Posted on June 22nd, 2008 by IPLNews
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IT didn’t take long for the game’s junior officials to catch on to the potential of Twenty20, with the success of the Indian Premier League and monumental sums of money now on offer for masters of “hit-and-giggle” cricket prompting action at teenage level.

For the first time, Cricket NSW’s high-performance unit will stage a junior Twenty20 tournament next month. The inaugural competition, for under-15s, is limited to northern NSW, but next year it is envisioned a state championship could be held. It shouldn’t be long before juniors across the country compete in national Twenty20 tournaments.

“The international landscape is changing, the product is changing and the opportunities are becoming more diverse,” said Alan Campbell, Cricket NSW’s high-performance manager.

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Posted on June 22nd, 2008 by IPLNews
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Close on the heels of Shane Warne’s plans to take Indian Premier League (IPL) champions Rajasthan Royals to his state Victoria, Australia, for friendly matches, Virender Sehwag is taking Delhi Daredevils on a similar jaunt to Dubai and England.

“We are in the planning stage, but we’ll most probably be playing some matches in Dubai and England” Sehwag told reporters on Tuesday.

Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab have also chalked out similar plans.

Talking at a promotional event in Delhi, Sehwag said: “It was good fun playing in the IPL. We had no pressure and we all gave our best. When you give your 100 per cent the result will take care of itself.”

“We had a very good bonding in our team. It was an honour leading greats like Glenn McGrath, Daniel Vettori and Shoaib Malik,” he added.

Asked if the six-week-long tournament would have any effect on India’s performance in the other two formats of the game, Sehwag said he did not think so.

“Over the course of 44 days we just played 14 matches, and that too for just three hours each. It cannot possibly cause any fatigue.

“On the contrary I believe it gave us good experience playing against the best players from around the world,” said Sehwag.

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Posted on June 4th, 2008 by IPLNews
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The Rajasthan Royals, which had already proved itself the best team over the length of the qualifying tournament, showed that it was also the best in the clutch as it took the inaugural Indian Premier League title in Mumbai.

It beat the Chennai Super Kings in a desperately tense final on Sunday, reaching its target of 164 to win from the final ball of its innings of 20 six-ball overs when Sohail Tanvir struck the single run it needed.

As in last year’s first-ever World Cup in the Twenty20 format - when India’s victory created the excitement that led to the creation of, first, the rebel India Cricket League, and then the officially backed the IPL - the organizers were treated to a final that was everything they could have asked for. Chennai battled to its limit. Rajasthan won because Tanvir and its captain, Shane Warne, both chiefly bowlers, kept their nerve when asked to score the final 21 runs from 14 balls.

It could hardly have been represented by more appropriate men at the end. Tanvir was the best bowler in the eight-team tournament, leading the wicket-takers with 22 and conceding fewer runs per over than any other regular bowler. Warne was an inspiring, innovative and nurturing captain and coach, as well as bowling beautifully to take 19 wickets.

Either might reasonably have been chosen as Man of the Tournament. Instead that prize went to a third Royal, the Australian all-rounder Shane Watson, who finished fourth among both the run-scorers and the wicket-takers. In the final itself he was outshone by his Indian teammate Yusuf Pathan, who scored 56 rapid runs and took three wickets in his four overs.

Having so many standout performers epitomizes Rajasthan’s style - this was, above all, a team success. In a competition whose every aspect seemed accompanied by a mind-boggling price tag, it is refreshing to report that the dominant team represented the least expensive franchise. The IPL boss, Lalit Modi, had rebuked its owners for underspending in the rotisserie-style player auction, saying: “I don’t know what they are doing.”

They knew, much better than the other seven franchises put together. Rajasthan’s owners have business links with Leicestershire, the team that dominated the first English Twenty20 tournaments. They drew on Leicestershire’s experience and expertise to decide which players to draft, and employed its most successful player, Jeremy Snape, as assistant coach and psychologist.

Rajasthan won 11 of its 14 group stage matches, vastly outshining the expensively assembled teams from the metropolises of Mumbai and Kolkata, neither of which made the quarterfinals.

Chennai only just made the final four, but played superbly in its semifinal before finding Rajasthan, for the third time, just too much for it. Its skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was only narrowly denied the achievement of leading winners in both the World Cup and the IPL.

