Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Eric Bana

Eric Bana This handsome chap was on the cover of the Telegraph magazine this week, and I was looking for inspiration. I think I found it! Quite pleased with the result. I'm still focusing on the black and white images, trying to go back to some caricatures.

Apparently he's in the new Star Trek Movie playing the baddie. If he's the baddie, the chap playing Kirk will have to be seriously good looking to get my vote, or at least a better actor. (I've always preferred Patrick Stewart to William Shatner.)

I've been working on a large abstract but I've got a teeny little problem. I'm running out of acrylic paint and I can't justify getting some more for a couple of weeks. I might have to ebay some stuff see if I can get the funds that way. Or go mixed media...

No life drawing class this week, tutor away, but next week I'm out twice, hear me twice! BAFA meeting and life drawing class, can't wait.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

University / revising / studying/ reading/ lectures/ holding presentations/ etc...






Came back from Uni a few moments ago. All I can say is, that I am totally exhausted. On the other hand I am very proud of myself, since I haven't skipped a single class / course today! As for me, this is definately the first step to sit - successfully- all these summer's exams! Luckily I am the type of person, who usually remembers the things, a lecturer / teacher spoke about during term. Before the exams it's all about revising and building bridges between the essential stuff you remember, so there exists a connection. All in all I am glad, even though I could immediately fall asleep. I would like to go running, but I am just too tired. Classes are also begining to become more and more interesting. I was lucky to get a topic that craves me (kind of) in Italian History for my presentation. I will be talking about Fascism, which is the best one I could have picked! There is more literature on it, than on any other History -related topic, when it comes to the Belpaese! Good one! Also picked the two Sonnets, I am gonna write about (this will end in a catastrophe, I am absolutely no expert in interpreting that shizz!), I am catching up with Literature and English. I am only slightly worried about my lack of motivation when it comes to mio italiano. Must be the teacher / class?! Any ideas? There always are some! I
t's Champions League tonight, and I am not even wasting any thought on going downstairs to watch it. Bummer!
It's already the Semi's!
Time for diet coke, Tracy Chapman, my books - studying in bed con il mio ragazzo <3.
Xoxo

Joaquin Sanchez Best Wallpapers







Samir Nasri Best Wallpapers

Samir Nasri Best Wallpapers
Samir Nasri on fire.
Samir Nasri photo

Samir Nasri tackles


Samir Nasri photo.

Samir Nasri

Samir Nasri

Indian Premier League


The Indian Premier League (also known as the "DLF Indian Premier League" and often abbreviated as IPL), is a Twenty20 cricket competition created by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and chaired by the Chairman & Commissioner IPL, BCCI Vice President Lalit Modi. It is now the most watched domestic Twenty20 competition in the world[citation needed]. The first season of the Indian Premier League commenced on 18 April 2008, and ended on 1 June 2008 with the victory of the Rajasthan Royals against Chennai Super Kings in the final at the DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai.
As the second season of the IPL coincided with multi-phase 2009 Indian general elections, the Indian Government refused to commit security by Indian paramilitary forces. As a result, the BCCI decided to host the second season of the league outside India.[3] All 59 matches of the second season, abbreviated as IPL 2, are taking place in South Africa. BCCI blamed the attitude of the UPA-led governments at the centre and in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh for the decision.[4]
Contents[hide]
1 Inaugural Season
2 Television rights and sponsorship
2.1 Television rights
3 Global following
4 Rules
5 Official website
6 Current Season
7 Franchises
7.1 Existing Original Eight
7.2 2010-11 Expansion
7.3 2012-13 expansion
8 Revenue and Profits
8.1 Franchise Earnings
9 Player signings
10 Winners
11 Controversies
11.1 Conflicts with the England and Wales Cricket Board
11.2 Conflicts with Cricket Australia
11.3 Conflicts with the Pakistan Cricket Board
11.4 Conflicts with other Boards
11.5 Media restrictions
11.6 Conflict with Cricket Club of India
12 References
13 External links
//

[edit] Inaugural Season
Main article: 2008 Indian Premier League

A Chennai vs Kolkata match in progress at the M.A. Chidambaram Cricket Stadium
Teams play each other two times in a round robin system, with equal number of home and away matches. The top four ranking sides will progress to the semi-finals.
The inaugural 2008 tournament started on 18 April 2008 in Bangalore and lasted for 46 days, with 59 matches scheduled, out of which 58 took place and 1 was washed out due to rain

[edit] Television rights and sponsorship
The IPL is predicted to bring the BCCI income of approximately US$1 billion, over a period of five to ten years. All of these revenues are directed to a central pool, 40% of which will go to IPL itself, 54% to franchisees and 6% as prize money. The money will be distributed in these proportions until 2017, after which the share of IPL will be 50%, franchisees 45% and prize money 5%.[5]

