When Shane Warne returns to competitive cricket with the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL) tonight (Australian time), he will be doing so in an unfamiliar climate.

The Australian retired from international cricket more than two years ago, but South African crowds who flock to catch a piece of the IPL action will not have forgotten his exploits against the Proteas.

For years the legspinner tormented South African batsmen and their fans, so it will be interesting to see the type of reception reserved for Warne when he leads out his franchise in their opening game against Bangalore Royal Challengers.

“The public have booed me most of the time but hopefully playing with the Rajasthan Royals they’ll get behind me,” Warne told the Sunday Times.

“Hopefully when I come on to bowl I’ll get a clap, or a cheer or whistle.”

Warne’s wiles were largely responsible for Rajasthan’s fairytale opening season, when they swept to victory after spending the least money at the inaugural IPL auction.

His astute captaincy endeared him to fans around India, but questions remain as to whether he will have the same effect in a country where for many years he was all but despised.

Adding to the intrigue is the presence in the Royals ranks of Proteas captain Graeme Smith, who regularly engaged Warne in verbal jousts at international level.

This coming together of former rivals is the basis on which the IPL thrives, but Warne insists that the duo get along well and sees Smith as being crucial to Royals’ success on South African turf.

“We had a few beers after the first game (of the 2008 IPL) and chatted about a lot of stuff,” Warne said.

“We hung out a fair bit. We’ve kept in touch since then and become good buddies.

“I think he enjoys the IPL as well, just having the opportunity and the freedom to go out and bat without the responsibility of anything else.

“For us, being in South Africa and having the captain of South Africa in our side is a huge advantage.”
Source – abc.net.au

Indian and multinational advertisers are poised to find out this weekend if the Indian Premier League, the country’s lavish Twenty20 cricket tournament, is set to become the “Superbowl” of the subcontinent.

The first games for the second season of the IPL – a runaway success when it launched last year – will open on Saturday in South Africa after the organisers were forced to temporarily move it from India for security reasons.

“It’s likely to be tempered down compared with last year,” said Shiv Sethuraman, chief executive of TBWA India, an advertising agency. “Having said that, it’s clearly becoming a big event on the marketing calendar for all advertisers.”

Multinational advertisers including Vodafone, Honda (in India known as Hero Honda) and Citibank last year flocked to the IPL, which is based on the 20-over format of the game rather than the conventional Test offerings.

In a country that worships cricket and celebrities, the IPL seeks to combine it all. Every team has about four international players and several teams have Bollywood stars as owners or in-vestors, including Shahrukh Khan and Shilpa Shetty.

Advertisers during the IPL last year were rewarded with high TV ratings, prompting many this year to begin launching new products and holding other events around the tournament.

According to reports, the tournament, during the 58 matches of its inaugural season, was watched by 29 per cent of TV viewers, higher than the cumulative share for the top Hindi entertainment channels.

It also made the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the sport’s national organising body, rich: franchisees paid a total of $724m for their teams and the World Sports Group, a Singapore-based company, paid $1bn for the rights to broadcast it for 10 years.

WSG has signed the rights on to broadcaster Sony Entertainment Television, a unit of the global company.

But the dream run for the IPL and its boss Lalit Modi has come to an end.

The terrorist attacks on Mumbai last November were followed this year by an attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, Pakistan. The 2009 tournament, which runs from April 18 to May 24, also coincides with India’s national elections, leading authorities to warn that they could not provide security for the games.

The move to South Africa has raised fears the teams in particular will lose money from the loss of ground income from ticket sales. There is also concern the IPL will lose its fizz without the enthusiasm of the sell-out Indian crowds, although Mr Modi says tickets are selling well.

Harsha Bhogle, a cricket commentator and writer, said while the shift to South Africa could pose problems, it was a chance to create “opportunity out of adversity”.

“All of us are very excited about the idea of creating the first global Indian sports brand,” he said.
Source – ft.com

ndia’s newest multinational, with projected revenues of Rs 800 crore in just five weeks, is all set to take wing in Cape Town on Saturday. Welcome to Lalit Modi’s India Premier League, Stage II, the Great Redeemer in these tough times, if you ask the entertainment, advertising and tourism industry.

And, if you believe Peter Roebuck, the famous Australian cricket columnist, “everyone except Elvis has been slated to appear at the opening”. And, some think he has half-a-chance of turning up, he wrote in Brisbane Times.

Even before the first match, between Sachin Tendulkar’s Mumbai Indians and MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings, Multi Screen Media (MSM, previously Sony Entertainment TV), which plans to rake in close to Rs 400 crore, claims to have sold 85% of advertising space.
Source – economictimes.indiatimes.com

Bubbling with energy after victories in both build-up games in Pretoria, Delhi Daredevils had their first practice session.

They had their practice session at the University of Cape Grounds on Thursday ahead of the second season of the Indian Premier League.

“The boys are all eager to go and they are all looking fit,” manager T A Sekar said.

“Boys are in good shape”

“Most have played highly competitive matches for their national and state teams in the past few weeks and are so in good match shape,” said Sekar.

“The locals are excited about seeing the IPL teams and quite a few have been backing Delhi Daredevils,” he added.

Putting the team through their practice session was coach Greg Shipperd, who joined the team last week in Johannesburg.

“These guys are all pros and they are in good shape,” Shipperd said.

The Delhi side had earlier played two practice games against Titans and Lions at Pretoria and won both.

Players played a football match

The cricketers played a football match with explosive Australian David Warner being the noisiest and keeping everybody in good humour.

“The best guys in the business are here and Delhi has been a fun team,” Warner said.

Daredevils captain Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik and Amit Mishra will join the squad later on Thursday while South African AB de Villiers is still engaged in the ODI series against Australia.

Paul Collingwood, Owais Shah, Daniel Vettori, Dirk Nannes, Andrew McDonald, Glenn McGrath, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Farveez Maharoof were all present at the practice sessions.

The Indians who were present at the session included Ashish Nehra, Rajat Bhatia, Mithun Manhas, Manoj Tiwary, Pradeep Sanghwan, Aavishkar Salvi, Yo Mahesh, Tejaswhi Yadav, Umesh Yadav and Yogesh Nagar.
Source – espnstar.com