Cricket : Mangoose Bat set to revolutionise world cricket

The revolution in the cricket world continues. First it was the invention of the T20 format and then the idea of test cricket during night, pink balls and now the latest to be added to the bandwagon in the Mangoose Bat. This bat has been made essentially for the Twenty 20 cricket. The founders of this bat claim that it generates 20% more power and 15% more bat speed than the conventional cricket bat. Former Australian batsman Stuart Law, appearing for Derbyshire became the first player to use a Mangoose bat in a cricket match when he used it in a county Twenty20 match against Durham. Law called on for the Mangoose bat after he had made 30 off 20 balls and he added a further 10 runs off the 5 balls he faced with Mangoose bat. As you can see in the above picture of the Mangoose bat, the handle is longer than a normal bat and the founders claim this has a larger "Sweet spot" as they say in cricket than the normal bat. The MCC found that it met all requirements under law six of regulations regarding the make-up of a bat but they are yet to arrive on a decision as they need to maintain the balance between bat and ball. A company spokesman said there was "every chance" the bat, with a starting price of 159 pounds, could make an appearance at the Twenty20 World Cup as negotiations were under way with other international players. Stuart Law has been contracted by its founders to test the bat.

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IPL Season 2:Final Schedule

After lots of delays and speculation about the second edition of the Indian Premier League, the tournament is set to kick off on April 18th. The final date decided is a week later than the first decided dates. Here is the schedule for all the matches. The timings given here are in IST(Indian Standard Time).

Complete Schedule:
April 18: Mumbai Indians (MI) v Chennai Super Kings (CSK) (4 pm) in Cape Town
Rajasthan Royals (RR) v Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) (8 pm) in Cape Town
April 19: Delhi Daredevils (DD) v Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) (4 pm) in Cape Town; Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) v Deccan Chargers (DC) (8 pm) in Cape Town
April 20: RCB V CSK (8 pm) in Port Elizabeth
April 21: KKR v KXIP (4 pm) in Durban; RR v MI (8 pm) in Durban
April 22: RCB v DC (8 pm) in Cape Town
April 23: CSK v DD (4 pm) Durban; KKR v RR (8 pm) in Port Elizabeth
April 24: KXIP v RCB (8 pm) in Durban
April 25: DC v MI (4 pm) in Durban; KKR v CSK (8 pm) in Cape Town
April 26: RCB v DD (4 pm) Port Elizabeth; RR v KXIP (8 pm) in Cape Town
April 27: CSK v DC (4 pm) in Durban; KKR v MI (8 pm) in Port Elizabeth
April 28: DD v RR (8 pm) in Centurion
April 29: KKR v RCB (4 pm) in Durban; MI v KXIP (8 pm) in Durban
April 30: KKR v RCB (4 pm) in Durban; RR v CSK (8 pm) in Centurion
May 1: MI v KKR (4 pm) in East London; RCB v KXIP (8 pm) in Durban
May 2: RR v DC (4 pm) in Port Elizabeth; CSK v DD (8 pm) in Johannesburg
May 3: KXIP v KKR (4 pm) in Port Elizabeth; MI v RCB (8 pm) in Johannesburg
May 4: DC v CSK (8 pm) in East London
May 5: KXIP v RR (4 pm) in Durban; DD v KKR (8 pm) in Durban
May 6: MI v DC (8 pm) in Centurion
May 7: RCB v RR (4 pm) in Centurion; KXIP v CSK (8 pm) in Centurion
May 8: DD v MI (8 pm) in East London
May 9: DC v KXIP (4 pm) in Kimberley; CSK v RR (8 pm) in Kimberley
May 10: RCB v MI (4 pm) in Port Elizabeth; KKR v DD (8 pm) in Johannesburg
May 11: DC v RR (8 pm) in Kimberley
May 12: RCB v KKR (4 pm) in Centurion; KXIP v MI (8 pm) in Centurion
May 13: DC v DD (8 pm) in Durban
May 14: CSK v RCB (4 pm) in Durban; MI v RR (8 pm) in Durban
May 15: KXIP v DD (8 pm) in Bloemfontein
May 16: CSK v MI (4 pm) in Port Elizabeth; DC v KKR (8 pm) in Johannesburg
May 17: KXIP v DC (4 pm) in Johannesburg; RR v DD (8 pm) in Bloemfontein
May 18: CSK v KKR (8 pm) in Centurion
May 19: DD v RCB (8 pm) in Johannesburg
May 20: RR v KKR (4 pm) in Durban; CSK v KXIP (8 pm) in Durban
May 21: MI v DD (4 pm) in Centurion; DC v RCB (8 pm) in Centurion
May 22: Semi Final 1 in Centurion
May 23: Semi Final 2 in Johannesburg
May 24: Final in Johannesburg

