Soft drink major PepsiCo today said its newly-launched drink Nimbooz has become the official beverage sponsor of the IPL franchisee team Kings XI Punjab.
The IPL tournament will be held in South Africa from 18 April.
“We are thrilled to announce the association of Nimbooz with the Kings XI in IPL’ 09. Nimbooz is proud to associate itself with such … a dynamic team and we hope this association gives all its fans many refreshing moments to cheer about,” PepsiCo India Executive Director Marketing Punita Lal said in a statement.
Through this partnership, Nimbooz have gained the exclusive pouring rights at home matches besides being the official beverage for the Kings XI, the company said.
It has also got the branding rights on the players’ uniform with the logo at the back. “Nimbooz branding will be displayed on the uniforms of the Bhangra cheerleaders as well as in that of the ball boys,” it said.
Besides, the company has also launched a marketing initiative ‘Nimbooz Highway Gadi’, in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal, offering consumers to buy scratch cards and win a trip to South Africa.
Source – livemint.com

West Indies captain Chris Gayle will head up the Caribbean swashbucklers at the second Indian Premier League tournament.

Gayle will hope to make up for his injury-hit season last year when he turns out for the Kolkata Knight Riders in South Africa, the venue for the competition after security threats saw it moved from India.

The 29-year-old left-hander, who enjoys an impressive average batting average of 40 plus in both Tests and one-day internationals, can be a destructive force when he gets going.

He formerly held the record for the highest innings in a Twenty20, having scored 117 against South Africa in the World Twenty20 Championship, and was the only batsman to have hit a century in the format.

New Zealander Brendon McCullum eventually broke that record when he notched up an incredible 158 not out for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the first game of the inaugural IPL in 2008.

At the IPL player auction for the eight-team league, which comprises 59 Twenty20 games over five weeks, fast bowlers Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor – who are both useful with the bat, were both snapped up for 150,000 dollars by Deccan Chargers and Kings XI Punjab respectively.

The Chargers also signed Dwayne Smith for 100,000 dollars, while rookie Barbadian pacer Kemar Roach and Kieron Pollard both remained unsold at the auction.

Dwayne Bravo will hope to star for the Mumbai Indians in his second season after West Indies selectors chose to ignore him for the two-Test series against England, which will see his IPL countrymen have to leave South Africa on May 1.
Source – geosuper.tv

The Indian Premier League may bring unforseen riches to the world’s top cricketers, but not everyone has fallen for the lure of the lucre.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting and senior pro Michael Hussey opted out of the IPL’s second season starting in South Africa on Saturday to rest tired limbs after a back-breaking schedule.

Having played non-stop cricket since September, both players preferred to take a breather before a tour of England which features the World Twenty20 championships in June followed by the Ashes.

The IPL may not have been an attractive proposition for them anyway. Ponting, one of the modern greats, was sold for a surprisingly low 400,000 dollars to the Kolkata Knight Riders at last year’s auction.

Hussey, a prolific left-hander, was also picked up cheap by the Chennai Super Kings at 350,000 dollars.

Two other Australians, Michael Clarke and Mitchell Johnson, did not even put themselves up for auction, saying they wanted to concentrate on their international careers.

Expensive players are not guaranteed their entire riches as the England duo of Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff have found out.

Both went for record sums of 1.55 million dollars each at this year’s auction, but England’s home series against the West Indies in May has shortened their IPL participation to the first two weeks.

Players are paid on a pro-rata basis and two other England stars, Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah, will also be similarly affected.

Collingwood and Shah were picked up by the Delhi Daredevils team for identical amounts of 275,000 dollars each.

The International Cricket Council’s decision not to set aside a window for what is an essentially Indian domestic tournament is hurting other players also.

West Indian captain Chris Gayle, who commands 800,000 dollars from the Kolkata Knight Riders, and team-mate Fidel Edwards, a new signee with the Deccan Chargers for 150,000 dollars, will also be available for two weeks.

Australian paceman Brett Lee and controversial all-rounder Andrew Symonds were set for the entire five-week IPL season since neither was part of the national squad in South Africa.

