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.

If the Indian Premeir League is all about flamboyance and showbiz, Delhi Daredevils have in their skipper Virender Sehwag everything wrapped up in one explosive package.

The marauding opener apart, the squad pales in comparison with the star value of some of the other franchises. The GMR-owned team might not boast of top stars but they have roped in some bright youngsters from domestic circuit and that could make a huge difference in the Twenty20 version as it demands high levels of energy and athleticism.

Among the foreign recruits, Daredevils’ biggest catch is South African A B de Villiers and New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori. AB is going through the form of his life and would be the player to watch in the tournament. Vettori is one of the world’s best spinner at present and he will play a big role in the competition as he is handy bat too.

As Vettori rightly put it, any of the eight teams with quality Indian players will have an advantage. Since there is a cap on the number of international players in the team, the Indian support cast will play a major role. The Indians will be the real strength of the side.

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.

The inaugural Indian Premeir League was facing a media boycott on Thursday after the influential Indian Newspaper Society joined calls for “offending” accreditation conditions to be lifted.

The Indian media has protested loudly over the IPL’s decision to ban websites from covering matches and to prohibit international and local news agencies from supplying photographs to online clients.

“The accreditation terms failed to address the issues of intellectual property rights belonging to media as well as issues of press freedom,” INS president Bahubali Shah said in a statement.

“The Indian Newspaper Society hopes a serious attempt will be made by the Indian Premier League to remove offending terms and conditions for media accreditation.

“In the absence of remedial action by the Indian Premeir League, members of the Indian Newspaper Society will be forced to take an adverse view on the question of coverage of IPL matches.”

The Twenty20 competition, promoted by the Indian cricket board and featuring stars from around the world, opens April 18. The deadline for accreditation was Thursday.

The London-based international News Media Coalition called the accreditation terms “a serious and unprecedented curtailment of the freedom of the press to fully report events of public interest.”

The NMC focuses on the threat from excessive controls on the flow of news to the public, and is supported by newspapers, agencies and press freedom bodies around the world.

The Hindu, a leading broadsheet, attacked the IPL’s policies in a scathing editorial.

“Greed and arrogance and a total lack of common sense seem to be driving the IPL along a path of confrontation, which will surely bring on a media boycott,” the daily predicted.

The IPL tournament lines up eight teams bought by franchises who selected their players via a multi-million dollar auction last month.

The tournament marks the first time that international cricketers will put aside national allegiances to play for privately-owned and city-based teams.

Top cricketers have been offered huge pay packets to take part in the 44-day, 59-match extravaganza across cricket-mad India.

Moves by sports organisers to curb media rights have largely failed in the past.

FIFA tried imposing similar restrictions on photo coverage of the 2006 World Cup but backed down under a threat of a worldwide boycott.

In September last year, organisers of the Rugby World Cup settled at the last minute after a long dispute over media rights.

Two months later, global news agencies boycotted the coverage of the first Test between Sri Lanka and Australia in Brisbane after Cricket Australia imposed similar restrictions.

A compromise was reached after the match to allow the agencies to cover the second Test in Hobart.

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