Marylebone Cricket Club and Surrey are mulling over a proposal by Indian premeir League organisers to hold exhibition matches involving IPL franchise teams at the Lord’s and Brit Oval this season, a media report claimed on Saturday.

The report said that MCC and Surrey have been approached by IPL organisers and the two clubs have not rejected the offer as “all 18 counties come to terms with the significant impact that it (IPL) could have on the game this season.”

“Lord’s and the Brit Oval are considering initial offers to stage games involving an Indian premeir League (IPL) franchise this season,” ‘The Times’ reported.

The report said after bagging lucrative television deals and huge revenues from other sources, IPL was keen to expand beyond the inaugural tournament, which runs from April 18 to June 1 in eight Indian cities.

Surrey Chief Executive Paul Sheldon declined to confirm that his county has been targeted by the IPL, while MCC would not make any comments.

“We are not making any comment on this story at the moment,” an MCC spokesman was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Another county side Hampshire also denied it was contacted by IPL.

Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri will choose the ‘Player of the DLF IPL Twenty20 championship’. DLF will present a trophy and cash prize of Rs. 10 lakhs ($24,850) to the winner.
Sunil Gavaskar said the IPL would be hugely beneficial for the entire cricketing fraternity in the long run. “Choosing a Man of the Match or a Man of the Series is always a difficult job, but hopefully with the years of experience between Tiger, Ravi and myself, I am sure that our choice for the Man of the Series will not disappoint the lovers of the game.”

“I feel we will have a major headache on our hands considering the quality of players on view and I can only hope that one star shines brighter than the others to make our task easier,” said Shastri.

Chennai Super Kings is the Chennai franchise for the Indian Premier League. The team will be led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the highest-paid IPL Player, and coached by Kepler Wessels. There is no Icon Player for the team.

Chennai Super Kings are a part of the eight club Indian Premier League. The franchise is owned by India Cements, who paid $91 million to acquire the rights of the franchise for the next 10 years. Former India test player Kris Srikkanth is the brand ambassador for the franchise, and another former Indian opener V. B. Chandrasekhar will be the chief selector. The brand ambasssadors for the team will be South Indian actor, Vijay and actress, Nayantara.

The M.A.Chidambaram stadium (often referred to as Chepauk, the place where the stadium is located) will be the home ground of the IPL team. The theme song of Chennai Super Kings, penned by Vairamuthu, is presently being composed by G V Prakash Kumar.

The name “Super Kings” is to honor the rulers of the golden era of Tamil culture, the team logo has a Lion to reflect the King of the Jungle. In addition the word “Super” is colloquially used in the state of Tamil Nadu to reflect all things thrilling and exciting and is a word of the lips of almost every one in Tamil Nadu. Incidentally the Chennai team playing in the ICL (the rebel league) is named as “Chennai Superstars”.

Players

Chennai Super Kings are one of the three franchises with no icon player. The lack of an icon player benefited the Super Kings during the bidding as they managed to bid successfully on two (Dhoni & Muralitharan) of the six A listed players.

The team plans to have twenty three players on its roster. Besides the list of players already acquired, the team will pick the remaining members from the three catchment areas - Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Railways - that have been allocated to it.

• Name - Age - Country - Position

Batsmen 

• Matthew Hayden - 36 - Australia - Left-handed Batsman
• Stephen Fleming - 35 - New Zealand - Left-handed Batsman 
• Suresh Raina - 21 - India - Left-handed Batsman 
• Michael Hussey - 32 - Australia - Left-handed Batsman 
• Anirudha Srikkanth - 21 - India - Right-handed Batsman 
• Subramaniam Badrinath - 28 - India - Right-handed Batsman 
• Napoleon Einstein - 18 - India - Right-handed Batsman 

Wicketkeepers

• Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain) - 26 - India - Right-handed Wicket keeper 
• Parthiv Patel - 22 - India - Left-handed Wicket keeper

All Rounders

• Jacob Oram - 28 - New Zealand - Left-handed Batsman/Right-arm medium-fast
• Albie Morkel - 28 - South Africa - Left-handed Batsman/Right-arm fast-medium 
• Shadab Jakati - 27 - India - Slow left-arm orthodox spin 
• Abhinav Mukund - 18 - India - Left-handed Batsman/Right-arm leg-break 
• Viraj Kadbe - 18 - India - Right-arm leg-break

