When veteran Australian coach John Buchanan recently floated the idea of having multiple captains in Twenty20, it became a burning issue, literally.

His effigies were burnt in Kolkata by fans of former India captain Sourav Ganguly who believed the concept was meant to dilute the powers of their popular ‘Prince of Kolkata’.

The 56-year-old Buchanan, who had a successful eight-year stint as Australia’s coach, said the new concept would be an advantage in the fast-moving shortest version of the game.

“There will always be a nominated captain, who goes for the toss. He could look after the bowling, make the changes, take care of the strategy aspect,” he told the Kolkata-based Telegraph newspaper.

“We could also have a fielding captain, who sets the field keeping in mind the planning done for that particular match. The fielding captain complements the nominated/bowling captain.

“Both will be supported by the coach, who’ll be the captain off the field. When the team is batting, the coach will be the captain.”

Buchanan, cricket manager of the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, sparked a worldwide debate with his concept and led to the pro-Ganguly protests.

The controversy did not die down and it eventually required Knight Riders owner, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, to broker a truce.

“I am not doing it for the sake of grabbing headlines,” said Buchanan. “I am doing it for reasons that’ll benefit the game.

“Having one captain to run the show in the traditional form is okay. In Twenty20, though, I don’t believe we need a single captain to be responsible for all the decisions.”

Ganguly said they would “wait and see” how the idea works when the IPL opens on Saturday.

“It’s completely new. It has never happened in sports,” he said. “There are no gaurantees.”

Teams like Australia and India have had different Test and one-day captains, but not more than one skipper in a match in any form of the game.

South African coach Mickey Arthur promptly shot down the idea.

“It has to be one leader always,” he said. “I favour the one-captain situation because everybody in the team is clear about who is in charge at all times.

“If you have more than one guy as leader, you don’t know whom to turn to. I really don’t know what he (Buchanan) is aiming at.”

Australian captain Ricky Ponting saw no problems with the concept.

“I know Tassie (Tasmania) actually experimented with that a few years ago. One was doing the field placings and one was doing the bowling changes,” said Ponting.

“So it just sort of lightened the load up on the actual captain and gave him a bit more opportunity to think about different things. I don’t see there’s a lot of problems with it.”

Sri Lanka’s new captain Kumar Sangakkara felt the idea should be given a fair trial.

“If it’s a way to go forward and it shows results, why not?” he asked.

“Hopefully, it’s not a marketing gimmick. Something to create more interest towards that one franchise and to get the public to say ‘Well, we’ll follow the Knight Riders from here on.”
Source – google.com

The involvement of some of Bollywood’s biggest stars in the Indian Premier League (IPL) means the world’s best one-day cricketers are not the only draw when the competition starts this weekend.

Leading figures in India’s Hindi-language film industry are closely involved in the eight teams who will battle it out for Twenty20 supremacy in South Africa from Saturday.

Top actor-producer Shahrukh Khan part-owns Kolkata Knight Riders, actress Preity Zinta has a stake in King’s XI Punjab and fellow star Shilpa Shetty has taken a share in defending champions Rajasthan Royals.

Action hero Akshay Kumar is brand ambassador for Delhi Daredevils, movie hearthrob Hrithik Roshan is flying the flag for the Mumbai Indians, while screen siren Katrina Kaif is supporting the Bangalore Royal Challengers.

Top performers and music directors have also got in on the act, producing music videos for many of the teams that owe much to Bollywood’s song and dance routine tradition.

In their oversized filmstar sunglasses and designer clothes, Shetty, Zinta and Kaif added much-needed glamour to the gathering of corporate suits at the auction for new players in the resort state of Goa earlier this year.

For the actors, many of whom who have been making the rounds at promotional events before the start of IPL’s second season, merging cricket and film makes perfect sense given the fanatical following that both have on the subcontinent.

“Cricket is not a sport in our country, it’s a religion,” said Shetty in February after she and her partner, British Asian businessman Raj Kundra, bought a 16-million-dollar stake in the Rajasthan Royals.

“I am very passionate about cricket and who better to invest in than the current reigning IPL champions. It completes the success story for the IPL team by merging with Bollywood.”

Shahrukh Khan, who stumped up 75 million dollars with his business partners for the Knight Riders franchise, said he got involved to help promote sport as a profitiable career option for young people.

“For me, it will be great to change the lives of youngsters who need to go out and channel their youthful aggression for good purposes rather than putting it to destructive use,” he said.

