Indian Premier League 2009 (IPL: Season - 2)

SMS game introduced in IPL withdrawn

2009-05-12T09:27:00.000-07:00

New Delhi, May 12 (PTI) The controversial SMS game introduced in the IPL, which evoked strong criticism for promoting to gambling, was today discontinued with the games' inventors taking note of the apprehensions expressed by Sports Minister M S Gill and many former cricketers.

Although no pressure was put for the game to be withdrawn, the organisers decided to stop it with immediate effect.

"There was no formal complaints about the game but the Sports Ministers' views were taken into account and the organisers have withdrawn the game," senior BCCI official and a member of the IPL Executive Board Rajiv Shukla told PTI.

Gill had last week denounced the SMS game in which fans made ball by ball predictions for cash prizes, saying it amounted to gambling.

"I see the commercial use of cricket for business gains, that is going on. I am concerned, at knowledgeable comments, from serious followers of cricket about the latest venture of encouraging viewers to make ball by ball predictions of runs scored for economic gain in the shape of cash prizes," Gill had said in a statement.

"This is viewed as 'openly encouraging gambling and betting', which official bodies do not resort to, even in countries where betting is legal; all this 'to make money and enlarge their TV viewership base'," the minister had added.

South African Airways to add 6 flights between India and SA

2009-05-12T09:26:00.000-07:00

To cash in on the heightened cricket frenzy among Indians amid the ongoing IPL Twenty20 tournament, South African Airways (SSA) will deploy six additional flights between India and South Africa from May 18 to May 26.

"Seeing a sudden escalation in the demand for the India - South Africa route this season, due to heightened cricket craze among Indians, South African Airways has taken this strategic step to accommodate the growing passenger traffic," the airline said in a statement.

The additional flights will cater especially to the semi-finals and final matches of the tournament.

South African Airways' Acting Head for South East Asia Tauseef Khan said: "Our aim is to offer the best to our customers and thus we will continue working closely with the tour operators to offer the most affordable packages to South Africa for IPL (Indian Premier League)”.

The airline carries more than 7 million passengers a year and connects 34 cities in 26 countries. It has a fleet of 58 aircraft.

10,000 expected for final of IPL

2009-05-12T09:25:00.000-07:00

Johannesburg: "The heat is on" is the catchword on Indian Premier League (IPL) hoardings strewn across Johannesburg. The IPL fever has caught on in South Africa and all seats for the semifinals and finals are sold out. But the selling point, going by the billboards, is not Sachin Tendulkar or Mahendra Singh Dhoni or Virender Sehwag. Instead, the focus is on Shane Warne, Kevin Pietersen, the South African who earned his spurs playing for England and Andrew Flintoff.

Durban has a 1.5 million strong African-Indian community. The Kolkata Knight Riders are a big hit among those of Indian origin. Shah Rukh Khan fans are contributing to the popularity of the Black and Gold team. Unfortunately because of KKR's dismal performance people are switching loyalties.

Tendulkar's Mumbai Indians are also a hot favourite and so is Adam Gilchrist's Deccan Charges and last year's champions Rajasthan Royals. "I have been trying to get a ticket for the semifinal but it has been impossible,'' said the cashier at the Hyatt Regency, a young boy of Indian origin.

Most South Africans are thrilled that the IPL is being held in their country rather than England or for that matter India. "Please don't think it is only in India that people are mad about cricket. We South Africans are as passionate about the game as the Indians," he said. IPL organisers hope at least 10,000 people will fly in from India for the finals but Cricket South Africa is more realistic and expects not more than 5,000, most of them celebrities and well-heeled fans.

Pak players not to travel to S Africa for IPL pay dispute

2009-05-12T09:23:00.000-07:00

Karachi: The four Pakistani cricketers, who were supposed to meet Indian Premier League officials in South Africa to resolve their pay dispute, have changed their plan and will stay back to attend the camp for the Twenty20 World Cup. Instead, officials of the sports management company representing them will pursue the issue on their behalf in South Africa.

According to the sports management company representing the players, Shoaib Malik, Sohail Tanvir, Salman Butt and Kamran Akmal would not be traveling to South Africa now. The players have decided to give priority to national duty and attend the conditioning camp at Bhurban from Thursday, an official of the company said on Tuesday. He said that the company representative would now travel to South Africa to meet with IPL officials and the franchisee owners who had contracted the Pakistani players.

Apart from those four Pakistani players, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul and Misbah-ul-Haq also had their IPL contracts cancelled or suspended after the Pakistan government advised the players not to travel to India for the second edition of the Twenty20 league, which was later shifted to South Africa because of the elections in India. The players claimed that the IPL authorities neither

allowed them to play in second IPL, nor explained why their contracts were either suspended or cancelled. The players also claim the IPL owes them outstanding contractual money.

Incidentally, the company representative is in London at present to meet with the President of the Federation of International Cricketers (FICA) Tim May to seek his advice on the dispute with the IPL. The company had earlier said four of the players, including Malik, Tanvir and Butt, would be traveling to South Africa this week to meet with the IPL and franchise officials. Malik said the players had authorised the company to negotiate with the IPL and franchisees on their behalf as they wanted to be financially compensated for missing out on the IPL and over the non-professional way the IPL had handled the contractual issues.

A press release issued by the company quoted Malik as saying that the players hoped that the IPL and their franchisees would be fair towards them and resolve the issues.

IPL launches 6UP; world’s first innovative cricket skills game

2009-05-12T09:21:00.000-07:00

DELHI: The Indian Premier League recently launched 6UP the world’s first innovative cricket skills game at Durban. Set to revolutionize the way cricket will be watched by billions of fans across the globe, 6UP is a new innovation which will reward the skill and intuition of a cricket fan in real time while watching a live game of cricket.

Fans will now be able to play SMS mobile games through 6UP attempting to predict the outcomes of a LIVE game being played during Season 2009 of the DLF Indian Premier League here in South Africa and win prizes while doing so. Powered by IPLAYUP, fans will not only play exciting games like 6UP, but will also be able to interact with players, celebrities, experts and other fans during Season 2009.

6UP was launched by Lalit Modi, Chairman & Commissioner, Indian Premier League, legendary Australian spin king and brand ambassador for 6Up Shane Warne and the promoter of IPLAYUP George Tomeski.

Played on a mobile phone, 6UP is not only engaging, but also provides thrilling interactivity and can be played real time by cricket fans. It brings fans closer to the game they love by inducing a greater level of interactivity. The greater a cricket fans knowledge about the game and its nuances, the higher the probability of that fan reaping rich rewards in rupees that can be redeemed by them.

Lalit Modi, Chairman & Commissioner, Indian Premier League at the launch of 6UP said, “It is our endeavour to make the excitement of the DLF Indian Premier League available to our fans through multiple platforms and mobile is definitely one of the fastest growing platforms in the world. Through this new innovation we hope to enhance the excitement level and interactivity with our fans as the appeal for 6Up will cut across all segments of our viewers irrespective of age and gender.”

Spin legend - Shane Warne and Steve Waugh one of the most successful Australian captains are both significant supporters of IPLAYUP. Shane Warne, ambassador for IPLAYUP-6UP said “Cricket is a religion in India and through a game like 6UP, passionate Indian fans can use their knowledge and have fun while watching us play.”

6up can be played at only Rs 5 for an entry, thus contributing to a prize for the over, as each over has a minimum prize of Rs 10,000 that grows with each SMS. The important thing is the Rupee prize is won or shared by the player or players that demonstrate the greatest level of skill in an over. In addition IPLAYUP as part of its commitment to community will give part of the earnings to a charity.

Mr George Tomeski, Managing Partner 6UP, added “We are delighted to introduce our maiden venture 6UP, our proprietary skill game to India with the DLF Indian Premier League. This game is for the fans of cricket designed by fans themselves. We are providing entertainment against live cricket that is new, thus with 6UP have become pioneers of exciting new age of live sports entertainment.”

IPL cricket hit by 'gambling and betting' slur

2009-05-12T09:16:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI (AFP) — Indian Premier League chiefs were defending themselves on Sunday against government charges that the lucrative Twenty20 event in South Africa was "encouraging gambling and betting."

Sports minister Manohar Singh Gill was especially critical of an IPL mobile phone SMS competition in which participants win cash prizes for correctly guessing the sequence of runs scored in the subsequent over of the match.

"I see the commercial use of cricket for business gains that is going on," Gill, a former federal chief election commissioner, said in a statement.

"I am concerned about the latest venture of encouraging viewers to make ball-by-ball predictions of runs scored for economic gain in the shape of cash prizes.

"This is viewed as openly encouraging gambling and betting which official bodies do not resort to, even in countries where betting is legal -- all this to make money and enlarge their TV viewership base."

The IPL, already suffering dwindling viewing figures across India after the tournament was shifted to South Africa for security reasons, downplayed the sports minister's charges.

"A lot of effort has gone into this concept (the SMS contest) and into making this possible," IPL commissioner Lalit Modi was quoted as saying in South Africa by the Times of India.

"It's a valid point (made by Gill). But the margin of something like that happening is one in a million. If this game works, fine. If not, then we will leave it aside."

Gill warned the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which owns the IPL, of the repercussions the contest could have in a country where betting is illegal, keeping in mind the match-fixing scandal of 2000.

"We have already had a match-fixing scandal in the game," he said.

"It seems the ICC (International Cricket Council) had expressed concerns about such possibilities in the IPL... the game has to be protected for future generations."

A spokesman for the BCCI, Rajiv Shukla, said: "SMS games are there in every sport all over the world. If there is any report of gambling within the game, we will look into it."

The tournament, which began on April 18, is due to end on May 24.

Fans root for 'Fake IPL Player' identity, vote in thousands

2009-05-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

New Delhi (IANS): Even as the general elections head towards a climax, there's another poll unfolding — in cyberspace.

Between Saturday and Monday evening, nearly 29,000 readers of fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com — an Indian Premier League (IPL)-related blog that has spawned a cult following within the country and the Indian diaspora — have cast their vote to decide whether the mystery writer should reveal his identity or not.

The unknown blogger may not have turned out even once for his Kolkata Knight Riders team owned by actor Shah Rukh Khan, his rib-tickling posts have endeared him to thousands of fans, and attracted coverage by prestigious newspapers such as Britain's The Telegraph and The Independent.

"You rock, dude", is one of the most common refrains among fans, an overwhelming bulk of whom now wants to know who the cricketer-writer is, or if he is a cricketer in the first place, given his "mastery" over the English language.

Interestingly, the poll process has been initiated by the blogger himself, who goes by the moniker FIP (Fake IPL Player) and describes himself as a no-hope bench-warmer in a team that is at the bottom of the IPL heap with three measly points from 10 outings.

The voting follows a May 9 post headlined "It's decision time folks", where FIP wrote: "I had mentioned (in an earlier piece) about my decision to reveal my identity at the end of IPL... Whether FIP's identity should be disclosed or not, or how it should be taken forward, is as much as your decision as mine. I am putting up a poll on the right side. Pls take a few seconds to make your decision."

Alongside the post, FIP put up six categories, against any of which the blog's fans are required to mark their votes:

Yes, stick to your word man (to reveal his identity)

Yes, I'd like to see your a** kicked

No, let it (identity) remain a mystery

No, I fear for your safety

No, I want this to continue

Who cares a f***?

Till a little before 8 p.m. on Monday, nearly 19,000 blog fans or 64 per cent of the total "voters" till then had plugged for the faceless writer's identity to be revealed.

Wrote a fan under the pseudonym "Anonymous", echoing thousands of others: "of course! want your identity to be revealed. be a sport man! ppl wl love u all the more!"

There are others who noted his "celeb status", and advised him to hire a consultant to guide his career post-cricket, while another — clearly a die hard groupie — appeals rather plaintively: "If you reveal your identity and get your a** kicked, how can you do this next year?"

The popularity of the posts, most of which have attracted over 500 comments, stem from FIP's wicked wit, tongue-in-cheek sexual innuendoes, juicy details of players' drinking binges or womanising, and outrageous nicknames for fellow cricketers, the support staff, team owners including Shah Rukh, and IPL bosses and commentators.

Wrote he after a particularly humiliating loss that fuelled talks of staff sackings: "While our fielding coach was busy browsing naukri.com, our Throwing Coach accusingly glared at our wicketkeeping coach every time Skipper and Buddhiman Baba (Brendon McCullum and Wriddhiman Saha, both wicketkeepers) had their slip-ups in the outfield."

Then, not contented with taking a dig at these two coaches, FIP went for chief coach John Buchanan, referred to as "Bhookha Naan" in the blog: "I am waiting for the day Bhookha blames global warming for our performance."

Understandably, FIP's team management is livid, but the readers find the blog "awesome". Little wonder that the online edition of Britain's Telegraph newspaper ran a story under the headline "Fake IPL Player lights up Kolkata Knight Riders camp in South Africa".

And light up it has, and promises to do so for at least four more days —when polling ends.

Taylor trumps McCullum in IPL cricket battle

2009-05-12T09:13:00.000-07:00

CENTURION, South Africa (AFP) — Ross Taylor triumphed in the battle of the New Zealanders against Brendon McCullum Tuesday as Bangalore defeated Kolkata by six wickets in an Indian Premier League thriller.

McCullum struck an unbeaten 84 at Centurion Park as bottom team Knight Riders reached 173-4 from 20 overs only to be passed by Royal Challengers, who made 176-4 in 19.2 overs with unbeaten 81-run Taylor the hero.

Friend and foe praised Taylor after one of the most exciting finishes in the five-week Twenty20 tournament as teams chase a top-four finish and a place in the semi-finals next weekend.

"Ross was fantastic and took the game away from us after I thought our total would be good enough to secure victory," said McCullum of official man-of-the-match Taylor.

Bangalore and South Africa wicketkeeper Mark Boucher added: "The innings of Ross was as good as it gets. We were under a lot of pressure to win and he pulled us through."

Taylor said: "The innings was a relief as I have been struggling in the IPL this season. I desperately wanted to repay the faith shown in me by the coaching staff."

McCullum struck two sixes and 10 fours as he stayed at the crease from start to finish of a Kolkata innings that gathered momentum in the second half after labouring to 69-2 by the 10-over 'tactical break'.

The Kiwi also pulled off the catch of the tournament so far to send South African Jacques Kallis packing after his opening partnership with Kiwi Jesse Ryder had yielded 58 runs for Bangalore.

Ryder departed five runs later and after Bangalore were in run-rate trouble for several overs, Taylor let loose and his five sixes and seven fours steered the team home.

Victory lifted Bangalore two places to fifth on the eight-team standings, one point behind defending champions Rajasthan Royals with three round-robin fixtures to play.

IPL teams may list on the stock market!

2009-05-07T10:42:00.000-07:00

Like gladiators, cricketing stars from across the globe are battling it out for their respective Indian Premier League teams in the IPL T20 Cricket Tournament. The competition is on the cricket field today, but the day is not far away when it might move to the stock markets.

The huge success of the IPL has heralded a new innings in the history of Indian cricket. A huge money spinner, the two-year-old IPL is worth a whopping $2 billion, according the United Kingdom-based brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance.

"The IPL brand alone has a value of over $311 million. The brand can certainly create long-term value with its strong intrinsic strength and foundation. The IPL is just like any company today and it holds a long-term shareholder value. In 2-3 years, the IPL clubs may get listed on the bourses just like the popular English Premier League football teams," says Unni Krishnan, Country Manager, Brand Finance India.

This innovative form of the cricket has attracted a huge fan following across the globe. The IPL is a now a product with a 'made in India' tag and a huge brand value.

Rajasthan Royals top IPL-2 points table

2009-05-07T10:40:00.002-07:00

Centurion, May 07: Statistical highlights of the Twenty20 Indian Premier League match between Rajasthan Royals v Royal Challengers Bangalore here on Thursday.

Rajasthan Royals, with five wins have now got eleven points in 9 games. Their tally is the best by any team in the 2009 edition.

Royal Challengers Bangalore (105) have registered their lowest total against Rajasthan, obliterating the 132 for nine at Jaipur on May 17, 2008.

Royal Challengers Bangalore became the second team to lose 5 games or more. Kolkata Knight Riders (7) have lost most games in the second edition.

Naman Ojha has recorded his second half-century in three IPL games in 2009.

Ojha has averaged 60.00 in the 2009 edition - 120 in three innings. In Twenty20 cricket, he has averaged 28.00 in seven matches, aggregating 168 runs in seven games.

In the 2009 edition, Graeme Smith could not get going, aggregating 162 in eight games at an average of 23.14.

Playing in his 50th Twenty20 game, Smith took his runs tally to 1528 at an average of 34.72, including one century and nine fifties.

Smith, during the course of his 20, became the eighth batsman to aggregate 600 runs in the IPL - 603 at an average of 37.68, including four fifties in 19 matches.

Amit Singh (4/19) has recorded his career-best haul in Twenty20, bettering the 3 for 9 on his debut against Kings XI Punjab at Durban on May 5, 2009.

Amit has now claimed seven wickets at an average of 4.00 with a economy rate of 3.50 in just two Twenty20 games.

Amit, thanks to his brilliant bowling performance, has got his first MOM in the IPL.

Ravinder Jadeja (3/15) has produced his best bowling performance in the IPL, surpassing the 1 for 22 against Deccan Chargers at Port Elizabeth on May 2, 2009.

Skipper Dhoni guides Super Kings to 178

2009-05-07T10:40:00.001-07:00

BACK TO FORM: Mahendra Singh Dhoni came up with a controlled innings to take Chennai Super Kings to a challenging total.

EAST LONDON: An unbeaten 58 (37 balls, 6x4, 1x6) by skipper M.S. Dhoni enabled fifth-placed Chennai Super Kings pile 178 for three against league leader Deccan Chargers here on Monday.

Following two wins on the trot, Chennai went into the match with an unchanged line up. Dhoni elected to bat and Mathew Hayden — the top run-scorer in IPL 2009 — spurred and steadied the early innings.

Brisk start

Hayden (43, 26 balls, 5x4, 3x6) cleared the ropes off R.P Singh, Dwayne Smith and Rohit Sharma to assist his side to 53 without loss after six overs.

The Aussie opener almost decapitated medium pacer Shoaib Mohammed with a bludgeon straight down the pitch, but was out next ball — top-edging to third man — when he went for another big strike.

Dhoni promoted himself up the order and walked out to bat on Hayden’s dismissal. While the skipper dug in, M. Vijay (31, 33 balls, 2x4, 1x6) kept the runs flowing, scampering twos and thumping Harris to mid wicket for maximum; Chennai was 84 for one at the 10-over tactical timeout.

Tightening things

Chargers’ slow bowlers appeared to tighten things after the break. Aside from a brutal six that Dhoni hit over his head, Pragyan Ojha was control personified, giving little room to the batsmen.

T.S. Suman was equally effective from the other end and lured Vijay to hit a high ball to Gibbs at long on, an event that brought Suresh Raina to the middle.

Big hitting

Raina destroyed Suman’s bowling figures in the 15th over with 4,6,6 all directed towards long on and at 130 for two, after 15 overs, Chennai was set for the final assault.

R.P. Singh returned for his second spell with a superb over, claiming Raina (32, 19 balls, 1x4, 2x6) and giving away just five runs.

Dhoni brought up his fifty in the last over with a pulled boundary off R.P. Singh and followed it with another gloved four to fine leg. Chennai scored 48 runs in the last five overs.

Who’s The Better Captain in DLF IPL 2009?

2009-05-07T10:39:00.000-07:00

Among the foreign captains only Shane Warne (Rajasthan Royals) and Adam Gilchrist (Deccan Chargers) have done well. But they are the exceptions. And they were part of the first season and knew the workings of their team well. The Deccan Chargers are leading the points table with 8 points and Rajasthan Royals are placed 5th with 7 points. In between the two there are the Delhi Daredevils, Mumbai Indians and Chennai, all captained by Indians.

As for the Kolkata Knight Riders and Bangalore Royal Challengers, they have landed at the bottom of the table, and it seems unlikely that they will get a lift up anytime during this season.

Vijay Mallya, owner of the Bangalore team, bought England’s Kevin Pietersen to replace Rahul Dravid, and things have only been downhill for this team. They have won only 3 of the seven matches played so far, with a paltry net run rate of -0.329.

Things have been even worse for the Kolkata Knight Riders. In all of John Buchanan’s experimentation, Brendon McCullum replaced Sourav Ganguly as the captain and has failed miserably. Last year he gave the Knight Riders several scorching openings, but now he has failed as much with the bat, as he has as captain. In fact, team owner Shahrukh Khan is so distraught with the performances that he has returned to India. There are also rumours making their way around that Brendon McCullum has offered to resign as captain. Pietersen too failed with the bat, but his run in the IPL is over for now, hopefully things will be looking better for Bangalore from now on.

Sprite launches its latest consumer initiative for DLF IPL

2009-05-07T10:38:00.002-07:00

Riding on the passion of T20 cricket amongst consumers, Brand Sprite, Associate Sponsor and the Official Pouring Partner of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) today announced the launch of a Special edition ‘Sprite Kolkata Knight Riders’ bottle. The latest initiative is a part of brand Sprite’s larger consumer engagement program to leverage the second season of DLF IPL, 2009. The limited edition PET bottles will be made available with insignia of key players of the Kolkata Knight Riders team. Consumers have a twin option of choosing either a Sprite bottle featuring Saurav Ganguly, Ishant Sharma and David Hussey or one with the insignia of Saurav Ganguly, Brendon Mc Cullum and Murli Kartik. Sprite’s no-nonsense, honest and cut-through attitude complements KKR’s competitive spirit and official theme, “Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo Re” (To Do! To Fight! To Win!).

Complimenting the packaging innovation, Sprite is also rolling out a special ‘Kholega Toh Milega’ digital initiative in association with Kolkata Knight Riders and Nokia. The innovation aims to connect and engage with the youth across the country by tapping into their key passions – Cricket and Mobile phones.

As part of same initiative, consumers just need to drink their favorite soft drink- Sprite and look out for a unique 9 digit code under the crown / behind the label and SMS the code to 58558. Additionally consumers also have the option to Call 186 0233 2233 and register the unique code through an Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS). Lucky consumers get once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet Shahrukh Khan and members of the Kolkata Knight Riders team. In addition, consumers also get a chance to win a Nokia mobile phone every hour till 19th June ‘09. The entire initiative is applicable on 200 ml, 300 ml returnable glass bottles (RGB) and also on all PET packs of Sprite.

To create awareness about ‘Kholega Toh Milega’ digital initiative, the company would also be launching a mass media campaign featuring Shahrukh Khan, owner Kolkata Knight Riders, to be telecast on all the leading TV channels across India.

According to Srinivas Murthy, General Manager- Marketing (Flavors), Coca-Cola India, “Over the years, Sprite has grown to be the largest selling sparkling brand in the clear lime segment. Independent research reports have shown, out of the 230 million mobile phone users in the country, the youth continues to be the largest users of mobile phones. Combining this key insight with the passion of T20 cricket, we have launched a special edition ‘Sprite Kolkata Knight Riders’ bottle. In addition, as part of our 360 degree consumer engagement program, we are also rolling out the ‘Kholega Toh Bolega’ digital initiative. I am confident that all soft drink consumers would find this entire initiative appealing.”

Delhi thrash hapless KKR

2009-05-07T10:38:00.001-07:00

Hoping for a resurgence, Kolkata were ready to take on a confident Delhi side at Kingsmead, Durban. McCullum won the toss and he elected to bat first. While Delhi fielded an unchanged side, Kolkata made two changes. Moises Henriques replaced Chris Gayle and Laxmi Ratan Shukla made way for Yashpal Singh.

van Wyk opened the innings for Kolkata along with McCullum. The Knight Riders captain started off aggressively, trying to prove his detractors wrong. He took the attack to the opposition, dealing in boundaries and sixers. He was well supported by van Wyk, who played the ideal foil for McCullum. However, the Kolkata captain could not convert his start into a big score as he was dismissed by Sangwan in the 7th over. This brought to an end, a partnership of 58 runs between McCullum and van Wyk. After an expensive beginning, The Delhi bowlers bowled a tight line and brought down the run-rate. At the end of 10 overs the Knight Riders were at 69/1.

