New Delhi: Event management firm Wizcraft International has filed a case of defamation against agent Jorge Aldana and the two cheerleaders Ellesha Newton and Sherinne Anderson who had levelled racism allegations against the company.

Wizcraft also said it had contracted an Indian agent Akhtar Fazel for providing cheerleaders.

He in turn had contracted Aldana, the director of Fierce Performance Production. The company also stated that it was an obvious attempt to extort money.

Newton and Anderson said earlier said that they were asked to come off the Mohali stage on April 19 because of the colour of their skin.

Newton allegedly told The Telegraph: “It was okay when we reached the stadium. It was when we were going to take our positions that some of Wizcraft’s employees asked us to leave. We were surprised and asked them why and they told us it was because of the colour of our skin.”
Source: ibnlive.com

New Delhi (PTI): Rohit Sharma, one of the most successful batsmen in the ongoing IPL, on Sunday found an admirer in former Test cricketer Madan Lal, who referred to the young batsman as ‘the best star in the coming era’.

“Rohit Sharma has caught my attention among the breed of youngsters who are playing in the IPL. He is the best star in the coming era,” Madan Lal said on being asked to name one promising young cricketer of the inaugural IPL.

However, the former India coach feels that a player’s true worth cannot be judged by the Twenty20 format.

“Twenty20 is not the ideal format of judging a player’s calibre. To judge a player one has to take into consideration his performance in one-dayers and Test cricket,” he said on the sidelines of the launch of ‘All sports bar’ in the capital.

The world cup winning Indian team member said a player cannot survive in this competitive world of cricket unless he has played Test and 50-over matches.

“Youngsters can never survive unless they play 50-over and Test cricket,” he said.

Madan Lal, who joined the Essel Group-backed rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL), lambasted the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and said the board lacks vision and only bothered about money.

“BCCI does not have vision. They don’t think big, rather they think small and are only concerned about money,” he said.
Source: hindu.com

Bangalore Royal Challengers defeated Deccan Chargers by five wickets in a match that see sawed from one teams favor to another. The home jinx for Deccan Charges contniued and they again lost a close battle. Once it looked that this time they would win the match but some good batting by Misbah-ul-Haq, Rahul Dravid, Cameron White and Akhil ensured they got home with one over to spare.

Shah Rukh Khan, owner of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), met West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Sunday and discussed the possibility of setting up a cricket academy in Bengal as well as a state-of-art film city in Tollygunge of Kolkata.

Khan presented Bhattacharjee with a Knight Riders helmet, while Bhattacharjee presented Khan with a packet of Darjeeling tea.

Addressing the media at a press conference after his meeting with Bhattacharjee, Shah Rukh Khan said, “We may have lost our chances to make it to the semi-finals this year but I will be back with the same team next year and this team will work hard to be the champions in the next IPL season.”

However, according to sources, Khan met Bhattacharjee on Sunday to resolve certain issues like imposition of entertainment tax and other increase in expenses which were not on the KKR agenda initially.

Khan had earlier asked Sourav Ganguly, KKR captain, to speak to Bhattacharjee and other influencial personalities in West Bengal to settle the growing rift between the Kolkata Police, Kolkata Municipal Corporation, and a few other organisations on one hand, and Khan’s company Red Chillies Entertainment on the other.

It was alleged that the Kolkata Knight Riders’ owner Shah Rukh Khan and the team’s captain Sourav Ganguly were not seeing eye to eye on some issues.

The most important issue between the two was probably Ganguly’s reluctance to talk to Bhattacharjee about waiver of entertainment tax slapped on the team. There was also a difference of opinion at the time of the players’ auction with Ganguly wanting to have Adam Gilchrist in his team while the slot went to Brendon McCullum because of SRK’s interest.

Moreover, Khan and Ganguly as well as team coach John Buchannan reportedly differed on team selection and strategy.

Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) had demanded Rs 25 lakh from Red Chillies Entertainment as amusement tax for holding IPL matches at Eden Gardens.

Red Chillies Entertainment has so far paid Rs 10 lakh and has assured KMC it will pay the rest Rs 15 lakh soon.

Second, to settle the dispute between Kolkata Police and DLF Indian Premier League over cost of security arrangements at Eden Gardens, Red Chillies Entertainment agreed to pay Rs 75 lakh as security fees.

The stand-off between Kolkata Police and DLF Indian Premier League was over security fees, as KP had quoted Rs 2 crore as security fees while the organisers had offered Rs 50 lakh.
Source:business-standard.com

In a thriller today, Delhi DareDevils won the match on the second last bowl of the match by defeating Mumbai Indians by 5 wickets.It was really T20 at its best. Both the openers Sehwag and Gambhir got out soon while they were chasing 177 when the team score was 50 but they had provided a very fast start. Dhawan also contributed and was out when the team score was 89. Delhi had a scare when bravo got two wickets in two balls and it looked like Mumbai Indians are back in the game. But it was Karthik and Maharoof who striked some brilliant shots and took the team to the winning post. Karthik scored 56 of just 32 balls and thus make the path of for semifinals a bit easier