Hrithik Roshan, the dashing young Bollywood actor, has been roped as the brand ambassador of MUmbai Indians squad. Though the amount for which Hrithik Roshan was tapped by the Mumbai Indians is still unknown, the presence of Hrithik is sure to attract a lot of youngsters to the side.

The prize money for the winners of DLF IPL is an astonishing USD 1.2million, which is something that would make the owners of the IPL teams happy. Although for Mumbai Indians the money is not a huge problem, since its owned by none other than Mukesh Ambani, bagging Hrithink  Roshan and even the team itself for astronomical figures would mean that the owners are looking for good returns.

Mumbai Indians will play its first IPL match against Chennai’s Super Kings on April 20. Sachin Tendulkar is quite unlikely to play the first couple of matches due to his groin injury. That will be a big disappointment indeed for all Mumbai Indians fans.

Hrithik Roshan will also lead the fan club of Mumbai Indians, titled  ‘MI Paltan’, a tie-up with Yash Raj Film’s “Tashan” for cross-promotional purposes and the sale of tickets for its matches. Reliance Group logo is absent from the promotional campaigns of Mumbai Indians, and the group has announced that all the future activities of Mumbai Indians would be held under a new company called ‘IndiaWin Sports’. The formation of this new company could well be an indication that the Reliance Group is looking well beyond cricket, perhaps towards a bit of commitment in sports.

Mr. R. Balachandran, Director, IndiaWin Sports and President & Chief Marketing Officer, Reliance Retail, said, “It was done recently. Presently the focus is on IPL and cricket and the objective is to build a very strong foundation. IPL is for perpetuity. “If there is a long term opportunity to engage in more sports we would look at it at the appropriate time.”

As per IndiaWin Sports executives, Hhrithik Roshan was chosen as the brand ambassador of Mumbai Indians by Nita AMbani, the wife of owner Mukesh Ambani. According to Nita Ambani, Hrithik represents  youth, energy and tenacity, and is driven by aspirations.

The partners of Mumbai Indians IPL team are MasterCard and Adidas. The print media campaign of Mumbai Indians feature Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, Sanath Jayasuriya and Robin Uthappa, while the audio-visual campaign stars Hrithik ROshan. Hrithik sings a marathi-Hindi mix theme song, ‘Ala re ala’ (here we come), Duniya Hila Denge (Let’s rock the world).

Mumbai Indians has also ropped in the famous commentator Harsha Bhogle as its advisor. Bhogle said, “”We are going to take great care to see that everyone integrates together because people are coming from different places. We have got a lot of youngsters from Maharashtra as well, from Mumbai itself.”

The prominent figure featuring in the Mumbai Indians team are Sanath Jayasuriya, Lasith Malinga, Dilhara Fernando, Pollock, Loots Bosman, Harbhajan Singh and Robin Uthappa. Ashwell Prince will also feature in the team. Other players who will star in the Mumbai Indians team are Ajinkya Rahane, Abhishek Nayar, Yogesh Takawale and Pinal Shah.

Much to the surprise of many Indian cricket fans, Mumbai Indians have also roped in Dominic Thornely, a little-known Australian cricketer. Thornely is known for his aggressive batting and is also known for his combination of medium pace and spin. Some think Sachin is making up for the loss of Andrew Symonds to Deccan Chargers.

Mumbai Indians have started practising for the IPL matches. Heavy security marked the opening day of Mumbai Indians’ practice. The Mumbai Indians team would be staying in the ITC Grand Central, Parel, which will be their home for the coming two months.

The league matches of Mumbai Indians would be held at Nerul’s DY Patil stadium, which is almost 30km from the Mumbai Indians’ hotel.

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 home matches would be played in Wankhade Stadium and D Y Patil Stadium at Nerul, Navi Mumbai. Mumbai Indians’ first take on Vijay Mallya promoted Bangalore Royal Challengers in Wankhade stadium on April 20.

Sachin Tendulkar is the captain of the Mumbai team, but his participation is in doubt die to an injury.
Sachin did not play in the Ahmedabad and Kanpur Tests against South Africa.

Mumbai will see two matches – one, at the famous Wankhede stadium at Churchgate, and the other at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.

Sachin Tendulkar is the pride of Mumbai – and Mumbaikars turn up to watch Sachin play without fail. So, one can expect a massive turnout for the two matches.

The first match of the Mumbai Indians IPL team will be against the Bangalore Royal Challengers, captained by Rahul Dravid at the Wankhede Stadium on April 20, 2008. The Bangalore Royal Challengers team is owned by liquor baron, airline magnate and F1 team owner Vijay Mallya. The second match will be on April 27, 2008, Mumbai Indians vs Hyderabad’s Deccan Chargers, captained by VVS Laxman.

Expect a publicity blitz for Mumbai Indians in the coming days. Hritik Roshan has been appointed rband ambassador for the Mumbai Indians teams, and he will feature in a promotional video campaign. There will be a Hindi song “Duniya Hila Denge Hum (Let’s rock the world)”, but at this moment, we are unclear if this will be the tam anthem of the Mumbai Indians, or just a song.

For Mumbaikars, the ticket prices would range from Rs 250-500 all the way up to Rs 3000-5000 for the first match. For the second match, ticket prices would range from Rs 200-400 to Rs 1000.

Mumbai Indians captain Sachin Tendulkar sounded confident at the launch of Mumbai Indians in March. However, ever since, he has been low-key. Now that the India – South Africa test series is over, IPL publicity and momentum should pick up, and I guess we would be seeing a lot more of Sachin Tendulkar and the Mumbai Indians brand ambassador, Hritik Roshan.

