Sardar Harbhajan 'Ewing'

I know what you are thinking. When did Bhajji changed his name? Desperate attempt to purge his sins (and Singh!) or just a disguise to fool the authority and play in IPL? Nope... Nothing of that sort actually. The fact is after the 'Slapgate' fiasco, Mumbai Indians suddenly found their lost feet, won back-to-back three (yes, three!!) matches, two of them against Shane's Royals and Veeru's Devils. They even made Shaun Pollock look like an inspiring captain! I know, I know, it's too early to tell but they are playing as a team for the first time in the tournament. Now, you'll tell it just 'smells like team spirit' and maybe you are correct. But I just couldn't resist to propose my great idea at this point. Well not mine actually, there are several blogs and experts thinking in the same line... Still I just love to see the 'I-told-you-first' smile in my mirror.

After so much useless build-up let's come to the point. We are talking about 'Ewing Theory' here. Now what on earth is that? Distant cousin of Swing Theory, being practised by Ashish Nehra? Again wrong. Ewing Theory is the a well known theory in sports-world (mainly in US) made famous by noted sports journalist Bill Simmons. According to Wikipedia,

Ewing Theory, the brainchild of reader Dave Cirilli and named after Patrick Ewing of the New York Knicks. Ewing's Knicks seemed to play better when he was hurt or in foul trouble. In 1998-99, the Knicks made the NBA Finals after Ewing sustained an Achilles' tendon injury.

Bill describes his theory here in detail, though the examples are from Major League and NBA and all those Yankee sports, so it become kinda boring people like me who thinks World Series is Border-Gavaskar Trophy. For your benefit the main criterion to qualify for the theory is given here:

1. A star athlete receives an inordinate amount of media attention and fan interest, and yet his teams never win anything substantial with him.
2. That same athlete leaves his team (either by injury, trade, retirement or ban in our case) -- and both the media and fans immediately write off the team for the following season.

So does it qualify our scenario as an example of Ewing Theory? Well for one thing, Bhajji was the biggest star in Mumbai's playing eleven and there was a view that after the controversy it's only downhill for them, as shown in Buchannon's comment. I think so far it fits the frame. Let's see where it goes. No doubt it's a very interesting theory. The funny thing is I am sure there are plenty of examples of Ewing Theory in cricket, but I can't remember any at this moment. Do post a comment if you can remember any...

All in all things have spiced up quite well. IPL is almost halfway through, still not possible to choose four semi-finalists convincingly. You can have your predictions just like everybody else. I will only say Picture abhi bhi baki hai mere dost... :)