The ‘differences’ with Kolkata Knight Riders coach John Buchanan notwithstanding, Sourav Ganguly said on Thursday that he would like to forget the past and look forward to a good show in the second season of the Indian Premier League starting in South Africa from April 18.

“It’s (the differences over captaincy issue) not a new thing in sports and I am sure it will happen in future also. It happens in a lot of teams. I think as professionals, we need to put this behind and look forward to playing in South Africa. I don’t think it will affect (the team preparation),” the former India captain said on the sidelines of a promotional event in Kolkata.

Ganguly, who led the Knight Riders last year, was miffed after Buchanan announced that the Kolkata outfit would have multiple captains in the IPL this season.

The Bengal stalwart, however, said as professionals he and his team-mates are determined to fulfil their responsibilities towards the team.

“We all are professionals and when the tournament starts we all have responsibilities. We all have reputations to keep. We know we are doing a job for Knight Riders for which everyone is looked after,” Ganguly said.

Meanwhile, in an apparent move to douse the tension within the outfit over the captaincy issue, the Knight Riders have decided to announce their skipper and squad for the cash-rich T20 tournament in South Africa.

Although, the Knight Riders management decided to dump Buchanan’s idea and stick to the “one” captain policy in a meeting at team owner Shah Rukh Khan’s residence on Tuesday, they are still tight-lipped on whether Ganguly would continue as the skipper or not.

Asked about the disappearance of Kolkata’s name from the team logo, Ganguly said, “It’s still Kolkata Knight Riders. Knight Riders is the company, it was there last year and it just disappeared perhaps because the tournament shifted to South Africa. But it will remain Kolkata Knight Riders when we return next year.”

Ganguly, who leaves for South Africa on April 5, said their base camp, Bloemfontein will help in the team’s preparation as it has the best wicket in South Africa.

“Bloemfontein is a very good place. They say Bloemfontein has the best wicket in South Africa. Everybody had their chance to select for their base camp and the reason why we chose Bloemfontein because it’s the more quieter part of South Africa.”

He further said the team’s fitness trainer Adrian Le Roux belonged to that part of the country which was one of the reason behind the decision to select Bloemfontein as the base.

“Le Roux belongs to that place so obviously he had a major say in the decision. He knows the ground condition well and will be able to help us in terms of facilities, wickets and make sure we get everything in place before the camp starts,” added Ganguly.
Source – expressindia.com

Australia skipper Ricky Ponting says there is “some merit” in Kolkata Knight Riders coach John Buchanan’s proposal to have multiple captains within the team in this month’s Indian Premier League (IPL).

Buchanan, one of cricket’s most lateral-thinking and controversial coaches, stepped down as Australia’s mentor after helping guide Ponting’s team to a successful one-day international World Cup defence in the West Indies in 2007.

Ponting had been due to play for Kolkata in the five-week IPL season, which starts on April 18. But the Australian batsman, who would be available to play in the last two weeks of the tournament, has opted to spend time at home with his family.

Australia’s busy year continues in June with the Twenty20 World Cup followed by the Ashes series in July, both in England.

Ponting will miss out on the chance to share the captaincy/”strategist” roles of the Kolkata side with other big names such as India’s Saurav Ganguly, West Indian Chris Gayle, New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum and Australia’s Brad Hodge and David Hussey.

Ganguly, who was Kolkata’s IPL captain in 2008, has spoken out against the idea and claims he wasn’t consulted, although Buchanan denies this.

“I heard the other day he was actually talking about having a couple of captains on the ground at once. I don’t know how that’s going to work,” Ponting told AAP this week.

“But I know Tassie actually experimented with that a few years ago.

“They had Dan Marsh and George Bailey. One was doing the field placings and one was doing the bowling changes.

“So it just sort of lightened the load up I guess on the actual captain on the field and gave him a bit more opportunity to think about different things.

“I don’t see there’s a lot of problems with it.

“The more experience you can get into a lot of guys as far as leadership goes can only benefit your group.

“But it seems like it’s a bit more of a sensitive situation at the moment with Sourav (Ganguly) being captain and maybe not wanting to give up that actual role, which you can understand as well.

“I think there is some merit in it. We’ll see how it works at the end of this IPL.”

After announcing his plan last month for multiple captains, Buchanan has since fine-tuned his proposal and says he wants one captain and “four to five core experts” who will act as “strategists”.

“These coaches or strategists will assist the one captain on field with their viewpoints on the game plan set earlier or shoot from the hip as the case maybe,” a Kolkata team statement said.

“The captain for the team is one and only one as in the case of most sports. Just the roles which are there in the regular format of the game as the fielding expert, batting coaches, are being better defined to be able to give quick suggestions …

“All internal decisions are taken collectively by the core cricketing team which comprises John, Sourav, Matthew Mott (assistant coach) and a few others.”
Source – news.theage.com.au

The Kolkata Knight Riders’ coach, Mr John Buchanan’s idea of multiple captaincy is a mockery of the game, Dilip Vengsarkar (in photo) said here today. Vengsarkar said he would be glad to see Sourav Ganguly back at the helm of the KKR.
“Suppose there is one ball to go and six runs to be scored and then four guys come to advise you. I want Ganguly to go to (Mr) Buchanan and ask him what to do. This is a mockery of the game with four captains telling the captain what to do,” said Vengsarkar, who was here for a product promotion programme.