Brad Hodge was the next man in and was slow to start off. Meanwhile, van Wyk doned the role of an aggressor, scoring quick runs after the break. van Wyk took the attack to Sangwan, scoring three consecutive fours off the 13th over. However, the bowler got his break dismissing Brad Hodge in the same over. Henriques came in at the fall of the wicket and he gave good support as van Wyk was blazing away. van Wyk went on to score his first fifty. The pair continued to score at a fast rate, taking Kolkata to a good score. After a splendid innings, van Wyk was out to Nehra in the last over, going for quick runs. The explosive batsman managed to score 74 runs off just 48 balls. His innings included 11 boundaries. Kolkata ended the innings at 154/3, thanks to explosive batting by van Wyk, well supported by McCullum and Henriques.

Delhi began the chase with Gambhir and Warner at the crease. The duo started off well, playing for singles and twos with boundaries in-between. Warner and Gambhir complemented each other as they scored at a good rate. On the other hand, Kolkata's fielding woes continued as mis-fields and dropped catches dominated the proceedings for the Knight Riders team. The captain McCullum himself put down a sitter off Agarkar's bowling, giving Gambhir a second chance. However, Agarkar got his break dismissing the aggressive Warner in the same over, thanks to the safe hands of Henriques. A partnership of 60 runs by the Delhi openers was brought to an end with Warner's dismissal. Dilshan came in at number three and he continued the good start provided by Warner. Going into the 'Strategy Timeout' Daradevils were 76/1, requiring 79 more runs to win off 60 balls.

Gambhir and Dilshan resumed after the break playing in a risk-free manner. Gambhir's drop catch proved costly for Kolkata as the left-hander went on to his fifty. The fielding of Kolkata got from bad to worse when Dilshan was put down by Arindam Ghosh off Ishant Sharma's bowling. Dilshan and Gambhir made good use of the chances offered, getting the Delhi team closer to the required target. Requiring 11 runs to win off the last two overs, Dilshan brought down the required runs with a six off Ishant Sharma. Gambhir finished it off with a boundary, announcing his return to form. Gambhir remained unbeaten on 71 off just 57 balls while Dilshan managed to score 42 off 34 balls.

Kolkata blew their chances away thanks to their miserable fielding and catching. The efforts of van Wyk went in vain as Delhi won their fifth match due to the efforts of Gambhir, Dilshan and Warner.

Post Match Quotes:

McCullum: For most parts of the game, we were in the match. I set the tone with the dropped catches. I thought 20 odd runs more would be a bridge too far for them. I thought all 3 guys played exceptionally well. Yeah, there's a lot of positive but its always hard when you're losing, you cant get that get momentum back. We're ticking every box we can but unfortunately we cant quite get the results.

Gambhir (MoM): It was very important for us to win this game. Amit bowled really well, Nehra bowled really well, they really pulled things in our favor. Chasing 154 on this track was always chaseable. To be very honest, I'm not hitting the ball well so the only thing that I had was to bat through the innings. We discussed this in the team meeting that someone who's set has to finish the job off and today it was my job.

Trivia:

van Wyk got the first fifty of his IPL career.

Kolkata went on to register their highest score in IPL 2009 beating their 153/3 against Punjab.

Dirk Nannes ended with figures of 0 for 49 in his 4 overs. This were the most runs conceded by a bowler for Delhi in this season.

The partnership between Gambhir and Warner worth 60 runs was the highest opening partnership for Delhi in IPL 2009.

Gambhir got to his 6th IPL fifty when he creamed Ishant through the off side in the 16th over. This was his 1st fifty this season.

IPL 2009: Kolkata Knight Riders Lose to Kings XI Punjab

2009-05-07T10:34:00.000-07:00

Luck refused to favour the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) once again, even in a closely-fought game against the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) at Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

Their batting was quite steady, with Brad Hodge delivering, at 70 not out, spanning 10 boundaries and one six. McCullum, Gayle, and Ganguly, each did their bit, though they could not last at the crease long, and a final burst of effort between Hodge and van Wyk took the KKR score to a respectable 153.

Punjab started off rather poorly, with the loss of an early wicket (Sangakkara). They gained confidence though, with the partnership of Sohal and Katich, bolstered by poor fielding by Kolkata, with many dropped catches. It was round about now that a pall appeared to descend on the KKR dugout, as evidenced by the less-hearty shimmers of the cheerleaders (I jest). The Punjab batting was rather strong, witnessing 4 sixes and 13 fours. Even so, the game went into the final over, and KXIP required 7 runs.

Agarkar bowled the over, with poor fielding by Saha giving away a run and putting Jayawardene on strike. He wasted no time in clearing the boundary and another single, putting the scores even with two balls remaining. All fielders were positioned at the circle, and the final ball was played through the infield for one run and much jubilation on the part of Punjab, putting them in second place in the points table, and further solidifying KKR's hold on the bottom spot. The game could have gone either way, though, and apart from the poor fielding, there wasn't much to fault the players or the captaincy.

Sharma hat-trick spurs Chargers to victory

2009-05-07T10:31:00.002-07:00

CENTURION, South Africa, (Reuters) - A hat-trick by off-spinner Rohit Sharma propelled the Deccan Chargers a 19-run victory over the Mumbai Indians in their Indian Premier League match yesterday.

Sharma, who took four wickets in five balls and finished with the remarkable figures of 4-6, was named man of the match as Mumbai, chasing 146, collapsed from 97 for three after 14 overs to 126 for eight in their 20 overs.

The Chargers, who ended a run of three successive losses, share first place in the standings with the Delhi Darede-vils, who have a game in hand, after scoring a modest 145 for six.

Sharma also shone with the bat, top-scoring 38 off 36 balls for the Chargers.

His fellow spinner Tirumalsetti Suman took two key wickets and conceded just 14 runs in his four overs.

Mumbai had been cruising, needing 49 runs in six overs with leading internationals JP Duminy and Dwayne Bravo at the crease. Suman struck a telling blow with the first ball of his second spell when he had Bravo (13) caught on the long-off boundary by Australian Ryan Harris.

Duminy went on to score a top-class half-century off 45 deliveries but, with some rash strokes being played at the other end, Mumbai found themselves needing 38 in three overs.

Sharma was brought into the attack in the 16th over and dismissed Abhishek Nayar and Harbhajan Singh with successive deliveries in his first over.

Duminy (52) then edged a sweep into the gloves of wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist off the first ball of Sharma’s next over and Saurabh Tiwary was stumped in the same over.

Sharma stars in 19-run win for Deccan

2009-05-07T10:31:00.001-07:00

Rohit Sharma's outstanding all-round performance steered Adam Gilchrist's Deccan Chargers to a 19-run win over the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday.

Sharma topscored with 38 in Deccan's 8-145, then took 4-6 in two overs, including a hat trick, with his part-time offspin to restrict Mumbai to 126-8.

Left-arm fast bowler Rudra Singh removed Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriyga in consecutive balls in the second over, and Tirumalsetti Suman, another part-time offspinner, added 2-14 from his four overs as Mumbai were restricted to 8-126.

"It's fantastic for us," Gilchrist said.

"Rohit, Suman... unbelievable! There was plenty of character from everyone. We didn't play well today, but it's nice to know that we can win games like this when we're not at our very best."

Deccan's victory lifted it to 10 points, tied with league leader Delhi Daredevils, but second on run rate. Mumbai remained second to last, with only three wins from eight matches.

Rohit deals knockout blow to Mumbai

2009-05-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

Mumbai Indians threw away a superb chance to revive their IPL hopes as Deccan Chargers claimed an unlikely 19-run victory at Centurion.

The Indians were well placed to chase down Deccan’s total of 145 with JP Duminy controlling the chase, but Dwayne Bravo threw his wicket away and a hat-trick from Rohit Sharma hammered a nail into Mumbai’s coffin.

Deccan are now back on the winning trail and well placed to reach the semi-finals, but Mumbai face a mountain to climb to reach the last four.

Herschelle Gibbs’ horror run in The IPL continued, as he offered up a catch to Sachin Tendulkar at slip off Dhawal Kulkarni for his fourth duck of the competition as Deccan's innings got off to a poor start.

Tirumalsetti Suman came out with the intention of putting bat to ball, but one expansive drive too many enabled Bravo to prise him out.

Adam Gilchrist seemed fearful of a lack of depth to Deccan’s batting and was surprisingly circumspect. One huge six off Harbhajan Singh reminded the Centurion crowd of his talents, but he was removed in the final over before the strategy break after missing a straight ball from Rohan Raje.

Dwayne Smith has forged a reputation as a fearsome striker and hit one towering six, but he looked all at sea against the slower bowlers and was clean bowled by Sanath Jayasuriya.

Rohit Sharma, so highly rated in India, was the glue that held the Deccan innings together and he stroked his way to 38 before falling to the impressive Lasith Malinga.

Venugopal Rao crashed a quick-fire 28, but some impressive bowling from Kulkarni, Bravo and Malinga restricted Deccan to 145.

Deccan’s target did not look insurmountable, but it appeared that way after two overs as RP Singh removed Sanath Jayasuriya and Sachin Tendulkar in successive balls.

Jayasuriya fell to a superb catch from Ryan Harris, while Tendulkar was removed by a superb swinging ball that went through bat and pad and knocked over middle stump.

Pinal Shah was sent in at three by Mumbai and looked ill at ease early on, but he chanced his arm and 29 off 19 balls provided them with a platform.

Hid dismissal to Suman brought in Bravo to partner JP Duminy and he looked like providing the support he needed, but holed out after making 16.

Duminy made his way to 50 with some cultured batting, but he was given no support and this proved crucial.

Abhishek Nayar was bowled round his legs by Sharma and the next ball Harbhajan played on going for a big slog.

The shocking batting appeared to affect Duminy as he gloved a sweep to Gilchrist to become Sharma’s hat-trick victim.

Sharma claimed a fourth victim as Tiwary was out stumped playing a big heave, as Mumbai pressed the self-destruct button in some style.

Deccan Chargers Vs Mumbai Indians: Statistical highlights

2009-05-07T10:29:00.000-07:00

Pretoria (PTI): Statistical highlights of the Twenty20 Indian Premier League match between Deccan Chargers Vs Mumbai Indians here on Wednesday.

# R P Singh has established two bowling feats. Apart from becoming the first bowler to bag 30 wickets in the IPL, he is also the leading wicket-taker (15) in the 2009 edition.

# Mumbai Indians have lost two successive games in the second edition for the first time.

# Deccan Chargers, with a win over Mumbai Indians, have consolidated their position in the Points table, becoming the second team after Delhi Daredevils to have posted five wins in the second edition of the IPL.

# Rohit Sharma, during the course of his 38, became the seventh batsman to amass 600 runs in the IPL. The leading run-getters are: Suresh Raina (685), Gautam Gambhir (674), Adam Gilchrist (671), Sanath Jayasuriya (656), Rohit Sharma (627), Shaun Marsh (616) and Yusuf Pathan (616).

# In his last four outings, Herschelle Gibbs has registered three ducks, thus becoming the first player to register three ducks in the second edition of the IPL.

# Jean-Paul Duminy has posted his third half-century in the 2009 edition of the IPL.

# Rohit Sharma's outstanding bowling figures of 4 for 6 are his career-best in Twenty20. He deservingly got the MoM award - his first in the IPL.

# Rohit is the fifth bowler after Lakshmipathy Balaji, Amit Mishra, Makhaya Ntini and Yuvraj Singh to perform a hat-trick in the IPL.

# Rohit is the first all-rounder to produce an innings of 35-plus and claim four wickets in the same IPL match.

eBay partners apparel companies for IPL merchandise

2009-05-07T10:28:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI: Online marketplace eBay India on Tuesday said it has signed an agreement with leading apparel companies to sell IPL merchandise of all the eight teams on its website.

eBay India has inked partnerships with -- Puma, Adidas and Reebok -- to bring fans from across the world an opportunity of accessing all IPL merchandise on the eBay India website, the firm said in a statement.

"We are delighted to be the one-stop shop for all IPL merchandise for cricket fans across the globe and are seeing a very good response in the first 10 days," eBay India Senior Manager (Pop Culture) Deepa Thomas said.

The IPL merchandise includes jerseys, t-shirts, caps, footwear and a wide range of fan gear from backpacks and key chains among others. This season's official IPL merchandise is available till June 1, 2009, it said.

Time-outs to be reduced?

2009-05-07T10:27:00.000-07:00

The IPL play-offs will see time-outs reduced to two-and-a-half minutes but there will now be two per innings.

‘It’s not frozen yet but we are looking at two aspects,’ Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner said. ‘There will be two two-and-a-half-minutes break per innings, so the break in all during an innings will be of five minutes.

‘The first two-and-a-half-minute break will be just after the Powerplay [6 overs] and the second to be taken by the fielding side at any time.

‘It happens in every sport, there is a strategy break and everything. But 7.5 minutes may look like a bit longer, so we are seeing how we can reduce it down to five minutes.’

The idea is yet to be ratified by the tournament’s technical committee.

Rajasthan Royals Defeat Kings XI Punjab

2009-05-07T10:26:00.000-07:00

May 6, 2009: Rajasthan Royals defeated Kings XI Punjab by 78 runs in the IPL second season match played at Kingsmead in Durban on Tuesday.

Kings XI failed to chase the 211 runs target of Rajasthan Royals as the teams batting began on a bleak note.

Kings XI lost five wickets by the end of seven overs on the score of 39 runs.

Skipper Yuvraj Singh played good strokes and tried to stabilize team's crumbling batting lineup, but got out after scoring 48 runs off 37 balls.

The team's innings thus ended on 133/8.

Earlier, Royals scored mighty 211 runs at loss of four wickets after they were sent to bat first.

Opening pair of Naman Ojha and Graeme Smith made a partnership of 135 runs that helped team to get a good start.

Ojha scored 68 runs, whereas Smith made 77 of 44 balls.

Later, Ravindra Jadeja played skillful strokes and piled 33 runs of just 12 balls.

Smith was adjudged man of the match for his blazing innings.

Rajasthan Royals Back on Track Palpitating Yuvi’s Kings

2009-05-07T10:25:00.000-07:00

The champions of IPL first edition, though looked little struggling in the beginning, regained their momentum in DLF IPL 2009 with recent consecutive wins and on Tuesday when they padded up to battle against Kings XI Punjab, even the pace masters of Yuvraj could not stop them. Both their openers, Smith and Ojha, conquered new peaks to give a stubborn opening stand of 135 runs. Smith (77 off 44) and Ojha (68 off 51) enabled Royals to pile up the highest ever score of IPL Season 2 with the score reading 211 when overs ran out. Kings had lost half the game then itself and once they came out to bat, they looked too exhausted to chase down the target.

Being put to a tragic 53/5 at break, their sudden death was imminent but Yuvraj battled his heart out to extend the breath of the Kings XI. He too could not alter the fate as he fell in the penultimate over off Amit Singh with the score still 85 short of the target. Sreesanth, playing his first match in IPL second edition, was least expected to create any miracle and Kings were ultimately conquered by 78 runs at the end of the day by the defending champions.

Ojha, exploring his first IPL venture started off with an explosion scalping 16 off the first over and two sixes and one four in the very first over indicated the route Royals would like to follow in the match. Followed then was a perfect show of beautiful drives and penetrating cuts complemented by huge heaves very often. Smith and Ojha power played to 57 in 6 overs and further developed it to 92/0 after 10 overs. The match had much to offer even after the heroes Smith and Ojha left the scene with RA Jadeja blistering to a 12-ball 33 runs at the end thrashing Sreesanth for 23 in the penultimate over. The excited Royals concluded their part by scalping 211 for 4.

Chasing a total seeking more than 10 runs per over would certainly upset any great bat and the same happened to the likes of Sangakkara, Katich and Jayawardene. The killing whale was Amit Singh who scalped a wicket on his first T20 delivery and further added another one to his credit in the same over creating panic among Kings. He was there again to ruin the Kings XI once Yuvraj tried to shape up the things as he curtailed Yuvi’s innings with the help of Harwood. Yuvraj tried all the way but his struggle lasted till 48 runs which came off 37 balls with 3 fours and sixes each. With Amit Singh taking over the role of the demolisher in the second half of the match, all Punjab could do fell short of 78 runs with the end total remaining 133 for 8. Amit Singh claimed the great ever figures of 9 for 3 in 4 overs.

Now Royals look much acclimatized with the South African edition of IPL and robbing 2 points off Kings XI, they stand tall at number two of point tally making their way to semis smooth.

IPL merchandise attracts buyers worldwide

2009-05-07T10:24:00.000-07:00

The Indian Premier League (IPL) fever seems to have spread across borders, as more and more people from non-cricket playing nations like the US and Germany are buying merchandise of the franchise teams online.

Leading online market place eBay India, offering merchandise of several IPL teams is witnessing significant surge in demand for products like jerseys, T-shirts, shoes and caps.

“The online orders to purchase different products for IPL 2009 is attracting a number of people from many non-cricket crazy nations, including Finland, Germany, US and Spain,” eBay India Senior Manager (Pop Culture) Deepa Thomas said.

Nonetheless, the maximum number of buyers are from India, accounting for nearly 67 per cent of the total purchases.

Based on the sales, eBay India data shows that jerseys and team T-shirts are the most sought after items by the cricket fans.

eBay India has tied up with leading brands like Puma, Adidas and Reebok for offering the IPL merchandise.

According to the firm's IPL sales barometer or the battle of fan — a measure of products sales — the merchandise related to Kings XI Punjab is the most popular among the buyers.

Delhi Daredevils and Deccan Chargers (Hyderabad) come next on the list of popularity. The products are priced between Rs 399 and Rs 2,999.

Deepa Thomas said merchandise falling in the price range of Rs 399 to Rs 1,299 are in high demand and added that business volume is high.

Meanwhile, after cashing in on the popularity of IPL merchandise online, eBay India is planning to introduce telephonic order facility for booking for the merchandise.

“We will soon start the booking of IPL merchandise over phone also, so that those cricket fans who are till now not using internet medium can place their orders,” Deepa Thomas said.

IPL Match Preview: Bangalore Royal Challengers vs. Rajasthan Royals

2009-05-07T10:22:00.000-07:00

It will be a night of Royalty in the Indian Premier League as the Rajasthan Royals and Bangalore Royal Challengers, both coming off clinical wins in their last outings, face up to each other in a double header at Centurion on Thursday in Season 2009 of the Indian Premier League (IPL). With the teams intent on staying in the top half of the table, expect the competition to really heat up. Both sides will be looking to give their all in the game tomorrow, making for an interesting spectacle. Only the Kolkata Knight Riders in last place, with a solitary win, are out of the running for a semi-final spot and the fortunes of all remaining seven teams are firmly in their own hands. The Royal Challengers Bangalore dusted off the defending champs the Rajasthan Royals on the first day of Season 2009 in the DLF Indian Premier League in Cape Town, with leg-spinner Anil Kumble returning what are still the best figures in this year's competition - five wickets for five runs. Veteran Indian leg spinner Anil Kumble has taken over the captaincy of the Royal Challengers Bangalore since Kevin Pietersen returned home for the test series against the West Indies, and the team has won three in a row, the first of those triumphs having come against the Kolkata Knight Riders in Durban in Pietersen's "farewell" game a week ago. By Thursday the Royal Challengers Bangalore will have had a relatively long break of four days, given the congested nature of the programme. Their last fixture was against the Mumbai Indians in Johannesburg, when they cruised home by nine wickets with 11 balls to spare, chasing 150. On that occasion Jacques Kallis and Robin Uthappa hit half-centuries, after debutant seamer Dillon du Preez pocketed the wickets of Sachin Tendulkar, J P Duminy and Ajinkya Rahane for 32 runs. It was the first time the Royal Challengers Bangalore had gone with a full quota of four South Africans for their foreign-player contingent, and by the dictum of "never change a winning team", Kallis, Du Preez, Mark Boucher and Roelof van der Merwe should all be in the starting line-up for Thursday. After Sunday's victory Kumble said things were starting to come together nicely for his team. "We've picked up some great momentum and it is important that we keep that momentum going now to try and qualify for the semi-finals."Praising the steady batting of Kallis and Uthappa, he added: "Their partnership was a joy to behold". The Rajasthan Royals on the other hand had a disastrous start to Season 2009 of the DLF IPL, but have recovered well and on Tuesday with a tournament-high score of 211-4, were far too good for the Kings XI Punjab, sailing to a 78-run victory in Durban. The best news from that contest was that opener Graeme Smith hit 77 and seemed to have found his touch. "It's about time," Smith quipped afterwards. "I've been a bit tentative at times, so it was nice to get in and build my confidence. It's a crucial time of the competition now, so we need to get our big players in form. It was a real clinical performance from the team," he said of the win against the Kings XI Punjab. The Rajasthan Royals start Thursday's match in fourth spot on nine points from eight games, with the Royal Challengers Bangalore one spot behind them on eight points, also from eight games. The table is so closely packed that a victory for either side could see them climb to top spot. This is also likely to be the last game that the Rajasthan Royals will be without the services of last year's Man of the Tournament Australian Shane Watson, who will be back from international duty. They'll be hoping to welcome him at the same position at which he left...the top of the league.

IPL 2009 Betting - Outsiders give plenty of chances

2009-05-07T10:20:00.000-07:00

The Indian Premier League is keeping the players on their toes and IPL betting at BetUS is keeping the punters honest with their predictions.

With just three points separating the top team from seventh place, the spoils have been shared evenly between everyone bar the Kolkata Knight Riders who are struggling in this tournament.

Today’s matches may look a difficult proposition however backing the favourites isn’t necessarily the best way to go because the outsiders in a parlay will more than triple your money at BetUS Sportsbook.

In match 33, the Bangalore Royal Challengers (+100) take on the resurgent Rajasthan Royals (-140).

When they met in the second match of this year’s tournament, fifth placed Bangalore (P8/W4/L4) came out on top in a match dominated by several individuals.

Set a paltry 133 to win, Rajasthan (P8/W4/L3/NR1), sitting in third place on run rate, were humbled by Anil Kumble who took 5/5 off 3.1 overs to help dismiss them for just 58.

Yusuf Pathan, Tyron Henderson and Ravindra Jadeja were the only batsmen to reach double figures (11) for Rajasthan while in their innings, captain Kevin Pietersen (32 off 30 balls) and Rahul Dravid (66 off 48 balls) were the only batsmen to fire for Bangalore.

Bangalore have lost Pietersen to national duties they still have the likes of South African duo Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher, Dravid and Robin Uthappa in their line up and could provide that first upset win.

The closeness of the competition is no more typified than in match 34 of the tournament between Kings XI Punjab (+120) v Chennai Super Kings (-160).

Neither has come up against each other this tournament however statistically the two teams appear to be at polar opposites of the competition but in reality they are as close as you can get.

Punjab (P8/W4/L4) is in sixth place on eight points while Chennai (P8/W4/L3/NR1) is in second spot on nine points with a superior run rate over Rajasthan.

The only thing separating the two teams on the competition table at least is Chennai’s no-result wash out against Kolkata on April 25, a game they would have certainly won considering Kolkata’s horrible run this tournament.

Punjab lost their last match to Rajasthan however they were chasing 212 to win at more than 10 runs an over, an imposing figure in Twenty20 cricket.

It could have been a case of the Punjab bowlers being loose but it appears the experiment of opening the bowling with off-spinner Ramesh Powar failed to work as it had done earlier in the tournament while the left-arm pace of South African Yusuf Abdulla (0/44) was expensive going at 14.67 an over.

It may be time for Punjab to scrap that plan and go back to medium pace or flat out quicks to take early wickets at the start of the innings.

Chennai on the other hand humbled Deccan Chargers in their last match of the tournament thanks to some brutish batting from captain MS Dhoni (58no off 37 balls), Matthew Hayden (43 off 26 balls) and Suresh Raina (32 off 19) before Sudeep Tyagi and Albie Morkel destroyed Deccan with the ball.

If Chennai get away to another flyer they will be no match for Punjab but the Kings XI have the ability to give punters that second upset victory for their parlay bet.

It’s DLF IPL 2009 and the Award goes to….

