Indian cricket team’s star batsman Sachin Tendulkar avoided debate over the venue of this year’s edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Further, he asserted that as the skipper of Mumbai Indians, he is eager to regale the supporters of his team despite the matches being played in South Africa.
When persisted by journalists for his comments on the government’s inability to provide security for the IPL extravaganza, Tendulkar said, “I am sure the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the concerned guys must have tried their best. It’s just coincided with the elections. I don’t think by shifting the tournament to South Africa there will be any less interest. The interest is terrific.”

He said this while interacting with media persons at a reception hosted by Jaypee University of Technology at Noida here last evening.

The BCCI wanted to stage the event overseas after failing to get government clearance for security cover as certain dates of fixtures clashed with the general elections.

The IPL was a huge success in its inaugural edition in cricket-crazy India last year, primarily because it was structured around city-based franchises with a fan base in home and away matches.

However, Tendulkar wasn’t a part of the winning Indian side in the ICC Twenty-20 World Cup held in South Africa 2007 due to injury.

And reportedly he has expressed his inability to be a part of the national side which again plays in England this June.

On this score, he said that he does not wish upset the team’s combination that has shaped well over the last two years.

“I would have loved to be there (England). But I feel, it would be unfair to disturb the combination and that’s the only reason I have stayed out of the team,” added Tendulkar.
Source – newstrackindia.com

Kings XI Punjab coach Tom Moody knows first-hand how passionate India’s cricket fans were about the inaugural Indian Premier League tournament.
And the Australian believes there’s a “lot of intrigue” among local fans about the second version of the Twenty20 tournament to be played in South Africa after organisers made the late switch from India for security reasons.

Moody, who coached Sri Lanka to the 2007 World Cup final, has assembled a strong line-up to represent Punjab including Sri Lankan stars Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene for the tournament starting this weekend.

But some of his Australian players such as Brett Lee, James Hopes and Shaun Marsh are only expected to be available for the last two weeks after touring with Australia to Dubai for the one-day series against Pakistan.

Elsewhere the Australian flavour is evident across all eight franchises, including five Australian coaches – Moody, Delhi’s Greg Shipperd, Kolkata’s John Buchanan, his opposite in coaching philosophy, Rajasthan Royals captain-coach Shane Warne and Deccan’s Darren Lehmann.

Warne admits his team’s title defence will suffer through having last year’s player of the tournament Shane Watson on national duties in Dubai.

While Moody says it’s very hard to pick a winner this year given the way top players will float in and out of their franchise teams, the reaction of the cricket public is also tough to predict.

It’s believed several teams were keen to play as many games in Durban as possible given the large Indian population in the beachside city.

Hulking Queenslander Matthew Hayden has already been surfing Durban’s warm waters in preparation for his campaign with the Chennai Super Kings.

They’ll be captained by India’s M.S. Dhoni, which won’t hurt Chennai’s attempts to win over Durban fans.

“It’s going to be interesting,” Moody said at the Kings XI team’s training base in Port Elizabeth this week.

“We play six games in Durban, a large percentage of our games in an area where it’s heavily populated by an Asian community.

“We’ve picked up (left-arm quick) Yusuf Abdulla who’s from Durban and has an Asian heritage -we may get a connection with the Durban fans through that.

“Particularly in places like Durban there’s going to be a strong following and I think there’s a lot of intrigue out there too – It has really captured people’s imagination.”

Moody, the Western Australia state coach, is proud to be part of Australia’s colonisation of the cricketing world, as shown by the country’s off-field dominance in the IPL.

“That has been a bit of a trend over the last decade or so in world cricket,” Moody says.

“We’ve seen a lot of Aussie coaches in international positions.

“I was in Sri Lanka, John Dyson is in the West Indies, Greg Chappell was in India (and Geoff Lawson was in Pakistan).

“There has been a lot of Australian influence in coaching and I think that goes with the success of the Australian cricket team over the past two decades.”

The IPL claim tickets for Saturday’s opening double-header in Cape Town between the Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, and Rajasthan Royals versus Royal Challengers Bangalore, were sold out within hours of going on sale.

“In South Africa, I think there’s a lot of intrigue just purely in the cricket and how suddenly all these international cricketers are coming into one competition,” Moody added.