[edit] Television rights
On 15 January 2008 it was announced that a consortium consisting of India's Sony Entertainment Television network and Singapore-based World Sport Group secured the global broadcasting rights of the Indian Premier League.[6] The record deal has a duration of ten years at a cost of US $1.026 billion. As part of the deal, the consortium will pay the BCCI US $918 million for the television broadcast rights and US $108 million for the promotion of the tournament.[7] Broadcast Live on Setanta.
20% of these proceeds would go to IPL, 8% as prize money and 72% would be distributed to the franchisees. The money would be distributed in these proportions until 2012, after which the IPL would go public and list its shares.[8]
Sony-WSG then re-sold parts of the broadcasting rights geographically to other companies. Below is a summary of the broadcasting rights around the world........
Winning Bidder
Regional Broadcast Rights
Terms of Deal
Sony/World Sport Group
Global Rights, India
10 years at USD 1.026 Billion[6]
Network Ten (ONE)
Free-to-air television in Australia
5 years at AUD 10-15 Million.[9]
Sky Network Television
New Zealand broadcast rights
Terms not released
Setanta Sports
United Kingdom and Ireland on a subscription basis
5 years, terms not disclosed.[10]
Arab Digital Distribution
Middle East broadcast rights on ADD's ART Prime Sport channel. Will broadcast to United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan, Libya and Nigeria.
10 Years, terms not released.[11]
Willow TV
Rights to distribute on television, radio, broadband and Internet, for the IPL in North America.
5 years, terms not released.[12]
SuperSport
South Africa and Nigeria broadcast rights
Terms not released
GEO Super
Pakistan broadcast rights
Terms not released
Asian Television Network
Canadian broadcast rights. Aired on ATN's CBN & ATN Cricket Plus channels on a subscription basis. Aired on XM Radio's ATN-Asian Radio as well.
5 years, terms not released.[13]

[edit] Global following

This section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (March 2009)
In India, the IPL has become one of the most popular events of the year[citation needed]. Around the world, reception has varied. In Pakistan the reception was described by Pakistani cricinfo editor Osman Samiuddin as 'massive', suggesting that it attracted even non-regular cricket followers and that the popularity of the Kolkata Knight Riders was great.[14] GEO Super telecasted the matches and also included a popular show called Inside IPL. A similar positive reaction was seen in Sri Lanka, with interest in the Mumbai Indians being large due to the presence of cricket hero Sanath Jayasuriya. Bangladesh has also positively reacted despite only one Bangladeshi player being involved. The Knight Riders were the most popular team. These subcontinental countries were also helped in that the time-slot of the matches fitted in with prime time in these nations.
South Africa has seen moderate viewership of the IPL, and by many accounts viewers have found it enjoyable. However, many were unable to relate to any of the teams, although a large number simply supported Mumbai Indians because of the presence of Shaun Pollock. The timing worked in South Africa but the IPL did not overcome the power of Premier League football or rugby. In England, although the country's governing body did not allow its players to take part, the IPL was very popular with those who had access to the cable television channel that aired the games.
In the West Indies, the IPL became so popular that it, according to Vaneisa Baksh, threatened to overtake test cricket completely in 'certain sections of West Indian fans'. While free-to-air coverage has not been complete and it has not ignited passions, it has remained a popular watch.
The IPL was less popular in Australia and New Zealand, mainly due to the time zone differences. Nevertheless, the IPL consistently won its free-to-air timeslot of 8:30 P.M. and 12:30 A.M. Australian Time, and 10:30 P.M. and 2:30 A.M. New Zealand Time for subscription TV.

[edit] Rules

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (April 2009)
The official rules for the tournament are here.
There are five ways that a franchise can acquire a player. In the annual auction, buying domestic players, signing uncapped players through trading and buying replacements.[15][16] In the trading window the player can only be traded with his consent. The franchise will have to pay the difference between the old contract price and the new contract price. If the new contract is worth more than the older one then the difference will be shared between the player and the franchise selling the player.[17]
Some of the Team composition rules are:
Minimum squad strength of 16 players plus one physio and a coach.
No more than 8 foreign players in the squad and at most 4 in the playing XI.For the 2009 edition franchises are allowed 10 foreign players in the squad. The number allowed in the playing XI remains unchanged at 4.
A minimum of 8 local players must be included in each team.
A minimum of 2 players from the BCCI under-22 pool in each team.
The players accorded "icon" status are: Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag . The total spending cap for a franchisee in the first player auction was US $5m. Under-22 players are to be remunerated with a minimum annual salary of US $20,000 while for others it is US $50,000. Icon players are to be paid 15% more than the highest paid player in their respective teams.
There are some rumours that the 2010 season of the IPL will include a new rule commonly used in "Backyard Cricket"; the one-hand-one-bounce rule.