Titled ‘Manoranjan Ka Baap’, the 75-second commercial is a tribute to the high-on-entertainment movies of the 80s and pitches IPL as the ultimate destination for TV entertainment. The commercial amplifies the expression ‘the Baap of all Entertainment’. The film revolves around a mother and her twin fatherless sons named Mano and Ranjan – . The family is constantly victimised and subjected to barbs by the entire village. Kab aayega tumhara baap? (When will your father come?) is a never-ending taunt. The twins keep retaliating that their father will definitely return one day. The narration builds to a climax with the woe-ridden woman contemplating ending her life and that is when the miracle occurs. Her children stop her just in time by screaming that their father has arrived. Cut to children dancing deliriously and kissing the TV set and the voice over announcing “Aagaya Manoranjan Ka Baap. DLF Indian Premier League. Sirf MAX par”

According to T Gangadhar, Vice President and Head of Marketing, MAX, “From a broadcast strategy perspective, the challenge was to find a unifier that binds the entire country – a lowest common denominator that is compelling enough to take on existing TV viewing habits. And that glue can only be our insatiable passion for wholesome entertainment. This is precisely why the DLF IPL broadcast has been positioned as the definitive and ultimate entertainment destination for those 44 days when the League is in progress.”

The film has been directed by Rajesh Krishnan of Soda Films. The campaign will be aired extensively on television – on SET Network channels as well as other General Entertainment, News, Music and Regional channels across India. The campaign will also run on Radio, Cinema, Outdoor and on the Internet. Max will also promote DLF IPL in 150 towns through on-ground activities.

The Indian Premier League will be telecast in North America, Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean by Willow TV who have acquired the rights for television, radio, broadband and internet.
SET and World Sports Group (WSG) won the IPL broadcast rights for $1.03 billion. Sony will telecast IPL matches in the Indian sub-continent and WSG will explore the international market.

This would be the most highly anticipated match being the inaugural one. Red Chillies is actually fronted by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan – just by being the owner, he has ensured millions of rupees worth of publicity for the Kolkata Knight Riders. The Knight Riders team is being captained by the Prince of Kolkata Sourav Ganguly.

Here is the Kolkata team players list. Remember that only four foreign players can be part of the playing eleven – so we do not know who will actually feature in the match.

Batsmen

David Hussey
Ricky Ponting
Salman Butt
Akash Chopra
Cheteshwar Pujara
Rohan Banerjee
Yashpal Singh
Debabrata Das

All rounders
Sourav Ganguly (Captain)
Tatenda Taibu
Wriddhiman Saha
Brendon McCullum
Chris Gayle
Ajit Agarkar
Mohammad Hafeez
Iqbal Abdulla
Laxmi Ratan Shukla

Bowlers

Ishant Sharma
Shoaib Akhtar
Murali Kartik
Umar Gul
Siddarth Kaul
Ranadeb Bose
Sourashish Lahiri

The Bangalore Royal Challengers is owned by liquor baron, airline owner and Formula One team owner Vijay mallya. The team is captained by former India captain Rahul Dravid.

Rahul Dravid (Captain)
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Wasim Jaffer
Misbah-ul-Haq
Ross Taylor
Arun Kumar J.
Appanna K. P.
Bharat Chipli

Mark Boucher
Shreevats Goswami
Devraj Patil
Jacques Kallis
Cameron White
Sunil Joshi
Akhil B.
Virat Kohli

Anil Kumble
Zaheer Khan
Nathan Bracken
Dale Steyn
Praveen Kumar
Abdur Razzak
Vinay Kumar R.

There has been criticism that the Bangalore Royal Challengers team looks more like a test team rather than an aggressive Twenty20 side. Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble (the current Indian test captain) have both rubbished the cirticism, and emphasized that the team can take on any of the other contendors.

We shall see at the inaugural match between Knight Riders and Royal Challengers in just a couple of weeks from now.

The Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka itself was organized after Australia postponed its tour citing security reasons, following the political turmoil there.

But the present Sri Lankan tour of Pakistan clashes with IPL schedule. The tour is from April 23 to May 5.

Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene, batsman Kumar Sangakkara and Muttiah Muralitharan are taking part in the DLF IPL Twenty 20.

The Sri Lankan board cannot object to the IPL about the players participation as this is a make-shift tour of Pakistan, for which the players have not been contracted for. The players have been contracted only to tour West Indies, where they are touring now.

Media reports said key Sri Lankan players met in Guyana to decide on their course of action.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has offered Sri Lanka $800,000 provided a full team plays there.

Many players have been demanding ICC to include IPL in its tours programme so that players’ national commitments do not clash with IPL editions. More than 90 international players from top cricketing nations have signed up for IPL, and the West Indian cricket board is already fearing that Chris Gayle (Kolkata Knight Riders), Ramnaresh Sarwan (Mohali IPL) and Shivnaraine Chanderpaul (Bangalore Knight Riders) may opt out of the upcoming Australia’s tour of West Indies to play in the cash rich IPL.

The ICC said it did not receive any request from IPL or BCCI to include it in Future Tours programme.

So as of now, the ICC is asserting that the national commitments would remain its priority but what happens after BCCI or IPL puts up a request to include remains to be seen in the wake of India’s clout in ICC. India’s I S Bindra was appointed as ICC’s principal advisor, a newly created post this week .

All ICC affiliated cricket boards can object to any player participating in IPL within two years of retirement. This is to prevent players from quitting national duties for the lucrative IPL.

An idiotic decision, that last one. Why should a player who does not want to play for pride and the nation stick to the national side? If the national side desperately wants such a player, then they should be the ones begging him to stay back. Demand and supply and all that, you know? Stupid bureaucrats would in ICC and national boards would prefer to artificially block them instead.

Players, if you feel like leaving the national side for money and better treatment, go and join the ICL. Dear God, I wish ICL gains traction soon.