Cricket fans in North America will be able to watch IPL matches on Willow TV. Willow TV, Inc. has acquired the broadcasting rights to distribute on television, radio, broadband and Internet, for the Indian Premier League (IPL) in North America.
Live coverage of the 59-match inaugural season of IPL will start on April 18, 2008. IPL will have eight teams playing each other over 44 days. The League was created by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) with approval from the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Lalit Modi – Chairman & Commissioner, IPL, said, “BCCI-IPL would like to welcome Willow TV, as its broadcast licensee, and is pleased to be working with Willow TV on the broadcast of the DLF IPL in the Americas and is confident that this will be a successful working partnership. We are sure the cricket fans in America could look forward to an exciting line up of matches as International and Indian cricket Stars compete with each other to offer the best of cricketing action.”
Venu Nair, President, South Asia, World Sport Group, the Worldwide Media, said “The popularity of cricket in this part of the world is immense. With the introduction of IPL, international players who were one time opponents stand a chance to be playing in the same team, which makes IPL very exciting to its viewers. We are glad to partner with Willow as they have one of the best distribution networks and have a very large subscriber base in this region.”
“The Indian Premier League is the most exciting new development in world cricket and we are delighted to acquire these rights. Willow is pleased to bring this blockbuster event featuring the top stars in world cricket to viewers and listeners in the Americas.” said Vijay Srinivasan, CEO, Willow TV.
All England players fans will be disappointed to know that their favorite players from the England Cricket may not join the IPL League for now (atleast until the next two seasons)!
England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chairman Giles Clarke ruled out on Monday the possibility of any centrally contracted player taking part in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for at least the next two seasons.
“I don’t see it, no,” Clarke told reporters at the official launch of the English domestic season at Lord’s. “I can’t see (coach) Peter Moores determining he wishes to release them for it.”
The IPL Twenty20 competition opening on April 18 has been approved by domestic boards, including the ECB, and attracted an array of the world’s leading players.
However, only one English player, Hampshire all-rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas who does not have a central contract with the ECB, will play in this year’s inaugural series.
England are scheduled to tour West Indies next year before hosting an Ashes series against Australia.
“We are about to play Australia,” he said. “Just what would you gentlemen want if Peter Moores released an England player to play in the IPL and he then got injured and he couldn’t play all summer?”
Last week England’s leading batsman Kevin Pietersen told The Times newspaper it was ridiculous that centrally contracted England players were the only international cricketers who could not take part in the IPL.
“You want your best players playing both for their country and for the IPL. You don’t want them choosing between the two. It’s silly to think that you’re losing up to a million (dollars) over six weeks,” Pietersen said.
INCENTIVE PAYMENTS?
In response, Clarke said employers and players were expected to honour their contracts.
“Australia will be a significant challenge and we need to have the best possible people,” he said. “It is not as if Kevin Pietersen does not receive not insignificant rewards for being the player he is and the amount he gets paid.
“If they turn up exhausted after flying around India and playing a whole lot of IPL games they are not necessarily going to be in a position to help their fellow players.”
Mascarenhas, who hit five sixes in an over off India bowler Yuvraj Singh in a one-day international at the Oval last year, was a late recruit to the IPL after an invitation from former Hampshire colleague Shane Warne to join the Jaipur franchise.
“All the other countries have players who are still playing for their countries so I can’t see why I can’t. I’m not missing any one-day internationals for England,” he told reporters on Monday.
“It’s a great opportunity to play against the world’s best cricketers so I don’t see why other players won’t join in the future.”
The England players do deserve to earn as good as their counter-parts, don’t they? and not to forget about the competitive feeling!
Shah Rukh Khan, proud owner of the Indian Premier League (IPL) team ‘Kolkata Knight Riders’, is in a dilemma.
Will he perform on the field at the IPL event, or will he be best placed with his antics in a studio for his new television show - Paanchavi Pass ? The dates of both shows clash.
