Indian Premier League and Cricket News by IPL Cricket Forum

Kings XI Punjab, the IPL Mohali team has added another of the aussies onto it’s bandwagon.

West Australian batsman Shaun Marsh has joined the growing band of Aussies jumping onboard the Indian Premier League bandwagon.

Marsh starred in the domestic Twenty20 competition last year, smashing 290 runs at an average of 58 and has been rewarded by the Mohali franchise with a three-year contract.

Marsh will join a large WA contingent at Mohali’s “Kings XI Punjab” - with Luke Pomersbach, coach Tom Moody and assistant Trevor Penney already members of the team.

The Kings XI Punjab line-up will also include international superstars Brett Lee, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Irfan Pathan.

The tournament is scheduled to start on April 18 and Marsh is excited about taking part in the inaugural season.

“I’m very excited to have the chance to play in a tournament of such high profile,” Marsh said.

“Like so many others that are taking part, I’m just looking forward to the experience that I wll gain from lining up with so many greats of world cricket.”

The IPL contract is caos a golden fortnight for Marsh, who has been named the Warriors Player of the Year, been selected in Australia’s one-day squad to tour the West Indies and received a 12-month Cricket Australia contract.

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

Would you miss them?

Yuvraj Singh Captain of Kings XI Punjab to victory in the inaugural Indian Premier League, he also believes captaining the diverse side would give him valuable experience that would help him lead the Indian side in future. “Leading a side with players from various countries is challenging, but I am looking forward to it and this experience will help me in terms of captaining India one day,” he said - reports Hindustan Times.

The skipper is optimistic about his team’s chances. “We have a balanced side and I am looking forward to winning the tournament.”

The dashing southpaw did not think extracting the best from his players would be a problem. “All the players are professionals,” was all he said. Yuvraj though admitted it would be tough to gel together as the players would get little time together ahead of the tournament.

Coach Tom Moody anticipated no such problems. “I would look to establish good understanding with the team, for the team which has better understanding and man management would go on to win,” said Moody. Asked if he fancied the Twenty20 format, the Aussie said he loved cricket, irrespective of the form - Hundustan Times added.

Its good to know that Yuvi has such aspirations and IPl is sure gonna do good for Indian Cricket.

The official name of IPL Team Mohali - Kings Xi Punjab and their anthem is ‘Live Punjabi, Play Punjabi, Punjabi being state of mind…’ Priety Zinta, Monday unveiled the name and anthem of her Team at PCA, Mohali.

She is quite excited about the team as she said, “Ours is the youngest team with the youngest players in it. And Punjabi being the leader we will definitely enter the finals”.

“I would like all the Punjabi in whichever part of the country they live to enjoy the match and cheers for the team as it is people’s team and I want that they should feel connected to it ,” she avers.

Priety said that she has more then 300 reasons for selecting Mohali as her team. Herself hailing from Shimla she now feels back home.

This is the first main reason for her selecting Mohali, then comes the best stadium, Yuvraj Singh and so on…she also not forgot to mention that while doing her homework she came to know that Punjab is one of the place where cricket was born.

On being asked whether she know something about cricket, Priety added, “I am just like a baby who first learns to crawl, walk and then run, right now I’m just crawling and it will take a bit time for me to have the experience.”

On the inagural occasion Bindra announced that they are soon going to launch a stadium like PCA in Bathinda which will be a treat to sports lover and then the bit for the same will be organised - Pinjab Newsline Reports.

The team also met Sukhbir Badal, SAD President, in the evening at his office and offered him to be the part of their team and was formally announced as the Chairman of the Organising Committee, who said,”I’m happy to take the responsibility of the team and will provide them complete support and infrastructure on behalf of the government.”