Indian Premier League players face a busy cricket calendar

View –1:- It’s what players and their fans want

Old timers may complain that adding IPL onto cricketers’ existing engagements will tax them too much. But this isn’t a perception most cricketers or fans share. Modern cricket stands or falls by the degree to which it’s spectator-friendly. Let’s assume, for a moment, that those who like to paint scare scenarios about too much cricket have a point. But cricket is growing more and more professional. It can’t countenance tired cricketers because that will affect their performance.

Overexposure to cricket would bring about viewer fatigue as well. Either way cricket wouldn’t be so exciting to watch, TRP ratings would plummet and revenue streams dry up. With growing professionalisation, there’s a built-in corrective mechanism to ensure that cricketers are fresh and at the peak of their powers as they get into a new game.

Let’s also assume that cricketers, lured by money, keep signing new contracts recklessly. Growing injuries will tell on them, and at some point they’ll take a call on what is in their best professional interest. Every professional sport has to strike this balance, it’s not an issue that’s unique to cricket. They all have crowded calendars, but that can’t be pushed to the point where it tells on the performance of players. In practice cricketers know better than anybody else how much cricket they can play and make commitments accordingly. Let’s not profess to tell them what they can judge best.

It’s actually the old guard, who don’t like the glitz and carnivallike atmosphere that have been lent to the game by tournaments like the IPL, who protest about too much cricket. But Twenty20 can actually make cricket short and snappy. That’s been the direction of evolution of cricket, from five-day Test matches to Kerry Packer’s oneday format to the current T20. These changes have occurred in response to changing spectator preferences, while bringing in more money for cricketers. Let’s not stand in the way of cricket becoming a fully professional sport.

View 2:- Too much cricket can kill the game

It’s just as well that the third Test match between India and South Africa ended two days before the scheduled finish. Otherwise, some of the players would have been air-dashed on a chartered plane to Delhi as soon as play ended on the fifth day to take part in a Twenty20 game the same evening. Thankfully this was averted with an early finish to the Test match. But such situations cannot be ruled out in the days to come with a cricketing calendar that leaves little breathing space.

The IPL, which kicks off later this week, will add another two weeks of frenetic Twenty20 cricket to an already crowded cricket schedule. The league will feature all the top Indian cricketers playing in the blazing summer heat. It doesn’t require a soothsayer to predict the kind of effect so much cricket will have on the game.

The players, many of whom are being paid astronomical sums of money, might turn up for matches regardless of injuries. Particularly vulnerable will be highly paid rookies such as Ishant Sharma, who are already plagued by injuries. The same hold true for veterans like Sachin Tendulkar, who missed out on most of the India-South Africa series but is the skipper and top draw of the IPL’s Mumbai Indians. This in turn is likely to impact Team India where players might sit out matches due to injuries or not play to the best of their abilities. Indeed, some stars, including Rahul Dravid and Ricky Ponting, have complained in the recent past about playing too much cricket.

Injuries and player fatigue are just one of the harmful aspects of an overdose of cricket. Excessive cricket could also lead to cricket fans switching off. Even the most die-hard fans can take in only so much of cricket. Cricket administrators have always put profit before the good of the game. If they don’t change their act they might end up killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

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IPL - Indian Premier League

Indian Premier League will kick off on April 18 in Bangalore with the match between Bangalore and Kolkata. Mumbai will host the semifinals and the final, which is scheduled for June 1.

