This is the Final Match of IPL Cricket 2008. The match is between Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings. Chennai team is unchanged. Royals have made two changes, Akmal and Niraj Patel come in for the injured Smith and Mahesh Rawat .
Finally the D day has come and stage is set for the grand finale of one of the most popular cricket leagues – DLF – Indian Premier League. Two teams which have made it to the finals are Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings. Initially Rajasthan Royals were considered as the weakest team of the league but under the captaincy of Shane Warne, they have proved that it takes determination and sheer talent to come up and give a cracking reply to the critics. On the other hand Chennai Super Kings who were lead by T20 world cup winner captain M.S.Dhoni started very well in the tournament and it was considered they would make in the top 4. But in the middle of the league matches, they had a poor show and they almost were out of the semi finals race. But as they say ” Luck favors the brave” and thats what had happened. Chennai Super Kings defeated the Kings XI Punjab in semi finals and that too comprehensively by 9 wickets.
The teams will take on each other today at 8 pm IST and they will be playing for this wonderful trophy which is diamond-studded and encrusted with other precious gems like rubies and yellow and blue sapphires. We do expect this will be a real thriller and we will see the best from both teams
We from team of iplcricketlive.com wish all the best to both the teams and hope the superior one wins.
MUMBAI: The Indian Premier League (IPL) has made cash-starved Maharashtra poorer by around Rs 70 crore, alleged the state BJP on Friday.
The party has accused the ruling Congress-NCP combine of giving undue concessions to ‘the most popular current entertainment show’ — the IPL.
“The reasons behind the Maharashtra government’s generosity in waiving off the entertainment tax on IPL matches need to be probed,” said state BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari, hinting that the political pressure might have forced the state government to offer concession to T20 matches.
Mr Bhandari dubbed this form of cricket as more of an entertainment than sport. “The competition should have been considered as an entertainment show than a genuine sports activity and charged entertainment tax. Why should the state give up precious revenue for this ‘cheap entertainment’ ?”, he asked.
As reported by ET on May 13, the state’s revenue ministry decided to exempt IPL matches from the entertainment tax, which is normally charged at 25% of the ticket price. The sponsorship amount is taxed separately. The state government decided to waive both for IPL matches. The Bombay Entertainment Duty Act, 1923, makes it clear that any show, musical, performance that’s organised with an intention of making profits needs to pay entertainment tax to the state government.
Normally, cricket matches are exempted from tax, if they are organised by state units. “In this case, the entire tournament has been a corporate event. There is no need for the state to be so charitable,” the BJP said. “There are many more serious issues than this trivial tournament that needs the state’s attention ,” the party said.
The BJP has also asked BCCI president and union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar to set aside some of the profits of the IPL cricket matches for debt-ridden farmers, particularly in the Vidharbha region of Maharashtra.
Over 4,500 farmers have so far committed suicides in Vidharbha region alone and their families were facing financial crisis, the party had pointed out. “Mr Pawar can at least give some relief to these families by distributing some IPL profits among them,” the party had said.
Source:economictimes.indiatimes.com
Mumbai, May 31: : After leading Rajasthan Roayals to the final of the inaugural Indian Premier League, ace spinner Shane Warne now wants to be the “spin bowling mentor” for young talents in the country.
Warne, after comprehensive a win against Delhi Daredevils in the first semi-final of IPL on Friday, said he wanted to come back India to coach the young talented players of the country.
“I could come back as a spin bowling mentor for young spinners,” he said. The spin wizard, who has 708 Test and 293 One Day International wickets in his kitty, praised the young Indian spinners for their performance in the ongoing Twenty20 extravaganza.
The leg-spinner, besides his team-mate Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja, named Piyush Chawla of Punjab Kings XI and Delhi Daredevils’ Amit Mishra as probables for the national squad.
“Jadeja who has showed his skill though tournament, I think, is already a rockstar,” he said. On being asked about whether he was interested in coaching the national side, the Australian said, “I think Gary Kirsten just got appointed as coach and he is a wonderful person and cricketer and I am sure he will do well.”
Warne expressed satisfaction about the news of his team-mate Yusuf Pathan’s inclusion in the Indian side for forthcoming tri-series in Bangladesh and Asia Cup in Pakistan.
“Pathan has been picked up for the Indian side and I am proud to have got the best out of him in this tournament,” he said.
Source: cricket.expressindia.com
Many eyebrows were raised and heads shaken when it first emerged how much the Indian Premier League franchisees were shelling out. Would they be able to recover their huge investments, asked skeptics. Well, it looks like the franchisees will be having the last laugh – all the way to the bank.
The whopping success of IPL has not only ensured that teams like Jaipur, Kolkata and Mohali are likely to break even in the first year itself, but also transformed the fortunes of its telecaster Sony Set Max, says a report prepared by the equity research division of Alchemy Shares and Stock Brokers. The biggest gainer, though, is arguably BCCI – which is projected to rake in a profit of Rs 350 crore from IPL in the first year itself. This would be more than BCCI’s profit of Rs 235 crore for all of 2007. In all, IPL will bring revenue of Rs 1,200 crore a year into cricket, more than double the government’s entire sports budget of Rs 490 crore.
Set Max, too, seems to have a winner on its hands. The channel’s revenue marketshare has risen from a pre-IPL level of 5.7% to 28.8%, says the report. Its share of prime time has gone up to 29%, higher than the cumulative marketshare of the top nine Hindi general entertainment channels. From next year, Sony is projected to gross about Rs 650 crore in advertising revenue for about 45 days of IPL, which would be 7% of the entire estimated TV ad revenue of around Rs 9,000 crore for the whole year.
Ad rates for 10-second spots, which were at Rs 2 lakh per 10 seconds at the start of the tournament, have climbed rapidly to Rs 5 lakh and look set to rise further to Rs 10 lakh for the final, says the report. This would be even more than the Rs 8 lakh per 10 second rate for the nailbiting T20 World Cup final between India and Pakistan last year. Interestingly, the TRP viewership rating of the World Cup final was 9.21. Arnab Mitra, who prepared the Alchemy report, says the TRP rating of the first few IPL matches was around 8.2, which later fell but remained over 5 – higher than any other program running on TV.
IPL’s success has also rubbed off on the franchisees. According to the report, teams like Jaipur, Kolkata and Mohali, which have not spent much on franchisee fees, are likely to break even in the first year itself. Kolkata Knight Riders is projected to make an operating profit of Rs 15 crore due to its huge earnings from local sponsorship, amounting to Rs 32 crore, and gate ticket sales of Rs 20 crore. Similarly, Team Jaipur will also be making a profit of Rs 10 crore. This is mainly because it bid a mere Rs 27 crore as the annual franchisee fee, almost half the sums bid by the UB group for Bangalore and by Reliance for Mumbai.
However, even the loss-making teams are expected to earn revenue ranging from Rs 48 crore-76 crore. With cash inflows into cricket getting ever bigger in India, expect this figure to rise further. Valuations will rise correspondingly. In the international sports market, a team is normally valued at three to four times of its revenue. As growth prospects in India are much brighter, an IPL team could get even higher multiples.
Source:ipl.timesofindia.indiatimes.com
