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.
 

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.

The high-profile Indian Premeir League on Thursday received overwhelming response as India’s top industrialists Mukesh Ambani and Vijay Mallya, and film stars Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta won bids to own teams in the Twenty20 venture.

After much suspense, Board of Control for Cricket in India vice-president and IPL governing council chairman Lalit Modi named the winning bidders, who shelled out staggering amounts to become owners of the Mumbai-based teams.

Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani pipped Vijay Mallya in the bid for the Mumbai team, for US $111.9 million.

The liquor baron, however, won the bid for the Bangalore team, for US $111.6 million.

Actor Shah Rukh Khan, joining hands with Juhi Chawla and Jay Mehta, won the bid for the Kolkata team, for US $75.09 million.

Fellow-actor Preity Zinta and her boy friend Ness Wadia won the bid for the Mohali team, for US $76 million.

Among others, GMR Holdings was successful in bidding for the Delhi team (US $84 million), while India Cements bagged the Chennai team (US $91 million), Deccan Chronicle the Hyderabad (US $107.01 million) outfit and Emerging Media the Jaipur team, for US $67 million.

The bids of ICICI, Sahara and Futures Group were disqualified, Modi said.

“We can say that all the hard work fructified and the IPL is here to stay,” Modi said.

Asked if Shah Rukh was bidding just to use cricket as a means to promote his films, Modi replied, “Shah Rukh loves cricket and that’s why he invested his money. It has got nothing to do with film promotion.

“We have heard a similar complaint in the past but the Board never endorsed those views,” he added.

He also dismissed suggestions that there was a conflict of interests in Indian Cements, which has BCCI treasurer N Srinivasan as a shareholder, becoming a team owner.

“Mr Srinivasan is just a stakeholder there and he is not the owner. So there is no such conflicts of interests,” he said.

Modi admitted that some of the contracted international players would skip the twenty20 tournament, which begins on April 18 owing to national commitments, but said the pool of players is big enough.

“A team needs only four players from abroad and we already have a huge number of them contracted with us. You will have enough of them from the day one,” he said.

In all, 59 matches will be played over 44 days, with ICC umpires officiating the games that will be broadcast live on SET Max.

“We already have 80 contracted players and their auction would start soon. Each franchise will consult with the IPL Governing Council before naming the teams and discussing revenue sharing,” Modi said.

ICC’s anti-doping and anti-corruption units will also keep an eye on the Twenty20 league, he added.

Asked if the base price of US $50 million was too high, he replied, “It’s up to the bidders to decide if the base price was high. Since the winning bid proved much more than the base price, you can’t really say that it was too high.”

Schedules and operational guidelines of the league will be announced later.

Stung by the Essel Group-backed Indian Cricket League, the BCCI had announced the IPL to counter the rebel venture, which has left many state teams depleted.

New Zealand has also suffered a lot as six Kiwi players joined the ICL and pace spearhead Shane Bond too is ready to take the plunge.

The following are the bid amounts:

Vijay Mallya - US $111.6 million, for the Bangalore team.

Shah Rukh Khan - US $75.09 million, for the Kolkata team.

GMR Holdings - US $84 million, for the Delhi team.

Mukesh Ambani - US $111.9 million, for the Mumbai team.

India Cements - US $91 million, for the Chennai team.

Deccan Chronicle - US $107.01 million, for the Hyderabad team.

Emerging Media - US $67 million, for the Jaipur team.

Preity Zinta - US $76, for the Mohali team.

Sports broadcaster Sony Max and sports rights company World Sport Group have jointly paid US$1.026bn for the rights to the Indian Premeir League (IPL) cricket championship.

The deal gives the partnership shared rights to the series for 10 years, and brings with it a change of direction for Sony Max parent Sony Entertainment Television (SET), which previously backed the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup.

The change of heart follows the Indian cricket team’s early exit from last year’s ICC World Cup, which resulted in a significant financial loss for SET. Reports put SET’s accumulated debts as high as US$100m.

And as a result of advertiser uncertainly over the prowess of the Indian cricket squad, coupled with the rising cost of ICC rights, SET has now turned to the IPL for its future cricket coverage.

The new arrangement gives World Sport Group the international media rights for internet, mobile and radio, with Sony Max bagging the South Asian TV rights to the competition, which begins on April 18.

Kunal Dasgupta, CEO of SET India, said: “We officially broadcast the ICC events for seven years, from 2000 to 2007. We are not interested in the next ICC events because it is becoming a little expensive. We have decided to go for the shorter version of 20:20 matches.”

Players signing up with Indian Premeir League (IPL) will have agree to a two-year waiting period between retiring from international cricket and joining the league, chairman Lalit Modi has said. Interested players will have to get No-Objection Certificates (NOC) from their country’s board.

Modi said the league did not wish to harm the other forms of the game. “This [NOC] will prevent players from retiring before their home boards want them to,” Modi told the Sydney Morning Herald.

“Players will have to think twice if they are considering an early retirement to join us. The IPL has no interest in jeopardising international cricket or home boards. The keys are in the hands of the board.”

Tim May, the chief executive of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations, had earlier said any move by national boards to stop such retirements, or to ban players who join Twenty20 leagues, could be a restraint of trade and might result in court action.

