Kevin Pietersen has defended his decision to play in the Indian Premier League only a few days after complaining of homesickness during England’s lengthy tour of the Caribbean.

The Hampshire batsman faces only a week at home when he returns from England duty next weekend before flying out to South Africa for a lucrative two-week stint with the Bangalore Royal Challengers.

Such a schedule has prompted fierce criticism given his request to return home for 48 hours during the Test series having been apart from wife Jessica Taylor. But Pietersen said: “What happens in two weeks is a totally different kettle of fish and that’s the difference.”

As England prepare for Friday’s one-day series decider against West Indies at the Beausejour Stadium, Pietersen believes he will be helping England by developing his game with his participation in the IPL.

He added: “Everybody on the tour wants to go home, everybody wants to see their families but what wasn’t written was how dedicated I am to playing for England and how much winning this game on Friday means to me and the team.

“I’m going to spend a week at home with my wife and then go back to business.

“I don’t think people realise it wasn’t a case of just wanting to go home, to leave the tour and be ungrateful that I’m an England player or for being in Barbados. Everyone thought I just wanted to pack my bags and leave, but that’s not the case.”

Pietersen was signed up for a staggering US Dollars 1.5million by Bangalore, which he will earn on a pro-rata basis depending on the number of games he plays, but he has to return to England by May 1 before the first Test at Lord’s against West Indies six days later.

He insisted that financial gain was not his motivation, claiming: “It’s not a case of playing cricket for money. Yes, there is money attached to it but I’m going to learn, play with the best players in the world and it’s an opportunity to improve my game.

“I’ve always said that I’m willing to learn and I will learn in the IPL, playing with some of the best players in the world. I want to be the best person I can possibly be and the best player I can possibly be, which helps England and that’s what all the players want to do.”
Source – google.com

Players from Chennai Super Kings who are not doing the national duty in New Zealand have started training in right earnest to prepare for a grueling second season of the IPL in Chennai. The players who have attended the training camp include Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel, Joginder Sharma, Manpreet Gony, Sudip Tyagi, Shadab Jakati and S. Anirudha. For a change Venkatesh Prasad has also moved from Bangalore Royal Challengers to Chennai Super Kings to be the bowling coach of the team. One wonders whether MS Dhoni had a role to play in moving Prasad from Bangalore to Chennai. The CSK team is leaving for South Africa on 8 April and would spend around 10 days to get them acclimatized with the bouncy wickets of South Africa. The key batsman for CSK would be Suresh Raina who must be brimming with confidence after the fantastic season that he had in the land of black caps. He is hopeful that the IPL Season 2 would provide the perfect opportunity to the players to prepare for the ensuing Twenty 20 World Cup.
CSK has been rather fortunate that they have been able to get Durban as their base for the second season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Durban is a city that has largest concentration of the expat Indian population and the ten days that CSK spends there may help them in creating a fan following for them. Most of the franchisees were vying amongst each other for Durban as a base for preparation for IPL Season 2, but the authorities of CSK were first off the block to initiate the dialogues with Cricket South Africa (CSA) and IPL authorities to ensure that they get Durban as their base. CSK may play a couple of practice matches and CSA has ensured that it would give full cooperation. CSK will play their first IPL Season 2 game against Mumbai Indians in Cape Town.
Source – cricket360.com

The New Zealand all-rounder is suffering from an Achilles tendon strain and may withdraw from this year’s tournament if the injury forces him to miss his domestic state championship final from April 6.

The Chennai Super Kings take on the Mumbai Indians in the opening match of the IPL in Cape Town on April 18.

“It will be a big blow for us if Oram is unable to play the IPL,” Super Kings’ cricket operations director VB Chandrasekhar said.

“He had fitted into our team structure quite beautifully last season and we were really looking forward to having him for the whole of the tournament this time around.

“Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and coach Stephen Fleming are in New Zealand. They are trying to convince Oram to play the tournament, but if he doesn’t feel up to it, we won’t force him.”Assuming he is fit, the Super Kings will place an even greater workload on Oram given that the tournament’s switch to South Africa has reduced the availability of England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff.

