IPL And Cricket Australia Resolve Sponsorship Row

Finally, finally the row that was threatening the participation of the elite Australian cricketers seems to have been resolved. Extensive talks between IPL and CA seems to have at last borne fruit. Two of the cricketers have alreay signed the contract and the rest of the players are being contacted to get them to sign the contracts before the Sunday deadline.

Now, the next issue is the Australian tour of Pakistan. If it goes ahead then current players like Ricky and Bret Lee won’t be able to play in the IPL but if the tour is cancelled or postponed due to security considerations then we can see them in action.

Pretty Zinta's Mohali Team Coach::TOM MOODY

IPL Mohali will be coached by none other than the former Sri Lankan coach Tom Moody. Moody took the Sri Lankans to last year’s World Cup finals and is currently the coach for the Westerna Australian cricket team.
Preity Zinta made the official announcement of his appointment yesterday. They also named Yuvaraj as the icon of the team Mohali. Asked about the poor form of the star batsman, Preity said we don’t mind it at all. We know he is great player and his being out of form for a few weeks is not going affect our long term decision making.

DADA will be captain of Kolkata....Tiger again....

IPL Kolkata team will have the former captain of the Indian team Saurav Ganguly as the most likely skipper. Ganguly the IPL icon has been invited by Shah Rukh to lead the team. This was decided in a telephonic discussion on Monday.

Saurav has been asked to select a team of his choice for the IPL Kolkata team. Ganguly has set his eyes on international players like Shahid Afridi, Adam Gilchrist, Jaques Kallis, Brett Lee, Mathew Hayden for the Indian Premier League Kolkata Team.

Gilchrist confident of go-ahead for IPL

Gilchrist will join a list of around 84 international cricketers, including 11 from Australia, who have signed a memorandum of understanding with the IPL.

Rahul Dravid IPL bangalore team captain:

Rahul Dravid the former Indian captain has been invited to head the IPL Bangalore team by the Vijay Mallaya’s United Breweries.Dravid has formally accepted to be the captain of the team that will the opening Twenty-20 match with Shah Rukh’s IPL Kolkata team.

The match will be played in the Chinnaswamy Stadium on April 18.

Dravid is an ICON and none but an ICON will head the IPL Bangalore team said a spokesperson for the group. Anil Kumble the current Indian Test Captain and Robin Uttappa are the other players expected to play for this team

IPL Schedule: First Match at Banglore

The first match of the much-awaited Indian Premier League (IPL) will be held in Banglaore in April, while the semi-finals and the final will be in Mumbai, a top IPL official announced in Mumbai on Friday.

"The final will be played June 1 and the semi finals May 30 and 31. These matches will be in Mumbai," IPL commissioner and chairman Lalit Modi told reporters after a meeting with the eight franchise owners and representatives of the match staging associations.

Modi said the IPL board has the option of staging these important matches either at the Brabourne Stadium of the Cricket Club of India (CCI) or the DY Patil stadium in Navi Mumbai. "I guess they will choose CCI," he said.

The opening match of the Indian cricket board-promoted tournament, based on Twenty20 matches, will be played between business tycoon Vijay Mallya's Bangalore and Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan's Kolkata side at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium April 18.

This was decided by the IPL governing council at a meeting in which the marketing strategy and guidelines were also thrashed out.

Modi said the International Cricket Council (ICC) umpires would officiate the matches.

"Seven or eight ICC Elite Panel umpires and 16 Indian umpires would officiate. The match referees are being appointed and we already have the anti-corruption and anti-doping measures in place," he said.

On Cricket Australia's (CA) demand that its sponsors should not clash with those of the IPL, Modi said that no national team sponsors would get protection in the IPL.

"No team sponsors will get protection from IPL," he said.

IPL will offer $3 million prize money while the Champion's Twenty20, to be contested by two teams from India Australia, England, South Africa and Pakistan, will offer $5 million.

IPL will feature eight franchises in the first season, with each team playing seven home and away games against each another. IPL hopes to grow the eight franchises to 16 by 2010.

The IPL governing council comprises seven members. Besides Modi, the other members are: former Indian cricket board president IS Bindra, board vice-president Chirayu Amin and Delhi District and District Cricket Association president Arun Jaitley besides former Indian captains Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shashtri.