April 18: Bangalore v Kolkata at Bangalore
April 19: Mohali v Chennai at Mohali and Delhi v Jaipur at Delhi
April 20: Mumbai v Bangalore at Mumbai; Kolkata v Hyderabad at Kolkata
April 21: Jaipur v Mohali at Jaipur
April 22: Hyderabad v Delhi at Hyderabad
April 23: Chennai v Mumbai at Chennai
April 24: Hyderabad v Jaipur at Hyderabad
April 25: Mohali v Mumbai at Mohali
April 26: Bangalore v Jaipur at Bangalore; Chennai v Kolkata at Chennai
April 27: Mumbai v Hyderabad at Mumbai; Mohali v Delhi at Mohali
April 28: Bangalore v Chennai at Bangalore
April 29: Kolkata v Mumbai at Kolkata
April 30: Delhi v Bangalore at Delhi.
May 1: Hyderabad v Mohali at Hyderabad; Jaipur v Kolkata at Jaipur
May 2: Chennai v Delhi at Chennai.
May 3: Hyderabad at Bangalore at Hyderabad; Mohali v Kolkata at Mohali
May 4: Mumbai v Delhi at Mumbai; Jaipur v Chennai at Jaipur
May 5: Bangalore v Mohali at Bangalore
May 6: Chennai v Hyderabad at Chennai
May 7: Mumbai v Jaipur at Mumbai
May 8: Delhi v Chennai at Delhi; Kolkata v Bangalore at Kolkata
May 9: Jaipur v Hyderabad at Jaipur
May 10: Bangalore v Mumbai at Bangalore; Chennai v Mohali at Chennai
May 11: Hyderabad v Kolkata at Hyderabad; Jaipur v Delhi at Jaipur
May 12: Mohali v Bangalore at Mohali
May 13: Kolkata v Delhi at Kolkata
May 14: Mumbai v Chennai at Mumbai; Mohali v Jaipur at Mohali
May 15: Delhi v Hyderabad at Delhi
May 16: Mumbai v Kolkata at Mumbai
May 17: Delhi v Mohali at Delhi; Jaipur v Bangalore at Jaipur
May 18: Hyderabad v Mumbai at Hyderabad; Kolkata v Chenna at Kolkata
May 19: Bangalore v Delhi at Bangalore
May 20: Kolkata v Jaipur at Kolkata
May 21: Mumbai v Mohali at Mumbai; Chennai v Bangalore at Chennai
May 22: Delhi v Kolkata at Delhi
May 23: Mohali v Hyderabad at Mohali.
May 24: Delhi v Mumbai at Delhi; Chennai v Jaipur at Chennai
May 25: Bangalore v Hyderabad at Bangalore; Kolkata v Mohali at Kolkata
May 26: Jaipur v Mumbai at Jaipur
May 27: Hyderabad v Chennai at Hyderabad
May 28 and 29: Rest days
May 30: First semi-final at Mumbai
May 31: Second semi-final at Mumbai
June 1: Final at Mumbai

IPL Teams Squads As Of Now, Will Update

Delhi

Virender Sehwag (icon),
Daniel Vettori (US$ 625,000),
Shoaib Malik (US$ 500,000),
Mohammad Asif (US$ 650,000),
AB de Villiers (US$ 300,000),
Dinesh Karthik (US$ 525,000),
Farveez Maharoof (US$ 225,000),
Tillakaratne Dilshan (US$ 250,000)

Kolkata

Sourav Ganguly (icon),
Ishant sharma (US$ 950,000)
Shoaib Akhtar (US$ 425,000),
Ricky Ponting (US$ 400,000),
Brendon McCullum (US$ 700,000),
Chris Gayle (US$ 800,000),
Ajit Agarkar (US$ 330,000),
Murali kartik (US $425,000)

Mohali

Yuvraj Singh (icon),
Mahela Jayawardene (US$ 475,000),
Kumar Sangakkara (US$ 700,000),
Brett Lee (US$ 900,000),
Sreesanth (US$ 625,000),
Irfan Pathan (US$ 925,000)
Piyush Chawla (US $400,000)

Hyderabad

Adam Gilchrist (US$ 700,000),
Andrew Symonds (US$ 1.35 million),
Herschelle Gibbs (US$ 575,000),
Shahid Afridi (US$ 675,000),
Scott Styris (US$ 175,000)
R P Singh (US $875,000)

Bangalore

Rahul Dravid (icon),
Anil Kumble (US$ 500,000),
Jacques Kallis (US$ 900,000),
Zaheer Khan (US$ 450,000),
Mark Boucher (US$ 450,000),
Cameron White (US$ 500,000),
Makhaya ntini (US$ 200,000),
Nathan bracken (US$ 325,000. )
Dale Steyn (US$ 325,000)

