Indian Premier League

[Arjun]

All of the South African IPL players will miss their franchises first four games due to domestic 20/20 commitments.

Lalit Modi had offered the Cape Cobra franchise over $100,000 compensation for the Cobras to forget about Boucher, Kallis, Smith, Prince and Gibbs but CSA due to the investment of Standard Bank in Pro 20 wanted the player’s to return home, even if their RSA franchises do not advance into the next round.

According to Neil Manthorp, Jacques Kallis is inline to lose a quarter of a million $ due to this but Graeme Smith is apparently happy to return home and he reminded all the South African players their loyalty was (firstly) with CSA, not the IPL.

This makes the scene even more interesting. What will the respective teams do?

Chennai- Point of entry for Jacob Oram in place of Albie Morkel.

Hyderabad- They can pick Vaas, Symonds, Gilchrist and Afridi, or Styris for one of them.

Bangalore- Will profit well, opening the gates for Cameron White (ahead of Kallis) and with Shreevats keeping, another foreign bowler or batsman comes in for Boucher.

Kolkata, Mohali- No effect.

Jaipur- They will miss Morne Morkel, so a place opens up for the productive but injury-prone Shane Watson, or the fitter but not-so-useful Dimi. An extra foreign batsman can come in, even with Kamran Akmal, keeeping out Mahesh Rawat.

Mumbai- Big hit. Major casualty. Or could have been. Luckily, Shaun Pollock has retired.

Delhi- They'll miss AB de Villiers, so an extra foreign bowler comes in.

 

[GIMH]

Why should they share the revenue though?

edit - in response to R_D's post

 

[Manee]

I believe that the only revenue sharing that should go on should be between the profits of the franchises and the respective state boards.

 

[R_D]

Why should they share the revenue though?

edit - in response to R_D's post

I don't beleive they should either but if they are expecting other boards to ban players from from playing in ICL and try to get a window open in the ICC tour programme for IPL than they'll have to share some of their revenues with other boards for their co-operation. At the end of the day all the boards are pretty hungry for money and they'll do just about anything to get more money out of cricket.

 

[Arjun]

How's this for a Daredevil lineup for Delhi?

• Sehwag
• Gambhir
• Manhas
• Tewary
• Karthik (WK)
• Chamara Silva
• Bhatia (RM)
• Maharoof (RM)
• Vettori (SLA)
• Sangwan (LFM)
• McGrath (RFM)

AB deVilliers not ready makes a difference, and makes a place for Chamara Silva. The people from GMR may pick a two-Pakistani-two-Lankan team that is 'better suited for Indian conditions', but this XI will win a lot more. They can go in for an extra bowler, but we're not sure if any of Brett Geeves, Asif or Yo Mahesh are good enough for this event- but here, the nearly-men are a factor. Asif is a misfit in T20, as we've noticed, while Geeves, fast as he may be, came out of nowhere, and Yo Mahesh is still too raw. In fact, middle-order batsman Bhatia may edge out one of these. If they need that extra bowler (possibly Geeves), they have to drop Silva/AB and get in a local batsman. Rajat Bhatia, though, would be a tough one to pick in a T20.

 

[chaminda_00]

Would play Geeves ahead of Maharoof, a better bowler and decent enough lower order batsmen. Then again Maharoof against some weaker quality batting line ups then ODIs and Test Cricket could create some trouble.

 

[Manee]

Left arm pace bowlers seem to do well in T20 (RP Singh being the most notable example, but I have noticed a few in the SA and English Domestic Scene) - this could be the tournament for Sangwan to make a massive impact. Looking at clips of him, he has a good action and is a good pace.

 

[Arjun]

Now that all squads are announced, let's re-work the 'award nominations':

Most explosive team- Hyderabad

Best team (on paper)- Mohali/Mumbai/Chennai

Best value-for-money team: Rajasthan

Blown it big time- Kolkata

Veterans of bygone days- Mumbai

50-for-no-loss-after-20-overs: Bangalore

Sum is greater than the parts- Mohali, Rajasthan

Hit 'em with your best shot: Hyderabad

Danger round the corner: Chennai, Kolkata

Dark Horse/surprise package: Bangalore/Rajasthan

 

[Arjun]

Mumbai Indians have released their vide on NEO Cricket. The video, featuring Hrithik Roshan, and (preictably) a crowd dance in a dingy central Mumbai street to a song with lyrics partly in Marathi- similar to the Mumbai Champs video for ICL, but much better.

 

[Arjun]

Deccan Chargers hav released their uniforms. They're predminantly navy/dark grey with some thin red stripes. Good kit.

 

[Arjun]

We wonder, which website of the Mumbai Indians is official? One of them is perpetually under construction, while the other has a bloggish look to it. Every other team has a website that's fully functional.

Has anyone seen the video for the Rajasthan Royals? I haven't seen it on TV yet- nor have I seen the Kings' video. Both are taking a little too much time to load. So far, the videos for Deccan Chargers and Kolkata Knightriders have been the best, though Mumbai's has mass appeal.

 

[Burgey]

Who captains these sides? Is there anything in the rules which says an international captain will get a walk up start to skipper one of these sides? Conversely has there been a rule put in place to say it has to be an Indian player?

