It may be recalled that the IPL Season 2 matches had to look for South African venues prompted by security reasons. South Africa was earlier chosen to host the second edition of the Indian Premier League which was shifted out of India due to security apprehensions. The decision to hold the lucrative tournament was taken after a meeting between IPL commissioner Lalit Modi and Cricket South Africa CEO Gerald Majola. The tournament will be held between April 18 and May 24, a delay of about one week from the original schedule.

Hero Honda has said that the relocation of the tournament doesn’t stand to benefit his company and also the future of the Indian Premier League. The reason being said is that when an IPL team plays at home, it evokes a lot of fan and team following. Now with an overseas venue coming into play, the case will be totally different.

Hero Honda in fact looks at continued participation but the gain it can expect is going to be minimal However, it said that it was still happy that the event was at least taking place amid fears of a possible cancellation.

Meanwhile, IPL Season 2will begin with an opening ceremony at the Wanderers stadium in Johannesburg. The stadium is also scheduled to host two semifinals.

Chennai Super Kings will be the biggest losers as their top stars Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey will depart on April 29.

The already battered Kings XI Punjab will not have the services of fast bowler Brett Lee and Simon Katich, while another struggling team, Deccan Chargers, would have to bid adieu to Andrew Symonds.
Kolkata Knight Riders would loose Ricky Ponting.

The players are leaving to take part in a team training programme ahead of the Carribean tour.
New Zealand stars Jacob Oram would also leave the Chennai Super Kings camp early next month, to be followed by his team mates Daniel Vettori (Delhi Daredevils), and big hitter Brendan McCullum (Kolkata Knight Riders)

With these departures there would be a perceived changes in the fortunes of the teams. South African big hitter Herschelle Gibbs would join the Deccan Chargers, while his skipper Graeme Smith will strengthen the ranks of the resurgent Rajasthan Royals.

Shane Warne will also have the services of Pakistan’s Younis Khan and Sohail Tanvir.

Chennai Superkings can take consolation from the fact that their bowling department will be strengthened with the arrival of Makaya Ntini this week.

Albie Morkel is also slated to join the Chennai Superkings. Will these changes affect the fortunes of the team? Only time will tell.

The claim was made by the Siddiqui family and said that the marriage with his daughter Aisha took place in 2002.

After the allegation erupted, Shoaib said that he never married an Indian Muslim girl. He also later accused the family of trying to cheat him by showing a fake photo of another girl.

Shoaib Malik is in Hyderabad now to play for the DLF IPL. Delhi Daredevils, the Delhi franchisee of the DLF IPL, had bought him at the IPL player auction two months back.

But it seems that the Pakistan skipper is not showing any nerves. Before leaving for India, Malik said, “If you know there are two legal notices with the Siddiqui family that I have sent them to retract their claims and apologise for trying to defame me, and they have kept quiet on the notices.”

Malik continued, “If I had anything to hide or was afraid, I would not go to Hyderabad for the IPL game.”

Delhi Daredevils will face Hyderabad Chargers at Hyderabad today. Since Delhi already boasts of eight foreign players in the side, the presence of Shaaib Malik making an appearancce in the team is doubtful and is in the hands of Daredevils captain Virender Sehwag.

Malik said, “We are professional cricketers and we have a playing life span of around 12 to 15 years. So we have to remain committed and perform to the best of our abilities. For me, the IPL is as important being a professional as playing for Pakistan.”

Since the match would be played in Hyderabad, the Deccan Chargers could well have the so-called home advantage, playing in front of the home crowd. The most important thing to be noted here is the presence of Shahid Afridi, the explosive batsman from Pakistan joining the side for tomorrow’s match against the Delhi Daredevils.

The batting line-up of Deccan Chargers looks good on paper consisting of Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Y Venugopal Rao, Rohit Sharma and Ranji players D B Ravi Teja and Kalyan Krishna. Though captain VVS Laxman is not exactly Twenty20 material, one can expect him to score some runs, if he comes to bat in the middle rather than open the batting.

Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Symonds, the Aussie batsmen, are both aggressive and can well score some useful runs for the team. Considering the astronomical figure he got during the auction, Symonds would be readying up to live up to the expectations laid upon him.

Another batsman that could come to the rescue of Deccan Chargers is Shahid Afridi, the explosive Pakistani batsman who can take the match away from the opponents anytime.

