for once, but... I think IPL is playing 4D chess. I think a lot of complaints from leagues around the world, all sports, is the sterilization, the sanitization of these leagues. Everything is controlled. Everybody has, you know, the character is shorn from players.
Barriers are put up. Everything is shiny. All corporates are protected. There is no risk taken. Yuzi Chahal is like... Fuck that noise. I'm vaping on a flight. I don't care if I'm going to jail. And I just think it adds a little bit of like a little bit of life to the IPL. You know what I mean? Kyle Jamison yells at a child. All the things that you said before, influences on the bus.
You know, I don't care. I think IPL, Ford, HSBC, I knows what it's doing. And that's why it is the top value or second value league in the world. Stuff that everyone talks about and cares about. Now, you've just seen this six that Strayer's eye hit. Yeah. DC. Yeah, DC. First, DC get it done in that game. Mastermind Miller, 51 off 28, never gets it wrong. Never. No set of finish off a chase.
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