[edit] Official website
The IPL negotiated a contract with the Canadian company Live Current Media Inc. to run and operate its portals and the minimum guarantee has been negotiated at US $50 million over the next 10 years.[18] The official website of the tournament is http://www.iplt20.com/.

[edit] Current Season
Main article: 2009 Indian Premier League
The 2009 season coincides with the upcoming general elections in India. Due to concerns regarding players' security, the venue had shifted to South Africa.

[edit] Franchises

[edit] Existing Original Eight
The winning bidders for the eight franchises were announced on 24 January 2008.[19] While the total base price for auction was US $400 million, the auction fetched US $723.59 million.[20] The official list of franchise owners announced and the winning bids were as follows.
Franchise
Owner(s)
Price (USD)
Mumbai Indians
Mukesh Ambani (Reliance Industries)
$ 111.9 m
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Vijay Mallya (UB Group)
$ 111.6 m
Deccan Chargers
Deccan Chronicle,Rajesh Dandu Amity Business School, Bangalore
$ 107.0 m
Chennai Super Kings
India Cements (N Srinivasan)
$ 91.90 m
Delhi Daredevils
GMR Holdings (Grandhi Mallikarjuna Rao)
$ 84.0 m
Kings XI Punjab
Ness Wadia (Bombay Dyeing),Priety Zinta, Mohit Burman (Dabur)and Karan Paul (Apeejay Surendera Group)
$ 76.0 m
Kolkata Knight Riders
Red Chillies Entertainment (Shah Rukh Khan, Gauri Khan, Juhi Chawla and J Mehta)
$ 75.1 m
Rajasthan Royals
Emerging Media (Lachlan Murdoch, A.R Jha and Suresh Chellaram),Shilpa Shetty, Raj Kundra
$ 67.0 m

[edit] 2010-11 Expansion
After the success of the first season, it has been reported that four new franchises will join the IPL in 2010-11, increasing the total number of teams to 12. The new confirmed franchises will be based in Ahmedabad and Kanpur, with Anil Ambani's name associated with the ownership of the Ahmedabad franchise, and Sahara Group is touted as the possible suitors to buy the Kanpur franchise. Other cities being linked with getting a franchisee are Patna-Ranchi joined franchisee or a team from the North-East to promote the sport in the region and possibly one team from the north-western states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarkhand. [21]
Expansions- 2010-11 Season( 4 new teams)-
IPL Ahmedabad
IPL Kanpur
Any two from the following-
A Patna joined franchisee
A team from the Assam
A team from the north-western states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarkhand

[edit] 2012-13 expansion
The unselected team from the three postulated for the 2010-11 expansion will be considered for another set of expansions in the 2012-13 season. An expansion of two more teams is expected for 2012-13. A second Mumbai or Delhi team has also been proposed for future expansion of two teams to take place in the 2012-13 season.[22] The Delhi team could be localized to Gurgaon, Faridabad, NOIDA or Greater NOIDA or could be more likely combined to create an alternative Delhi team. A Mumbai team could represent Navi Mumbai or Pune.
However, a number of issues with the expansions exist. While Indian cricket is immensely popular and new franchises will likely obtain an owner and a moderate fan base, there is a fear that the new franchise would not be able to integrate well into the tournament as most star players in the cricket world would already be involved with their existing franchises. There is also a fear of diluting the talent in all the teams and hence making each team less appealing to the audience (although this is not likely to occur, given that most overseas players currently signed in the IPL players, do not play due to the 4-player limit on overseas players in a match squad). Regardless, the expansions are likely to make it longer before the IPL is fully integrated into the national and international psyche in the way the English Premier League or American franchise-based competitions are.