India’s cricket authorities released terms for owning teams in their proposed Indian Premeir League, projecting the franchises as both a profit-making business opportunity as well as platforms for corporate branding. The prospectus, however, doesn’t set any minimum bid price for tenders set to be floated later this month.

BCCI vice-president and chairman of Indian Premeir League, Lalit Modi Successful bidders will get to keep 80% of revenues in the first two years of operations.

Their share gradually goes down to 50% in year 11. Revenues are expected to be generated through television rights, sponsorships, tickets, food and other sales as well as premium and box seats.

The 75-page document, which comes with interspersed pictures of cricketers, notes that the league’s format of just 20 overs per team is one that is now most preferred by fans of the game. It claims that 76% of Indian cricket fans favour it over one-day matches and five-day Test matches and notes how it will get high television ad rates.

During the recent India-Pakistan cricket series, Test matches shown on channel Neo Sports attracted Rs3 lakh for a 10-second spot while one-day matches got Rs5.51 lakh for a similar slot.

But, a similar spot during the final of the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa earned broadcaster ESPN Star Sports Rs800,000, the prospectus notes. The league will be “a must have, prime time content for broadcasters” who will have 12,744 10-second ad spots during a typical season, the prospectus said.

Other than suggesting what ad spots might sell for, the prospectus gives little clues on suggested prices for those aspiring to buy teams. “The bid will require each bidder to state the total franchisee fee they are offering for an initial 10-year period,” it says.

In earlier interviews, the league’s chairman and vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Lalit Modi, had said the price would be $50 million (Rs198 crore). The league will take “cricket to a whole new level that once upon a time ago seemed like a fool’s dream,” Modi wrote in the prospectus.

“It means we finally revive domestic cricket.” Apart from the franchise fee, a bidder would have to pay player and staff salaries, stadium leases, security, travel and accommodation.

The league will publish an intention to tender (ITT) later this month and the auction of players will follow immediately after the franchises have been awarded. The ITT will name cities and stadium terms with bidders allowed to bid for multiple locations.

The league is scheduled to begin in April at the start of India’s fiscal year when new advertising and marketing budgets kick in. Some major sponsors of cricket had mixed reactions to owning teams.

One top official at Pepsico India Holdings Pvt. Ltd, who didn’t want to be named, said his company wasn’t interested and that “our calendar is full.” A Bharti Airtel Ltd spokesperson said it was “premature” to discuss buying a team. Future Group chairman Kishore Biyani said: “There would be a very strong chance we will participate.”

Shane Warne will be the Indian Premeir League’s most expensive signing, at a cost of US$400,000 for the first season, set to kick off in April 2008. The finance committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India met in Mumbai on Friday and approved several decisions taken by the IPL’s governing council regarding payment of its players.

The fee quoted for Warne is the signing amount for him to be part of the player pool from which franchises will bid for the rights to employ players within their ranks. With Brian Lara reportedly being paid US$1 million to appear in the Indian Cricket League, and the market heating up over the two rival leagues, Warne and similar big-ticket signings could rope in well in excess of US$1 million, sources revealed.

The second-highest signing-on fee has, not surprisingly, been paid to Glenn McGrath, whose nifty line-and-length bowling see him join up for US$350,000. Stephen Fleming, whose agents flirted with the ICL but in the end held back - to the extent that Fleming was one of those present at the IPL’s launch - also nets US$350,000.

Mohammad Yousuf, who had reportedly signed with the ICL before being lured away by the Pakistan board - which made no effort to stop Inzamam-ul-Haq, Abdul Razzaq or Imran Farhat from joining the unrecognised league - has signed up with the IPL for US$330,000. A surprise entrant in the top five - and at the moment the list does not include current Australian or Indian cricketers - is Shoaib Malik, who is guaranteed US$300,000.

The ICL, which is nearing the end of its inaugural edition, will hand out approximately Rs 18 crore [approx. US$4.5 million] in total prize-money for its 16-day tournament.

The fees have been decided for only 34 of the 49 cricketers signed up by the IPL, sources said, and, of these, only 11 have received [partial] advance payments. The only player to receive payment in full is Yousuf, not surprising given that he was once a dead certainty to join the ICL. It is understood that McGrath is among those who have been given a sizeable advance.

The 29 others who have received contracts:

[All amounts in US$]
Australia Justin Langer 175,000
Sri Lanka Farveez Maharoof: 150,000, Kumar Sangakkara: 250,000, Mahela Jaywardene: 250,000, Muttiah Muralitharan: 250,000, Sanath Jayasuriya: 250,000, Nuwan Zoysa: 100,000, Dilhara Fernando: 150,000, Chaminda Vaas: 175,000, Lasith Malinga: 200,000
Pakistan Mohammad Asif 225,000, Shahid Afridi: 225,000, Shoaib Akhtar: 225,000, Younus Khan: 225,000
West Indies Shivnarine Chanderpaul 175,000
New Zealand Daniel Vettori 225,000, Jacob Oram 200,000, Scott Styris 150,000, Brendon McCullum 175,000
South Africa Loots Bosman 150,000, AB de Villiers 175,000, Albie Morkel 200,000, Graeme Smith 225,000, Herschelle Gibbs 225,000, Shaun Pollock 200,000, Ashwell Prince 150,000, Makhaya Ntini 175,000, Mark Boucher 175,000, Jacques Kallis 200,000.