Indian Premier League and Cricket News by IPL Cricket Forum

Five South African players who are currently in India for the Future Cup will stay over for IPL -The Cobras confirmed yesterday.

The Cobras have allowed them to skip domestic Standard Bank Pro20 tournament. Jacques Kallis, Graeme Smith, Herschelle Gibbs, Mark Boucher and Ashwell Prince will thus remain in India after the third Test in Kanpur, which starts on April 11.

Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman, indicated that the Titans might also follow suit and allow three of their IPL players who are in India - AB de Villiers, Albie Morkel and Dale Steyn - to miss the domestic tournament. He also said that talks were on with the franchises of the three other South African players who are involved in the IPL - Eagles (Loots Bosman), Dolphins (Shaun Pollock) and Warriors (Makhaya Ntini) - to grant exemption to these players.

The Pro20 Series, South Africa’s domestic 20-over tournament, involves seven teams, including Zimbabwe, and concludes on April 25. With the IPL starting on April 18, this means the Cobras’ players will not miss the first week of the tournament. The IPL franchise which benefits the most from this decision is the Bangalore Royal Challengers, who have Kallis, Steyn and Boucher in their ranks. Gibbs is with the Deccan Chargers, while Smith has been signed up by the Rajasthan Royals.

IPL is sure going to be a hto-hot affair with so many star players fighting in one single tournament.

With hardly ten days remaining before IPL, Sony is looking at options to maximize its ad revenues. There are new deals in the offing to generate more ad revenue for the official broadcaster - reports Moneycontrol

Sony - official broadcaster of IPL - Indian Premier League is designing new deals to recover costs on this expensive property, which it acquired for a billion dollars along with World Sport Group. CNBC-TV18 learnt from sources that Sony has blocked around 500 seconds of ad inventory underwritten to media agency Dentsu for approximately Rs 50 crore. This deal is reminiscent of a similar one Dentsu had struck with the broadcaster for the 2007 World Cup and Champions Trophy for Rs 500 crore. When contacted, both Dentsu chairman Sandeep Goyal and Rohit Gupta of Sony denied any such developement to Moneycontrol.

The final list of sponors for the IPL has two presenting sponsors in Vodafone and Hyundai while Max New York Life, Videocon, Godrej and Coca-Cola are associate sponsors. Initially, Sony had wanted to get on board six associate sponors. With around 2,000 seconds of ad inventory per match, the tournament is expected to rake in around Rs 250 crore. Sony says it has already sold out its inventory, but media planners say they are still in talks to get some of their clients onto the IPL.

Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, said yesterday that England’s players would be expected to rest ahead of next year’s Ashes series against Australia rather than supplement their income by playing in the IPL during a potential break from their international schedule - reports The Telegraph UK.

But Sean Morris, the chief executive of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, accused the ECB of behaving like King Canute in refusing to allow the England players to cash in on the Twenty20 revolution in India.

“It’s human nature that they want to play in the IPL,” Morris said. “You can’t fight the market. The cricket market has had a significant amount of money going into it and we should be looking to capitalise and develop it, not be King Canute.”

So far only one English player, Hampshire all-rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas, has signed for the IPL. As Mascarenhas, a one-day international, is not a centrally-contracted player he did not need ECB approval to play in the tournament, which begins on April 18.

Mascarenhas’ county colleague Kevin Pietersen has also expressed an interest in playing in the IPL but cannot do so without the permission of the ECB, who employ him through a central contract.

he IPL organisers have suggested that they might be prepared to reschedule future tournaments to enable England players to participate.

There is a window after England’s tour of the West Indies next March, but that appeared to be slammed shut by Clarke at the ECB’s domestic season launch at Lord’s yesterday.

“We would like to give our players a break before the Ashes series,” Clarke said. “We don’t want them turning up exhausted. The spectators of this country want to know that our players are as fit and as sharp and ready for the Australia series as we can ensure that they are.”

But Clarke’s hard-line approach was criticised by the players’ union.

“What you don’t want at this time is friction between the England players and their employers,” Morris said.

“I can’t see how that is sensible tactics at a time when, if the players get frustrated or unhappy then, for the first time, they have an alternative involving a significant amount of money.” Morris hopes that further discussions with the ECB can prevent a full-blown conflict.

The ECB have other issues to contend with at a board meeting tomorrow, when they will consider changes to the domestic playing structure aimed at making county cricket more attractive in response to the creation of the IPL.

Allowing counties to employ three overseas players in the Twenty20 Cup from next season will be on the agenda, as will rescheduling county cricket’s money-spinning competition to avoid clashes with international matches so that England players can play in it.

The ECB board will also consider appeals from players, including Gloucestershire’s former New Zealand batsman Hamish Marshall and Kent’s former South Africa all-rounder Justin Kemp, whose registrations to play county cricket this season were blocked last month because of their participation in the ‘rebel’ Indian Cricket League - add The Telegraph.

Yes the English Players may sure miss this lucrative tournament but we dont feel that their absence can really make much difference to the IPL with Stars from South Africa, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India playing the League.

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.