[edit] Revenue and Profits
The Indian Government earned Rs 91 crore as tax revenue from the 1st season of the IPL. [23]

[edit] Franchise Earnings
The first season that concluded on 1 June 2008 was a huge success for the IPL. It should be noted that during the first season no one had expected the franchises to break even since most of them had paid huge amounts to buy the clubs, but the table below shows that some of them are already profitable from Season 1.[24]
Franchise
Revenues
Expenses
Profit/Loss (Rupees Crores)
Mumbai Indians
a. Broadcasting Rights - 35
b. Team Sponsors - 20
c. Gate Receipts - 14
Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 69
a. Franchise Fees - 45
b. Team Expenses - 20
c. Advertising & Admin - 20
Total Expenses(a+b+c) - 85
Net Loss - -16
Royal Challengers Bangalore
a. Broadcasting Rights - 35
b. Team Sponsors - 0
c. Gate Receipts - 10
Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 45
a. Franchise Fees - 48
b. Team Expenses - 22
c. Advertising/Admin - 18
Total Expenses(a+b+c) - 88
Net Loss - -43
Deccan Chargers
a. Broadcasting Rights - 35
b. Team Sponsors - 17 ;
c. Gate Receipts - 12
Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 64
a. Franchise Fees - 45
b. Team Expenses - 24
c. Advertising/Admin - 13
Total Expenses(a+b+c) - 82
Net Loss - -18
Chennai Super Kings
a. Broadcasting Rights - 35
b. Team Sponsors - 25
c. Gate Receipts - 12.8
Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 72.8
a. Franchise Fees - 36
b. Team Expenses - 24
c. Advertising/Admin - 13
Total Expenses(a+b+c) - 73
Net Loss - -0.2
Delhi Daredevils
a. Broadcasting Rights - 35
b. Team Sponsors - 20
c. Gate Receipts - 15.4
Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 70.4
a. Franchise Fees - 34
b. Team Expenses - 23
c. Advertising/Admin - 20
Total Expenses(a+b+c) - 77
Net Loss - -6.6
Kings XI Punjab
a. Broadcasting Rights - 35
b. Team Sponsors - 22
c. Gate Receipts - 9
Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 66
a. Franchise Fees - 30.4
b. Team Expenses - 25
c. Advertising/Admin - 13
Total Expenses(a+b+c) - 68.4
Net Loss - -2.4
Kolkata Knight Riders
a. Broadcasting Rights - 35
b. Team Sponsors - 34
c. Gate Receipts - 20
Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 89
a. Franchise Fees - 31
b. Team Expenses - 25
c. Advertising/Admin - 20
Total Expenses(a+b+c) - 76
Net Profit - +13
Rajasthan Royals
a. Broadcasting Rights - 35
b. Team Sponsors - 16
c. Gate Receipts - 8
Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 59
a. Franchise Fees - 27
b. Team Expenses - 13
c. Advertising/Admin - 13
Total Expenses(a+b+c) - 53
Net Profit - +6
All Figures are in Indian Rupees crores (1 crore = 10,000,000 Rupees = 201,176 United States Dollars = 152,444 Euro on June 1, 2008 [25])

[edit] Player signings
Main articles: Royal Challengers Bangalore, Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Daredevils, Deccan Chargers, Kolkata Knight Riders, Kings XI Punjab, Mumbai Indians, and Rajasthan Royals
The first players' auctions were held on 20 February 2008. The IPL placed icon status on a select few marquee Indian players. These players were Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, and Virender Sehwag. VVS Laxman initially named an icon player, later voluntarily opted out of his icon status to give his team (Deccan Chargers) more money to bid for players.[26] For the second season, auctions were also held, but free signings taking place in the off-season by franchises led to calls for a draft-like system where the lowest ranked teams would be given a first opportunity to sign players.

[edit] Winners
Year
Winner
Runner Up
2008
Rajasthan Royals
Chennai Super Kings

[edit] Controversies
The BCCI had found itself in the middle of many conflicts with various cricket boards around the world as a result of the IPL. The main point of contention was that signed players should always be available to their country for international tours, even if it overlaps with the IPL season. To address this, the BCCI officially requested that the ICC institute a time period in the International Future Tours Program solely for the IPL season. This request was not granted at a subsequent meeting held by the ICC. [27]

[edit] Conflicts with the England and Wales Cricket Board
Because the inaugural IPL season coincided with the County Championship season as well as New Zealand's tour of England, the ECB and county cricket clubs raised their concerns to the BCCI over players. The ECB made it abundantly clear that they would not sign No Objection Certificates for players—a prerequisite for playing in the IPL. Chairmen of the county clubs also made it clear that players contracted to them were required to fulfill their commitment to their county. As a result of this, Dimitri Mascarenhas was the only English player to have signed with the IPL for the 2008 season.[28]
A result of the ECB’s concerns about players joining the IPL, was a proposed radical response of creating their own Twenty20 tournament that would be similar in structure to the IPL. The league — titled the English Premier League — would feature 21 teams in three groups of seven and would occur towards the end of the summer season. [29] The ECB enlisted the aid of Texas billionaire Allen Stanford to launch the proposed league.[30] Stanford was the brains behind the successful Stanford 20/20, a tournament that has run twice in the West Indies. On February 17, 2009, when news of the fraud investigation against Stanford became public, the ECB and WICB withdrew from talks with Stanford on sponsorship.[31][32] On February 20 the ECB announced it has severed its ties with Stanford and cancelled all contracts with him.[33]

[edit] Conflicts with Cricket Australia
The BCCI also experienced run-ins with Cricket Australia (CA) over player availability for Australia’s tour of the West Indies and CA’s desire for global protection of their sponsors. CA had feared that sponsors of the IPL (and its teams) that directly competed with their sponsors would jeopardize already existing arrangements. This issue was eventually resolved [34] and it was also agreed upon that Australian players would be fully available for the West Indies tour.

