CRICKET Australia has forbidden Shaun Tait from playing in the Indian Premier League, meaning the South Australian quick will forfeit his $500,000 pay cheque from the Rajasthan Royals.

With a watchful eye on its growing ranks of walking wounded fast bowlers, CA has refused to release Tait because, it says, he is yet to recover from a left hamstring tear sustained in February.

But The Weekend Australian understands Tait is close to full fitness after almost two months of a radical treatment involving injections of his own blood into the problem area.

Sources say Tait declared himself fit a fortnight ago, but Cricket Australia refused to give him a clean bill of health. As a nationally-contracted player, Tait must be cleared fit to play by CA.

His manager, Andrew McRitchie, said yesterday the CA decision was “very disappointing” as Tait had been making good progress in his rehabilitation.

“The IPL was the only chance to prove his fitness before the squad for the Twenty20 World Cup was picked,” McRitchie said.

“How he proves that now, I don’t know.”

Tait’s loss is a blow for the Shane Warne-led Royals in the franchise’s bid to claim successive titles in the tournament, which starts in South Africa tonight.

“The excitement of playing alongside Warnie and (for) defending champions Rajasthan was definitely something that has been at the forefront of his mind,” McRitchie said.

“The Royals have been exceptionally understanding and they know that Taity is a long-term prospect for them. Whilst (he remains) a (CA) contracted player he will play by their rules, and Taity understands that.”

McRitchie said a lot of people had said they had Tait’s “best interests at heart”.

“I only hope that ruling him out of any competitive cricket … that this actually is the case.

“Me, I’m not totally convinced but I guess we will see.

“There are no guarantees, but Taity will do whatever he can to not only get passed fit but hopefully spearhead the Aussies to Twenty20 World Cup success.”

Tait is in the 30-man preliminary squad for the Twenty20 World Cup, to be held in England in June.

CA spokesman Peter Young confirmed yesterday Tait’s lack of fitness had ruled him out of the five-week IPL tournament in South Africa.

“Shaun Tait won’t be playing IPL,” Young said. “He’s still working through the rehab program and it has been determined that he won’t be playing IPL.

“He has a hamstring injury and there’s associated issues behind the hamstring injury.”

CA appears loath to gamble on the fast bowler’s fitness given its stock of quicks is already fully stretched by injury.

Brett Lee was this week ruled out of the one-day series against Pakistan in Dubai to allow him more time to recover from ankle surgery.

Stuart Clark has only recently become available after a long lay-off with an elbow problem.

Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus were troubled by injuries in the recent Test series against South Africa and Brett Geeves was sent home from the ensuing one-day series nursing a broken foot.

On top of all this, Shane Watson has missed much of the summer with stress fractures in his back.

Tait’s lingering injury also ruled him out of the Dubai one-dayers.

The express bowler was picked up by the Rajasthan Royals for $US375,000 ($521,702) at the IPL auction in February, in the same week he succumbed to his latest hamstring injury.

The money is paid on a pro-rata basis for each match played.

Tait missed last year’s tournament in April-May because it was held during his self-imposed exile from the game to rest his aching body and tired mind.

The eight IPL franchises will each play 14 round-robin matches before the semi-finals and final from May 22 to 24.
Source – theaustralian.news.com.au

When Shane Warne returns to competitive cricket with the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL) tonight (Australian time), he will be doing so in an unfamiliar climate.

The Australian retired from international cricket more than two years ago, but South African crowds who flock to catch a piece of the IPL action will not have forgotten his exploits against the Proteas.

For years the legspinner tormented South African batsmen and their fans, so it will be interesting to see the type of reception reserved for Warne when he leads out his franchise in their opening game against Bangalore Royal Challengers.

“The public have booed me most of the time but hopefully playing with the Rajasthan Royals they’ll get behind me,” Warne told the Sunday Times.

“Hopefully when I come on to bowl I’ll get a clap, or a cheer or whistle.”

Warne’s wiles were largely responsible for Rajasthan’s fairytale opening season, when they swept to victory after spending the least money at the inaugural IPL auction.

