Kolkata Knight Riders team owner and Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan said he wants the Pakistan pace spearhead Shoaib Akhtar to play in Indian Premeir League (IPL). He reiterated his desire for Shoaib’s presence in his team in a press conference at his residence.

Shah Rukh also said that it’s now up to BCCI to take a decision whether they want the Paksitani bolwer to play in cash-rich Indian Premeir League or not.

Controversial fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar’s chances of playing in the lucrative Indian Premier League seemed to be receding with the tribunal to hear his appeal against five-year ban not likely to decide on the matter soon.

Given the busy schedule of the chairman of the appellate tribunal Aftab Farrukh, retired judge of Lahore High Court and now a practicing barrister, it is unlikely that the case will be decided in a hurry.

The IPL starts on April 18 and organisers have said Akhtar, who was to play for Kolkata Knight Riders, would not be eligible to play in the Twenty20 tourney until the Pakistan board removes the ban imposed on him on disciplinary grounds.

“I don’t think we are going to have a situation where the appellate tribunal will reach a decision after one or two sittings and given the busy schedules of the chairman and Salman Taseer the hearings could drag on beyond a month,” a PCB official told.

The tribunal, which had former Test player Haseeb Ahsan and former federal minister Salman Taseer as other members, was set up last week and has a minimum of seven and maximum of 30 days to reach a decision on Akhtar’s appeal.

Akhtar was handed the five-year ban for breach of the players Code of Conduct, having publicly criticised various board policies after he was overlooked for a central contract in January.

Meanwhile, PCB chairman Nasim Ashraf, Disciplinary Committee chairman Muneer Hafeez and Akhtar will appear before the Senate Standing Committee on Sports and Culture on April 14 for a hearing called to look into cricket matters and the events leading up to the ban imposed on Akhtar.

Indian Premeir League organisers have agreed to drop a contentious clause in the media guidelines relating to the uploading of photographs on the IPL website within 24 hours and that should end the threatened media boycott of the Twenty20 tournament starting April 18.

Though there was no official word on the understanding reached between the IPL and the news agencies, it is learnt that IPL chief Lalit Modi is believed to have informed the news agencies that all restrictions on the newspapers subscribing to their photo service and also their websites using the pictures have been lifted.

The standoff between the IPL and the media arose after it sold its portal rights to an American company for over $50 million and the portal will have sole rights to the distribution and use of pictures.

Modi, who is also a vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, also had a meeting with officials of the Indian Newspapers Society and agreed to drop the clauses that they were opposing. He has, however, stated that the number of pictures should be reasonable and that should be acceptable to all.

The IPL has also made it clear that there would not be any restrictions on off-field photographs.

As for the standalone websites subscribing to the news agency pictures, the IPL has agreed to the self-restriction of six pictures a day.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting feels that the acrimony between his side and the Indians in the tour Down Under earlier this year had been blown out of proportion.

“A lot more was made of the last Australian series than I thought what happened,” Ponting told newspersons in Kolkata on Saturday.

Ponting felt though there were misunderstandings between the players of the two teams, the matter was sorted out after the Sydney Test

“And the rest of the summer was really played in very good spirits,” he said.

Ponting felt the Indian Premeir League would help the Indian and Australian players to understand each other better.

“Some of the players we will be playing alongside are some of the players we played against a month ago. It is an opportunity for Australian and Indian players to understand and know each other better.”

Ponting said his side would “sadly miss” Pakistani fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, who is likely to miss IPL after being slapped a five-year ban by the Pakistan Cricket Board.

“He would have been a valuable acquisition for the team. I must admit his style of bowling in this format of the game would be sadly missed if he is not playing for us. But if that’s the case we can’t do much about it.”

On playing only as a batsman and not as a captain in the IPL, he said, “I’m looking forward to playing cricket without having the responsibilities of captaincy on my shoulders. It will be a good opportunity for me to relax a little bit more and spend some more time with the young Indian players around the group.”

Asked how he would feel playing under Sourav Ganguly, Ponting replied, “Sourav always did a great job when he was leading India. He’s certainly one of the great players for India for a long time. And it will be interesting to see his style of leadership.”

He said captaining an IPL side consisting of players from various countries would be a tough job.

“It might not be an easy job altogether. Captaining a mixed team comprising players from different countries will be hard thing to do. But then that’s the challenge before the coach and Sourav over the next few weeks.”

Praising young Ishant Sharma, he said the lanky fast bowler would serve India well in the years to come.

“He (Ishant) had a terrific tour of Australia. He improved incredibly right through the tour. And I think he will be a good bowler for India in the years to come.”

