Indian Premier League and Cricket News by IPL Cricket Forum

Former Australian star Adam Gilchrist has called for the inclusion of cricket’s Twenty20 format at the 2020 Olympics, saying it will help secure the global future of the game - reports AFP.
The wicketkeeper-batsman, who after retiring from international cricket  played in the Indian Premier League (IPL), said the International Cricket Council (ICC) must push for Twenty20 to become an Olympic sport.

“It doesn’t matter where the 2020 Olympic Games are held,” he wrote in a column for Indian daily the Deccan Chronicle on Monday.

“But many of us who’ve experienced international Twenty20 cricket and the IPL are convinced that cricket should bid to become an Olympic sport in time for the Games,” he wrote.

Gilchrist, 36, said re-introducing cricket as an Olympic sport would help the sport grow internationally and also boost the Olympic movement in the subcontinent.

“We have a responsibility to grow our game in new territories and amongst the women of the world.

“I believe the Olympic Games is the vehicle the sport should use to aggressively sell the message of our sport to all 202 competing Olympic nations.

“So that our sport is strong and robust in countries where it is currently played, and exciting and ground-breaking in countries who haven’t yet caught the ‘cricket-bug’,” he said.

Cricket was part of the Olympics just once, in 1900, but last year it was recognised as an Olympic sport — the first step towards full admission to the Games.

“With Twenty20 cricket here to stay, now is the time for the 10 full-member nations of the ICC to plan for the development of the sport over the next 100 years,” Gilchrist said.

Gilchrist said winning an Olympic medal would be the ultimate for any cricketer.

“Take it from someone who has won almost everything cricket has to offer — the Olympics is the absolute pinnacle in sport.

“Cricketers won’t care about the money. The chance to stand on top of the Olympic podium, to wear an Olympic gold medal and the pride of belting out your national anthem would be a life-changing money-can’t-buy experience,” he said.

Tags: 20Twenty, Adam Gilchrist, cricket, ICC, IPL, olympics

The founding members, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Cricket Australia (CA) and Cricket South Africa (CSA) after a meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday, officially announced the Champions Twenty20 League. The first edition to be held in India from September 29 to October 8, 2008 is likely to be played at Delhi, Jaipur and Mohali but IPL commissioner Lalit Modi has kept the options open as of now.

On Thursday David Collier, the chief executive of England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed Middlesex’s participation in the league, bringing to an end the speculations of a similar Champions League being organized synchronously by ECB in the UAE. Collier also expressed ECB’s interest in sending two teams from the next year.

Two teams each from the IPL, Australia’s Big Bash and South Africa’s Pro20 and one each from England and Pakistan’s Twenty20 tournament will take part in the first edition. In the coming years there are plans to make it a 12 team tournament with two teams each from India, Australia, South Africa and England and one each from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and West Indies.

Teams in 2008 and their star players

 

From India (Indian Premier League)

Winner - Rajasthan Royals

Shane Warne, Graeme Smith, Younis Khan, Shane Watson, Yusuf Pathan, Sohail Tanveer, Dmitri Mascarenhas

Runner-up - Chennai Super Kings

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Muttiah Muralidharan, Mathew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Stephen Fleming, Makhaya Ntini, Albie Morkel, Jacob Oram, Suresh Raina

 

From Australia (KFC Twenty20 Big Bash)

Winner - Victoria Bushrangers

Cameron White, David Hussey, Brad Hodge, Chris Rodgers, Dirk Nannes, Adam Crosthwaite

 

Runner-up - Western Australia Warriors

Adam Gilchrist, Justin Langer, Shaun Marsh, Luke Pomersbach, Luke Ronchi, Brad Hogg, Chris Rogers, Adam Voges, Sean Ervine

 

From South Africa (Standard Bank Pro20)

Winner - Nashua Titans

Martin van Jaarsveld, AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn, Andre Nel, Morne Morkel, Gulam Bodi, Paul Harris, Pierre Joubert

 

Runner-up - Nashua Dolphins

Ahmed Amla, Shaun Pollock, Hashim Amla, Dale Benkenstein, Johann Louw, Doug Watson, Kyle Smit

 

From Pakistan (ABN-AMRO Twenty-20 Cup)

Sialkot Stallions

Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Asif, Mansoor Amjad, Abdur Rehman

 

From England (Twenty20 Cup)

