Franchises from the Indian Premier League will get first priority over players for the proposed Champions League, and any team that fields a cricketer from the unofficial Indian Cricket League will be automatically disqualified from the international Twenty20 competition, Lalit Modi, the chairman of IPL, has said.

However, Modi told Cricinfo that the Champions League was “still a long way away” and what has been agreed upon by various boards so far is “only an in-principle agreement” to host such an event. “The venues have not been decided, the dates are still open and we are trying to host the event this year,” Modi said.

The England and Wales Cricket Board had on Saturday issued a press release which said that the ECB, Cricket Australia, the BCCI and Cricket South Africa had “reached an agreement for the staging of the inaugural Champions League this autumn” for a top prize of US$ 5 million. However, Modi said he would be able to provide a clear picture only after the BCCI’s working committee discusses the issue during a meeting scheduled on June 22.

Asked about the Champions League’s regulations, Modi, who is also a vice-president of the BCCI, said that “it had been clearly resolved earlier” that the IPL franchises would get priority over cricketers in their team. But the franchises will have to pay a “relieving fees” to the player’s state team if both have qualified for the event, he said.

Elaborating on the case of Michael Hussey, who is caught between Western Australia and Chennai Super Kings for the Champions League, Modi said, “In the case of Michael Hussey, Chennai Super Kings has the option to keep him and pay a relieving fees to Western Australia. The option is with Super Kings.”

However, players like David Hussey, whose IPL team, Kolkata Knight Riders, failed to qualify for the Champions League, will have to play for Victoria, he said. “In case of David Hussey, he has to play for his home team if his IPL team has not qualified. If his home team has qualified, which it has, then he plays for them. The county option is his third fall back,” Modi said.

Modi also clarified that “any ICL player playing for any team automatically disqualifies that team from participating” in the Champions League. “No exceptions will be made under any circumstances,” Modi said.

Currently, about 24 ICL players have been signed up to play for various English counties – the top two Twenty20 teams from England will join Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings from India, the Titans from Pretoria and KwaZulu Natal Dolphins representing South Africa and Western Australia and Victoria from Australia in the Champions League.
Source: content-usa.cricinfo.com

Colombo: Hailing the opportunity to open with Sachin Tendulkar at the recently concluded Indian Premier League as “a big achievement”, Sri Lanka’s dashing opening batsman Sanath Jayasuriya has said he had “learnt a lot” from the maestro.

“I found that even after being in the game for a long time I still had a lot to learn by talking to Sachin. His cricket knowledge was amazing,” Jayasuriya said in an interview with local private radio Hiru FM.

The 38-year-old left-handed former Sri Lanka captain, who has scored over 10,000 runs in the one-day internationals, played for Mumbai Indians under Sachin’s captaincy and hammered the second fastest century (unbeaten), in addition to five half centuries in the IPL 20-20 tournament.

“He (Sachin) is a great human being and an excellent captain. Myself and Dilhara (Fernando) were able to learn a lot from him,” Jayasuriya said, describing the IPL series as “the best tournament” he had ever seen by all standards.

“The Indian Board had organised it superbly. IPL is now the world’s number 1,” he said, adding that it had provided the youngsters “the chance to talk to some of the great international players, share their experiences and learn from them”.

Jayasuriya, who retired last year from Test cricket, has represented Sri Lanka in 110 Tests and 411 ODIs and was reinstated into the Sri Lankan team for the forthcoming Asia Cup tournament in Pakistan.

The Sri Lankan national selectors said that Jayasuriya’s dashing form displayed in the IPL tournament has forced them to reconsider their decision and include him for the Asian Cup tournament commencing later this month.

The selectors also said that he would “definitely be playing in the next World Cup as long as the veteran left-hander maintains his fitness and form in the important games”.

Responding to a question whether he would play the next World Cup matches, Jayasuriya said he would do his utmost for the country.

“There is a lot of time to go before the next World Cup, so I am not able to say anything about playing in that. I am now back in the team and I am pleased with it – nothing will be greater than playing for your own country,” Jayasuriya said.

