"Being an avid cricket fan since my childhood, I have been more exposed to spending five days watching a particular match, but now everything gets over within three hours," Advani quipped at a function in New Delhi.

He had a word of praise for youngsters Yusuf Pathan and Swapnil Ashnodkar who he said were finds of the IPL.

Equating Karnataka politics to Twenty-20 cricket, he said in Karnataka, the BJP allowed the JD-S to bat first, but they refused to hand over the bat once their 20 overs nee months were up.

In a further dig at the Congress for not declaring a chief ministerial candidate, he said in the recent Karnataka elections, a third party refused to name their captain.

On the country's model for economic progress, Advani said the BJP was neither for the Soviet model of controlled industrialisation nor the Western model.

"Why can't India have an independent model like the East Asian countries," he asked.