2009-05-07T10:19:00.000-07:00

With a chaotic looking point table that indicates that only one team remained consistent with their performance - that is on losing side - is the Kolkata Knight Riders, it will be unfair to give away your vote to any particular team as a show stealer. But show stealers are there all right, not the team, but the individuals. Some stole the show with sheer excellence and some hogged the lime light for all reasons wrong. Had there been an award ceremony in true Mumbai filmy style, someone would pick up the award for rendering spectacular performance and someone for acting the perfect villain. Cricket360 conjure up the main categories and gives away its vote to the clear favorite in each category.

Every movie award ceremony begins with the best film, but IPL is no movie, and so we will start with the category of villain. The majority would give away his votes to Buchanan for spoiling the KKR broth by importing too many cooks and sparking off a cold war in KKR camp by sidelining Sourav, who has the experience of building up of a team from the scratch.

But in cricket360’s opinion, the man who backed Buchanan to crash the dream of millions of Kolkata fans make the more perfect villain. So our best villain award is for King Khan.

Yet another grossly down-rated category relates to the surprise factor of the year. And this year, Mandira Bedi added to the shocker. With cropped hair and a toned body, Mandira is a revelation for IPL Season 2. And you must have noticed that she has even learnt to make smarter cricket talks. Our vote is with the sportier Mandira.

As it comes to picking up the most promising greenhorn, quite a few names vie for your attention including the young Ravindra Jadeja, Piyush Chawla and even Yousuf Abdulla. But nothing compares to the excellence showcased by Shadab Jakati. With the kind of bowling magic, it is not far when Jakati becomes the tramp card for Chennai team. So if any award is to be given to the best new comer, our vote is with Jakati.

No film industry in the world would give award to a film that bombed at box office, but our vote for the biggest flop of IPL Season 2 definitely goes to Brandon McCullum, the blue eyed boy of Buchanan, who failed to inspire his team into winning a single match in the league.

And lastly coming to the most important category and that is marked for the best actor. However, it came out to be the easiest selection for us; who else other than Yusuf Pathan can dare contend for this award. With the maximum number of man of the match awards and his all round cricketing abilities, he is easily the strongest contender for the man of the tournament award too.

However, we would like to add yet another category and is the award for the best professional of the tournament. Yes you guessed it right - it must be Janine Kallis, the little sister of all rounder Jack Kallis, the cheerleader who decided to dance on as his brother was bundled up to the pavilion, in a rare show of neat professionalism.

Last but not least: it will be grossly unjustified not to include them who bring the much needed comic relief to an emotional saga such as Indian Premier League tournament. And so our vote for the best comical performance goes straight to the genus Aussie for inventing one after another funny cricket doctrines.

No marks for guessing whom we mean!!!

New Way to Augment Revenue in the DLF IPL 2009

2009-05-07T10:17:00.000-07:00

As the IPL in the second season warms up and gets exciting, the communication companies have jumped on to the bandwagon. They have launched a SMS based programme in inviting the fans to predict the scores of a live match. The modus operandi involves inviting the viewer to predict the runs that would be scored in the next over of the match. If the viewer is able to project the score correctly, then he can go laughing all the way to the bank.

The element of excitement has been added by inviting the viewer to predict the runs that would be scored of each ball of the next over. For each correct score to the nearest ball, i.e. the people guessing six, five or four numbers in the sequence correctly will get a percentage of the kitty generated by the total number of people playing at that time.

The minimum prize money for every over is Rs 10,000 and based on the response there are distinct possibilities that the prize money would be increased. Each SMS for this new game would cost Rs 5. It would indeed open a new source of revenue for the IPL along with the communications companies which would be given the service contract for facilitating deliverance of SMS. The revenue so earned would be much bigger than that earned by any company in any other programme which is based on the SMS feedback.

Jury is out on the fact whether it is illegal or not, as it is being construed as a form of online betting that does not have legal sanctity in India, IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi does not consider this innovation as a form of betting in the garb of testing. He holds the view that this new innovation is an extension of the testing, which has become sine quo non of quite a large number of programmes being shown on the Indian TVs, and cricket also being a reality show; it does not have any resemblance to online betting.

International Cricket Council is also not aware about this move, but it would also not be able to take any action as it does not have any direct involvement in the IPL. The game, christened as 6UP, will be available only to Indian mobile subscribers.

Port Elizabeth - Here we come again

2009-05-03T03:23:00.000-07:00

We are back in Port Elizabeth, the same place where we were revaged in full public view just a few days ago. The sight of Aila blasting the crap out of our bowlers is still quite fresh in our minds. Ironically, this time we face the only team we have beaten so far.

We had a training session at the ground. The Bubblies were there too. And it was fun observing them go about their drills for today's game.

Prince Charles looked ominous. He was stroking the ball really well. I have a funny feeling that he will finish a career or two today. Appam Chutiya has started bowling in the nets and seems to be getting to match fitness. I think he may be back soon. So, all the best guys. Surprisingly though, he was quite well behaved, hardly ever acted himself at the nets. It's amazing how each IPL season Appam seems to leapfrog a few stages of the evolution cycle. Last year, with just one tight slap he suddenly evolved from being an Ape to a Neanderthal. And the run-in with Re-Peter seems to have magically brought him to the Cave Man stage. If someone were to meet him for the first time today, he could almost mistake Appam to be a normal human being. RVR Sing, aka Pamela Inder Singh, was bowling his breasts out. Lady Jaya was a picture of concentration at the nets. Deeghra Patan was swinging the ball both ways in the nets. Even Arnold Power stretched a muscle of two. All in all, they looked like a happy bunch of guys at the moment. And, given our level of preparedness, we are unlikely to spoil their mood today.

The Rajpoots were out celebrating their victory last night. They were at P.E.'s favourite watering hole, 9 Yards. Some of the Dhakkans were there too. And since, nobody invites us anymore, thanks to yours truly, we had to find out where they are and landed up at the venue. Haven't seen the Two Sisters and Big Brother in P.E. as yet. Are they are still in SA? The Sheikh was in full form though. With the Two Sisters missing, the Sheikh was compensating quality with quantity, sitting with a few arm candies, the Dhakkan coach and a young Aussie cricketer. The Dhakkans' cheer leaders seemed to be working over time last night. Now we know why they are at the top of the table (hope Dildo's listening). Dhakkans' middle order batsman, Ghati Baba, was busy practicing his pick-up & throw skills with 2 of their cheerleaders. He sure doesn't want to misfield another one in the 49th over, does he? It was Castro's last night here and he sure was making it count. Being the class act that he is, even off the field he seemed to be aiming at the block-hole. Unfortunately, we have an early start today so had to return before things got really hot and out of control over there.

In our team, well, nobody has a frickin' clue of what to do now. Not even one player - batsman or bowler - has performed so far. On what grounds do u drop anyone at all, or on what grounds do you select anyone? Last season, at least a couple of our players were close to getting into the Indian side. After this season, we don't know if anyone from this team will make it to even next year's IPL team. Our physio has confirmed that 3 support staff members will be sent back soon. And Bhookha Naan and his core group have already started their souvenier shopping. They have been politely spoken to by Boy George. Ironical again, coz even Boy should probably be on his way out. Lately, Dildo's been asking him to justify a lot of the expenses and resources he has at his disposal. He seems to be the most stressed man in the squad at the moment.

Observing our team from a distance, it's not hard to tell why we are the only side now with absolutely no chance of making it to the semis. The Phoren Babas hang out together, the support staff are in their own little world, the India rejects tend to stick together and the rest of us domestic players find comfort in each others' company. Lordie usually finds someone in the opposing team to hang out with, like Prince Charles or Meera Bhai. There's a very clear class system in our team. We truly are the Rainbow team in the Rainbow country. To tell you a secret, nobody in the team wants to hang around here any longer. We'd rather fly back and dance at a few weddings. If only we had the choice like some others do.

Skipper wants Bangla Tiger in the squad today. Candy Nickle spent a lot of time with him and while Deputy Coach spent time with the Springbok. One of them is definitely in today. Bangla adds zing to our bowling, while the Springbok has the experience of facing a bullet at point blank range and surviving - a skill that'll come very handy while playing for our team.

Finally, it's Calypso's last game with us today. He's been considerate enough to stay with us longer to help us win a match or two. The extra two matches also fatten up his bank a/c substantially, but I am sure that would have hardly crossed his mind given the selfless person he is. Calypso has promised to throw a lavish party for us tonight if we win the game. Sure maan! That's the incentive we've been looking for all this while.

Amen!

Bye Calypso. Thanks for entertaining us!

2009-05-01T02:38:00.000-07:00

Calypso King is leaving us and his departure isn't in very pleasant circumstances. The team management threw an early farewell party for him after the last defeat. Dildo wasn't around to sponsor this one though, so it went from the team kitty. No one was particularly pleased with the idea of hanging out together, although no one objected to it openly. Since, the posts have been coming out, guys are making their own small groups and going out to places without informing others. No one wants Fake IPL Player to land up there and broadcast their nefarious activities to the whole world. In fact, the blog has affected the nocturnal lives of IPLers in more ways than one would have expected. Teams are now trying to find out before hand where our team is headed after the match, to ensure that they don't land up at the same place. Kishen Kanhaiyya, whose tour took an unexpected turn after the Opium Night expose, is having the driest tour ever in his life. Little Sister has still not given in to the Sheikh's famed magic. Little John's been getting frantic phone calls from his Mom and he's had to promise her that he will return to India "Ganga jaisa pavitra" (I couldn't believe my ears myself but these ARE the exact words he used). So, in the backdrop of all this, we had to go for Calypso's farewell party.

While the drinks flowed, the music blared, Calypso suggested to Skipper that he should tattoo his IPL scores. (For the uninitiated, the skipper has tattooed his cricketing numbers in Roman numerals on his arms.) WHile the skipper was thinking about what to say, Calypso started a discussion on whether there's a Zero in Roman, obviously referring to the skipper's ducks during the tournament. Finally, in drunken stupor, the skipper reacted with a few choicest words of his own. He was eventually whisked away by Candy Nickle to avoid a blow down.

For the rest of the evening, the two weren't seen together. They didn't shake hands before Calypso left the party.

Mangal Pandey's phone was lying unattented on our table while he was warming his palms in one of the dark corners of the club. Bhookha's deputy, in an inspired move to catch the Fake IPL Player red handed, started scanning through his SMSes. The news was eventually relayed to Mangal who then gave the the Deputy a crash course in Bhojpuri, a discourse he is unlikely to forget in the short term.

The butt of most jokes during the party was Our Man Dildo himself. Most jokes were around the rat abandoning the sinking ship. I couldn't help but smile at the irony of it all. A man, who till a few weeks ago was our hero has now become to most laughed at man in the team. Bangla Tiger, who was busy clicking pics with the star till the other day, was cracking the funniest jokes on him in Bengali. As they say, the higher you rise, the harder you fall.

Apparently, Dildo didn't meet anyone before leaving for India. And he has sent an email to Boy George asking him to justify such a large support staff. The paranoia has shifted to the support staff now and there's news that 5 of them will be asked to return. Boy George and Bhookha Naan were locked in a meeting for 2 hours yesterday.

The Kiwi coach has joined us to observe and learn from us. As if one mole wasn't enough, our team now has invited a new one. Whatever prompted Mr Genius to choose our team over others, what's now clear is why New Zealand is placed 8th in the ICC rankings.

On the whole, the team's now waiting for IPL to get over to go back home. As a team and as individuals we have achieved all that we had planned for. We have successfully sent Dildo packing, we have improved our performance over last year, we have reached depths that
others can only dream of, Little John can now score only on the pitch, Kaan Moolo has finally convinced the world that no matter how hard he tries he can't get any worse, Bhookha has earned enough to finally retire, and I think I am kind of reaching the end of my blogging career. I think there isn't much to play for any more.

Finally, it's official now. Bhookha, Skipper and the entire support staff are resigning at the end of the season. (If they don't, they'll probably be sacked anyway.)

Your's truly.

P.S. I think some website's been advertising that I am appearing for a live chat. That's not true. Under the circumstances I can't live chat at all and nobody knows who I am.

P.P.S. Some people are replying to comments posing as IPL Anonymous. It's not me. I haven't participated in the comments section. Pls don't believe the guy posing as me.

P.P.P.S. I have heard that Dildo's PR team has decided to degrade this blog by posting malicious and critical comments, and also by spamming in the comments section. If only this energy was seen in building the team.

P.P.P.P.S. The focus has shifted to the Support Staff. The management is now convinced that the Fake IPL Player is not a player, but a support staff member. Let's see where this trail takes them.

P.P.P.P.P.S. I have decided to retire from all forms of cricket after IPL. I will disclose my identity on our last match day.

“Fake IPL player” lets out Knight Riders’ dressing room secrets

2009-04-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

Ever heard of Lordie and the Phoren Babas? Or maybe you are familiar with the Coachie and Kan Moolo. What about Little John and Badshah D*&#o? Stumped! Well all of these characters are the part of a blog which exclusively focusses on SRK’s Kolkata Knight Riders. Apparently, it seems that most of the players in the team have pseudo-names assigned to them. The blog looks to provide the inside scoop on the KKR’s. And in the words of the anonymous blogger, it says,” I will be bringing to you the "aankhon dekha haal", right from inside the dressing room, meeting room and players' bedrooms ;-).”

Obviously now, the blog has come to be yet another headache for King Khan and the managers of his team. With the multiple-captaincy issue and the clash of egos between Brendon McCullum and Sourav Ganguly doing no good for the Kolkata Knight Riders, this controversial blog has only added to the team’s cup of woes. The blog writer calls himself ‘Fake IPL Player’ and his blog is chiefly aimed at taking pot-shots against the senior members, the coach and the support contingent.

The blogs has no qualms in calling SRK a megalomaniac and has named him Badshah D*&#o. Ganguly has been aptly coined as Lordie, the guy who is in constant altercation with the Badshah and the Coachie ( John Buchanan). The Phoren Babas point to the foreign support staff that the KKR team has in their camp.

Kan Moolo is apparently a reference to the former Indian fast bowler Ajit Agarkar. The blog has an exclusive post on the reasons why Agarkar got the boot. Sample this, “Coachie was explaining to him reasons for why he is being left out. Let me summarize Coachie’s 5-minute monologue to Kaan Moolo. He essentially said that Kaan Moolo has a bright future, he just needs to work on his game a little bit. Basically, all he needs to do is improve his bowling, batting and fielding. That’s it.”

The Fake IPL hits out at not only the KKR players but it also calls names to other top shot international cricketers. For instance, a former Aussie opener is quite audaciously called the Pedophile priest. The West Indian left-hand opening bat Chris Gayle is referred to as the Calypso King. Little John seems to be the lesser known Ashok Dinda. The writer of the blog has an interesting snippet about this fast bowler, “Little John skipped as it was optional training. I can understand it, he is after all a fast bowler and he def needed some time off after the "intense workout" he must have had last night.

The blog spares no one when it cites the infamous slap-gate from last year’s IPL between Sreesanth and Harbhajan Singh, “Learnt a very interesting piece of news. Not sure if it's true or not. Apparently, Appam C@#$^*a wasn't slapped by Meera Bhai during last yr's tournament. He was crying because his team owner Babli hugged everyone after the match other than him.”

The posts on the blog are filled with jibes against all and sundry. The posts aspire to be sensational at every comma, semi-colon and full-stop. In fact the popularity of the site is swelling by the day. Given the growing number of users hitting the site, the KKR team management is in for another uncomfortable bouncer aimed straight at the rib-cage.

The Fake IPL Player brews up a storm

2009-04-30T09:58:00.000-07:00

MUMBAI: Now there is one very disgruntled Indian Premier League player playing in South Africa. In his blog, the player appears to know all the underhand dealings that are supposedly happening in South Africa. His blog appears every few days and is gaining popularity because of the sleaze that he writes.

No one is spared. Each big name from the world of cricket has been given a nickname and using that code name, the writer is exposing what is happening amongst the players, the owners and the commentators.

Taking immediate action, the authorities, we are told, have banned the use of laptops in the players’ rooms. But there has been no official communication regarding the same. But the writer is still at large and his last post was on the 22nd. Looks like this player has had to sit out on the bench more often than play on the field, if his writings are as frustrated as he is.

The Curious Case of the Fake IPL Player

2009-04-30T09:56:00.000-07:00

Kishen Kanhaiyya, Mr. Batlivala, Big Sister, Sheikh of Tweak, Little Monster, Phoren babas, Prince Charles of Patiala, and a bunch of others that cannot be named in this space, are part of the Indian Premier League this year.

Puzzled? To start with, this is not a new advertisement we're talking about. The names that you've read above are aliases used in a mysterious blog spurting daily dirty details about the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

The blog is called The Fake IPL Player, and the mission - well, it looks like an entertaining satire on the 'life in IPL' through the eyes of a Kolkata Knight Rider.

The last blog post has generated over 500 comments till now, which clearly goes out to show the growing popularity among cricket-frenzied voyeurs - a majority of them begging for more.

As the media has caught on with the buzz, the posts exuberate narcissism by the writer as he's sure not to get caught in his true identity.

Here's one of his recent blog posts that elucidate this:

"News is that the team management and the Phoren Babas (McCullum & Buchanan, apparently) think that Lordie is Fake IPL. Apparently, he was called into the CEO's room where Di*do, Coachie, and Skipper, politely asked him about it. But, they forget that this is THE LORD OF THE RING they are dealing with."

Now now could it really have been started by the babu moshais of the KKR team? Or is this a promotional stunt of sorts for this cricketer(?) for a slingshot at an eventual career in blogging?

Nevertheless, the public seems to be enjoying every bit of it. Does anyone really know who dunnit?

Read all the posts of The Fake IPL Player here.

The Fake IPL Player: Mystery Solved?

2009-04-30T09:54:00.000-07:00

As people bet money on who this Fake IPL Player is, two Knight Riders from the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have been fired - Sanjay Bangur and Akash Chopra.

As reported by Zopag.com, KKR's co-owner Shahrukh Khan suspects the duo as the purported bloggers who have been leaking the team's inside news.

However, the Fake IPL Player's last post on April 26 narrates a different story. Somewhere in the beginning of his post, he says:

"We are missing a few members of our family who have gone back home. It's always painful to see some of your own being culled and I am not in any mood for humour."

The blog post is full of KKR-management-bashing in the usual sarcastic, entertaining language. Just as one would want to believe that Bangur and Chopra (a.k.a. Shakespeare and Ganji) were shown the exit door for being the news correspondents of the infamous Fake IPL Player blog, 'The Fake IPL Player' wraps up with a footnote saying:

"P.P.P.S. Initially, I was concerned as I thought they have been sacked on suspicions of being me. But when they spoke to all of us, I was relieved that it has nothing to do with Fake IPL."

Two out, a bunch of others to go? Who dunnit?!!

Fake IPL Blog

2009-04-30T09:48:00.000-07:00

A former Bengal Ranji

Match what the Fake IPL Player says with these faces.

captain

It’s an insider’s job — someone who’s not in favour with the current management. It has to be an Indian. But it could or couldn’t be a player. There are many names which come to mind on the basis of the language — Akash Chopra, Murali Kartik or Ajit Agarkar. The person is very good with the language so that’s also an indication.

Former India team member and Ranji player

It could be written by someone who is in the thick of things. It could also be someone from the management who isn’t happy with the decisions taken right now. But I guess, a player would not be jeopardising his career by writing such blogs. The fact that he mentions his brother could also be a distraction — the brother could be an uncle or friend in India. From the lingo, it could be someone who’s been in England as the names used to refer to the players are British. It can also be a player-turned-commentator.

Ashok Malhotra former cricketer and national selector

I have no clue about the blog. I am sitting miles away and I’ve no clue about what is going on in the KR camp. I played my cricket on the field and never knew what happened off it. So I’m unable to comment on it. It can also be a marketing ploy, but who knows?

Sambaran Banerjee, former cricketer and national selector

People are talking about players who might have done it, but we’ve to keep in mind that even support staff attend team meetings along with the players and interact with team members. Nobody seems to be questioning them.

Sourasish Lahiri, player, Kolkata Knight Riders

I was with the team last year. I know the kind of brainstorming that happens during team meeting and the kind of ideas seniors exchange. The entire affair is confidential. I don’t think any player is involved as he knows that once caught, his career will be over. Maybe, some other person, closely associated with the team is doing it deliberately.

Snehasish Ganguly, former cricketer and elder brother of Sourav Ganguly

I don’t how this can happen in the presence of the team owner, coach and captains. I don’t think people associated with the team are doing it. Maybe, someone else is at fault. It’s up to the team owners to find who’s responsible.

Former Bengal cricketer, closely associated with Kolkata Knight Riders

This is nothing but a marketing strategy of Knight Riders. They are doing it in an a well-planned manner. Things are not so easy that a player can write a blog and the team owner, coach and captain will have no clue about it. The team is reaping huge benefits from it.

A former Bengal cricketer and columnist

One has to remember that betting is extremely popular in South Africa. Obviously, this kind of blog will help those associated with the betting industry. We might not know now the amount of money generated by this ‘fake player’s blog’ concept. But in future, this might be just another money making model for the team. This is nothing but a well-chalked out marketing strategy.

Utpal Chatterjee, coach, Bengal cricket team

Players are earning big bucks from the IPL. They don’t need to earn extra. And players will never do it without informing the coach, media manager and team owners. It’s a publicity stunt.

PS: A source close to Knight Riders suggests that the media agency and the team owners are behind this.

South Africans excel in IPL thrillers

2009-04-30T09:41:00.000-07:00

DURBAN, South Africa (AFP) — South African seamer Yusuf Abdulla and batsman Mark Boucher held their nerve under pressure in last-over finishes in the Indian Premier League here on Wednesday.

Bangalore Royal Challengers needed 10 runs in the last over to achieve a 140-run target against Kolkata Knight Riders before Boucher smashed spinner Chris Gayle's penultimate delivery for a winning four.

Wicket-keeper Boucher was named man of the match for his unbeaten 25 off 13 balls in Bangalore's five-wicket victory.

Kings XI Punjab owed their three-run win over Mumbai Indians to Abdulla, who bowled an eight-run last over when the opposition required 12 to win. Mumbai were restricted to 116-7 in reply to Punjab's 119-8.

Abdulla ensured Punjab's win in the final over when he dismissed well-set Jean-Paul Duminy, caught in the deep after making a responsible 63-ball 59 -- the day's only half-century.

Deccan Chargers currently lead the eight-team tournament with eights points from four matches, followed by Punjab (6/5), Delhi (6/4), Mumbai (5/5), Rajasthan (5/5), Bangalore (4/6), Chennai (3/5) and Kolkata (3/6).

Mumbai were struggling at 45-4 in the 10th over before South African Duminy sustained his team's hopes with a solid knock containing four boundaries.

Punjab seized the early initiative through pacemen Irfan Pathan, Vikramjeet Malik and Abdulla, who grabbed three of the first four wickets, including those of hard-hitting openers Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya.

Jayasuriya fell for a duck in the opening over, caught by skipper Yuvraj Singh in the slips off Pathan. Skipper Tendulkar contributed just one before cutting Malik to Mahela Jayawardene at point.

Punjab earlier failed to build a partnership against a disciplined Mumbai attack, with Sri Lankan wicket-keeper Kumar Sangakkara alone offering stiff resistance with an unbeaten 45 off 44 balls.

Teenager Shreevats Goswami also played a big role in Bangalore's victory, top-scoring with 43. The 19-year-old opener hit six fours in his 46-ball knock.

Australian spinner Brad Hodge put pressure on Bangalore with three wickets, but Boucher batted sensibly in the crucial last over to steer his team home.

Bangalore skipper Kevin Pietersen used his spinners intelligently to restrict Kolkata to a modest total. Indian leg-spinner Anil Kumble was the most successful bowler with 2-16 off four overs. South African Morne van Wyk top-scored for Kolkata with 43 not out.

Part-time off-spinner Pietersen himself bowled the opening over and struck with his first delivery, having hard-hitting New Zealand batsman Brendon McCullum caught by Virat Kohli at point.

Kumble was pressed into the attack early in the innings and got a wicket in his opening over when he trapped Hodge (17) leg-before before accounting for Wriddhiman Saha (21).