Even the bowling line up of Deccan Chargers is quite strong with the likes of  Scott Styris, Chaminda Vaas, R P Singh and the locay boy Pragyan Ojha, who was instrumental in his team’s efforts against the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Delhi Daredevils, the Delhi franchisee of the DLF IPL and being led by Virender Sehwag, will have A B de Villiers, Shoaib Malik, Mohammed Asif, Tillakratne Dilshan and Abdul Razzak as the main batters.

The final teams for the game will be selected from:

Deccan Chargers: VVS Laxman (Captain), Scott Styris, Adam Gilchrist (WK), H Gibbs, Andrew Symonds, Sanjay Bangar, Rohit Sharma, Chamara Silva, Y Venugopal Rao, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa, Haldhar Das (wk), D Kalyan Krishna, Pragyan Ojha, DB Raviteja, PM Sarvesh Kumar, R P Singh, P Vijay Kumar and Arjun Yadav. Coach: Robin Singh

Delhi Daredevils: Virender Sehwag (Captain), Gautam Gambhir, Manoj Tiwari, Daniel Vettori, Shoaib Malik, Dinesh Kartik, Glenn McGrath, Mohammed Asif, Ferveez Meharoof, Pradeep Sangwan, Brett Geeves, Rajat Bhatia, Shikar Dhawan, Yo Mahesh, Tillakratne Dilshad, Abdul Razzak, Mithun Manhas, Mayank Tehlan, Amit Mishra, Tejaswi Yadav, A B de Villiers and Yogesh Nagar. Coach: Greg Shipperd.

Delhi Daredevils led by Virender Sehwag takes on Rajasthan Royals led by Shane Warne in DLF IPL on Saturday at New Delhi. Virender Sehwag’s fine form with the bat is what Delhi Daredevils count most apart from the perceived advantage of the home turf at Feroz Shah Kotla. Delhi Daredevils suffered a setback due to the unavailability of Pakistan’s Mohammad Asif and Shoaib Malik, due to their international assignments and hence Sehwag would be under tremendous pressure to cut loose. In form opener Gautam Gambhir would also have to make his willow do the talking and giver his skipper Virender Sehwag able assistance. In the bowling department, Sehwag can afford to relax. Aussie Glen McGrath and Daniel Vettori are the best bets in any form of the game. Vettori’s intelligent spin would not be an easy proposition to any batsmen. McGrath on the other hand is known for his nagging accuracy.
Captain and Coach Shane Warne leads the Rajasthan Royal Challengers charge against Delhi Daredevils. But Rajasthan Royal Challengers are also missingsome key players – South African captain Graeme Smith and his team mate Morkel as well as Pakistan’s Younis Khan.
But Shane Warne is hoping that all rounder Shane Watson will fire from all cylinders. Shane Watson is known to be a big hitter. Mohammad Kaif gets a chance to prove his skills with the bat and on the field for Rajasthan Royals.
Bookies give Delhi Daredevils a slight advantage but one explosive innings can swing the match as Brendon McCullum showed in Bangalore the other day.
Teams
Delhi Daredevils
Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Bret Geeves , Glen McGrath, Shoaib Malik, Daniel Vettori, AB de Villers, Farveez Maharoof, Tilakaratne Dilshan, Mohammed Asif, Manoj Tiwari, Dinesh Karthik, Mithun Manhas, Pradeep Sangwan, Shikhar Dhawan, Yo Mahesh, Amit Mishra, Mayank Tehlan, Rajan Bhatia.

Rajasthan Royals
Shane Warne, Graeme Smith, Younis Khan, Shane Watson, Sohail Tanvir, Kamran Akmal, M Morkel, Justin Langer, Mohammad Kaif, Yusuf Pathan, Munaf Patel, Pankaj Singh, Mahesh Rawat, Sidharth Trivedi, Taruwar Kohli, R JadeJA, Niraj Patel, Swapnil Asnodkar, Anup Revandkar, D Salunkhe, Sumeet Khatri, Aditya Angle, Jaydev Shah, Parag More.

Described by many as the worst team on paper, Delhi Daredevils seems to have an advantage over Rajasthan Royals with a great fielding side and more pinchhitters.

Delhi Daredevils

The Delhi Daredevils is a mixed bag team of youth and experience. They have the flashy Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, who were bagged for $833,750 and $725,000, respectively. Both are good Twenty20 players.

The Delhi Daredevils can also boast of South African AB De Villiers who is in great nick right now, New Zealand Captain Daniel Vettori, and Sri Lankan Tilakratne Dilshan. Daniel Vettori seems to be having a great time in the warm climes of Delhi, considering the toungue in cheek ad spots he has been figuring in on TV in Delhi.

