Kevin Pietersen has defended his decision to play in the Indian Premier League only a few days after complaining of homesickness during England’s lengthy tour of the Caribbean.

The Hampshire batsman faces only a week at home when he returns from England duty next weekend before flying out to South Africa for a lucrative two-week stint with the Bangalore Royal Challengers.

Such a schedule has prompted fierce criticism given his request to return home for 48 hours during the Test series having been apart from wife Jessica Taylor. But Pietersen said: “What happens in two weeks is a totally different kettle of fish and that’s the difference.”

As England prepare for Friday’s one-day series decider against West Indies at the Beausejour Stadium, Pietersen believes he will be helping England by developing his game with his participation in the IPL.

He added: “Everybody on the tour wants to go home, everybody wants to see their families but what wasn’t written was how dedicated I am to playing for England and how much winning this game on Friday means to me and the team.

“I’m going to spend a week at home with my wife and then go back to business.

“I don’t think people realise it wasn’t a case of just wanting to go home, to leave the tour and be ungrateful that I’m an England player or for being in Barbados. Everyone thought I just wanted to pack my bags and leave, but that’s not the case.”

Pietersen was signed up for a staggering US Dollars 1.5million by Bangalore, which he will earn on a pro-rata basis depending on the number of games he plays, but he has to return to England by May 1 before the first Test at Lord’s against West Indies six days later.

He insisted that financial gain was not his motivation, claiming: “It’s not a case of playing cricket for money. Yes, there is money attached to it but I’m going to learn, play with the best players in the world and it’s an opportunity to improve my game.

“I’ve always said that I’m willing to learn and I will learn in the IPL, playing with some of the best players in the world. I want to be the best person I can possibly be and the best player I can possibly be, which helps England and that’s what all the players want to do.”
Source – google.com

The domestic telecast rights for the second season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will remain with Multi Screen Media (earlier known as Sony Entertainment Television). In a press release issued last Wednesday, IPL announced that MSM and World Sports Group (WSG), the global rights holder, were now the official broadcast partners for the league.

Wednesday’s deal, worth a staggering Rs 8,200 crore—almost double of last year’s ten-year agreement—is valid for the next nine years through 2017 and provides MSM with the exclusive audio-visual rights for all 59 matches of the upcoming season, which is scheduled to start on April 18 in South Africa, the release said.
Telecast rights for the hugely-popular cricket tournament have been in the news ever since Sony sued the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), owners of IPL, over the sudden termination of its agreement on March 15. The cricket board signed a fresh contract for global broadcast rights with WSG Mauritius.

Sony then petitioned the Bombay High Court for an injunction as it felt it had been given very little notice of termination. However, the court lifted the injunction on BCCI to negotiate fresh rights with broadcasters.
The upcoming IPL tournament has been mired in controversy this year. The central government had raised security concerns about holding the event as it clashed with dates of the general elections in the country in April-May. Last Tuesday, IPL announced that it had decided to hold the tournament in South Africa.
Speaking after the latest broadcast agreement was signed, IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi said, “We are absolutely delighted with the new deal inked with WSG and Multi Screen Media. We have what we believe to be the best deal for the DLF Indian Premier League and Indian cricket fans alike. I am certain that Multi Screen Media will pull out all the stops in ensuring that the best technology is utilised to deliver excellent content.”

The IPL management will now work closely with Cricket South Africa to ensure that all the necessary logistics and technicalities are completed before the league kicks off, the release added. Season 2 of the IPL will provide broadcasters and in-stadia spectators with 177 hours of live “family entertainment”.
A significant international audience will now also view the matches, it said. Matches will be broadcast at 4 pm and 8 pm IST.

Vinod Kambli, Urvashi Dholakia face The Moment Of Truth
Ex-cricketer Vinod Kambli and television actress Urvashi Dholakia have shot for the pilot episode of the Indian version of The Moment Of Truth. The show to be aired on STAR Plus is to be hosted by Rajiv Khandelwal. Produced and directed by Siddhartha Basu, the episode was shot in Madrid, Spain. Though Basu is not willing to reveal how Kambli and Dholakia fared in the tests, he informs that they are looking for people who are honest and courageous to be a part of a revealing, dramatic and probing show. “Celebrities from different walks of life and commoners can be a part of the show. Whoever wins will be rewarded handsomely,” says Basu.

Unlike other game-shows in which participants are unaware of the questions that will be put to them, in TheMoment Of Truth the contestants are in the loop about the questions. “This is one show in which the participants will know everything that will be asked. The only thing is that they will be polygraphed two or three times. It is a lie-detector test, which tracks the physical changes in the body when they are answering. A participant is even allowed to change the answer in the course of the show. A mind-boggling show, it will reveal what makes us tick as individuals,” says Basu.

