Akshay Kumar is Delhi DareDevil’s brand Ambassador!

Let me be the first to ask: Why does a super-star-packed team, with the likes of Sehwag, McGrath etc… need a “Brand Ambassador”? I mean, the cricket team is a big celebrity in and off of itself, and then, just to top it off, they’ve also hired Akshay Kumar. He showed up at the “launch” of the Delhi DareDevil’s team, and just hung out.
Now don’t get me wrong, I really like Akshay Kumar. I think he’s one of the few honest and straightforward guys left in Bollywood, but just to come around and “hang out” doesn’t seem like a good use of his time. I’d much rather have Rakhi Sawant do the “Brand Ambassador” thing, don’t you think?

IPL Tickets Rumours and Updates

Although there has not been much news coming about the IPL tickets, I’ve heard from some reliable insider sources that the Bangalore IPL tickets are going to be available soon. They’re going to be priced at about Rs 200-700 a game. Lots of special tickets are also going to be available to the members of the KSCA, so if you know someone on the inside, time to be nice to them. There are also rumours of a season ticket. Costing Rs 4800, this ticket will give you pavilion seats for ALL the matches this season. The season ticket actually sounds like a very good deal to me.
On the TV front, however, things are not looking as rosy as we’d though. Some “market research” has determined that the expected TRP (a measure of viewership) for the IPL matches is going to be around 2-3, but SONY is charging rates that go upto the world-cup rates. Some of the matches in the last world cup commanded a TRP of 10-14! Understandably, advertisers are upset, and are rethinking their strategy. AirTel, usually a big advertiser in this arena, has pulled out completely from the IPL matches. Hopefully, SONY will be able to work out a deal properly.

SRK dragged to court over Kolkata IPL tickets

It seems SRK should be named “Should Remain Kontroversial”, ’cause controversy seems to follow him everywhere. The latest news is that SRK has been dragged into controversy involving the tickets at the Eden Gardens for the IPL matches. Cricket Members Forum of Bengal, which is the bunch of elitest members of the Eden Gardens, basically want SRK to give them free tickets, and when SRK said “get in line and buy your own tickets”, they’ve dragged his company , Red Chillies Entertainment to the court challenging the choosing of Eden Gardens as the home stadium for the Kolkata Knight Riders.
This is interesting. There’s a fight broken over free tickets for the IPL matches. With news about IPL tickets in really short supply, and no one really knows when/where we can buy the tickets, we can read something into this latest controversy. If the CAB members are so desperate to get their hands on tickets, (instead of just buying them), the tickets are going to be either overpriced or in short supply, but probably both.

SA vs India series kicks off - But who’s watching?

The South Africa vs India test series kicked off yesterday, but it is patently lacking the usual hype and hoopla of a test series for some reason. MTV had a very interesting segment today where they went out on the street and asked people about the series - Where it was being held, who were the captains and other simple questions. But shockingly, most people couldn’t properly answer the questions.
But the real kicker came for me when these same folks were asked about the IPL - And they seemed to know even the more intrecate details - Who owns which teams, what ads are running, and how much the players were paid for.
This is, in some ways, the nightmare come true for the ICC and the other boards. It is starting to look like the IPL is becoming a huge deal and if the people - especially those of India, cricket’s largest market - start ignoring the international tours, it is going to be very bad news for the other cricket boards.
Wait and watch what happens!

Pak, Lankan Cricket Boards pissed off with BCCI

It is very easy to forget that the cricket boards of the other cricket playing nations are not as rich as the cash-rich BCCI. The Sri Lankan cricket board has been in financial trouble for a while, and when Australia cancelled the Pakistan tour, they jumped at the opportunity, and offered to tour Pakistan instead of Australia.
But the Sri Lankan board probably missed the reason Australia cancelled the tour in the first place - Because it conflicts with the IPL schedule. And now, the Sri Lankan board is finding itself helpless to stop its star players from rebelling against the tour, because, well, they’re getting more money over here.
The Pakistan Cricket Board is desperate, offering the Sri Lankan team $ 800,000 flat just to tour, win or lose. This is not the first time that foreign boards have been pissed off with the BCCI. I think we’re going to see this more and more. But I’m not sure what the BCCI needs to do about this. The BCCI doesn’t seem to care either!