He became the third highest paid player (earning a whopping US $975,000) of the IPL, next to India’s Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Australia’s Andrew Symonds.
Source: Sify.com

IPL franchises will be able to trade players early next year ahead of the 2009 season, Lalit Modi, Chairman of the hugely successful tournament disclosed on Sunday.
“There will be a transfer window open early next year just ahead of the 2009 season to enable franchises trade players and bring in the ones they require,” he told PTI in an interview.

Stating that he had been “overwhelmed” by the success of the Twenty20 competition, Modi also disclosed that certain innovations would be introduced in the tournament.

“One of the innovation to be introduced next year would be orange neon ball. This would, however, depend on how successful the trials of the same are,” he said.

“This year we already introduced the Orange and Purple Cap innovations and the Kingfisher Team Fair Play award and will look at continuing with this tradition of innovation in the subsequent leagues,” he added.

Modi said the second season of IPL was not possible before the 2011 ODI World Cup, to be co-hosted by the Asian cricketing nations.

“The second season as of now is a very distant possibility and will not take place definitely until after the 2011 World Cup given the FTP commitments of the Test playing nations and India.

“By then, I firmly believe, IPL would have already established itself as a major event and carved a niche for itself on the international cricketing calender.”

“Importantly, though when the second season does materialise in the future it will not be a full-fledged season like the recently concluded inaugural season. It could, for instance, be a knock-out league or a format which we will evolve in due course of time.” Modi also made it clear that IPL was India’s domestic event and could not be co-hosted by two countries like India and Pakistan.

“No, the DLF IPL is, as the name suggests, a domestic cricket league, featuring the best of international and Indian talent. It will not be co-hosted in conjunction with any other country.

“I am certain that the success of the league will spawn a whole host of similar leagues around the world. Once that happens, it would be our endeavor to see that top two teams from each of the countries play in the Champions League, along the lines of the one being played in football currently.” On the success of IPL, Modi said it was beyond his expectations.

“To say that the inaugural season of the IPL has exceeded my expectations and those of the BCCI would, to simply put it, be an understatement,” Modi said.

“I have been truly overwhelmed by the success of the DLF Indian Premier League. In fact, the global response to the competition has been simply unbelievable, to say the least.

“I had imagined the IPL being huge in terms of spectator interests in India, but what we have achieved and the global interest that a domestic league has generated have been beyond my wildest imagination,” he said.

“The IPL has gained large viewerships in Australia, South Africa, South East Asia, the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa) and the Americas.”

The inaugural edition of IPL, contested by eight teams non-stop for 44 days and telecast live by a private television channel during the prime time, gripped the cricket lovers, reportedly exceeding the popularity of TV serials and Bollywood films. “Not to mention the TRPs that we have garnered in India which are quite frankly staggering to say the least. The success of the league is further exemplified in the Set Max’s revenue market share of the top nine Hindi entertainment channels,” Modi said.

“And all this because we have had some of the best cricketers from around the world… Frankly I could not have envisaged a more successful inaugural season than this year,” he added.

“Imagine the likes of Swapnil Asnodkar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Niraj Patel, Abhishek Nayyar (state-level players) and Yusuf Pathan getting mobbed by fans for their performances in the league.” On the revenue did BCCI generate though the IPL, Modi, also the Cricket Board President, said he had not information on that.

“I don’t know the exact nature of revenue the IPL has generated for the BCCI as of now… However, we have at all junctures through out the IPL process attempted to be as transparent as possible in terms of the financials and so have communicated these publicly at all time and so you could also do some back of the cuff calculations to derive a number,” he said.
Source: indiatoday.digitaltoday.in

The Indian Premier League (IPL) transported a handful of players from the obscurity of domestic cricket to international fame. Even the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) seems to have taken note of IPL performance in drafting Yusuf Pathan and Pragyan Ojha into the national team. However, advertisers are not convinced.

The newfound popularity of Swapnil Asnodkar, Ravinder Jadeja and Manpreet Gony, and those of Pathan and Ojha, is unlikely to earn them much endorsement money any time soon. At best, given IPL’s city-centric loyalty, they may bag deals for local or regional brands in the short-term.

