Babbelas (pronounced bub-buh-luss): When you’ve had a bit too much to drink after the Rajasthan Royals win a match, you will feel babbelas (hungover) the next morning.

Braai (br-eye): South Africans don’t need an excuse to have a barbeque. If they can’t get tickets to the big match then they’ll have a braai at home.

Bru (brew): A term of affection meaning brother. “Hey bru, howzit?”

China: No, we are not refering to the country, but to someone who is your mate. “My china, please pass me another drink.”

Eish! (aysh): Used to express exasperation, disbelief, frustration for just about everything. “Eish! We got a good hiding in the IPL last night.”

Hayibo! (hiboh): A Zulu word which you can use when you disagree with something. “Hayibo! That was never out lbw.”

Howzit! Hoesit! Hoezit!: No, we are not refering to an lbw appeal. This is actually a traditional South African greeting. For instance, if you meet Cricket South Africa CEO Gerald Majola before a match you will say: “Howzit, Mr Majola?”

Jawellnofine: You use it when things aren’t really fine but there’s not much you can do about it. It can come in quite handy when you don’t know how to react to your friend who is gloating after his team beat your beloved Delhi Daredevils. If he/she asks you how feel about the hammering in the IPL you simply answer ja, well, no, fine and change the subject.

Jislaaik (yes-like): An expression of astonishment which you can use when a great shot has just been played. “Yislaaik, Sachin Tendulkar just smashed a massive six!”

Lekker (lekk-irr): Meaning nice, good, tasty. “Those samoosas were lekker.”

Mampara (mum-puh-rah): Usually a public figure who has said or done something stupid. “Kevin Pietersen is a mampara for slapping Graeme Smith during the match.”

Oke: You often hear skipper Smith saying: “The okes in the dressing room just want to get out and play.” It’s simply synonym for guy, chap, bloke.

Toyi-toyi: If people are toyi-toying somewhere in town, then best stay clear. The knees-up, singing protesters might look like they are having a good old jol, but in reality they are angry about something.

Nicknames for some of the host cities, then…

Johannesburg – Joburg, Joeys, Jozi, eGoli
Cape Town – Cape or Kaap
Durban – Durbs
Port Elizabeth – PE
Potchefstroom – Potch
Bloemfontein – Bloem
East London – Slummies
Source – cricket365.com

Lebara Mobile, the international mobile service provider, has been signed up by IDS as exclusive sponsor of the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament on Setanta Sports.

The six-figure deal will include all the broadcaster’s coverage of the event. Lebara will also run a spot advertising campaign to promote its new Lebara Family launch, in which customers are offered free Lebara-to-Lebara calls and texts.The IPL tournament begins on 18 April and lasts five weeks. The deal was brokered between Dale Mickle­wright, commercial development manager at IDS, and Arjun Saigal, business development director, Here & Now 365 Diversity Media, alongside Simon Gwan, head of marketing at Lebara Mobile.

Last year was the IPL tournament’s inaugural year. The 2009 tournament will feature England cricketers inclu­ding Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen.
Source – brandrepublic.com

Black Caps allrounder Scott Styris admits he would rather be in India for the IPL which starts this weekend. The tournament was moved from India to South Africa for security reasons.

Styris lines up for the Deccan Chargers and says while he is enjoying the comforts of being in a first world country, the atmosphere is not as good. He says Indians love their cricket and during the tournament, a player is treated like a rock star.

The Deccan Chargers play the Kolkata Knight riders in their first match of the tournament in Cape Town on Sunday.
Source – home.nzcity.co.nz

The camaraderie and friendship that developed between players of different countries during the Indian Premier League may one day make the role of match referees redundant, feels Kumar Sangakkara, the Sri Lankan captain and one of the star performers for King’s XI Punjab.

“Hopefully, it will bring a day when the match referee is not needed to have a look at the games,” Sangakkara said on the eve of IPL 2, which gets under way in South Africa on Saturday.

In an interview with the ICC website, Sangakkara said that the greatest experience for him in the first edition of IPL, apart from playing some excellent cricket, was: “we’re also playing with and against not just your usual opponents but also with your own teammates”.

A top wicketkeeper-batsmen in world cricket today, Sangakkara has his erstwhile skipper Mahela Jayawardene as his teammate in IPL, while their team is skippered by India’s Yuvraj Singh.

Holding forth on a range of subjects including the Twenty20 World Cup in June, Sangakkara says he does not see the five-week-long IPL as an overkill of the game. “I think you always have to balance things out. If you don’t play the IPL then we [Sri Lanka] have no cricket and we’d just be training at the nets and doing all our preparation work – but there is nothing like match practice. So I think the players will be well prepared having played the IPL to go into the Twenty20 World Cup. The conditions, however, will be different in England.”

On the issue of too-much-cricket debate, Sangakkara felt that it was not going to change in near future. “It’s going to be a very hard workload especially for bowlers, but it gives countries ideal opportunities to test their bench strength where they can rotate players and make sure that the best XI is always in the best physical and mental shape – and at the same time give exposure to the fringe players who need the opportunity and exposure to show everyone what they can do and try to break into the national side.”
Source – gulfnews.com

If the inaugural edition of the IPL T20 provided it an opportunity to project the brand, India Cements believes this year’s event being held in South Africa gives it a chance to grow its corporate image. India Cements owns the Chennai Super Kings franchise.
Last year, the team’s players had Coromandel King (Coromandel being one of India Cements’ brands) on their shirts, giving this predominantly southern player in the cement industry a national presence. The company even said it would ride piggyback on the Chennai Super Kings franchise as it expanded its national footprint in the cement industry.
The Chennai Super Kings, led by skipper M.S. Dhoni, who at $1.5 million was the costliest buy in last year’s players auction, this year bagged England cricketer Andrew Flintoff at $1.55 million, again among the costliest buys this season.
Source – moneycontrol.com