The Delhi team also has youngsters like Rajat Bhatia, Shikhar Dhawan, Mithun Manhas and Mayank Tehlan, Pradeep Sangwan, and Yo Mahesh. All have done exceptionally well in the domestic season recently.

The batting line-up looks well balanced with hitters like Virender Sehwag (Twenty 20 strike rate of 133.6), Gautam Gambhir (Twenty20 strike rate of 129.71), and Del Villiers (Twenty20 strike rate: 103.7), and consistent players like Shoaib Malik Twenty 20 strike rate of 123.01), and Dilshan (Twenty 20 strike rate of 102.94). The line-up is backed up by Dinesh Kartik, Rajat Bhatia, Manhas and Tehlan.

Batsman Rajat Bhatia was instrumental in securing Delhi’s Ranji Trophy win after 16 years.

The bowling line-up looks good with Glen McGrath, Australian ex-strike bowler, who was man-of-the-series in the last World Cup, spinner Daniel Vettori, Mohammad Asif, and Maharoof. Left-arm pacer Pradeep Sangwan was the star of the Under-19 World Cup that India won.

Best Feature: The Daredevils have a superb fielding outfit, with brilliant fielders like Villiers and Dilshan, supported by six very athletic youngsters.

Key Players: Virender Sehwag, Glenn McGrath, and AB De Villiers

Disadvantage: A shaky bowling attack with Asif and Maharoof battling with injuries while Vettori is off to join the New Zeland team’s tour to England.

Rajasthan Royals

The Rajasthan Royals biggest ace-in-the-pack is captain-coach Shane Warne. Considered the finest leg-spinner in the world, Warne is the only non-Indian captain in the DLF IPL tournament. The other big draw is Shane Warne’s archrival Graeme Smith, captain of the South Africa team.

Graeme Smith has a fantastic record with the bat. He has played 115 ODIs and has a strike rate of 82.62. In International Twenty20s, Smith has played 10 matches and has a strike rate of 132.71.

The Rajasthan Royals also have pinchhitter Dmitri Mascarenhas, who has an ODI  strike rate of 116.67 and an International Twenty20 strike rate of 105.41. He is famous for hitting five consecutive sixes off the final five balls of an innings against India in 2007. Mascarenhas is pretty much the Rajasthan Royals trump card.

The Rajasthan Royals also have Mohammad Kaif, Kamran Akmal (Twenty 20 strike rate of 116.92), Sohail Tanvir and Younus Khan (Twenty 20 strike rate of 118.92).

The other players in the squad are Yusuf Pathan, Niraj Patel, Siddharth Trivedi, Ravindra Jadeja, Swapnil Asnodkar, Taruwar Kohli, Jaydev Shah, Sumeet Khatri, Parag More, Mahesh Rawat, Pankaj Singh and Dinesh Salunkhe.

Key Player: Dmitri Mascarenhas

Disadvantage : Graeme Smith will miss the first two matches in the IPL tournament and will be replaced by former Australian batsman Darren Lehman. Smith will be back on April 24, 2008.

The Indian film fraternity is being actively woed by the franchises as the Indian Premier League (IPL) dates approach. The latest to join the crowd is Akshay Kumar, who has just been appointed brand ambassador for Delhi Daredevils captained by Virender Sehwag.

In a bid to give new vigour for the parting teams, the owners of IPL franchises have already appointed high- paid film stars to endorse their brands. The owner of the Chennai Super Kings, India Cements started the trend by roping in south Indian matinee idols Vijay and the sexy Nayanthara as their brand ambassadors. These stars are now in the frame to popularise the Indian one day team captain Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings. The stars were heavily paid by the India Cements for endorsing the team.

The other IPL teams are also thinking about roping in big personal brands in film field to popularise the game and promote themselves. There is news that actors Katrina Kaif and Deepika Padukone might endorse the Bangalore IPL team, Royal Challengers.  Rahul Dravid, former Indian captain, is the captain of Bangalore Royal Challengers.

The Delhi Daredevils team is owned by infrastructure developer GMR Group. Akshay Kumar belongs to Delhi and has big star value in the Hindi heart land. The Virender Sehwag-led Delhi team will now get a new face to promote their brand in the coming Twenty20 matches. Gautum Gambhir, Mohammed Asif and Shoaib Malik are also members of the Delhi IPL team.