Best Umpire -Simon Taufel on IPL

Simon Taufel, the ICC elite panel umpire who has been consistently voted the best umpire from among the panel may be lured to join the IPL.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s multi-million dollar Twenty20 venture will be pursuing this elite umpire as his contract with the International Cricket Council expires on March 31.

International cricket already judged poorly due to retirement of some good umpires and bad umpiring from the remaining may lose its best jewel to the all-consuming monster that the IPL is turning out to be

IPL for Women???

BCCI is reportedly considering a league similar to IPL for women’s cricket. Women cricketers have done India proud on numerous occasions. They have scored tons of run both at home and away, they have won many championships. But for all that nobody watches women’s cricket and nobody support India women’s cricket. Only in recent years has sponsorships and advertisements have come their way. Mandira Bedi of Shanti fame has taken up the cause of Women’s cricket in a big way. In some part due to her efforts and the women’s cricket authorities sponsorships came to Indian women’s cricket team. In a final recognition of the strides that women’s cricket made on world stage the BCCI took over the administration of Women’s cricket and made it part of bigger scheme things in India and abroad. Now, they are thinking about a Indian Premier League for women which should be good for women cricket overall.

IPL::Players And The Prices Quoted

The auction for the players will be held somewhere in the middle of the month. But he are some figures that are being quoted for the various players. These are base figures and rough estimates only. The final figures may be lot higher or lesser than the numbers quoted here.

Sachin Tendulkar - $400,000

Sourav Ganguly -$400,000

Rahul Dravid-$400,000

Yuvraj Singh-$400,000

Mahendra Singh Dhoni-$400,000

The first 4 players will be playing for their home teams and will not be auctioned. Instead they are assured a flat 15% more than the highest bid of the IPL player auction.

The IPL board has prepared a list of 31 Indian players and 53 foreign players for the tournament. Others are still joining or have expressed their willingness to be part of the event.

Foreign players have been signed up for varying amounts

Shane Warne was signed up for $400,000 - making him the most expensive player of the tournament apart from the 5 Indian players called the IPL icons.

Former Aussie fast bowler Glenn McGrath- $350,000

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming, - $350,000.

Apart from this other Indian players quotes doing the rounds are

Anil Kumble and Harbhajan - $250,000

Virender Sehwag, Sreesanth, Zaheer Khan, RP Singh, Robin Uthappa, Murali Kartik and Dinesh Karthik - $200,000

Irfan Pathan - $175,000

Rohit Sharma - $150,000

Mohd Kaif, Suresh Raina and Yousuf Pathan- $125,000

Joginder Sharma-$110,000

Munaf Patel and Ishant Sharma-$100,000

Players from other countries are being quoted at various prices in these bands

Latest players to join the IPL bandwagon include Salman Butt, Misbah and Sohail Khan. They are in the price range of $125,000 - $150,000.

IPL::Local Players Catchement Areas

The IPL governing council has released the list of catchment areas for the local players for the IPL franchisees to buy players from.

Mumbai: Mumbai, Maharashtra and Vidarbha Cricket Association
Bangalore: Karnataka, Goa and Services
Chennai: Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Railways
Kolkata: Bengal, Jharkhand, Tripura, Assam and Sikkim
Hyderabad: Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa
Delhi: Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh
Mohali: Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and J&K
Jaipur: Rajasthan, Gujarat, Baroda and Saurashtra

IPL Matches To Be Telecast Live On Channel 10 of Australia

Channel 10 of Australia has bought rights to all the matches of IPL for the next 5 years for $10-$15 millions and will be telecasting it on the free to air channel. This will be Ten’s first foray into cricket. Till now it was Channel 9 that had monopoly on all national and international cricket in Australia. Ten usually covered motorsports and Australian Rules Football.

“It is the biggest new cricket competition and the most revolutionary thing that’s happened in world cricket since Kerry Packer started the World Series in the mid-70s,” David White, the Ten Network’s general manager of sport, told the Australian. So, Channel 10 is obviously excited at the prospect of showing the matches live between 9.30 pm and 1.30 am Australian time. The participation of current Australian players is doubtful as their Pakistan tour coincides with the IPL tournament.

But the other greats like Glenn Mcgrath, Shane Warner and recently retired Adam Gilchrist are expected to play.

Channel 10 absence on the cricket field for almost 30 years means that it has absolutely no cricket commentators on its panel. It will have to build up a completely new commentator group or poach some from 9. It’s playing its cards close to the chest. So, let’s see how things go.