However, both earned call-ups for Australia’s one-day series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates from April 22 to May 7, and left them facing a huge financial setback.

Symonds, bought by the Deccan Chargers for 1.35 million last year, will now be available for only the last two weeks of the IPL.

Lee, a 900,000-dollar signee with Kings XI Punjab, may not even play at all as the Australian medical staff monitors his recovery from ankle and foot injury ahead of the Ashes.

Australian Shane Watson, who was the IPL’s player of the tournament last year, is also out till May 7 due to his inclusion for the Pakistan series.

‘I think Shane will miss the first nine games and be available for the last five and hopefully the finals,’ said Shane Warne, his Rajasthan Royals captain. ‘He is a big loss.’

The biggest losers are the Pakistani cricketers who were thrown out of the IPL this year after Islamabad denied them permission to travel to India for the tournament following growing tensions between the two countries.

The players’ appeal to allow them to return to the IPL since the tournament had been shifted to South Africa was rejected by tournament organisers.

It deprives Warne’s champion team of the services of left-arm seamer Sohail Tanvir, the highest wicket-taker last year with 22 wickets.
Source – khaleejtimes.com

THE much-hyped Kolkata Knight Riders didn’t live up to expectations in last year’s Indian Premier League and ended up winning just six of their 14 games.

Knight Riders coach Australian John Buchanan has chosen to rotate the captaincy, a move that has stirred much controversy.

But with born leaders like Indian Sourav Ganguly, West Indies captain Chris Gayle and Kiwi wicketkeeper Brendan McCullum in the side, there will be no shortage of experience for the coach to call on.

The Kolkata side, owned by Bollywood star Sharukh Khan, also features the likes of Australian batsmen Brad Hodge and David Hussey.

The bowling attack includes Sri Lankan spin wizard Ajantha Mendis and Indian quicks Ishant Sharma and Ajit Agarkar — the latter has 288 ODI scalps to his name.

Ganguly scored 349 runs in 13 innings in the inaugural tournament at an average of 29. His highest score was 91.

Pakistani bowler Umar Gul picked up the most wickets for the side in 2008 — 12 in six games — but will not play in the 2009 edition of the IPL.

South African swing bowler Charl Langeveldt has been mandated to take wickets — an area in which the team fell short last year.

The team is owned by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan.
Source – thetimes.co.za

Harbhajan Singh has always wanted to slam the bowlers. He has long nurtured a dream of scoring a breezy Test century, a sensational stroke-filled show in a limited-over match, or best, swing a match with his bat in Twenty20 cricket.

He is a bowler who would “love to be acknowledged as a batsman” worthy of making priceless runs when they matter. Most of his batting aspirations are visible at the ‘nets.’

So, when he promises some explosive stuff at the forthcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) in South Africa, Harbhajan needs to be taken ‘seriously.’

He rightly opined on Wednesday that every player assumes a level of “explosive batting” in Twenty20 but added that “I am no less” even as he promised some exciting fare. His aggregate thus far from four T20 international innings is 30 runs.

That he has no regard for batsmen is well known. The sight of a batsman stirs him into raising his game and Harbhajan, with 330 Test wickets to his credit, said that he would like to play the role of a match-winner with greater “consistency” now.

“I want to win more and more matches and I am all charged up for the IPL,” he said.

He had missed the inaugural edition of the IPL following the slapping incident with S. Sreesanth.

“I don’t like to be reminded of that incident time and again. It is a closed chapter. There is no animosity between us,” said Harbhajan, who signed a deal for licensing his brand name at a function, here on Wednesday.

Licence India would now ‘sell’ Harbhajan as a brand ambassador for setting up restaurants, sportswear and cricket academies.

The 29-year-old off-spinner typically dismissed the multiple-captain theory of John Buchanan.

True, the noted Australian coach’s theory was yet to be implemented, but it had not stopped reactions from all possible quarters.

“I don’t care if they employ 11 captains. I wish them luck,” said Harbhajan, known to mock at anything that emanates from an Australian.

On not being able to receive the Padma Shri award at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday, Harbhajan pleaded, “I had some important family commitments.”
Source – hindu.com