Left-arm spinner Prabhu Appanna claimed a big wicket when he had West Indies skipper Gayle caught in the deep. Gayle, batting with a runner due to leg cramps in the later part of his innings, hit a 37-ball 40.

IPL restrains Shilpa Shetty from voting

2009-04-30T09:40:00.000-07:00

London: Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan has flown to India from South Africa to cast his vote in the 2009 general elections. Actress Shilpa Shetty regrets that she won't be able to exercise her franchise this time because of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

'I just regret the fact that I won't be in India to cast my vote; I really wanted to this time. Elections have to be taken seriously if you are a responsible citizen. Unfortunately with the unexpected turn of events and the IPL being shifted to SA it's become difficult. I would not miss voting for anything otherwise,' the actress posted on her blog shilpashettylive.com.

'But to all those Indian citizens who want the best for our country, now is the time to make the decision, don't waste your democratic right to choose. Vote!' she added.

Shilpa is the co-owner of the Rajasthan Royals team of the IPL.

Battle of the losers

2009-04-30T09:15:00.000-07:00

It was a short and sweet trip to Port Elizabeth. We went in, we got fucked, and we came out. Pretty simple and a highly memorable trip indeed. The one good thing coming out of our fantastic performance is that Dildo's returned to India and I am pretty sure that's the last we have seen of him, unless of course we reach the semis. But, I can assure you, we will try our best to save him the trip to SA.

We arrived in Durban yesterday. The weather's much better here, especially compared to Cape Town. The bad news is that we will have a full game, which of course means we have that much of a lesser chance to win.

Today is the mother of all clashes. The two must muddled up teams of the competition go head-to-head. It's almost like a battle for the bottom of the barrell. Both of us have tried every rule in the book to ensure that we finish last. Now, this is the chance to prove to the world that WE are the worst team and not the Bevdaas. I am pretty sure that the Bevdaas are also equally determined to be last. But, my friends, I have full faith in my team and am confident that we will pip them to the post and finish last.

The silent mutiny building up was threatening to explode last night. We had a scheduled team meeting last night. Prior to the meeting, 8 of the 11 Indian team members had met and decided to voice what we feel about our situation, about how we are being treated, and about the fact we have no faith left in Bhookha Naan any more. Most of the guys are insecure that they may be sent back soon. Gilli Danda, the sane man he is, pointed out that with only 11 of us left, if someone was sent back, then Dildo himself will have to pad up for the next match. The logic didn't quite hold in the highly charged and paranoid environment in the room. Mangal Pandey agreed to take the lead. Just for the record, Lordie wasn't in this meeting. It was discussed whether Lordie should be brought into the fold, but Mangal (who probably fancies himself as skipper for the next season) said that we have to fight this out without Lordie. And in the meeting we went with all our guns pointed at the enemy.

Entering the meeting room I got a really funny feeling. Boy George, Bhookha Naan, Phoren Babas and the entire coaching staff (which now probably is larger than the playing staff) was seated and looking at us as we entered. Somewhat like the 70s films when the worker's union went in to negotiate with the management. As we sat down, all of us were looking at Mangal to take out his gun out and start firing. But, the dude must have suddenly developed cold feet and just sat there with his mouth open. Lordie walked in about 3 minutes late. Boy George was the first to start the proceedings with his usual management bull shit about how we are down but not out, we need to stay together, play as a unit etc etc. Come on man. Cut the crap, at least now! Skipper took over from there and offered to resign. He said that he has spoken to Bhookha, and owns up responsibility for the team's performance and is ready to step down if the team is not happy with him. He asked Lordie if he'd like to take over the captaincy. There were signs of some guys hoping for Lordie to say yes. But Lordie is a smart dude. He knows there's very little he can do with this bunch of players. Why clean up after others have crapped all over the house. He played the role the statesman and said that it will be disastrous to change captains midway. There was a discussion on what all has gone wrong so far. Given that almost everything's gone wrong from the time we landed, the discussion was pretty short. There were some discussions on team selection. It was quite obvious that skipper and Bhookha have had a fall out. Bhookha was quiet most of the time. Skipper wants Bhookha to settle his problems with Style Bhai spinner. Style Bhai's been kept out becoz of Bhookha's issues with his attitude. And the skipper wants him back - attitude problem or not. It seems to me that skipper's had enough of it and now wants to stand on his own 2 little feet. Style Bhai told in unequivocal terms that he wants to play. Bhookha is still non committal. Lordie wants Bangla Tiger to be drafted in. Skipper seems to be agreeing. Bhookha has not openly disagreed. But that means that Junta will have to sit out and Style Bhai will come in. Now, whether Bhookha swallows his pride and lets it happen today is a different matter altogether. Bhookha has realised that the water has risen beyond the danger line. I think he is aware that he can't push things much at this stage. Boy George is his best friend at the moment. The 2 of them are responsible for where we find ourselves today.

Now on to some interesting stuff. News from Sheikh's camp is that he has tried every trick up his fingers but Big Sister's still eluded him. Looks like he is finding Big Sister harder to get than even his national captaincy. For now, he seems to be settling for Little Sister. It's not known yet whether the issue has been nailed or not.

Gilly Danda has an interesting take on why skipper's not scoring runs in this tournament. It seems skipper is scared of the consequences, as to what Dildo may expect from him after the match. For hints, please see picture.

Hats Off to Bhookha Naan

2009-04-30T09:14:00.000-07:00

It's very early in the morning here. Couldn't sleep well the whole night. We are missing a few members of our family who have gone back home. It's always painful to see some of your own being culled and I am not in any mood for humour.

But, I am in a very respectful mood. I have new found respect for Bhookha Naan and his coterie of ill advisors. I mean, their insight into the game is par excellence. They can see things that us mortals just can't. To begin with they select Shakespeare and Ganji Hanger for a T20 tournament. That itself was genius. And then they sack them after just one inning each. Being the ignorant fool that I am, I thought they played just as all of us had always expected them too.
But, I think Bhookha must have seen something that we couldn't and suddenly realised that they do not fit in. I wish I could fall at their feet and pray for enlightenment. Tell me, Oh my Master, what did you see in those 2 innings that you hadn't known all along? What startling revelation was caught by only your eyes and nobody else's? Tell me, please tell me, your enlightened soul, how do I see things beyond what is obvious?

Unfortunately, for Shakespeare and Ganji Hanger they are genuinely nice blokes and are generally liked by everyone - within and outside the team. But look at the Bubblies. They
have played a master stroke. They have Appam Chutiya in the squad only to piss the opposition off. Imagine, you are all pumped up for the match, have worked out your strategies, and are looking forward to taking on the opposition. You reach the ground and the first sight is that of Appam Chutiya doing some strange break dance steps at the touch line. That's enough to make every gut in your body cringe with revolt, enough to make every vein in your body burst open,
and every muscle in your body react to the extreme pungency. And right then and there, you have lost the match without even a ball being bowled. SUperb! Superb!

May be Shakespeare and Ganji Hanger need to learn some of those tricks to stay in the squad. But, it'll take them some time to do so. Becoz "impression ek din mein nahin banta".

A few hundred kms away, the Bevdaas have problems of a different kind. Their rock star Peter Ka Beta, now known as Re-Peter, is all set to repeat their performance of last season. In fact, they may go one step better this time. What else do u expect when you sign on a star, make him captain, allow him to play only a few matches, forgive him forgetting his own players' names, have fun at ur expense and then return home with a fat pay cheque. Some guys have all the luck, don't they?

Somebody please teach the new age cricket bosses, that building a cricket team is slightly different from selling liquor or masala movies. It takes time, patience, clarity of thought, a sense of belongingness, a common sense of purpose, a clear strategy and much more. It's like nurturing a family. In team sport, the team is not the management that creates the product. The team IS the product. Create the product as if it's your own baby. And it will give you pleasure for a lifetime!

I rest my case. Thank you.

P.S. The dirty work of informing the said players was left to the hired top management of the franchise, although the decision was taken by the Phoren Babas. Everyone's been instructed to keep their mouths shut on the issue, including the sacked players. But let me tell you, the players have not taken this culling too lightly. Mangal Pandey is especially pissed off. So far things are very muted, but an implosion is definitely on the cards. Can't tell you more as many players are involved, some of whom are good friends of mine.

P.P.S. Now we have 11 Indians from whom 7 will be selected and 9 foreigners from whom 4 will be selected. Ratios and Proportions have taken an entirely new meaning for me. I am learning soooo much on this tour that it's not funny.

P.P.P.S. Initially, I was concerned as I thought they have been sacked on suspicions of being me. But when they spoke to all of us, I was relieved that it has nothing to do with Fake IPL.

Big Match

2009-04-30T09:13:00.000-07:00

Our big match today. The team isn't finalized yet, but we are unleashing a new weapon for Big Mac. You'll know when u see it. Bhookha Naan has come out with the best strategy of all. We won't have a batting line up. Anyone should be prepared to walk in at any point in time. I am guessing, even Little John will have his crotch guard and helmet on right from the first ball itself.

Durban was where all the action was last night. What else do u expect with the 2 Big Bs in the same city - the Bubblies and the Bevdaas. 330, that's the name of the night club at Point Road Durban where the party shifted after the match. All the usual suspects were there. Bevdaa was there under the watchful eyes of Peter Ka Beta. They weren't exactly in high spirits. Neither would you if you'd just had a cork opener stuck in yous ass by your boss, reminding you that every run you scored so far has cost him $250,000. The bubblies were celebrating Patiala style, Prince had his hands full and the pack gawked around awkwardly. RVR Sing, who seems to have got silicon implants between seasons, was showing off his twin sisters wearing a thin, tight t-shirt. Would somebody please tell him that men's tits aren't exactly considered sexy? And Appam was as usual busy making a fool of himself. He almost got his ass kicked last night. Appam has this uncanny ability to piss off anyone who's unfortunate enough to come within 2 kms of him. Even God must have been really pissed with him to make him look like this. And he got too close for comfort to Peter Ka Beta. The Prince had to pull him away and was heard saying, "Saale. Kiss-se panga le raha hai? Agar yeh thappad maarega naa toh rone laayak bhi nahin rahega". Unfortunately, better sense prevailed and Appam wasn't seen near PKB for the rest of the evening.

Btw, I read some comments and I hate to disappoint you. Little John is indeed scoring and I am not exactly talking about his performance with the bat here. So all you guys out there who can't get chicks coz the way you look, think of a career change seriously.

P.S Word has it that with dropping TRPs, Sandy's hemlines been going up. True?

Emosional Atyachaar

2009-04-30T09:12:00.000-07:00

I am back guys! Things have been pretty tight lately. There's been a crackdown. Every player is looking over his shoulder. Nobody knows who I am. But I exist, right within them, right next to them. Every breath they take, every move they make. I am watching! And they know it. And they are scared. They are worried.

Now on to the cricket. What a match we had last evening. Lordie almost saw us through. After the match Dildo came down and chatted up with us. I think his IPL dreams are going up in smoke, and this time he ain't doin' the smokin'. Everyone was pretty down, most of all Lordie. He appeared really pissed after the match, I mean, so pissed that we had to wear the crotch guard near him. He didn't quite scream and shout at anyone, but he was chillingly terrifying. Dildo shook hands with Lordie, exchanged a few words, but Lordie didn't seem to respond too warmly. But, you know what, you got to hand it to the Sheikh. The man's always thinking ahead of the rest. Imagine opening the bowling with Sheeghra-Patan when Calypso is on strike, and giving the super over to Akram Azam. Takes balls man. I think the difference b/w the two teams really boils down to leadership on the field. While the Sheikh controls the game from the ground, our game is controlled remotely. In a crunch situation, you can't be looking to the stands for inspiration, right?

Team meetings had already become quite secretive over the last few days. Our 11 was announced about 20 minutes before the toss. Some of the guys being dropped made sense, but the ones replacing them baffled me. I can understand that you drop Shakespeare in a T20, but replacing him with Ganji Hanger makes no sense to me at all. It's almost like discarding a scooter because it's too slow and buying a moped instead. And I wonder how Kaan Moolo improved his cricket so fast to make yet another comeback. I have a feeling, he would be making comebacks even when my grand children are watching cricket. I was happy to see Chintu Singh in the squad though. He is young, talented, very accurate and regularly troubles even Calypso in the nets. I felt Lordie wanted either him or Little John to bowl the super over. And for when we were batting, Lordie was all ready to go in himself. He was all warmed up and stroking well and any man with half a brain would've sent him. But hey! In the era of IT, you got to go with what the laptop says, right? I am not sure how much the Sheikh owes his cricketing acumen to his "laptops", tho'.

For tomorrow's game, our fast bowlers spent time with Candy Nickle discussing Big Mac. He's the big threat. We still don't know our XI for tomorrow. But, since I haven't been blogging lately, I had a lot of time to play captain..er... sorry...Coach. I'd bring in the reserve keeper for his lower order batting skills. Remember last season? But, I doubt if he will get in coz the coach's laptop had crashed a few months ago, and all data from last season was lost.

Another sitting with the broadcasting folks has brought out some interesting facets of how thing's work out here. Being right here, I can tell you that the grounds are pretty sparsely filled, especially during the first inning. But the broadcasting team has been told to keep talking about the excitement and the fever at the ground. The camera men have been instructed not to pan towards empty stands. And the producers keep telling the spectators to scream and shout when the cam pans to them. I don't know what you guys sense on TV, but watching it from here, the so-called 'excitement' and 'energy' seems even faker than this blog. And the production staff has all the gossip. News is that the Sandy Maddy Babe bet is off, as more than one is claiming to have won. The joker, (the anchor mentioned in my previous post) is the butt of all jokes within the broadcasting team. There's an assembly line of jokes on him and his knowledge of cricket. Apparently, when asked where long leg is, he pointed at Big Sister. I wonder if pointed at Dildo when asked abt Short Leg. News from the Bevdaas is that the Bevda has told Batlivala that his forced dry spell is responsible for his dry spell in the middle. Come on guys. You didn't sign him on based on how good a Catholic he is, right? Let the bloke have his two drops of poison and score some runs for you.

Finally, blogging through SMSes was getting too tedious, tardy and fraught with risk. So, I have quit doing that. I have a new partner in crime. Can't tell much abt him right now but he has introduced me to a technology which allows me to keep posting with minimal risk. This time round I won't disclose my modus operadi as it may expose my partner. I have sworn to maintain his secrecy even if I am caught.

Laterzzz gentlemen.

P.S. I saw some of the comments. Let me tell you that I don't twitter so the ID is fake. I am not on orkut or facebook. The only place where you find the Real Fake IPL Player is here.

Experiment flopped

2009-04-30T09:11:00.000-07:00

Alright, the last blog was experimental. Me relaying the info to bro, who uses all his creative skills at hand to post it. Looks like it turned out quite crappy, as expected. So, its back to the painful ol' days of keying it all in.

Been watching a fair bit of today's game. And boy, now I know what you guys have been subjected to all these days. The joker anchoring the show was funny without intending to be so. At least Sandy Baddy Babe has a few tricks up her sleeve to distract the viewer from what she says. But this bloke had absolutely nowhere to hide. And god knows what nasty thing he did to his barber to get such a hair cut. The only saving grace was his really high IQ. He asks Ross Taylor, "Are you happy that your team has lost the toss?". Whatever Taylor answered was certainly not enough as our man whipped out his next thunderbolt: "Are you happy that you are not in the team today?". Dunno what answer he expected..."Yes, mate. Who doesn't want to get paid for just sitting around?"

Now to our team. We had a team meeting but hardly anything of note was discussed. Looks like things are secret until the mole is caught. Most guys in contention have been asked to be prepared. Lordie was there in the meeting, although he didn't speak much. We don't know the XI and I don't expect more than possibly one change.

P.S. Enjoyed RP's i'view ;-)

BubLee aur Babli

2009-04-30T09:10:00.000-07:00

(Passing news from the Bubbles camp. Please sing to the tune of Bunty Aur Babli)

Are u ready, sit down,
Let me tell you a lil story,
'bout 2 cool cats,
yeah, BubLee aur Babli,
comin' at an angle,
that they hotter than the rest,
when ya look at them,
them do pass the test.

them do pass the test

Don' t look back,
He' s comin' into attack,
He' s takin' it side by side,
He' s takin' it front to back,
He' s takin' it all around the world,
Never, never will he stop this
BubLee!

Pun - ja - bi
She be fakin' it with Bunty,
She be havin' it with BabLee,
She be doin' it dirty,
She be on a mission, she be livin', she be killin',
She be Babli!

BubLee aur Babli,
BubLee aur Babli,
They are having a lot of fun,
When Bunty is on the run,
Oh - ho oh - ho

BubLee aur Babli,
BubLee aur Babli,
It's so much fun to do it
When Bunty's payin for it
Oh - ho oh - ho

and 2gether they ride
chori, chori tonight
2gether they hide
chori, chori, tonight
2gether they ride, 2gether they hide,
2gether they fly, into the sky,
2gether they rise above the world,
2gether they return, chori chori everynight

BubLee aur Babli,
BubLee aur Babli,
They are having a lot of fun,
When Bunty is on the run,
Oh - ho oh - ho

Oh - ho oh - ho

Oh - ho oh - ho

Oh - ho oh - ho

Oh - ho oh - ho

"Oh - ho oh - hoOh - ho oh - hoOh - ho oh - hoOh - ho oh - hoOh - ho oh - hoOh - ho oh - ho!"
- Bunty

This team rocks

2009-04-30T09:09:00.000-07:00

The best thing about being part of this team is that it's never short of any excitement. News is that the team management and the Phoren Babas think that Lordie is Fake IPL. Apparently, he was called into the CEO's room where Dildo, Coachie, and Skipper, politely asked him about it. But, they forget that this is THE LORD OF THE RING they are dealing with. The man who has punched every possible cricket establishment in the face and continues to live by his own rules. Lordie would have nothing of it and walked off in a huff using the choicest words possible. After that, the camp's divided again. Lordie is kind of on his own. Most fringe players think that it's better to align with the New Order.

Btw, too much has been made out of Lordie being kept out of team meetings. He wasn't kept out. It wasn't a meeting. It was just one of the several times that the Phoren Babas and their little balls hang out together, Lordie finds his own company and others like me wander around hoping that someone would pull us into their camp.

The team management is tracking this blog carefully. They have identified 12 members of playing/non-playing staff who are beyond suspicion. Every body else is a suspect until the real one is caught. Someone even mentioned that there's a reward on for anyone who catches the me red handed. May be they should install CCTV cameras in the bathrooms... Hmmmm... I am sure Dildo will enjoy that!

P.S. I am unable to check comments so can't respond to them. But my bro tells me that some of you have been complaining about me deleting comments. Let me clarify, that no comments have been deleted by me so far.

Morning Training report

2009-04-30T09:08:00.000-07:00

Finally some good weather. Team is upbeat after y'day's win. Lordie seemed very focused during training. He actually ran, and almost as fast as he did yesterday after taking the wicket! Little John skipped as it was optional training. I can understand it, he is after all a fast bowler and he def needed some time off after the "intense workout" he must have had last night. This is what I love abt top sportsmen. No matter how gawky u look or how sqweaky u speak, u still get the chicks. Dildo made an appearance at training. I can sense cold vibes b.w. Dildo and Lordie. I think if Lordie scores some runs now, he will have a jibe at Dildo. Am waiting... ;-)

Players love it

2009-04-30T09:07:00.002-07:00

Players luv the blog. Y'day, after the match each & every player read it, incl yours truly ;-). Apparently, players of all teams are reading it. Appam Chutiya's name is now cast in stone as his own players are also calling him that. Haha. This is fun. Btw, most players in my team think that this is Coachie himself. They credit him with far too much smarts than he deserves. More ltr.

When the going gets tough

2009-04-30T09:07:00.001-07:00

In Cape Town. Laptops hv bn banned. I'net removed fm rooms. But posts wl continue thru SMS, relayed by my bro in India. Tc

I love match days

2009-04-30T09:06:00.000-07:00

Guys, before I start on this one, I feel like answering all the comments. But, the comments are coming in so thick and fast that I just cant manage. Plus, there's a time constraint and I need to write about everything on my mind before my roomie returns.

All of us love match days. Most love it because they get to play in front of a crowd. It's a kind of rush. As for me, the best part is that you get to meet all players from the other team. Plus, this tournamnt has the pleasures of seeing all the cheerleaders in action. Plus, there are some nice looking team owners who can hold your attention for a while. But, most of all, I enjoy sitting around with the broadcasting and event management guys. They are a store house of information. For example, did you know that the commentary team has a few rounds of bets going on. One of the bets is on which commentator will end up bedding the Sandy Baddy babe. Several of the commentators are part of this betting syndicate. They have all pooled in $200 each, and the one who ends up bedding her gets all the money. If nobody beds her, they spend it all in one night of partying in Jo'burg. 2 commentators - our Kishen Kanhaiyya and the one who crossed over the border for this tournament - have a score card going of how much of the fairer sex company each will enjoy during this 36 day extravaganza. And there's money in this bet too.

Learnt a very interesting piece of news. Not sure if it's true or not. Apparently, Appam Chutiya wasn't slapped by Meera Bhai during last yr's tournament. He was crying because his team owner Babli hugged everyone after the match other than him. The Prince of Patiala saw an opportunity to take Meera Bhai out of the equation and accused him of slapping Appam. I think Appam is still waiting for that hug.

That's it guys. More later...

The Lord Returns

2009-04-30T09:05:00.000-07:00

As we reached the ground, the drizzle had stopped but the clouds were still hovering around. For the first time I felt that the squad believes it can win today. Lordie was all fired up. He was leading the warm up session. He walked up to the Skipper and spoke to him for about 5 minutes. I could sense that, right at that very moment, we were witnessing a huge shift in our mindset today.

After the warm-ups, the 11 was announced. And I realised that I had got everything wrong. If I were to read too much into it, I could come up with a conspiracy theory that the management had done this to prove me wrong. But, I will just own it up. I saw the back-up keeper practicing so hard that I felt he was in. And the same goes for our Bangla Tiger. And, I tried to play skipper in selecting Junta Tormentor. Anyway, I got them all wrong which clearly shows that I am not as smart as I pretend to be.

Before the skipper went out to toss, I had a first-hand experience of what made Lordie such an accomplished captain during his time. He took over the match briefing, and boy, was he charged up or what. He just let loose, telling the boys what is expected of them, telling them that they are part of the best team in IPL and they need to stand up and be counted. (I must tell you that I stood up right at that moment, but I don’t think the counting was on then). And he has balls too. Imagine the slowest member of the team chastising guys twice as fast on matters such as agility, speed and throwing. I mean, it takes some special kind of confidence to do so. I am convinced he has royal blue blood running through his veins. We mortal beings would never manage to do this.

On a serious note though, the man knows how to motivate the boys. He may be slow on the field and, at this age, slow off the field as well. May be he doesn’t understand T20 well enough, but when it comes to being of leader of men, there are few who can match him.

Dildo had joined us during that time. He stood there deep in thought probably wondering if he is backing the right horse. By the time the skipper went out to toss, I knew that the toss didn’t really matter. We have the match in our bag. Chatterjee Kaku was right, after all

Why Kaan Moolo got the Boot

2009-04-30T09:04:00.002-07:00

Back to the breakfast. I was observing everyone from a distance. I don’t know if it was my imagination fueled by guilt conscience or what, but I felt that everyone was talking about the blog. I also felt my movements were being analyzed by everyone in the room. I hadn’t quite prepared myself to deal with this situation. Should I act cool, or should I get aggressive, should I start pointing fingers, or should I crack jokes on the blog? I was very conscious not to do something out of character. Just then, I did exactly the opposite. I picked up my plate and walked straight to Coachie’s table.

