Mumbai – Partho Mitra

IPL Commisioner Lalit Modi rushed in to bend rules and keep Franchisee Owner Shahrukh Khan happy. IPL is now issuing a Red Pass for Franchisee Owners or their represenatives with which they should have access to the players dressing room and dug-out area in the field. However, the duration of such visit should not exceed 15 minutes – Modi said in a press meet today.

Earlier to this Shahrukh was seen moving around in the field freely during the match and even shared a few moments in the Chennai Super Kings Dug-out while his team battled with them in the field. The ICC anti-corruption rightly took exception of this action and asked him to stay away from such mis-adventures as per the code-of-conduct.

Khan already upset with his teams dismal performance in the DLF-IPL league announced his decision to stay away from the field for the remaining matches.

The new IPL rule which came in today was not taken well by many including former cricketer Sandip Patil who was upfront in asking the IPL Governing body as to why this kind of a pass is introduced only now when the tournament is well past a month.

© IPL Cricket Forum

Lalit Burma – Kolkata

While talking to a Kolkata daily on Friday after the fateful match at the Wankhede Stadium, Shah Rukh Khan said that these things happen, teams do end of loosing badly and this time they got taken apart, and its sad for him when that happened to his own team.

When asked whether this happening in Mumbai, his own base made it a bigger disappointment, he said that he does not have any regional issues with the team, in fact he does not believe in regionalism, but what bothers him is that the team lost both its matches with the Mumbai Indians. He also said that they should have been able to cover their weaknesses and for him the bottom-line is that its not nice to lose to any team.

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Mumbai Indians have finally arrived with a comprehensive win over the Knight Riders who were outplayed in all the departments in the Indian premier League Match today. The Mumbai Indians were on a mission today and right from the moment they took the field, they meant business. They started off with a bang pegging back the Knight Riders with a heap of early wickets.

The target was never daunting but the Knight Riders got themselves a small opening with three quick wickets at the top. That dropped chance of Uthappa proved costly as he went on to hold a century run stand with Bravo.

The biggest mistake so far has been by Captains of IPL teams who choose to bat the moment they win a toss with a plan to make the opponents chase a big score. And today was no different. Also we do not understand why Md. Haffiz the Pak opener is not being given a chance to open the innings – he is comfortable and confident and have done it in the past also with sufficient expertise.

SRK and his boys really need to think hard and act fast as the initial momentum is gobe and with players like Brandon and Ponting returning home. Also the fact they lost miserably in the hands of the weakest team today requires rational analysis.

However, finally today it was a sigh of relief for all those who had been rooting for Mumbai. Mumbai Indians won by 7 wickets with Sanath Jayasuriya bagging the Man of the Match award for his brilliant performance with both the ball and the bat.

Score :

Kolkata Knight Riders: 137/8 (20.0 Ovs)
Mumbai Indians: 138/3 (18.4 Ovs)

Man of the Match – Sanath Jayasuriya

While we all know that Sony has purchased the television rights of Television and is currently broadcasting it on Channel Setmax, very few of us are aware about one of the greatest Cricket aficionados inside Sony – who had the vision to spearhead this deal apart from many other winning deals. Yes its none other than Kunal Dasguta the CEO of Sony Entertainment Television. Not only all matches and statistics are at the tip of his finger but also he never misses any match be it a charity cricket or an international tie.

Cricket and Movies has always been the prime driver of Indian Television and this was the reason why Setmax was born which telecasts a mix of Cricket and Bollywood movies. Though many critics described this as the craziest idea initially but time has proven that Kunal was never wrong in formulating this winning mix. Starting from the first Cricket coverage of Tri Series Aiwa Cup held in Sri Lanka the channel has broadcasted several Cricket series along with movies.

Sure the current IPL telecast is the greatest of them all and has already proved its worth shoving away the stale and staple diet of Saas Bahu type serials but also the Bollywood Movies and it has crossed all expectations and currently ruling all the sec’s plus the young, old, rich and kids alike.

While speaking to a website Kunal mentioned correctly that the true test lies in sustaining the brand IPL even after the tournament is over. He said – Ideally I would want the IPL to be a successful brand that has a long term play. After June, I will continue to do promotions to keep the team brands alive. This was one of the conditions on which we bid.

We will do shows around the IPL. You could see teams (franchises) practicing and discussing strategies for the next season.