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IPL Season 2 not to be played in India

The second season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will not be held in India. At the BCCI working committee meeting today in Mumbai, a decision was taken to stage the tournament outside the country "because of the extraordinary situation existing this year." This is what a press release from the IPL board had to say "Under the given circumstances, the BCCI is not in a position to either play a truncated IPL or to cancel the second edition of the IPL. It is a matter of great regret that, in the prevailing atmosphere, where the government is expressing concern for providing security to the IPL matches, the BCCI is left with no other option but to conduct the Indian Premier League in another country"
Now England and South Africa have emerged as the front runners to host IPL. South Africa board chairman has said that they are ready to host the event if approached. And IPL has confirmed that the schedule remains the same. This comes as a huge blow to the fans in India who were eagerly waiting for the month of April. Though the tournament is set to go on, I doubt if it will we as successful as the last years edition. But the IPL board might have had little choice as elections are approaching this year. But those who might be affected are the stakeholders. I doubt if sponsors will be pumping in the cash to the same extent as they did last year. Modi has confirmed that dates and timings of the matches will remain the same. The Indian audiences can watch the matches at 4 pm and 8 pm IST as they did in the inaugural season.

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Cricket:Sreesanth out of IPL Season 2

Shanthakumaran Sreesanth will miss this year's IPL due to a stress fracture in his back. He was one of Punjab's key bowlers last season with his 19 scalps making him the tournament's second highest wicket-taker. And his infamous slap gate controversy with Harbhajan Singh cannot be forgotten easily. So with Sreesanth out of this season's IPL we can assured that another Bhaji-Sreesanth row won't erupt. His injury comes as a serious setback for the Kings 11 team whose premier fast bowler Brett Lee is not in best of forms and also down with injury. Coach Tom Moody too said it was a huge blow to his team. It's been a year since Sreesanth last played for India and a string og injuries have kept him out of the national side. Whatever may be IPL Season 2 will be without the energy and enthusiasm of Sreesanth!!!

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IPL:Squads for Season 2

The squads are as follows:

Royal Challengers, Bangalore:

Overseas players: Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher, Dale Steyn, Dillon Du Preez, Cameron White, Nathan Bracken, Ross Taylor, Kevin Pietersen, Jesse Ryder and Roelof van der Merwe.

Indian players: Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Robin Uthappa, Praveen Kumar, Virat Kohli, Wasim Jaffer, Manish Pandey, Srivats Goswami, R Suteesh, Pankaj Singh, Vinay Kumar, Bhuvanesh Kumar, Karan Sharma, Saurav Bandekar, Tinu Yohannan, Bharat Chipli, B Akhil, Devraj Patil, J Arun Kumar, KP Appanna, Sunil Joshi, Gaurav Dhiman, Jitendra Patil, Udit Patel, A Mithun, S Aravind, Kedar Jadhav, C M Gautam, Raju Bhatkal, Rajesh Bishnoi, Ishank Jaggi and Rohit Sabharwal.