[edit] Conflicts with the Pakistan Cricket Board
Many players from the Pakistan Cricket Team who were not offered renewed central contracts (or decided to reject new contracts) decided to join the rival Indian Cricket League(ICL). Two such players—Naved-ul-Hasan and Mushtaq Ahmed also held contracts with English Counties. The PCB decided to issue No Objection Certificates for these players to play with their county teams on the basis that since they were no longer contracted to the PCB, there was no point in not granting them their NOCs. The latter did not sit well with the BCCI, as it went against the hard line stance they had taken on players who joined the ICL.

[edit] Conflicts with other Boards
Smaller boards like the WICB and NZCB have raised concerns over the impact the IPL will have on their player development and already fragile financial situation. Since players from smaller cricketing nations are not compensated as much, they have more motivation to join the IPL.

[edit] Media restrictions
Initially the IPL enforced strict guidelines to media covering Premier League matches, consistent with their desire to use the same model sports leagues in North America use in regards to media coverage. Notable guidelines imposed included the restriction to use images taken during the event unless purchased from cricket.com, owned by Live Current Media Inc (who won the rights to such images) and the prohibition of live coverage from the cricket grounds. Media agencies also had to agree to upload all images taken at IPL matches to the official website. This was deemed unacceptable by print media around the world. Upon the threat of boycott, the IPL eased up on several of the restrictions.[35] On 15 April 2008 a revised set of guidelines offering major concessions to the print media and agencies was issued by the IPL and accepted by the Indian Newspaper Society.[36]
Even with the amended restrictions, specialist cricket websites such as cricinfo and cricket365 continued to be banned from providing live coverage from the grounds and from purchasing match images from press agencies. As a result, on 18 April several major international agencies including Reuters and AFP announced their decision to provide no coverage of the IPL.[37]

[edit] Conflict with Cricket Club of India
As per IPL rules, the winner of the previous competition decides the venue for the finals.[38] In 2009, the reigning Champions, Rajasthan Royals chose the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.[39] However, a dispute regarding use of the pavilion meant that no IPL matches could be held there. The members of the Cricket Club of India that owns the stadium have the sole right to the pavilion on match days, whereas the IPL required the pavilion for its sponsors.[40] The members were offered free seats in the stands, however the club rejected the offer, stating that members could not be moved out of the pavilion. [41][42][43]

Rajasthan Royals

Rajasthan Royals is a franchise cricket team that represents the state of Rajasthan in the IPL. The team is led and coached by Shane Warne. There is no Icon Player and brand ambassador for the team and it is also the only IPL team to have a foreign player being both the Coach and Captain. The team's mascot is a lion named Moochu Singh [2]. The team anthem, 'Halla Bol' is sung by Ila Arun[2]. The promotional video that aired on national networks before and during the first edition of the IPL was directed by Indrajit Nattoji of Blink Pictures. Leicestershire spinner Jeremy Snape signed on with the Rajasthan Royals as their high-performance coach and team psychologist. They became the champions of the inaugural IPL tournament.
[edit] Franchise History
The Rajasthan Royals franchise is owned by Emerging Media group and is Chaired by Manoj Badale. Other investors include Lachlan Murdoch, Aditya S Chellaram and Suresh Chellaram. The Group acquired the franchise for $67 million. Incidentally, this was the least expensive franchise in the Indian Premier League and probably the least fancied team in the league at the beginning of the tournament. Bollywood Actress and Celebrity Big Brother winner Shilpa Shetty and her business partner Raj Kundra paid approximately US $15.4 million for a 11.7% stake.