Coachie was talking to Kaan Moolo. I sat down and started nibbling on my toast. Overhearing them, I figured that Kaan Moolo has had his kaan moolo’d and is out of the Playing 11. Coachie was explaining to him reasons for why he is being left out. Let me summarize Coachie’s 5-minute monologue to Kaan Moolo. He essentially said that Kaan Moolo has a bright future, he just needs to work on his game a little bit. Basically, all he needs to do is improve his bowling, batting and fielding. That’s it. And he’s back in the team. Little does Coachie know that the exact same words have been spoken by each of Kaan Moolo’s coaches since 1998 – The Baja of Baroda said that, as did John Wrong after him, as did Havaii Chappal subsequently. What makes Coachie think that at the ripe young age of 32, Kaan Moolo would finally turn over a new leaf. Anyway, I observed that Kaan Moolo’s ears were getting red by the minute. There’s a secret fantasy I have. One day, I want to plug in my set top box into Kaan Moolo’s ass and see if his ears catch the Tata Sky signals.

The hunter has become the hunted

2009-04-30T09:04:00.001-07:00

Boy, this has been an eventful day. And finally, I manage to get away from everyone to report it to you. Dont think I can crunch everything in one post, so will post several.

When I reached the coffee shop for breakfast, I could sense the tension in the room. The curious case of the blog, which till last night had been confined to a select few, was by now common knowledge and the subsequent witch hunt was already on.

Two of the four suspects were seen sitting at Lordie’s table talking to him. I couldn’t help but smile at the irony of the situation. These blokes probably didn’t even know what a blog was till today morning, and now were being accused of writing one that could finish their careers. The 3rd suspect is a senior cricketer who has already made his mark as a writer. Come on man. Give him a break. He knows that the team’s being nice enough to let him hone his test match skills in IPL, do they think he’ll return that favour this way? The 4th suspect is a non-playing staff member. But you know what, every cloud has a silver lining. Till last night I thought that if there's one thing in which no one can beat the coach, it would be in a game of “Who’s dumber than a fifth grader?”. But now, after seeing the list of suspects released by the team administration, I think Coachie wouldn't win at that either.

We Play Today Again

2009-04-30T09:03:00.000-07:00

It's past 7 am. We had an early training session today. There was a drizzle throughout and the rain seems to have become harder. Some of us have just returned from the session while some others are still at it. Honing their skills for the match today. This is the one match that everyone believes we can win. There are just 2-3 opposing players to take care of while they bat. And their bowling is pretty weak. So, we have a chance today and everyone seems to think so. But, only if the weather gods permit.

Last night some senior players met with the management to discuss this blog. Apparently, some Bengali journalist heard about this blog from his friend in India. The news spread fast amongst the journalistic circles. Initially, they suspected someone within their fraternity to be doing so. Some of the stuff written on the blog seemed to match the grapevine that they had heard too. One of them went and asked one senior player about it. Who, apparently, asked "Eyi Blog Maane Kee?". Eventually, it was reported to the management and the CEO with his team took a look at it. They want to catch me within 24 hours. And a witch hunt is on. There are 4 suspects. The funny thing is that I am not on the list. Unfortunately, they are going after young players who seem to match my description (as described in the blog). Has it occurred to anyone that I might have described myself incorrectly to hide my identity? Little John was called to enquire who all were there when he was talking about his friendly chat with the coach. But there were 9 people in the room at the time. Anyway, I hope no young, promising player gets penalised for my actions. I hope better sense prevails amongst the management.

The only drawback of all the attention is that I will have to be much more discreet in posting my blogs. And I will only write about things that others in the team also know. The other drawback is that team meetings are much more secretive now. We still don't know who all are playing today. But, going by how the guys were practicing, I get a feeling that the skipper is not going to keep today. Also, one new bowler will get a look in - either our spin bowling will be made stronger or the Bangla Tiger will get a look in (depending on the conditions). Due to the weather, nobody's had a look at the wicket yet. So far, spinners seem to be winning matches for their respective teams. So, there's the thought of including Junta Tormentor in the side. (I couldn't believe that he was left out in the first place). But again, this is Durban and if the pitch plays to reputation our Bangla Tiger will be quite a handful. Either of these 2 guys is definitely in, depending on how our coach reads the pitch. Did you know, he is the only man in the world who can read the pitch on his laptop?

Off to breakfast. Our game starts at 12.30 pm (local time). We will head to the ground at 10.30 am. And that's where the final XI will be announced. Although, there's one thing I already know about the Final XI - I am not in :-)

Match Eve

2009-04-30T09:02:00.001-07:00

It's been a fairly uneventful day really. Everybody's going about doing his own thing. No fireworks, no discussions. The team meeting happened on schedule and everyone was there. Before the meeting, everybody seemed good spirits. There was banter, all in good humour. I tell you, this Calypso King is the most interesting character I have ever met. He is really funny... I mean... rrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeaaallllly funny. And he has this poker faced way of ribbing people that had everyone in splits before Coachie reminded us that we are with this team by starting his first set of rambles on what went wrong yesterday. He has good memory though. He even remembers the number of times a batsman adjusts his crotch guard. He has come up with the most innovative strategy ever for tomorrow's match. Tomorrow, we will aproach our innings very ingenously. If we lose an early wicket or two during powerplay, we will consolidate the inning rather than go for maximum. Man, nobody ever thought this before. Also, the skip may not keep, the young aussie may not play, and the Bangla Tiger may get a look in. So expect a couple of major changes tomorrow. The 11 will be announced at our last meeting before the match - 2 hrs from time of play.

By the way, I am remembering Chatterjee Kaku who tells us on TV, "iss baar tum bhi jeetoge". I want to ask him whether that ad was recorded recently or before the last IPL. Sure doesn't look like he is referring to IPL 2009.

The Wright Way

2009-04-30T09:01:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am a little stunned by all the attention being bestowed upon me. I mean, I never really expected this. I started this blog only to vent out my frustration. I never wanted this to become so talked about. I woke up today with just one follower on my blog. Right now, just after dinner, I have 17. Is the blog getting too big for me? Am I creating my own Frankenstein? I thought about stopping this altogether. But I believe in doing the right thing. I also believe that while doing the right thing is important, it's equally important to do it the right way. I think the time's right for me to do the right thing the right way. Please read the disclaimer given below.

DISCLAIMER
All characters appearing in this work (blog) are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and unintentional.

Danke / Merci

P.S. Let the blogs go on... :-)

Durban... Raining here as well

2009-04-30T08:59:00.000-07:00

Landed in Durban. A 2-hour flight, made shorter by the quick nap I took and some excitement just as we had started to descend. Our main spinner has been seen getting quite cosy with the new establishment. The spinner was also there at Opium last night celebrating our defeat. If you think of it, most of the guys there were from the defeated teams.

One of the Lordie's boys (a batsman) commented on the spinner saying that he should get some sleep on the flight coz he hasn't slept since he came to SA (apparently). To which the spinner responded saying "At least I don't go to sleep while batting or bowling". It was as bad as bowling a beamer. Lordie's boy reacted just as any batsman would and was ready to get up from his seat and confront the spinner. Lordie had to intervene, said something to the boy and pacified him. I was sooo looking forward to an altercation. Would have added so much more spice to this post.

Lordie has been conducting himself really well. I must say. He has swallowed his pride, is being very cordial to the new establishment, even offers tips to the new skipper (which the skipper puts in the trash can anyway). On the whole, I am getting quite fond of Lordie as well as the new skipper. Both are nice blokes. But I just don't like the Coach and his entourage. They hang out together, almost like its' a Us vs Them. They are all the time talking amongst themselves, in a low pitch so no one can hear. We are quite suspitious of the lot.

Our back up keeper tells me that Badshah Dildo called up Coachie in the morning and told him what he thinks of our performance yesterday. Not that it was needed coz we could all see how we have performed. I think his patience is going to run thin this time round. Coach hasn't spoken to anyone since last night's defeat. He was on his laptop the entire time that I have seen him today. I think he wants to send his laptop in to bat in the next time, given the amount of time he spends with it. May be if he spent half that time with us players, we may win a match or two.

By the way, it's raining in Durban as well. I hope it rains tomorrow and the match's called off. At least we'll get a point. I don't see any other way out for us.

Will update you once we have our team meeting later today. Till then, adios!

Opium Night

2009-04-30T08:58:00.001-07:00

As I write this I am nursing a slight hangover and sleep deprivation. It's 6.30 am here, I have just woken up. My roomie is still asleep so it gives me a good chance of posting this blog. I went out clubbing last night, returned at 4.30, barely managed to sleep for a couple of hours and here I am. Not that I have much to do here, so I can peacefully sleep through the day without anyone noticing. The only problem is that we leave for Durban today morning to play the Bubblies. Now, that will be something.

I have hit it off well with the Sports Management company manager who handles our PR. He is a smart young MBA-type Bombayite. Good sense of humour, must be good with the ladies, knows all the hot spots to go to. Good guy to know. He invited me to join him downtown for a night out at a club.

We took a cab to Opium. And what a club it is. I mean, I have never seen a club as pulsating as Opium. The club was packed, the crowd was trendy and chic, the babes were hot and slutty, there was a live band playing. I mean, the place was happening.

And guess what. The most colourful characters of IPL were there. At the entrance, we had our Kishen Kanhaiyya commentator standing right in front of me. Can't miss him with his height, pot belly and receding hairline. Thanks to my Sports Manager friend, we got in without paying. Inside, some of the bubblies were there. Prince of Patiala was there with some of his team boys. All tall fast bowlers. They were gawking at all the sexy babes on the dance floor. Prince though seems to attract a lot of attention from the ladies. Appam Chutiya was also there. I don't know what he is doing in SA coz he aint fit to play at all. Apparently, he is their main cheerleader. If so, I don't see him dancing around in mini skirts at the boundary line. But he sure was dancing here. Doing his stupid, ill-rhythmed break dance steps on club beats. He stood in one corner as if he doesn't want to get mobbed. But dude, nobody here cares a fuck for who you are. To them you are just a duffus with colored hair, glasses and strange dance steps. I went to the bar counter to get myself a drink. I overheard 2 girls talking. One of them seemed to be of Indian origin. They were talking about Appam Chutiya. One of them said that "he doesn't have a nose. He has 2 large holes instead of a nose". I burst out laughing. Kishen Kanhaiyya (KK) commentator hung around the bar with a 30+ well endowed white woman. She wore a sleeveless dress, full length with a generous neckline. KK seemed to be going for the kill. The prey in this case was happy enough to be hunted. They left the place together around 1 am. The Patiala Prince's gang was hanging around like a pack of hyenas. They would be gawking at any piece of meat walking by. Eventually, the Prince went in to get his share of the meat, a couple of others tried their luck. The rest went back to the rooms with nothing but their bats in their hands.

As for me, I got what I wanted. My 2 hours of sleep. Now, I pack my bags and am on to Durban.

More later guys. Take care.

I knew it!

2009-04-30T08:57:00.000-07:00

Didn't I tell you all along that we have no chance in hell to do better than last time round. But now I am changing my prediction. We will be last placed in this IPL. Haha! Lovely. What do you expect from a team that's as confused as a...well... uh... I can't think of anything as confused as our team, but I think you get the point. We knew who all are playing and detailed strategies were worked out for every opposition player. As for our batting, we knew exactly how to approach our inning. Play your strokes in the first 6, get to about 50-1. Then Lordie guides the middle order through. Keep wickets till the 15th. And then go hammer and tongs. Brilliant strategy coachie. But for one small problem. What happens if we are 20-3 off 8. We hadn't planned for that. So, one player walks in and starts auditioning for a test match role. When he gets out, the next one walks in and wallops a six off the first ball. And then, predictably gets out. To each his own, that seemed to be the mantra. Thanks to Little John and co. we managed to get to 3 figures. Between the innings, while coachie was deep in his thoughts on how to philosophise our beautiful batting display, his deputy and the skipper gave their pep talks. They were seen in animated discussions with our fast bowling attack comprising India's best fast bowler, a good India prospect and a former India fast bowler who will remain a former India fast bowler for the rest of his career. All strategies were put to rest while on the field and we were finished.

Our owner, Badshah Dildo didn't make an appearance after the match. There was a bit of stillness about things. Nobody talked too much. Lordie didn't gloat at all, possibly because of his own miserable score. The setting was right for him to play a magical inning and show Dildo what he's all about. The Coach was shitting bricks, I think. You can't tell much from his exterior, but it's the Coach who is running the show now and he has to take the flak. He had told Dildo that if Dildo wants the IPL, he's got to let him run it his way. Otherwise, he can't guarantee the IPL. But now, he's got everything he wanted. He has his own entourage, most of whom do nothing but lob balls during fielding practice. Dildo's paying for everything. He's got his own captain. He has his team. Now all that's required is for us to win a match or two. I think we have a chance against the Bubblies from land of 5 rivers. But even then, if Prince of Patiala gets going, we are finished.

Dildo's cold shoulder's going to hurt for a long time. I am waiting to see if he hangs around in SA after we lose the first 3 matches.

We are now back in our hotel rooms. Just generally chilling out. And planning for the exciting night ahead.

Load Shedding

2009-04-30T08:56:00.002-07:00

Load shedding! The word I heard a lot as I was growing up in Cal. It has happened right here in Cape Town. One of the lights went out and they were trying to fix it. Imagine. The whole day it rained. When the rain stopped the lights went out. Shit! That meant our owner Dildo came over to the dug out and ate our heads out. With all that attitude, jumping around, hugging, stupid jokes, pep talk etc etc. The most excited was our new buddy from Bangladesh. Clicking pictures with the star.

The light's almost fixed now. I will rush back. And guys! A big surprise. I am sending this from the Coach's laptop. The guy roams with a global internet sim card, all charged to Dildo bhaiyya! Haha. Mr. Gavaskar, pls write about this...

Rains and ruins

2009-04-30T08:56:00.001-07:00

It's 2.45 pm here. We were supposed to leave for the ground at 2.45 pm. Most of us assembled at our hotel lobby at 2.30 as scheduled. We waited on for 10 minutes for the big boys to arrive. Then Mr Kaan Moolo, the former India fast bowler who built his career sucking the lord's dick told us that there's been a change in plan. Now, we will leave at 3.15. So, we are back in our rooms. Apparently, Vinnie Dildo (our owner) is here. He is sitting with the coach, phoren babas and Lordie himself. I wonder if Little John's little act of mutiny has anything to do with it. For now, we just sit around twiddling our thumbs.

It's still raining here. I can't see how we will get a game... As for me, I am looking forward to seeing Preity Zinta from closer quarters. Wanna see if her skin really glows the way it does on screen... I have the hots for her.

I don't know if I'll get to post before the match now. But I am carrying my laptop in my kit. If I get a connection there and if nobody's watching, I may just slip in a post.

Till then...alvida!

First sign of dissent

2009-04-30T08:55:00.001-07:00

Guys, the first sign of dissent against the New Order. Not surprisingly, the one Indian who can take his place for granted in our line up has stood up. During our meeting when our jackass coach was telling our fast bowlers on how to bowl at the Pedophile Priest, he had said that we will play on a new wicket and hence the ball will have carry etc. But now it turns out that we are playing on the same wicket that was used for both matches yesterday. I had gone to the room of our fast bowler Little John. His state-mate Shikhar Dhawan was also there. Little John was hopping mad at how the coach hadn't even done his home work and was misguiding us. I asked him how does his affect his strategy. He blabbered something like "strategy kya hai yaar, lekin pata toh hona chahiye na ki pitch kya hai". Little John says that his very very special friend Ram, who is playing against us today, mentioned it off-hand expecting us to know this already. After that Little John barged into the Coach's room and let loose. I can only imagine Little John standing in front of our equally little Coach and screaming in his wierd, hoarse voice, "You tell new pitch. But it's old pitch. How you tell how to do balling when you dont know pitch".

Anyway, it's nice to meet Shikhar. We have played against one another for a few seasons. I think he deserves to be in the Indian side. Definitely ahead of that Virat Kohli whom nobody likes in the domestic circuit. I hope Shikhar and Abhishek Nayar perform well and make it to India's T20 World Cup squad. Both deserve it, and both are very good human beings too.

It's still raning guys... We may not get a game

Lord not opening

2009-04-30T08:54:00.000-07:00

Just out of the team meeting held in the Coach's suite. Skipper did most of the talking. He is opening with the Calypso King. Lord Almighty is at No. 3. Some bull-shit about using his experience to guide the middle order, similar to what the other 2 of the troika did yesterday. Lord sat there straight faced. Didn't say much. Didn't smile at all. I was standing at one corner straight across the Lord. And given my height and stature I can go quite unnoticed. I was observing the Lord carefully, each twitch of his eyes, every movement of his thumb, his gaze. He is very unhappy and uncomfortable. Being treated like this in front of his bacchas.

Btw, I can see from my window that the rain's getting harder. I wonder if we'll get 2 matches in today.

Long night...short post

2009-04-30T08:53:00.002-07:00

This is a quick one A little birdie just told me that the Sheikh of Tweak tried to get over yesterday's defeat by diving into 3 pairs of mammary land. As per reports, the 3 angels surrounded him after the opening ceremony and the 4 left together for the Sheikh's hotel. The Rajputs, Sheikh's team, didn't train today morning and the Sheikh wasn't seen at breakfast either.

We play today

2009-04-30T08:53:00.001-07:00

We have just returned from our morning training session. It was a good session. Everyone turned up. And everyone was serious. Lord Almighty was as serious as I have ever seen. RDB was bowling short at him and at his rib cage. Lord handled it quite well, mostly. Once or twice he did get caught up with his technique though. Lord practiced his inside-out shot over cover a lot. I remember, way back in 2001, he had slaughtered an international pace attack in the one dayers hitting over covers for sixes. He knows he needs to stamp his authority over the team and the tournament. He wants to teach Dildo and the Phoren Babas a lesson for messing with him. Especially after the other two who form the troika with him scored 50's yesterday guiding their respective teams to victory.

After the session, the new skipper gave us a pep talk. He talks well though, and seems committed. Our coach, the professor, is quite a bore. I just don't understand what goes through that head of his. In fact, I don't understand a word he says. But I like the new skip. He seems to be a good man. He wants to win. But I don't think he knows my name yet. And the Lord... well... he smiled to me yesterday. I am not sure who's side I will take. Well, whoever gives me a game in this IPL will have my loyalty forever.

Last night inauguration was quite a bore. I enjoyed the 2 songs performed by Snow Patrol and the laser show was ok. Rest of it was quite a bore. The players just stood in the middle chatting amongst themselves. Prince Charles of Patiala was cracking lewd and stupid jokes about the skimpily clad girls who were performing. And the fringe players in his team were laughing so loudly that I thought they will call off the ceremony because of that. Not that his jokes were funny. It's just that you got to laugh at the boss' jokes if you want to be in the side. Btw, the bevdaa who got out on duck yesterday almost hit the bottle after the ceremony before his team management wisked him away. I think they have put 3-4 bodyguards around him to keep him away from the bar...Hahaha... My former school team mate is playing with the Bevdaas. Before the opening ceremony I went up to him to congratulate him. Apparently, the Bevdaas owner Mr. Batlivala had sent him man into the dressing room between innings. And his displeasure with the batting display was conveyed in no uncertain terms to the team. Apparently, the threat was quite real. Also seen before the opening ceremony was our Lord Almighty in an intense chat with the Little Monster. I think he was venting his frustration with Vinnie Dildo and the Phoren Babas.

I think the Lord is under pressure. Our team for today is still not announced yet. But, I think it's clear that Lord is playing and also opening. He will probably be joined by the Calypso King while the new skipper will come lower down. Strange decisions. If you don't have the Lord as captain, no point keeping him in the team either. Coz he can't outrun even a tortoise. If I am in, at least I'll save some runs even if I dont score more than him. Anyway, thankfully the team doesn't trust me to serve drinks or carry messages either. So, I will just put up my feet and enjoy a good game of cricket from the best seat in the stadium.

Will write again as soon as the team's decided.

In the Stadium for Opening Ceremony

2009-04-30T08:52:00.002-07:00

We have reached the stadium for the opening ceremony. Our owner Mr. Vinnie Dildo is here with his ravishing wife (My...she's hot) and his son. Haven't seen the rest of his bumchums yet... We are in one of the boxes and there's a laptop here with wi-fi connection in the stadium...WOW! I thought I must blog from here, it's kind of exciting... The guys sitting here have no idea that the world has a mole inside IPL...ME!

Lord Almighty just walked past me. He nodded at me and acknowledged my presence, for the first time I think. That's a start. He has been kind of insecure since yesterday when he was stripped of his captaincy. He is trying to gauge who all are in his side. Most of us are just plain confused. We are just playing the middle path... me, keeping myself at a distance from both parties - Lord Almighty and the Phoren Babas. Others, however, are sucking up to both... Haha!

Looks like the Bevdaas have pipped the champs. Way to go boys. I can see the Bevdaa's owner Mr. Batlivala grinning from ear to ear. You can actually see his teeth through his moustache and bear. Our owner's looking quite dashing in his formal suit and tie. I wonder if all those rumours about him are true or not. If they are true, may be Lord Almighty should keep his door unlocked tonight to get back his captaincy. But again, this bit of politics does add some colour to our otherwise lacklustre team....

Got to go guys. The Bevdaas have won. Now on to the opening ceremony. Cheers!

Rumours and all

2009-04-30T08:52:00.001-07:00

It's close to 5 pm here. The first match just got over. Mumbai Indians played like champs and won. But there's all sorts of tension in our hotel. My roomie tells me that Lord Almighty may not get selected in the 11. And as I went to confirm this with our opening bowler, my state-mate and long-time friend, he says that Lord Almighty has decided to return to India. I don't know what to believe and what not to. And if the team's 16th man like me can get affected by this, I am sure the others are getting severely affected. What was Winnie Dildo thinking before ditching his skipper in favour of the coach. A coach who nobody other than this guy believes in. The day we had landed in SA, I was sitting at the bar with my teammate, the young former India player who will remain a former India player, the Sheikh of Tweak was also at the bar counter. He was chatting up one giggly, sexy twenty-something. And as a way to impress her, he was cracking jokes on our Phoren coach (someone he had played under a few yrs ago). In fact, he even said that if our coach had done a better job of picking up the balls after nets, they would have won the Ashes a few yrs ago. (Apparently, their main bowler - called a sparrow or parrot or something - slipped on a ball during nets, injured his ankle and flew back).

Anyway, back to our team. It seems Lord Almighty has some deciding to do. And so do our Phoren Babas. As I speak, the Bevdaa Team has elected to bat against Big Sister's team. I think the Bevdaa Team owner has played a master trick. He has about 6 bevdaas in his side. And this time he is not serving free beer. It seems the latest bevdaa is going to spend all his IPL money on his owner's beer.

Back to our team...again... as I write this, 3 of our players - our backup keeper, our frontline bowler, and our former Indian player - are in Lord Almighty's room. And our Phoren Baba duo has been joined by our Calypso King in one room. I wonder what they might be discussing! We shall know all about it tomorrow morning at breakfast. And guess who will be the first to report on it...He he he...he he he... he.. hehehe.....

The first match begins

2009-04-30T08:47:00.000-07:00

We returned from our practice session today just in time to see the first toss of the IPL. Lord Almighty, who till the other day was our skipper, paid a visit for training. He came, he saw, he jogged and returned. The Coach and new skipper have hit it off well. Lord Almighty mostly ignored them and the emotion was reciprocated. Most of us, fringe guys, don't know what to do about the new power situation. We have worshipped Lord Almighty all our lives. And suddenly, he is just one of us. And we have new rulers, with accents to boot. Our owner, Mr. Vinnie Dildo, seems to think that the Phoren Babas will get him the IPL, something that Lord Almighty couldn't do earlier. Little does he know that we will do as well as we did last time round. It's just that we shall have more fun this time round as we are in South Africa. The established players have already started having fun, and the rest of us are hoping that as time goes by some of their crumbs will fall by our bed sides.

We assembled in the room of one of our team mates - a former India player who will remain a former India player for the rest of his career - to watch the toss. Last year, I saw some of the matches sitting in the crowd. This time round, seems like stadiums wont be as packed as last time. But at least the cheerleaders are hotter. Our own Kishen Kanhaiyya commentator will surely agree. During last night's carnival, he had quite a blast. At least the cheerleaders have cheered someone up. As the room got more and more crowded and bottles of beer started tumbling out, I decided to go to my room and post this blog. As I type this, a dog has made way to the middle. Moves pretty fast, this dog. Faster than Lord Almighty at least.

More later guys. Wanna catch a wink or two before they get the dog out.

