Indian Premier League Observer

The England and Wales Cricket Board has come under heavy fire from Aussie spin legend Shane Warne who is also the captain of the Rajasthan Royals IPL team for not allowing its centrally contracted players to participate in the DLF IPL, the cash rich premier league of India.

Shane Warne said its a real shame that the English players are absent from the DLF IPL, which allows players to make good money and to develop their talents under the training of their greatly talented counterparts from all across the world.

Shane Warne Warne said, “It is a real shame that players like Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff are not in the IPL.” Warne also said the decision by the ECB to ban players from participating in the DLF IPL was short-sighted and ridiculous.

Several English players have already expressed their interest to play in the IPL. Kevin Pietersen is just one among them. “It is a ridiculous decision… ECB is stopping the players from joining IPL. It is a shame on the part of ECB that their players are missing from such a big tournament,” Warne said.

It is  said that ECB fears that the Indian IPL could hit hard its own domestic tournaments and thus take the shine away from the county matches to the glitzy Indian IPL matches.

After seeing several players expressing interest in participating in the DLF IPL and smelling a revolt, the ECB has softened its stand and has now allowed the players to take part in the 2010 edition of the DLF IPL.

Warne said, “ICC should show some common sense and open a six-week window for the IPL in its international tour schedule. That would make the job easier for the cricket boards of various countries.”

Shane Warne, the captain and coach of Rajasthan Royals, will face off with Kings X1 Punjab, being led by stylish Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh.

The Eden Gardens pitch, which displayed none of the qualities of an international standard cricket pitch has come under investigation from the cricket authorities. BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah has said that the erratic behaviour that was shown by the Eden Gardens pitch during the match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Deccan Chargers on Sunday would be probed.

In order to ensure that a better wicket is prepared for the coming matches, the pitch would be inspected by the IPL’s technical committee and the Cricket Association of Bengal. The pitch was difficult to play for the batsman mainly because of the unexpected rising and falling deliveries from the pacemen.

The pitch also saw Saurav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, the captains of Kolkata Knight Riders and Deccan Chargers respectively, getting hurt from the rising deliveries.

VVS Laxman Laxman said the erratic behaviour of the Eden Gardens pitch was shocking. “”This sort of wicket would not at all help Twenty20 or for that matter cricket in general,” he said.

Much to the surprise of the Kolkata Knight Riders team members, the Eden Gardens curator apologised to them for preparing such an erratic pitch. After the match, pitch curator Kalyan Mitra went to the Kolkata Knight Riders dressing room and apologised to the team members.

Ricky Ponting, Kolkata Knight Riders batsman, said, “The curator came to our dressing room after the match and apologised to all of us. He has promised a better wicket for our next match as also the five other games the team will play at the Eden later in the tournament.”

Efforts are also on to bring in a pitch specialist from Australia.  Eden Gardens will host its next match on April 29 when it will see Kolkata Knight Riders, the Kolkata franchisee of the DLF IPL being led by Saurav Ganguly and owned by Bollywood badshah Shah Rukh Khan, lock horns with Mumbai Indians, the Mumbai franchisee of DLF IPL being led by Sachin Tendulkar and owned by industrialist Mukesh Ambani.

At the moment, Kolkata Knight Riders is riding high with two wins from two matches and is leading the DLF IPL points table.

Players from foreign countries are shining in the ongoing Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket matches. No surprise, they were bought specifically because they were much valued already.

However, most cricket fans expected Indian heroes such as Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, M S Dhoni and Wasim Jaffer failed sympathetically in the first three matches of the IPL.

Meanwhile, these matches saw tremendous performance by three foreign players such as New Zealand’s Brendan McCullum, Australian star batsman Michael Hussey and Australian paceman Glenn McGrath.

Brendan McCullum has given a terrific start for the Indian Premier League by smashing a world record-high 158 not out for Kolkata in the opening Twenty20 shootout in Banglalore. This gave Kolkata Night Riders a comfortable victory over Bangalore Royal Challengers.

The team owned by Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan has many foreign players as its members. After a lavish ceremony to mark the launch of the league all eyes were on this opening fixture all eyes were on the performance of Kolakta Knight Riders.

The New Zealand wicketkeeper had scored 158 not out for just 73 balls, including 13 sixes – the highest individual score in the first match of IPL extravaganza. Unfortunately his teammate and captain of the team Sourav Ganguly could not thrill his fans as he managed to score only 10 runs in the opening match.