“Flintoff won’t be available for too many matches and Oram and Albie Morkel would have to share the workload,” Chandrasekhar added.

“Obviously Oram’s absence would put Morkel under great strain. But then these guys are actually walking a very fine line.

“It’s not always easy for them to take a call on whether they should preserve themselves for international cricket or go ahead with a tournament like IPL.

“If Oram does give the tournament a miss, his all-round abilities will surely be missed.”
Source – skysports.com

The two T20 internationals between the Proteas and Australia over the weekend gave a glimpse of what can be expected from this year’s IPL to be held in South Africa. And on the evidence of Cape Town and Johannesburg, it seems that the Deccan Chargers’ gain will be the Kolkata Knight Riders’ loss.

Following Andrew Symonds’ misdemeanours in the last nine months, the player who has benefited most from the vacancy for the batting allrounder in the limited overs format has been David Hussey. As such, the younger Hussey has since cemented a middle order position in the Australian ODI team, at least until Symonds is deemed to have been rehabilitated.

Last year, Hussey played out a full campaign, but this year, barring anomalous behaviour by the Australian selectors, he will miss at least the first nine matches, due to Australia’s ODI series against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi.

In the past year, he has become even more destructive in the abbreviated format. In the Australian T20 campaign this year, Hussey plundered 171 runs in four matches and was out only once, the highlight being an unbeaten 100 against Tasmania from only 47 overs. In five T20 internationals since then he has amassed 177 runs at 44.25, including a big-hitting 88* from 44 balls against South Africa at the Wanderers on Friday. Not only that, he counter-attacked despite the loss of two quick wickets, refusing to yield the momentum to his opponents. Hussey would have been invaluable in stabilising a Kolkata middle-order that will field Indian players who have never played outside the subcontinent.

Aside from his batting, he has also become more of a regular with his off spin, sending down at least three overs in each of his last nine matches. At international level this season, he has taken six wickets at 18.66, conceding less than seven runs per over, a performance comparable to any frontline spinner.

Were I more conspiratorially minded and cynical, I could claim that the reason for Ricky Ponting’s persistent advocacy of Symonds’ place in the Australian team would be to keep Hussey on full-time IPL duty, thereby strengthening Kolkata at the expense of the Hyderabad outfit, in order to land himself some kind of under-the-table kickbacks from Shahrukh Khan and co.

That’s wishful thinking of course, but if Kolkata are still in finals contention when Hussey returns for the latter part of the tournament, then they will surely be a threat. Having said that, with all the upheavals regarding the multiple captains, they would be lucky to still be in the hunt. Meanwhile, Symonds will be enjoying a full season in South Africa, the site of his career-defining campaign at the 2003 World Cup. Deccan will be hoping that he turns back the clock to the halcyon days.
Source – blogs.livemint.com

Injury-prone New Zealand allrounder Jacob Oram has denied suggestions he is saving himself for the lucrative Indian Premier League in South Africa at the expense of playing the current test series against India.

Oram will take no part in the three-test series after the experienced international player confirmed he had aggravated an Achilles tendon strain that plagued him during the one-day series against the Indians.

The injury forced his withdrawal from Central Districts’ current domestic four-day match against Auckland but hoped he would be fit for the State Championship final against the same opponents at Lincoln, outside Christchurch, on April 6.

Oram told The Dominion Post newspaper if he was not able to play or complete the five-day final he would not be available to fulfil his US$675,000 ($1,221,277) contract with the Chennai Super Kings.

He aggravated the injury while bowling against Canterbury in the last round of the State Championship in New Plymouth last week.

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“I can understand people thinking I’m cotton-wooling myself but I’ll definitely take myself out (of the IPL) if I don’t get through the final,” Oram said.

After the ODI series with India ended in Auckland on March 14 Oram made himself unavailable for the first two tests against India.

Following consultation with New Zealand Cricket selectors and medical staff it was decided he should build his fitness and form in the domestic competition.

Chennai are scheduled to open the second edition of the IPL against Mumbai in Cape Town on April 18.
Source – nzherald.co.nz