Bipasha Basu and Rani in Kolkata Music Video

SRK is really bringing bollywood to cricket. He’s apparantly convinced Bipasha Basu and Rani Mukharjee to do some jhatka-matkas in the new Kolkata KnightRider’s team video. I think I would like to watch this ad, instead of the silly zombies-with-viking-helmets-playing-football ads that the Kolkata team has running these days on Sony.
But I think this is good news for everyone. Not only has the IPL managed to generate income for the young cricketers, but its also managed to provide a bunch of oppurtunities for bollywood stars to do some item numbers. When you put item numbers in a movie, you have to pretend that it has remotely something to do with the plot and try to “weave” the item number into the story. No such problems for IPL team videos!
I just hope our Vijay Mallya releases the Bangalore Team Ads soon. Man, if he’s as passionate about it as the Kingfisher Calander, then the ad is going to be a big big hit!

Guess who’s also getting ready for IPL? Bookies!

Where there’s big money, can the gamblers be far behind? There are rumours awash that big bets are already being made on teams and even individual players by the bookies. Bookies are getting ready to issue odds and are taking bets, eagerly looking for a share of India’s biggest extravaganza.
I can’t say this is entirely unexpected. Everyone is obviously trying to get a share of the action. The only fear is the ghost of match fixing that has somewhat subsided in the last few years will rear its ugly head once more, even before the first season finishes . The naive view that the police will keep this under control is not really going to fly. This is an international event, with lots of foreign money and the bookies are almost certainly going to have international presence, able to influence a wide variety of players.
These things are inevitable - There will always be folks that want to bet on matches. The solution is not to throttle it and pretend it doesn’t exist, but to make it legal and available in a controlled fashion.

Where are the IPL Tickets?

With less than a month to go to the IPL, the news about the IPL tickets has been short coming. Only the Kolkata’s team has made some small talk about “Tickets being available on SMS”, but there has been no further updates. Why isn’t more information about the tickets available?
Some people say that it is too early, but that’s just rubbish. You can book railway tickets 2 months in advance, so why not IPL tickets? Besides, they have to sell LOTS of tickets. For example, Bangalore’s Chinnaswami Stadium can seat 55,000 people, and there’s 7 matches there. That means they have to sell 3,85,000 tickets! And that’s just in Bangalore!
I already know what’s going to happen. They are going to open up bookings on ticketpro.in at the very last minute, and then everyone is going to log on to the site to get the tickets, and the whole site is going to crash, and then everyone is going to be frustrated, and then they are going to sell the tickets at Coffee Day, and then Coffee Day is going to have a riot. Besides, how much are they going to cost? I mean, come on, I have to plan my next month’s budget!!!
Anyway, at least everything is going very well on the TV front. Sony is commanding world-cup rates for the IPL tournaments! This is unbelievable, considering that there are 59 matches, Sony is going to make a killing.

SRK to fix Indian Hockey (but after making money from IPL)

After the spectacular debacle of Indian Hockey that saw the doors to its olympic dreams shut for the first time in 80 years, has got SRK’s attention. The ever publicity-hungry Shahrukh Khan today came out in support of Indian Hockey, urging everyone to stop the blame game and get down to fixing the problem. SRK, if you remember, had played the role of a hockey coach who goes and “fixes up” the team. SRK’s promise to do the same in the real world is commendable, but there’s only one problem.
SRK says he’ll do it only after starting to make real money from his IPL team. SRK owns the Kolkata team, and he says once the money starts to flow in (at some uncertain point in the future), he’ll invest it back inthe growth of Hockey. Well, here’s hoping the “KnightRiders” can do better than their cheesy name indicates

Oh Dear, Here comes the Rain!

The thunderstorm season kicked off in Bangalore today with a heavy downpour in the city. Bangalore has an unusually long rainy season, with the pre-monsoon showers starting in mid-march and going on all the way till May. And Oh, incidentally, that’s exactly the IPL season. But wait, it gets better. It usually rains late-afternoon, between, oh, i don’t know… 6 and 8 PM?
We’ve written about it before, the IPL doesn’t seem to be scheduled in the right season. What is going to happen if games get rained out? It is not very clear what rules will be applied and what strategies teams will use. It looks like the weather report is also going to be a part of team strategy now!

Back with a Bang!