Chennai Super Kings:

Overseas players: Muthiah Muralitharan, Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Albie Morkel, Makhaya Ntini, Jacob Oram, Stephen Fleming, Thilan Thushara, Andrew Flintoff and George Bailey.

Indian players: M S Dhoni, Parthiv Patel, Suresh Raina, S Badrinath, L Balaji, M Vijay, Joginder Sharma, Manpreet Singh Goni, Sudeep Tyagi, Viraj Kadbe, Shadab Jakati, R Ashwin, Abhinav Mukund, Anirudha Srikkanth, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, Palani Amarnath, K B Arun Karthik, N Einstein and Suresh Kumar.

Delhi Daredevils:

Overseas players: A B de Villiers, Daniel Vettori, Owais Shah, Paul Collingwood, David Warner, Andrew McDonald, Dirk Nannes, Glenn McGrath, Farveez Maharoof and T Dilshan.

Indian players: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Kartik, Manoj Tiwary, Rajat Bhatia, Mithun Manhas, Avishkar Salvi, Ashish Nehra, V Yo Mahesh, Pradeep Sangwan, Umesh Yadav, Yogesh Nagar, Tejashwi Yadav and Amit Mishra.

Deccan Chargers, Hyderabad:

Overseas players: Adam Gilchrist, Herschelle Gibbs, Scott Styris, Andrew Symonds, Ryan Harris, Fidel Edwards, Dwayne Smith, Chamara Silva, Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa.

Indian players: VVS Laxman, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Venugopal Rao, D Ravi Teja, T Suman, Arjun Yadav, D Kalyankrishna, P Vijay Kumar, Manvinder Bisla, Jaskarandeep Singh, Harmeet Singh, Sarvesh Kumar, Halahar Das, Syed Mohammed and Shoaib Ahmed.

Mumbai Indians:

Overseas players: Lasith Malinga, Jean Paul Duminy, Graham Napier, Ryan McLaren, Dilhara Fernando, Sanath Jayasuriya, Dwayne Bravo, Mohd Ashraful, Kyle Mills and Luke Ronchi.

Indian players: Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Shikhar Dhawan, Abhishek Nayar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jude Singh, Jaydev Shah, Rahil Shaikh, Yogesh Takawale, Pinal Shah, Ajinkya Rahane, Chetanya Nanda, Rohan Raje and Saurabh Tiwary.

Rajasthan Royals:

Overseas players: Shane Warne, Graeme Smith, Shane Watson, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Morne Morkel, Robert Quiney, Tyron Henderson, Shaun Tait, Shane Harwood and Lee Carseldine.

Indian players: Mohd Kaif, Munaf Patel, Yusuf Pathan, Sidharth Trivedi, Swapnil Asnodkar, Niraj Patel, Mahesh Rawat, Anup Revandkar, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Salunkhe, Naman Ojha, Sidharth Chitnis, Paras Dogra, Amit Singh, Ahad Malek, Raphi Vincent Gomez, Kamran Khan, Ashraf Makda, Paul Valthaty, Srideep Mangela, Mohd Arif, Gajendra Singh, Atul Sharma, Pratmesh Salunkhe and Pushkarraj Chavan.

King's XI Punjab:

Overseas players: Brett Lee, James Hopes, Shaun Marsh, Luke Pomersbach, Simon Katich, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Burt Cockley, Ravi Bopara and Jerome Taylor.

Indian players: Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan, S Sreesanth, Ramesh Powar, V R V Singh, Piyush Chawla, Karan Goel, Uday Kaul, Wilkin Mota, Ajitesh Argal, Tanmay Srivastava, Sunny Sohal, Ryan Ninan and Yash Gandhi.

