...and IPL begins.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) begins today evening only - less than six hours remain before Dravid's (and Mallya's, or should i have put it the other way round) Royal Challengers, egged on by the 'first ladies of football' take on King Khan's Kokata Knight Riders ( no prizes now for guessing which team Ekta Kapoor supports ) in the inaugural match of the inaugural Indian Premier League.

You can catch all IPL action live on SET MAX or if you are stuck in some godforsaken place where there is no live coverage of the league on TV, then i suggest you check this link out - This list created earlier should also serve as a good list of sites for Live Streaming Cricket of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Here's the itinerary of the first few matches to get you started.

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Day, Date,Time - Team 1 vs Team 2 - Venue

Friday, 18 April, 7 pm - Bangalore Royal Challengers vs Kolkata Knight Riders - Bangalore

Saturday, 19 April, 3 pm - Kings XI Punjab vs Chennai Super Kings - Mohali

Saturday, 19 April, 8 pm - Delhi Daredevils vs Rajasthan Royals - Delhi

Sunday, 20 April, 3 pm - Mumbai Indians vs Bangalore Royal Challengers - Mumbai

Sunday, 20 April, 8 pm - Kolkata Knight Riders vs Deccan Chargers - Kolkata

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In case you are still in doubt, I am rooting for Delhi Daredevils. In case they fare as per expectation, I will switch to King Khan's Kolkata. What are your plans?

The Indian Premier League: Part I

The IPL Launch: September 2007:

On Thursday, the 13th september 2007, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) launched the Indian Premier League (IPL) on the lines of football’s English Premier League and the National Basketball League (NBA) of the U.S.

In an apparent reaction to Essel Group’s Indian Cricket League (ICL) that had generated much debate, the BCCI paraded Australia bowling great Glenn McGrath and former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming in the national capital to support the IPL. India’s captain Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble were also part of the glittering launch attended by the President of the International Cricket Council (ICC), Ray Mali, and chiefs of various cricket boards.

On the occasion, the BCCI and the ICC also unveiled a $5 million prize money Champions Twenty20 League. The added incentive of being part of the IPL will be the chance to play in the Champions Twenty20 League to be organised by the International Cricket Committee (ICC).

Just as in the UEFA Champions League, the winner and runner-up team of the IPL will qualify for the Champions League, to be played in October 2008. For a start, domestic Twenty20 leagues would be conducted by the cricket boards of Australia, South Africa and England, to have an eight-team Champions League.

The IPL, India’s domestic Twenty20 league will debut in April 2008 with 59 matches spread over 44 days. The IPL will primarily be played under lights with play beginning at 5 p.m. Two matches will be scheduled each day.

The IPL will be a franchise-model wherein corporates and sponsors will be allowed to buy and run teams. Player buy-outs will be an added feature, something that cricket is not accustomed to.

Title Sponsorship Rights:

Real estate developer DLF Group has won the title sponsorship of the Indian Premier League (IPL) after its successful Rs 200-crore bid. The bidding started at Rs 125 crores.

The three other bidders apart from DLF were Percept D'Mark, Hero Honda along with WSG and 21st Century even though the latter withdrew their bid as they wanted extra time to discuss the product category.

TV Rights:

Jan 14, 2008: In one of the biggest telecast deals in Indian cricket, the consortium of India's Sony Television network and the Singapore-based World Sports Group (WSG) bagged the rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the official Twenty20 league for a period of 10 years at a cost of over US$1 billion. As part of the deal, the consortium will pay the BCCI US$908 million for the telecast rights and US$108 million for the promotion of the tournament.

Rough calculations show that Sony will need to sell a 10 second commercial for upwards of 2 lakh rupees to make the deals profitable. Advertisers, Media Planners and Buyers are divided over the value of these commercials - especially after the bitter experience of last year's ODI World Cup. While Sony claims that advertisers are showing keen interest in this 'more than cricket' entertainment package, a few media planners are wary for other reasons. Says one, "These matches are all prime time matches. How many women will allow their husband’s fascination for cricket to take precedence over soaps for 59 straight days remains to be seen?"

(to be continued)

Racism row's innocent victims

Read this interesting story about the disappointment of five young cricket fans at the Bradman Oval.

I am no racist but Procter is a monkey

Last winter, when the cricket world was in the midst of another umpiring controversy, this blog had defended Mr. Darrell Hair - my stand was that in the process of indicting Hair, the ICC had violated one of the basic principles of modern democracies. The judiciary doesn't work like the legislature - on the principle of majority. A good judge dispassionately listens to witnesses, checks for evidences and motives only before pronouncing his sentence. Yesterday in Sydney, the ICC got it wrong yet again.