Winner – Middlesex

Ed Smith, Andrew Strauss, Shaun Udal, Ed Joyce, Owais Shah, Murali Kartik, Chris Silverwood, Billy Godleman

 

Dr. Mohit Goyal © IPL Cricket Forum

Tags: 20Twenty, ABN-Amro, champions, Cup, IPL, KFC, leahue, Middlesex, Nashua Titans, Sialkot Stallions, trophy, Victoria Bushrangers

Why cricket needs Twenty20…

Just the other day I was on the sofa watching Roger Fedex Federer play Rafael Rafa Nadal in the Wimbledon final. It was such an intriguing battle. Every point won had as much a sense of glory as was the feeling of agony in every point lost. When Nadal was handed the winner’s trophy, it spurred an endless array of flashes. I just lay on the sofa imagining a similar scene involving an Indian cricketer. But the truth is that cricket doesn’t have the global viewership, the extensive media coverage and hype that sports like Tennis, Soccer and a few others command. There were similar scenes when Spaniard Iker Cassilas lifted the Euro 2008 trophy a week back. I was watching the game and it was so absorbing that I couldn’t even get up for a minute and go grab a bottle of water from the refrigerator. The game had been such action packed that even at half time I had to wait for a commercial break in the half time show.

The reason for the high intensity in these sports seems to be the shorter duration of the course of play. A day’s play in one day and test cricket spans over seven to eight hours and its impossible for players to have the intensity of soccer and tennis for such a long duration. An ardent fan of cricket like me would still sit and enjoy watching Murali at his fiercest, bowling maidens and a stern Dravid sweating out to see him off and pounce on others. But this is not what will attract new fans and new loyalties. With time people will only find it more and more difficult to go to the venues for a whole day to watch a one day match or a day of test cricket. Television broadcasts might still have good viewership but definitely not for the whole duration of the game.

The best route of entry for new countries and new fans into cricket is probably the Twenty20 format. Once they start liking this format then automatically they will like the other forms like the fifty over and test cricket. Every cricketer understands that test cricket is the toughest test of a cricketer’s abilities but their need to be followers to acknowledge and praise their accomplishments.

Another interesting fact I came across in a television talk show was that in England, even the test matches have packed houses which was attributed to the higher percentage of middle aged and old aged population who had more leisure time. India on the other hand is a young country and as it moves the demography will change and at some point of time it would in the same phase as the developed countries are in now. Probably that phase will see people having more leisure time and a day out watching cricket would be what they would opt to do. But till then to attract the countries like China, Japan, USA etc to cricket and globalize the sport what cricket needs is probably Twenty20.

Editorial : Dr Mohit Goyal © IPL Cricket Forum
http://goyalmohit.blogspot.com

Tags: 20Twenty, cricket, format, Match, ODI, T20, Test

The efforts to organize Champions League, a knock out competition between the top two teams of the domestic T20 tournaments in various countries are well on the way. In all likeliness the tournament will be held in a 10 day window that exists in the ICC calendar between the final of the Champions trophy on September 28th and the start of the Bangalore test between India and Australia on October 9th. Most of the things are in place with Board presidents co-ordinating with each other except for the Venue which can well be UAE or India.

Popular belief says that this tournament isn’t going to be much interesting because the Indian Premier League sides will prove too much for others but this tournament could well end the same way as IPL did for those who had written out Rajasthan Royals. If the tournament as it is likely is staged in England the local players in IPL sides will have their task cut out with the ball seaming and swinging.

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Tags: 20Twenty, Australia, Champions league, cricket, ECB, IPL, south africa, T20

The underdogs, Rajasthan Royals clinched the first IPL Final and emerged as the winner after a memorable run throughout the tournament under the most able Captainship of Shane Warne in an exciting finish on Sunday at Mumbai. After two dull and one-sided semifinals this was a great match with the luck swinging from one side to the other in equal measures.

The Indian Premier League dropped the curtain today after 44 days of cricket extravaganza. The Final started after some extra ordinary entertainment dished out by the organizers in the form of Indian Movie Stars, Music, Laser Shows and to end with para-gliders descending on the Stadium with individual team flags. And just before the finals began the entire crowd was held breathless by an awesome performance by Cirque du Soleil.

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Tags: 20Twenty, Chennai super kings, cricket, Dhoni, final, india, indian premier league, IPL, pathan, Rajasthan Royals, shane, warne, warney, Watson