Indian Premier League and Cricket News by IPL Cricket Forum

IPL recently announced that the salary cap for players will be axed and that the game’s biggest stars could then expect staggering $14-15 million IPL contracts.

It would definitely create a free market, much like the soccer’s English Premier League, where franchises with unlimited buying power can spend much more on a player than the $1.65 million paid to M. S. Dhoni this year.

However, Ricky Ponting who played in IPL recently before going back to Australia insisted that the scrapping of the salary cap could ruin the tournament by allowing the mega-rich franchises to grab all the big boys.

“I have heard there may be no salary cap, but I’m not sure if that will be good for the IPL,” Ponting said to Herald Sun, Australia.

Read the rest of this entry »

Matthew Hayden is in India and he loves everything Indian - the people the food the culture and of course Cricket. Indian players dislike for Hayden is known, particularly Harbhajan Singh and Ishant Sharma was not happy with his comments. But Hayden feels that IPl will help bring all players together where they can share much and this will sure help to break the barriers. We cant agree more. Below is an excerpt from his just concluded interview with HT.

What you have been up to after arriving in Chennai?

Well, I am just getting a feel of the club. My joining the Chennai club is like something coming a full circle. As a youngster, I had been to MRF Chennai, where I learnt a lot and it really ignited my Test and ODI careers. So, it’s pretty satisfying going back to the place which has played such an important role in my career. Besides, I have a lot of friends there and am looking forward to spend some time there.

Will the IPL help foster better understanding between players and enable them appreciate each other’s culture?

Test and one-day cricket require teams to move quickly from one centre to another, leaving players with little time socialise. Going back 10-15 years and talking to players of that era, we realised that Test cricket helped players socialise, which, regretfully, isn’t the case now. The IPL, I feel, is a wonderful format where players can get together, enjoy each other’s success and know and appreciate each other’s culture. Normally, we respect the players we play against, but not necessarily understand them. In the IPL, I feel the players would be crossing over a cultural barrier and understand each other.

You would be playing under M.S. Dhoni’s captaincy? Your comments.

He has done a fantastic job as an ODI skipper. There is a lot of mystique around Dhoni; he is a huge character in the game and has a huge fan following in India as well as in Australia. I might have said just three words to him in the space of two years, but I am looking forward to knowing him in the IPL.

Any apprehension coming here after all those controversies?
I have always enjoyed being in India. It was here that my Test career took off in 2001, and ever since, I have enjoyed the sights and smell of India whose people have been fantastic. As for the controversial series, both countries played tough cricket, paving the way for great rivalry. A few things did spill over, which we were pretty disappointed about…but then one has to move on. We have pretty fantastic engagements ahead and we are looking forward to being here in September.

What kind of an equation do you have with Harbhajan Singh?

Look, we have had a great rivalry going ever since we faced each other for the first time way back in 2001. It’s always tough and competitive out there in the middle. He is trying to win the game for his side and that’s exactly what I am also trying to do. So, it’s always a game on.

Do you think older players would find it tough to match the younger ones in this particular format?

I don’t think that this is a game for youngsters. Rather it’s a young game. The best players in the world play in all formats and do well. Here too, the top players from across the world are playing and I am sure it would be a one hell of a contest.

You are quite a skilled cook. Can Superkings look forward to enjoy some meals cooked by you?

Sure, they can expect something, maybe a tandoor. I love my cooking and make tandoor back home. It’s my wife’s favourite dish.

We also wish hayden a very pleasant and memorable stay in India.

Geoffrey Boycott the legendary English Cricketer yesterday said that “Allen Stanford’s proposal to put up $20 million for a winner-takes-all Twenty20 match is a very magnanimous gesture. But if anyone thinks it is going to solve all the problems surrounding the best England players and the Indian Premier League, they’ve got their head stuck in the sand.” - reports the Telegraph UK.

His stance was frank and practical and he never minced his words while pronouncing his views on ECB’s stand and the utter confusion. About Stanford he said that What he is talking about is a one-off match, between England and a West Indian all-star side. For the players, the money is great if you win, not so great if you don’t. I wouldn’t want to be in the losing dressing room after the match: those guys will be as sick as pigs.

It is a brilliant publicity stunt, if you can afford it - and it looks as if Stanford can. But the real question is, will he keep investing such gigantic sums of money if he’s not making a return? I know there is talk of a repeat fixture in England in 2010 but for now that’s all it is: talk.

There is a big distinction between Stanford’s grand gesture and the IPL, who have already sold the broadcasting rights to Sony for the next 10 years. Players such as Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar have signed three-year deals worth a little over £500,000 each year: £1.5 million, guaranteed. And if you take to someone like Kevin Pietersen, who is just 28, he could probably swing a six-year contract. He would be looking at a fantastic regular income, even by the standards of a Premier League footballer.

He also said that he was not surprised that the players and the England and Wales Cricket Board find themselves at odds over this issue. We are talking about a total reinvention of the way the sport is run. And the storm has blown up so quickly that everyone has been caught off guard.

