Indian Premier League and Cricket News by IPL Cricket Forum

Too much of playing and not resting enough leads to exhaustion! The cricketers are facing this situation currently. One series after another, hectic schedules, etc are leading to their energy being drained.

Former Indian team physio John Gloster feels players are being pushed dangerously close to mental and physical exhaustion by a grueling international schedule, which requires an urgent trimming to prevent breakdowns.

Gloster, who is here as the physio of Rajasthan Royals team in the Indian Premier League (IPL), said cricket has become very demanding and it was necessary to draw a line on the number of games.

“They are playing close to 11 months now. It is taxing physically and mentally too. There may be some who can cope well but they are being pushed too hard and might be close to their limits,” Gloster said on the sidelines of the Royals’ practice session.

Gloster said the administrators need to analyse the current schedule, which was causing fatigue.

“The scheduling part lies with the administrators. The mental fatigue is also very alarming and players need recovery time,” he said.

To top it all, Gloster said Asian players were not as physically fit as their counterparts in Africa and Australia but felt they more than made up for it with their hard work and determination.

“The Asians may not have the physical strength of the Australians or Europeans but they make it up with their skill and hard work,” he observed.

Looking back at his tenure as Team Indian physio, Gloster said he shared a good equation with the entire squad.

“In the subcontinent cricketers are big stars but I had very good relations with all players,” he said.

“It was a wonderful experience. Working with players like Sachin (Tendulkar) was wonderful. My wife is also an Indian,” he added.

Chennai Superkings has got another sponsor in the form of Aircel, one of the leading telecom companies in south.
Telecom services provider Aircel on Monday announced that the company would sponsor the Chennai Super Kings in the forthcoming Indian Premier League cricket tournament.

As the team sponsor for Chennai Super Kings, Aircel gets branding rights on the players uniform including their shirts and hats during the DLF IPL Championship, opportunities for in-stadia branding, sponsoring man-of-the-match trophies for matches happening in Chennai and several other brand activation opportunities.

The Chennai Super Kings’ team will be led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni and coached by former South African captain, Kepler Wessels.

Aircel COO, Gurdeep Singh said, “Aircel, is the leading cellular service provider in Chennai and Tamil Nadu, and hence an association with Chennai Super Kings, led by Dhoni was a natural fit.”

The Pakistan Cricket Board has been forced to postpone its national Twenty20 championship due to the Indian Premier league (IPL) starting April 18.

An official of the board said no dates had been set for the domestic T20 event although the original plan was to hold it early in the year.

“All the main players will be going to the IPL after the Bangladesh series. And the sponsors don’t want an event without the leading names,” the official said.

The T20 competition is one of the most successful domestic tournaments in Pakistan and the last three editions have drawn big crowds with all the leading players also making it a point to play in the event.

The official said the tournament would now probably be held sometime in August and could be renamed as the Pakistan Premier League.

“August is the best time for us to hold the competition now because all the players would be available to us,” he added.

A dozen Pakistani players are signed up to play in the IPL.

After bagging a fat pay check, Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds wants to help Deccan Chargers of Hyderabad win the title in the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) starting Friday.

“I must thank the owners for bidding for me in such a big way. It came as a surprise. But now my ambition is to win the tournament. Money is definitely a factor. I think IPL is a new frontier in cricket,” he said.

On the possible clash between international assignments and IPL, Symonds said: “This is something that should never happen. I think the cricket boards and the ICC should see to it that there is a window for IPL.”

He also said that since Twenty20 is a very fast format, there would be no place for sledging.

Australian pace bowler Brett Lee playing for Kings XI Punjab team, rubbished suggestions that the Indian Premier League (IPL) will lure players away from national duty, saying both can co-exist without being detrimental to each other.

“I don’t think we should compare or match IPL with Australian cricket team as both have their own place,” said Lee, who would be playing for Kings XI Punjab, one of the eight IPL teams competing in the Twenty20 tournament beginning next week.

On being quizzed about a recent survey conducted by Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) which says nearly half of the Aussie cricketers were willing to give up their central contracts to play in the cash-awash IPL, Lee said, “I don’t think there is any reason why we can’t do both (play for Australia and IPL simultaneously).”

“My heart is for Australian team and wearing Baggy Green cap is a great honour,” he added.

The express bowler said he would give his ‘best’ while playing for his IPL team ‘as I do when I play for Australia’.

Apart from Lee, Kings XI Punjab will have Yuvraj Singh as ‘icon player’ leading the side and will also feature Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth, Piyush Chawla, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardane, Romesh Powar, James Hopes, VRV Singh, Uday Kaul among other players.

Lee also felt players from different countries playing in one side ‘will also help strengthen bonds between the nations’.

There is really no sense in making such non-issues into issues when league matches in various sports co-exist with national tournaments in most countires.