IPL showing pays off as Ojha, Yusuf get ODI nod

The national selectors seem to have paid some heed to Delhi Daredevils skipper Virender Sehwag's observation that IPL performances should be taken into account for selection into the Indian team. Keeping the thrust on youth and the aim to build a team for the 2011 World Cup, on Friday, the five wise men decided to pick Team Jaipur all-rounder Yusuf Pathan and Team Hyderabad left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha in the 15-member ODI squad for next month's tri-series in Bangladesh and the Asia Cup in Pakistan. The 25-year-old Pathan scored 334 runs at an average of 27.83 with three fifties in the league stage of the IPL. The elder brother of Indian pace bowler Irfan Pathan, Yusuf has hit the fastest half-century of the tournament, off 21 balls against Team Hyderabad, besides smashing 17 sixes, the maximum by anybody in Team Jaipur's array of big-hitters. The Baroda youngster, who also took five wickets with his off-spin, played in the T20 final against Pakistan last September. Pathan's slot was created after Sachin Tendulkar ruled himself out of the twin tours due to a groin injury. Though Team Hyderabad performed disastrously, Ojha emerged with a decent performance. He took 11 wickets at 25.81, and his best figures were 2 for 18. The 21-year-old Ojha's passage was made easier because experienced left-arm spinner Murali Kartik made himself unavailable due to injury. Team Chennai's Suresh Raina was also rewarded for his good showing in the IPL with a berth in the squad. Raina, 21, who last played a ODI in January, 2007, edged Team Chennai teammate Subramaniam Badrinath, Delhi's Shikhar Dhawan and Hyderabad's Venugopal Rao. The question mark over the ODI careers of both former captains Dravid and Ganguly, who had earlier been dropped for the previous tri-series won by the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side in Australia for the first time ever, continued, as both were left out of the ODI scheme. The selectors made five changes in the team that played the tri-series in Australia in March. Along with Tendulkar, who missed two home Tests against South Africa and the first seven IPL games for Mumbai Indians, banned off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, fast bowler Munaf Patel, wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik and middle-order batsman Manoj Tiwary failed to make it. Incidentally, Harbhajan, banned by the BCCI for five ODIs for slapping Sreesanth, was left out of the Asia Cup squad though he would have served out his ban after India's first two ties in Pakistan

Royals demolish Daredevils, enter final

Riding on a brilliant all-round display by Shane Watson, the ruthless Rajasthan Royals crushed Delhi Daredevils by 105 runs in a lop-sided semi-final to storm into the final of the Indian Premier League on Friday.Watson powered his way to a 29-ball 52 with three sixes and four fours in his team's challenging total of 192 for nine after league table toppers Rajasthan Royals were asked to take first strike by Daredevils captain Virender Sehwag.Later, Watson ripped out the top-order of Delhi with a triple strike to account for the top three Delhi batsmen Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Shikhar Dhawan cheaply to reduce them to 24 for three.Delhi never recovered from this early body blows and lost wickets at regular intervals while the asking rate kept climbing before they were shot out for a paltry 87 in 16.2 overs

IPL twice a year may trigger early retirements: Sehwag

As the Indian Premier League authorities toy with the idea of hosting the cash-rich extravaganza twice a year from 2011, Delhi Daredevils captain Virender Sehwag warns it may lead to premature retirements among the top players. IPL Chairman and Commissioner Lalit Modi, in a recent interview, said for the first three editions, IPL would remain an annual event but after that, he would like to see the Twenty20 league twice a year, starting in May and September. Sehwag, however, is apprehensive about the move, which he fears may not augur well for the game. "I think having it twice a year might trigger premature retirements," he told reporters on Tuesday. Sehwag believes the hype and hoopla around IPL notwithstanding, people still put international cricket ahead of the Twenty20 extravaganza and it would be difficult to squeeze in two IPL seasons in an already crammed international calendar. "I think before they think about introducing a second IPL in the same year, they would have to see the schedule. The fact remains that people at large crave more for international cricket than IPL -- be it India vs Pakistan or England vs Australia. "I guess they would have to find at least four months to accommodate two IPLs, which would not be an easy task," Sehwag explained.

