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April 24, 2008
Afridi's thumbs down for cheerleaders
Cheerleaders may have added a dash of glitz to the Indian Premier League but Shahid Afridi sees them as a distraction. "The girls in skimpy dresses should be removed from the ground as this is distracting the batsman," he told The News, a Pakistan daily. "Cricket itself is an entertainment. It does not require such cheerleaders to entertain."
April 23, 2008
Game on
From games on field to the ones online - IPL is taking cricket places. The Kolkata Knight Riders have signed on Zapak Digital Entertainment to develop online games for the franchise's official website. Zapak will develop flash-based games on the team as well as individual players. Rohit Sharma, the chief operating officer for Zapak, said the idea was to create a community feature on the portal. "So we will not only provide games for the Knight Riders but also run contests and other content about the players and the game," he told Business Standard.
The website already offers two games and is expected to launch four to five more in the next two weeks. In all 10 games have been planned.
April 22, 2008
Shoaib Malik not worried about playing in Hyderabad
Shoaib Malik, the Pakistan captain, has said he has no problem in playing seven IPL games in Hyderabad despite his dispute with an Indian family based in that city, who he has threatened to sue for defamation for alleging that he married their daughter and is not granting her divorce as per Islamic laws.
An unfazed Malik said he had nothing to hide and was looking forward to play in the IPL. “If I had anything to hide or was afraid, I would not go to Hyderabad for the IPL game. If you know there are two legal notices with the Siddiqui family that I have sent them to retract their claims and apologise for trying to defame me, and they have kept quiet on the notices," Malik said. "I don't think there will be any problem in playing in Hyderabad. As it is, it is purely up to our Delhi captain Virender Sehwag if he even plays me because we already have eight overseas players in the side.”
MA Siddiqui, the father of the girl, confirmed Malik sent him a legal notice to withdraw his claims and apologise. "But I didn't respond to his notice nor will I do in future because he is trying to save his image. I am simply asking him (Malik) to legally divorce my daughter so that she can start a new life but if he persists to deny this relationship, we will soon move court for annulment of the marriage on behalf of my daughter."
Aircel unveils Trophy for Chennai IPL matches
Aircel, the telecom service provider and the team sponsor of the Chennai Super Kings, unveiled a specially designed trophy for the ‘Aircel Man of the Match’ award in the forthcoming IPL matches to be played in Chennai. The Aircel ‘Man of The Match’ trophy, made of solid aluminium and adorned by gold plated edges and Swarovski crystal is shaped in the waves of Aircel.
Aircel had commissioned Titan Design Studio for designing this trophy. As per designer Abhijit Bansod, “we wanted the trophy to seamlessly combine Aircel logo and depict the story of 'best of the best' and the three layers design expresses the best talent standing out amongst equally competitive players which has been captured very smartly in this design."
April 17, 2008
Owning an IPL team is no easy business
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Shah Rukh Khan: "The stadium authorities keep asking us for more money"
© AFP
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| Shah Rukh Khan, the Bollywood actor and owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders, talks about concerns over entertainment tax in an interview with the Times of India.
My only concern is that stadium authorities keep asking us for more money like the entertainment tax and we were told that they have been paid by BCCI but they still keep asking us. And the kind of money they are asking us to pay as entertainment tax which will be only for 10 minutes that too during the match break which will cost us at least Rs 1 crore.
Meanwhile, a petitioner from Faridabad has filed a Public Interest Litigation with India's Supreme Court, asking whether the telecast of matches involving the Bangalore Royal Challengers would indirectly be promoting alcohol.
This is because the Challengers' logo is similar to the Royal Challenge alcohol brand owned by Vijay Mallya, the team's owner. The petitioner was banking on the Indian Cable Network Act, 1995, which bans advertisements for alcohol, to drive home his point. The litigation comes up for hearing on April 21. An article, also in the Times of India, has more.
April 8, 2008
Buchanan's son to join support staff
John Buchanan's son, Michael, will join the Kolkata Knight Riders’s support staff in the Indian Premier League. Michael will be the strength trainer of the team and the New South Wales' coach Matthew Mott will be Buchanan’s assistant. Michael, a batting allrounder, was part of the Queensland's championship winning Ford Ranger Cup one-day team in 2007. The deal was finalised when Buchanan arrived for the team launch last month. The team and the support staff will be assembling on April 11 in Kolkata.
March 26, 2008
The grand jury
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Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi is on the panel to decide on the Player of the Tournament for the inaugural edition of the IPL
© AFP
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Three former India captains - Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri - also part of the IPL's governing council, have been assigned the task of selecting the Player of the Tournament for the inaugural edition of the league.
The chosen one will get a trophy besides Rs 10 lakh (approx US$25,000). Given the billions of dollars at stake in the league, the Rs 10 lakh prize does sound a bit down-to-earth, considering the winner of the corresponding award in the Indian Cricket League's ongoing Twenty20 tournament gets Rs 40 lakh (approx US$100,000).
"Choosing a Man of the Match or a Man of the Series is always a difficult job," Gavaskar said, "but hopefully with the years of experience between Tiger [Pataudi], Ravi and myself, I am sure that our choice for the Man of the Series will not disappoint the lovers of the game."
March 12, 2008
Action Replay
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Rahul Dravid didn't seem at ease in front of the cameras
© AFP
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Bollywood is taking over the IPL in more ways than one. On Wednesday, Bollywood director Sanjay Gupta was in Bangalore to shoot the promo reels for Bangalore Royal Challengers. Gupta first got Martin Crowe, the team's chief cricket officer, to give a 'pep talk' to "the boys" in a set designed like a dressing room inside the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Then the team coach, Venkatesh Prasad, was filmed giving the bowling attack, including Zaheer Khan, a strategy lesson. Finally, there was Crowe and Rahul Dravid, the captain, drawing 'gameplans' on a board. Crowe and Prasad got through their shots with professional ease but Dravid looked distinctly uncomfortable in front of the camera. To his consternation, he was later made to stretch out on the ground outside, strapped on to a crane camera apparatus, in full cricket gear, with the bat outstretched to simulate a run-out situation. The shoot will continue over the next two days.
March 11, 2008
The game of the name
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Sourav Ganguly: Kolkata's knight in shining armour
© AFP
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What’s in a name, you ask. Plenty, seems to be the common refrain among the IPL’s franchise owners. In the last couple of days the Mumbai and Kolkata franchises have unveiled their team names, each apparently the product of much thought. On Tuesday, Shah Rukh Khan gave us the Kolkata Knight Riders. Works well for fans of David Hasselhoff – and fans of a certain age growing up in Calcutta in the 1980s, who got the chance to see the serial beamed across on Bangladesh TV. However, the name owes more to the medieval helmet on the team logo, the sort worn by knights of old. Interestingly, Shah Rukh’s own explanation was a bit strange – it was chosen “after thorough research” with the mindset of children in mind. More easily decipherable was the name of team’s mascot, Hoog Lee – neither Bruce Lee nor Brett Lee, as Shah Rukh said, but a terrible pun on the river that flows through the city.
On Saturday the Mumbai Indians were unveiled; the name apparently signifies team effort but not many got that, prompting Kaushik Roy, a top brand executive at Reliance Industries Limited, the franchise owners, to explain the rationale. “The name has been arrived at from the city, Sachin [Tendulkar] the super achiever and our success in Twenty20 cricket. All these elements project vision and a strong stature. Mumbai has a never-say-die attitude. Mumbai Indians is also about having pride in our city. At the end of the day, we wanted an endearing name to which even those abroad can relate.”
There are two unnamed teams - Hyderabad and Mohali - remaining in the IPL. Watch this space for more details.
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