His astute captaincy endeared him to fans around India, but questions remain as to whether he will have the same effect in a country where for many years he was all but despised.

Adding to the intrigue is the presence in the Royals ranks of Proteas captain Graeme Smith, who regularly engaged Warne in verbal jousts at international level.

This coming together of former rivals is the basis on which the IPL thrives, but Warne insists that the duo get along well and sees Smith as being crucial to Royals’ success on South African turf.

“We had a few beers after the first game (of the 2008 IPL) and chatted about a lot of stuff,” Warne said.

“We hung out a fair bit. We’ve kept in touch since then and become good buddies.

“I think he enjoys the IPL as well, just having the opportunity and the freedom to go out and bat without the responsibility of anything else.

“For us, being in South Africa and having the captain of South Africa in our side is a huge advantage.”
Source – abc.net.au

Bubbling with energy after victories in both build-up games in Pretoria, Delhi Daredevils had their first practice session.

They had their practice session at the University of Cape Grounds on Thursday ahead of the second season of the Indian Premier League.

“The boys are all eager to go and they are all looking fit,” manager T A Sekar said.

“Boys are in good shape”

“Most have played highly competitive matches for their national and state teams in the past few weeks and are so in good match shape,” said Sekar.

“The locals are excited about seeing the IPL teams and quite a few have been backing Delhi Daredevils,” he added.

Putting the team through their practice session was coach Greg Shipperd, who joined the team last week in Johannesburg.

“These guys are all pros and they are in good shape,” Shipperd said.

The Delhi side had earlier played two practice games against Titans and Lions at Pretoria and won both.

Players played a football match

The cricketers played a football match with explosive Australian David Warner being the noisiest and keeping everybody in good humour.

“The best guys in the business are here and Delhi has been a fun team,” Warner said.

Daredevils captain Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik and Amit Mishra will join the squad later on Thursday while South African AB de Villiers is still engaged in the ODI series against Australia.

Paul Collingwood, Owais Shah, Daniel Vettori, Dirk Nannes, Andrew McDonald, Glenn McGrath, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Farveez Maharoof were all present at the practice sessions.

The Indians who were present at the session included Ashish Nehra, Rajat Bhatia, Mithun Manhas, Manoj Tiwary, Pradeep Sanghwan, Aavishkar Salvi, Yo Mahesh, Tejaswhi Yadav, Umesh Yadav and Yogesh Nagar.
Source – espnstar.com

A South African businessman returned Rand 450,000 to Kings XI Punjab on recovering it in one of the hotel rooms.

In a good samaritan act, He returned the amount he recovered in one of the hotel rooms the IPL team occupied.

According to a report in ‘The Times’, Stephen Blewett, the chief of Altech Autopage Cellular, found a bundle of Rand 4,50,000 (nearly Rs 2.5 million) cash in his hotel room which later turned out to be Kings XI Punjab’s.

Blewett discovered the money in Rand 100 notes in his hotel room’s safe on Tuesday night after which he reported the matter to the hotel authorities.

It later emerged that Kings XI had left the money, which was their allowances for food, drinks and other expenses, in that room as they had been using it for team meetings ahead of their IPL campaign.

“It is not common for us to carry that amount of money but we have a lot of costs and the money was not yet distributed to the players,” the team’s liaison officer Arvinder Singh.
Source – espnstar.com

Following Coach Buchanan theory of multiple captains, Kolkata Knight Riders has appointed New Zealand wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum as the new captain for IPL season 2.

The team is scheduled to play its first match for the series on April 19 against Deccan Chargers, in which McCullum will lead the team.

It is worth mentioning here that a war of words was escalated between John Buchanan and Sourav Ganguly escalated with Buchanan, the Kolkata Knight Riders’ coach, saying that he had already discussed with Sourav Ganguly the controversial theory of multiple captains for the team before making the announcement in a press conference.

However, Ganguly had denied any knowledge of this development, but Buchanan insisted that the two had had discussions on the issue during the IPL’s first season.

Buchanan is expected to announce more names who will lead the team during IPL 2 as per the theory of multiple captains.
Source – samaylive.com