Indian Premier League and Cricket News by IPL Cricket Forum

Specialist cricket websites have been cut out of an agreement to allow news organisations full access to the inaugural Indian Premier League, which starts tomorrow.

Unlike websites affiliated to traditional news groups, online outlets such as Cricinfo and Cricket 365 will not be able to cover the Twenty20 tournament’s matches from inside grounds.

Under the IPL’s finalised accreditation terms, these websites will also have to buy images from an officially sanctioned syndication service and not from local agencies as traditional news groups will be able to.

Sambit Bal, the editor of Cricinfo, said the restrictions were discriminatory and unjust. “We are being denied our basic rights to cover a cricket event in a professional manner,” he said.

International news body the News Media Coalition also attacked the IPL’s deal.

“It is an attack on freedom of choice and on press freedom to force controls on the media which mean news pictures of the tournament will not be seen on cricket fans’ favourite websites,” the News Media Coalition said.

“It is ironic and gravely worrying to the media and fans alike that websites which have provided general cricket news to a worldwide fanbase should no longer be able to provide full coverage. It is a sad day when a sporting body attacks its fans and media partners in this way.”

The IPL had to modify its original accreditation terms after an outcry from media groups.

It has conceded that news groups will be able to use a “reasonable” quantity of pictures on their websites at the time matches are played.

Previously the IPL had stipulated that a maximum of six pictures could be used for each game - and that these could not be uploaded to a newspaper’s website until its print edition had been published.

The IPL also changed another contentious clause in its initial guidelines by allowing agencies to supply images to online operations.

A number of British newspapers were among the organisations that protested to the IPL, challenging some of their accreditation conditions.

The IPL, which features some of the biggest stars of world cricket, starts tomorrow with the match between Bangalore Royal Challengers and Kolkata Knight Riders, two of the eight big city franchises.

Setanta has secured the British TV rights to live coverage of the 59 matches in this year’s tournament as part of a five-year deal.

Well, it surely is not appreciable from IPL, but Thank God for iplcricketforum.com

The Kolkata Police has demanded Rs 25 to 30 lakhs for providing additional security to the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches to be played at the Eden Gardens, though the amount, six times the standard fee, is negotiable.

Seven matches would be played at the Eden starting from April 20 and for every match 5,500 men in uniform and 1,500 men in plain clothes would be deployed, DC (headquarters) Vineet Goyal said on wednesday.

The policemen deployed will be in addition to regular personnel on duty. They will look after security at the playing arena, manage traffic around the venue, take care of VIPs and set up cordons around hotels where the players and the VIPs will put up.

Goyal said calculating the rate of payment at Rs 389 for a constable, Rs 457 for an ASI, Rs 671 for a SI and Rs 822 for an inspector for six-hour duty as also a food allowance of Rs 900 per day the total amount would be around Rs 25 to 30 lakh.

He explained that they were demanding six times the normal fee taking into consideration the commercial nature of the tournament as well as some entertainment events being lined up inside the venue.

Cricket Association of Bengal authorities said the amount asked by the police has to be paid by the organisers, Red Chillies Entertainment, only. A spokesman for the Red Chilies Entertainment said they have received the payment proposal by the Kolkata Police.

I feel the demand is rightly put and justified too!

Call it the Craze of Craze’s – T20, now DLF Indian Premier League (IPL) and the forthcoming contest with a near build up of a war between teams and licensed merchandise on IPL teams emerging as a tool. Rajesh Metal Industries has entered into a licensing rights agreement with `Kings XI Punjab’ to produce select merchandise and market them through their own network of malls, supermarkets, book stores, cafes, music shops, multi brand outlets, gift and novelty stores under the HotMuggs Brand.

The initial range of merchandise would include Lassi Glass; Mugs; Badges; and Special Autographed Merchandise and Collectors’ Merchandise. HotMuggs is present in nearly 45 cities through leading malls, multiplexes and bookstores where the merchandise shall also be available.

Mr. Rishi Jain, Managing Director – Rajesh Metal Industries, said, “We want to leverage our experience in the field of Licensing ; Merchandising and are quite upbeat about the popularity of the DLF Indian Premier League in general and the `Kings XI Punjab’ in particular. Our range of drinkware and allied products is positioned as youthful, energetic and funky and targeted this at everybody who loves the game, and its icons.”

Hot Muggs plans to promote the merchandise through a multi-channel promotion campaign with emphasis on Below the Line activities and Contact programmes with the end customer. The company has been involved in merchandising with companies like Yash Raj Films for movie “Fanaa” and Balki’s “Cheeni Kum” starring Amitabh Bachchan.

Neil Maxwell, CEO, Kings XI Punjab said, “Kings XI Punjab is a people’s team. We are looking forward to expanding our team through the sale of our merchandise amongst fans and supporters. We will have various options on sale soon locally and over our website – www.kingsxipunjab.com

Kings XI Punjab is part of the eight competing teams promoted by The Indian Premier League. It is held and promoted by a consortium which includes leading actor, Preity Zinta & Industrialists Ness Wadia (Wadia Group); Karan Paul (Apeejay Surrendra Group);and Mohit Burman (Dabur Industries).

Kings XI Punjab will be led by Yuvraj Singh, who is also the icon player & captain. At the helm is Coach Tom Moody. The team is a heady mix of leading national and international players like Brett Lee, Irfan Pathan Sree Santh, Piyush Chawla, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardane, Romesh Powar, James Hopes, V R V Singh, Kyle Mills, Luke Pomersvack, Uday Kaul, Yash Gandhi, Tanmay Srivastava, Karan Goel, Ajitesh Agral, Simon Katich, Sunny Sohal, Pankaj Dharmani, Sahil Kukreja, and Wilken Mota.

A few merchandise items: http://www.iplcricketforum.com/community/ipl-ac1.html

IPL ad involving Bangalore Royal Challengers faces PIL from an old man in Faridabad. A public interest litigation was filed on Wednesday which wanted the Supreme Court to to decide whether IPL is promoting liquor in the name of cricket?

The main grievance of the petitioner — a seventy year old man from Faridabad — was that the telecast of IPL matches involving the “Royal Challengers Bangalore Team” would invariably lead to telecast of the logo of the team promoted by liquor giant UB group headed by Vijay Mallya, which is a form of Surrogate Advertisement.

His lawyer argued before a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice R V Raveendran that telecast of liquor advertisements had been strictly banned under the Indian Cable Network Act, 1995, but this would be breached by the telecast of the UB group when they promote their IPL Teams Logo.

The Court stated that it was not convinced by the public interest involved in the matter and sensing that rivals could be behind the PIL, the Bench questioned the petitioner whether he was in favor of any brand. Rejecting the plea for an early hearing on the matter, the Bench directed that the PIL would be taken up in the regular course, which means not before April 21 when the court reassembles after a short break.Meanwhile IPL will be underway from 18th April - Friday.

Australian veteran Darren Lehmann will stage a shock comeback in the Indian Premier League after answering a call from former teammate Shane Warne, a report said Wednesday.

Lehmann, 38, will fill in for South African skipper Graeme Smith in Jaipur-based IPL franchise the Rajastan Royals’ opening matches, the Adelaide Advertiser said on its website.

The batsman, who retired from first-class cricket last November, said he was surprised to receive a call from Warne asking him play until Smith is available.

“It’s all happened so quickly,” he said. “They needed someone as cover for Graeme Smith so I didn’t hesitate to put my hand up. It will be good playing in the same side as Warnie.” - AFP reported today.

We belive Lehmann definitely has some fire power left to lend true support to Shane Warne in the IPl League.