Glenn & I don’t talk cricket: Krishna

2009-04-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

That’s because they bond as friends first, says ramp stunner Krishna Somani, who was a pillar of support to Aussie cricketer Glenn McGrath when

Glenn McGrath and Krishna Somani

his wife was battling the last stages of cancer

We hear you have become ‘more than a friend’ to Glenn McGrath?
What rubbish! We are just good friends, nothing else! The moment people caught us in a public place, they started tattling! He is a fantastic person — someone I can talk for hours and share my thoughts with. One can’t imagine how humble he is. Being a legendary cricketer, he is as simple as one can be.

When did you first meet?
We did a show together in Delhi during IPL last year, and that’s where we first met. We got along really well and became good friends. He went back to Australia after the tournament, but we were in constant touch. But it’s not as if we chat everyday.

Are you a cricket buff? Do you discuss the game with him?
Definitely not! To me, he is a friend. We never talk about cricket or even my profession. Rather, he is more excited to tell me about the work that he’s been doing through his foundation.

But he said recently, that you were his emotional support when his wife was battling the terminal stages of cancer...
Did he say that? When a friend is going through a difficult phase, it’s my duty to give him time and attention to make him feel better. It’s true that during his wife’s last days, he was facing the toughest time of his life. I tried my best to give him some support, so that he could share his pain with me. At least, he deserves that much care from me.

He is also close to your family...
Of course. When he was in Delhi, he met my family and we went out for dinner one evening. He had Japanese food one day and the other day, it was Mediterranean cuisine. We had a great time!

Have you ever spoken to his children?
No, I haven’t met them. If IPL 2 happened in India, he would have brought them here. I haven’t spoken to them over phone yet, as I want to meet them personally first.

No problem about Hindi, can tell by players' tone: Warne

2009-04-30T08:43:00.000-07:00

"I think I can tell by their tone," Warne said, explaining that on the flip side, the team members could figure him out from his body language even if they couldn't understand his Australian accent.

Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Warne says his inability to understand Hindi is not a handicap as he can figure out from their tone when his team members are upset with him.

"I think I can tell by their tone," Warne said, explaining that on the flip side, the team members could figure him out from his body language even if they couldn't understand his Australian accent.

Warne was reacting to a question at a function hosted here by sponsor Tata Communications Services for leading businessmen as to how he and teammate Graeme Smith, who is the South African captain, were getting along as Hindi seemed to be the main means of communication with some members of the team.

"If I raise my voice and it's a bit aggressive, then I think they know they were not as good as they should have been. But if I'm happy and smiling, I think they understand," Warne maintained.

Smith pointed out the advantages the Indian Premier League (IPL) offered on the cultural front.

"Being a South African, I've grown up in a different cultures. So, from my perspective, just to spend time with the different cultures in the Royals has been a really interesting experience.

"The Indian guys have been teaching me a little bit of Hindi every now and again so we can use that to communicate with them," Smith maintained.

He also lauded the role of the younger Indian players.

"A few of us have played international cricket for a fair amount of years now, so we have got a bit more experience to impart to the young guys, but it's also great to have their energy and excitement.

"They have also got fresher legs than what we have got, so they can do the running and we can do the talking," Smith said, more in jest.

Warne also spoke about team work.

"In my opinion we are all in this together. We all work together and help each other out. I'm very proud to be the captain of Rajasthan Royals, but there are a lot of captains in our side," he said.

Strategy break not working

Warne has joined the growing chorus against the strategy break introduced in IPL-2 saying it might make commercial sense but was not good for the game.

"I think the strategy breaks affect whatever side is behind (in the game)," Warne said, adding: "So, whoever has the momentum, the opposition can actually catch up in that break."

He felt that the strategy break in recent games had twice upset the momentum of master blaster Sachin Tendulkar.

"It doesn't matter who is batting, Sachin (Tendulkar) or anybody else; you just lose momentum. But if you are behind, you can actually regroup and refocus to work out what you should actually do on the field and then go out and do it.

"From a purely cricketing point of view, I don't think it works, but from a commercial point of view, I'm sure it works very well," Warne added.

At the same time, he said the introduction of the strategy break had been "worth a try".

The seven-and-a-half minute strategy break allows for IPL organisers to sell advertising for a reported Rs.4,000 per 10 seconds.

Warne was also asked to compare IPL-2 in South Africa to the inaugural season in India."

"I think the wonderful thing about playing cricket in India is the passion of the people. You get some of that in the games on television, but the atmosphere at the (stadiums) was unbelievable. "

"In 20 years of playing first class international cricket, I don't think I could ever imagine or experience anything like we experienced last year as a group"

"Coming into South Africa is obviously going to be different. It is to the South African people's credit (for the) wonderful way over here that they have embraced the IPL. They come to the games (although) they have got a long international cricket season here as well, so to have so many people at the games makes it more exciting," Warne said.

Lauds young Indian players in IPL

Warne has lauded the young Indian players in the side as the ones who would ensure triumph for India in the World Cup Twenty20 in future.

''If India want to do really well in the World Cup Twenty20, all these guys here should be in their sights for doing a really exceptional job," Warne said.

Young player Siddarth Trivedi said: "IPL has changed my cricketing life because the selectors have started noticing me after my performance last year.

"In 2003 I was on the fringe ... but somehow I could not make it. But last year my performance (in the IPL) was good and I also won the title. That helped me a lot and I came back into the limelight again."

Commenting on his achievement of becoming one of the highest wicket-takers in India in first-class cricket, Trivedi said: "Shane (Warne) told me that whatever ball you bowl should be the best ball of your life, so I give 100 percent commitment to whatever ball I bowl."

Ravindra Jadeja was overawed at his selection in the Rajasthan Royals. "It feels great to be able to play alongside such great players," he said.

"They give us great confidence in the dressing room as well, something which started last year and is continuing.

"The IPL is a wonderful platform for youngsters like us. Getting the opportunity to play with players of such international stature inspires us to go and do even better next year by building on what we have learnt from them."

Kamran Akmal of Pakistan, asked if he ever dreamt of making it in Bollywood, retorted in Hindi with a short, swift answer: "I have no ambitions of Bollywood or anything else. I am devoting all my time only to cricket for now."

Would be happy to show Shilpa some tricks

Warne would be happy to oblige team co-owner Shilpa Shetty, who had earlier indicated ignorance of the rules of Twenty20 cricket and alluded she would learn them from the skipper.

"I would be happy to show Shilpa some tricks," Warne said. "You haven't heard about the latest movie (South African captain and Rajasthan Royals teammate) Graeme (Smith) and I are starring in?" Warne asked in jest in response to a question on how the lessons were progressing.

"Shilpa, me and Graeme (in one movie)? You haven't heard about that one yet?" Warne continued.

"We're ready to sign a deal. If there's a deal for a Bollywood movie, we're in!"

On a more serious note, Warne said: "I think (the link to Bollywood) is great for cricket. We're lucky to have someone like Shilpa getting involved. I think that the match between Bollywood and cricket is very, very good."

"Bollywood has always been involved with cricket indirectly," added veteran record-holding cricketer Yajurvindra Singh who was the MC at the function. "Cricketers and Bollywood, somehow, especially the actresses, get along pretty well. But I'm not talking about me - I'm happily married!" Singh added quickly added before reminding the audience of the linkages between Indian cinema and cricket from the early days of Raj Kapoor entering the industry.

"Amitabh Bachchan always thought he was a great left-arm spinner. Before him, Rajesh Khanna also thought he was good at cricket. At present there is even a Bollywood cricket team led by Sunil Shetty, which plays regularly on Saturdays whenever they get the time," Singh pointed out.

Sachin my favourite batsman
Warne named master-blaster Sachin Tendulkar as his all-time favourite batsman.

"Over all the years there have been a lot of wonderful batsmen, so it is pretty hard to pick between Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar," Warne said in reply to a question about his favourite batsman.

"But I think given the way Sachin handles everything and the expectations that he carries every single time that he walks out to bat, and the way he handles bad decisions and the way he just carries himself; I would have to say Sachin Tendulkar was the best batsman that I have played with in my 20 years of playing international cricket.

"My biggest bunny, I suppose, would have to be (South African) Darryl Cullinan," he added.

A "bunny" is one who cannot bat and who often gets out to one bowler, in this case Warne.

"I was once asked who I would like to bowl to for a living. I said I would be a very rich man if I was to bowl to (Cullinan)."

The missing quotient in IPL II

2009-04-30T08:42:00.000-07:00

For all the hip and hype, glitz and glamour, the IPL-2 has underlined the fact that in testing playing conditions, there is no substitute for experience and skill. Is it any wonder then that the ageing pros have cornered all the glory so far while lending credence to Sachin's statement that T20 is not necessarily a game for the young and by the young?

A majority of the young Indian players, not yet exposed to international cricket, have been struggling to cope with the bounce and movement on the South African pitches. Not just the batsmen, but so also the bowlers who are unable to hit the correct length and line to be really effective. It goes to show that in most case, the talent we judge on the flat and placid sub-continental pitches is grossly overvalued.

If you overlook the odd good performance by a "new face", then there is precious little "new" or "fresh" about the IPL save for the fact that the conditions have produced some close games and thrilling contests. The matches so far have also given lie to the belief that T20 is all about old-fashioned slogging or a glorified version of "village cricket".

Some of the captains too have been all at sea, struggling to come to terms with the conditions even as they learn to manage the resources at their disposal. Teams that have focused far too much on strategy and planning, have not exactly fared well while those who have kept things simple and gone with the flow, find themselves at the top of the heap.

The resurgence of Deccan Chargers is a case in point. Gilchrist's captaincy has been more about motivation and leading from the front, much like Warne whose bag of tricks appears to be bottomless. Undoubtedly, these two former Australian stars have been the pick of the eight captains.

In contrast, the much-acclaimed Dhoni of the Super Kings has been found wanting resulting in his team languishing at the bottom with just one win. A long way from last year's showing when they began the campaign with four consecutive victories and going on to make it to the final before losing to Warne's Royals.

Dhoni appears to be strangely subdued and I have a sneaking suspicion that he has just about had enough and desperately needs a break. Having played huge amount of cricket in all formats the past six months, not counting the travel, Dhoni seems to be rather flat. His batting has lacked a sense of urgency and his team selection has confounded the discerning.

Consequently, his persistence with the likes of Parthiv and Joginder besides sticking to a batting order that is rigid and a bowling attack that is without variation, has only added to the team's woes. In the normal course, Dhoni would have boldly experimented with his line-up, but in the past fortnight, he seems content to let things float along. It is so much unlike the Dhoni that we have grown used to and it is to be hoped that he will pull up his socks sooner than later or else, his team is doomed to disaster.

Among the foreign signings, few of the highly-paid players have justified their price tags. The likes of Pietersen and Flintoff, or for that matter even Smith and McCullum, apart from a clutch of other overseas stars, have performed below par. I do wonder then whether there is a strong case for revisiting this process of valuation of players.

There are times when I believe that a majority of the players are grossly overvalued and for the life of me, I cannot understand the process that is in place for valuation. I am sure, these are issues that the franchises would soon address while assessing their returns on inevestments.

As of now, the IPL is still to spark to life. The promised and expected fireworks have occurred only off the field, at the end of the game. It is to be hoped then that as the tournament progresses, the players would get used to the conditions and begin to entertain us.

Shilpa breaths a huge sigh of relief

2009-04-30T08:38:00.002-07:00

Shilpa Shetty has pushed films to the backseat of late. She eats, drinks and talks cricket these days. Besides stealing the attention of the cameramen at the stadium, she writes about her team Rajasthan Royals on her blog shilpashettylive.com. In her latest blog, she expressed her happiness on winning the last game against Delhi Daredevils.

At the start of this year's IPL 2 in South Africa, Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty was everywhere declaring that her team Rajasthan Royals, the defending champions, would do well this year too. However, she went hiding after her team failed to perform. Rajasthan Royals is back again and so too the Boss Shilpa.

“Phew! Still haven’t gotten over yesterday’s match…can’t express my happiness. RR IS BACK IN BUSINESS! Every match has been exciting but with our last performance, I had a lot of reasons to fear the Delhi Daredevils… firstly because they had not lost a single game till now and they had a great lineup of batsmen! But like I’ve said before its more about luck and that was on our side yesterday. We got those early crucial wickets and I breathed a sigh of relief and surprisingly kept the score below 150, which is fantastic considering Delhi’s always scored above that,” she wrote.

She is all praise for her team. “While batting Graeme was the rock of Gibralter, he made the base. All batsmen contributed but Yusuf was on fire. He hit 6 sixes and I wasn’t complaining… he turned the game around, despite being badly hit on the shoulder. Anyway the team’s spirits are up with this win. Hope this winning streak continues. Happy about the way things are shaping up, we are 4th on the score board, which is encouraging.”

Let's hope Rajasthan Royals make the gorgeous actress happy by winning IPL 2!

‘IPL2 numbers likely to remain low until the first week of May’

2009-04-30T08:38:00.001-07:00

The television ratings for all the eight days of the IPL matches are out and according to TAM Media Research, the average television ratings for these eight days (April 19-25, 2009) is merely 4.61. While the numbers may be low and perhaps in line with expectations, it is widely believed at as the tournament progresses, there would be more surprises rating wise and the teams’ performance as well. Despite more viewership, the reason for the low ratings is possibly because those viewers don’t stick to the game entirely.

Sandeep Lakhina, COO, Starcom Worldwide, South Asia, told exchange4media, “I am not unhappy with the numbers, although I was anticipating the ratings to be about 5 or so. However, these are average ratings and the number of people who are watching IPL have increased, but the stickiness is not there for whatever reasons. I believe the numbers will continue to be in the same line right now, but probably after the first week of May and in the last 10 days of the tournament, I think we will see a jump in ratings.”

Rajneesh Chaturvedi, National Director, MEC Access, said, “These ratings are slightly low. We at MEC had predicted about 15 per cent less as compared to last year, and I would attribute these low ratings to the inclement weather conditions, which led to two of the matches being washed out, while one match was not played for the entire duration. However, the ratings are likely to increase as the tournament progresses and more interesting matches come up.”

IPL strategy break not working: Shane Warne

2009-04-30T08:36:00.000-07:00

Johannesburg, April 29 (IANS) Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Warne has joined the growing chorus against the strategy break introduced in the Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 matches being played out across South Africa, saying it might make commercial sense but was not good for the game.

'I think the strategy breaks affect whatever side is behind (in the game),' Warne said, adding: 'So, whoever has the momentum, the opposition can actually catch up in that break.'

He was reacting to a comment at a function hosted here by sponsor Tata Communications Services for leading businessmen that the strategy break in recent games had twice upset the momentum of master blaster Sachin Tendulkar.

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'It doesn't matter who is batting, Sachin (Tendulkar) or anybody else; you just lose momentum. But if you are behind, you can actually regroup and refocus to work out what you should actually do on the field and then go out and do it.

'From a purely cricketing point of view, I don't think it works, but from a commercial point of view, I'm sure it works very well,' Warne added.

At the same time, he said the introduction of the strategy break had be'n 'worth a try'.

The seven-and-a-half minute strategy break allows for IPL organisers to sell advertising for a reported Rs.4,000 per 10 seconds.

Warne was also asked to compare IPL-2 in South Africa to the inaugural season in India.'

'I think the wonderful thing about playing cricket in India is the passion of the people. You get some of that in the games on television, but the atmosphere at the (stadiums) was unbelievable. '

'In 20 years of playing first class international cricket, I don't think I could ever imagine or experience anything like we experienced last year as a group'

'Coming into South Africa is obviously going to be different. It is to the South African people's credit (for the) wonderful way over here that they have embraced the IPL. They come to the games (although) they have got a long international cricket season here as well, so to have so many people at the games makes it more exci'ing,' Warne said.

Warne lauds young Indian players in IPL

2009-04-30T08:35:00.000-07:00

Johannesburg, April 29 (IANS) Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Warne has lauded the young Indian players in the side as the ones who would ensure triumph for India in the World Cup Twenty20 in future.

Speaking at a function hosted here by sponsors Tata Communications Services for leading businessmen, Warne, South African captain Graeme Smith and other members of the team replied to queries from the audience and shared their experiences so far in the Indian Premier League (IPL) series, on across South Africa until May 25.

"If India want to do really well in the World Cup Twenty20, all these guys here should be in their sights for doing a really exceptional job," Warne said.

Young player Siddarth Trivedi said: "IPL has changed my cricketing life because the selectors have started noticing me after my performance last year.

Ravindra Jadeja was overawed at his selection in the Rajasthan Royals. "It feels great to be able to play alongside such great players," he said.

"They give us great confidence in the dressing room as well, something which started last year and is continuing.

IPL strategy break not working: Shane Warne

Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Warne has joined the growing chorus against the strategy break introduced in the Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 matches being played out across South Africa, saying it might make commercial sense but was not good for the game.

"I think the strategy breaks affect whatever side is behind (in the game)," Warne said, adding: "So, whoever has the momentum, the opposition can actually catch up in that break."

He was reacting to a comment at a function hosted here by sponsor Tata Communications Services for leading businessmen that the strategy break in recent games had twice upset the momentum of master blaster Sachin Tendulkar.

"From a purely cricketing point of view, I don't think it works, but from a commercial point of view, I'm sure it works very well," Warne added.

At the same time, he said the introduction of the strategy break had be"n "worth a try".

The seven-and-a-half minute strategy break allows for IPL organisers to sell advertising for a reported Rs.4,000 per 10 seconds.

Warne was also asked to compare IPL-2 in South Africa to the inaugural season in India."

"I think the wonderful thing about playing cricket in India is the passion of the people. You get some of that in the games on television, but the atmosphere at the (stadiums) was unbelievable. "

"In 20 years of playing first class international cricket, I don't think I could ever imagine or experience anything like we experienced last year as a group"

Would be happy to show Shilpa some tricks: Shane Warne

Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Warne would be happy to oblige team co-owner Shilpa Shetty, who had earlier indicated ignorance of the rules of Twenty20 cricket and alluded she would learn them from the skipper.

"I would be happy to show Shilpa some tricks," Warne said, to the amusement of an audience gathered here.

"You haven't heard about the latest movie (South African captain and Rajasthan Royals teammate) Graeme (Smith) and I are starring in?" Warne asked in jest in response to a question from IANS on how the lessons were progressing.

"Shilpa, me and Graeme (in one movie)? You haven't heard about that one yet?" Warne continued.

"We're ready to sign a deal. If there's a deal for a Bollywood movie, we're in!"

"Bollywood has always been involved with cricket indirectly," added veteran record-holding cricketer Yajurvindra Singh, who was the master of ceremonies at a function hosted here by sponsor Tata Communications Services for leading businessmen to meet Warne, Smith and other members of the Rajasthan Royals team.

"Cricketers and Bollywood, somehow, especially the actresses, get along pretty well. But I'm not talking about me - I'm happily married!" Singh added quickly added before reminding the audience of the linkages between Indian cinema and cricket from the early days of Raj Kapoor entering the industry.

I wanna go home: Irfaan Pathan to brother Yusuf

2009-04-30T08:32:00.000-07:00

Johannesburg, Apr 29 (IANS) “I want to go home,” Irfaan Pathan of the Kings XI Punjab said to his brother Yusuf of the Rajasthan Royals as the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2 headed for the halfway mark.

Yusuf Pathan was reacting to a question about the rapport between the brothers playing in opposing teams and what they said to each other.

Yusuf Pathan was part of the team on the dais with Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Warne at a function hosted here for leading businessmen by sponsor Tata Communications Services.

Warne commented on the strategy to mobilise Yusuf against Irfaan because he knew his brother so well: “That was obviously the plan - that Yusuf would bowl to Irfan the other night and hopefully get him out but it didn’t work out that way.

“So when Irfan was bowling to Yusuf we were hoping that Yusuf would smash him all over the park.”

Warne was referring to the game at Centurion Tuesday evening when the Rajasthan Royals won their second game of the series against Delhi Daredevils.

“Last year, when we played, Yusuf was batting and Irfan dropped him at mid-on,” Warne said, adding in jest that he had done this “out of brotherly love”.

Reacting to a question of how they played as young siblings, Yusuf said: “Just as we are playing now. Even when we were young and playing in the streets, Yusuf and I would be hitting each other all over,” Irfan said.

“We both love cricket and our father has always been very supportive, coming to every match,”

Another member of the team, Dimitri Mascarenhas of England, was asked whether he thought that the traditional one-day internationals would disappear in the wake of the popularity of the Twenty20 format.

“I’m not sure if 50 overs will disappear altogether (although) I’m sure it will get played less because more people want to see Twenty20,” Mascarenhas maintained.

“Personally, I like Twenty20 because it is great fun, shorter, more exciting and players get involved a lot more,” he added.

Sachin, Sanath slam their way to peak viewership

2009-04-30T08:31:00.000-07:00

Mumbai, April 28 The 127-run partnership between Sachin Tendulkar (68 off 45) and Sanath Jayasuriya (52 off 32) led to prime time cricket viewership on SET Max jumping to 8.4 million with a TVR of 4.6 on Monday night.

With prime time matches getting more popular, day 10 of IPL-2 had its second match between Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians (with the Tendulkar and Jayasuriya partnership) breaking the previous viewership records. With a total of 187 runs, viewers were glued to the television to find out whether Knight Riders (with players like Sourav Ganguly and Chris Gayle) could match this score.

In the past week, aMap recorded the viewership peaks on Thursday night (April 23) when its second match between Rajasthan Royals and Knight Riders recorded TVR of 4.5 with 8.2 million viewers.

Another peak viewership level was recorded on April 20 during the match between Royal Challengers and Chennai Super kings achieving a TVR of 4.7 with 7.7 million viewers.

According to the analysis made by aMap, “As the eight squads battle it out for the DLF IPL Season 2 trophy, the true contest seems to be between prime time and non-prime time.

“A trend that we have been witnessing for the past few matches recurred on day 10 — the second match fared better than the first in terms of ratings and reach.”

The first match (Chennai Super Kings vs. Deccan Chargers) delivered lower ratings (Top six metros, C&S 15+), 2.3 per cent, than the first match played on day 10 last year, 2.8 per cent, whereas net reach (Top 6 metros, C&S 4+) remained approximately the same at 10 per cent.

The prime and non-prime rift widened as Tendulkar and Jayasuriya led the Mumbai Indians to victory against the Kolkata Knight Riders in the second match; ratings (Top 6 metros, C&S 15+) jumped to 4.6 per cent from 3.1 per cent last year.

Age has nothing to do in T20: Sachin

2009-04-30T08:28:00.000-07:00

Those who consider Twenty20 a young man's game don't know much about cricket, says Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar, insisting that age has got nothing to do with a player's performance in the shortest format of the sport.

"I don't know who says that it's a young man's game. Clearly, he doesn't know much about cricket. It's a cricketers' game so it really doesn't matter whether you are young or old. It is a cricketer's match," Tendulkar told the Indian Premier League's official website.

The 36-year-old skipper of the Mumbai Indians team has been in sparkling form in the IPL having scored 163 runs at an average of over 80 in three matches. He is currently fourth on the leading IPL-2 scorers' list.

Tendulkar said opening the Mmumbai innings with Sri Lanka's ageless swashbuckler Sanath Jayasuriya has been a fantastic experience so far.

Pathan fashions Royal win for Rajasthan

2009-04-30T08:24:00.000-07:00

Pretoria, April 28: Yusuf Pathan played a typical blistering knock of 62 off just 30 balls to help Rajasthan Royals humble Delhi Daredevils by 5 wickets here on Tuesday. Delhi, who were going great guns until this match, batted miserably posting a modarate 143/7 before letting Royals off the hook despite having them on the mat early(64/5 after 10 overs).

Man of the match Pathan took Delhi bowlers to the cleaners, clobbering six sixes and remaining unbeaten in the process. His dominance was so huge that Graeme Smith’s 46-ball 44-run knock went almost unnoticed.

The South African captain held the fort from the one end, waging a lone battle in the begging for Rajasthan Royals who were struggling at 64/5 after 10 overs. But it was Yusuf Pathan-show in Centurion Park once the burly Baroda batsman came to the crease. Pushed to the wall, Pathan launched a counter-attacking effort, a approach which some Pundits suggest is the best way to get out of any kind of trouble.

