IPL will be 10-team league in 2011
Buoyed by the success of the second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), its chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi said the
eight-team tournament will be expanded to 10 teams in 2011.
Modi said the IPL will be back in India next year and the cramped International Cricket Council (ICC) schedule does not leave any room for the possibility of a second IPL in a calendar year in 2010.
“We have been missing India but we have made a strong fan base in South Africa. We have a tight schedule next year. We will have two more teams in the league,” said Modi.
Modi, who is also the vice president of the Indian cricket board, said that organising the IPL in South Africa was a great experience.
“We had a great time in South Africa. Everything was perfect. I am satisfied with the way the tournament was successfully conducted here at such a short time,” he said.
Bollywood action hero Salman Khan is the latest cine star to join the Indian Premier League (IPL) gravy train and has expressed interest in buying a team. Salman met IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi on Wednesday and was briefed about the nitty-grittes of buying an IPL franchise.
The fourth season of the IPL in 2011 will see two new teams and they would be up for grabs through a bidding process later this year.
Modi said Salman is interested in buying an IPL team.
“He has been interested to buy a team for quite some time,” Modi added.
“Today we had a brief meeting and I explained him how to go about with the task. I can assure you that Salman is not the only star who is thinking to buy a team. I have had around 28 queries and the list will surely go up,” he said.
IPL vice-president Niranjan Shah said that Salman is a serious buyer and will bid for one of the two new teams.
“Salman is a serious buyer and is contemplating to buy an IPL team. He came along with couple of his friends and was briefed by Lalit on the procedure to buy IPL franchise,” said Shah.
Shah went on to add that cities like Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Vishakhaptanam are in fray to be the hometown for new teams.
“It will be an open tender process and the city that gets the highest bidder will be the new IPL team,” he said.
IPL franchise in the 2011 season may cost over $200-300 million.
Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla are the co-owners of Kolkata Knight Riders while Preity Zinta is also a joint owner of Kings XI Punjab. Shilpa Shetty and her boyfriend Raj Kundra also bought some stakes in Rajasthan Royals.
Sources also indicated that Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan, Mohanlal and Priyadarshan were also interested in owning IPL teams.
Tenders for the new teams will be out in November-December 2009 and bidding will be done by January 2010.
Hyderabad to host IPL season 3
Four new venues and a third place playoff match will be introduced in the third Indian Premier League (IPL) which will get underway in Hyderabad on 12 March2010 with a game between IPL Season2 defending champions Deccan Chargers and Kolkata Knight Riders.
The final of the 45-day Twenty20 cricket league, which proved a huge success in its first two seasons in India and South Africa, would be held on 25 April 2010, IPL chairman Lalit Modi announced after a meeting of its governing council on Tuesday.
IPL3 will have four additional match staging centres — Nagpur, Vishakhapatnam, Ahmedabad and Dharamsala — and will also stage one extra match, the 60th, for the third place play-off, Modi said.
“The playing window remains the same, 45 days”, Modi said before adding the governing council also decided to include two more franchisees in IPL4 to be held in 2011.
“There would be 94 games in all with each franchisee playing 18, instead of 14 preliminary phase games. But the window would remain more or less the same,” Modi said.
Kamran Khan reported for suspect action in IPL
Kamran Khan is playing for Rajasthan Royals of IPL, has been reported for suspect bowling action on Friday.
After the RR Vs CSK on Thursday, on-field umpires Rudi Koertzen and Gary Baxter felt Kamran had a suspect illegal bowling action on certain deliveries. Matter has now been referred to the team management of the RR and the IPL’s technical committee.
“I have officially received a copy of the match umpires report duly signed by all the three umpires and the video footage for the game at the Centurion,” IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi said.
I now await the report from the Technical Committee and will then decide on the future course of action,” Modi added.
MI beat KKR by 9 runs
Jean Paul Duminy is The Man of the Match for his unbeaten 52.
Mumbai Indians beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 9 runs. Chasing a victory target of 149 runs, Kolkata managed 139/6 in their 20 overs, as Zaheer finished with 3/31.
