Former Protea Jonty Rhodes is “very impressed” by the work ethic the Mumbai Indians’ rookies displayed at a training camp in Durban last week.

Rhodes a member of the Indian Premier League franchise’s management, spent the last few days honing the fielding skills of the younger players in the Mumbai team. He worked closely with fellow former Protea Shaun Pollock, who too is a consultant to the Indians.

“The majority of the players we worked with will fit around the four overseas professionals and four Indian internationals so they are quite young and their skills are very Indian specific,” Rhodes said.“But they showed great enthusiasm and were very keen to throw themselves about. They watch a lot of international cricket and do not subscribe to old theory that India does not have a fielding culture. I was very impressed by how much they wanted to learn and absorb.”

There is a growing belief among the IPL franchises that teams with a strong South African influence will have the edge in this year’s tournament because of it being relocated to the Republic.

So with the two Proteas legends on the payroll of the Mumbai Indians, does Rhodes believe his team will start with an advantage over the seven other franchises?

“Shaun is going to be invaluable to the team. There’s no doubt about that. He just has such a calm demeanour in the dressing room.

“Even when it was thought that the tournament was going to be held in India, and Shaun was still considering whether to come back for another year, the Mumbai management made it very clear they wanted him back,” Rhodes said.Although appreciating Pollock’s involvement, Rhodes was, however, quick to dismiss the assumption that South African players will automatically be the stars of the second IPL season because of their knowledge of the conditions.

The leading South African player in the Mumbai Indians team is JP Duminy, who was signed for $950 000 while Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya also played domestic cricket in Durban for the KwaZulu-Natal Dolphins in 2009.

“International players adjust very quickly today. Most of the guys in all the teams are experienced international cricketers. They play all over the world and have learnt to adapt very quickly,” Rhodes said.

“Take a guy like Dwayne Bravo. He plays for the West Indies in the Caribbean, where each island has different conditions, and he has learnt a lot on how to adapt all over. His experience will be very valuable.”

The Mumbai Indians will kickstart the IPL against last year’s finalists, the Chennai Super Kings, on Saturday, April 18 at Newlands

Source – iol.co.za

The induction of England batsman Kevin Pietersen and New Zealand’s Jesse Ryder, besides Bangalore lad Robin Uthappa, has helped Indian Premier League franchise Bangalore Royal Challengers shed its tag of ‘Test outfit’ in Twenty20 cricket, says team owner Vijay Mallya.”Last year our team was called a Test team, but with players such as (Kevin) Pietersen, (Robin) Uthappa and (Jesse) Ryder in the squad now, no one calls it a Test team anymore,” Mallya said in Mumbai on Thursday.Mallya’s team was criticised by experts last year for lacking the firepower required for Twenty20 cricket, as it ended up seventh in the eight-team contest.

Pietersen will lead the team till he returns for England duty, after which star South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis will take over the mantle.

The liquor baron said his team has five home-grown players and their familiarity with conditions in South Africa, where the second edition of IPL is to be held from April 18, will stand his team in good stead.

“We have five South African players in our team, apart from former South Africa coach Ray Jennings. They are well aware of the conditions in that country and this advantage should work in our favour,” he said.The quintet of South African players — Dale Steyn, Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher, Roelof Van der Merwe and Dillion du Preez are among the RCB’s ten foreign recruits.While admitting that shifting of the IPL to South Africa would cause some financial losses to the franchise, Mallya said he is confident that Board of Control for Cricket in India would make up for it.

“The event is sure to cost us but I am sure that the BCCI will do something about it. Holding the tournament in such a short time was a challenge in itself, the hisaab-kitaab [accounting] can be done once the tournament is over,” he said.

Mallya expressed hope that viewership of the tournament would not be affected because of the shift in venue.

“About 95 per cent viewership of the IPL is TV audience. It is unlikely to suffer as the BCCI has adjusted the timings of the matches as per the convenience of Indian audience.

“IPL going overseas is a lot better than missing it altogether,” he said.

On Force India’s performance in the Australian Grand Prix, Mallya, who is also co-owner of the Formula One team, said he was happy with performance of the drivers.”I’m happy with the ninth and 11th place finishes that Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella achieved. Both of them completed their races in the first event of the season which was a big satisfaction in itself.”
Source – cricket.rediff.com

Essex all-rounder Graham Napier is relishing the prospect of playing under champion batsman Sachin Tendulkar for Mumbai Indians in the upcoming IPL 2 and feels it will be a lifetime’s experience for him.