In comparison, team-mates Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Ponting managed just ten and 20 runs respectively, but Brendan McCullum’s efforts were enough to give the visitors a comfortable and ultimately unassailable lead.

However for the Bangalore Royal Challengers, most of the stars including Captain Rahul Dravid and foreign players such as Mark Boucher, Jacaues Kallis and White disappointed 55,000 odd people assembled in the ground expecting home side victory. The Bangalore local hero and former Indian team captain Rahul Dravid managed only two runs in the opening match.

It was a superb century from Australia’s Michael Hussey, which has helped star-studded Chennai Super Kings to a 33-run victory in their match against Punjab. Hussey, the world’s top-ranked Test batsman, produced a stunning innings of 116 not out from just 54 deliveries in their opening match. Another Chennai star, Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakara has scored a 54 in a thrilling smash. However Chennai Super King’s captain and Indian cricket team captain M S Dhoni failed and was able to take only two runs in the opening match.

Okay guys. Its a Sunday, we know all of you are at home watching IPl matches on TV. You don’t need our updates today to catch up on or to keep track of anything. So we are also taking it easy.

You know what happened today anyway. Deccan Chargers got it from Kolkata Knight Riders. After the first two matches, SRK’s team is looking like the team to beat. No one has looked so solid so far. If they stay in form, this is pretty much an unbeatable team, which will make all Bong hearts go all gooey. Deccan Chargers really were not any match for them. But then the pitch was like an extra player in the team, and you feel quite sorry for them too. Laxman, better do it next time.

In the other game, the Bangalore Royal Challengers put up a stiff fight and thwarted Mumbai Indians who were missing their home hero Sachin Tendulkar. Thankfully, Dravid did not wear his shaggy dog expression which is probably natural for him, and normal too, but makes me want to surrender in despair. Looking at him, I think he is going to throw down the bat and fall to his knees crying. Okay he has never done it. but Dravid, look brave. Please.

The pressure is now clearly on Mumbai Indians, Deccan Chargers and Rajasthan Royals after Kings XI Punjab after the first 3 days of IPL.

As we are too lazy to write anything today, feel free and click on the links below which are match reports and analyses from a pile of websites.

Boucher guides Bangalore to win over Mumbai

Bangalore Innings Scorecard

Mumbai Innings scorecard

Full scorecard

Boucher steers Bangalore home in humdinger

Hussey guides Knight Riders to a thrilling win

Knight Riders scrape together a victory

West Bengal government waives off the entertainment tax for Shah Rukh Khan’s show

Deccan Chargers to take on Knight Riders with a plan for McCullum

Robin Uthappa takes risks, and shines in Mumbai Indians vs Bangalore

IPL Twenty20: Favourite teams of bookies and their odds

Royal Challengers needs to tighten its attacks against Mumbai Indians on Sunday

Shah Rukh Khan, the bollywood actor and owner of Kolkata franchisee Kolkata Knight Riders had proposed to have an entertainment program before the inaugural match of Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens here on Sunday.

But, the Left government had told Shah Rukh that he will have to pay the entertainment tax for the ten minute program that he had scheduled before the match. SRK then strongly cam against this demand saying the show is just a 10 minute show, not a three hour one where a viewer should pay an extertainment tax to the government. SRK had said that he would not pay the entertainment tax for the government for the program, which would have taken the ticket prices close to Rs 250.

At last, the Left Bengal government has said that Shah Rukh Khan will not have to pay the entertainment tax for the ten minute show. Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta has already approved Khan’s proposal. “I have no problem in waiving off the tax,” said Dasgupta.

But Dasgupta also set some conditions before Shah Rukh before waiving off the entertainment tax. Shah Rukh will have to promise the politician that the profits from the game would be used for the development of poor people in the state.

If the government had not gone back from its stand of imposing the entertainment tax, then Kolkata Knight Riders tickets would have been almost Rs 30 of what it cost now.

Sachin Tendulkar, the captain of Mumbai Indians, inspected the Wankhede pitch in the early  hours of today morning. Sachin’s Mumbai Indians will face off with Royal Challengers at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai here on Sunday.

As per the latest news, Sachin is unlikely to play in the inaugural match of Mumbai Indians against the Bangalore franchisee Royal Challengers. Sachin is nursing a groin injury. In the absence of Sachin, the team will be led by Harbhajan Singh.

