Last week, several media channels reported that Hrithik Roshan had decided to leave the Mumbai Indians, which he was endorsing, and move to the Rajasthani Royals.
It was also said that he had shot for a video with Shilpa Shetty, which was even premiered at a party recently. However, a spokesperson for the actor has denied this, saying that Hrithik is too busy with ‘Kites’ to work on anything else. He said, “We were all surprised when we heard recent media reports of Hrithik being a part of the Rajasthan Royal’s video or its promotion, the news is absolutely untrue. He has been busy shooting for his home production ‘Kites’ which still has one short schedule pending and has hence excused himself from all IPL promotions this year.”
Source – planetradiocity.com
Newly appointed Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara on Saturday gave a thumbs up to John Buchanan’s concept of multiple captains and feels it opens up endless possibilities for the game.
Former Australia coach Buchanan, who is in charge of the Kolkata Knight Riders team in the Indian Premier League, proposed more than one captain for the side which has sparked a furious debate in India with Sourav Ganguly fans claiming this was a move to sideline the former India skipper.
Sangakkara though found the concept pretty interesting and said it can be tried out in Twenty20 cricket.
However, he also said communication between the coach and players would be vital for this experiment to be successful.
“If it’s a way to go forward and it shows results, why not? Everyone is looking for the edge to win. If this is going to provide them that in the future, then it’s well and good,” said Sangakkara, who will lead Sri Lanka for the first time in the Twenty20 World Cup in England this June.
Sangakkara said he understands Buchanan’s concept because he believes that leadership is always situational.
“I believe that leadership is always situational. It’s a very interesting concept, and I think it’s all about using the best man for a specific situation,” he told ‘cricket news web site´.
Source – hindustantimes.com
The DLF Indian Premier League (IPL) has announced that Kingfisher Airlines has renewed its deal to be the Official Airline and Travel Partner for the league in the second season.
As the official airline and travel partner to the DLF Indian Premier League, Kingfisher Airlines will extend its hospitality to not only all the teams and players of the DLF Indian Premier League but will also offer IPL fans in India the unique opportunity to travel to South Africa to root for their favourite teams participating in Season 2009 in South Africa. Kingfisher Airlines is working in close consultation with the South African Tourism and three of the largest tour operators to offer cricket fans a unique once in a life time fare to experience cricket in the Rainbow Nation, an official release said. The airline is also working closely with IPL to ensure that all teams and support management get to “travel in style and convenience” between India and South Africa.
Kingfisher packages to South Africa will look to offer fans an end-to-end experience with airline tickets, match tickets, hotels and on-ground arrangements all built into one exciting package at an unbeatable price, the company said.
Taking things a step further, Kingfisher will also offer customised tours based on each team’s fan base and will facilitate special flights within India to ensure that fans of all the franchises can connect to convenient flights between India and South Africa.
In addition to that fans can also savour the treasures of the Rainbow Nation with local sight-seeing tours conducted by expert tour operators and local guides to enhance their South African experience. Attractively priced IPL match tickets will ensure that fans from all across can fly and support their teams.
IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi says, “I am very pleased to have the country’s premier 5 star airline Kingfisher Airlines join us as our Official Airline and Travel Partner. I am certain that the IPL fans travelling to South Africa for Season 2009 will enjoy the 5 star hospitality of the airline while flying the good times to the Rainbow Nation.
“Kingfisher’s decision to extend the association with the DLF IPL further bears testimony to the fact that there is a huge global fan following for the league and I am certain now that a lot of Indians will partake of this unique offer from Kingfisher Airlines to make the trip over to South Africa to enjoy an action packed Season 2009.”
Kingfisher Airlines chairman and CEO Dr. Vijay Mallya said, “We are delighted to extend our partnership with the DLF Indian Premier League as the official airline and travel partner for Season 2009. Fans can expect to fly the good times in the Rainbow Nation as they follow the fortunes of their favourite IPL teams in South Africa.
“This extension of our agreement with the DLF Indian Premier League is further testimony of our commitment to Indian sports. I am certain that all the fans, players and officials of the DLF IPL will undoubtedly enjoy our hospitality and fly the good times during the thirty – six days of intense competition. I welcome all DLF IPL fans to sit back, relax and enjoy the Kingfisher experience.”
The DLF Indian Premier League is set to kick-off in Cape Town with a double-header weekend, which will see all eight teams pitted against each other. The double header on 18 April will see the winner of the inaugural season the Rajasthan Royals face-off against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, while the Mumbai Indians will do battle against the Chennai Super Kings. On 19 April the Deccan Chargers will face the Kolkata Knight Riders and the second game will see the Delhi Dare Devils take on Kings XI Punjab.
Sourcec – indiantelevision.com
A number of sponsors are deserting Indian Premier League (IPL) teams or tweaking their deals with team owners as the tournament moves
to South Africa in its second season and the slowdown continues to hurt firms across industries.