“Millions of cricketers — amateur or professional would love to get the chance to play alongside Sachin Tendulkar. I have that opportunity so am looking forward to it immensely. He is cricket in India. Just to have the chance to speak to him and understand his way of thinking is a great life experience”, he said on his personal website.

Napier, who is set to fly out of England for Durban this Sunday to link up with his MI teammates ahead of the IPL opener on April 18, was also full of praise about the skills of two other Indian performers – off spinner Harbhajan Singh and speedster Zaheer Khan.

“His experience and ability to spin the ball both ways will be brilliant for us in the middle overs of the innings to peg an innings back,” he said about Harbhajan Singh.

Describing Zaheer as the world’s best left-armer and one of the cleverest bowlers in the game, Napier felt that the Indian pace sprearhead’s ability to bowl swing, reverse swing and his changes of pace “will make him invaluable to the Mumbai Indians.”

“I’ll make sure I get the chance to speak to him to try to add something to my own game.” he added.
Source – cricket.expressindia.com

Former Australian Test paceman Glenn McGrath says he’s happy with his fitness as he embarks on a heavy schedule before his first major cricket match in almost a year.

McGrath leaves for a 12-day training camp in India on Saturday in preparation for more than a month of Twenty20 matches in the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches.

However, the actual tournament has been shifted from India to South Africa due to security concerns.

Retiring from international cricket after the 2007 World Cup final, McGrath played in the initial IPL last year.

He now spends most of his time working with the McGrath Foundation breast cancer charity and raising his two children after losing his wife to the disease in last June.

But he said he was prepared for the upcoming schedule with the Delhi Daredevils.

“I’ve been pretty busy of late,” McGrath told reporters at a McGrath Foundation charity launch at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday.

“I head off tomorrow, heading to India first for a few days before heading over to South Africa, so it’s been a busy last few weeks but it’s all come together well.”

He said the IPL had changed the nature of world cricket.

“I think it probably has, hopefully for the better,” he said.

“As a player, it’s good to go over there.

“Twenty20 is quite a fast, exciting game and also I think the big selling point for me as well was that I get to play with guys that I don’t (normally) get to play with.

“And you get to see how they play, how they prepare.

“We become pretty good friends when we play against each other, but then we play with each other, it’s different again and that’s what I like about the IPL.”

He said he was happy with his form after a couple of charity matches.

“In the two games I’ve had, the bushfire appeal and Jason Gillespie’s testimonial match, I’ve come out okay,” he said.

“We’ve got a 12-day training camp before the first game so I’m hoping it’ll come back quite quickly, as long as I’m reasonably fit, the bowling usually comes back quite quickly.

“At the moment my fitness is pretty good and that will hopefully just increase that over the next few weeks.”

He said the maximum four overs per bowler rule was also appealing.

“Any more than four overs and I think I’d shy away from it.”

Source – news.smh.com.au

Michael Hussey will become the latest Australian to withdraw from this year’s IPL in an effort to reinvigorate himself ahead of the Ashes. Hussey is one of only two Australians, along with Brad Haddin, to have played in all 12 Tests and 10 one-day internationals since last year’s tour of India, and was due to join the Chennai Super Kings after the limited-overs series against Pakistan next month. He is now likely to spend the time with his family in Perth.Hussey is mired in the deepest trough of his international career – he reached 50 once in the six Tests against South Africa – and is desperate to rediscover peak form in time for the Ashes. In addition to the IPL, he is also believed to be considering standing down from Australia’s six matches against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates as he seeks to rejuvenate both body and mind. He will play the one-day series in South Africa, which begins in Durban on Friday.

Hussey could have travelled to South Africa for the last fortnight of the IPL, but will instead follow the lead of his national captain, Ricky Ponting, in standing down from the tournament. Mitchell Johnson and Michael Clarke did not nominate for the 2009 IPL auction, citing their desire to focus on international cricket.

“We havent got any official intimation from Hussey yet,” VB Chandrasekhar, the Super Kings’ cricket operations director, told Cricinfo. “It’s a big disappointment for us, but we have got to respect his need to take rest. No doubt, we will miss him a lot. He was expected to play from the ninth game onwards and play a crucial role. (Andrew) Flintoff leaves by then and we thought, even if the bowling gets weakened a bit, our batting would have got stronger.”

In the IPL’s inaugural season, Hussey posted the tournament’s third highest score (116 not out) and the fourth highest batting average (84.00) in his four-game stint for the Super Kings. But he has struggled for form of late, averaging just 23.00 in eight Tests since the start of the Australian summer.
Source – content.cricinfo.com