Bookies bet on Jaipur and Mohali final

here might be a break in the action on the field with the IPL semi-finalists decided, but off the field, the betting game is only getting hotter. British bookies are backing Team Mohali to lift the Trophy, while for Indian punters it's a toss up between those two teams. Neither lot sees either Chennai's or Delhi's chances of reaching the final as bright. Those who place bets with Indian bookies, though that's illegal, are being offered winnings of Rs 2.25 for every rupee bet on either Jaipur or Mohali. According to their rate cards, Chennai and Delhi are the also-rans of the knock-out stage. That's reflected in their offering, Rs 3.40 on Chennai and Rs 3.80 on Delhi for every rupee you bet. British bookies Ladbrokes and William Hill seem to agree that Mohali and Jaipur are most likely to play the final, but do not otherwise see eye to eye with the Indian bookies. Both see Delhi as more likely to win the IPL than Chennai, for instance. Ladbrokes is offering 7/4 on Mohali (Rs 1.75), 9/4 on Jaipur (Rs 2.25), 3/1 on Delhi (Rs 3.33) and 4/1 on Chennai (Rs 4.00) winning the inaugural IPL. William Hill sees the chances of the four as relatively more even with odds of 2/1 on Mohali (Rs 2.00), 9/4 on Jaipur (Rs 2.25), 11/4 on Delhi (Rs 2.75) and 10/3 on Chennai (Rs 3.33). Interestingly, despite rating the Delhi team as least likely to win the event, Indian bookies give it more of a chance against Jaipur in the first semi-final of the IPL on Friday than they are willing to give to Chennai against Mohali on Saturday. In the first semis, for every Indian rupee spent on Team Jaipur, you can win 90 paise while betting on Delhi can win you just a little more than a rupee. On the other hand, in the second semis, while you can win Rs 1.50 for every rupee you bet on Chennai, if the team wins, you can at best win 60 paise for the rupee on Mohali. Ladbrokes is offering 8/11 (Rs 0.73) on Jaipur for the first semis and a rupee for every rupee you bet on Delhi. For the second semis, they are offering 11/8 on Chennai (Rs 1.37) and 8/15 on Jaipur (Rs 0.53).

IPL doubles BCCI profit

Many eyebrows were raised and heads shaken when it first emerged how much the Indian Premier League franchisees were shelling out. Would they be able to recover their huge investments, asked skeptics. Well, it looks like the franchisees will be having the last laugh - all the way to the bank. The whopping success of IPL has not only ensured that teams like Jaipur, Kolkata and Mohali are likely to break even in the first year itself, but also transformed the fortunes of its telecaster Sony Set Max, says a report prepared by the equity research division of Alchemy Shares and Stock Brokers. The biggest gainer, though, is arguably BCCI - which is projected to rake in a profit of Rs 350 crore from IPL in the first year itself. This would be more than BCCI's profit of Rs 235 crore for all of 2007. In all, IPL will bring revenue of Rs 1,200 crore a year into cricket, more than double the government's entire sports budget of Rs 490 crore. Set Max, too, seems to have a winner on its hands. The channel's revenue marketshare has risen from a pre-IPL level of 5.7% to 28.8%, says the report. Its share of prime time has gone up to 29%, higher than the cumulative marketshare of the top nine Hindi general entertainment channels. From next year, Sony is projected to gross about Rs 650 crore in advertising revenue for about 45 days of IPL, which would be 7% of the entire estimated TV ad revenue of around Rs 9,000 crore for the whole year. Ad rates for 10-second spots, which were at Rs 2 lakh per 10 seconds at the start of the tournament, have climbed rapidly to Rs 5 lakh and look set to rise further to Rs 10 lakh for the final, says the report. This would be even more than the Rs 8 lakh per 10 second rate for the nailbiting T20 World Cup final between India and Pakistan last year. Interestingly, the TRP viewership rating of the World Cup final was 9.21. Arnab Mitra, who prepared the Alchemy report, says the TRP rating of the first few IPL matches was around 8.2, which later fell but remained over 5 - higher than any other program running on TV. IPL's success has also rubbed off on the franchisees. According to the report, teams like Jaipur, Kolkata and Mohali, which have not spent much on franchisee fees, are likely to break even in the first year itself. Kolkata Knight Riders is projected to make an operating profit of Rs 15 crore due to its huge earnings from local sponsorship, amounting to Rs 32 crore, and gate ticket sales of Rs 20 crore. Similarly, Team Jaipur will also be making a profit of Rs 10 crore. This is mainly because it bid a mere Rs 27 crore as the annual franchisee fee, almost half the sums bid by the UB group for Bangalore and by Reliance for Mumbai. However, even the loss-making teams are expected to earn revenue ranging from Rs 48 crore-76 crore. With cash inflows into cricket getting ever bigger in India, expect this figure to rise further. Valuations will rise correspondingly. In the international sports market, a team is normally valued at three to four times of its revenue. As growth prospects in India are much brighter, an IPL team could get even higher multiples.