Bowlers

• Muttiah Muralitharan - 35 - Sri Lanka - Right-arm off-break
• Joginder Sharma - 24 - India - Right-arm fast-medium
• Makhaya Ntini - 30 - South Africa - Right-arm fast
• R. Ashwin - 21 - India - Right-arm off-break
• Sudeep Tyagi - 20 - India - Right-arm fast-medium
• Lakshmipathy Balaji - 26 - India - Right-arm fast-medium

Administration and Coaching Staff

• Owner - India Cement Ltd.
• CEO - TBA
• Ambassador - Kris Srikkanth, film stars Joseph Vijay and Nayantara
• Chief Selector - V. B. Chandrasekhar

Coaches:

• Head Coach - Kepler Wessels
• Assistant Coach - TBA
• Physiotherapist - Tommy Simsek
• Physical Trainer - Gregory King

Bangalore Royal Challengers is the team that is going to represent the city of Bangalore in the Indian Premier League, the inaugural Twenty20 cricket tournament to be held in India. The team is owned by the liquor magnate Vijay Mallya, the chairman of UB Group. Charu Sharma is the CEO of the team and Rahul Dravid, the captain of the team is the Icon Player. Martin Crowe, the former New Zealand captain, has also been signed as a member of the management team. Venkatesh Prasad, the former Indian fast bowler and the present bowling coach of India has been declared the coach for the team.

Bangalore team was won by Vijay Mallya, who paid US$111.6 million for it. This was the second highest bid for a team in the IPL, next only to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries’ bid of $111.9 million for the Mumbai team.

Indian actresses Deepika Padukone and Katrina Kaif were signed as the brand ambassadors of the franchise.

Vijay Mallya wanted to associate one of his top-selling liquor brands, either ‘No. 1 McDowell’s’ or ‘Royal Challenge’ with the team. Ultimately, ‘Royal Challenge’ was chosen, and hence the team was given the name ‘Bangalore Royal Challengers’. The jersey colours of the team are red and golden yellow, and the logo consists of the RC emblem with ‘Bangalore Royal Challengers’ in standard format.

Players

The players in the team (except for Rahul Dravid, who was the Icon Player), were selected in an auction conducted by BCCI on 20 February 2008. South Africa’s Jacques Kallis at $900,000 became the costliest player to be selected to play for the Royal Challengers. This meant that Rahul Dravid, being the Icon Player would be paid $1,035,000 (15% more than the highest bid player in the team). Other players selected included the Indian Test cricket captain Anil Kumble along with his team-mates Praveen Kumar and Zaheer Khan, West Indian Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Aussies Nathan Bracken and Cameron White, South Africa’s Mark Boucher (Wicket Keeper) and Dale Steyn.

• Name - Age - Country - Position 

Batsmen 

• Rahul Dravid (Captain/Icon Player) - 35 - India - Right-handed Batsman
• Shivnarine Chanderpaul - 33 - West Indies - Left-handed Batsman
• Wasim Jaffer - 30 - India - Right-handed Batsman
• Misbah-ul-Haq - 33 - Pakistan - Right-handed Batsman
• Ross Taylor - 24 - New Zealand - Right-handed Batsman
• Arun Kumar J. - 33 - India - Right-handed Batsman
• Appanna K. P. - 19 - India - Right-handed Batsman
• Bharat Chipli - 25 - India - Right-handed Batsman

Wicket Keepers

• Mark Boucher - 31 - South Africa - Right-handed Batsman / Wicket keeper
• Shreevats Goswami - 18 - India - Left-hand Batsman / Wicket keeper
• Devraj Patil - 23 - India - Right-handed Batsman / Wicket keeper

Allrounders

• Jacques Kallis - 32 - South Africa - Right-arm fast-medium
• Cameron White - 24 - Australia - Right-handed Leg-break googly
• Sunil Joshi - 37 - India - Left-handed Slow left-arm orthodox spin 
• Akhil B. - 30 - India - Right-arm medium-fast
• Virat Kohli - 19 - India - Right-arm medium

