The Indian Premier League (IPL) matches are set to last 15 minutes longer, with the IPL reportedly planning to include two seven-and-a-half minute breaks, each following the completion of ten overs in an innings.

During the breaks, which will function as tactical time-outs, the stadium crowd will be entertained by a live band while television audiences will watch three segments, two of which will be sold commercially.
Source – hindu.com

The second season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has in store for cricket-lovers gourmet delights to complement an ambience
defined by the T20 tournament frenzy. Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism development Corporation (CITCO) has plans to add to the flavour during the second season of the IPL.

CITCO has prepared a special menu to be served during the second season of IPL. Vintage Bar, having a seating capacity of around 70, has been decorated with cutouts of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh and other cricketers, and is all set to welcome cricket aficionados to Hotel Mountview.

On the menu card are varieties for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians. The authorities have also planned an option of special treatment for the public there that would include special items and service. For special treatment, there is booking system.

Briefing about the entire development, AK Malhotra, general manager (tourism) of CITCO said, “People will enjoy the special food with the live coverage of matches. This will also provide an opportunity for them to be in action, when the actual action is out of the country at this time.”

“Cricket-lovers will enjoy a relaxed evening with the delicious food, as all the matches are based on Indian Standard Time and would be between 4 pm and 12 am,” he added.

Not only this, some restaurants and hotels of the city are also planning to prepare special menu during the second season of the IPL. Gurwinder Juneja, secretary of Chandigarh Hotel Association, said a few restaurants and hotels are keenly preparing themselves to start special packages or special food during the IPL season. Other city hotels and restaurant are also planning a similar treat for their customers.
Source – timesofindia.indiatimes.com

A year ago Graham Napier was contemplating a career change. A World Cup winner ten years earlier at under-19 level, the Essex all-rounder had slipped from a bright young thing to a journeyman. He watched the auction of players for the first Indian Premier League (IPL) and wondered whether he had a future in the game.

“I wasn’t even playing much first-team cricket for Essex,” Napier said. “I was 28, back in the second team and realistically looking at a life outside cricket. I had application forms for the police force and fire service and was planning to leave cricket. Then the Twenty20 Cup came round and I was in the right place at the right time.”

One year on, Napier is about to play in the second IPL for Mumbai Indians alongside the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya.

The innings against Sussex that changed his life started, he admits, “a bit scratchily”. Pushed up to No 3 a week earlier on the advice of his team-mates, who thought he looked useful in the nets, Napier had made 64 runs in four innings for Essex. “If I failed, the opportunity for batting that high might not come again,” he said. But then the runs started to flow. “I saw something early, chanced my arm, connected and the ball sailed out of the ground,” he recalled. “I thought, ‘Right, let’s see what you can do.’ ” What he could do was score 152 runs, with a record 16 sixes. He then made 40 off 20 balls in the quarter-finals, again at the smallish Ford County Ground in Chelmsford, and a call from India came soon after.

While he is not receiving the six or seven-figure deals from Mumbai that some players are getting, those innings have made Napier substantially richer. He has been made available by Essex for Mumbai’s first six games, but has signed a two-year deal and could play for longer next year. “If I was playing for the full six weeks of the IPL, I’d get as much money as I’d earn out of a county season,” he said.

Napier is one of seven Englishmen in the IPL, although he is the only one not to have played for England at senior level. That could change. He has been named in a 30-man squad for the World Twenty20, which will be cut to 15 on May 1, the day he is due to return from the IPL.

“I’m particularly looking forward to playing with Tendulkar,” he said. “I’ll be listening to everything he’s got to say about the game. I might be able to teach him something as well.”

Napier won the Sky Sports Sixes League last season with 36 shots over the boundary in the domestic limited-overs competitions. He is the 12-1 favourite to retain the title, which is sponsored this year by The Times.

