IPL games to take 15 minutes more

IPL games to take 15 minutes more

Fans who have become accustomed to Twenty20 matches lasting just three hours are in for a surprise during the second season of the IPL - they will now last three and a quarter hours. Part of the appeal of the shortest form of the game is the non-stop action but, not only will games now take longer, but there will be no action at all during the added time.

The IPL are planning to market the added time as an ‘innovation’ by calling it a tactical ‘time out’ but the fact that each innings will now come to a halt for seven-and-a-half minutes after exactly ten overs makes it neither tactical nor, indeed, practical.

“It is a move that is driven completely and totally by commercial objectives,” a senior production official told Cricinfo. “It is designed purely to make even more money by selling airtime. Nobody could argue that this adds any cricketing value to the tournament or that it can be in the viewers interest, either in the stadium or watching at home,” the official said.

The seven-and-a-half minute break will see the stadium crowd entertained by a live band while television audiences will watch three, separate two-and-a-half minute segments, two of which will be sold commercially. The third will show the teams taking drinks and discussing ‘tactics’ to add some validity to the argument for the ‘time out.’

While one section will be compulsory, mainstream advertising, the other will be set aside for ’special projects’. Queen Rania of Jordan, well known for her agenda of social reform and progression, will lead the way with a series of short films aimed at African children expounding the importance of education.

IPL brings Shilpa, Preity close

IPL brings Shilpa, Preity close Updated at: 2230 PST, Friday, March 06, 2009
MUMBAI: Stories of the two IPL queens battling it out on the playing field and on television came to a sudden turning point this week when Shilpa Shetty extended an olive branch to her supposed rival in the IPL Preity Zinta.

Shilpa and Raj Kundra are hosting a grand party to celebrate their entry into the IPL on March 10 at the Grand Hyatt. And Preity is invited.

"I really want these unsavoury rumours about our rivalry to end. On an impulse I sent an SMS to Preity inviting her for the party that Raj and I are hosting," said Shilpa.

Shilpa was pleasantly surprised when Preity replied back. "She said she'd love to come. But can't because she'd be out of town. I think that just about takes care of that. I'm sure we'll have other occasions to interact. For now it's enough that she accepted my invitation."

Shilpa thinks these rivalry stories are unnecessary. "We're both decent well brought-up girls. We were even together in the Bachchans' world tour. And we got along fine. We don't need to be seen as these warring women at all, please."

About the party Shilpa said: "It's been a while since Raj and I had friends share in our happiness. The IPL deal is a good occasion to have a get-together. We're inviting all our friends."

Chennai-Kolkata IPL match rained off

Chennai-Kolkata IPL match rained off

CAPE TOWN (AFP) — Steady rain caused the abandonment of the Indian Premier League match between Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders without a ball bowled at Newlands Saturday.

It was the second match to be washed out in eight days during the tournament which was switched at short notice from India to South Africa.

Rain fell throughout most of the day and it never seemed likely that play would get under way.

But players and a handful of spectators were kept waiting for two hours 45 minutes after the scheduled start before the umpires decided that it would not be possible to play even the minimum number of five overs a side.

A match between the Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals was washed out in Durban Tuesday.

Matches were only scheduled in Cape Town for the early part of the tournament because of fears about the onset of the rainy season in the city.

Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab are due to play the last match in Cape Town Sunday when no rain is forecast.

Home Ministry asks IPL to get security assurance from states

New Delhi, March 16 (IANS) A crucial meeting between Indian Premier League (IPL) organisers and Home Ministry officials Monday turned out to be inconclusive as the central government once again raised concerns over providing security for players, spectators and venues during the tournament.
A three-member IPL delegation led by N. Srinivasan, who is also the Indian cricket board secretary, met the Home Ministry’s Special Secretary (Internal Security) Raman Srivastav here, to discuss security cover for the tourney. The original IPL schedule clashes with the coming general elections, when security forces are fully stretched anyway.

The ministry asked IPL organisers to work out yet another schedule and get an assurance from the various state governments to pledge security for cricketers and match venues. This is the third meeting between the two sides.

“The Home Ministry has expressed its concern (of providing security for IPL matches during elections). We have also expressed our concern and the problems of all the stakeholders,” Srinivasan told reporters here after the meeting.

On earlier occasions the Home Ministry has made it clear the central paramilitary forces would not be available for the tournament as over 2.1 million security troops would be drafted for general elections.

