It's not clear if the India-New Zealand One-Day International series offered a man of the series award. But there can be no doubt that the overwhelming favourite for the award was Virender Sehwag. Sehwag plundered almost 300 runs, at a staggering strike rate of 150, to be right at the top of the list of the most valuable players (MVP) of the series.
Yuvraj Singh was the most valuable player (MVP) in the recently-concluded Sri Lanka India ODI series, but Virender Sehwag continues to be India's most valuable ODI player so far in the 2008-09 season.
The MVPI is calculated based on the assumption that, in ODI cricket, batsmen offer the best value if they score a lot of runs with good strike rates, bowlers if they take a lot of wickets at good (low) economy rates, and fielders if they take the most catches or make the most run outs. The MVPI collapses the player's all-round performance into a single 'run equivalent'.
Virender Sehwag tops the list with a MVPI of 1133; this contribution is even more noteworthy because he has played in only 12 of the 18 ODI matches played so far this season.
After winning the International Cricket Council's ODI Player of the Year 2008 award, it is not such a big surprise that Mahendra Singh Dhoni is also India's most valuable ODI player so far in the 2008-09 season.
After nine one-dayers of the current 2008-09 season, the dashing opener is India's most valuable player (MVP) by a long mile.
Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi and India's opener Gautam Gambhir proved to be the two most valuable players in the recently-concluded tri-series in Bangladesh.
The IPL league games threw up many surprises. Very few expected Rajasthan Royals to be the best team (and now a finalist); nobody expected the Deccan Chargers to do so badly. We'll discuss each team's performance, and identify the five best and three most disappointing players. While doing so we shall italicize what appear to be key pointers.
PVI and MVPI after the IPL league matches.
It's interesting to look back at the IPL player auction in February 2008 and see if there are some lessons to learn from an event that shook the cricketing fraternity. These are random thoughts, and appearing in a random order, but influenced by our paisa vasool analysis.
It is curious that while 'low cost' medium and fast bowlers have performed almost as well as their 'auctioned' counterparts, 'low cost' batsmen have been unable to match the performance of their more successful seniors
After the first week of the DLF IPL, the Australians appeared to be dominating. From the second week onwards, especially after Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Brett Lee and Andrew Symonds left, the Indians seemed to be gaining ascendancy with fine performances from Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, the Pathan brothers and M S Dhoni.
The T20 is often described as a young man's game; if you cross 30 you are supposed to be too old Is this hypothesis true? Is younger indeed better?
Shane Watson currently tops the list, with Adam Gilchrist in second place. Michael Hussey and Matthew Hayden are still in the top 10 although they played just four matches.
A look at the most "expensive" players from each team and what sort of contribution they are offering in return.
The Paisa Vasool Index takes a look at the fast and medium fast bowlers who provide the best value for money in the IPL.
Virender Sehwag of Delhi Daredevils is currently the best performing captain. Shane Warne of Rajasthan Royals and V V S Laxman of Deccan Chargers offer the next best value for money, partly because they carry smaller price tags than the other captains.
If franchise owners like Mukesh Ambani, Vijay Mallya or Shahrukh Khan want real numbers to tell them which of their players have really been paisa vasool (good value for money) this index below provides the answers.
The Australia left-arm pacer topped the list because he took the largest number of wickets (21) at an economy rate of just 4.04.
As the long and arduous Commonwealth Bank Series nears its end, Nathan Bracken leads the list of the most valuable players (MVP). Bracken has taken the largest number of wickets, and at an excellent economy rate.