Kings XI Punjab captain Yuvraj Singh has admitted that his team’s depleted bowling stocks is a worry ahead of IPL.

Australia fast bowlers Brett Lee and James Hopes were both called up for national duty for the series against Pakistan leaving their availability for the IPL limited to about two weeks in May.

Kings XI’s leading bowler S Sreesanth has already been ruled out due to injury, but Yuvraj Singh is confident the rest of the squad would lift their game.

“We have a good team this season although the worry is the pace department,” Yuvraj said.

Yuvi banking on batting

“However, our batting is pretty strong. We have Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene who are available for the whole tournament.

“We also have Ravi Bopara this year and he can bowl a bit.

“I’m sure they would all rise to the occasion.”

Yuvi keen to repeat his T20 WC exploits

Yuvraj dazzled with the bat during India’s triumph in the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa in 2007 and Yuvraj is keen to return to the scene of one his greatest exploits.

“I didn’t do too well on the tour of New Zealand,” he said.

“Obviously, you can’t score big in every series when you are a stroke-maker but I hope to make amends in the IPL. I am keen to test my skills with the bat.

“The pitches in South Africa are all good for batting perhaps with the exception of Durban. The wicket there is a bouncy.

“But individual feats look nice only if your team does well. It’s important to consistently win matches.”
Source – espnstar.com

Bollywood actor and owner of the Kings XI Punjab, Preity Zinta, introduced her team in Mumbai last evening.

When asked by the media Zinta, said that there were some new inclusions in her team.

“We have a new boy called Bird Cocklin who is an Australian. He is one of the best fast bowlers there. He bowls at over 140 kilometers an hour. I think you would know of him only when you see him play. We also have Yusaf Abdullah, who is one of the best T-20 bowlers,” she said.

Yuvraj Singh, who is the captain of the Kings XI Punjab team, said that the Indian Premier League (IPL) would be a good exposure before the T-20 World Cup to be staged in England in June.

“I think IPL has come at the right time before the World Cup. Before the World Cup, we are going to have fourteen games to get into the semifinals which will give us a lot practice,” said Yuvraj Singh.

The IPL, which involves many of the world’s leading players, was a huge success in its inaugural edition in cricket-crazy India last year, primarily because it is structured around city-based franchises with a fan base in home and away matches.The eight-team league would be staged in South Africa from April 18 due to security reasons and would return to India next season.
Source – dailyindia.com

Draconian media laws that almost resulted in a blackout of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which begins in South Africa on Saturday, could red-card major sporting events heading to the country, including the 2010 World Cup.

The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) is locked in a duel with Fifa, the world footballing authority, over restrictive media proposals. These include censorship and a ban on independent websites covering the upcoming Confederations Cup matches, as well as a proposal that prevents a new agency from supplying material to a third party.

The editors’ body is also challenging Cricket South Africa (CSA) about restrictions it intended imposing but withdrew before the current series against Australia, following protests by Sanef, as well as the CSA’s attempt to prescribe to the media how cricket captain Graeme Smith should be portrayed when wearing the Proteas uniform.Raymond Louw, a Sanef member, said cricket and rugby sporting administrators had also put in place proposals that effectively clamped down on media freedom.

Louw said the commercialisation of sport was being used by administrators to keep tighter control of the various codes, even if it meant censoring the media.

He said Sanef supported the News Media Coalition (NMC) which, acting on behalf of global media groups, had agreed to cover IPL matches after initially threatening to boycott them because of the IPL’s media demands. The contracts to gain media access stipulate that photo news material could not be distributed for use by certain cricket news websites, but Sanef argued that such a clause discriminated against news subscribers, compromised the media’s freedom to inform and set a bad precedent for other major events. This clause prevented all major international news and photo agencies attending the inaugural IPL in India last year.

Andrew Moger, the NMC spokesperson, said the media are now able to provide coverage of this cricketing spectacle. But the tension between media and sports administrators looks set to stay, with Sanef and the CSA set to clash over restrictions on coverage and an implied limitation on the use of pictures of Smith in Proteas kit.

Sanef believes the CSA’s powers relate to Smith’s appearance at match venues and on practice fields, but do not extend to pictures of him in kit taken in public places.

With the Confederations Cup and the World Cup on the horizon, Louw said Sanef was concerned that in terms of Fifa requirements, a media practitioner, when applying for accreditation, would bind his or her organisation to terms and conditions it may not be aware of; and that the regulations concerning confidentiality on the website amount to censorship if material can be published only with Fifa’s permission. “The media cannot be bound by conditions on publication imposed by any body – except a court,” he said.

The editors’ body was also upset that Fifa could terminate a journalist’s membership of the media channel without warning.

Hans Klaus, the Fifa director of communications, noted Sanef’s concerns about Fifa’s password-protected internet-based media service and said that the football body needed to have a proper accreditation procedure in place.

Klaus said the wording of the confidentiality regulation had been amended and media would be free to use information on its media channel for editorial purposes.
Source – iol.co.za

Kings XI Punjab will be sporting new colours in the second edition of the DLF Indian Premier League that commences on April 18 in South Africa.

The Punjab based team has signed a three-year multi-million dollar deal with Dubai based airline Emirates.

The new jersey was unveiled in Mumbai on Saturday with skipper Yuvraj Singh and co-owner Preity Zinta sporting the new look. The team‘s jersey has been conceptualized by the team’s co owner Zinta and their partner – Reebok.

Dubai-based Emirates airline will be the team’s title sponsors with eight other brands- Gulf Oil, Nimbooz, Netlinkblue, Reebok, Springbok Intl, Royal Challenge, Dabur Glucose-D and Orbit.

Mohit Burman, co-owner of Kings XI Punjab, said: “We will create the same buzz in South Africa as we would have created in India”.

Kings XI Punjab started the first season of DLF Indian Premier League on a disastrous note losing its first opening two matches ,but then recovered its lost ground and went on to play the semi finals against Chennai Super Kings.
Source – khabrein.info

Indian Premier League (IPL) organizers have been hit by a steep increase in premium payments to insure against terror attacks. A fivefold increase in the cost of insurance against terror strikes may have caused the organisers to alter plans for a Rs400 crore insurance cover, saving IPL Rs5 crore in premiums, people familiar with the development said on condition of anonymity.
The organizers have taken an alternative route. Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd will cover every match for Rs7 crore; this will include broadcasting interests, sponsorship losses and budgeted expenses of the match. Terror cover would be a part of the comprehensive cover, which will cost the organizers less than Rs1 crore in premium.
“As the sum insured of Rs7 crore includes the terror cover, we are not approaching reinsurers,” said Reena Bhatnagar, deputy general manager of Oriental Insurance. “So the overall cost of the comprehensive insurance coverage has not increased much.” Reinsurers protect insurance firms against the risk of losses.
Oriental Insurance will also be insuring the eight IPL franchisees for the players they bought in auction, under what London’s reinsurers call Death and Services. This includes death and accident cover. The front provided by Oriental Insurance will also include cover against loss of baggage and medical expenses.
Under insurance regulations, insurance cover for Indian entities such as the IPL franchisees will have to be provided by an Indian insurer, and backed by a reinsurer. Bhatnagar says, “We have already received cheques from four franchisees. The other franchisees are in the process of sending in their premium cheques.”
Franchisees are looking for insurance cover against abandonment of matches because of multiple perils such as weather, riots and terror attacks, people familiar with the situation said on condition of anonymity. Talks are under way, but the franchisees are yet to finalize the details of such coverage.
Source – livemint.com