Bangalore Royal Challengers v Kolkata Knight Riders - as it happened

Kevin, how do you explain your frankly terrible performances in the IPL? Photograph: Tom Shaw/Getty Images

Join Andy any second now for the start of play. Just as soon as he has finished watching live county championship cricket from Taunton on Sky 1.

Morning everyone. I'm gobsmacked that Sky are showing live championship cricket from my beloved Taunton, where the indefatigable Peter Trego is bowling to Dale Benkenstein. It's totally taken the wind out of my sails. I was full of enthusiasm for this IPL OBO a moment ago, but no more, I'd far rather be watching Sky. Yes really.

So Onions and Bresnan eh? Can anyone out there actually see either of them starting the first Ashes Test?

Over in the IPL on Setanta, the two worst teams in the tournament are tossing up in front of an all-but-entirely empty stadium. KP, looking a little grey around the temples, utters some platitudes from behind his sunglasses. Kolkata have won the toss and chosen to bat first.

What Kevin Pietersen has returned for his couple of hundred thousand quid so far: fo9ur defeats in five games as captain, 80 runs at an average of 16 per innings and three wickets at 20 apiece. Thanks

Nokia Joins the IPL party with Offers, Games

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is undoubtedly one of the most watched sports in the country right now and Nokia seems all set to make full use of the IPL wave and offer its consumers some services and cool deals on products.

Let's start with the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) mobile cricket game which the company has released. This is more of a complete KKR suite at your disposal instead of just being a game. It features direct integration with Nokia maps to help the consumer zoom into KKR match locations and get information about the team's match schedule. Apart from this, when you play the game, all players mimic their real game capabilities, ranging from true batsmen to core bowlers. Depending on your preference, the match can be set for day or floodlit night conditions. Users can also customize the batting lineup, field placements and bowling order. The game will be available across all GSM and CDMA networks in India as a full version paid download and a three day paid trial. The charges are operator specific. You can download the game from nokia.mobi and from the Download! application on select Nokia phones.

Then, there is the mobile application from Nokia, which is the fruition of its tie-up with KKR. The objective of the application is to help the user track KKR by way of getting updates, viewing match schedules and latest scores on their mobile phones. And yes, you can "cheer" for them as well. Online.

Lorgat to attend 2011 World Cup meeting

Lorgat to attend 2011 World Cup meeting
MUMBAI: International Cricket Council's Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat will attend the meeting of the Central Organising Committee of the 2011 World Cup, headed by former Cricket Board President Sharad Pawar.

Lorgat is also scheduled to address a press conference at the end of the meeting, the Cricket Board announced on Monday.

The meeting has been convened to revamp the Organising Committee's structure as Pakistan are no longer the co-hosts of the mega event following the decision of the ICC, taken earlier this month, to snatch away its hosting rights due to security concerns.

"The Committee will be reconstituted and the new secretariat chosen at the meeting," said BCCI sources.

When the Organising Committee was formed two years ago, Pakistan Cricket Board's representative was chosen as its convenor. The secretariat was also to be situated at Lahore with Pakistan being one of the co-hosts then.

But the ICC's Executive Board decided on April 17 to shift the World Cup matches away from that country in the aftermath of the March 3 terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore.

The ICC's decision has left India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as the three sub-continental co-hosts of the mega event.

On Wednesday, the BCCI's all-powerful Working Committee will meet for a one-day sitting at its headquarters.

It’s Tough Scene for CSK on IPL 2009

It’s Tough Scene for CSK on IPL 2009

In its second season, Indian Premier League seems to prove all predictions wrong. With a week got past, last year’s champs are at the bottom of the point table sharing the slot with a team that finished off last but one last season. Starting off as one of the best, Chennai team is struggling to float along. Deccan Chargers are going on top gear while for Mohali team, it has been a spate of bad luck. In the third week, it will be a make or break situation for almost all the teams. So who is going to make into the top four this season? Here is an assessment.

Last year, they missed it by whisker; this year they were all set to go that extra mile to finish off the best. With Dhoni making it big one after another in the international cricket circuit, the CSK fans were almost certain that Dhoni magic will click off in the Indian Premier League too and the captain cool will give them the taste of what they missed last year by chance. But as the tournament rolled into its second week, things were not looking that bright.

From the very beginning, the games were not nearly as interesting as last year’s. Barring a century from De Villiers, audiences in South Africa were not getting the flashing cricket that was so characteristic of twenty-20 format. The brilliant, high paced cricket that kept on setting the Indian pitches on fire throughout last year’s tournament was grossly absent from South African fields. And the trend was clear: down with two/three wickets before the tenth over and teams will find it difficult to make a reasonable score unless there is a batsman waiting down the line who can hit it real big.