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Posted on June 4th, 2008 by IPLNews
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The Indian Premier league teams

Bangalore Royal Challengers
Chennai Super Kings
Deccan Chargers
Delhi Daredevils
KingsXI Punjab
Kolkata Knight Riders
Mumbai Indians
Rajastan Royals

Posted on May 19th, 2008 by IPLNews
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Australian captain Ricky Ponting has urged the Indian Premier League to maintain the tournament’s salary cap.

Players were auctioned off prior to the start of the inaugural IPL competition, with teams limited to $5 million to spend on their squad.

There has been talk though of IPL chiefs removing the salary cap altogether for future tournaments, but Ponting has urged them to keep it in place.

Ponting, who played four games for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the opening rounds of the competition, says removing the cap would make the IPL much less competitive.

“I have certainly heard there may be no salary cap next year, but I’m not sure if that will be good for the IPL,” Ponting told the Australian.

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Posted on May 19th, 2008 by IPLNews
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Hyderabad: Venugopal Rao’s unbeaten 42-ball 71 went in vain as Deccan Chargers slumped to their seventh successive defeat, going down to Kolkata Knight Riders by 23 runs in their Indian Premier League match here on Sunday.

Opting to bat first, the Knight Riders rode on captain Sourav Ganguly’s stroke-filled 91 and David Hussey’s late assault to amass 204 for the loss of four wickets in their quota of 20 overs.

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In reply, the Chargers led by Rao’s blitzkrieg - studded with four boundaries and a half a dozen sixes - could manage 181 for seven.

After their pathetic fielding allowed the Knight Riders to cross the 200-run mark, the Chargers lost wickets at regular intervals while trying to overhaul the massive target.

Openers Adam Gilchrist (24) and Herschelle Gibbs (5) fell to rookie pacer Ashok Dinda, while Umar Gul claimed D Ravi Teja (10).

Posted on May 12th, 2008 by IPLNews
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There is no question that the Australians have dominated the initial rounds of the DLF Indian Premier League: The tournament was given an electrifying start by New Zealander Brendon McCullum who cracked a quick-fire 158, but thereafter it’s been the Australians and the little known Indians who have stolen the show. The Twenty20 format of the game suits the Australians too as they are a naturally aggressive lot and who play to win.

It’s not just the batsmen but even the bowlers are doing well for their teams and those who say that the Twenty20 is for youngsters, should look at the manner in which the Australians Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne have tied the batsmen up in knots and stifled the runs. That only proves that: great players will make the adjustments necessary for any form of the game and at any age too. Adam Gilchrist too is no spring chicken but his energy levels are astonishing, for the matches even the ones being played at 8 pm are played in intense heat and the lights don’t make it any easier.

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Posted on May 4th, 2008 by IPLNews
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NEW DELHI — Banned Pakistan paceman Shoaib Akhtar will not be allowed to play in the Indian Premier League despite being cleared to do so by his country’s cricket authorities, an IPL official said Thursday.

Akhtar had been banned by the Pakistan Cricket Board for five years on charges of indiscipline, but a PCB panel confirmed Wednesday that he was free to play outside the country.

Akhtar had signed a contract for US$450,000 to play in the IPL.

However, Board of Control for Cricket in India vice president Rajeev Shulka said it would maintain its stance of not employing any player banned by his national body.

“There’s no going back on our earlier stance, there’s no question of a rethink on the matter,” Shulka was quoted as saying Thursday by Indian Express newspaper.

The PCB is due to make a final ruling on Akhtar’s five-year ban in June.

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Posted on May 2nd, 2008 by IPLNews
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Australian captain Ricky Ponting has urged cricket administrators to create space in the calendar for the Indian Premier League.

Ponting returned yesterday from his four-match stint with Kolkata and will join his Australian team mates in camp on Sunday to prepare for the West Indies tour.

Ponting says the IPL has a place in the game.

“They’d be silly if they didn’t put it on the calendar,” he said.

“I think there’s a real danger there that international players might just see the glitz and glamour of this event and not want to play international cricket anymore, which I don’t think would be great for the game, so I know that all the administrators around the world will looking into some way of finding a six week window for this tournament every season.”

Posted on May 2nd, 2008 by IPLNews
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