Handing out the Indian offie, Harbhajan Singh a 3 test ban for making a racist remark (he allegedly called Andrew Symonds a monkey), the ICC match referee Mike Procter said he was satisfied beyond doubt that the allegations made by the Australian cricketers was correct. And how exactly did he reach at this truth? The stump-mikes offered nothing, the umpires heard no such thing, out of the 4 Australian players who went along with Symonds for the hearing, 2 had heard nothing. Just that Ponting believed in the sincerity of his star all-rounder and decided to support him. Bhajji was supported by Tendulkar, Kumble and Dravid. They denied that their team-mate had made any such remark. So Procter, in the lack of any evidence went for the majority opinion! This team of people whose views was factored in included besides others the much maligned firm of Messers Bucknor and Benson!! Procter also added that he gave special importance to Michael Clarke's words. Now why would you that Mr. Neutral Refereee? Unless you have a thing for cute looking Aussie men or you are a racist yourself, Mr. Procter, I don't quite appreciate your modus operandi. And what was the Queen's Counsel, Nigel Peters doing all the while? He should surely have known a thing or two about the way legal systems work.

One practise day too many

So the BCCI has gone ahead and placed a request with Cricket Australia to reduce the duration of the practise game between the 2nd and the 3rd tests from 3 days to 2. And here we were wondering if India wasn't short of practise matches already. Just in case you are thinking that this wisdom may have been prompted by a concern for sufficient rest between the two test matches, Team India would have got a proper 3 days rest before the next game began at the WACA.

New Year Test: 2nd to 6th Jan, Sydney Cricket Ground

ACT Invitation XI vs India : 10th to 12th Jan, Manuka Oval in Canberra

3rd Test: 16th to 20th Jan, WACA Perth

...and Cricket Australia lost no time in accepting the Indian Board's request.

Pakistan goes to Assam, I come back, ULFA welcomes Pakistan

So here i am back from my annual trip back home to Dibrugarh in Assam, also the home of the dreaded United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA). With the Pakistan cricket team slated to play the first ODI in Guwahati, Assam has once again been in the news for the wrong reasons: The PCB, much harassed by foreign cricket boards for security reasons on their own grounds got a suitable chance to raise their own security concerns this time round and there has been much talk on the venues for the two team's match preparations since the players would like to spend as little time as possible in the dangerous environment of Assam. And silly me, i had gone on a self-paid annual holiday to ULFA land !!

The Assam Cricket Association ( like every other cricket board in the world ) has a way of making mockery of itself time and again and this time they resorted to making a ridiculous request to the outlawed ULFA to "help in the smooth conduct of the game". The terrorist outfit didn't miss the opportunity and in a statement released by their chairman Arbind Rajkhowa has welcomed the Indian and Pakistan Cricket teams to Assam and has assured everyone that there would be no security concerns for the two teams. Ironcially the ULFA now appeals to "all sections of the society to ensure that the match passes off peacefully". Rajkhowa reassures everyone saying that there was no need for panic since the outfit respects all games and sports. That's a little believable as the self-styled Commander-in-chief of the ULFA, Paresh Baruah was the goalkeeper and captain of Dibrugarh's football team not too long back in history.

How i wish ULFA had the same respect for all human lives as it has for sports and games.

Why is Gilchrist being allowed to go scot-free?

The 2nd India-Australia ODI is being much talked about for the many verbal duels that rocked the match that day - Sreesanth has been painted as the biggest villain, probably rightly so. Harbhajan Singh's confrontation with the Aussie huddle after his dismissal has been the other talked about issue - with fingers also being pointed at some of the Aussies for instigating the Indian spinner. Michael Clarke and Matthew Hayden are being accused of being 'regular chirpers'. But what about Adam Gilchrist?

During the middle of the India innings, the Indian umpire Suresh Shastri had erred in calling a no-ball, as the TV replays clearly showed that a good part of the bowler's front foot was well behind the front crease. The resultant free hit was duly dispatched for a six by Yuvraj Singh, and Gilchrist who hadn't reacted earlier suddenly erupted. Dashing down the pitch, he gave Shastri quite a dose of words, his non-verbal gestures clearly pointing out what he was talking about. The poor umpire looked intimitated and embarassed.

Now Shastri may not be the brightest umpire around, but he is definitely not the first umpire in the world to have made a wrong no-ball decision. Would Gilchrist have had the guts to do the same if the same mistake had been made by the other umpire in the match, Steve Bucknor? Wasn't that a clear case of dissent?

The ICC Playing Conditions are actually pretty harsh on this - even if the match referee had thought it was a simple case of dissent, it is a Level 1 offence. ( pointed out at 1.3) Gilchrist should have been fined anything upto 50% of his match fee, and more importantly given an official reprimand.

Now running down the pitch (22 yards) and intimidating the umpire verbally and with non-verbal gestures is not a 'simple case of dissent'. According to the ICC rule-book, it is a Level 3 offence - the fine for which is a ban for 4 to 8 one-days. But forget a ban, no one is even accusing Gilchrist of having done any wrong.

To top up the ridiculousness of it all, Mr. Gilchrist even has the balls to now accuse some of the Indians of indulging in wrong behaviour. And in another part of the world, one of Gilchrist's country-mates is accusing the Indian & Pakistan Cricket boards of being racists. Is amnesia a common disease down under?