Bowlers 

• Anil Kumble - 37 - India - Right-arm leg-break googly
• Zaheer Khan - 29 - India - Left-arm medium-fast
• Nathan Bracken - 30 - Australia - Left-arm fast-medium
• Dale Steyn - 24 - South Africa - Right-arm fast
• Praveen Kumar - 21 - India - Right-arm medium-fast
• Abdur Razzak - 25 - Bangladesh - Slow left-arm orthodox
• Vinay Kumar R. - 24 - India - Right-arm medium-fast

Administration and coaching staff

Front Office:

• Owner- Vijay Mallya
• CEO - Charu Sharma
• Adviser - Martin Crowe

Coaches:

• Head Coach - Venkatesh Prasad
• Assistant Head Coach - TBA
• Physiotherapist - TBA

Mumbai Indians will be representative of the city of Mumbai in the Indian Premier League. The team will be led by Sachin Tendulkar, also the Icon Player for the team and coached by Lalchand Rajput, the former Manager of the Indian Cricket Team.

Reliance Industries Limited through its subsidiary Reliance Retail Ltd purchased the rights for the Mumbai franchise of Indian Premier league for a total of $111.9 million during the auction on January 24, 2008. The RIL bid has made the Mumbai Indians the most expensive franchise in IPL.

The team logo has the Sudarshan Chakra with the team’s name engraved in it. The team’s colour will be blue. The choice of the name “Indians” for a regional competition is widely regarded as a blunder.

The mascot is still unknown.

Players

Sachin Tendulkar is the designated icon player and also captain for Mumbai Indians. During the player auction Mumbai Indians successfully bid for 7 players, including two of the heroes of Indian Twenty-20 world cup side in Harbhajan Singh and Robin Uthappa. Sanath Jayasuriya was also another prized catch, along with South African legend Shaun Pollock. The team also added the Sri Lankan speedster Lasith Malinga.

Outside of the player auction, the franchise has also signed up Ajinkya Rahane and Abhishek Nayar (from Mumbai), Yogesh Takawale (from Maharashtra) and Pinal Shah (from Baroda)

• Name - Age - Country - Position

Batsmen

• Sachin Tendulkar (Captain) - 35 - India - Right-handed Batsman
• Robin Uthappa - 22 - India - Right-handed Batsman
• Loots Botsman - 30 - South Africa - Right-handed Batsman
• Ashley Prince - 30 - South Africa - Left-handed Batsman
• Manish Pandey - 18 - India - Right-handed Batsman
• Saurabh Tiwari - 18 - India - Left-handed Batsman

Wicket Keepers

• Yogesh Takawale - 23 - India - Right-handed Batsman - Wicket keeper
• Pinal Shah - 20 - India - Right-handed Batsman - Wicket keeper

All Rounders

• Sanath Jayasuriya - 37 - Sri Lanka - Slow left-arm orthodox spin
• Shaun Pollock - 35 - South Africa - Right-arm medium-fast
• Ajinkya Rahane - 19 - India - Right-arm medium

Bowlers

• Harbhajan Singh - 27 - India - Right-arm off-break
• Lasith Malinga - 24 - Sri Lanka - Right-arm fast
• Dilhara Fernando - 29 - Sri Lanka - Right-arm fast-medium
• Abhishek Nayar - 24 - India - Right-arm medium-fast
• Ashish Nehra - 28 - India - Left-arm fast-medium

Administration and Coaching staffFront Office:

• Owner - Reliance Industries Limited
• CEO - R Balachandran
• President - Mukesh Ambani

Coaches:

• Head Coach - Lalchand Rajput
• Assistant Head Coach - TBA
• Physiotherapist - TBA

Sri Lanka have asked Pakistan to re-schedule a proposed one-day international series in order to allow their players to take part in the Indian premeir League (IPL), a top official said here Monday. Chief executive of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) Duleep Mendis said the team would tour Pakistan only if the dates did not clash with those of the IPL.

“We have told Pakistan that we are keen to help Pakistan only if it did not clash with the IPL,” Mendis told AFP.