Indian IPL: The Hidden Political Agenda

Kashmir Watch, April 27

By Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal

The tactics being employed by Indian outfits to secure victory of its chosen team in the ongoing IPL make one wonder if India is engaged in doing just only manipulations and malpractices, fanaticism, cricketism and terrorism. As it is known, India always believes in hidden strategies for pursing its interests, including illegitimate and illegal, both at home and abroad, and executed them through a bundle of committed paid agent outfits in every field with over all supervision from the national and regional intelligence outfits. Even while practicing all evil designs of colonialism, racism, genocides through state terrorism in and around the country, especially in Jammu Kashmir and Islamic Pakistan, killing innocent Muslims, Hindu India has managed to claim a �€œsecular democracy�€� status from the essentially anti-Islamic world. Over years, India cultivated the Western outfits to concede victories for India teams in cricket, etc., the match-fixing tactics have helped India post flawed records�€� that don�€™t stand the scrutiny of real performances.

Indian cricket is being promoted by Hindutva parties like Congress and BJP to support the image of these political outfits. Apart from manipulating the cricket matches to their advantages by prior arrangements with other government agencies through embassies abroad on extra-payment basis, Indians play destructive roles in cricket mafia and their sport media. In order to outmaneuver stronger cricket teams like Pakistan, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, Indian outfits have planned various strategies. With some of them India got into secret deals with rooted through the concerned foreign agencies and thus clinched the issues of fabricated records on priority basis, while the Indian media outfits blast the news as �€œ Indian greats have achieved greatness�€� types.

The Indian PL variety currently being showcased in South Africa is perhaps the biggest joke in cricket history, because India is unwittingly exploiting the cash making mentality and match-fixing trends of cricketers, world wide. Indians have terrorized Pakistan to keep that nation out of its hegemonic march. India always want to get Pakistan out of cricket field altogether, but that strategy has backfired as terror Indians, both state and non-state, still target Pakistan by blasting missiles intermittently. Pakistan is playing against Australia in Dubai these days showcasing its cricket prowess. IPL was imposed by Indian strategists to make India look larger than size. What is funny is many foreign cricketers assist Indian outfits to achieve their fanatic anti-Pakistan goal.

A regional terror state and military power, India came out with IPL with maliciously hegemonic motives. This time around the IPL has been timed to coincide with Indian billionaires polls and is supposed to forecast the color of the next anti-Islamic regime in New Delhi. The game plan by the Indian strategists and intelligence outfits is to promote the teams that are considered �€œclose�€� to Hindutva moorings in the country. As it is, Delhi devils, Mumbai Indians and Punjab teams are the popped up by the Congress-led ruling dispensation. Cricket mafia s are at world behind scenes to get the required results, but Hyderabad, considered by India as part of Pakistan, has a not topped the race so far, annoying the Indian strategic outfit. Hyderabad team won all the 3 matches although, it appears, some Indians themselves supported the opposite teams. Indian media outfits and strategists are down now badly because Hyderabad thrashed Mumbai India recently. On 26 Bangalore team (Dravid Rahul declined to play or hit Delhi cricketers because he possibly does not want to annoy politician Rahul Gandhi) was almost winning match against Delhi, but, it is sure, the Indian bowlers switched sides to make Delhi win. Similarly, Rajasthan was coerced to make room for Punjab.

Of course, IPL is an Indian game and Indian outfits can do whatever they want to boost the images of leaders belonging to New Delhi, Mumbai and Punjab because Indian intelligence and political outfits want a regime to be headed by a leader from one of these places. But then India should claim be an international fraud-cum-terrorist, and not a democracy or a decent state. It is utter shame on the part of India to mix-up dirty politics with cricket. Chennai team which includes current Indian Captain is also discouraged, but the cricket mafia wants Chennai to defeat Bangalore and Hyderabad and block them form reaching the Semi-final which, as its looks, is reserved for Mumbai and Delhi or Punjab. Everything is preplanned in India in terrorism, in cricketism and militarism. It is apparent now, why India was deadly focused don IPL at any cost in South Africa when many other countries refused to accommodate Indian fanatic sentiments, including UK. An arrogant and aggressive India would meet its end some where.