“While the young players may have found favour with the masses, I believe that one needs to play for the nation before one can actually attract national level endorsements,” says Shailendra Singh, joint managing director with Percept Holdings, a big name in celebrity and talent management.

Doing well for the national team indeed matters much more. The two Sharmas — Rohit and Ishant — attracted deals in droves after their good performance in Australia. Both are citizens of Pepsi’s Youngistaan.

“I think it is premature to say that the new faces will be lapped up by the ad industry at this point. They need to prove themselves in the international arena and represent the country. Players like Ishant, who played a crucial role in Australia, have bagged prestigious accounts,” says Jeet Banerjee, managing director, Gameplan.

Even consumer durable companies, among the biggest cricket advertisers, are not sure about the pull of the IPL stars. “Whether there is an opportunity in taking these new players on board as brand endorsers depends on factors like brand identity and target segment. At LG we are not yet considering such a move,” says V Ramachandran, director-sales and marketing, LG Electronics India.

At best, the IPL stars can hope to bag local deals, like Pathan has. “Since IPL is about cities backing teams, there could be an opportunity for local-level advertising. Even MNCs, who wish to localise their advertising initiatives, might see an opportunity in signing up some one like Abhishek Nayar or Manpreet Gony,” adds Singh.
Source: business-standard.com

Sydney, June 6 (IANS) After his low-key investment in the unfancied Rajasthan Royals fetched him a multimillion-dollar windfall in the Indian Premier League (IPL), business magnate Lachlan Murdoch is eyeing rich stakes in the fast-growing and lucrative Indian media. Murdoch was one of three members of the consortium that owned Rajasthan Royals with Manoj Badale being the chairman and major shareholder.Badale’s company, Emerging Media, leads the consortium, with Murdoch brought on board as its media partner and businessman Suresh Chellaram as its Indian partner.

“We wanted a strong media partner and a strong Indian partner, recognising the potential of the franchise over a number of years,” Badale said.An Indian-born, London-based entrepreneur, Badale says Murdoch has been “a delight to work with”.

More important for Murdoch, the victory may also give him a high-profile ticket into other Indian media deals.Badale hinted that the investment in the Royals was only Murdoch’s first step in Indian media:“Lachlan is definitely intrigued by India. Actually, I think he’s more than intrigued. He sees the huge potential this country has,” Badale was quoted as saying in The Australian.

Murdoch, a director of News Corporation – which owns News Limited, publisher of The Australian, has given little away about his reasons for investing in the franchise or about the size of his stake.In January he would say only that “the potential for Indian domestic cricket has never looked better”.But in the past he has been linked with high-profile identities on the subcontinent.

Most prominently, Murdoch has been associated with one of the richest men in India and Asia, and the owner of the rival Mumbai Indians IPL team, Mukesh Ambani, amid speculation the two may pursue Indian media ventures.

Those who know Murdoch say he was “very happy” with the Rajasthan Royals winning the inaugural IPL. The team is set to gain tens of millions of dollars in sponsorship, merchandising, gate attendances and TV rights in coming years as a result of winning the tournament, multiplying the team’s US $ 1.2 million prize money for the win many times over.

Neil Maxwell, Australian chief executive of the rival Kings XI Punjab side, said that the win would substantially expand the value of the Royals.“It brings a status, which in India is particularly important. It increases your following both in corporate sense and in public sense,” he said.

“The key for them (Rajasthan Royals) will be to leverage that success over the next 12 months. The potential from a business perspective is the capital appreciation of the franchise. It is in the interests of the franchises to make sure the IPL grows, so that it increases the value of the franchises,” Maxwell said.

The inaugural IPL exceeded all expectations, with the matches characterised by large crowds and large TV ratings in India.The Rajasthan Royals, which were purchased for $US67 million by the Emerging Media consortium and have the IPL’s cheapest playing roster, could prove lucrative in their own right for Murdoch.

Badale believes the IPL could become one of the world’s leading sport and media rights properties.

“The Rajasthan Royals need to bring all the things to market: fan-based memberships, corporate hospitality and sports sponsorship. Indians want to be associated with winners,” said Badale.
Source:thaindian.com