Sri Lanka had offered to play in a short series of five one-day matches in Pakistan after Australia pulled out of a scheduled tour in March-April due to security concerns. However the dates proposed for the series in Pakistan (April 23 to May 5) were clashing with those of the money-spinning league, set to take place at various venues in India from April 18 to June 1.

The date clash resulted in some of the top Sri Lankan players contracted to the IPL threatening to skip the series. Mendis said SLC had already released players for the IPL and it would cause inconvenience if the Pakistan tour was to clash with the IPL. The Pakistan Cricket Board has said that it was willing to offer SLC 800,000 dollars for the five ODIs but only if they sent their full team.

Niranjan Shah, the Indian board secretary, had also telephoned SLC on Friday to note their displeasure over the Pakistan tour, SLC sources said. The IPL is a city-based tournament with eight teams bought by franchises who selected their respective line-ups via auction in Mumbai last month. The tournament will see international cricketers put aside their national allegiances to play for privately-owned teams for the first time ever.

Players have received huge pay packets, starting from 100,000 dollars for the first year, to take part in the 44-day, 59-match extravaganza.

As per the agreement, Kingfisher Airlines will receive branding on the Umpires’ Uniform including their shirts and hats during the DLF IPL, along with several other activation opportunities around the property.  

The DLF Indian premeir League announced that Kingfisher Airlines has bagged the rights to being the Official Umpire Partner for the league and will also sponsor all Third Umpire decisions during the fifty nine action packed games in the DLF Indian premeir League.

The Umpire Partnership deal is worth Rs. 106 crores for a five year period. As per the agreement, Kingfisher Airlines will receive branding on the Umpires’ Uniform including their shirts and hats during the DLF IPL, along with several other activation opportunities around the property .

Lalit Modi, Chairman and Commissioner, DLF Indian premeir League said, “I am very pleased to have the country’s premeir 5-star airline Kingfisher join us as the Umpire Partner in an exclusive five-year deal. Kingfisher Airlines has a long association with a variety of sports at both the domestic and international level including Tennis, Formula 1, Polo and now Cricket. Their decision bears testimony to the fact that the DLF Indian premeir League is here to stay and is set to carve out a distinct niche for itself in the international cricket calendar.”

Dr. Vijay Mallya, Chairman & CEO, Kingfisher Airlines said, “We are delighted to extend our partnership with the DLF Indian premeir League with Kingfisher Airlines coming in as the official Umpire Partner. Our five-year association with the DLF Indian premeir League is further testimony of our commitment to building the Kingfisher Airlines brand through sports. The DLF Indian premeir League is a highly innovative concept and the Twenty20 format will undoubtedly take cricket’s popularity to a new high. Kingfisher Airlines will present the DLF IPL umpires in a completely new and modern style while retaining their critical role in the sport.”

Earlier Leading sports broadcaster Sony Max & World Sport Group had bagged DLF Indian premeir League’s global media and production rights for USD $ 1.026 billion. The exclusive Franchise rights for the eight city league were won by ShahRukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders, Preity Zinta’s & Ness Wadia’s (Mohali), the Mumbai Indians, GMR’s Delhi Daredevils, UB Group’s The Royal Challengers of Bangalore, Indian Cements - Chennai Super Kings, Deccan Chronicle’s - Hyderabad Chargers and Emerging Media’s Jaipur Royals.

The DLF Indian premeir League is ready to kick off on April 18, with some high voltage action expected between ShahRukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders and Dr. Vijay Mallya’s Royal Challengers of Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. The DLF Indian premeir League will feature eight Franchises and will run for 44 days. Each Franchise will play others on a home and away basis with 7 matches at home. The top 4 Franchises in the league will contest the semi finals and the victorious semi finalists will meet in the Grand Final all over one weekend, which will be played out in Mumbai.

The inaugural season of the DLF Indian premeir League will showcase a grand total of 59 matches providing broadcasters and in-stadia spectators with 177 hours of live “family entertainment”, which will also be viewed by a significant international audience. All matches will be during late afternoon and evening to coincide with prime time for television and providing a convenient time for the stadium audience.