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IPL 2009:Mumbai to host Finals, semifinals in Chennai

The IPL fever has started to set in and IPL commissioner Lalit Modi, who is also president of Rajasthan Cricket Association, is finding himself in the news for all wrong reasons. He has been charged of funds misappropriation, something that is strongly denied by Modi saying the charges were politically motivated. And Modi has also gone on to say that matches of "Rajasthan Royals" might be moved away from Jaipur if the government did not co-operate. It must be recalled that Shane Warne had earlier said that he would not play if the matches were moved away from Jaipur. Meanwhile defending champions Rajasthan Royals who had the right to host the finals of this year's IPL have opted to host them in Mumbai. Runners up Chennai Super Kings had the rights to host the semifinals and they have opted to host both the games in Chennai. The finals may either be held in Brabourne Stadium(first choice for Royals) or D.Y.Patil Stadium.

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Global Economic meltdown: IPL V/s Recession

Well.....If you had been thinking that the global economic meltdown had hit sports and cricket in particular, you are wrong. If you are to go by the way the second players auction of IPL went, you would be wondering is it really a period of Recession. And as the IPL commissioner Mr. Lalit Modi claims, "IPL is Recession Proof". $13.5 million was available to the teams before the players came under the hammer. And after the auction was over, 17 players had been picked up for around $8.7 million. Roughly $500,000 per player, thats lot of money considering that fact that the economic slowdown has started to hit everyone and some say that Recession is yet to come. But if you had been wondering how so much money is there in Cricket the answer is simple, Advertisement. The corporates pump money into cricket as its the easiest way to reach a common man in India. And that money means, it also goes to the players who get paid these exorbitant sums for 2 months work. If you take the case of Mortaza whose base price was $50,000, he was sold at a whopping $600,000 after some fierce bidding. That money is 4 times more than what he would earn in a year playing for Bangladesh. Players like Flintoff and Pietersen had a field day getting auctioned for $1.55 million each. So if you ever thought Recession would hit IPL, please change your thought. IPL has just hit Recession for a massive six.

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IPL Auction:List of players sold

Seventeen slots were filled in over two hours of the 2009 IPL auction in Goa. Here is a list of the players who have been bought at the auction (base price in brackets; all numbers in US$):

Pool A
Shaun Tait to Rajasthan Royals 375,000 (250,000)
JP Duminy to Mumbai Indians 950,000 (300,000)
Andrew Flintoff to Chennai Super Kings 1.55 million (950,000)
Kevin Pietersen to Bangalore Royal Challengers 1.55 million (1.35 million)

Pool B
Fidel Edwards to Deccan Chargers 150,000 (150,000)
Owais Shah to Delhi Daredevils 275,000 (150,000)
Paul Collingwood to Delhi 275,000 (250,000)

Stuart Clark, Brad Haddin and Chamara Kapugedara were unsold.

Pool C
Tyron Henderson to Rajasthan 650,000 (100,000)
Ravi Bopara to Kings XI Punjab 450,000 (150,000)
Thilan Thushara to Chennai 140,000 (100,000)
Jesse Ryder to Bangalore 160,000 (100,000)
Kyle Mills to Mumbai 150,000 (150,000).

Ashwell Prince, Phil Jaques, Andre Nel, Luke Wright and Nuwan Kulasekara were unsold.

Pool D
Dwayne Smith to Deccan Chargers 100,000 (100,000)
Jerome Taylor to Punjab 150,000 (150,000)
Mohammad Ashraful to Mumbai 75,000 (75,000)

Samit Patel, Shakib Al Hasan, Morne van Wyk, Steven Smith, Ashley Noffke, Gulam Bodi and Daren Powell were unsold.

Pool E
Tamim Iqbal, Jon Moss, Bryce McGain, James Franklin, Aiden Blizzard, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Michael Klinger, Kaushalya Weeraratne, Prasanna Jayawardene and Dominic Thornley were unsold.

Pool F
Mashrafe Mortaza to Kolkata Knight Riders 600,000 (50,000)
George Bailey to Chennai 50,000 (50,000)

Yusuf Abdulla, Daniel Harris, Kemar Roach, Aaron Bird, Michael Dighton, Michael Hill and Brett Geeves were unsold.

