Indian Premier League and Cricket News by IPL Cricket Forum

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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The English Cricket Board has announced that England’s tour to West Indies next spring will have an early finish, leaving sufficient space for centrally contracted players to compete in the second Indian Premier League - reported the Guardian UK.

The tour finishes on April 4, just six days before the 2008 IPL is due to start. It makes for a stark contrast with England’s last tour to the region in 2004, which ran on through to May 5.

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Mumbai Partho Mitra

According to a report in a London newspaper, one of India’s wealthiest families, also franchisee owners of an IPL team, wants Kevin Pietersen to sign “at any price”. As such possibilities are strong that Pietersen will be seen in action in the next edition of the Indian Premier League.

Rumors are running high in Mumbai that the Mumbai Indians have offered him a contract in excess of a $4 million for three years and the England and Welsh Cricket Board has all but finalised his release. Other than Mumbai, Bangalore Royal Challengers are also keen to rope in the Englishmen.

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Speaking to the Independent, London, former England captain David Gower said though Twenty20 is here to stay, “six weeks’ razzle-dazzle is not enough to consign over a hundred years of Test cricket to the dump”.

“You must be off your rocker. Twenty20 is here to stay and will energise the game around the world, but players, however grateful for IPL and, in the future, EPL cash, still know that they will be judged by their record as Test players,” he said. As such he does not considers IPl as a threat to Test Cricket.

Asked whether the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) should allow England players a crack at the IPL next year, he replied, “The ECB might well make some concessions to their contracted players re the IPL, but a lot depends on how plans for an EPL develop. Until those are clear we need to hold fire.”

Gower also said England are clear favourites for the upcoming series against New Zealand, “having rediscovered the winning habit in the nick of time in New Zealand”. New Zealand, he added, “will be reliant on the usual few”.

“England should be thinking in terms of a clean sweep, but who knows what the weather gods have in store?”- he added.

The IPL organisers are reportedly in talks with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to arrange for the final at Lord’s this September, reported ‘The Daily Telegraph’.

The international version of the IPL will feature the top two teams from the IPL and the leading sides from England’s, Australia’s, South Africa’s and Pakistan’s own domestic Twenty20 competitions

Dubai is also one of the likely venues to organise the final but since the ground is not likely to be ready in time, the hosting rights could well go to the Lord’s. But ECB officials have chosen to keep mum for the time being.

“Not so fast, not so fast!” a senior ECB representative was quoted as saying. The grand idea, however, faces a few obstacles, the most important being the time.

The crammed international schedule is reportedly making it difficult for the ECB to work out the week’s slot that the IPl organiser are looking for in their summer season.

So even if England Players will not be able to participate in IPL - the general public may have a chance to witness the cricket extravaganza known as IPL.