This might happen. Apart from April-May, you cannot have another period where all the stars are available. What will happen is that once the league is built the new players who are playing will become the core. You can then have matches in different parts of the world to popularise the game there using these new players.

The trick for us is not getting ratings for the first season. This will happen as a matter of course because of the way the IPL has been hyped. The challenge is to sustain the excitement after that and it is here where we will have to take a leaf out of the book of the EPL. Teams have marketed themselves and have thus become iconic brands.

So Mallya for instance, will use the Royal Challenger brand name to go out there and create opportunities for exhibition matches. They can do charity work in Bangalore and build a fan base. Each franchise will have its own website where clips will be available. They can create merchandise.

We think that this is the correct approach in building a property somewhat similar to NFL where the hype continues for the entire near with the pitch rising above average during tournaments.

Kunal also said that Sony will pitch in through magazine shows. Otherwise it will just be a flash in the pan. As we come closer to the next season you will see transfers and there will be speculation.

New heroes will be born. It is possible that the likes of current heroes like Glenn McGrath, Kumble, and Saurav will not play beyond two seasons. Once that happens, then the brand will live outside the big names.

One of the major attractions will be the presence of big Bollywood stars. Akshay Kumar will perform for Delhi. SRK will perform for Kolkata and you will see proper Bollywood entertainment.

We have even tweaked the timings of some of the matches to accommodate our entertainment specials. One match was supposed to start at 4 pm but we have pushed it back to 5:30 pm. We will even have stand up comedy for Extraaa Innings. On air we have gone in for fresh faces. We did not want Mandira (Bedi) for this. She is more suited for ODI cricket. I want 20-year-olds in T20. We also did not want Kapil Dev, Gavaskar. We wanted anchors who represent today’s kids. With the ICC World Cup we broke the mould and brought in females. Now we are breaking the mould back with IPL.

Great going for Max and Sony – we hope the Indian Cricket fans are also enjoying every bit of this evolution of Cricket and waiting anxiously for more to come.

© IPL Cricket Forum

This match was a tale of two teams who are as evenly matched as a snake and mongoose. Both of them have had similar starts to the league with Kolkata Knight Riders making a mockery of Bangalore Royal Challengers and Chennai Super Kings blasting their way to the highest total in the league so far against Kings XI Punjab in their opening matches. As if to reconfirm their status as the twin brothers, Knight Riders scraped through in a dramatic match against Deccan Chargers on a dicey Kolkata pitch while Super Kings survived a late onslaught by an inspired Harbhajan and his comrades. This match has everything that a hindi film would promise and don’t be very surprised if the ticket sales for the recently released blockbuster “Tashan” don’t take off during the weekend. You would very well know the reason.

Everyone expected to see the titanic battle of the two captains. Saurav Ganguly, regarded as one of the finest captains of India and Dhoni, the heartbeat of the young brigade will start their game of chess the moment they step onto the field, trying to outwit each other at every stage of the game. Will they do something as tactical and shrewd as Warne did the other night by introducing spin in the third over, only remains to be seen.

But from the beginning it was a complete one sided affair. The contest which was indicted as the clash of the titans has fallen flat on its face. Kolkata won the toss for the first time and elected to bat. The Chennai seamers did a great job initially and kept picking up wickets at regular intervals to disallow Kolkata from getting to a big score. However a score close to 150 was always tricky but Hayden and Parthiv ensured that there are no hiccups at all and with Dhoni promoting himself, the match got over in a hurry. Chennai super Kings won the match by 9 Wkts with a smooth game and no major hiccups, One can only expect the return match at Kolkata to be much more exciting.Jacob Oram was the man of the match with 3 Wkts in 4 overs for 32 runs.

Score;

Kolktata Knight Riders: 147 for 9 in 20 overs
Chennai Super Kings: 152 for 1 in 17 overs.

Man of the Match – Jacob Oram.

Shahrukh Khan is upbeat after the first two win by his team Kolkata Knight Riders.SRK said that winning in IPL is a priority and he was not chasing profits anymore.

“I would be happy if we win even if we don’t break even,” Khan, who has paid USD 75 million for his team, said at a function organised by a retail chain in Mumbai.

The Bollywood superstar said he did not expect any short-term profits from the Indian Premier League and after a point he had stopped looking only at the profits.

Khan, who is travelling abroad and could miss the next matches of his team, said his absence would not affect his team’s performance in the ongoing championship.