A lot of black money is being floated by the industrialists through these IPL and other cricket shows with intelligence guidance. Not only India wants to use foreign cricketers to play for India and train their young aspiring cricket, but India has presided over the process of cricket becoming a total farce. But why should India punish the South Africans to pay for Indian mischief. Meanwhile Indian blue premier Manmohan Singh is satisfied now with show-gift from one his fans in Ahmedabad on 26 April while addressing a Congress poll meeting, because he has entered the top list of the foot-wear attacked leaders globally that includes former US president Bush. But why should Africans also suffer by witnessing the stage managed Indian cricket game.

The author is Delhi based Research Scholar in International Studies and can be reached at abdulruff_jnu@yahoo.com

Celebrity cricket

Shilpa Shetty

The sultry actress, who co-owns the Rajasthan Royals with her London-based husband-to-be Raj Kundra, has expressed her deep disappointment over the fact that her squad won’t be able to play on home ground – India’s pink city of Jaipur, Rajasthan – due to the change of venue.

“It’s sad that we’re not going to be able to play in Jaipur, which happens to be our home ground. But I’d like our fans to know that it was a decision that wasn’t left to us to take,’ Shilpa, 33, posted on her blog recently.

All the same, the lissome lass isn’t about to let the venue issue hamper the promotional activities for her team. The winner of Britain’s Celebrity Big Brother series in 2007 has just shelled out a hefty amount to shoot the rousing team anthem Halla Bol.

She can afford it. After paying US$16.4mil (RM59mil) early this year for a 12% stake in the Rajasthan Royals – champion of last year’s inaugural IPL tourney – Shilpa went on to launch a luxurious spa in Mumbai.

The Bollywood beauty, who is said to be tying the knot with jewellery tycoon Raj in October, is also busy working on the joint Indian-Chinese production, The Desire. In the film – her first in English – Shilpa portrays an Indian classical dancer who falls in love with a Chinese artist played by Xia Yu.

Preity Zinta

With her film career seemingly on the decline, it’s a smart move on the actress’ part to plump for an extension of her public life through the IPL extravaganza. Last year, the 34-year-old and her industrialist boyfriend Ness Wadia bid for and won the Kings XI Punjab team for US$76mil (RM273.6mil).

Preity Zinta being interviewed before a cricket match between India and New Zealand in Napier, New Zealand, on March 3. Her involvement in the sport has elevated her profile. – Reuters

Known to be a hands-on owner – quite literally – Preity hugs, kisses, pats and consoles her boys in full public glare. She even wiped the tears off Sreekanth’s face when the latter was given a resounding slap by the intemperate Harbhajan Singh at one of the matches last year!

Clearly, here’s a maiden who bowls people over.

Celebrity cricket

Shah Rukh Khan

A sports freak and consummate businessman, the flamboyant star – conferred the civilian honour of a Datukship by Malaysia’s Malaccan government last year – won the bid for Kolkata Knight Riders for a gasp-inducing US$75.1mil (RM270.4mil) last year.

Shah Rukh Khan announcing the members of his Kolkata Knight Riders team in Mumbai on April 5 for this year’s Indian Premier League in South Africa. – AFP

So what if his team had had mixed luck on the field? Shah Rukh’s devotion to his Knights is irrefutable. He’s always there as a pillar of support – shouting, dancing, cheering for them, even getting his wife (Gauri) and kids (Aryan and Suhani) along to augment the on-field excitement.

And in between his gazillion assignments, the 43-year-old king of Bollywood also launched a reality TV show to select the best cheerleaders to rouse his team in South Africa.

Celebrity cricket

Entering its second year, the Indian Premier League cricket tournament has not lost its lustre or star power.

IT is said that despite its famed multi-cultural and pluralistic ethos, India follows only two religions – cricket and cinema. So naturally, when the two coalesce in the form of the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket championship, there’s explosive action.

The tournament, in its second edition, kicked off last Friday and will go on till May 24. It is outsourced this year to South Africa due to security concerns as it clashes with the Indian general election (from April 16 to May 13).

Interestingly, all the eight IPL teams – Rajasthan Royals, Kings XI Punjab, Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Daredevils, Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders, Bangalore Royal Challengers and Deccan Chargers – have a strong Bollywood connect.

Shilpa Shetty signing cricket bats during a match between South Africa and Australia in Johannesburg, South Africa, on March 27. The actress is disappointed that her team won’t get to play on home ground this year. – AP

If the Indian film stars don’t own the teams – auctioned publicly last year for eye-popping sums – they’re endorsing them, performing at live shows to promote them or starring in films which feature the IPL players.

With top film stars batting for different teams, cricket fever is ratcheting up like never before. Here’s a lowdown on the glamour game in IPL.