“Any shot that is straight down the ground and over the sightscreen is the best,” he said. “I’ve always tried to score at a run a ball or better and sometimes that has been my downfall. Of course, at Chelmsford there is also the river to aim for and a good shot is emphasised by a pleasing splash.”
Source – timesonline.co.uk

While the Kolkata Knight Riders have managed to rope in some big names in cricket like Chris Gayle and Brendon McCullum, Punjab’s Kings XI haven’t been quite so fortunate. But nevertheless it will be foolish to consider them any less formidable than the former; as last year’s semi-finalists, the Kings XI are still a daunting challenge.

Their biggest and priciest buy for this year’s second season has been England’s batsman Ravi Bopara, at $450,000. But the key for the Kings XI still lies in the hands of last year’s players: In Season 1, Australian opener Shaun Marsh worked wonders for the team. If he can keep up that level of performance this year too, the Kings XI will have little left to worry about. In addition, the team can boast of Kumara Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. This Sri Lankan duo has been indispensable to the Sri Lankan team for years, and through the first season of the IPL has proved indispensable for the Kings XI as well. All of them along with Australian Luke Pomersbach have put together a strong batting line up. The team will however have to do without Ramnaresh Sarwan who did not extend his contract.Perhaps the most crucial player for this Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia owned team will be Yuvraj Singh, who also leads the team. His eye catching performances last year were what took his team so far. This year too it is hoped that Yuvraj, who loves batting in South Africa, will continue pillaring his team the same way.

If there is anything that could render the team weak, it is their bowling attack which somehow does not have the same blaze that the batting line up can boast of: especially since West Indian speedster Jerome Taylor had to be counted out because of an injury, and Sreesanth had to drop out after a stress fracture in his lower back. But the management has included a South African Bowler, Yusuf Abdullah, who could prove very useful to the team, considering that he is based here in South Africa.

Another vital aid inclusion to the team is David Nosworthy who is the head coach of the South African team, The Lions. His in-depth knowledge of the pitches and South African conditions will only help the Kings XI prepare better.
Source – cricket360.com

Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty will be among those watching all the women attending the Indian Professional League games in South Africa over the next five weeks to find the newest Bollywood starlet.

The Indian Professional League has announced a Bollywood movie role for one lucky South African lass as it prepares to launch the five-week Twenty20 extravaganza here on Saturday with an inaugural double header.

The search for a young South African woman with the potential to take Bollywood by storm was announced here Thursday by IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi and Bollywood superstars Shah Rukh Khan, Shilpa Shetty and Preity Zinta, all having stakes in the IPL teams.

The lucky South African IPL fan with star quality stands to win a role in a Bollywood movie, 50,000 rands in cash, a business class trip to India and other prizes in the 2009 tournament’s Miss Bollywood SA competition.

‘We’re looking for someone who has the star quality to stand out in a crowd, probably without even trying that hard. It’s that special, almost indefinable, quality that makes someone a star more than a beauty queen that we are looking for,’ Modi said.

‘IPL matches with their mix of fun and excitement are an excellent environment to identify the kind of person who is a natural stand-out in a big crowd.’

‘Star searches like this are a really great way to find people who may never even have thought that they have what it takes to really make it big,’ Shah Rukh said.

‘The heart of our idea is to search the crowd at IPL matches for someone who has the attitude and appearance that automatically draws the eye. It will be the kind of person who is not necessarily showing off for the camera, but who can mesmerise even total strangers,’ he said.

A total of 50 winners will be chosen from the crowds at every one of the eight venues around the country that are to host IPL matches. Winners will be shown on the big screen at every match during the second five-minute break.

There will be one finalist per match, identified with the help of TV producers who will have cameras scanning the crowds. IPL matches are being played in Cape Town, East London, Port Elizabeth, Durban, Bloemfontein, Kimberley, Johannesburg and Pretoria.

One finalist from each venue will be chosen, leaving eight winners to be hosted and feted at The Wanderers in Johannesburg at the final of the IPL 2009 tournament on 24 May. The ultimate winner will be announced during the final.

IPL fans worldwide will also be able to cast their votes for the winner via the IPL website.

The IPL is also set to announce an eight-million rand educational project here on Friday.
Source – story.zimbabwestar.com