“It’s not a World Cup, it’s not anything of that nature. But it’s a unique format to be enjoyed.”
Source – foxsports.com.au

Soft drink major PepsiCo today said its newly-launched drink Nimbooz has become the official beverage sponsor of the IPL franchisee team Kings XI Punjab.
The IPL tournament will be held in South Africa from 18 April.
“We are thrilled to announce the association of Nimbooz with the Kings XI in IPL’ 09. Nimbooz is proud to associate itself with such … a dynamic team and we hope this association gives all its fans many refreshing moments to cheer about,” PepsiCo India Executive Director Marketing Punita Lal said in a statement.
Through this partnership, Nimbooz have gained the exclusive pouring rights at home matches besides being the official beverage for the Kings XI, the company said.
It has also got the branding rights on the players’ uniform with the logo at the back. “Nimbooz branding will be displayed on the uniforms of the Bhangra cheerleaders as well as in that of the ball boys,” it said.
Besides, the company has also launched a marketing initiative ‘Nimbooz Highway Gadi’, in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal, offering consumers to buy scratch cards and win a trip to South Africa.
Source – livemint.com

West Indies captain Chris Gayle will head up the Caribbean swashbucklers at the second Indian Premier League tournament.

Gayle will hope to make up for his injury-hit season last year when he turns out for the Kolkata Knight Riders in South Africa, the venue for the competition after security threats saw it moved from India.

The 29-year-old left-hander, who enjoys an impressive average batting average of 40 plus in both Tests and one-day internationals, can be a destructive force when he gets going.

He formerly held the record for the highest innings in a Twenty20, having scored 117 against South Africa in the World Twenty20 Championship, and was the only batsman to have hit a century in the format.

New Zealander Brendon McCullum eventually broke that record when he notched up an incredible 158 not out for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the first game of the inaugural IPL in 2008.

At the IPL player auction for the eight-team league, which comprises 59 Twenty20 games over five weeks, fast bowlers Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor – who are both useful with the bat, were both snapped up for 150,000 dollars by Deccan Chargers and Kings XI Punjab respectively.

The Chargers also signed Dwayne Smith for 100,000 dollars, while rookie Barbadian pacer Kemar Roach and Kieron Pollard both remained unsold at the auction.

Dwayne Bravo will hope to star for the Mumbai Indians in his second season after West Indies selectors chose to ignore him for the two-Test series against England, which will see his IPL countrymen have to leave South Africa on May 1.
Source – geosuper.tv

The Indian Premier League may bring unforseen riches to the world’s top cricketers, but not everyone has fallen for the lure of the lucre.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting and senior pro Michael Hussey opted out of the IPL’s second season starting in South Africa on Saturday to rest tired limbs after a back-breaking schedule.

Having played non-stop cricket since September, both players preferred to take a breather before a tour of England which features the World Twenty20 championships in June followed by the Ashes.

The IPL may not have been an attractive proposition for them anyway. Ponting, one of the modern greats, was sold for a surprisingly low 400,000 dollars to the Kolkata Knight Riders at last year’s auction.

Hussey, a prolific left-hander, was also picked up cheap by the Chennai Super Kings at 350,000 dollars.

Two other Australians, Michael Clarke and Mitchell Johnson, did not even put themselves up for auction, saying they wanted to concentrate on their international careers.

Expensive players are not guaranteed their entire riches as the England duo of Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff have found out.

Both went for record sums of 1.55 million dollars each at this year’s auction, but England’s home series against the West Indies in May has shortened their IPL participation to the first two weeks.

Players are paid on a pro-rata basis and two other England stars, Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah, will also be similarly affected.

Collingwood and Shah were picked up by the Delhi Daredevils team for identical amounts of 275,000 dollars each.

The International Cricket Council’s decision not to set aside a window for what is an essentially Indian domestic tournament is hurting other players also.

West Indian captain Chris Gayle, who commands 800,000 dollars from the Kolkata Knight Riders, and team-mate Fidel Edwards, a new signee with the Deccan Chargers for 150,000 dollars, will also be available for two weeks.

Australian paceman Brett Lee and controversial all-rounder Andrew Symonds were set for the entire five-week IPL season since neither was part of the national squad in South Africa.

However, both earned call-ups for Australia’s one-day series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates from April 22 to May 7, and left them facing a huge financial setback.

Symonds, bought by the Deccan Chargers for 1.35 million last year, will now be available for only the last two weeks of the IPL.

Lee, a 900,000-dollar signee with Kings XI Punjab, may not even play at all as the Australian medical staff monitors his recovery from ankle and foot injury ahead of the Ashes.

Australian Shane Watson, who was the IPL’s player of the tournament last year, is also out till May 7 due to his inclusion for the Pakistan series.

‘I think Shane will miss the first nine games and be available for the last five and hopefully the finals,’ said Shane Warne, his Rajasthan Royals captain. ‘He is a big loss.’

The biggest losers are the Pakistani cricketers who were thrown out of the IPL this year after Islamabad denied them permission to travel to India for the tournament following growing tensions between the two countries.

The players’ appeal to allow them to return to the IPL since the tournament had been shifted to South Africa was rejected by tournament organisers.

It deprives Warne’s champion team of the services of left-arm seamer Sohail Tanvir, the highest wicket-taker last year with 22 wickets.
Source – khaleejtimes.com