It is too early to conclude so , because Cape Town has lot of Indians and as one IPL official openly admits that was the reason why IPL decided to host the first two matches there.
It is the matches at the other centres that will reveal IPL’s popularity.
All eyes on fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar's fitness for Pakistan
Akhtar, 33, has played just two one-day internationals in 16 months due to disciplinary and fitness problems.
He made an unimpressive return to international cricket after 14 months in January but was dropped after taking just one wicket for 88 runs in two limited-overs games against Sri Lanka at home. He failed to complete his full quota of 10 overs in either of the games.
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Vengsarkar asks a rhetorical question:
"Suppose there is one ball to go and six runs to be scored... and then four guys come to advise you. It can happen to Ganguly himself. I want Ganguly to go to Buchanan, whose idea it is, and ask what to do. This is a mockery of the game... with four captains telling the captain what to do," said Vengsarkar, at Pepsi's 'First Ball Ka Captain' initiative in Delhi on Wednesday
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In what appears to be a face saving device the Kolkata Knight Riders have announced Saurav Ganguly as Captain, albeit with a qualification.
The KKR management in a statement said that “the idea is to have a set of strategists as is always the case classically in cricket… who will form a team of 4 or 5 core experts in the field of fielding, bowling, batting and data etc. These strategists will assist the one captain on field with their viewpoints on the plan set earlier or shoot from the hip as the case maybe.”
A team official on conditions of anonymity further added that “the intent of today's meeting was to keep the team's plan where it was. And that is that the decision-making process is a shared one. As far as Sourav is concerned, he is a senior who was the captain last year and we want to make sure that he stays in a respectable position.
It is obvious from the anonymous team official’s statement that KKR is going ahead with Buchanan’s theory of ‘multiple captains’ and the formal announcement regarding the captaincy is to assuage Ganguly’s ego.
If the KKR performs well, it will be interesting to observe how the management is going to persuade Ganguly to continue with this compromise because you can be sure that Ganguly will do everything to keep himself in the limelight.This in turn will raise Dada’s fans emotions to fever pitch.
All in all Shah Rukh Khan is going to have a massive headache if the next edition of the IPL is played in India .
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What the BCCI has been trying to do for the last two- years, i.e., wipe out ICL once for all, the economic slowdown accomplished in a matter of months.
Close on the heels of reports of New Zealand players being unpaid, follows the news that the Pakistan players have been unpaid too.
In fact Abdul Razzaq has confirmed that the ICL has released them from their contracts and would be getting their dues and no-objection certificates within the next few days.
It is also a fact that the “PCB is leaving no stone unturned in its bid to get Pakistan's ICL recruits cleared for national duty but it added that a concrete development will only take place if the players come out with proof of their parting ways with the unofficial T20 league”.
Whether it is the security situation or the Indian governments anathema to anything Pakistani or even the economic slowdown, it appears that ICL is clean bowled. However, the question is will it play a second innings.
UPDATE:
Cricinfo is carrying ICL’s side of the story. According to ICL
“We came to know that some of our players from New Zealand and Pakistan would be considered for their national teams if they obtain a release from their contracts,” the ICL official told Cricinfo. “We are happy to oblige because having players from our league playing international cricket only adds to our value. We expect these players will play for us again when we restart our programme this year-end.”
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The Indian cricket team has an opportunity to create history by winning the Napier Test. This will ensure that they become the first Indian cricket team to win a series in
Though their form is awesome, the Napier pitch if it plays true to its nature could well stymie them. A typical Napier pitch is full of runs and despite the Indian bowlers showing in the second innings of the first test, the
There are also rumors doing the rounds of a slate or a fungi attack on the pitch necessitating the shift to a different one. Though the grounds man has rubbished this talk, a feeling persists that this fungi talk could be an excuse to move the pitch to a one that seams.
The thinking being the New Zealanders can stifle the Indian batsmen on a seaming pitch. However, for the present, the state of the pitch remains a speculation.
Apart from breaking a 40-year jinx, the Indian team by winning the Napier test could well become No.2 in ICC ranking with 118 points.
So there is definitely much at stake on Thursday.
The teams (from):
India: M.S. Dhoni (Capt. & wk), Virender Sehwag (vice-capt.), Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, V.V.S. Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Amit Mishra, Lakshmipathy Balaji, M. Vijay, Dhawal Kulkarni and Dinesh Karthik.
Umpires: Billy Doctrove and Ian Gould.
Third umpire: Evan Watkin.
Match referee: Alan Hurst.
Hours of play (IST): 3.30 a.m. to 5.30 a.m., 6.10 a.m. to 8.10 a.m., and 8.30 a.m. to close.
England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Giles Clarke is confident the Indian Premier League would be a major success if it were switched to be played in the United Kingdom. However, the tournament's chairman, Lalit Modi , expressed his concerns about rain affecting the six-week league.
Not only that, a recent news report says the UK police have expressed reservations over the conduct of IPL. They claim they have not been taken into confidence and categorically state that they would be unable to arrange foolproof security in three weeks.
If you take these statements as pointers, then the balance is tilted in favour of South Africa hosting the 2nd edition of IPL.
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The Dubai Sports City cricket stadium has been designed to provide a world class venue, ideally suited to act as a neutral venue for world cricket and has the facilities to host Test Matches, One-Day internationals, and Twenty:20 tournaments. With indoor and outdoor pitch-side seating, physiotherapy and massage rooms, a raised lounge with a view of the pitch, locker rooms and dining areas, the Dubai Sports City cricket stadium will provide the world-class player with everything they need.
Dubai Sports City cricket stadium ‘Ring of Fire’ lights up night sky
Simply put if ECB lands the opportunity to conduct IPL in
Conducting 59 matches in 45 days at such short notice will definitely stretch ECB's resources and ingenuity.
Nevertheless, if they pull it off, both ECB and British tourism stand to make $ 100 million in ground rent, hotel accommodation and tourist inflow.