[edit] 2008 IPL Season
Prior to the start of the inaugural IPL season, many considered the Royals as possibly the weakest team in the IPL, giving them little chance of competing well in the tournament.[3] Evidence of the latter opinion seemed to be confirmed when the team lost its first match against the Delhi Daredevils in a 9 wicket loss.[4] However the Royals won their next game by defeating the Kings XI Punjab and continued to win the next five games in a row. The Royals built up an impressive 11-3 record after their fourteen premilinary round matches; this included a consecutive 5-game and 6-game winning streak with an undefeated record on their home ground and a spot at the top of the points table. They were also the first team to book a place in the semifinals with their 65 run win over the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Shane Warne's captaincy and simultaneous coaching was praised and well received by everyone,[5][6] including opposition teams.[7] In addition, many players of the Royals team had consistently played well. The Royals secured a place in the finals with a victory against the Delhi Daredevils.

[edit] Champions of the Tournament
The Rajasthan Royals became the winners of the first IPL tournament, when they defeated the Chennai Super Kings by 3 wickets in the final played on 1 June 2008. With the scores level with one ball remaining, Sohail Tanvir scored the winning run and therefore prevented the match from being decided on a bowl out.[8]
Each player and representative on the team was awarded a medal and the team was presented with the DLF Indian Premier League trophy along with a cheque for US$ 1.2 million prize money. Many of the Royals' players also took home individual awards for their performance during the tournament; Yusuf Pathan claimed the Man of the Match award for the final match, Sohail Tanvir finished the tournament in possession of the Purple Cap (the IPL's leading wicket taker) and Australian all-rounder Shane Watson was declared the Man of the Series.

[edit] Players
Rajasthan Royals were the least active franchise during the players auction. The team didn't have a designated icon player, which saved a lot of cap space for the franchise. However the franchise was surprisingly low key during the auction, and in the end got penalized by the IPL committee for failing to meet the minimum bidding criteria of $3.3 million.[9] The highest bid by Rajasthan Royals was for the Indian middle order batsman Mohammad Kaif, who came off the board at $675,000. Shane Warne was named the coach and the captain of the side. The Royals were unique during the 2008 season as they were the only side to have an English cricketer in their squad, Hampshire's all rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas who only played one match, against the Delhi Daredevils in Jaipur on 11 May, before returning back to England. The Rajasthan Royals also selected Justin Langer and Morne Morkel in the player auction, but both declined to instead play county cricket.[10] [11] In 2009 Season the team has cut down seven Indian players from the previous years squad. They are batsman Mohammad Kaif and other relatively unknowns Dinesh Salunkhe, Paras Dogra, Anup Revandkar, Srideep Mangela, Ashraf Makda and Azhar Malik.[12]

[edit] Current squad
Rajasthan Royals Roster
viewtalkedit
Batsmen
15 Graeme Smith
22 Robert Quiney
28 Yusuf Pathan
12 Ravindra Jadeja
29 Swapnil Asnodkar
18 Niraj Patel
-- Raiphi Gomez
02 Abhishek Raut
Wicket Keepers
38 NV Ojha
05 Mahesh Rawat
All Rounders
33 Shane Watson
35 Tyron Henderson
77 Lee Carseldine
32 Dimitri Mascarenhas
Bowlers
23 Shane Warne(Captain)
-- Shane Harwood
-- Shaun Tait
15 Morne Morkel
03 Munaf Patel
37 Siddharth Trivedi
20 Kamran Khan
86 Sumeet Khatri
13 Amit Singh
Support Staff
Assistant Head Coach: Harish Joshi
High Performance Coach: Jeremy Snape
Physiotherapist: John Gloster
Performance Analyst: Mohsin Sheikh
Director Of Coaching: Darren Berry

Monday, April 27, 2009

Chennai Super Kings

Chennai Super Kings is the Chennai based franchise of the Indian Premier League. The team is led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, currently the captain of the Indian cricket team, and coached by Stephen Fleming. The M. A. Chidambaram Stadium (often referred to as Chepauk) is the Super Kings' home ground.
Franchise history
The Chennai Super Kings are a part of the eight club Indian Premier League. The franchise is currently owned by India Cements, who paid US$91 million to acquire the rights to the franchise for 10 years in 2008. N. Srinivasan, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of India Cements Ltd., is the defacto owner of the Chennai Super Kings, by means of his position within the company. He is also the Secretary of the BCCI.
Krishnamachari Srikkanth, former captain of the Indian Cricket Team, is the brand ambassador for the franchise, and former Indian opener V. B. Chandrasekhar is the Chief Selector. The star ambassador for the team is the Tamil film star, Vijay. Film actress Nayantara was initially appointed as a co-brand ambassador,[2] but was unable to meet the commitments of regular match appearances.

[edit] Etymology
The name Chennai Super Kings draws on the history of rulers emerging from this region.

[edit] The Logo
The logo is inspired by popular folk-lore which holds that the lion is the king of the jungle. The minimalist style is meant to convey a sense of youth and vibrancy. The team colours are yellow and blue. Yellow for the fiery spirit that burns in the team's belly. Blue represents infinity, as one of the oldest yet progressive regions of the world.