Apart from the Indians, Australians and Englishmen, the rest of the world’s cricketers earn very ordinary money. Which is how we have ended up with New Zealand’s best players missing the first few weeks of their tour of England. The salaries being offered, even for half a season of IPL, represent riches almost beyond their comprehension.

Most of the top England players are miffed that they haven’t had a slice of the cake - and that won’t change no matter what happens in the West Indies. I don’t believe they will insist on playing the whole IPL tournament, but they would like at least two or three weeks.

He also hinted that it’s going to be a problem when the central contracts are offered in October. Agents and players won’t want to commit, because it will mean that they have to get the board’s permission to play in the IPL. They will point at the dates: England’s tour of the West Indies is due to end on April 3, while next year’s IPL is from April 10-May 29.

England’s only commitment over that period is a two-Test series at home against one of the world’s worst teams. Zimbabwe are on the calendar at the moment, but seeing as they have withdrawn from Test cricket for an indefinite period, it is more likely to be Bangladesh. Can you see the likes of Pietersen or Andrew Flintoff happily giving up half-a-million quid in order to beat the hell out of the Bangladeshis? And thats indeed a good question.

The ECB have been saying that there is no way the England players can appear in the IPL, either this year or the next. But I believe they will have to compromise. There is no point playing hardball just for the sake of it: all you will end up with is a lot of resentful players, just when you need them in the right frame of mind to win the Ashes.

The ECB should scrap the two-Test series now. I know it’s in the broadcasting contracts, but games against minnows never bring in the viewers. The players should be offered reduced contracts, to take account of the time they will have off in April.

The board would have to pay compensation to the TV and radio rights-holders, which might cause an outcry from the counties. But it’s in the game’s best interests.

Next, the players should be given leave to appear for three weeks in the IPL, as long as they return to England afterwards for a rest. Then they should play three County Championship games to get themselves fit and focused for the first Ashes Test, which starts on July 8. It’s a similar solution to the one Australia came up with this year. They scrapped their tour of Pakistan on safety and security grounds, and gave the players a fortnight’s window to appear in the IPL before reporting back for training camps ahead of their visit to the Caribbean. I’m not talking about a long-term answer, just a quick fix while we weigh up what it all means and where it’s all going.

And if the players don’t like the idea of missing half the IPL, the ECB have one big ace in the pack. They can come back and say: “You don’t have to have a central contract at all. And we don’t have to pick you.” Once these lads stop getting international exposure, all their endorsement deals are worthless, no matter how many Indians are watching them in the IPL.

Boycott appealed to all concerned for common sense and compromise: that is what this affair is calling for. It’s time to gather everyone around a table - ECB, players, broadcasters and sponsors - and come up with a workable solution before the situation gets out of hand.

India has no option but to defer Zimbabwe Tour due to the already crammed cricket schedule.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has deferred proposed one-day series in Zimbabwe scheduled in June because of crammed international itinerary, including the much-famed Indian premier League (IPL), which begins on April 18 and will run for the next 44 days.

“We have decided to put off Zimbabwe tour. The hectic calendar makes it quite impossible and we have conveyed the decision to the Zimbabwe Cricket Union,” BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah added.

The series that includes three ODI’s is part of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Future Tours programme. India currently playing a three-match Test series against South Africa at home and has a further packed itinerary until next year.

The Indian team tour after the IPL will hardly get a week off before thier Bangladesh tour for a one-day tri-series also involving Pakistan from June 8-14. After which, India will play in the Asia Cup in Pakistan from June 24-July 6 and then tour Sri Lanka.

As such the BCCI decided to defer the Zimbabwe tour which will now happen sometime later after IPL

Young South African speedster Dale Steyn on Thursday added insult
to injury for the Indian team claiming the home team’s batsmen panicked
after losing a couple of early wickets and lacked a proper game plan.

“The Indians were scared after losing a couple of
wickets. This is what happens when you don’t come with a clear game
plan,” the 24-year-old fast bowler said after the first day’s play at
the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium here.

Steyn (five for 23), Makhaya Ntini (three for 18)
and Morne Morkel (two for 20) sent India scampering for cover with
their pace and dismissed the hosts in only 20 overs in the first
session of the second Test.

The young pacer, who first got rid off Virender
Sehwag in his opening spell and also scalped Rahul Dravid with a
beauty, said the key was bowling short of a length and then pitching
the ball up to the Indians.

“The short balls followed up by fuller length ones got the wickets. Nobody could come on to the front foot,” he said.

After the pasting at the hands of Sehwag in Chennai, Steyn said the visitors knew what they had to do against the Delhi dasher.

“We had a game plan for Sehwag. The wicket of
Dravid was special,” Steyn, who later added three tail-enders to
complete his five-wicket haul, said.

After 319 in the first Test, Sehwag made only six today before chopping an intended forcing shot on to his stumps.

Dravid played inside the ball and was comprehensively bowled.

Steyn said he did not expect to see the grass cover on the wicket when he reached the venue.

“I was surprised to see the grass on the pitch,” he said.

The paceman also wondered why India opted to bat
first after winning the toss if, as per some reports, they did not get
the pitch they wanted.

“If they did not get the pitch they wanted, why did they bat first?” he queried.