 

[honestbharani]

Who captains these sides? Is there anything in the rules which says an international captain will get a walk up start to skipper one of these sides? Conversely has there been a rule put in place to say it has to be an Indian player?

So far as I know......


Chennai - Dhoni

Bangalore - Dravid

Kolkata - Ganguly

Mohali - Yuvraj

Hyderabad - Laxman

Jaipur - Warne

Mumbai - Sachin

Delhi - Sehwag

 

[Burgey]

Cheers mate, thanks for that.

 

[masterblaster]

Now that all squads are announced, let's re-work the 'award nominations':

Most explosive team- Hyderabad

Best team (on paper)- Mohali/Mumbai/Chennai

Best value-for-money team: Rajasthan

Blown it big time- Kolkata

Veterans of bygone days- Mumbai

50-for-no-loss-after-20-overs: Bangalore

Sum is greater than the parts- Mohali, Rajasthan

Hit 'em with your best shot: Hyderabad

Danger round the corner: Chennai, Kolkata

Dark Horse/surprise package: Bangalore/Rajasthan

You seriously continue to underrate and badmouth Bangalore in all your posts. I wouldn't be surprised if they win the entire tournament. All they need to do with their bowling lineup is get a team out for a 100 - 120 odd and they'll chase it down pretty easy.

The more people write off Bangalore, the more I want them to win. It takes good, sensible cricket to win a Twenty20 match, I can't wait for the likes of Hyderabad, Punjab and Chennai to simply implode. As I say always, substance over style every time.

 

[sideshowtim]

Noffke has signed for Bangalore to replace Bracken.

 

[Arjun]

You seriously continue to underrate and badmouth Bangalore in all your posts. I wouldn't be surprised if they win the entire tournament. All they need to do with their bowling lineup is get a team out for a 100 - 120 odd and they'll chase it down pretty easy.

The more people write off Bangalore, the more I want them to win. It takes good, sensible cricket to win a Twenty20 match, I can't wait for the likes of Hyderabad, Punjab and Chennai to simply implode. As I say always, substance over style every time.

I don't under-rate Bangalore. That 50-for-no-loss is a lifted joke. I think that team is all right, but then, given the composition of the squad, players like Praveen Kumar and Cameron White having to sit out for (or play second-fiddle to) some experienced folks who don't fit in T20.

If anything, I'd support Bangalore for Praveen Kumar. I do feel sorry for Praveen Kumar. He'll get a rather raw deal stting out for Kallis, Chanders, Zaheer and possibly even Sunil Joshi. He'd be a lot more useful if he played for Delhi.

I tend to write off Chennai and Hyderabad a lot more, so we have something in common here. I don't agree about Punjab imploding, as they're quite well-rounded and powerful to make it. I'd like to see what will happen to Kolkata- will they pull out of all the trouble (warped selection, losing Akhtar, losing out on ticket revenues) they're in right now?

The one team everyone laughed at was Mumbai. I know this team will prove everyone wrong, and create a huge impact in the tournament. You can't argue against Sachin, Sanath, Bhajji and Pollock in the same team, when they're backed by Malinga, Dilhara and Nehra, and some promising Indian youngsters, especially the in-fom Pinal Shah and Saurabh Tiwary. Mukesh Ambani and folks have pulled off a masterstroke.

 

[Arjun]

Noffke has signed for Bangalore to replace Bracken.

Is this a full replacement? I heard Bracken would return for the later part of the series, unless he'll be out of action for a lot longer.

 

[Arjun]

Would play Geeves ahead of Maharoof, a better bowler and decent enough lower order batsmen. Then again Maharoof against some weaker quality batting line ups then ODIs and Test Cricket could create some trouble.

What have you seen of Geeves? His batting is nothing remarkble, from the figures, but if he's a fast bowler, he'll be useful. Already there are five Australian domestic players in the tournament. I wonder what role DaveHussey, Luke Ronchi, Loke Pomersach, Geeves and Noffke can provide to their teams.

For Delhi, if Geeves plays, they might get a better bowler, and Vettori comes to eight. It could possibly beef up the bowling while the batting stil stays strong. So if he's a better bowler, it will be a positive change, but negative for the GMR folks and their flawed strategy.

 

[ret]

I wouldn't be surprised if they [Banglore] win the entire tournament. All they need to do with their bowling lineup is get a team out for a 100 - 120 odd and they'll chase it down pretty easy.

The more people write off Bangalore, the more I want them to win. It takes good, sensible cricket to win a Twenty20 match, I can't wait for the likes of Hyderabad, Punjab and Chennai to simply implode. As I say always, substance over style every time.

What does substance over style mean in this case? Are you implying that other teams don't have substance? if H'bad has a Gilly, a Symo, a Laxman, a Rohit then does it lack substance?

and then you say that all they need to do is bowl opposition out for 100-120 as if it were that easy on the flat wkts .... Do you really think it's possible to bowl teams out for 100 on a consistent basis on that type of wkts? If they do bowl teams out for 100 then it will probably be due to a bowler friendly pitch which would mean that B'lore batsmen would struggle on it too and if some of them play like they are known to then the RRR will only go North and put more pressure on the team then actually knocking it off easily