Yesterday’s announcement by John Buchanan on the usage of multiple captains by Kolkata Knight Riders this season is a massive gamble that threatens to derail their campaign. Aside from the uncertainty and changes in strategy from match to match due to a revolving door, the policy threatens to unleash infighting not seen in Indian cricket since the Chappell-Ganguly debacle three years ago.

As Sourav Ganguly sat next too Buchanan at the press conference, he seemed distinctly uneasy, and when asked whether he was upset by the new policy, he skirted around the question before Buchanan interjected, quipping “Of course he will be upset. He is the Prince of Kolkata.”

Ganguly then broke into laughter, but the body language looked distinctly worrying. With two strongly minded individuals in the franchise, it could herald rather stormy times for the Bengal-base outfit.

Buchanan has never been a coach in the serene and low-key mould of a Gary Kirsten or John Wright. On the contrary, he is full of ideas and innovation, whatever one might think of them. And on that front, trouble lurks. Like Greg Chappell, Buchanan can be frank, even to the point of being publically undiplomatic, and is unlikely to defer on an issue in order to placate superstar players.

After the famed Kolkata Test of 2001, when VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid batted for an entire day to pull India out of certain defeat, Buchanan publicly questioned Shane Warne’s fitness and said that his weight was a factor as Australia’s attack wilted in the same heat. Nor was he perturbed by Warne’s anger and defiance when called into question. Last year, having retired from international cricket, Warne lampooned Buchanan and his methods, claiming that he was living in “La-La Land”. In a radio interview soon after, Buchanan laughed and joked about the incident. Buchanan was never put off by Warne’s vehement opposition, and it’s unlikely that he’ll bend to Ganguly either, at least without a monumental fight.

Like Chappell and the vast majority of Australians, Buchanan places quite a lot of emphasis on fielding, something which Ganguly famously disregarded. Sooner or later, especially in the most frenetic of formats, this will become a source of added tension, as it did when Chappell brought a flock of youngsters into the ODI team in late-2005.

And on that occasion, one of the most chaotic periods in recent cricket history broke out. Already sensing his demise, the nervous Ganguly played politics within the team, shuffling the batting order around and instilling uncertainty into his teammates. Before the dispute with Chappell was brought into the public, Laxman scored a century against Zimbabwe and muttered about negative vibes from within the team. Given what transpired, it’s easy to see who he was referring to. With Ganguly looking over his shoulder again, something that is accentuated by his retirement from first-class cricket and the entailing uncertainty over his form, he could easily revert to his old behaviour and destabilise a team that is already looking weak in the absence of Umar Gul.

It’s something that the Knight Riders could well do without. Perhaps it is the prelude to Ganguly’s departure. Whatever the outcome, the issue needs to be resolved quickly and decisively.

Source – blogs.livemint.com

The IPL extravaganza looks set to move to South Africa, with barely a reproving glance for its own country. India has been sized up and found wanting by the BCCI. What was a small scheduling problem has been blown up to dramatic dimensions, because of the swollen egos of our Cricket administrators and their all-or-nothing gambits.

The question is not whether the Indian Premier League should play out in some corner of a foreign field — taking it out of India could indeed be a chance to imprint the game on global consciousness. The issue is not the IPL brand, or even cricket, but the India brand. Four states had acknowledged their problems hosting the games on the exact days that the IPL demanded. By refusing to accommodate even a tiny bit and reschedule the matches around the entirely expected Indian election (whether out of ego or their own contractual obligations), the IPL establishment has fostered the impression that India is simply incapable of chewing gum and walking a straight line — ensuring security for the cricket matches and conducting its general election. Meanwhile, South Africa has offered the League safe haven, despite the fact that it too is heading for polls in April. So what’s the takeaway for the international audience? That the IPL is too hot for India to handle, for all its emerging power pretensions. Providing security is, after all, the ancient raison d’etre of a state, above all else. In the words of a bitter Indian cricket fan, “Should all Indian citizens migrate en masse to England and South Africa since the state cannot provide us security?” And even reasonable voices have read the incident as the Indian state’s failure to keep up appearances. Maybe we should just flop down and admit our abject failure. After all, even the Indian Parliament isn’t impregnable — why don’t we just shift our sessions to the House of Commons? The Lok Sabha channel can beam back the deliberations. Indian movie stars, we know are hot stuff everywhere — let’s just move the entire industry abroad so that better equipped, more responsible countries can bask in their aura. India can watch it all on television. We don’t deserve better, if the BCCI is to be believed.
Source – indianexpress.com

One could not figure out Lalit Modi’s anxiety to host the IPL season2. Till one heard the above news IPL has signed a nine year 8200cr contract with the World Sport Group (WSG) to be the official sponsor for all their matches till 2017.

