Sreesanth was the leading wicket-taker for the Chandigarh-based side in the last edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), but will miss most of this season due to lower back stress fracture.

In the maiden edition of the IPL Sreesanth claimed 19 wickets at an average of 23.26.

“I had a good stint with Kings XI Punjab’s physiotherapist Patrick Farhart in Sydney and will be joining the team later this week,” said Sreesanth.

“With Patrick there, I will get a few more tests done and who knows, I may be fully fit before the semi-finals.”

Kings XI will also be without Australia pacemen Brett Lee and all-rounder James Hopes for much of the second edition and captain Yuvraj Singh has admitted his side’s depleted bowling stocks are a concern.

“On paper our bowling department might be found wanting,” added Sreesanth. “But I feel we have a pretty decent attack.

“Irfan Pathan bowled very well in the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa in 2007 so there’s no need to worry.

“VRV Singh is raring to go after a long injury lay off and Ravi Bopara is also a handy bowler.

“We have a quality spinner in Piyush Chawla and Yuvraj himself can chip in.

“Twenty20 cricket is basically a batsman’s game and we have a solid batting line-up.”

In the meantime, Sreesanth is looking forward to his new role as fans mentor with the team in South Africa.

“I’ll be travelling with the Kings XI Punjab team, but my new role, as a fans mentor, means I’ll be mixing with the fans, interacting with them and keeping the mood alive,” he said.

“Of course, there’ll be a lot of dancing and I’m looking forward to it.”
Source – espnstar.com

The young leg spinner said that he is not thinking about the Twenty20 World Championship now. He said he would rather focus on the job at hand and that is the IPL.

“IPL starts very soon. There is no point in thinking about the T20 World Cup which is still a couple of months away. I am working really hard for the IPL and would like to prove my worth as a player there.

“If I do well in the IPL that would surely put me in the good books of the selectors. Since the IPL is so close to the T20 World Cup it gives everyone a golden chance to prove their worth, and I would be trying to do the same,” Chawla said.

Chawla who had a decent IPL stint last year both with the bat and the ball was well aware of the increased responsibilities this year, since the team would be missing the services of both their new ball bowlers, Brett Lee and S. Sreesanth.

“Yes, those guys won’t be there and that would surely impact the team this time. But then we have a good batting line-up and they would surely come up with good performances.

“Then we have other new ball bowlers like Irfan Pathan who has done well in South Africa and he alongside the others will surely come up with good performances.

“I know my responsibility would increase this time and I would try to live upto expectations,” said the leggie who picked up 17 wickets in the tournament’s first season giving away runs at an economy rate of 8.37.

Chawla has been in and out of the Indian side since the last two years. And now with Amit Mishra having made a decent name in the Indian side, it has become increasingly difficult for the young leggie to mark his place. But the 20-year-old, who has not had a very good Test and ODI stint so far in his career is very confident that he would make it sometime sooner.

“I am working hard on my bowling. I have been trying to do a few different things. Right now its a tad difficult since the team is doing really well and everyone is performing really good in the side. But then my job is to bowl well in the opportunities provided to me. I am doing that and waiting for my opportunity,” said the leg-spinner who was once hailed as the leg-spinner who would replace Anil Kumble in the Indian side.
Source – espnstar.com

The coach for the Kings XI Punjab IPL team, Tom Moody is facing the prospect of going into the tournament with a much depleted side, but he believes that the second edition of the IPL will be more competitive than the inaugural edition. He thinks the teams are evenly matched and that as of now there can be no clear favourite. Captain of the team Yuvraj Singh, though confident did express concerns about a possible deficit in the fast bowling department.

The IPL, due to begin on the 18 will be shorn of as many 7 Aussie players that have been picked for the upcoming international cricket series to be played in the UAE between Australia and Pakistan. The Kings XI Punjab team is probably the worst hit by the exodus of Aussie players and will sorely miss James Hopes and Shaun Marsh. The coach however did express the hope in the cricket news that pacer Brett Lee may yet be available for IPL2.

It isn’t just the Australian players the Punjab team will be missing; it is also West Indian Jerome Taylor who will be absent due injury in a car accident and Sreesanth who will be absent from the squad owing to a back injury that has put him out of action for quite a while now. Coach Moody made light of his troubles by saying it made his job easier not to have to deal with six international cricket players if they were not playing well.
The Punjab team does have consolation in the likes of recently acquired English player Ravi Bopara, Simon Katich who is reportedly in great form currently, and the Sri Lankan duo of Kumara Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. Another ray of hope for the team would be Yusuf Abdullah from South Africa who just debuted against the Aussies and made a very positive impact.

Though concerned for the pace department of his team, skipper Yuvraj Singh was upbeat about the rest of the team rising to the occasion. He was also happy about the large expat community of Indians in South Africa, particularly the Punjabi community settled there; who he was sure would come out to support his team. He was further hopeful that large numbers of fans would travel from India to South Africa to enjoy the spectacle of the IPL as well as to offer support to their respective teams.

Irfan Pathan, whose forte seems to be the T20 format in recent times is being seen as a key player due to his all round abilities. Having visited the country a couple of times before, he will be in a position to help out his teammates by offering tips and pointers about conditions there.
Source – cricket360.com

THE Kings XI Punjab lost to the Chennai Super Kings in last year’s second semifinal of the Indian Premier League by a massive nine wickets, after scoring a below-par 112/8 in their 20 overs.

They had an impressive 10 wins from their 14 pool games, the second best record in the tournament behind eventual winners the Rajasthan Royals with 11 from 14.

The team will be led by Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh, who will want to improve on his record in the tournament after scoring 299 runs in 14 innings at an average of just 23.

One of the finds of the tournament was left-handed Australian batsman Shaun Marsh, who scored 616 runs in his 11 innings — the top scorer in the competition — at an average of 68.44. He was also one of just six players to score a century in the inaugural IPL (115) .

The batting line- up also offers a host of experience and fire power in Sri Lankans Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene and Ramnaresh Sarwan from the West Indies.

In the bowling department, Indian fast bowlers Sree Sreesanth and Irfan Pathan will spearhead the attack with Kyle Mills of New Zealand and returning Australian paceman Brett Lee.

Australian Tom Moody will coach the side, which is owned by Bollywood actress Preity Zinta and renowned businessmen Ness Wadia, Mohit Burman and Karan Paul.
Source – thetimes.co.za

IPL franchise outfit Kings XI Punjab expect to break even in 2010 after this year’s Twenty20 event could not be held at home.

The second edition of the IPL was shifted to South Africa after the T20 extravagnaza clashed with the general elections.

“We hoped to break even this year before the tournament was shifted to South Africa. By next year we will be very close to break even,” industrialist Mohit Burman, one of the co-owners of the team told a media conference at a function organised to announce team’s title sponsors ‘Emirates’.

Besides Emirates, with whom they have tied up multi-million dollar deal for three years, Kings XI have also tied-up with Gulf Oil, Nimbooz, Netlinkblue, Reebok, Springbok International, Royal Challenge, Dabur Glucose D and Orbit.

More sponsors this time

The number of sponsors for Kings XI this year is more than what they had got last year which was the then highest among all the eight franchise outfits, it was announced.

But getting these sponsors on board this year was a struggle because of the economic downturn, admitted Bollywood actress and co-owner Preity Zinta.

“A lot of deals we were planning got affected. We were close to signing up a few sponsors which got canceled as the event was shifted to South Africa. However, as they say everything happens for the best and we have some top brands on our T-shirt”, she said.
Source – espnstar.com