Indian Premier League and Cricket News by IPL Cricket Forum

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Hooglee - Knight Riders

DD (D2) of Delhi Daredevils

Moochu Singh - Rajasthan Royals

More to come in the following days!

After
receiving two consecutive jolts, Pakistani pacer Shoaib Akhtar got his
share of much needed support from none other than IPL’s Kolkata Knight
Riders owner Shahrukh Khan. The Bollywood superstar made it clear that
he wants to find a way out so that Shoaib can play in the Indian
Premier League.

Shahrukh Khan clearly said, “I will talk to the
Board about this move taken by them. I want to know the reason behind
such a decision and I will try to see what best I can do.” SRK also
added, “Shoaib is banned from international cricket and IPL is not
international. So, I don’t know why he cannot play in the league.
Shoaib is very important for the team and I will talk to the
officials.” The Shoaib Akhtar saga seems to be never-ending. But words
from King Khan — the owner of Kolkata Knight Riders of which Shoaib is
a part of, can just reignite the hope for the bad boy and can set the
ball in motion for clearing the way for Shoaib’s participation in the
IPL.

Shahrukh Khan’s assertion came a few hours after
IPL’s Commissioner Lalit Modi made it clear that Shoaib can’t play for
the Knight Riders, expanding the net of Pakistan Cricket Board’s 5-year
ban on the speedster. Lalit Modi said, “Unless and until Shoaib gets
himself cleared from the 5-year ban, he can’t play in IPL. We can’t
allow a banned player to play in IPL. If one of our players would have
been banned similarly we wouldn’t have liked him to play anywhere else.
Ban on disciplinary grounds is a serious matter, till the time he is
cleared, we will give the ‘Kolkata Knight Riders’ an option to replace
Shoaib with another player.”

However,
Shahrukh’s words must have come as solace to Shoaib, who has been
making a case for himself. Shoaib had earlier said that he wants to
know where he has faultered for which he has been banned from playing
international cricket. He added, “I have done nothing wrong. If the
Board has banned me on disciplinary grounds, then the Board should
inform what wrong have I done.”

At the centre of the controversy are the accreditation terms and
conditions for photographers. The IPL states categorically that no
“Accredited Party” would be allowed to make available match images for
on-line publication and mobile phone users.

The relevant clause states that the IPL reserves the right to use
all images captured during the matches by any party; and all parties
must make available the images to IPL within 24 hours of the match by
uploading them on the IPL website at their own cost, else their
accreditation would be immediately withdrawn.

As such, the terms and conditions effectively prohibit agencies from
covering the matches since websites form more than a major portion of
their client base.

(PCB) chairman Nasim Ashraf Thursday issued a notice to fast bowler
Shoaib Akhtar, demanding that he withdraw various charges levelled him,
apologise unconditionally and pay Rs.100 million ($1.6 million) in
damages. In his legal notice, Ashraf accused Akhtar of claiming in a
media interview that Ashraf had pressurised him and other unnamed
Pakistani players to give the PCB chief a part of the payments they
would get from the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20
tournament starting April 18.

The PCB banned Shoaib Akhtar Tuesday from all cricket for five years for breach of discipline.

With this legal notice, Akhtar’s appearance in the IPL looks highly
unlikely, unless he tenders an unconditional apology, as Ashraf has
sought. Akhtar was bought by Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan’s IPL Kolkata team for $425,000 at the players’ auction.

Ashraf has taken exception to Akhtar’s interview to Pakistan’s Express News Channel telecast Wednesday.

Akhtar was banned by a PCB disciplinary committee, but gave Akhtar an opportunity to appeal against the ruling.

“He can’t play for Pakistan or anywhere in Pakistan, but he can play
in the Indian Premier League, to which we he have no jurisdiction,”
Ashraf told reporters Tuesday.

Akhtar had appeared before a disciplinary committee in February
after being charged with publicly criticising the board over his
retainership. He was already on two years’ probation for hitting
teammate Mohammad Asif with a bat before the start of the World T20 Championship in South Africa in September last year.

Two weeks before its launch, the Indian Premier League has raised a
potential controversy by placing unprecedented demands on media
organisations planning to cover the tournament, including a regulation
that prevents photographs appearing on news websites. IPL officials say
there is room for negotiation, while one respected international news
agency, Agence France-Press (AFP), says the present terms don’t allow
it to cover the tournament.

The accreditation forms were posted online
overnight with a deadline of April 8, leaving companies five days to
sign on to cover the tournament under these terms or be refused entry.

The conditions include the IPL’s right to use
all pictures taken at its grounds for free and without restrictions;
the commitment by news organisations to upload on the IPL site, within
24 hours, all images taken at the ground; and the restriction of web
portals’ access to images without prior permission from the IPL.

“The terms and conditions are too strict and
raise questions about press freedom,” Barry Parker, AFP’s South Asia
bureau chief, told Cricinfo. “The present terms and conditions don’t
allow us to cover the event.”

Several hours after the accreditation forms
were posted online, the IPL indicated it was open to negotiations. “We
don’t feel the rules are stringent in any way, as we are only
protecting our rights,” said IS Bindra, a member of the IPL’s governing
council. “We are treating the issue of photographs just as we would in
the case of TV production. However, we are ready to discuss the issue
with all parties involved to reach an amicable solution,” he said. “The
production is ours. We are not being rigid here and saying that only
what we say is right. Of course, we will ensure that things don’t lead
to a situation where media outlets decide to boycott the event.”

Asked why websites would be denied access to
the pictures, Bindra said: “We have not allowed online usage only
because we have sold the portal rights of the event to a respected
company based in North America for US$50 million. We can’t disclose the
company’s name at the moment as they are in the process of getting
listed.”

Andrew Moger, a spokesman for the News Media
Coalition, which includes some of the world’s major news and photograph
agencies, said the decision would have an enormous impact on media
groups with websites and news agencies supplying pictures around the
world. “As feared, the media accreditation terms for the Indian Premier
League represent some of the most restrictive and burdensome access
arrangements ever seen by the news media worldwide.”

Moger worked for the news agencies, including
Reuters, AFP and AP, and the photo distributor Getty Images, when they
had similar concerns over image rights in the accreditation guidelines
set by Cricket Australia for the 2007-08 summer. There were fears media
groups would have to pay for access and the body wanted to maintain
rights over photographs taken in the stadiums. However, limits over the
number of reports sent from the ground remained in place.

The demands resulted in News Limited
journalists being locked out for day one of the first Test against Sri
Lanka, while the agency boycott ended a week later when Muttiah
Muralitharan was in danger of breaking Shane Warne’s then world record.