New Delhi: First it was the skimpy outfits of cheerleaders, then the Bhajji-Sreesanth slap row and then the Ganguly-Warne spat — it seems as if controversies and the Indian Premier League go hand in hand.

It has not even been a few weeks since the slap row died down, that the cheerleaders have raised another stink in the already clash-ridden league. This time, it is over their skin tone.

Two cheerleaders from London were allegedly asked to leave the Mohali ground by event management company, Wizcraft, because they had a darker skin colour.

However, Wizcraft denies the charge. The CEO of Wizcraft, Sabbas Joseph has told CNN-IBN that the girls were contracted for just one day of work.

One of the cheerleaders, Ellesha Newton, allegedly told The Telegraph: “It was okay when we reached the stadium. It was when we were going to take our positions that some of Wizcraft’s employees asked us to leave. We were surprised and asked them why and they told us it was because of the colour of our skin.”

The Telegraph quoted the director of Fierce Performance Production, Jorge Aldana as saying that the incident took place before the Kings XI’s first match at Mohali on April 19 against the Chennai Super Kings.

Fierce Performance Production is the company that had brought the girls from London.

Aldana was quoted by The Telegraph as saying: “I found Ellesha and Sherinne Anderson — whom I had recruited as part of a team of 12 — in tears when I reached the ground.”

“Sherinne and Ellesha were in a state of shock and crying outside the ground. I called them and asked them what was the matter and they told me that a guy from Wizcraft had forbidden them from entering the ground,” Aldana was further quoted by The Telegraph as saying.
Source:ibnlive.com

SPORT: It plans to take the tournament to the Gulf and also rope in film stars to play In order to counter the heat generated by the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) launched by BCCI, the rebel cricket body — Indian Cricket League (ICL) — is all set to take its tournament outside the country.

Not only will the Subhash Chandra-owned Twenty20 tournament go to West Asia in September, its prize money will also go up. ICL will also launch a high-voltage multi-media campaign beginning August-September other than considering roping in film stars to not only own cricket teams, but to play the Twenty20 matches.

The bottom line is that the Essel Group is gearing up to take on the Indian Premier League which has kept television viewers glued to Sony’s SET Max channel.

Says a senior Zee executive: “The ICL is now very big on the agenda for the group. Several steps are being taken to increase the interest of both the viewers and the advertisers when the tournament starts in September-October this year. Don’t forget, we saw the big potential in the Twenty20 format much before anyone else did.”

To lend freshness to the game, the ICL executives are looking at several international cricketing venues in the Gulf. The belief is that the company may finally zero in on Dubai or Sharjah as Taj Television, the holding company of Ten Sports that shows the matches, is based in Dubai. Zee owns a 50 per cent stake in Ten Sports.

However, in the face of competition from IPL, establishing ICL as a vibrant television property will be an uphill task for the Essel Group.

“IPL is a successful television property with consistent ratings of about 4-5, similar to any popular show on a general entertainment channel. The initial tournaments of ICL got ratings of 1-2. To attract the viewers to another Twenty20 tournament will be a tough challenge for the ICL team,” says a senior media planner. Winning against IPL will be a challenge on other counts as well.

For a start, IPL is an official tournament with the backing of the International Cricket Council (ICC) while ICL is a rebel league comprising either retired international cricketers or not so known cricket players from both within and outside the country.

Also, the ICL matches aired on Zee Sports and later on Ten Sports as well, managed to attract viewers for 6-12 minutes on an average. The average time spent on Set Max (for IPL) has been over 40 minutes.

Himanshu Modi, business head, ICL, however, is unfazed. In an emailed response to Business Standard earlier, he said: “It is important for everyone involved or following the league to understand that in terms of product life cycle we are in the introductory stage. Like any other sporting product, the ICL will need time to build its support base…”

IPL has become a phenomenal television success, agree advertising experts. “If any one has to even match its intensity in future, they will have to put in something ‘extra’,” a senior executive in an advertising agency concludes.

International venues and celebrities may work wonders for the sub-continent expats, but for the viewers back home, much more may be required,” a senior executive in a Gurgaon-based advertising agency concludes.
Source:business-standard.com

Today’s match is a do or die for Delhi Daredevils,if they win the match they can almost make it into the semifinals where as the Kolkata Knight Riders are almost out of the league.
Delhi Daredevils (probables): Virender Sehwag (capt), Gautam Gambhir, Shikhar Dhawan, Shoaib Malik, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Farveez Maharoof, Rajat Bhatia, Amit Mishra, Yo Mahesh, Glenn McGrath

Kolkata Knight Riders (probables): Salman Butt, Debabrata Das, Sourav Ganguly (capt), David Hussey, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Wriddhiman Saha, Ajit Agarkar, Ajantha Mendis, Ishant Sharma, Siddarth Kaul, Umar Gul

Match Number – 47
20:00 hours Indian Standard Time
Keep checking iplcricketlive.com for the latest analysis of match and latest news on IPL

Essex chief executive David East has confirmed that fast bowler Andre Nel is to cut short his stint as the county’s overseas player to take part in the Indian Premier League.

The 30-year-old was scheduled to make his last appearance in Sunday’s Friends Provident Trophy game against Middlesex Crusaders but East confirmed that Nel has been released following their 106-run defeat to Kent.

Nel, who may return to England later in the summer with the touring South Africans, is available to play for Mumbai Indians in the lucrative Twenty20 tournament on Sunday.
Source:cricket365.com

A DISPUTE that could gravely affect the future of the Indian Premier League is brewing, with some Australian players who participated in the glitzy competition still waiting to be paid.

The unprecedented player auction shocked the cricket world in February, with top Australian players signed by rich Indian franchises for huge amounts of money. However, it seems not everyone has yet enjoyed the windfall.

Australian Cricketers Association chief executive Paul Marsh confirmed that a number of the Australians were yet to receive their wages. He said his organisation was not panicking about the impasse but was preparing to take firmer action if there was no breakthrough soon.

That time is creeping up. One player confided to The Sun-Herald that he had been told three times that his wages were on the way.

“First I was told it would be in two weeks,” the player said.

“That passed by and I was told it would be in the following week. Then I was told it would be in in the next few days. I just said, ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’.”

Another player was trying to get an instalment through because he needed it to meet mortgage repayments. A third player confirmed to The Sun-Herald that he had finally been paid on Wednesday. “It’s something we’re aware of. There’s still a few that haven’t been paid,” Marsh said.

“It’s certainly something we’ve got our eye on but it’s not something that we’re panicking about. We just want to get a result as soon as we can. I don’t want to blow this up into something that it’s not, but I also do want to sort it out as quickly as possible.”

Marsh said the ACA had no formal link with the franchises as they do not recognise player associations. However, the franchises – which have sole responsibility to pay the players – have agreements with the BCCI. Therefore, he said, if the wages were not paid, the ACA’s only recourse would be through the BCCI.

However, Marsh is confident the problem would be resolved soon.

“The bad PR that would eventuate if the players weren’t paid would be so bad that none of the players would go back and the whole thing would fall over,” he said.

“You’re talking about some billion-dollar corporations so you just can’t see how they wouldn’t pay their players. They know they have to pay their players and that’s why we’re not panicking.

“The clubs’ focus has been about putting their teams on the field. It’s organised chaos over there. But at the same time, we’d like to think they would have been more professional than this.

“It’s something we’ll go a bit harder on in the not too distant future if it doesn’t get sorted out.”
Source:smh.com.au