ICL vs IPL

ICl will be bigger than IPL :carins

Gurgaon : The BCCI-backed Indian Premeir League may have the best of current players on its roster but the Indian Cricket League recruit Chris Cairns feels the so-called rebel venture would be a bigger hit with the fans as it has more local youngsters.

“The IPL will have a lot of current players and all of them are huge stars. But ICL has an edge because we have a local flavour to our sides, which makes it easier for the fans to connect with us,” the former New Zealand all-rounder said.

“We have a nice mix of youth and experience in all our teams. On one hand we have recently-retired megastars like (Brian) Lara and Inzamam-ul Haq, who can pull in crowds on any given day. And on the other, there are youngsters from within India, who will get an opportunity to showcase their talent,” he added.

Cairns said another factor which makes ICL more appealing to fans is that it would be the first of the two Twenty20 leagues to take off.

“IPL hasn’t even started and it will be some time before it happens. But we are getting started right away and being the first has its advantages because if everything goes off well and spectators enjoy our product, it will raise the bar for IPL. So as I see it, ICL is certainly bigger at the moment,” he explained.

The 37-year-old felt it was unfair to call ICL a rebel league.

“More than anybody else, I think its the media which is trying to build it up as a rebel series. I don’t agree with this description. Take for instance my case, How can you call me a rebel? I am not contracted to my country’s board any more, so no one has the right to stop me from coming here and playing,” he said.

“As for the boards threatening to ban players, it’s unfortunate. Playing in ICL does not make you ineligible for selection. Why can’t we treat it as just another opportunity to go and play cricket?” he asked.

On his own reasons to sign up with ICL, Cairns, who would be playing for Chandigarh Lions, said, “Playing here would help me stay in touch with the game that I love and which gave me so much. It’s an interesting format and I found the whole package quite appealing.”

“And it would be interesting to find out how I do against the younger lot,” he quipped.

IPL: booked palyers

[All amounts in US$]

Shane Warne will be the Indian Premeir League’s most expensive signing, at a cost of US$400,000 for the first season, set to kick off in April 2008

Australia

Justin Langer 175,000

Sri Lanka

Farveez Maharoof: 150,000,

Sangakkara: 250,000,

Jaywardene: 250,000,

Muttiah Muralitharan: 250,000,

Sanath Jayasuriya: 250,000,

Nuwan Zoysa: 100,000,

Dilhara Fernando: 150,000,

Chaminda Vaas: 175,000,

Lasith Malinga: 200,000

Pakistan

Mohammad Asif 225,000,

Shahid Afridi: 225,000,

Shoaib Akhtar: 225,000,

Younus Khan: 225,000

West Indies

Shivnarine Chanderpaul 175,000

New Zealand

Daniel Vettori 225,000,

Jacob Oram 200,000,

Scott Styris 150,000,

Brendon McCullum 175,000

South Africa

Loots Bosman 150,000,

AB de Villiers 175,000,

Albie Morkel 200,000,

Graeme Smith 225,000,

Herschelle Gibbs 225,000,

Shaun Pollock 200,000,

Ashwell Prince 150,000,

Makhaya Ntini 175,000,

Mark Boucher 175,000,

Jacques Kallis 200,000.

IPL bids winners

Vijay Mallya - US $111.6 million, for the Bangalore team.

Shah Rukh Khan - US $75.09 million, for the Kolkata team.

GMR Holdings - US $84 million, for the Delhi team.

Mukesh Ambani - US $111.9 million, for the Mumbai team.

India Cements - US $91 million, for the Chennai team.

Deccan Chronicle - US $107.01 million, for the Hyderabad team.

Emerging Media - US $67 million, for the Jaipur team.

Preity Zinta - US $76, for the Mohali team.