[edit] Players
Chennai Super Kings did not have an icon player. This allowed the Super Kings to bid successfully on Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Muralitharan, two of the six A listed players. At the time of the bidding, Dhoni's US$1.3 Million was the highest bid for any player and still remains the highest bid for any Indian player.
In February 2009, the Chennai Super Kings purchased Andrew Flintoff for USD1,550,000, $600,000 above his base price, making him, along with Kevin Pietersen the highest paid IPL player.

[edit] 2008 IPL Season

A Chennai vs Kolkata match in progress at the M.A. Chidambaram Cricket Stadium
The Super Kings had a solid start to their 2008 IPL Season, winning their first 4 matches. However, their top order and bowling attack took a hit after Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey and Jacob Oram left the team for international duty. The team's performance reflected this, as they proceeded to lose their next 3 matches. The batting, although inconsistent, eventually adjusted to the losses of Hayden and Hussey with contributions from Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Albie Morkel. The gap in the team’s bowling left by Oram’s departure was eventually filled by the arrival of Makhaya Ntini and Morkel (both of whom were playing the Pro20 domestic tournament in South Africa during the start of the tournament) and the emergence of Manpreet Gony. A win in the final league match against the Deccan Chargers ensured their progress into the semi-finals.
The team defeated the Kings XI Punjab in the semifinal by 9 wickets. They lost the final to Rajasthan Royals by three wickets off the last ball.

[edit] 2009 Season
The 2009 IPL season is currently underway. Apart from Andrew Flintoff, the new players who have been signed up for the 2009 season are Thilan Thushara from Srilanka, George Bailey from Tasmania, Australia and Murali Vijay, the Tamil Nadu batsman who played for India in a single Test in Nagpur against Australia in 2008. Sudeep Tyagi, who missed the 2008 season due to injury, makes a comeback this year. Michael Hussey, one of the stars of the 2008 season, has opted out of the 2009 season.
The Superkings lost their first match to the Mumbai Indians by 19 runs, but won the second match against the Royal Challengers Bangalore by 92 runs, with the man of the match being Muralitharan and Matthew Hayden scoring 65 off 35 balls.
Andrew Flintoff got injured and has had to return home midway for surgery. [3]

[edit] Current squad
Chennai Super Kings Roster
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Batsmen
28 Matthew Hayden
48 Michael Hussey
-- George Bailey
03 Suresh Raina
33 Subramaniam Badrinath
-- Murali Vijay
06 Abhinav Mukund
42 Arun Karthik
Bowlers
08 Muttiah Muralitharan
16 Makhaya Ntini
76 Manpreet Gony
-- Sudeep Tyagi
55 Lakshmipathy Balaji
21 Palani Amarnath
Wicket Keepers
07 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain)
09 Parthiv Patel
All Rounders
11 Andrew Flintoff
24 Jacob Oram
81 Albie Morkel
97 Thilan Thushara
25 Shadab Jakati
-- Napoleon Einstein
-- Viraj Kadbe
-- Selvam Suresh Kumar
12 Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan
-- Ravichandran Ashwin
13 Joginder Sharma
Coaches
Coach cum player: Stephen Fleming
Physical Trainer: Gregory King
Physiotherapist : Tommy Simsek
Masseur : Roney Parry
Manager : Russel Radhakrishnann
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Mumbai Indians

Mumbai Indians is a cricket team in the Indian Premier League. The team is led by Sachin Tendulkar, who is also the Icon Player for the team. The team is coached by Pravin Amre and is owned by India's biggest conglomerate, Reliance Industries, through its 100% subsidiary IndiaWin Sports.
History
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) purchased the rights for the Mumbai franchise of Indian Premier league for a total of $111.9 million during the auction on January 24, 2008. The RIL bid has made the Mumbai Indians the most expensive franchise in IPL, and hence won the right to hold the semi-finals and the final in Mumbai. The team was unveiled on the 17th of April, 2008 in Mumbai.