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IPL:Second Auction, Chennai get Flintoff, KP lands in Bangalore

Even before the second auction of the IPL began, there was lot of talks that Kevin Pietersen was in talks with Bangalore and had met owner Vijay Mallya regarding the same. And rumours floated that Chennai was in talks with Flintoff, when he came to the city for the first test against India. And these talks were vindicated when both these players headed in the mentioned directions. Chennai got Flintoff for a whopping $1.55million and that made him the most expensive player in the IPL and he was joined by Kevin Pietersen who was purchased by Bangalore for the same price and they both have become the most expensive players in the IPL surpassing M.S.Dhoni's tag of $1.5million. There were little doubt concerning the buying of they both unlike Michael Clarke, who pulled out fearing that he may be not be bought. And when Flintoff came under the hammer, Chennai who had the full $2 million purse went all out and got their man. Though there wasn't much talk about Flintoff's destination, Chennai team later revealed that they had targeted Flintoff long back. I cannot wait to see Flintoff teeing off for my Chennai side!!!!!!!!!!!!

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IPL Auction:List of players available

List of players for second auction
Australia: Brad Haddin, Michael Clarke, Nathan Hauritz, Stuart Clark, Brad Hogg, Beau Casson, Mark Cameron, Peter Forrest, Lee Carseldine, Doug Bollinger, Michael Dighton, Jason Krejza, Nathan Reardon, Chris Hartley, Shaun Tait, Ashley Noffke, Bryce McGain, George Bailey, Travis Birt, Michael Hill, Chris Swan, Michael Klinger, Ben Edmondson, Aiden Blizzard, Mark Cosgrove, Adam Voges, Shane Harwood

England: Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison, Ravi Bopara, Monty Panesar, Robert Key, James Foster, Sajid Mahmood, Matt Prior, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Owais Shah, Darren Gough, Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swann, Luke Wright, James Anderson, Ed Joyce, Dominic Cork

Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan, Mohammad Ashraful, Mashrafe Mortaza, Tamim Iqbal, Junaid Siddique, Mehrab Hossain jnr, Rajin Saleh, Ziaur Rehman, Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim, Raqibul Hasan, Nadif Chowdhury

New Zealand: Mark Gillespie, Tim Southee, Jesse Ryder, Jeetan Patel, Kyle Mills, Chris Martin, Jamie How, Peter Fulton, James Franklin

Pakistan: Asim Kamal, Mohammad Hafeez, Yasir Hameed, Danish Kaneria, Yasir Arafat

South Africa: Gulam Bodi, Rory Kleinveldt, Charl Langeveldt, Ashwell Prince, JP Duminy, Martin van Jaarsveld, Roelof van der Merwe, Andre Nel, Neil McKenzie, Yusuf Abdullah, Paul Harris, Johan Botha, Morne van Wyk, Tyron Henderson

Sri Lanka: Thilan Thushara, Nuwan Kulasekara, Mahela Udawatte, Dammika Prasad, Thilina Kandamby, Kaushalya Weeraratne, Jehan Mubarak, Dilhara Lokuhettige, Malinga Bandara, Malinda Warnapura, Michael Vandort, Prasanna Jayawardene, Upul Tharanga, Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Jeevantha Kulatunga

West Indies: Sylvester Joseph, Darren Sammy, Andre Fletcher, Kieron Pollard, Kieran Powell, Fidel Edwards, Dwayne Smith, Kemar Roach

Zimbabwe: Vusi Sibanda

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KFC Big Bash Finals:New South Wales beat Victoria