“I have belief that the Knight Riders will win with or without my presence.” In a humourous vein, the actor remarked that the only contribution he was making to the team’s players was teaching them some dance steps.

The actor said he was hopeful the IPL would bring in a sports culture to the country and the owners of teams should not expect any short-term profits.

He denied that the presence of filmstars at games was taking away the focus from cricket. “Stars don’t need the cricket field to promote themselves nor does cricket need them to popularise it…It will settle down in the coming weeks to only be about cricket.”

Despite actors like Aamir Khan and Amitabh Bachchan turning to blogs to keep in touch with their fans, Khan said he had no immediate plans to follow that path. “I do not write since I get into enough trouble speaking.”

The actor said currently he had no plans to contribute to his team’s website since it was more about the players and the coach. “I will do it if my team wants me to.”

However, he declined to comment on the team strategy, saying he had left it entirely to coach John Buchanan and captain Sourav Ganguly. “For the first four matches Buchanan had done the planning in such a way the team gels together.”

The actor expressed hope the team’s brand would be built by its performance in the coming matches and would sustain itself in the years to come.

The next match for the Knight Riders is most vital when they face Chennai this Saturday.

IPL is planning a grand opening on Friday the 18th when the Knight Riders meet the Royal Challengers at Bangalore. With Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid facing each other as rivals for the first time – it will indeed be a spectacular scene.

The opening ceremony will kick off at starting 18.30, when all the captains will come together at mid-pitch to jointly read out a pledge reaffirming the IPL’s faith in the spirit of cricket. There will be speeches by Ray Mali, the ICC president, Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president, and IPL Chairman Lalit Modi.

The opening ceremony will consist of fireworks, stilt walkers, aerial gymnasts, performers in a bubble suspended over the ground and of course with a major Bollywood presence with Shah Rukh Khan the owner of Kolkata team – Knight Riders and some of his friends, Preity Zinta, co-owner of the IPL Mohali franchise – Kings XI Punjab. Shankar-Ehsan-Loy the music directors from Bollywood will perform throughout the ceremony even as the other performers go through their acts. And your guess is right – the key role behind sich an extravagant opening is played by none other than the Liquor Baron Vijaya Mallaya.

The most dramatic moment comes after the end of ceremony when all the floodlights are switched off at the Chinnaswamy Stadium and the two skippers walk out for the toss just under spotlights.This is really something unique and will add sufficient drama and excitement just before the match – a kind of Roman arena where gladiators use to sweat out in a fight till the end atmosphere.

After the toss, a couple of players from the fielding side will talk directly with the TV commentators during the match. However we have seen this before and is good value for the Tv Audience.

Bangalore is also waiting anxiously for the 12 cheerleaders from the Washington Redksins, the ‘First Ladies of American Football’.

So what we will find here is a mix of glamor and cricket and personalities which is planned to be presented with professional touch adding new colors to the serious game of cricket and maybe reflecting the true image of IPL. One thing for sure is that the audience will never feel bored in this kind of an event as also the match itself will have enough firepower within it.

We can only hope that this event will not be marred by faceless politicians crowding the stage to grab some limelight again. All the best to the two teams Knight Riders and Bangalore Royal Challengers and also for the millions of cricket fan waiting breathlessly for the IPL League to start.

Shahrukh Khan like others hates defeat and we cant agree more. His latest dream is winning the IPL Trophy and he is dead serious about it. SRK said recently that IPL is a completely new venture for me. If it was a movie, he would have been tension free, but this is cricket and he barely knows anything about it. So he got a little worked up about the ticket sales initially. But when the experts told him that it these are initial hiccups and will be done away with during the course of the tournament due to growing craze, he felt relieved. His only concern was that my fans and Kolkata people have no complaints with me.

SRk and Dada has taken all steps to ensure that their team performs at their very best level starting from the first match and the first game of IPL. With Bipasha and Rani cheering the players and over 100,000 supporters feeling up the Eden Gardens it is really difficult for any opponent to hold their nerve when Knight Riders plays at their home team in Kolkata.

SRK also said that this being the first year he is still trying to come to terms. It will atleast take two to three years to get used to things. he mentioned that he was not worried about money but there are other unsolved issues which he wished are taken care of at the earliest.