Except for the pilot episode that was shot in Spain, the show will be shot in India. The last schedule of the show’s Spanish version was being shot in Spain and STAR was keen on doing a test episode there. The international version has the host asking personal and intimate questions besides social and professional ones. For the desi version Basu has taken “the essence of the format in terms of attitude but made it distinct from the original.”
Source – screenindia.com

Players from Chennai Super Kings who are not doing the national duty in New Zealand have started training in right earnest to prepare for a grueling second season of the IPL in Chennai. The players who have attended the training camp include Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel, Joginder Sharma, Manpreet Gony, Sudip Tyagi, Shadab Jakati and S. Anirudha. For a change Venkatesh Prasad has also moved from Bangalore Royal Challengers to Chennai Super Kings to be the bowling coach of the team. One wonders whether MS Dhoni had a role to play in moving Prasad from Bangalore to Chennai. The CSK team is leaving for South Africa on 8 April and would spend around 10 days to get them acclimatized with the bouncy wickets of South Africa. The key batsman for CSK would be Suresh Raina who must be brimming with confidence after the fantastic season that he had in the land of black caps. He is hopeful that the IPL Season 2 would provide the perfect opportunity to the players to prepare for the ensuing Twenty 20 World Cup.
CSK has been rather fortunate that they have been able to get Durban as their base for the second season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Durban is a city that has largest concentration of the expat Indian population and the ten days that CSK spends there may help them in creating a fan following for them. Most of the franchisees were vying amongst each other for Durban as a base for preparation for IPL Season 2, but the authorities of CSK were first off the block to initiate the dialogues with Cricket South Africa (CSA) and IPL authorities to ensure that they get Durban as their base. CSK may play a couple of practice matches and CSA has ensured that it would give full cooperation. CSK will play their first IPL Season 2 game against Mumbai Indians in Cape Town.
Source – cricket360.com

The New Zealand all-rounder is suffering from an Achilles tendon strain and may withdraw from this year’s tournament if the injury forces him to miss his domestic state championship final from April 6.

The Chennai Super Kings take on the Mumbai Indians in the opening match of the IPL in Cape Town on April 18.

“It will be a big blow for us if Oram is unable to play the IPL,” Super Kings’ cricket operations director VB Chandrasekhar said.

“He had fitted into our team structure quite beautifully last season and we were really looking forward to having him for the whole of the tournament this time around.

“Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and coach Stephen Fleming are in New Zealand. They are trying to convince Oram to play the tournament, but if he doesn’t feel up to it, we won’t force him.”Assuming he is fit, the Super Kings will place an even greater workload on Oram given that the tournament’s switch to South Africa has reduced the availability of England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff.

“Flintoff won’t be available for too many matches and Oram and Albie Morkel would have to share the workload,” Chandrasekhar added.

“Obviously Oram’s absence would put Morkel under great strain. But then these guys are actually walking a very fine line.

“It’s not always easy for them to take a call on whether they should preserve themselves for international cricket or go ahead with a tournament like IPL.

“If Oram does give the tournament a miss, his all-round abilities will surely be missed.”
Source – skysports.com

The Indian Cricket League on Tuesday sought to quash rumours about its future, saying the Twenty20league has not gone bankrupt and will continue as scheduled.

“There is no question of being bankrupt. We are committed to holding the ICL,” ICL business head Himanshu Mody said in a statement.

Mody also revealed that the Board of Control for Cricket in India had offered the ICL a deal, asking them to close the Twenty20 league and take up a franchise in the Indian Premier League”The BCCI has been offering a peace deal to ICL promoter Subhash Chandra asking him to take up a franchise in return for winding up the league, but this is unacceptable to the Zee boss,” Mody was quoted as saying.

Mody further added that the ICL is awaiting the outcome of the International Cricket Council’sExecutive Board meeting, scheduled for April 17-18 in Dubai, where the resolution on granting official status to the Twenty20 league will be discussed.”We are awaiting the decision on our application to the ICC on giving those playing in the league an official status. If a resolution does not come through at the next ICC Executive Board meeting, we will pursue legal options. Our stated position is that we will take ICC to court in the UK citing precedents — Tony Grieg vs Doug Insole and Kapil Dev and other players vs BCCI in Indian courts.”The ICL chief also made it clear that the ICL is releasing players temporarily so that they can play for their countries.

With news circulating that the ICL is releasing Kiwi players Shane Bond and Darryl Tuffey and Pakistani players MohdYousuf and Rana Naved ul Hasan, Abdur Razzak, rumour mongering over the future of the league has peaked in the last few days.

“Yes, we have told some of these players that they can play for their respective countries. We will give them temporary suspension letters for the same. You have to understand that they are far more valuable to us if they continue to represent their countries as well. In any case, one way or the other, the ICC has to take a stand on their status.

“ICL is keen that these players are allowed to do national duty and then return to play in the ICL. We have no problem with that,” said Mody.

The ICL is keen on the ICC ‘recognising’ its players — even if they don’t register their runs, wickets and catches in the T20 tournament — in their official records. They are clear in their stand that the ‘rebel’ tag should be removed from the league and the BCCI and ICC should recognise the players’ official status and restore pension and other benefits.

Mody clarified that the last ICL tournament was cancelled due to the pull-out by Pakistani players, which was a fall-out of the Mumbai terror attacks last year.”People are spreading canards about the ICL going belly up and that due to this we are releasing players. This is all nonsense. Yes, we cancelled one event due to 26/11 but that doesn’t mean the ICL is defunct. We are looking at two tournaments in October-November, a league in 8-9 cities on the round-robin format followed by the World Series,” he said.
Source – cricket.rediff.com