It is expected that Sachin’s absence is a boon for the Royal Challengers, which were embarassed by Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders in the opening match of the DLF IPL on April 18. Royal Challengers, led by Rahul Dravid, will also be happy with the presence of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the veteran West Indian who will add more strength to the batting line up of the ROyal Challengers.

If Sachin is missing from the Mumbai Indians squad, the cricket fans in Mumbai would surely be unhappy. But, Sanath Jayasurya and Robin Uthappa will surely add the much needed fireworks for a Twenty20 match.

The main weakness of Mumbai Indians is that they dont have many T20 specialists in the side, though Robin Uthappa is an exception. Although, the absence of SAchin Tendulkar would be a blow to the Mumbai Indians, the fact that they are facing a low-on-confidence Royal Challengers would act as a big morale booster to the Mumbai Indians.

Kolkata will witness the home team Kolkata Knight Riders’ first home match against the Hyderabad Deccan Chargers team here at Kolkata on Sunday. Last match of Kolkata Knight Riders saw Aussie batsman Brendon McCullum exploding with his bat and giving out a handsome defeat to the Royal Challengers team owned by VIjay Mallya.

Obviously, Deccan Chargers captain VVS Laxman is impressed with the batting performance of Brendon McCullum. Laxman said when they get to the field today to lock horns with Knight Riders in Kolkata today with the home team, they would have a plan in hand to contain the explosive McCullum.

Laxman said, “I think it was an amazing innings. One of the best innings I have seen in this format of the game. The way he played he took away the game from the Bangalore Royal Challengers.”

Laxman and his team would keep in mind the Aussie’s performances, but they would mainly concentrate on the match situation, he said.

The Indian test batsman said, “We’ve got our plans worked out for him. But one has to keep in mind the fast-changing situations in Twenty20 cricket. You may have a plan one or plan two. But you have to keep judging by the situation you are in.”

Laxman seemed too impressed with the explosive Aussie. “I’m sure you will see more and more contributions from McCullum as the tourney progresses. The game became one-sided because of his brilliance.”

The match is still on. But Uthappa put up a very strong performance to take 48 runs off 38 balls. Extremely risky batting, Sachin would definitely have to talk to him about it.

Whether all that was worth it, we will know soon as the match is going to take another hour to end one way or the other. Bangalore Royal Challengers would try hard; they are still smarting from their collapse to the Kolkata Knight riders.

Yesterday, Robin Uthappa said that the youngsters in the side would benefit a lot by playing alongside the likes of greats like Sachin Tendulkar, Shaun Pollock and Sanath Jayasurya in the DLF IPL which kickstarted on Friday April 18. Uthappa had contributed a lot with his bat and was very useful in the lower middle over in India’s T20 World Cup win this year.

Robin Uthappa said, “It will be exciting and a lot of fun. We will learn a lot from the top international players of the team. Sachin and Sanath can also bowl well and we have a lot of all rounders. At the moment I don’t see any weaknesses in the team.”

Mumbai Indians would be led by Sachin Tendulkar itself and had been bought by Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries for an astronomical figure, thus making it the most expensive IPL team among all the franchisees. Mumbai Indians will also have Master Card as the team’s founding sponsor.

Ashish Nehra, who had been out of the Indian team for a while, is also looking for making a comeback. “It’s good to be back after 18 months after not having played much cricket (during the period). I am pretty excited.”

Mumbai Indians will face off the Royal Challengers team, the IPL franchisee of Bangalore which is led by Rahul Dravid and owned by businessman Vijay Mallya, at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on Sunday, today.

After corporate giants and Bollywood stars, it is the bookies’ turn to exploit the riches of the cash-rich IPL-based bets.

Taking cues from the strengths and weaknesses of the teams on paper,

Bookies are rooting for Hyderabad based Deccan Challengers as the team to win the coveted tournament.
International betting houses like Ladbrokes have also entered IPL betting fray and reportedly are making good business, a media report said.

Chennai Super Kings have emerged as the second contender after it posted a mammoth total against Kings X1.

But Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians are also closely watched. Rajasthan Royal Challengers are perceived to be the most unlikel team to win the contest.

Hyderabad Deccan Challengers: 4:1

Chennai Super Kings (Odds not known)

Mohali Kings XI Punjab (13:2)

Mumbai Indians (7:1)

Kolkata Knight Riders (15:2)

Delhi Daredevils (8:1)

Bangalore Royal Challengers (8:1)

Jaipur Rajasthan Royals (12:1)

NB: The standings were before the inaugural matches and may have changed.