A batsman with immense strength and tremendous will-power, Pathan never took a single step backward, throwing every caution out of the window and in the process inflicting the first defeat on the formidable Delhi Daredevils in the tournament. It’s for purely his effort that Royals won the match with 9 balls to spare.

Amit Mishra, who came up with another brilliant bowling performance with 3/34, must consider himself unlucky to be on the losing side as his team-mates keep grassing catches and leaking runs in the match.

Smith, who anchored the innings and remained not on 44 with five fours, was dropped on 19.

Chasing a moderate 144, Rajasthan Royals started off poorly as they lost two quick wickets losing Rob Quiney for only 4 and then Swapnil Asnodkar for 11.

Earlier in the match, a prudent half-century by A B de Villiers and his 56-run partnership with Daniel Vettori (29) helped Delhi post a competitive total of 143/7 in allotted 20 overs to pull Delhi out of the woods against Rajasthan Royals here on Tuesday.

A B de Villiers continued his imperious form in IPL as he played a 50-run knock off 40 balls. He, in company of Daniel Vettori, played sensible cricket to help Delhi cross 100 marks in 15th over of the match despite losing 4 top-order batsmen early in the innings.

Delhi Daredevils’ strong batting line-up today suffered a serious jolt in the tournament for the first time as they lost four wickets. After losing Sehwag & Gambhir early, the batting hero of the last match, Tilakratne Dilshan (7) and stumper Dinesh Karthik (4) also departed early.

Shane Warne may have quit international cricket to become a poker player, but has not lost his old magic with the ball. The way he has been bowling in the IPL-2 is a testimony to his greatness which does not require routine practice at nets. Coming into bowl his first over of the match, he bamboozled Dinesh Karthik, who played a false shot to give a simple catch to the master bowler. Delhi, at that time, found themselves in precarious situation losing four wickets with the scoreboard had reached only 49.

Electing to bat first on a seemingly batting track, Delhi Daredevils’ slambang opening pair of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir again failed to provide a good start to their team as the got out in the 3rd over of the match delivered by Dimitri Mascarenhas. It’s the third straight match in which the famed opening pair failed to come good.

The duo started off beautifully in IPL as they added 58 runs in just 4.5 overs against Kings XI Punjab. But after that this famed pair has put together partnerships of 0 against Chennai Super Kings, 11 against Bangalore Royal Challengers and 20 here.

Gambhir first got out caught brilliantly by Shane Warne at slip off Dimitri Mascarenhas for just 8. But Virender Sehwag remained unfazed by the loss of his opening partner and again went for an expansive shot which went miles in the sky. Young Kamran Khan took a well-judged catch at mid-off to send Sehwag back. Sehwag made 16 off 11 balls with town fours and a huge six.

Daredevils opted for same combination that played the last match against Royal Challengers on last Sunday while Royals included Paul Valthaty in place of Abhishek Raut.

Teams

Rajasthan Royals: Graeme Smith, Swapnil Asnodkar, Rob Quiney, Yusuf Pathan, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Ravindra Jadeja, Shane Warne(c), Mahesh Rawat(w), Paul Valthaty, Kamran Khan, Munaf Patel

Delhi Daredevils: Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag(c), Tillakaratne Dilshan, AB de Villiers, Mithun Manhas, Dinesh Karthik(w), Daniel Vettori, Dirk Nannes, Pradeep Sangwan, Amit Mishra, Ashish Nehra

Ex-stars for Ganguly to lead KKR

2009-04-30T08:23:00.000-07:00

Kolkata: With Brendon McCullum finding it tough to inspire a struggling Kolkata Knights Riders in the Indian Premier League, former cricketers here feel Sourav Ganguly should be handed back the captaincy of the side.

Controversy-ridden Kolkata Knight Riders, which floated the idea of 'multiple captaincy' to replace Ganguly with Brendon McCullum a day before the tournament, are yet to fire up in the tournament.

"It's not the same (Brendon) McCullum - who launched the inaugural tournament with an unbeaten 158, the highest total in Twenty20 cricket. The captaincy pressure is clearly showing on him. If KKR need to go up in the tournament, Ganguly is the one to lead," Utpal Chatterjee, former Indian spinner who coached Bengal in 2008-09 season, said.

Twenty20 World Cup proves a high scorer for ESPN STAR

2009-04-30T08:21:00.000-07:00

Broadcaster has already sold 90% of airtime at 45% premium. Cashing in on the popularity of the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty 20 tournament, ESPN STAR Sports has sold 90 per cent of its on-air advertising inventory for the upcoming ICC Twenty20 World Cup cricket for about Rs 225 crore and also in record time.

The broadcaster has also been able to get a premium of more than 45 per cent over what it charged last year for a 10-second spot, at Rs 3.25 lakh.

Twelve cricket teams will take part in the second edition of this tournament that will be played in England from June 5 to 21, barely 10 days after the culmination of the IPL on May 24 in South Africa.

IPL's host broadcaster Sony SET MAX is expected to make around Rs 400 crore in advertising alone in the IPL which, however, covers 36 days against the World Cup's 16 days. The broadcaster, however, had been able to sell 10-second spots at around Rs 4 lakh for the latter stages of the tournament even before it began in South Africa.

India is the defending champion of the ICC Twenty20 World Cup tournament, having won the inaugural tournament in South Africa in 2007, defeating Pakistan in the finals. Twenty-seven matches are scheduled and they will be broadcast live to India at 6 pm and 10 pm.

ESPN is said to have roped in at least 10 advertisers, including Pepsi, Hero Honda, Maruti, Visa, Hewlett Packard, Perfetti and Nokia. There are three co-presenting on-air sponsors for the World Cup, and seven associate sponsors, sources in the advertising industry said.

The last Twenty20 World Cup in 2007 saw over 90 million viewers tuning into ESPN STAR Sports.

So far, over 70 million viewers have watched the first 12 matches of IPL2 on SET MAX, about 10 per cent more than IPL1 for the same number of matches, according to an analysis of the viewership data provided by ratings agencies aMap and TAM.

According to the advertising industry sources, ESPN is cashing in on the fact that India is the defending champion of the Twenty20 World Cup. An ESPN STAR Sports spokesperson said, "The inaugural edition of the ICC T20 World Cup caught the imagination of cricket fans across the globe. We expect the second edition to do even better and the advertiser response has been very positive till date."

The first edition of this tournament had an average rating of 15 for the Indian matches, considered extremely high for any format of a television show.

Commenting on advertiser interest in the Twenty20 World Cup tournament, Anita Nayyar, CEO, Havas Media, said: "There is definitely a lot of advertiser interest in this particular format of cricket -- however, there is also apprehension owing to the Indian timings for its telecast and also because of the uncertain English weather."

In India, most of the 27 World Cup matches will begin at 10 pm. The Indian team will play a maximum of seven matches, if the team makes it to the finals. Otherwise, India can play a minimum of five matches after its two group matches on June 6 and June 10.

According to the tournament format, the 12 teams are divided into four groups, with India in "Group A" with Bangladesh and Ireland. The top six teams (the two toppers in each group) will move to the second stage of the tournament, after which the top four teams will play the semi-finals. The final is scheduled for June 21 at Lord's, London.

Man on a mission (Lasith Malinga)

2009-04-30T08:14:00.000-07:00

Sri Lankan fast bowler Lasith Malinga, who bowls with a slinging action, was in the form of his life and had become a scourge for batsmen world over when a mysterious knee injury that he picked up before the first edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), forced him to miss 10 months of cricket. Malinga was touted to be one of the pillars for Mumbai Indians in IPL-1, but instead the slinger was forced to sit on the sidelines, as he also missed out on playing international cricket for Sri Lanka.

There's a popular saying that goes "There is a rainbow at the end of every dark cloud", and so it was for Malinga who found a saver in the Sri Lankan president's doctor. Malinga admits that he isn't sure what the doctor did, but says the injury that troubled him for 10 months disappeared in just a few days! The mystery cure has seen Malinga make a return to competitive cricket at the ongoing second edition of the IPL in South Africa.

And, as he ran into bowl in the first match of IPL-2 against last year's runner-up Chennai Super Kings, it was quite evident that here's a man who is on a mission and is looking to make up for lost time. One would have expected that after such a lengthy lay-off, Malinga would take some time to find his groove and hit the correct line and length. However, Malinga was bang on target from the first ball he bowled, and he did make the batsmen's lives difficult in the middle, as he hit the perfect length time and time again. He also sneaked in a couple of slower balls and yorkers here and there to really make the opposition batsmen think a lot while facing up to him.

Malinga has been in sublime form in the two matches that Mumbai Indians have played so far (MI's match against Rajasthan Royals was abandoned), picking up 6 wickets at a miserly average of 5.66 and a terrific economy rate of 4.25. He has made the batsmen hop, skip and jump to his tunes, and at the rate that he is going, is not only one of the front-runners for the Purple Cap in the IPL, but has also ensured that his presence is noticed not only by his team but also by the opposition.

Malinga has definitely emerged as one of the top bowlers to look out for in the second edition of the IPL in South Africa, and he will play an important role in Mumbai Indians' success in the tournament. As for the opposition batsmen, they would be best advised to look out for those searing Malinga yorkers, because if they don't, they are likely to end up either with a bruised or broken toe!

Shilpa Shetty meets with Matt Damon over dinner

2009-04-30T08:12:00.000-07:00

Shilpa Shetty meets with Matt Damon over dinner

Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty met Matt Damon in South Africa.

The actress is in the city to cheer her team Rajasthan Royals, regarding IPL-2 matches. Her beau Raj Kundra too is here.

According to the reports, Hollywood actor Matt Damon, who is in South Africa for some charitable works, met Shilpa.

Both the stars met last year at the third annual ‘ONE X ONE’ benefit Gala.

In the mean time, the buzz goes that Raj and Shilpa has finally decided to get married in the early next year.

Shilpa and her multi millionaire beau Raj Kundra are owners of the Rajasthan Royals team.

A heady combo of food and cricket on lake front

2009-04-30T08:11:00.000-07:00

CHANDIGARH: Now, you and your family members can savour your favourite food in the picturesque environs of Sukhna Lake in the evenings as UT administration has put up a huge screen, 18 by 10 feet, on the terrace of lake cafeteria to enable evening-walkers and tourists to keep abreat with the latest in IPL-2 matches. The twin aim is to promote the beautiful location of Chandigarh’s prime attraction among tourists and also not let them miss out the fun and thrill of matches being played in South Africa.

So, when you witness a blazing sixer off the wrist of local lad Yuvraj Singh, you could gulp a blend of light beer, khus syrup with lemonade and a dash of lemon juice. And what better cocktail than a straight drive from the former Australian wicketkeeper and the new captain of Team Hyderabad, Adam Gilchrist - a blend of light beer with orange juice with a slice of orange. You could share the impact of a shot at blistering speed from the wooden blade of the unstoppable ‘Gilly.’

While experiencing the glorious shot of Australia’s former opener Mathew Hayden over the head of the bowler going towards the fence at jet speed, you and your friends could place an order for a cocktail” blend of light beer with tomato juice with a dash of lemon and a slice of cucumber.

There is no need for your wife, the family’s female friends and the children to feel left out. They can always choose some special drinks from a fine line-up of mocktails at the lake. The little ones can watch and learn the masterly strokes from the bat of evergreen Sachin Tendulkar while sipping a glass of Deccan Covers” consisting of frozen khus syrup top up with sprite and fresh fruits. And can relish another mocktail ‘Punjabi Gully’ with a fine blend of frozen grape juice with pure grapes and top up with sprite.

Sukhna Lake cafeteria has on offer a special mocktail for IPL-crazed visiting female customers. “Named Delhi’s square leg, it is a blend of rose syrup with pineapple juice, mixed with vanilla ice cream and finely layered with coke,” said CITCO general secretary (tourism) AK Malhotra.

Advantage out

2009-04-30T08:09:00.000-07:00

There is, first, the collateral benefit. With Australia citing security to pull out of their Davis Cup tie in Chennai next month, India get a walkover. But sport and public engagements are seldom about the final result alone, and the circumstances in which this development came demands deeper scrutiny. As with almost every international tournament, the Australian tennis squad were assured of more than adequate security detail. Many of the players may also know of the Chennai Open, part of the ATP World Tour and in which their compatriots have competed. But Chennai's tennis sensibilities are not relevant to John Fitzgerald, Australia's Davis Cup coach; he instead asks: "Did the IPL move for no reason?"

Sports administrators are not expected to be conversant with the nuances of geopolitics, and so Fitzgerald's ludicrous and flawed argument that a recent train hijack in Jharkhand has a bearing on his boys' security in Chennai can be easily countered. It would, in fact, have been laughed away, had that IPL poser not come. As this newspaper pointed out at the time of Lalit Modi's brash and megalomaniacal move to take one of India's domestic tournament overseas, the parameters in which that development was articulated were bound to have serious repercussions. It was deemed sport's equivalent of high treason, not least because it cast reservations on India's suitability as a venue for sport, reservations that did not adhere to reality. The IPL is such an outright commercial enterprise that there is a tendency to take too seriously its easily alterable contractual obligations. But consider the outrage that would have met a similar move to take overseas, say, a Ranji season, just because it did not suit the cricket administrators to negotiate scheduling for some reason. But the BCCI did not want to go into those scheduling nuances anyway; it suited them to convey this as a development aimed at keeping cricketers and cricket matches safe. The fact that Fitzgerald can ask the question he does shows how successful the BCCI has been in misrepresenting facts.

The onus, then, was and is on the government to make its case better and more convincingly. Because this is not about the IPL; it's about the branding of India as a secure destination.

IPL's bad show may dash England's T20 WC hopes

2009-04-30T08:08:00.000-07:00

London: England players, participating in IPL2, may have considered the ongoing T20 stint in South Africa as a chance to gear up for this summer''s World Cup, but their show so far in the tournament indicates that they would be hard pressed to prevent a repetition of their farcical effort of 1999.

England's top seven cricketers including the highest paid players of the tournament at 1.5 million dollars - Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff - were still battling to find form in season 2 after they failed to put up a great show so far. Last year, Rajasthan Royals' recruit Dimitri Mascarenhas was the only England representative in the inaugural IPL. This time so far, Kings XI Punjab recruit Ravi Bopara was the only England player who had managed to live up to their billing. Bopara struck a masterly 84 off 59 balls to lead his team to victory against the Royals Challengers Bangalore on Friday. ''It may be no coincidence that of the seven Englishmen doing battle in the IPL, only Dimitri Mascarenhas, England's sole representative in India last year, looked at home until, that is, Ravi Bopara's glowing 84 off 59 balls for Kings XI Punjab on Friday,'' a report in the 'Guardian' said. ''Pietersen began with a win against the reigning champions, Shane Warne's Rajasthan Royals, but since then his Bangalore Royal Challengers franchise have lost three out of three and Pietersen has been dismissed twice for ducks and stumped for 11 off an Indian spinner who cost Deccan Chargers one-fiftieth of Pietersen's market value. ''He was also found guilty of dissent after suggesting his first-ball leg-before decision at the hands of Muttiah Muralitharan on Monday came courtesy of an inside edge. The boos that have accompanied him to and from the crease in his native land have not really helped,'' the daily added.

Star all-rounder Flintoff was hit badly - three sixes in four balls - by Mumbai Indians' Abhishek Nayar in their initial matches. He was also humiliated by South Africa's AB de Villiers in Durban on Thursday.

Flintoff has returned back home from the IPL on Friday after he suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee, while appearing for the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings against the Delhi Daredevils.

He was troubled by a hip injury during the recent tour of the Carribean and was advised to skip the lucrative Twenty20 event. ''Dhoni's contention that Flintoff will prove his worth in the Twenty20 World Cup should he recover in time, currently feels like an article of faith, while Kris Srikkanth, the former India opener working here as one of Chennai's team ambassadors, may have been feeling generous when he said of Flintoff's struggles, 'it can happen to anyone','' it reported.

However, former England captain Pietersen said, ''Freddie and I are pretty experienced at international cricket, so it's not a huge drama if we don't take opportunities like this.

''Yes, we want to and we're definitely trying hard. No one wants to do badly. But a guy like Ravi Bopara is a superstar in the making,'' he said.

All-rounder Paul Collingwood has not been able to get a permananent position as he was placed as an substitute for the Delhi Daredevils. ''I only have two weeks and it would be nice to get a game,'' he said.

His franchise team-mate, the Karachi-born Owais Shah, has also not made it to the field at all, while Essex's Graham Napier, the only uncapped player among the English contingent, was denied a possible Mumbai Indians debut by a Durban downpour on Tuesday.

Bedi's back in the field

2009-04-30T08:05:00.000-07:00

Television host Mandira Bedi returns to cricket in IPL's Season 2 which has everyone glued to their screens, says SRABANTI CHAKRABARTI

She is not a cricketer, but has changed the way we watch cricket on television. She is not a fashion designer, but has changed the way we dress. She is not good looking in the traditional sense, but has thousands of girls dying to get her brand of look. Meet Mandira Bedi, the lady who has changed cricketing shows on Indian television for good.

“In 1993, when I hosted Extraa Innings on Max for the first time, no one thought of having a glamour element added to it. Statistics and technicalities of a particular stroke or a ball were all that was discussed. However, Extra Innings changed it all,” says a proud Mandira who is back as the glam-doll in IPL Season 2. “It feels great to be back on a cricketing show. Even more, because I was not part of the first season of IPL,” says a visibly excited Mandira.

The actress who started her career in and as Shanti in the popular ‘90s soap says she has always been passionate about cricket. “In Extraa Innings my passion and profession come together! And I feel that is evident from the popularity of the show,” explains a proud Mandira. “You cannot host a programme like this unless you are passionate about the game and unless you know certain technicalities of how it is played,” says the actress who had travelled across the length and breadth of the country last year to watch the matches of IPL.

Last year the live telecast of IPL matches had a hurricane effect on other television shows, whose TRPs nosedived while the tournament was going on. In fact, not just the television industry, it had a severe impact on the film industry as well with all multiplexes running to empty houses. (The joke doing round this year is that the multiplex strike in Mumbai has been timed to coincide with IPL because anyway no one would go to watch movies)

Mandira feels this year the effect is going to be even more. “The venue is South Africa — a very pretty country. That is definitely going to add to the attractiveness of the show. Viewers will be able to see the country along with the exciting matches,” says the actress who agrees that it is no longer just a game of cricket but a complete commercial entertainment package.

Mandira feels this is precisely where women’s cricket lags behind, despite having equal if not better players in our country. “We are equally successful in women’s cricket, but how many of us know the names of our women cricketers? I feel the media is largely to be blamed. They do not find enough reason to cover women’s cricket in detail. If they started following it closely the remaining would have been taken care of,” says the lady who was famous for her strong portrayal of Shanti before she started hosting shows.

Mandira’s noodle strap blouses and mind-blowing sarees went a long way in popularising her Extraa Innings. This time she is being seen in a completely new look with a smart, short haircut. Wearing an off-shoulder dress that fitted perfectly in her near size-zero figure during the interview, Mandira says she did this hairstyle specially for IPL 2. “Cricket has given me a lot of fame. This is the minimum I could do for the game. However, you will not see me in sarees this time, since I will mostly be on the ground and it may be slightly uncomfortable. But yes, I will try to set new fashion trends this time as well,” says the sultry seductress who had to put a scarf on her off-shoulder dress in a recent match due to the weather conditions in South Africa.

And you thought cricket was all about 22 yards, 10 fielders, a bowler and two batsmen!

Colonial Cousins

2009-04-30T08:03:00.000-07:00

Gandhi’s Way

M K Gandhi, who arrived in Johannesburg in 1893 to practise law, got embroiled in local politics after he was thrown out

M K Gandhi

of a train because of the colour of his skin. In 1906, he turned the country into a laboratory for his experiments with truth, launching a satyagraha to protest against colour-coded discrimination. Fighting racism in Transvaal, Gandhi defied the law, refused to pay the fines and went to jail, eventually forcing the British government to bow to his stubborn campaign for reform. A century later, he remains an icon of truth and justice in S Africa.

Mandela Magic

Inspired by the Mahatma, Nelson Mandela and his comrades in the ANC youth wing began the passive resistance campaign against the apartheid regime. Arrested in 1962 for ‘treason’, the ‘African Gandhi’ was sent off to Robben Island to spend 27 years in jail. Out of prison in 1990, Mandela chose the ‘land of Mahatma Gandhi’ as his first destination abroad, before becoming the country’s first black president in 1994. One of the planet’s most famous living legends, 91-year-old Mandela remains an icon both at home and in India.

Cricket Connect

Even before the IOC imposed sanctions against South Africa in 1970, India decided to cut sporting ties with it. In 1991, the Olympic body lifted the ban and the Springboks were back in the family of cricket-playing nations. They arrived in Calcutta in 1991 on their first tour abroad. Sports-crazy Calcuttans jammed the streets to welcome the visitors. Now, South Africa seems to be returning the compliment with its interest in IPL2.

KKR, Rajasthan Royals encounter creates TV history

2009-04-30T07:59:00.000-07:00

The cliff-hanger Indian Premier League (IPL) match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals on Thursday night attracted 8.3 million viewers, the highest so far among the 10 matches played in IPL2 versus the first 10 matches in IPL1 (played in 2008).

The match also recorded the highest average time spent of 54 minutes by the viewers on SET MAX, the host broadcaster for IPL.

This analysis is based on the viewership data provided by overnight ratings agency Audience Measurement & Analytics (aMap).

This IPL match also had several other “firsts” in the IPL2 tournament currently underway in South Africa. It was the first IPL match to have been decided in “Super Overs”, the extra two overs given to teams if scores are tied during the normal of course of the match (20 overs per side).

Because of this, it turned out to be the longest Twenty20 format cricket match, lasting four hours and 35 minutes, nearly 60 minutes more than a normal Twenty20 cricket match, the aMap data said.

This match also had the highest on-air advertising time on SET MAX with over 25 brands consuming about 45 minutes of on-air advertising, more than double a regular Twenty20 cricket match.

The match delivered a TVR (television ratings) of 4.5, the second highest in IPL2 so far.

Overall, advertisers said they are happy with the response to the 10 IPL2 matches played so far.

“There has been a lot of positives for us as a brand. IPL is the only event at which we are advertising and so far, the cumulative reach of IPL on television has gone up compared to last year,” said Vijay Narayan, vice president, marketing and communications, Havell's India, adding, “The only bit that is worrying us is the rain interruptions and the strategy breaks in-between the matches.”

For IPL2, Havell's India, an electrical engineering firm, is spending over Rs 25 crore on advertising on SET MAX.

Fake IPL Player Dot Com Exposed?

2009-04-30T07:55:00.000-07:00

Those who cannot live without their daily dose of the two passions of the country- Bollywood and Cricket- must have grasped the significance of our headlines, if not, then read on!

The second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2) is currently on in South Africa. But apart from the hype that the matches are creating, its the 'Fake IPL Player' who has hogged the headlines since the last few days via his blog. A large number of surfers have checked in to see the 'juicy inside details' about the cricketers and their Bollywood owners.

Unfortunately, some of the jokes and also the details of the team meetings (SRK's Kolkata Knight Riders) had of late become too personal (and at times false) for comfort. But it now seems to be over.

If our cricketing sources are to be believed, the cricketer in question, who is obviously a memeber of Shah Rukh Khan's KKR, is a former Indian opener (dumped unceremoniuosly from the National team). Its also been heard that his laptop and mobile have been siezed and he has been removed from the team. But this is not the end of the story, here is a corollary!

One of our sports journalist tells that the 'Fake IPL Player' is not cricketer and definately not a member of Kolkata Knight Riderss. He is just trying to confuse the issue claiming to be one. He is a fairly well known journo, who gets info from KKR team members.

IPL takes backseat due to South African elections

2009-04-30T07:54:00.000-07:00

IPL-2 seems to be in problem. First of all on the TRP ground the event is not a success at the same time, the general elections in South Africa have overshadowed the tournament.

According to the media reports, sports pages in mainstream newspapers were reduced as the elections took place here on Wednesday.

It’s said to be the most critical since the first democratic elections in 1994, took up most of the space.

