Kolkata Knight Riders owner Shah Rukh Khan on Sunday told CNN-IBN that the captaincy issue will only be settled on April 16, two days before the commencement of the IPL. Earlier, when head coach John Buchanan suggested his much talked about multi-captain theory, he diffused the rising criticism by saying Sourav Ganguly would remain the captain.
Shah Rukh Khan: There are two aspects. One, that everybody has a right and their own point of view. This is cricket. Here, cricketing greats are speaking. With full respect to Mr Sunil Gavaskar who won’t find a bigger fan than me, and I’m still his fan and always will be, I take what he said very seriously and pay heed to it.
Twenty20 is a new format. I think it should be given breathing space to have new trials out. If they work out, good. If they don’t, we’ll reject it ourselves. We’re also not stupid. John (Buchanan) is a very smart man. He is a very intelligent man and dedicated to the cause of Kolkata Knight Riders.
At the end of it all, till it is done, unless it’s on the ground, making any comment about this too early. So let’s see. Maybe Mr Gavaskar is right. Maybe John is right.
Source – cricketnext.in.com
Heightened security concerns may have forced the government to turn its back on the Indian Premier League (IPL). Now, a peeved IPL
panel is turning its back to the entire political class.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) IPL Committee has decided not to allow any political advertisements during the telecast of IPL matches, to be held this time in South Africa.
An existing IPL clause would have automatically prevented any political ads during telecasts. However, in view of the general elections happening side by side this year and because of the pressure from various political parties, BCCI was considering amending it. That plan has been now shelved.
“The clause barring political parties from advertising during IPL matches has not been lifted. Had IPL been held in India, the clause may have been re-worked,” a BCCI official, who didn’t want to be named, told ET.
Confirmed IPL broadcaster Multi Screen Media’s (MSM) president (network sales) Rohit Gupta: “We are not allowed to accept advertising from political parties.”
Another BCCI official close to the development said the IPL committee is upset that they were forced to shift the tournament out of the country. Hence, the question of allowing election-based advertising during the matches did not arise, he said.
The Lok Sabha elections are scheduled to be held between April 16 and May 13, and the IPL between April 18 and May 24.
Given the record TV ratings IPL 1 had garnered, the Congress and the BJP, among other parties, wanted to make a splash during the matches.
Representatives of some political parties had initiated discussions with MSM, and were learnt to have even allocated budgets of Rs 15-20 crore each for the same.
For the Congress, for example, advertising during IPL would have meant it could have reached out to the electorate with ads featuring youth icon Rahul Gandhi.
For MSM, it’s an opportunity lost to earn incremental revenues. The broadcaster could have earned anywhere between Rs 50 crore and Rs 60 crore from election-based political advertising.
The Congress, on its part, has bought airtime on a mix of channel genres through its media buying agency, Group M-owned Mindshare. “Since the Congress campaign is targeted at the masses, we have looked at a channel mix that gives us maximum reach. The Congress campaign is being aired on general entertainment channels, Hindi news channels, some music channels and Hindi movie channels,” said Mindshare partner (client leadership) Chirantan Chandran.
The Congress’ total communication spend is estimated at Rs 150 crore. It has split its advertising between two agencies — JWT for electronic media and Crayons for print.
Total spend on election-based advertising is expected to be in the range of Rs 600-700 crore this year.
Source – economictimes.indiatimes.com
A day after he was selected in the Indian preliminary squad for the Twenty20 World Cup in England in June, Rajasthan Royals player Naman Ojha says he is keen to perform well in the second edition of the IPL and confirm his berth in the national squad.
“I am looking forward to perform well in the Indian Premier League (IPL), commencing this month in South Africa, to get a berth in the Indian team that plays in the Twenty20 World Cup in England,” Ojha told PTI on Sunday.
“The IPL is very crucial for me,” he said.
The 26-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman from Madhya Pradesh said he was ready to bat in any order in the IPL and was mentally prepared for it.
“I have toiled hard in the field”, he said.
Rajasthan Royals will clash with the Bangalore Royal Challengers in the inaugural IPL’s Twenty20 match in Cape Town on April 18.
Ojha started playing first-class cricket in 2000 and has scored over 3,000 runs for Madhya Pradesh.
Source – cricketnext.in.com
Andrew Flintoff intends to become England’s spy to aid their ICC World Twenty20 campaign when he embarks on his lucrative Indian Premier League adventure next week.
Flintoff has signed up for a two-week stint with the Chennai Super Kings and will earn $1.5m (£1m) on a pro-rata basis depending on the number of matches he plays in the tournament in South Africa. He believes the IPL will be the perfect stage to help him reach his peak this summer – and also provide him with the opportunity of spying on opposition players.
“It’s been frustrating with [injuries] and I think the IPL will be good for me,” said Flintoff. “I know I’m only bowling four overs a game, but it will give me a chance to work on my game in between games going into a Test series.”
Flintoff will get to mingle with players like Australia’s Matthew Hayden, India captain MS Dhoni, New Zealand all-rounder Jacob Oram and Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan at Chennai.
“The Twenty20 World Cup is going to be huge,” said Flintoff. “I’ll be watching the likes of Dhoni, who has played a lot of it, and Hayden who had a good IPL last year. I will be speaking to a few of the Indian guys and see if I can pick their brains. You’ll find players helping each other out.”
Flintoff opens his IPL career against Sachin Tendulkar’s Mumbai Indians in Cape Town on 18 April before facing England team-mate Kevin Pietersen’s Bangalore Royal Challengers in Port Elizabeth two days later.
On his busy summer ahead, Flintoff added: “It is a long schedule and everyone is looking forward to the Ashes and making sure everyone is fit for that but I’ve stressed all along that we have to perform in all the games we’re playing.”
*South Africa crushed Australia by seven wickets to level the one-day international series at 1-1 yesterday. Australia batted poorly with the Proteas’ 19-year-old bowler Wayne Parnell claiming career-best figures of 4 for 25 to help bundle the tourists out for 131. Graeme Smith (40) and Jacques Kallis (31) posted a second-wicket stand of 69 but it was left to AB de Villiers to steer the hosts home with an unbeaten 36.
Source – independent.co.uk
Yusuf Abdullah, the South African pace bowler, will be joining the King’s XI Punjab squad to replace the injured West Indies pace bowler Jerome Taylor for the upcoming second season of the IPL.
Speaking on this, an elated Abdullah said, “I’m quite excited about the upcoming challenge. The IPL is in town and this is a good opportunity for me, hopefully I can do well.”
The 26 year old left arm bowler made an inspiring international debut for South Africa in a twenty20 international against Australia last week. At present, Abdulla is one of the most in-formed bowler for the South African team in domestic competition. He has already played 26 T20 matches.
Commenting over Abdullah inclusion in the team, Kings XI Punjab Co-Promoter, Ness Wadia said, “We are excited to have Yusuf as part of our squad, as he will bring with him the local knowledge and experience of playing in a T20 format in South Africa.”
Earlier this year, the King’s XI had picked pace bowler Taylor. However, he has been ruled out of the IPL after sustaining an injury from a car accident.
It can be recalled that Kings XI’s pace battery is suffering from injury problems. Taylor is the third on its injury list after S. Sreesanth and Aussie fast bowler Brett Lee, who is recovering from a foot injury.
Apart from this, the Punjab team has also signed up Dave Nosworthy, head coach of the Lions, to assist coach Tom Moody.
Source – topnews.in