Australian pace spearhead Brett Lee on Saturday rubbished suggestions that the Indian Premeir League (IPL) will lure players away from national duty, saying both can co-exist without being detrimental to each other.”I don’t think we should compare or match IPL with Australian cricket team as both have their own place,” said Lee, who would be playing for Kings XI Punjab, one of the eight IPL teams competing in the Twenty20 tournament beginning next week. On being quizzed about a recent survey conducted by Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) which says nearly half of the Aussie cricketers were willing to give up their central contracts to play in the cash-awash IPL, Lee said, “I don’t think there is any reason why we can’t do both (play for Australia and IPL simultaneously).”

“My heart is for Australian team and wearing Baggy Green cap is a great honour,” he added. The express bowler said he would give his “best” while playing for his IPL team “as I do when I play for Australia”.

Apart from Lee, Kings XI Punjab will have Yuvraj Singh as “icon player” leading the side and will also feature Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth, Piyush Chawla, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardane, Romesh Powar, James Hopes, VRV Singh, Uday Kaul among other players. Lee also felt players from different countries playing in one side “will also help strengthen bonds between the nations”.

Lee had a word of praise for Indian pacers Irfan Pathan and Sreesanth, saying “they are world class bowlers”. “It would be great to share the new ball with them,” he said.

Coach Tom Moody said he does not see motivation as a problem among players just because they come from different nations/regions.

“They are all professionals and have played in different conditions at different times…A lot of pride is at stake,” Moody said. Preity Zinta also expressed hope that her team would do well in the tournament.

Asked about the possibility that a section of the media may boycott the IPL in view of the restrictive clauses put forth by the League, Zinta said she would like to be “positive about the whole thing”. “I hope that a middle path will be followed and let’s hope it works out,” she said. Later, Lee and Zinta kick-started ticket sales at the PCA stadium.

The standoff between the Indian Premeir League and the media over controversial guidelines to cover the inaugural tournament looks set to ease as the IPL governing body has issued relaxed guidelines for media to cover the Twenty20 extravaganza.

The IPL has toned down some of its earlier restrictions, especially benefiting the print media and their respective websites. However, the websites having no print association would not be able to cover the matches from the ground. The IPL ban on news agencies supplying images to the websites stays. The fresh guidelines have been issued after a meeting with media representatives and IPL governing body members on Tuesday.

The new guidelines, which have been reduced to two pages, allowed website reporters to the venue a day before the match and for post match press conferences only. No online use or publication or syndication of any photograph clicked by accredited photographers is allowed except for the website of the publication.

The media gallery of a website can have up to any six pictures per match beyond whatever else is carried in the newspaper’s various editions.

The rules however warned the photographers for supplying pictures to any third party, including web portals and syndicates.

Earlier, IPL chairman and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) vice-president Lalit Modi agreed to relax rules to benefit the print media after discussing the matter with the Sports Journalists’ Federation of India (SJFI) and sports editors of mainline dailies on Monday.

Last week, the IPL had announced the media guidelines for accreditation, which a large section of the media houses found unacceptable.

The SJFI, on behalf of sports journalists and photographers, requested the BCCI President Sharad Pawar to resolve the contentious clauses.

The contentious norms arose from IPL’s terms and conditions, in which BCCI attempted to appropriate intellectual property rights on photographs shot by media organizations. IPL had banned websites from the event and demanded that agencies and print media houses upload, at their own cost, the pictures shot by them on IPL’s website for unrestricted use. Media organizations were irked by these guidelines, which amounted to restricting the use of images in any other publication even if it belonged to the same media house.

That BCCI was under some pressure was evident - the link to the media guidelines on the official tournament’s website was deactivated soon after the controversy broke.

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.

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.
 

As it received an overwhelming response to the offer of franchise for owning cricket teams in the Indian Premeir League, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday made it clear that no current player can have a stake in a company owning any of the teams.

The BCCI stand came in the wake of media reports that star batsman Sachin Tendulkar was in talks for a joint bid with the Future Group, which has expressed interest in becoming a franchisee of the BCCI’s Twenty20 venture. However, the company itself maintained that reports about Tendulkar were mere speculation.

“He is playing, so where the question of buying a team comes from? When someone is playing, how can he buy a team?” BCCI Vice President Rajeev Shukla, who is also a member of the IPL Governing Council, told a news channel.

His views were shared by BCCI Joint Secretary MP Pandove who said, “Any player contracted with the Board can’t have stakes in participating teams.”

Shukla said at the BCCI briefing that the IPL had received overwhelming response from companies.