Bangalore, March 21: Putting behind the disastrous IPL-2008 campaign, owner of the Bangalore Royal Challengers, Vijay Mallya on Saturday, named former England captain Kevin Pietersen to lead his franchisee’s challenge for the 2009 season.

Addressing a press-conference in Bangalore, Mallya announced his decision.

While naming Pietersen as the captain, Mallya also announced that South African all-rounder Jacques would be taking over the reins from the Englishmen, as the latter would be available for just 2 weeks.

The liquor baron also revealed said that Rahul Dravid, who had captained his side in 2008, was aware of the change in guard.The liquor baron also revealed said that Rahul Dravid, who had captained his side in 2008, was aware of the change in guard.

Dravid, who was sarcastically referred to as Test player in the slam bang version of the game last year, will not play for the entire tournament as his wife is expecting their child.

“We have a wealth of talent and expertise in our team and have six international captains to choose from,” Mallya said.

“The decision on captaincy was taken by keeping into account three considerations. One, player`s availability during each phase of the tournament; two, flexibility in selection of playing squad during the phases; and three, the fact that Dravid will not be available due to personal reasons for the entire tournament,”

Mallya exuded confidence in his team’s ability to give a good account of themselves, unlike in the inaugural season last year when they had barely managed to avoid the wooden spoon.

Stressing that his team would not be unduly hampered by Zaheer Khan’s absence (the pace spearhead moved to Mumbai Indians), Mallya vouched for his team’s firepower to overcome his loss.

“We have Praveen Kumar, Nathan Brackan, , Kallis himself, there is Anil Kumble.” Mallya said.

“Last year we struggled in our batting department. With induction of Pietersen, Jesse (Ryder), and Robin Uthappa, I think we have taken necessary measures.”

“Now we have a decent batting and a potent bowling attack,” Mallya said.

Meanwhile, Mallya said that by inducting local youngsters into the squad, he had reiterated his commitment to promotion of local talent, which, as he said, ‘was why the IPL was conceived.’

Even as Bangalore Royal Challengers has raised its IPL war-cry, the fate of the second edition of the Twenty20 extravaganza stays in limbo in lieu of General Elections scheduled during the same period across the country.

The BCCI’s Working committee would be holding an emergency meet on Sunday after IPL commissioner Lalit Modi had refuted claims of a truncated IPL.
Source – cricket.zeenews.com

Kevin Pietersen might pull out of the Indian Premier League on security grounds. The England cricketer is due to make his decision after talks with England and Wales Cricket Board officials and his IPL team, Bangalore Royal Challengers, after the fifth and final Test against the West Indies in Trinidad, which is due to end today.

The South Africa-born batsman was widely praised when, as England captain, he led his adopted country back to India after the Mumbai terror attacks.

But the attack on Monday last week on the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore, which left eight Pakistanis dead, plus seven Sri Lankan players, an assistant coach and a Pakistani umpire, wounded, has heightened the safety fears of the world’s leading cricketers about playing in the sub-continent.

Pietersen was bought by the Royal Challengers for 1.55-million (R16.2-million), sparking a headline in the English tabloids the next day: Dumb Slog Millionaire.

“I will be consulting as many people as I can but if I don’t think it is right, then I will not be going,” Pietersen told the News of the World.

Source:thetimes.co.za

This was IPL 55th match between Bangalore Royal Challengers vs Mumbai Indians. The match was played at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore, May 28, 2008. Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to field.

Mark Boucher and Shreevats Goswami opened the batting for Bangalore Royal Challengers. They took the score to 35 where Mark Boucher was out. The highest scorer of the team was Cameron White he made 26 runs out of 20 balls. The team gave Mumbai Indians a target of 123 runs.

Sanath Jayasuriya and Sachin Tendulkar opened the batting for Mumbai Indians. They took the score to 96 before Sanath Jayasuriya was out. Sanath Jayasuriya was the top scorer for Mumbai Indians and thus helped the team to win this match by 9 wkts.

Scorecard Match 55 – Bangalore Royal Challengers vs Mumbai Indians

With the teams already entering the semi finals, this match is not that important but they still have to play for the prestige.

Bangalore Royal Challengers (probables): 1 Wasim Jaffer, 2 Jacques Kallis, 3 Rahul Dravid (capt), 4 Misbah-ul-Haq, 5 Cameron White, 6 Virat Kohli, 7 Shreevats Goswami (wk), 8 B Akhil, 9 Anil Kumble, 10 Dale Steyn, 11 R Vinay Kumar

Mumbai Indians (probables): 1 Sachin Tendulkar (capt), 2 Sanath Jayasuriya, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Dwayne Smith, 5 Shaun Pollock, 6 Abhishek Nayar, 7 Yogesh Takawale (wk), 8 Dhawal Kulkarni, 9 Rohan Raje, 10 Andre Nel, 11 Ashish Nehra

Bangalore Royal Challengers defeated Deccan Chargers by five wickets in a match that see sawed from one teams favor to another. The home jinx for Deccan Charges contniued and they again lost a close battle. Once it looked that this time they would win the match but some good batting by Misbah-ul-Haq, Rahul Dravid, Cameron White and Akhil ensured they got home with one over to spare.