‘A sell-out show’
Filling stadiums in South Africa will be one of the biggest challenges facing the Indian Premier League but its publicist, Mr Percy Dubash, has expressed confidence that a large number of fans from India and other countries will flock to the country to witness the tournament which starts in Cape Town on 18 April.
“The rainbow nation is a very popular tourist destination and we are certain that a large number of Indians and non-resident Indians will visit the country for the IPL,” Mr Dubash said. “The league is immensely popular with a huge global fan base. The fact that the league also coincides with summer holidays in India also bodes well,” he told SuperSport.
Speaking about the IPL’s success in grabbing worldwide attention, Mr Dubash said: “It is attributable to several factors, including the fact that the on-the-field action in it was truly world class. In most developed economies of the world, live sports play a very integral part of the family experience, be it a National Basketball Association game or an English Premier League game on weekdays or at weekends.
“In a similar vein, I think a void in terms of live entertainment was more than adequately filled by the IPL as it combined some of the best cricket talents in the world with the next generation of Indian talent – everything packaged into a highly entertaining three-hour roller-coaster of fun, excitement, and adrenalin-packed cricket action. That is exactly the reason why the IPL managed to capture the imagination of an entire nation, and more importantly the world.”
Mr Dubash claimed that the IPL had brought in a whole lot of financial benefits. “The IPL’s success has provided monetary rewards – apart from honour and pride – not only to the players but to the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the cricketing fraternity as a whole. At modest estimates, the IPL involves around a total of $ 2.5 billion in terms of overall revenue. But the BCCI has stressed from the very beginning that money earned through the IPL will be ploughed back into the game,” he said.
The IPL publicist also informed the Press that an elite team of 15 former players would be the commentators for the event.
Heading the list will be Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and Ramiz Raja and assisting them will be Arun Lall, Simon Doull, Pommie Mbangwa, Kepler Wessels, L Sivaramkrishnan, Robin Jackman, Danny Morrison, Ranjit Fernando, Alastair Campbell, Abbas Ali Baig, Greg Blewett and Jeremey Coney.
Source – thestatesman.net

THE IPL going overseas to South Africa has its own advantages. Shah Rukh Khan has finally selected two beauties to join his cheerleader’s team in South Africa. The cricket lovers back home would be disappointed that they would not be able to cheer for their teams in the field and that the hype would be at a lesser degree, but the organisers of IPL-2 have plenty of reasons to be happy about. One of these happiness factors pertains to the cheerleaders and their dress code which will be free from the shackles that weighed them down in the inaugural session.

Last time around, there were plenty of controversies and the beauties were not allowed to be free with their actions. Maharashtra had banned the glamour quotient. The girls had to curtail their activities and appeared to be disinterested in the whole affair. They had to keep their vital assets properly covered and be subdued. They must have wondered – why such double standards? Bollywood movies grant permission to actresses to show their all without any questions asked. Switch to any music channel and the music videos appear to be interested only in such numbers that exhibit revealing dresses. Some of the videos have foreigners to make up the crowds and they also dance to the tunes. Why then the discrimination against the cheerleaders of cricket?

Anyway, the famous adage goes — out of sight, out of mind. IPL2 players enjoy the freedom in South Africa, away from the eyes of the moral police. Your city folks might not be there to applaud your heroics but the cheerleaders will certainly be there to cheer your 4s and 6s – and there will not be any objections to the girls baring the maximum.

Delhi Dearedevils manager T.A. Sekar is upbeat about the team’s chances in the second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and feels it is the most balanced side in the Twenty20 competition.
With a good mix of hard-hitting batsmen, all-rounders and steady bowling, the team has plenty of options, Sekar said.

The induction of five more international players this season has added to the strength of the side that reached the semi-final last year.

“Delhi Daredevils walk into the IPL with probably the most balanced combination,” Sekar said.

“We have the best opening pair in the world in Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, both of whom are in excellent form. Then we have A.B. de Villiers and Dilshan Tillakaratne, who were important to the team last year,” Sekar was quoted as saying by Daredevils website.

Australia’s latest sensation David Warner is the biggest catch for Daredevils this season. They have also brought two other Australian players – all-rounder Andrew McDonald and Dirk Nannes. Former England One-day captain Paul Collingwood, one of the most athletic fielders in the world and Owais Shah were also picked up in the second IPL auction in Goa.

“Our gameplan was to get a couple of hard-hitting batsmen and a couple of all-rounders into the side.”

“Kiwi skipper Daniel Vettori and India spinner Amit Mishra will be a vital part of the team,” Sekar said.

“Among the new-ball bowlers, there will be sufficient options. We have the legendary Glenn McGrath, Farveez Maharoof of Sri Lanka, Collingwood, Dirk Nannes, and Ashish Nehra will lend solidity to the bowling line-up.”
Source – thaindian.com