[edit] 2008 IPL season
The season got off to a nightmarish start for the Indians, having lost their captain Sachin Tendulkar to a hamstring injury. With Harbhajan Singh taking over as captain, the team proceeded to lose their first 4 matches of the tournament. After Singh’s suspension for hitting Sreesanth, Shaun Pollock assumed the leadership duties until Tendulkar’s return on 14 May. It was during this time that the team turned their fortunes around, putting together a 6 game winning streak and an opportunity to make the semi-finals. They were unable to take advantage of this opportunity as they lost 3 of their next 4 games, with the 3 losses occurring in very close affairs. The Indians finished with a record of 7 wins and 7 losses. Sanath Jayasuriya played a vital role in securing two important wins for the team. Mumbai Indians were the most watched team on television in the first edition of the IPL tournament, totaling 239 million viewers. [1]

[edit] 2009 IPL season
During the IPL's first transfer window, The Indians acquired Zaheer Khan in exhange for Robin Uthappa and Shikhar Dhawan in exchange for Ashish Nehra. Jaydev Shah was also added to the roster, while Loots Bosman, Dwayne Smith, Dominic Thornely, Ashwell Prince and Manish Pandey were released from their contracts.
Shaun Pollock decided not to return for the second season of IPL. He, however, kept an association with the franchise, taking up the role of the Team Mentor. Pravin Amre replaced Lalchand Rajput as the coach. Thus far Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuria are an unstoppable opening pair.
At the player auction on February 6, 2009, the Mumbai Indians purchased J P Duminy for $950,000, Kyle Mills for $150,000 and Mohammad Ashraful for $75,000. They also signed all rounders Graham Napier and Ryan McLaren for undisclosed fee outside of the auction.

[edit] Logo and brand ambassador
The team logo has the Sudarshana Chakra with the team's name engraved in it. The team's colour is blue. The team's jersey is a two-tone blue with three stripes in orange.
In 2008, Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan was the brand ambassador of the team[2].

[edit] Players
During the player auction in 2008, the Mumbai Indians successfully bid for 7 players, including two members of the Indian Twenty-20 World cup winning side in Harbhajan Singh and Robin Uthappa. Sanath Jayasuriya, Lasith Malinga, Luke Ronchi,Dilhara Fernando and Shaun Pollock were other cricketers who were successfully bid for by the franchise.[3]
Outside of the player auction, the franchise also signed up Ajinkya Rahane and Abhishek Nayar (from Mumbai), Yogesh Takawale (WK-Batsman from Maharashtra) and Pinal Shah (WK-Batsman from Baroda).[4] Saurabh Tiwary and Manish Pandey, the members of the U-19 world-cup winning team were the random picks drafted in during the BCCI held second auction. Dominic Thornely was also signed by the Mumbai Indians for a sum of 25000 USD. Andre Nel the South African fast bowler was signed on in the place of Dwayne Bravo who left the tournament early.[5]
In the 2009 player auction,the Mumbai Indians signed up South African sensation, Jean Paul Duminy for $950,000.He was the third most expensive pick after Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff (both signed up for $1.55m by Bangalore Royal Challengers and Chennai Super Kings respectively). In addition they also bought New Zealander,Kyle Mills.

[edit] Transfers
In the 2008-2009 transfer window, Mumbai Indians conducted two straight swap deals, with no money exchanged. Ashish Nehra was swapped with Shikhar Dhawan of Delhi Daredevils[6] and on the last day of the transfer window, Robin Uthappa was swapped with Zaheer Khan of Royal Challengers Bangalore[7], who plays for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy. In a three-way trade, Jaydev Shah of the Rajasthan Royals - captain of the Saurashtra Ranji squad that made it to the semi-finals and son of former cricket board secretary Niranjan Shah - will move to the Mumbai Indians. Batsman Gaurav Dhiman of the Mumbai Indians will turn out for the Bangalore Royal Challengers and lanky Rajasthan Ranji Trophy team pacer Pankaj Singh, of the Rajasthan Royals, will don the colours of the Bangalore Royal Challengers in the coming IPL season.

[edit] Current squad
Mumbai Indians Roster
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Batsmen
10 Sachin Tendulkar(Captain)
84 Shikhar Dhawan
-- Saurabh Tiwary
-- Ajinkya Rahane
-- Jaydev Shah
21 Jean-Paul Duminy
08 Mohammad Ashraful
Wicket Keepers
16 Pinal Shah
23 Yogesh Takawale
-- Luke Ronchi
All Rounders
47 Dwayne Bravo
01 Sanath Jayasuriya
14 Graham Napier
37 Kyle Mills
25 Abhishek Nayar
-- Jude Singh
27 Ryan McLaren
Bowlers
26 Dilhara Fernando
99 Lasith Malinga
03 Harbhajan Singh
30 Dhawal Kulkarni
33 Rohan Raje
34 Zaheer Khan
-- Chetanya Nanda
-- Rahil Sheikh
Coaches
Head Coach: Pravin Amre
Asst Coach: Sameer Dighe
Bowling Coach: Shaun Pollock
Fielding Coach: Jonty Rhodes
Physiotherapist: Nitin Patel
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