Tickets for IPL semis exorbitantly priced

The tickets for the Indian Premier League semi-final matches, to be held at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on May 30 and 31, are going to cost the cricket fans dear with the rates fixed between Rs 1000 and Rs 12000 for most stands barring the popular East Lower.
The costliest ticket for the matches is the one which gains the fan entry into the Garware club house, the upper tier to the left of the players' dressing rooms, and is priced at a whopping Rs 12,000, according to Mumbai Cricket Association sources.
This is double the amount the fans paid for the matches during the league stages.
Similarly the cost of the MCA Guest Stand ticket has also been doubled to Rs 6,000 while the fans occupying the Sachin Tendulkar stand on the northwestern part of the stadium would have to cough up Rs 2000, four times what they had paid for the earlier ties held at this venue, while the North central stand ticket has been priced at Rs 4000.
The Sunil Gavaskar stand tickets, the upper tier of the East Stand with corporate boxes, would cost Rs 5000 each while tickets for the Vijay Merchant Stand (upper and lower) have been priced at Rs 10000 and Rs 1000 respectively, the sources said.
"We have maintained the price for the East lower stand at Rs 250 and they have all been sold out," the sources said, a surprise considering the fact that the host team - Mumbai Indians have not yet qualified for the knock-out stage of the Twenty20 League.

IPL winner's trophy unveiled

The diamond-studded Indian Premier League winner's trophy, encrusted with rubies and yellow and blue sapphires, was unveiled in Mumbai on Monday by IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi.
"It's a handcrafted and very expensive rotating trophy, the value of which I will not reveal. It has been crafted by Orra's design team," said Modi.
The Antwerp-based RosyBlue Group, owners of the Orra diamond brand, which set up a new diamond production facility in Mumbai last year with an investment of Rs 35 crore, also designed the trophy the BCCI presented Anil Kumble on his feat of 600 Test wickets.
"The winning team will get a replica of this trophy," he clarified.
The trophy, which has a player in gold leafing holding a bat adjacent to a map of the country with the names of the teams engraved on it and symbolised by eight rubies, was crafted by 14 artisans, said chief designer Mona Mehta

Pawar dismisses possibility of two IPLs a year

BCCI President Sharad Pawar shot down Lalit Modi's grand plans to have the Indian Premier League (IPL) twice a year and said the crammed International Cricket Council (ICC) calendar leaves no such scope. Days after Modi, the IPL Chairman and Commissioner, said that from 2011 onwards, he would like to see the IPL twice a year -- one starting in May and the other in September. Pawar categorically dismissed such a possibility. "We have just got one window from the ICC per year. The calendar is ready for next seven years, so there is no scope," Pawar said in a television programme. Earlier, in a television interview, Modi had spelled out his future plans for the Twenty20 extravaganza and said, "I think the IPL, we will like to keep it as two seasons. A single season for the first three years, we would like to move it to two seasons and we have another season in September." Incidentally, star batsman and Delhi Daredevils captain Virender Sehwag too is against having two IPLs a year, for, he thinks, it may lead to premature retirements among top players. "I think having it twice a year might trigger premature retirements," Sehwag recently said. The Delhi opener too pointed out to the international calendar and said it would be difficult to squeeze in two IPL seasons in the schedule. "I think before they think about introducing a second IPL in the same year, they would have to see the schedule. The fact remains that people at large crave more for international cricket than IPL -- be it India vs Pakistan or England vs Australia", he said.

Tight semi-final contest on cards

The first semi-final of the Indian Premier League will see an interesting clash between table-toppers Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils, which qualified by default, at the Wankhede Stadium here on Friday.Rajasthan Royals would be looking to continue their dream sequence of wins, while Delhi Daredevils, which managed to grab the last spot in the knock-out stage, will be hoping to finally live up to their potential on the big stage.The competition has built up nicely to the last four stage and a capacity crowd is expected to witness this slam bang action between the two teams that possess enough firepower to outperform each other.