The camaraderie and friendship that developed between players of different countries during the Indian Premier League may one day make the role of match referees redundant, feels Kumar Sangakkara, the Sri Lankan captain and one of the star performers for King’s XI Punjab.

“Hopefully, it will bring a day when the match referee is not needed to have a look at the games,” Sangakkara said on the eve of IPL 2, which gets under way in South Africa on Saturday.

In an interview with the ICC website, Sangakkara said that the greatest experience for him in the first edition of IPL, apart from playing some excellent cricket, was: “we’re also playing with and against not just your usual opponents but also with your own teammates”.

A top wicketkeeper-batsmen in world cricket today, Sangakkara has his erstwhile skipper Mahela Jayawardene as his teammate in IPL, while their team is skippered by India’s Yuvraj Singh.

Holding forth on a range of subjects including the Twenty20 World Cup in June, Sangakkara says he does not see the five-week-long IPL as an overkill of the game. “I think you always have to balance things out. If you don’t play the IPL then we [Sri Lanka] have no cricket and we’d just be training at the nets and doing all our preparation work – but there is nothing like match practice. So I think the players will be well prepared having played the IPL to go into the Twenty20 World Cup. The conditions, however, will be different in England.”

On the issue of too-much-cricket debate, Sangakkara felt that it was not going to change in near future. “It’s going to be a very hard workload especially for bowlers, but it gives countries ideal opportunities to test their bench strength where they can rotate players and make sure that the best XI is always in the best physical and mental shape – and at the same time give exposure to the fringe players who need the opportunity and exposure to show everyone what they can do and try to break into the national side.”
Source – gulfnews.com

If the inaugural edition of the IPL T20 provided it an opportunity to project the brand, India Cements believes this year’s event being held in South Africa gives it a chance to grow its corporate image. India Cements owns the Chennai Super Kings franchise.
Last year, the team’s players had Coromandel King (Coromandel being one of India Cements’ brands) on their shirts, giving this predominantly southern player in the cement industry a national presence. The company even said it would ride piggyback on the Chennai Super Kings franchise as it expanded its national footprint in the cement industry.
The Chennai Super Kings, led by skipper M.S. Dhoni, who at $1.5 million was the costliest buy in last year’s players auction, this year bagged England cricketer Andrew Flintoff at $1.55 million, again among the costliest buys this season.
Source – moneycontrol.com

Kings XI Punjab lost by a narrow margin of 10 runs against the Warriors in their warm-up game in Port Elizabeth, as they faltered in pursuit of a competitive 151. Colin Ingram set up the Warriors innings with an aggressive, unbeaten 57, which included five fours and two sixes. Punjab struggled in the field, dropping five catches though they will be encouraged by the performance of their fast bowler VRV Singh who finished with 4 for 24. Taruwar Kohli led the Punjab response with a quickfire 36 but was short of support from the other batsmen, like Simon Katich (12) and Kumar Sangakkara (16), who got starts but failed to consolidate. Warren Bell took 2 for 22 as Punjab, requiring 19 off the last over, managed just eight.

Last year’s finalists Chennai Super Kings registered a comfortable 42-run win over the Dolphins in Durban. Suresh Raina top scored for Chennai with 72 and Parthiv Patel contributed 43 as their team piled up 181 for 7. Imraan Khan was the most effective of the Dolphins bowlers, taking 3 for 11. In response, the local team were skittled out for 139 as Muttiah Muralitharan bagged 3 for 32.

In their set of warm-ups, Kolkata Knight Riders lost the first game against Free State by two wickets off the last ball. Defending 140, they managed to stretch the home team to the last over but their score eventually proved inadequate. In the second game, though, they bounced back to win by 59 runs after Chris Gayle and Brendon McCullum scored 76 each to post a formidable 204. Free State, in reply, could only manage 145 for 7. agencies
Source – dailytimes.com.pk

Former India pacer Ashish Nehra feels the Indian Premier League (IPL) has come as a blessing for several talented youngsters, who would have otherwise not grabbed the public eye.

”It’s an extremely big stage. Look at guys like Manpreet Gony, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja and Suresh Raina who have benefited enormously from it,” Nehra told cricketnirvana.com.

Nehra, who has not played for India since late 2005, said the IPL has revived hopes of a return to international cricket for discarded players like him.

”The IPL is as big as international cricket. In earlier times, as a cricketer getting dropped from the Indian team, it was very difficult to motivate yourself. The domestic circuit was fast losing credibility and players were not very keen on giving it a hundred percent if they were in the wrong side of 30 and there were no vacancies in the Indian team,” he stated.

The IPL has also become a playground for ageing and retired stars like Ajit Agarkar Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden and Shaun Pollock.

But, Nehra is not yet ready to include himself in that category.

”Please don’t put me in that category, you must be joking,” the Delhi left-armer said.

”I am still under 30.

”The best aspect of the IPL is that it is as big as international cricket in terms of pressure, quality of cricket and competitiveness,” he added.
Source – deepikaglobal.com

With just two days left for the Indian Premier League (IPL) to begin, its management has decided not to sell rights to show its
matches on multiplex screens yet again. Multiplex players believe this is largely because the IPL organising committee was asking for a high minimum guarantee from prospective bidders and found no takers for such a business model.

When contacted, Indian Premier League CEO Sundar Raman told ET, “We are not looking at screening Indian Premier League matches on multiplexes this year.” While Mr Raman did not divulge reasons behind the decision, multiplex players believe it is a good business opportunity lost.

A senior executive with a Delhi-based multiplex chain, who did not wish to be quoted, said, “The IPL committee was asking for a very high price as minimum guarantee, in addition to revenue sharing arrangements. This is not a financially viable business model that multiplexes operate on.” He added that multiplexes can’t hike ticket prices significantly as that would not help in attracting volumes.

As per another senior executive with a company that was looking to bid for the multiplex distribution rights, IPL was looking at a minimum guarantee of Rs 35-45 crore and was awarding the distribution rights only for a year.

“Since the matches are happening in South Africa this year, it would have been an even bigger business opportunity for multiplexes, distributors and advertisers,” UFO Moviez CFO Kapil Agarwal said. The digital cinema solutions firm had evinced interest in providing back-end technology for live telecast of the matches at multiplexes. There were reports earlier that the IPL organising committee had called in bids to award multiplex distribution rights for showing live match feed. With the tussle between movie producers and multiplexes still continuing over revenue share, IPL matches could have brought the much-needed respite for multiplexes that are currently screening Hollywood and regional movies.
Source – economictimes.indiatimes.com