Shah Rukh Khan’s ownership of Kolkata Knight Riders automatically lends it publicity. Preity Zinta on the other hand has given a new face to her Mohali IPL team by appointing Daler Mehndi, and music duo Sajid-Wajid to endorse the team. They will come out with a new album promoting the Mohali team. SRK’s Kolkata Knight Riders has signed up Vishal-Shekar and dance master Ganesh Hegde for its promotional activities.

It is expected that IPL will become a big business and additional revenue source for film stars as the cricket war enters the next phase. Different companies and individuals owning IPL franchises are ready to spend as much as money possible to popularise the IPL tournament and reap the financial rewards.

“I belong to Delhi and this my team. I always like cricket and I am a firm believer in sportsman spirit,” said Akhsay Kumar. The Bollywood action and comic hero has been having an excellent run at the box office recently.

At the event announcing Akshay Kumar as the Daredevils’ brand ambassador, Virender Sehwag (who just broke the record for the fastest ever triple century in test cricket) captain and icon player, Gautam Gambhir, Pak players Shoaib malik and Mohamed Asif were present.

Bollywood stars Preity Zinta and Shah Rukh Khan are promoters of Mohali and Kolkata IPL teams.
Tamil actor Vijay and actress Nayantara have been roped in as ambassadors of Chennai IPL team, while

Deepika Padukone and Katrina Kaif is associated with the IPL Bangalore team’s theme song.

Shah Rukh Khan has contracted Rani Mukherji and Bipasha Basu for his Kolkata Knight Riders’ theme song. Juhi Chawla is also the promoter of Kolkata Knight Riders. Virender Sehwag is the Delhi IPL team captain.

Virender Sehwag (Captain)
Daniel Vettori
Mohammad Asif
Shoaib Malik
Dinesh Karthik
AB de Villiers
Farveez Maharoof
Tillakaratne Dilshan
Gautam Gambhir
Manoj Tiwary
Glenn McGrath
Rajat Bhatia
Shikhar Dhawan
Mithun Manhas
Mayank Tehlan
Pradeep Sangwan
Brett Geeves

GMR Sports, owner of the Delhi Daredevils team has announced the sponsors for its IPL team. Hero Honda will be the main sponsor for the upcoming Twenty:20 tournament, while Adidas has signed up as the team’s Official Kit Supplier. Vijay Mallya’s has a pie in the Delhi Daredevils team too – Kingfisher is the associate sponsor for the Delhi IPL team. Greg Shipperd, coach of Victoria state in Australia will be the coach, and his assistant David Sacker is the assistant-cum-trainer of the Delhi Daredevils.

Virender Sehwag, captain and icon player of the Delhi Daredevils is confident that he has a match-winning team on his hands.

The Delhi daredevils faced some disappointments too. Ashish Nehra, whom the team wanted, was taken by Mumbai Indians – Sehwag said that he was too expensive for Delhi Daredevils. Ishant Sharma, bowling hero of India’s CB Series tour down under, was snatched up by Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knightriders. Not a major setback, feels Virender Sehwag.

This is what Sehwag told the media while introducing the Delhi daredevils lineup: “Our team combination is good, it is a balanced side. We have very good batsmen, brilliant bowlers and excellent all-rounders.” Sehwag added that the Daredevils are a young side, and therefore he thinks that they are the best fielding side in the IPL tournament.

The daredevils team has eight international players — Glenn McGrath, Daniel Vettori, Farvez Maharoof, Tillekaratne Dilshan and Brett Geeves, Shoaib Malik, AB de Villiers, Mohammad Asif.

Eight international players, yes. But remember that only 4 international players will be allowed to play in a match. The team practise sessions however would be interesting with a bunch of local lads and myriad accents and an Australian coach. That goes for most of the IPL teams, I guess!

Delhi Daredevils will play their first IPL match against Rajasthan Royals at the Ferozeshah Kotla on April 19, 2008.

Our original daredevils post

Ashish Nehra was not in the list of contracted players.

The lanky fast bowler had practically vanished from public memory. Nehra last played for India in September 2005. He has not featured in the recent Ranji games either. The other bowlers in the Mumbai Indians IPL team are Shaun Pollock, Lasith Malinga, Dilhara Fernando and Mumbai’s Abhishek Nayar. Would IPL become a lifeline for Nehra?

Delhi Daredevils also had a keen interest in Ashish Nehra, but top dollar sealed the matter for Reliance-promoted Mumbai Indians.

At least, IPL and ICL together have brought a lot of players who were languishing just one level below the national team back into the spotlight. Good for them.