Lot has been said of the Bangalore IPL team about the selections they made in the Ist round of IPL auction. But the master strategist Vijay Mallya makes his mark wherever he puts his eye in! That was evident when the 2nd round IPL auction results were out. They had some prize catches like, India U19 skipper Virat Kohli, who recently won his team the world cup and Misbah-ul-Haq, who almost won Pakistan their first twenty20 worldcup. Even the Abdur Razzak, left arm spinner from Bangladesh, was also not a bad choice, given his nagging line and length!
Couple of days back, Bangalore IPL team - Bangalore Royal Challengers was officially launched with the team colour which is a mix of red and yellow. This flashy colour reminds me of the Dutch & Kenyan cricket team of 2003 ODI cricket world cup in South Africa. Well, if you know this fact, you will surely be reminded of the fight that these team gave to the favorites. Similarly, in IPL team Bangalore are not the favorites. So is the Dutch spirit(read underdog) on with Bangalore guys? Well, let us wait till April 18 when they take on Knight Riders. Also, let us not see any colour similarities in the team colours as there are already team name similarities!
And now the Mallya punch : The Hindu reports, when Bangalore skipper, Rahul Dravid, asked liquor baron whether he wants glamour or performance, pat came the reply, typical Mallya style : “give me performance any day”

SRK postpones his TV show

It seems Shah Rukh Khan’s next innings on Television ‘Panchavi Pass’ will be delayed by a few months, courtesy IPL. According to oneindia.in report, the actor who owns Kolkata franchise is in a dilemmna because his brand new quiz show might clash telecast of IPL cricket matches.
The report also indicates that this has kicked off a battle between broadcaster and sponsors, since Star Plus had tied up with Airtel to sponsor ‘Panchavi Pass’ and whereas Airtel’s rival Vodafone is sponsoring for IPL matches on Sony TV.
SRK is trying his best postpone the telecast date of ‘Paanchvi Pass’ as he can’t postpone the IPL matches ! May be he is probably doing this to double his exposure and stay in the limelight for as long as possible, because in bollywood, that is everything.

IPL promos have started

From yesterday, the promos of DLF India Premier League have started to come on TV. The 100 crore ad campaign is conceived by India’s renowned ad agency O&M under the leadership of Piyush Pandey (of Fevicol fame).
The ad is being aired not only in national channels but also in regional channels in respective regional languages. The theme of the ad is Karmayudh, which indicates that the league is a battle of skills not like the usual cricket matches which is either Deshyudh or Dharamyudh. In my opinion, it should be called Dhanyudh for obvious reasons. Anyways, check out the video of the promo in youtube.com
What’s on the cards ? The add agency is planning to launch more ad campaigns in coming weeks to deal with some emotional issue involved in the league. Also, it will be interesting to see how the add campaign of each franchise will turn to be.

Tendulkar’s Mumbai Indians confident IPL will be big hit!

Tendulkar is to lead the Mumbai IPL team, which recently named themselves “Mumbai Indians”, is confident that the Twenty20 format is going to be a big hit with the crowds. Tendulkar also made some statements that kind-of implied that he was confident of the victory of the inaugural IPL tournament too. “Mumbai Indians is a nice combination of senior players and youngsters, so I think we all will be looking forward to go out there, put up a perfect unit and perform well” he said.
I have to agree with him. Tendulkar is going to be opening the batting with Jayasuriya, and I can’t wait to see the explosive fireworks that are in store when these two dynamos go out. They also have Shaun Pollock and Robin Uthapa in their batting line up, that surely does look very strong on paper.
The team’s owner, Mukesh Ambani, in the meanwhile suggested that the IPL franchises would take about 3 years to break even and start making profits. That seems rather aggressive to me. The IPL can only grow from here, and if the teams are really going to be flush with money in 3 years, that can only mean that the bidding war for top talent is just going to start all over again, with even more money pouring in.
Lets see how this goes! The Mumbai Indians play The Bangalore Royal Challengers in their first match in Mumbai on 20th April.