But with the IPL as much a commercial as a sporting exercise, the glitzy, fast-paced tournament tempts stars and corporate firms alike with the promise of big bucks.

“They (Bollywood stars) have got involved because people today are not just actors. They want to be entrepreneurs. They want to explore all business avenues and not just the film industry,” film critic Taran Adarsh told AFP.

“The fact that they’re coming together for the second time means that the first time was lucrative for them.”

Indian cricket’s governing body made nearly 1.75 billion dollars from the sale of television rights, 108 million dollars from promotion and about 700 million from franchises, according to cricinfo.com.

About 240 million dollars in sponsorship are riding on the event this year alone, India’s Economic Times newspaper said last month.

For Kundra, using Shetty’s “tremendous” following in Britain, Australia and South Africa is another way of making Rajasthan Royals a global sporting brand.

“Bollywood joining cricket is about cricket’s undersold potential,” he said.

Ironically, the only loser could be Indian cinema itself: multiplex owners — already hit by a producers’ strike over box office takings — fear empty theatres through April and May as millions tune in to the IPL instead.
Source – google.com

International Cricket Council lacks ‘common sense’, otherwise it would have created a separate window for the Indian Premier League, said spin legend Shane Warne.

A vociferous advocate of a separate window for the Twenty20 event, Warne said no international matches should have been scheduled for the month of April to allow all players compete in the cash-rich league.

“If the ICC had any common sense, they would create a window for the IPL,” Warne, who led the Rajasthan Royals to a fairytale victory in the inaugural edition of the league was quoted as saying by The Star.
Source – cricketnext.in.com

Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi promised Wednesday a non-stop carnival atmosphere at this year’s tournament in South Africa.

There have been fears the Twenty20 event would lose some of its character because of the forced move across the Indian Ocean owing to a clash of dates with general elections that could have compromised security.

However, Modi insists South Africans can expect a continuous party with organisers looking to raise the bar in terms of festivities.

“The entire IPL second season is going to be like a carnival,” Modi told AFP from his base at a five-star Cape Town hotel.

“We are kicking off on Thurday with a parade through Cape Town, when we will embrace and meet the people and interact with them.

“The entire atmosphere in every ground the minute you enter the stadium, and the minute you leave the stadium, is going to be like a carnival with festivities all round.

“There are going to be performers outside the stadium, around the stadium walls, inside the stadium at every match. In the intervals you will have live performances by musicians.

“So we are taking it a notch higher.”

Modi also expects the on-field action this year to be more entertaining than during the first edition with the playing field levelled by lack of familiarity with South African conditions.

“What we are hearing from all the teams practising in South Africa is that the pitches are very, very different from what they would expect in India or in any other place,” he explained.

“So it’s going to be a great match because it’s totally unpredictable. People are not used to the (South African) turf so it’s going to be entertaining all round.”

The logistics involved in moving the 59-match tournament have been mind boggling with 40,000 hotel room-nights booked in South Africa and more than 20,000 plane tickets bought.

While Modi admitted the decision to relocate was emotional, he says the response from the new IPL hosts has been overwhelmingly positive.

“It was probably the most difficult decision in my life,” Modi said of moving the tournament away from its spiritual home.

“Putting that aside, the move to South Africa has been absolutely incredible. The support from Cricket South Africa, the (national) government and the provincial government in Cape Town has just been beyond my imagination.

“I think we will have an incredible series in South Africa, and the way we will judge whether it is successful or not is by how smooth the tournament goes forward.

“The way things are looking right now, I think we are on a good wicket and we’re going to have very smooth sailing going forward.”
Source – google.com

“It will be completely on the team management where I should bat, weather I open or not,” Gambhir said.

“It is not important where you bat but if your team wins at the end,” he said on the sidelines of a ceremony to present him a customised ‘Bolero Stinger’ jeep here today.

Asked if he was already tired after the New Zealand tour and the hectic schedule owing to promotional activities in the city during his short break, Gambhir said being active was the need of his profession.

“There is no need to take rest in this profession. This is the time I should be active because a player has a limited time in his career. Moreover, I cannot forget the love and support given to me by so many people. This profession is not for resting,” he said.

“I will take rest when I will have all the time to rest (after my career),” he added.

The 27-year-old opener appeared excited about playing the Indian Premier League in South Africa.

“There are so many good memories attached with the first Twenty20 World Cup which was held in South Africa. I have always said that was the turning point of my career. So I feel it would be a good tournament there. I will try my best that Delhi Daredevils win this time,” he said.
Source – espnstar.com