IPL

Indian Premier League

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has launched the Indian Premier League (IPL) on the lines of football’s English Premier League and the National Basketball League (NBA) of the U.S., with star Indian players—Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble, with legendary Australian duo of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne and former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming pledging support, they have also among their ranks stalwarts to bank on.In an apparent reaction to Zee Group’s, Mr. Shubhas Chandra Indian Cricket League (ICL) that has generated much debate, the BCCI paraded Australia bowling great Glenn McGrath and former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming in the Capital to support the IPL. India’s captain Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble were also part of the glittering launch attended by the President of the International Cricket Council (ICC), Ray Mali, and chiefs of various cricket boards. Big prize money On the occasion, the BCCI and the ICC also unveiled a $5 million prize money Champions Twenty20 League. The added incentive of being part of the IPL will be the chance to play in the Champions Twenty20 League to be organised by the ICC. Just as in the UEFA Champions League, the winner and runner-up team of the IPL will qualify for the Champions League, to be played in October 2008. For a start, domestic Twenty20 leagues would be conducted by the cricket boards of Australia, South Africa and England, to have an eight-team Champions League. The IPL, India’s domestic Twenty20 league will debut in April 2008 with 59 matches spread over 44 days. The IPL will primarily be played under lights with play beginning at 5 p.m. Two matches will be scheduled each day. Masterstroke The BCCI’s masterstroke was surely the presence of McGrath and Fleming, the two cricketers who had been rumoured to be in talks with the ICL. Also supporting the IPL was Aussie spin wizard Shane Warne, who sent a video message to express his willingness to be part of the initiative. The IPL will initially start with eight teams and will offer $3 million in prize money, making it the richest tournament in domestic cricket. The IPL will be a franchise-model wherein corporates and sponsors will be allowed to buy and run teams. Player buy-outs will be an added feature, something that cricket is not accustomed to. Under the franchise model, a sponsor wanting to have its team will pay a stipulated fee to the BCCI to get ownership. The franchisee will also have to share revenues with the cricket board, details of which were still being worked out. The franchisee will, however, collect the gate money and the income from in-stadia advertisements, and at a later stage can list the team on the stock exchange and trade. The teams will comprise minimum 16 players, but the number of foreign players, titled designated players, is yet to be determined. There will, however, be no cap on the salary being offered to the designated players and the teams can make buy-outs of any player just like in the professional football. “The revenue generated from the IPL will be pooled back into developing better infrastructure and facilities for cricket fans at the venues,” said BCCI President, Sharad Pawar. Independent of BCCI The BCCI, at its Working Committee meeting, set up a governing council to run the IPL as a virtual company. The IPL governing council will have five-year term and will run, operate and manage the league independently of the BCCI. The council comprises former BCCI President I. S. Bindra, Vice-Presidents Rajiv Shukla, Chirayu Amin and Lalit Modi, Arun Jaitley, and former cricketers Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri. While the BCCI officials will be honorary members, Pataudi, Gavaskar and Shastri will be paid for their services. Elaborating on the composition of the teams, Mr. Modi said that each team would have a minimum of 16 players with the condition that at least four players are from the region. Also four under-21 players will have to be included in the teams “to give fair chance to the youth to show their calibre”. Dravid’s take Welcoming the launch of IPL, Dravid said that if football had done well on such a platform, cricket would surely succeed. “Cricket has been crying out for something like this and I am sure this is just the beginning,” the Indian skipper said. McGrath was also ecstatic saying “the concept of having franchise is potentially a mind-blowing idea.” At the end of the World Cup in the West Indies, McGrath said he never thought that he would be getting associated with such a venture when he announced his retirement. “To me potential is huge and I am for it,” said McGrath. Kiwi Fleming also echoed the same sentiments and hoped to work closely with the IPL.

ICL

Structure of ICL:

• 6 teams to start with expansion to 16 teams by the third year
• Teams to represent the entire geography of the nation
• Start with the Twenty20 format and progress to the 50 over format
• Each team would have a dedicated support staff consisting of trainers, physiotherapist, dietitian and a media manager

There will initially be six teams taking part in a league format that leads up to semi finals and finals. By the third year, the ICL promises to increase to 16 teams that comprehensively represent all of India. The matches will be held in both ODI as well as 20:20 format with all the teams playing home and away.

Each team will also have first and second division sides so as to maximize talent utilization. These teams will be regularly sent to international cricket playing nations so that psychologically they are well prepared to take on the world of cricket. The ICL will be run by an Executive Board which will comprise of the top names of Indian and international cricket, and have the final say in all matters of the league and be responsible for running it.

There will also be a Rules Committee and an umpires/match referees panel made up of internationally reputed names. Each ICL team will comprise a mixture of International and Indian budding cricketers. There will also be a mentor attached to each team who will function as the coach and main motivator for the individual team. This is most likely to be an ex-Indian cricketer from that particular region. There will also be physiotherapist, trainers and dieticians attached to each team to ensure fitness regimen.