Paid Welcome to Junior Heroes

You might have heard people being paid to attend the political party’s rallies or welcoming them. But did you ever know you can get paid, that too in a cricket crazy nation like India for welcoming the cricketing heroes! Sounds weird. Well, that’s the fact. Mid-day reports that the welcome offered to U19 world cup champions at Bangalore airport infact was paid!
Some 80 college goers were hired specifically for this with girls being paid Rs.1000/- and boys, one fifth of that for cheering team India. You can not complain of gender bias here! As in one form of cricket, t20, there is a seperate slot for cheer girls and not cheer boys! But the twist in the story comes when you come to know that those 80 people did not even knew about single member of the team!
Amidst talks of U19 heroes being signed for IPL teams and BCCI warning against that this event comes as a big surprise! Add to this, a day before the arrival of the team BCCI had announced open-top bus parade for Under-19 stars. Not always you will find the support for the national teams like U19 however patriotic we may be. Reasons for this is not hard to find - people rarely watch U19 ties. Rarely, like this event when Indian team reaches final of a mega event media publicizes it. Knowing the names of the cricketers is far off!

SRK, Preity to create item songs for their teams

The extravagant IPL has it all - Big money, lots of controversy and lots of cricket (hopefully). The last missing piece - Bollywood item numbers - also looks to be coming to the IPL with rumours abound that SRK has roped in the famous coreographer Ganesh to do an item number for the Kolkata team. Even the Preity Zinta owned Mohali team is rumoured to be working on a music video with the music of Dalaher Mehndi for the team.
All the teams have already roped in ad agencies to make the ads for their teams. Remember all the cool ads from the ICL, especially the Chennai Superstars ad? Hopefully, we’ll have cooler ads and more item numbers for the IPL. My only hope is that the Bangalore team ropes in Rakhi Sawant for its video

IPL’s own official website outdated

In this age of the internet, the Indian Premier League’s organizers should probably be figuring out some new way of making money from the internet. But instead, their apathetic attitude baffles me. Check out the IPL’s official website - http://www.indianpremierleague.com/.
The site has not been updated in weeks! The “top story” there still says “Auction to be held on 20th Feb”, and it has a picture of the more-than-year-old victory of the Indian team at the T20 world cup. And nothing else. That’s right, NOTHING ELSE! The info about Players, teams, schedules etc… is available as downloadable PDFs, each of them 3 MB in size! Talk about absurd!
The old men running the IPL really need to get up and get their act together, or they’re going to not be able to appeal to the younger generation, who already seem more interested in F1 racing and European football.

Temple wants cut of Dhoni’s Salary

Since everyone is jumping in on this IPL craze, why should temples and priests be far behind? It seems a temple in Ranchi where Dhoni, the highest paid IPL cricketer regularly used to pray, wants a cut of Dhoni’s enormous Rs 6 Crore salary. The temple authorities think they had a large part to play in the recent auction, because they apparently performed some poojas to benefit the player.
I didn’t know you can increase your pay package by performing a pooja at a temple. Sign me up! Seriously though, these kinds of things are going to go on happening until the IPL figures out a way for the regular people (and priests) to get in on the moolah. I think it would be a good idea to take a team public and have an IPO. That way, loyal fans can put their money where their mouth is!

Symonds gets into Streaker Trouble

Did you see the match yesterday, when Symonds smashed into the streaker running into the ground, tackling him, rugby style? Symonds was obviously angry at the silly streaker, but that super-man move of his has gotten him into trouble (as do most things).
Apparently, the ICC has a rule that says a player can be punished for abusing “another player, an umpire or a spectator”. Uh Oh! If the umpires decide to report Symonds for this incident, he could be facing a 10-ODI ban! Not good at all.
On the bright side, the ban will not apply to the IPL mathes, which is what Symonds really cares about

Patriotic Pietersen says ‘no way’

The box office batsman of England Kevin Petersen has said no to T20 extravaganza IPL, stating reason that money is not important for him and he loves playing for England, loves playing for English spectators.
This statement comes as a big jolt to IPL chief Lalit Modi, as he was proposing to reschedule IPL from next year to avoid clash with English summer season and facilitate English Players to join the league. Many were feeling pity about English player as they would be loosing out on big money of IPL.
Now to quench everyone’s curiosity. Is Pietersen really so patriotic or this is due to some other reason ? I remember in inaugural T20 world cup he had said several times on the record that he is not enjoying the T20 format. Also, the franchises won’t be so keen to recruit him, as all of them are overloaded with overseas player, remember atmost four overseas players should be there in a team line-up.
Whatever may be the case, the Indian spectators will not get to see the signature ’slog sweep’ shot of Pietersen .