IPL organisers, however, tried to get more space in the newspapers buying up full page advertisements.

Organisers appear to be undeterred and are continuing their unprecedented advertising campaign.

Most newspapers are now carrying just short match reports, and even side attractions only.

Manoranjan Ka Baap IPL hits the right notes

2009-04-30T07:53:00.000-07:00

MANPREET GONY of the Chennai Super Kings must have once dreamt that a day will come when his name will be written in golden letters in cricket’s history. But it has happened so early that it is a surprise even for him. After some years, a question will surely be asked in cricket quiz competitions – “Who bowled the first delivery of IPL-2?” Whatever be the reason, his name will be taken with respect in the future.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) season 2 kicked off on Saturday, April 18, with Cape Town’s climate being the first spectator. For a moment, the organizers thought the rain would play spoilsport. I must say that the IPL commissioner Lalit Modi must have cursed himself that he opted to host the event in South Africa and not in England.

With God’s blessings, the event titled as ‘Manoranjan ka baap’ by the Set Max channel began as planned. The stadium packed up. The spectators looked relaxed with a glass of beer in their hands. It looked more of a picnic spot rather a cricketing event. Neither Modi nor Cricket South Africa (CSA) would mind it.

The opening match between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings kicked off with Dhoni winning the toss and deciding to field first. Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya opened the Mumbai innings. As expected, the duo gave the team a good start with the southpaw dominating the pair.

After Jayasuriya got out scoring 26 runs of 20 balls, it seemed as if the team would not be able to put up a big total but the Little Master came to the team’s rescue. He continued his good form and scored an unbeaten 59 in just 49 balls with seven boundaries. At the end of the first innings, Mumbai had scored a competitive total of 165.

Cricket experts thought that 166 runs was a chaseable target as Chennai Super Kings, last year’s runner up, had a superb batting line up. With players like Dhoni, Flintoff, Hayden, Raina and Oram, it never looked that they might have to face too many problems. But as the gentleman game’s shorter format is said to be unpredictable. It turned out to be true. Chennai, in reply, just managed to score 146 runs. The big guns failed to deliver that required knock.

The next game was played between Rajasthan Royals and Bangalore Royal Challengers was played at the same venue. Last year’s winner and bookies favourite stepped into the ground. The Royal Challengers, with Kevin Pietersen leading the side, kicked off on the wrong note. Its first two wickets fell down with no score on the board. But at last, India’s Wall Rahul Dravid came to the team’s rescue and scored 66 of 48 balls with eight fours and a six.
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If God allowed Vijay Mallaya, the owner of the Bangalore franchise owner, to ask Him one question, Mallya might have asked, “Why do I invest in any kind of sports?” His cricket team’s performance is the same as that of his Formula One team Force India. Bangalore, at last, managed to put up 133 on the board.

Later, the most exciting part of the game was not Rajasthan’s performance with the bat, but Shilpa Shetty’s (co-owner of Rajasthan Royals) comments, “I am very happy with my team’s performance,” said Shetty.

But it was never expected that Rajasthan’s team would crumble down like a pack of cards. The players, and finally, the gorgeous co-owner must be in a state of shock. Shetty must be in a state of wonder as it was the same team she talked about half an hour ago. The Rajasthan team just managed to score a mere 58 runs, the lowest in IPL’s short history.

The first day’s show is over. Many more still to go. The opening response has proved that cricket could become a global sport, provided there are the right people and there is environment.

How old is too old for T20?

2009-04-30T07:52:00.001-07:00

After the first couple of rounds of Indian Premier League got over, albeit a bit rain-drenched, the first orange and purple caps had gone to two cricketers who had been retired from international cricket for a while now: Matthew Hayden and Anil Kumble. Just in case you did not know, the highest scorer and highest wicket taker in IPL receive the orange and purple caps, respectively, and the duo were the frontrunners till Tuesday before they were taken over by Rahul Dravid and RP Singh, respectively.

Not bad, considering that T-20 is perceived as a young man's game. But then, some of the golden oldies have acquitted themselves quite well in the first week of the event in South Africa. While Hayden has now come up with scores of 65, 44 and 57, Rahul Dravid showed he was determined to make amends for last year's nightmare with one classy innings after another.

Sachin Tendulkar, who was there for a better part of the last IPL as an "inspirational figure" for Mumbai Indians, also showed he meant business by anchoring the innings on course of a crucial win against Chennai Super Kings on the opening day. And yes, there is Adam Gilchrist giving an extra edge to Deccan Chargers with his trademark batting and leadership, somebody who has gone on record saying that he still feels like a school kid as soon as a new season beckons.

Heading the list of old and the beautiful would, of course, be none other than Shane Warne himself. Last reported to be playing poker in some corner of the world (and we refuse to believe that he was just doing that), "Warnie" seems to have come back with an infectious energy for the game - if the diving catch he took at mid-off to get rid of Dravid the other day was anything to go by. Not to speak of his mesmerising spinning skills, which are very much intact.

All that brings us back to the question asked most often: how old is actually old for the T-20 game? Granted, the frenetic nature of this game suits the young and the adventurous more, but it takes one more than that to counter the challenges of sporting wickets and different conditions.

Hopefully, the IPL 2 in South Africa can just do that - show that there is always room for class in any form of the game.

IPL2 viewership hits 2 million more than IPL1

2009-04-30T07:51:00.001-07:00

Contrary to perception that TV viewership of IPL’s second season (IPL2) has been less than the inaugural season in 2008 (IPL1), SET Max got at least 2 million more viewers for the first eight matches (seven were played, one was rained out) of IPL2 this year, compared with last year.

This analysis is based on the data provided by the online ratings agency, Audience Measurement and Analytics (aMap). According to aMap data, 48 million viewers watched the seven matches on SET Max compared with 46 million viewers for the eight matches in IPL last year.

Also, three out of the seven matches had higher viewership ratings than the same matches of IPL1, even though the rain interruptions reduced the playing time for at least three IPL matches this year.

This is significant for the media agencies who buy on-air advertising spots based on the reach of a programme and how many viewers watch it. According to the data, advertisers have consumed around 245 minutes (about four hours) of on-air advertising time during the seven IPL matches played so far, totalling about 21 hours of playing time (advertising time was not compiled for IPL1, so comparisons are not possible).

“About 20 minutes of advertising per 60 minutes of content is good. This shows that advertisers’ faith in IPL’s viewership is holding, at least for now,” said a senior executive working in a leading media agency in Gurgaon.

Ratings are a measure of coverage of television audience. For example, a rating of 4 for a TV show means that 4 per cent of the total TV audience (in a particular demographic profile) watched it. It is the currency by which advertisers pay. Viewership numbers indicate the sum total of all viewers who tuned in (at various points of time) during the telecast of a particular show.

The aMap data also show that six out of the seven IPL matches played so far had 18 to 20 per cent additional viewers watching the matches over IPL1. But four out of seven IPL matches played this year saw lower viewership ratings compared with IPL1, according to the data.

According to the data, the fifth IPL match between Bangalore and Chennai generated the highest rating of 4.7 per cent in cable homes among the seven IPL matches played so far and among the age group of 15 years and above, across six metros.

Although the media agencies are closely following IPL2 viewership ratings, a section of media planners are disappointed with rain curtailing the on-air playing time.

'Yeh haath lagaam pakad kar ghode ko bhi bitha sakte hain' ...That was Thakur Baldev Singh's bravado after being tricked into the den of Gabbar, whose

2009-04-30T07:50:00.000-07:00

Congress nominee from Patna Saheb and noted film and TV star Shekhar Suman, during his motorcycle rally in Patna on Wednesday, slammed Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad Yadav for pulling strings to get his son included in the IPL 2 20/20 cricket team touring South Africa.

Addressing a rally at the Children's Park in Sri Krishna Puri, Suman said that while cricket in Bihar suffered a huge setback under the Rabri regime, the former Chief Minister spared no attempt in getting his son Tej Pratap Yadav included in the team by bypassing all cricket rules and standard practices that other youths had to undergo before being selected.

"The rules clearly indicate that only those players who have either represented their country in either junior or senior division in any international match or have represented their state could be selected in the IPL-2 20/20 team but Yadav's son was chosen so as not to incur the wrath of Lalu Prasad Yadav, the Railway Minister.

Suman, since coming back to Patna a few days ago, has taken a foot tour, a rickshaw tour, a bike tour, and now a motorcycle tour of the capital city to garner support for his candidacy.

Sholay relived; Gabbar, Thakur etc of IPL

2009-04-30T07:47:00.000-07:00

'Yeh haath lagaam pakad kar ghode ko bhi bitha sakte hain' ...That was Thakur Baldev Singh's bravado after being tricked into the den of Gabbar, whose fear and fables of ruthlessness travelled as far as 'pachas pachas kos dur'. Thakur Baldev Singh lets out the fiercest cry of helplessness and unforeseen fear as Gabbar chops off the Thakur's limbs from his shoulders. Leave out the physicality and gore of this high-voltage Sippyian drama, and you have an encore playing out on the cricketing fields of the Indian Premier League.

The horses are aplenty. It's not Ramgarh's prestige at stake that can be safeguarded by Gabbar's goons for two sacks of wheat and corn. Here the stakes are in crores. You can start counting the currency and you will not be through with counting it even after having reached the moon. This Gabbar is more suave -- educated, glamorous, chased by the paparazzi and flanked by the high-profile who's who of India who sport Armani jackets and Versace sun glasses. And flashes a Close-Up smile worth millions, far removed from the tobacco-stained set of fangs that Gabbar bares in the 1975 drama. They chose their own horses. They build their own stud farms. Each grander than the rest. The horses are picked up from across the globe. And just not Derby. Each horse is available for the highest bidder. You just have to fix his price. In the last bid, two derby horses were auctioned off for 7.5 crore rupees each. Some say the two are sure money-spinners in the T-20 format.

The game of cricket has metamorphosed from the days of 'Bodyline' to dollarline. They took the seam on their body then. They are busy cavorting in seamless corporate moolah today. When Sunny Gavaskar retired from international cricket more than two decades ago, he grossed an annual income that never exceeded ten lakhs. Today, an R P Singh, a Chawla, a Munaf, a Yusuf Pathan, a Shikhar Dhawan (all minnows debuting recently in international cricket) log an income of more than Rs 50 lakhs for one IPL season. I am not counting the money earned on account of a playing 15 in a Test match or a playing 11 in One-Day formats of the game.

There are stories galore of how Gavaskar manipulated team selection in his heyday. A fable goes that Gavaskar had a complete say in chosing his team. He used to come to the BCCI selecting committee meetings with a chit in his pocket which had the playing 11 neatly handwritten on it. And he got away with that almost all the time. Such was the aura of Sunny Gavaskar. He earned respect on the field by his never-say-die attitude, his chic cover drives, his faultless straight drives and the scores and scores of run he had piled over the years as an opening bat. A Dhoni today may lack that suaveness and style that so marked Gavaskar's genius but he is credited to be the most daring captain who loves to innovate and strategise each game to win it. In Gavaskar's time, a T-20 format of the game was unthinkable. But a Dhoni does not have the liberty to dictate his team to his masters. The same stands true for Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly who not so long ago revolutionised Indian cricket by instilling a winning streak in his team.

And yet Sourav remains the most fitting example of how a Sippyian drama dovetails into cricket as seen in the T-20 format. He is Thakur Baldev Singh incarnate of the IPL. He will keep playing but his limbs have been chopped off. The multi-captain drama that started from India culminated in Sourav being axed from captaincy when his plane touched Cape Town. Thakur Baldev Singh had to spend years taking his revenge on Gabbar. But Sourav, unfortunately, does not have age by his side to take revenge on his coach and master. He is simply a horse who has been picked up at a price. The only recourse available to him is to keep playing with amputated spirits as long as he can. If he chose to quit, he stands also to lose the Rs 5crore-something he earned on account of being categoriesed as 'iconic player' along with Sachin, Dravid, Laxman and Yuvraj.

Rahul Dravid did just that to score a point in Cape Town against Vijay Mallya. He was unceremoniously removed from captaincy after Royal Challengers (RC) bowed out ignominiously in season 1 of the IPL. But his scorching 66 off 48 balls led the Royal Challengers to victory against the Rajasthan Royals in their debut match of IPL 2 much to the cheers of Vijay Mallya.

A decade ago when money had just started to trickle in into this game, it was hard to dream that players will cease to be their masters. The advent of the IPL has pawned the entire cricketing generation to the dictats of their moneyed masters. All the fun of watching a player hook a six over the square leg or innovating a 'Marillier' shot evokes little sighs from an avid cricket fan who realises the shot has been paid for in advance.

Therefore, when Dhoni and Bhajji do not turn up to receive their Padma awards at the hand of the President of India, it hardly surprises someone following cricket in the times of the IPL. What is more important: IPL with crores of moolah littered all over the cricketing field or a mere scroll of paper that will never impress the 'masters'? So nationalism, whatever it's worth, is hooked out of the stadium.

Yet one cannot envy the near icon-like status of cricket players. Small-town players have it in them. They too can dream big and go for high stakes. And therefore cannot be denied the fruits of their labour. Wish this trend could have caught on with other sports like hockey, boxing, wrestling or athletics -sports where only small-time players throng.

But who knows if the purity of these sports would have remained the same had a Dileep Tirkey or a Vijender Singh or a Sushil Kumar been won over by the kind of money Indian cricketers are wallowing in. Who knows if Sushil Kumar would have preferred to enjoy Shah Rukh Khan's latest on his home theatre system to hiring an auto-rickshaw to reach the Rashtrapati Bhawan. Thankfully, no 'Gabbar' has walked into their lives. So they can be saved from meeting the same fate as Thakur Baldev Singh or a 'Kalia'.

So, until the end of season 2 and till the start of the 3rd season of IPL, keep watching Shah Rukh Khan, Mukesh Ambani, Neeta Ambani, Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty cheering for their derby from the pavilion box. Long Live Gabbar. Long Live Thakur Baldev Singh with his amputated limb. Thanks for turning the IPL 'Sholay' into a runaway hit.

How about Gir Ke Veer or Gujarat Cubs as IPL team ?

2009-04-30T07:46:00.000-07:00

The next time Anil Ambani or any of Gujarat's top business houses want to bid for a team from Gujarat in the Indian Premier League (IPL), there is one aspect they will not have to worry about - the name of the team.

Because we asked our readers to come up with a name for the dream team we conjured up from the list of Gujarat players in IPL 2 in South Africa, and they came up with quite a list.

In fact, it is the roar of the lion that caught the imagination of our readers as they have come up with a string of names associated with the big cat. And why not. After all Gujarat takes great pride in the fact that it is home to this ferocious feline that stands for grandeur.

Readers came up with everything, from Gir Ke Veer, to Gujarat Lions and even Gujarat Cubs. So, if and when Gujarat does have a team in IPL , Team Chennai will not be the only one with a roaring lion as its emblem.

The dream team that we conjured up also has some tough men, capable of destroying oppositions. Like Yusuf Pathan, who is now being equated with Andrew Symonds as one of the cleanest hitters of the cricket ball internationally, and Ravindra Jadeja who thought nothing of hammering bound aries of Brett Lee when he was still in prime form last year.

So, Gujarat Gladiators is a name that sticks well with these warriors. And just in case Ratan Tata decides to pick the Gujarat team, given his growing affection for the state, one of our readers has also suggested that the team be named Nano Gujarat.

Some os the names suggested for Gujarat's dream team in IPL are Sher-e-Gujarat, Gujarat Lion Kings, Gir Ke Veer, Gujarat Cubs, Gujarat Lions, Gir Lions, Gujarat Gladiators, Gujarat Top Guns, Garvi Gujarat, Gujarat Powers, Ahmedabad Fighters, Nano Gujarat and the list goes on.

'Mahi has confidence in his bowlers'

2009-04-30T07:44:00.000-07:00

He is tall, well-built, bowls medium pace and can contribute with the bat lower down the order.

Manpreet Singh Gony

And his name sounds similar to Team Chennai and India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Meet Team Chennai player Manpreet Singh Gony, MSG in short. Better known as Gony, the seamer knows perfectly well what he needs to do to be successful. Talking about the match against Royal Challengers, he says, “As the wicket was a little flat, I had to concentrate on my line and length rather than pace.”

Though disappointed at not getting a chance to perform in front of his home crowd, Gony knows he has to rise to the occasion: “Wherever the IPL is held, it is okay with me. I am a professional. But the craze is more intense in India. It is always a bonus to perform on one’s home turf.”

Being one of the most successful bowlers for Team Chennai last season, is he also aiming to scoop up maximum wickets in IPL 2? “It depends on how the tournament unfolds for me. Till now, it has been good,” says a confident Gony.

Elaborating on the wickets in SA, he says, “Wickets are bouncy here, so I have to pitch the ball up to make the batsman play.” Speaking about his captain, Mahi, Gony says, “He has confidence in his bowlers. He told us that it won’t matter even if we get hit for a few runs. He asked us to enjoy our bowling.”

And that is just what Gony is doing right now. The medium pacer, who has had problems with his parents in the recent past, says, “I wouldn’t like to discuss my personal matters. But nothing affects my performance on the field.”

Having got a call for national duty just after the IPL in 2008 and playing in the Asia Cup, Gony has his eyes set on a Team India berth. He says, “I’m working hard for an India call-up as the Twenty20 World Cup will begin in England just after IPL 2. And Venky Sir (Venkatesh Prasad), who is the bowling coach both for Chennai and Team India, has been guiding me.” A firm believer in destiny, Gony adds, “Luck is also an important factor.”

When he’s not sweating it out on the field, Gony loves to spend time with friends. Away from home and family, he says, “My wife may not be here with me, but I chat with her on the phone whenever I’m free.”

The Punjab player is also passionate about bikes, watches and mobile phones. “I love riding my bike,” he smiles. Not too much of a film buff, he confesses to an interest most men would shy away from — shopping! So, is he also shopping in SA? “Yes, it is continuing side by side!” he says with a chuckle.

Well, when you work hard, you gotta play harder!

Modi's dance with the wolves

2009-04-30T07:43:00.000-07:00

The IPL saga dominated the summer last year. It was a novel concept to Indian cricket which Lalit Modi foresaw as a success similar to Henry Ford's 'Mustang', while others thought it would fail like the 'Edsel Ford'. Unmoved, Modi, taking a page off European football leagues, went on and brought together an unusual combination. He got the heroes of world cricket, the corporate babus and the superstars of Indian cinema under one roof.

Modi's brain child - the IPL, went through more than a generous share of controversy throughout its tenure in 2008. First, there were disagreements regarding the player auctions and the colossal amounts bid for them. After that, The English cricket board did not want their players to be involved with this T20 league. Then, Cricket Australia started complaining about the security situation in India. If this was not sufficient, the 'King of Mumbai' Bal Thackeray and his supporters made it clear that they hated the concept of IPL. Not to be outdone, the left parties of the UPA government wanted the CBI to investigate the IPL for corruption.

The IPL also had its own power sharing problems. The BCCI and IPL authorities made sure that the rebel cricket league - ICL, and its cricketing activities be kept away from International cricket. Then, there were comparisons of the salaries paid to the IPL contractees. While Ishant Sharma, who was new to world cricket, was paid around 3.5 crores, there were seniors like Anil Kumble, who were paid a little under 2 crores. The Australian cricketers themselves had a money battle going on. The battle - Symonds vs Ponting got a fair share of media attention and news space.

All settled the IPL 2008 started. But, did I say all settled? No!! Problems had just begun. It was said that the skimpily dressed cheer leaders were viewed more than the actual cricket itself. Then, the Royal Challengers, Bangalore - a team seen as more of a test side, rather than a Twenty20 one with a leader none other than the quintessential Test match player - 'The Wall', Rahul Dravid. The Liquor Baron Vijay Mallya did his fair bit of hiring and firing in the team towards the end of the tournament.

Then came the 'Slapgate', involving Harbhajan and Sreesanth. While the Punjab team were busy consoling a crying 'Sree', Mumbai lost their second captain in 'Bhajji' during the tournament; having already lost the services of Sachin Tendulkar for the first six matches. Modi acted as a strict disciplinarian, dealing with the controversies without flinching.

Thus, IPL ended the first season as a huge success despite the hue and cry in between. There were advertisements celebrating Modi's dream project. The end of IPL season-1 saw the corporates and cricketers go home busy raking in the moolah, and the cricket loving public, looking forward to more of the glitz and glamour of T20.

Watching the success of IPL 2008, Modi came up with another 'One of a kind' concept of the Champions League. He wanted to bring together the T20 Champions from around the world in a battle to become the ultimate T20 champion. Modi again did not know that he had to face the devils of terrorism which came to haunt him and his concept. The Champions League saw only the papers but no action.

However, the fighter that he was, Modi moved on and was ready for his next battle - IPL 2009. Little did he think that there were ghosts of 2008 waiting to haunt him in ways unforeseen. Modi readily battled the controversies surrounding the trading window at the start of 2009. He moved on to face another skirmish - the broadcasting wars. If he thought he'd seen it all, the banshees called Security & Netagiri were waiting for him round the corner.

Come March, the Lankans faced a dreadful side of life - face to face with terrorists. The sub-continent had become a paradise of holocaust. Cricketers feared touring India. Then came the elections. The Netas deemed that the security provisions for the cricketers were inadequate. IPL Meetings and more IPL meetings dominated the later part of March. Result - IPL 2 shifted to South Africa.

In-between, John Buchanan got his share of the limelight by introducing the 'Multiple Captain' theory. A theory, which people believed was a technique used to dethrone the 'Prince of Kolkata' - Ganguly.

Going through all these, the IPL began on the 18th of April at South Africa. Two top-class matches and a grand ceremony marked the arrival of the tournament.

A holder of 'The Business Standard Award' and having won the title of 'The Most Innovative Business Leader in India', Modi considered the commercial value of the IPL and introduced 'Strategy Breaks'. This was viewed by people as a move only to increase ad revenues and had nothing to do with cricket. Cricketers and public raised debates regarding the necessity of this break.

Not to be left behind, the rain gods paid a regular visit during the games bringing in the duo of Duckworth and Lewis. Not to mention, two rain curtailed games and one abandoned one.

What else is in store for IPL and Modi? Only time can tell.

Shilpa Shetty talks about IPL-2

2009-04-30T07:42:00.002-07:00

Actress Shilpa Shetty is in South Africa now a day, monitoring her team, in the IPL-2 matches.

When asked why did she buy 11.7 percent stake in the Rajasthan Royals with beau Raj Kundra, the actress replies laughing “Because it was a joint decision and then during recession time ek se bhale do.”

At the same time, the actress said that she is not in competition with Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, as it’s being published by media.

Shilpa Shetty says, there was never any competition with Shah Rukh or Preity in Bollywood.

As for the fight over IPL, there’s hardly a chance because the real competition is among the players. And by the way, do I look like a quarrelsome person?

Salman Khan to cheer for Kings XI Punjab against SRK

2009-04-30T07:42:00.001-07:00

Cape Town: Bollywood actor Salman Khan will join Preity Zinta to cheer for Kings XI Punjab for IPL 2 in South Africa.

If the grapevine is to be believed, Salman Khan has chosen to cheer in IPL following the rift with Shah Rukh Khan, the owner of Kolkata Knight Riders.

Salman Khan is likely to join Preity in any of the following matches in IPL season 2.

'I am loving every bit of IPL'

2009-04-30T07:39:00.000-07:00

A lot is happening in Shilpa Shetty's life. After 'looting' UP-Bihar, she is all set to win over South Africa in the second season of the Indian Premier League.

On the personal front, Shilpa has finally made her relationship with Raj Kundra official.

Trans World Features correspondent Sreya Basu caught up with the actress, as she talked cricket.

IPL 2 has just started. Let's not talk about who will win and who won't. Just tell us, what is more difficult -- being a Bollywood actor or the Queen of the Rajasthan Royals?

Queen! Sounds so majestically good (giggles). Believe me, I never thought in this way. I always enjoy multi-tasking and being a part of Rajasthan Royals is a completely new experience for me. I am loving every bit of it.

As for my acting, nowadays I really don't have to grind myself for acting. After all, experience bhi toh koi cheez hoti hai!.