What a match for a T20 finals. The finals of the KFC Big Bash between defending champs Victoria 'Bushrangers' and New South Wales 'Blues' went till the last ball and in the end it was the Blues who took home the trophy in a nerve racking thriller and ended Victoria's stronghold over the trophy. Victoria, batting first made 166 for 4 thanks to some clean hitting by Rob Quiney who hit a 91 from 56 balls including 8 sixes. Bird took 3 wickets for the Blues. And in reply the Blues appeared to be cruising at 85 for 1 but they lost 3 wickets for 7 runs and made things complex for themselves but then came Ben Rohrer. His brutal innings of 44 came off 20 balls as he took them nearer to the target. And with a single needed off the last ball, Rohrer scampered for a bye and the bowlers throw hit the stumps. But the Blues were celebrating while the third umpire was called for. And replays showed Rohrer's bat in the air while the bails were removed but his dive meant that his hands were inside the crease!!!!!! After a few anxious moments Blues erupted again. Both these teams will take part in the Champions League t20 coming October.

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IPL:England players set to play

All the roadblocks for the English players participating in the second edition of the IPL have been removed with The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) agreeing to allow England players to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for a three-week period. Ealier it was said that KP and Flintoff would be available for 2 weeks only, which made the franchises think about buying but after this finals resolution we can see a host of English players including Andrew Flintoff, Paul Collingwood, Kevin Pietersen and few more in the IPL. And the players have struck a deal with the counties and it means they will give 10% of whatever they get from the auction. But once they are put on auction, there is no doubt that they will attract high bids and its been rumoured that KP is in talks with the Bangalore team while Chennai are in dialogues with Flintoff. Lets wait and watch as all of them will come under the hammer and have no say in deciding they play!!!!

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Cricket:IPL transfer news

The transfer market of the IPL has hardly seen any activity yet it saw the second transfer, which was a direct swap between Zaheer Khan(Bangalore) and Robin Uthappa (Mumbai). and similar to the ealier swap, this deal did not involve any cash dealings. After this swap, both the players will be appearing for their respective state teams. Vijay Mallya, during the IPL last year had said he would have been more happier had to got Uthappa also in the auction and now he has had his wish. Along with Uthappa, Bangalore have also signed Leicestershire all-rounder Dillon du Preez. It must be remembered that Delhi have signed up Australian dasher David Warner even before he made his smashing debut in the international arena.

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Cricket:IPL Transfers

The first ever trading window of IPL is set to end on January 22nd but there has not been much activity among the teams. Players like Afridi and Akhtar were put on sale but there were no buyers for them given the current situation between India and Pakistan. Some of the teams like the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were happy with their current squad and they did not put any player on the market. The first and the only transfer till this second was the straight swap between Nehra (Mumbai Indians) and Shikhar Dhawan (Delhi Daredevils). Now there are serious talks that Zaheer(Bangalore) and Robin Uthappa (Mumbai) are set for a similar swap without any cash dealings. Apart from this one there hasn't been any news (not even rumours) regarding the transfers and the teams have started to release fringe players to cut the costs!!!!! Next trading season migh see a bit of activity as teams are not sure of whom they require now. Now, I'm waiting for the player auction in February. If you are checking this post after January 20th, click here for the transfers before the window closed - IPL TRANSFERS.

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Champions League T20 put off

The inaugural Champions League Twenty20 has been pushed back by a year and will now be held in India in October 2009, the window originally identified for the tournament's second edition.This decision comes as a huge disappointment for the teams who were looking forward to the tournament and also to the millions of fans across the globe. This tournament created so much hype and it was gathering momentum just when some unfortunate things happened in Mumbai, one of the proposed venues. The participating teams had a lot riding on it as they would been guaranteed a purse of US$250,000 as participating fees from the total pot of US$6 million. Moreover those who had qualified for this year's edition have got to do it all over again in their respective T20 tournament as the next year's edition will have a fresh set of qualifying teams. Many of the boards have lost a lot of money due to this but this was a sensible decision keeping in mind the horrors that happened last month. It is likely the tournament will now have more teams - possibly up to 12 from the eight slotted for this year - next year's Twenty20 domestic finalists from India, Australia and South Africa will definitely take part with the other participating teams will being finalized by the end of January 2009.

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