IPL News

“If the IPL keeps growing … the next generation might opt for franchise over country. Everyone in the game should work towards ensuring that never happens,” he wrote in his new book Captain’s Diary 2008: A Season of Tests, Turmoil and Twenty20 to be released on Thursday.

Via Rediff

Rajasthan Royals, champions of the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL), is gearing up to become a global cricket brand. Emerging Media & Rajasthan Royals, owner of the team, is looking at raising Rs 100-150 crore by selling around 10% stake for this purpose. The funds will be deployed for acquiring cricket franchises overseas, specially in South Africa and Australia, as well as extending the Rajasthan Royals brand into other sports.

Via ET

Former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming has predicted that the success of the Indian Premier League and Twenty20 will encourage more youngsters in his country to choose cricket over rugby.

Via Cricinfo

Sri Lanka Cricket’s bid to stop its players from participating in next year’s Indian Premier League is not a surprise for the players’ association here, which alleged SLC made a similar effort last year to put a spoke in the wheel of the IPL-bound cricketers.

Via Hindu

Sir Richard Hadlee says “India has the potential to be the No. 1 team in all forms of the game. What we are seeing in India’s performance, it’s a reflection of Indian Premier League (IPL). India is a real force in world cricket,” said Hadlee.

Via Hindu

The Indian Premier League (IPL) recently extended a cause by offering four tickets in the chairman’s box to the final match of the 2009 IPL season at a Charity Auction Gala at The Dorchester Hotel in London. The aim was to raise money for Magic Bus, a Mumbai-based charity.

Via IndianTelevision

Foreign private equity firms have been approached to acquire a stake in an Indian cricket franchise as owners of the country’s leading teams in the sport look to raise cash.

Via FT

Televisionpoint.com

The Indian Cricket League (ICL) has announced that the World Series, starting from November 23, will be played between four teams - ICL India, ICL Pakistani, ICL World and ICL Bangladesh. All the matches of ICL World Series will be played at Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad.

ICL has a prize money corpus of Rs 2.74 crore for this tournament. The winners stand to gain Rs 1.25 crore, runner-up will cash in Rs 75 lakh. The financial incentive for every win will be Rs 10 lakh. The incentive for individual performance during the matches will be Rs 2 lakh for Man of the Match.

Kapil Dev, chairman, executive board, ICL, said, “With ICL World Series, our promising domestic boys will face the toughest challenge of proving their cricketing credentials against three of the mightiest teams in the world. These Indian players will be selected after a thorough selection process by the executive board along with the Selection committee, based on their growth as cricketers and respective individual performance.”

Himanshu Mody, business head, ICL, said, “It is a full-filling experience to see the ICL make rapid strikes in terms of growing bigger and better in only its second year of operations. Multiple venues, additional teams, an improved player base and to top it all, a impressive prize money to be won, should make the tournament an enthralling experience for both - the players and cricket fans.”

R. Sathish, Inzaman-ul-Haq, Chris Harris and Habibul Bashar will lead the ICL India, ICL Pakistani, ICL World and ICL Bangladesh teams respectively.

Sa’adi Thawfeeq

The Sri Lanka Cricketers’ Association (SLCA) has claimed Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), including chairman Arjuna Ranatunga, was informed during a meeting in June that some of the country’s leading cricketers had committed to the IPL for the next three years. However, in July, the SLC finalised a tour of England in 2009 - currently put on hold by sports minister Gamini Lokuge - despite assuring its cricketers during that meeting that they would keep a window free for the players’ participation in IPL till 2010. The tour announcement was made in July, a month after the meeting.

“We see this not as a one-off thing; we feel there is something more to it,” Graeme Labrooy, the SLCA secretary, said at a press conference in Colombo that was also addressed by Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lankan captain, and vice-captain Kumar Sangakkara. “Unfortunately, even in 2008, when the players had been given permission by Sri Lanka Cricket to play in the first IPL, SLC tried its best to play a one-day series in Pakistan that would have led to a direct confrontation with IPL. So it is not just the 2009 England tour.”

Labrooy, Jayawardene and Sangakkara said they had decided to go public with their views after recent comments from SLC officials, including Ranatunga, questioned their commitment to playing for the country. Sangakkara said he was “disturbed” by the ongoing controversy over the players’ participation in IPL.

Labrooy said that SLC’s only demand from the players during the June 12 meeting was they commit to playing 75% of the provincial season. SLC then agreed to tour England for two Tests and three ODIs after the ECB suspended bilateral ties with Zimbabwe, who were due to tour in 2009. Labrooy said Zimbabwe were slated to play three ODIs but the ECB were keen to add two Tests to give the players some practice ahead of Australia’s visit. “We were prepared to compromise and play three one-day games but England wouldn’t want to go with that. They were keen on playing two Test matches.

“The key stakeholders of the game are the players. Knowing the players had signed contracts during the same period, SLC should have come back with the England proposal and sat with the players and the cricketers’ association and thrashed out the matter. It would have been resolved to a great extent and wouldn’t have gone so far.”

Sangakkara and Jaywardene, who were given permission by the SLC to speak at the press conference, said they wanted to clear the air over the issue and present their “side of the story”. “We always try as players to stay away from controversy, to do what is right and to play our cricket in peace,” Sangakkara said. “There are certain things that we can ignore and take and not worry about it and make any comments. But when we are accused of misleading the public and the government of Sri Lanka, it is time for us to come out into the open and state our side of the story.”

Jayawardene said the players had signed for IPL as individuals and not as part of the Sri Lankan team. “So therefore I am not the captain of this IPL group,” he said. “I am the captain of the Sri Lanka team and I am responsible for the decisions which I make on and off the field regarding the team. Above and beyond that, it’s not my responsibility. All these players have their own managers or agents and they have individually written to SLC and got permission and signed with IPL.”

• Graeme Labrooy, the players’ association secretary, has said Sri Lanka can take its proposed multi-million deal with the Indian board to the next level “once we get our relationship on the road”.
• Labrooy said the offer involved Sri Lanka’s participation in the Champions Twenty20 League for the next ten years and was put forward by the BCCI as a solution for the loss Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) would suffer due to the aborted England tour next year. However, he admitted SLC’s hardline stance against the Indian board has meant the offer couldn’t be discussed in detail during a meeting in Bangkok last month.
• “A delegation appointed by the sports minister went to Bangkok to confirm the offer but unfortunately we couldn’t take it any further,” Labrooy said. “At this meeting, the BCCI officials expressed their disappointment over the strained relationship that had developed between them and SLC in the past few months and wanted to know why. They didn’t say the deal is off; it is still on. Once we get our relationship on the road, we can take it to the next level.”
• Speaking about the offer, Labrooy said, “We went to the IPL and sought their views about the deadlock with England. They came up with a solution that if SLC was going to lose US$2 million revenue on the England tour they would compensate that loss by giving us a window [Sri Lanka[ in the Champions League from next year and for the next nine years where they would pay a sum of $3million to SLC and $1m as participation fee to the provincial side to improve its cricket.”