No wonder Modi may be ready to take on Indian politicians also to conduct the IPL2, so much money was involved and no one wanted to say no to it, surely IPL has got to do more with money than cricket.

It is believed that BCCI would be growing even richer with this deal. How much ever little dissidence that was there from the players about the relocation of matches and other aspects of conducting the tournament would come to naught with this mid boggling and wealthy news. Surely Lalit Modi and his team have a money winning spinner on their hand through IPL.
Source – andhracafe.com

It is still not clear whether Pakistani players will be playing in the second season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) or not, as Pak Federal Minister for Sports, Pir Aftab Hussain Shah Jilani has said that a final decision in this regard would be taken in the coming two to three days.

Jilani said that following the IPL’s shift to South Africa, the government may rethink its stand on over the issue.

“Now, the organisers have shifted the Twenty 20 cricket event in South Africa, the situation is different now. There will be no security threat to Pakistani cricketers there and they may be officially recognized to play lucrative IPL cricket. The decision will be made in next two days,” The Nation qouted Jilani, as saying.

He said that the final decision would be taken by President Asif Ali Zardari, as he is the Patron-in-Chief of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

On Wednesday, however, PCB’s Chief Operating Officer, Saleem Altaf had said that that no Pakistani player would take part in second edition of the IPL even though it was being shifted out from India to South Africa.

“We know that some players really want to play in the IPL but I don’t think that they would be a part of it this year. They may be included in the league next year but not now. These are the harsh realities of life,” Altaf had said.
Source – thaindian.com

With IPL 2 finally on its way to South Africa, the Indian fans will have to contend with watching the matches on TV and following it up on the Internet. MSM has retained the telecast rights for the tournament, which is expected to commence from April 17. With less than a month left, the IPL teams are intensifying their activities on the Internet via their websites to garner all the support they can.

Most of the IPL team websites have introduced not only newer features for their fans, but also tied up with social media groups to gain better visibility.

GMR-promoted Delhi Dare Devils has joined hands with Bigadda.com in a pure play marketing tie-up, where Bigadda will be their exclusive social networking partner. Bigadda will be creating games, contests, applications and a DDD community through which fans can connect with the team. In return, loyal and committed fans would get exclusive merchandise, meet and greet opportunities with the team, snippets, and behind the scenes news, among others. This will be a mutually symbiotic relationship, which is expected to create an exciting buzz around IPL and DDD as a team.

Mandar Natekar, Head of Revenue & Sales, Bigadda.com, noted, “The popularity of the IPL team sites does increase during the season, but there are limitations to that. Typically, they will still need the thrust of a popular networking site to drive traffic their way. As a social media site, we have a large registered user base and hence, we are in a much better position to create traction, excitement and buzz for their website through our communities, rather than they doing it as a standalone.”

Commenting on the online initiatives of Chennai Super Kings, Rakesh Singh, Head – Marketing, India Cements Ltd, said, “Traffic does increase as the season approaches. During the last season, our website received several million page views, many repeat visitors and over five pages per visit. Our website was also rated as one of the best and most informative websites last year. This year, too, we will have many more features on our website. It will be a one-stop shop for all information on the Chennai Super Kings.”

Talking of the new features, he added, “We have been receiving a lot of feedback from our visitors to the site. Given that, this year will see fresh content that includes blogs, including one from VB Chandrasekhar, of the team management, an online store with special merchandise, including T-shirts, personalised T-shirts, caps, wrist bands and many more goodies, a WAP site and mobile store for ring tones, themes, anthems, wallpapers, news alerts and unique team-centric content from a dedicated editorial staff.”

Utkarsh Singh, Head – Business Develoment, Rajasthan Royals, said, “The website is the best place to get content and info that is not normally available in the public domain. It is visited by the core loyalists of the team the most. Also, for a lot of people and fans who wish to follow the teams’ developments, the website is the best destination.”

The Rajasthan Royals website has also introduced some new features. Singh further said, “We were the first to put up our online store and the first to launch online memberships. We are also the first to have our own channel on YouTube (http://in.youtube.com/user/RajasthanRoyalsTV) and the first to have an official community page on Facebook. All these factors combined, with the fact that we are champions of the 1st season, will ensure a lot of traction and interest in our website. Finally, with Shilpa Shetty adding the glamour quotient and things like exclusive previews to our anthem video and behind-the-scene footage planned for this season, we are already witnessing an increase in traffic. We will monetise the website by selling merchandising. We are already selling membership. Also, we will work closely with our advertisers to make the website an essential ingredient in their marketing mix.”
Source – exchange4media.com