Brad Hodge top scored for Kolkata with a magnificent 60-ball 73 Runs. Hodge was run out by a good throw from the deep by Duminy. Ganguly registered a golden duck.
This was the last match in this IPL for Gayle. After this he will be heading to England for a Test series.
Harbhajan Singh was sent in at number three, but Murali Kartik struck in his first over as he had Harbhajan(6) caught at deep mid-wicket by Dinda.
Mumabi have rested Dwayne Bravo and in comes Graham Napier and Shikhar Dhawan has been dropped for Ajinkya Rahane. Kolkata have not changed their playing XI from the last match.
Teams:
Mumbai Indians: Sachin Tendulkar (Capt.), Sanath Jayasuriya, Jean Paul Duminy, Abhishek Nayar, Ajinkya Rahane, Saurabh Tiwary, Pinal Shah, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Lasith Malinga, Graham Napier.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Brendon McCullum (Capt.), Chris Gayle, Sourav Ganguly, Brad Hodge, Morne van Wyk, Wriddhiman Saha, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Ajit Agarkar, Murali Kartik, Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda.
Bangalore beat Punjab to win a thriller
DURBAN: The darling of Durban struck with the ball on Friday but in dramatic T20 fashion, there was to be a twist in the tale.
Yuvraj Singh may not have repeated his six-sixes feat here but he rolled his arm over to take a hat-trick, the first of IPL2, appearing to put Kings XI Punjab firmly in the driver’s seat against the Royal Challengers.
But he hadn’t accounted for wily veteran and new Royal Challengers skipper Anil Kumble, who took two for 25 to helped Vijay Mallya’s boys clinch a thrilling eight-run victory.
Kings XI needed 17 off the last two overs but Kumble, bowling the 19th, varied his pace beautifully to take the wicket of Kumar Sangakkara, who was threatening to win it for Preity Zinta’s team. He gave away only four runs and Praveen Kumar admirably rose to the occasion in the final over to help Royal Challengers post a much-needed win.
Kumble was brilliant in the way he led the team. He made the right bowling changes and was at the top of his own game. His opposite number, Yuvraj (50 off 34 balls), opening the batting, was also looking in fantastic touch but Kumble, after being hit for two sixes, removed the left-hander to bring the Royal Challengers back into the game.
Wickets then fell at regular intervals and once Praveen Kumar removed Irfan Pathan in the final over, it was all over for Kings XI.
Earlier, it was all going well for the Royal Challengers when Yuvraj turned it around in the last two balls of the 11th and the first ball of the 12th over as Royal Challengers struggled to 145. Uthappa tried to heave Yuvi to give a catch at the deep, Kallis couldn’t read the one that came in with the arm Boucher played for the turn to be caught in front.
PAKISTAN STRIPPED OF 2011 WORLD CUP HOSTING RIGHTS
Pakistan has been stripped of hosting rights for the 2011 World Cup because of the ‘uncertain security situation’ in the country, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Friday.
“It is a regrettable decision (but) our number one priority is to create certainty and deliver a safe, secure and successful event,” ICC president David Morgan told reporters after a meeting of the executive board in Dubai.
“The uncertainty created by events in Pakistan created a huge question mark over our ability to do just that.”
At least seven Pakistanis were killed and six Sri Lanka players were injured during an armed attack on their team bus as they travelled to a test match in Lahore last month.
“It is extremely regrettable that the board has had to take this decision given the passion the people of Pakistan have for the game of cricket and for the ICC Cricket World Cup,” Morgan said.
“It is highly unlikely that we will have the security clearance between now and the start date in 2011,” said Morgan when asked if Pakistan would host international tournaments in the near future.
Pakistan were due to co-host the event with India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and the ICC said they would press ahead with the matches in those countries.
The ICC last year postponed the Champions Trophy, the second most important one-day event, due to security concerns in Pakistan and then shifted it to South Africa to be held later this year.
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