Mumbai

Sachin Tendulkar (icon),
Sanath Jayasuriya (US$ 975,000),
Harbhajan Singh (US$ 850,000),
Shaun Pollock (US$ 550,000),
Lasith malinga (US$ 350,000)
Dilhara fernando (US$ $150,000)

Chennai

MS Dhoni (US$ 1.5 million),
Muttiah Muralitharan (US$ 600,00),
Matthew Hayden (US$ 375,000),
Jacob Oram (US$ 675,000),
Stephen Fleming (US$ 350,000),
Parthiv Patel (US$ 325,000),
Joginder Sharma (US$ 225,000),
Albie Morkel (US$ 650,000)

Jaipur

Shane Warne (US$ 450,000),
Graeme Smith (US$ 475,000),
Younis Khan (US$ 225,000),
Kamran Akmal (US$ 150,000),
Munaf Patel (US$ 275,000)
Yusuf (US$ 475,000)

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The IPL is a Twenty20 competition. It was announced after the BCCI declined permission to allow BCCI-contracted players to play in the Indian Cricket League (ICL).

The league is scheduled to start in April this year and will last for 44 days, involving 59 matches. The prize money for the league will be around three million dollars.

Each team will have a pool of 16 players, of whom four will be international and four from the Under-19 level or from the catchment area where the team is based.

The governing council of IPL consists of cricket veterans Sunil Gavaskar, MAK Pataudi and Ravi Shastri, Rajiv Shukla, Chirayu Amin, Inderjit Singh Bindra and Arun Jaitley.

The cricket body has announced the list of franchisee of owners of all eight cities.

With a tag of over 100 million dollars Mumbai, Bangalare and Hyderabad today become the most expensive teams of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) sponsored Indian Premier League.



Cricket in India has yet again attracted top dollar, this time for the Indian Premier League (IPL). In the process, BCCI has ensured that Mukesh Ambani will lock horns with Vijay Mallya while Shah Rukh Khan will face off against Preity Zinta as their teams take to the field

"After all, it helps cricket come up and good our players will get a lot of exposure and domestic cricket will be strengthened so I think it's a good process," said BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah.



Vijay Mallya's UB group got franchise of Bangalore at 111.6 million dollars, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Limited got Mumbai at 111.9 million dollars and Deccan Chronicle got franchise of Hyderabad team at 107 million dollars.

"I got the Bangalore team for 111.6 million I was the under bidder for Mumbai, Reliance industries got it for 111.9 and my bid was 111.6 for Mumbai so that went to the Reliance, so yeah I took Bangalore for 111.6," said Vijay Mallya.

India Cements bagged Chennai at 91million dollars, GMR group Delhi at 84 million dollars, Emerging Media got franchisee of Jaipur at 67 million dollars, Shah Rukh Khan's Red Chillies Entertainment got Kolkata at 75.09 million dollars and Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia bagged Mohali at 76 million dollars.



Sony Entertainment Television has bagged the broadcasting rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for 10 years at 1.026 billion dollars.

But in the years to come, it will emulate EPL and NBA when it comes to trading players and club buyouts. Some of the biggest names in international cricket today, such as Ricky Ponting, Kumar Sangakkara and Sachin Tendulkar, have all signed up to play in IPL, and so have Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath. The top 80 players in the ICC rankings will be playing in IPL, according to BCCI officials.

IPL is also further proof that, in spite of a few blips, cricket still rules the roost for marketers, who want visibility for their brands. Just over two years ago, BCCI had raised a total of $945 million in media, kit and team sponsorship over four years from Nimbus, Nike and Sahara, respectively. This amount has already been eclipsed by the revenues that IPL will generate for BCCI over 10 years (but much lesser cricket time). In all, the board has raked in nearly $724 million from the franchise bids alone, and adding income from media, IPL has fetched it nearly $1.75 billion (approx. Rs 7,000 crore). This amount can only go up once the bids for title and shirt sponsorships come in.




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