A South African businessman returned Rand 450,000 to Kings XI Punjab on recovering it in one of the hotel rooms.

In a good samaritan act, He returned the amount he recovered in one of the hotel rooms the IPL team occupied.

According to a report in ‘The Times’, Stephen Blewett, the chief of Altech Autopage Cellular, found a bundle of Rand 4,50,000 (nearly Rs 2.5 million) cash in his hotel room which later turned out to be Kings XI Punjab’s.

Blewett discovered the money in Rand 100 notes in his hotel room’s safe on Tuesday night after which he reported the matter to the hotel authorities.

It later emerged that Kings XI had left the money, which was their allowances for food, drinks and other expenses, in that room as they had been using it for team meetings ahead of their IPL campaign.

“It is not common for us to carry that amount of money but we have a lot of costs and the money was not yet distributed to the players,” the team’s liaison officer Arvinder Singh.
Source – espnstar.com

Following Coach Buchanan theory of multiple captains, Kolkata Knight Riders has appointed New Zealand wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum as the new captain for IPL season 2.

The team is scheduled to play its first match for the series on April 19 against Deccan Chargers, in which McCullum will lead the team.

It is worth mentioning here that a war of words was escalated between John Buchanan and Sourav Ganguly escalated with Buchanan, the Kolkata Knight Riders’ coach, saying that he had already discussed with Sourav Ganguly the controversial theory of multiple captains for the team before making the announcement in a press conference.

However, Ganguly had denied any knowledge of this development, but Buchanan insisted that the two had had discussions on the issue during the IPL’s first season.

Buchanan is expected to announce more names who will lead the team during IPL 2 as per the theory of multiple captains.
Source – samaylive.com

The Indian Premier League (IPL) matches are set to last 15 minutes longer, with the IPL reportedly planning to include two seven-and-a-half minute breaks, each following the completion of ten overs in an innings.

During the breaks, which will function as tactical time-outs, the stadium crowd will be entertained by a live band while television audiences will watch three segments, two of which will be sold commercially.
Source – hindu.com

The second season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has in store for cricket-lovers gourmet delights to complement an ambience
defined by the T20 tournament frenzy. Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism development Corporation (CITCO) has plans to add to the flavour during the second season of the IPL.

CITCO has prepared a special menu to be served during the second season of IPL. Vintage Bar, having a seating capacity of around 70, has been decorated with cutouts of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh and other cricketers, and is all set to welcome cricket aficionados to Hotel Mountview.

On the menu card are varieties for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians. The authorities have also planned an option of special treatment for the public there that would include special items and service. For special treatment, there is booking system.

Briefing about the entire development, AK Malhotra, general manager (tourism) of CITCO said, “People will enjoy the special food with the live coverage of matches. This will also provide an opportunity for them to be in action, when the actual action is out of the country at this time.”

“Cricket-lovers will enjoy a relaxed evening with the delicious food, as all the matches are based on Indian Standard Time and would be between 4 pm and 12 am,” he added.

Not only this, some restaurants and hotels of the city are also planning to prepare special menu during the second season of the IPL. Gurwinder Juneja, secretary of Chandigarh Hotel Association, said a few restaurants and hotels are keenly preparing themselves to start special packages or special food during the IPL season. Other city hotels and restaurant are also planning a similar treat for their customers.
Source – timesofindia.indiatimes.com

A year ago Graham Napier was contemplating a career change. A World Cup winner ten years earlier at under-19 level, the Essex all-rounder had slipped from a bright young thing to a journeyman. He watched the auction of players for the first Indian Premier League (IPL) and wondered whether he had a future in the game.

“I wasn’t even playing much first-team cricket for Essex,” Napier said. “I was 28, back in the second team and realistically looking at a life outside cricket. I had application forms for the police force and fire service and was planning to leave cricket. Then the Twenty20 Cup came round and I was in the right place at the right time.”

One year on, Napier is about to play in the second IPL for Mumbai Indians alongside the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya.

The innings against Sussex that changed his life started, he admits, “a bit scratchily”. Pushed up to No 3 a week earlier on the advice of his team-mates, who thought he looked useful in the nets, Napier had made 64 runs in four innings for Essex. “If I failed, the opportunity for batting that high might not come again,” he said. But then the runs started to flow. “I saw something early, chanced my arm, connected and the ball sailed out of the ground,” he recalled. “I thought, ‘Right, let’s see what you can do.’ ” What he could do was score 152 runs, with a record 16 sixes. He then made 40 off 20 balls in the quarter-finals, again at the smallish Ford County Ground in Chelmsford, and a call from India came soon after.

While he is not receiving the six or seven-figure deals from Mumbai that some players are getting, those innings have made Napier substantially richer. He has been made available by Essex for Mumbai’s first six games, but has signed a two-year deal and could play for longer next year. “If I was playing for the full six weeks of the IPL, I’d get as much money as I’d earn out of a county season,” he said.

Napier is one of seven Englishmen in the IPL, although he is the only one not to have played for England at senior level. That could change. He has been named in a 30-man squad for the World Twenty20, which will be cut to 15 on May 1, the day he is due to return from the IPL.

“I’m particularly looking forward to playing with Tendulkar,” he said. “I’ll be listening to everything he’s got to say about the game. I might be able to teach him something as well.”

Napier won the Sky Sports Sixes League last season with 36 shots over the boundary in the domestic limited-overs competitions. He is the 12-1 favourite to retain the title, which is sponsored this year by The Times.

“Any shot that is straight down the ground and over the sightscreen is the best,” he said. “I’ve always tried to score at a run a ball or better and sometimes that has been my downfall. Of course, at Chelmsford there is also the river to aim for and a good shot is emphasised by a pleasing splash.”
Source – timesonline.co.uk