Srk on his part has been kinf enough to inform the Cricket Association of Bengal that we wanted to keep the price low. Members habituated to free tickets would however show some apathy as they now have to pay but Rs.100.00 or approx 2.5$ a match is peanuts. It would have been much better if SRK simply ignored the low turnout of CAB members and instead given those tickets to school and college kids. SRK also said that his team is targeting the youth and so he wanted to ensure that the youth could afford the tickets. We have heard that in comparison to movie tickets, the ticket price of cricket matches is much higher – he said.

Unlike Preity and Ness he is not going to sell tickets – SRK affirmed that he has a different role to play. He said that he is an entertainer and will entertain the crowd. Cricket is capable in itself. It doesn’t need stardom. He confirmed that he will keep his focus on how to attract the audience to my team.

Thats indeed a very encouraging staement from SRK and will long way with Kolkatas youth as Cricket will surely add the much needed hue and color to their otherwise staple diet of stale politics.

Cricket fever or shall we call it IPL fever is fast spreading among Calcuttans. With D-day approaching and the Kolkata Knight Riders’ players sweating it out under the watchful eyes of John Buchanan at the Eden, the demand for tickets has increased further.

The entire quota of tickets that went on sale for Sunday’s match was sold out within hours of the counters opening on Monday. It was the first day tickets were made available to the public.

Long queues snaked around the Eden from morning and several people were disappointed after counters downed shutters. With more people expected to show up on Tuesday, the police bandobast will also be enhanced.

A total of Rs 8 lakh worth of tickets were sold from the 18 counters during the day. Tickets worth Rs 110 and meant for the players were also made available to the public besides Rs 220, Rs 335 and Rs 665.

Tickets for the Knight Riders versus Deccan Chargers (Hyderabad) match will again be on sale from Tuesday.

“The demand has attained gigantic proportions. The sales on the net are also very encouraging. The way things are going we are expecting a full house on Sunday,” said a spokesman of Knight Riders Sport Pvt Ltd.

The CAB is also anticipating a boost in sales once Sourav Ganguly and Ishant Sharma start practising.

The former India captain returned to the city early on Monday morning. He stayed away from the Eden but enthusiastic fans had gathered around the stadium from early afternoon in hopes of catching a glimpse of their favourite Dada. Instead they had to be satisfied by cheering on the likes of Ricky Ponting and Brendon McCullum.

The Knight Riders’ captain is already focusing on his job at hand after a successful Test series. “I’ll get into Twenty20 mode once I practise for a couple of days,” Sourav said to The Telegraph, Kolkata.

He did not foresee any problem in leading a team comprising stars from various countries. “It is, after all, the same game of cricket. Here also one plays with the bat and the ball…”

Sourav also played down Shoaib Akhtar’s absence. “Umar Gul is in our team. He will serve us well,” he also added.

On Bengali New Year’s Day, he also hoped the coming year would turn out to be an even better one for him.

Sourav is expected to be present when the team plays a practice match on Tuesday. Ponting and McCullum will lead the two sides.

Its quite a challendge to feel up Eden Gardens, but with SRk’s charisma, Sourav;s popularity and Ccricket crazy public, anything is possible.

With King Khan, Preity Zinta taking active role in the promotion of IPL its Bollywood all the way gearing up to promote IPL.

Shah Rukh Khan would be seen cheering his team Kolkata Knight Riders wherever they play. The charismatic Khan is particularly looking forward to cheering his team at the spectacular Eden Gardens stadium in Kolkata. In fact, Khan has even decided to lower the ticket prices to as cheap as Rs. 100 so that the young Cricket Lovers can get to witness all the cricketing action live.

On top of this Shah Rukh would be even handing over every 1000th purchased ticket personally to the spectator. The superstar has even urged some of his friends from Bollywood like Bipasha and Rani Mukherji to be present along with him to cheer his team.

In another bid to lure cricket buffs for the forthcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket matches, Bollywood actress Preity Zinta and Australian speedster Brett Lee will personally sell tickets for their Kings XI Punjab team matches with their autographs at the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) Stadium in Mohali, later today.

As per the Mohali organisers, the interested people can get tickets from the stadium itself at 3 pm today (Saturday), but from Monday onwards, sale counters would be set up at prominent outlets across major cities like Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Amritsar.

Lets hope that the crowds are full in all the venues as they can expect to be treated to a great feats of Cricket with liberal flavoring in the form of Bollywood.