Companies like financial services firm Religare, insurer Bajaj Allianz and realty player HDIL have terminated deals with IPL teams, while soft drink major Coca-Cola and mobile service provider Virgin Mobile have decided against some new ties.
Also, almost all existing sponsors have re-opened deals with their respective team franchisee partners, and are either seeking compensation, more privileges for the same money, or better deals for season three in cases where they have inked multi-year deals.
“Things are not as rosy as they were last year. We are trying to tweak our deals in a manner that our sponsors get more value for their investments,” said Rajasthan Royals chief marketing officer Raghu Iyer. He confirmed that Bajaj Allianz has terminated its sponsorship deal with the team. “We have done an out of court settlement with our former sponsor Bajaj Allianz, and have mutually terminated our agreement. They will not be associating with us,” Mr Iyer said.
Religare has pulled out as associate partner of GMR-owned Delhi Daredevils. When contacted, GMR Sports CEO Amrit Mathur confirmed: “Religare is no longer associated with Delhi Daredevils.” The two had entered into a multi-year tie-up last year. HDIL is no longer title sponsor of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), confirmed a KKR spokesperson.
Coca-Cola, which was on the verge of signing a sponsorship deal with Deccan Chargers, has stalled its plans. Virgin Mobile is also learnt to have pulled back a proposed licensing deal with Delhi Daredevils as official mobile partner.
“We have not yet entered into any agreement with any team for IPL season two,” confirmed a Virgin Mobile spokesperson. While most IPL franchisees are having a tough time fixing their corporate teams for IPL-2, the Reliance-owned Mumbai Indians seems to have no such tension.
“Several new marquee brands are supporting Mumbai Indians this season, even under a changed economic environment. It is a huge vote of confidence in the potential of our team,” Mumbai Indians team owner Nita M Ambani said.
Pernod Richard has inked a deal with the team as official partner for spirits and wines. Wrigley, PepsiCo, MasterCard, Kingfisher and Adidas are the other sponsors. A team spokesperson said talks are on with players in the insurance, pharmaceuticals, electronics, travel and tea company for additional sponsorships.
Beverage makers PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, meanwhile, are in the process of re-working their plans, since home ground beverage partner benefits like on-ground activation, in-stadia visibility and engaging with home crowds are lost.
Summer being peak season for soft drinks, the companies had tailored elaborate on-ground activation plans to leverage on IPL.
PepsiCo, for example, had tied up with Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings as pouring rights and hydration partner. Rival Coca-Cola had fought a close battle with PepsiCo to ink a deal for its Sprite brand as KKR’s associate sponsor and pouring partner. Coca-Cola is also renegotiating its deal with Delhi Daredevils. A Coca-Cola India spokesperson said: “Having signed up as associate sponsors of KKR and Delhi Daredevils for our brands Sprite and Coca-Cola respectively, we are now looking forward to season two.”
Companies like sport gear maker Puma, which is a merchandise partner for Rajasthan Royals and Deccan Chargers, and Hero Honda continue to bet on IPL despite the shift in venue. “We will shift on ground promotional activities to South Africa, though our in-store promotions will continue in India,” said Puma India’s CEO Rajiv Mehta.
Advertisers too are learnt to be re-working on-air deals with broadcaster Sony Entertainment. They argue that with a number of matches scheduled for 4 pm, the prime time on-air advantage will be impacted.
Source – economictimes.indiatimes.com
Shah Rukh Khan’s IPL team’s experiment will be watched keenly. Kolkata Knight Riders’ coach John Buchanan and its icon player Sourav Ganguly sprang a surprise on the cricket world by announcing that the team will have a pool of captains who could turns at leading the team at different stages of a match during the ensuing DLF-IPL tournament in South Africa.
“We’re looking at knowledge of individuals at different stages of the game. The idea is to have somebody to have a better view of the game irrespective of whether he’s in the middle or off the field,” Buchanan said in Kolkata, sparking off a great debate in cricket circles. He suggested that in this format of the game there is little scope for thinking.
Last year, the DLF-IPL tournament showed that T20 was not just slam-bang cricket. On the contrary, it challenged the best cricketers to be on their toes and think on their feet. Buchanan has surely added a new dimension to it now but, as Ganguly says, we will all have to wait and see how the experiment pans out.
Traditionally, it has been believed that too many captains on the field can lead to chaos. At the moment, we can only envisage that the adaptability of KKR players – and, for good measure, the pool of captains – will come under test.
Come to think of it, the opposing teams will also wonder during a game which of the KKR men on the field is doing the leading. After all, every captain has a different approach to the task of leadership and the rival teams would have to make different plans to take on the KKR combination under different skippers.
Buchanan has not articulated his thoughts on how exactly he plans to roll this idea out. “The concept of multiple captains is new, we’ll have to see how it goes,” he said. “I’m clear about my concept. We have to look and see how it works out.”
You can be sure there will be a lot of people waiting to see how it goes.
Source – khabrein.info