Advertisers who have been kept out of the IPL arena are gearing up and cornering time slots on Paanchavi Pass . IPL’s 44-day cricket bonanza flags off on April 18 with 59 T20 matches.
Paanchavi Pass is SRK’s new quiz show on Star Plus , which begins on the same date. It is to be telecast 8 pm onwards over the weekend. While Star Plus has signed on Airtel as the presenting sponsor for PP, Airtel’s competitor Vodafone is on board as presenting sponsor for IPL, to be telecast on Sony. This has initiated a battle of sponsorship between the broadcasters as SRK endorses Airtel too.
Despite the lukewarm response to SRK’s Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), Khan and Star are gearing up for PP. The show is an adaptation of an international television game show, Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader ?
Incidentally, Bulldog Media and entertainment has licensed the format from the owner, Mark Burnett Productions. Synergy Adlabs is to produce the show in India.
The prize money on PP is Rs 5 crore, while that of IPL is several times more. Media agencies buying air time slots told TOI that PP will be set in a classroom-like ambience with five and 10-year-old kids as part of the audience.
If a contestant is stuck, he can refer to the audience who will act as his classmates. Cut to IPL. In this case, cricket on field will follow only after entertainment antics of fellow Bollywood personalities, and sizzling ‘item numbers’, both on and off the field.
Prospective missing stars who would miss some part of the Indian Premier League competition.
Bangalore Royal Challengers
Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher, and Dale Steyn: Till April 25
Ross Taylor: May 1 onwards
Shivnarine Chanderpaul, if he chooses to play the Australia Tests: from around mid-May
Chennai Super Kings
Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey and Jacob Oram: May 1 onwards
Albie Morkel and Makhaya Ntini: till April 25
Delhi Daredevils
AB de Villiers: till April 25
Daniel Vettori: May 1 onwards
Deccan Chargers
Andrew Symonds: May 1 onwards
Herschelle Gibbs: till April 25
Mumbai Indians
Shaun Pollock, Loots Bosman, and Ashwell Prince: till April 25
Rajasthan Royals
Graeme Smith and Morne Morkel: till April 25
Kolkata Knight Riders
Ricky Ponting and Brendon McCullum: May 1 onwards
Chris Gayle, if he chooses to play the Australia Tests: from around mid-May
Kings XI Punjab
Brett Lee and Kyle Mills: May 1 onwards
Ramnaresh Sarwan, if he chooses to play the Australia Tests: from around mid-May
Punjab all-rounder Manpreet Gony Friday to replace a injured Sudeep Tyagi for The Chennai Super Kings the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) starting April 18. Chief selector of the Super Kings team V.B. Chandrasekar said: “Gony was very much in the loop. Now that Tyagi is injured, we have decided to sign up Gony as a replacement as allowed by the IPL Board.”
Chandrasekar added that Gony was highly recommended by Bhupinder Singh, one of the national selectors and has performed well in the Deodhar and Ranji Trophy matches.
“Gony is six feet, four inches tall. He bowls with reasonable pace and can hit the ball hard. He is the right kind of player for our team and has done fairly well in the Deodhar and Ranji games,” Chandrasekar added.
Gony has played five first-class games and has taken 13 wickets with an economy rate of 3.51. He has scored 122 runs in seven innings for an average of 20.33.
The Super Kings, owned by India Cements, will be led by India’s one-day captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Kepler Wessels is the coach and has physical trainer Gregory King and physio Tommy Simsek as his support staff.
The IPL, to be contested among eight teams, will start April 18 and will feature 59 matches over 44 days, including two semi-finals and the final at Mumbai June 1. All matches will be played under floodlights.
The Chennai team boasts of seven foreign players in Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey (both Australia), Stephen Fleming and Jacob Oram (both New Zealand), Makhaya Ntini and Albie Morkel (both South Africa) and Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka).
Chennai Super Kings with Dhoni in the lead is going strong everyday and is a strong contender for IPL.
