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

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.

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!!!

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.

IPL:Tournament to go on

The IPL will be held as scheduled from April 10 to May 24 but with a revised itinerary and, if necessary in additional venues within the country, Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, has said. The changes will accommodate the blackout dates in specific venues on the days there is polling in that city or that state, and on May 16, the day of counting across the country. Modi suggested that, if necessary, the IPL may be held in additional venues - it was originally scheduled to be held in nine venues - and said a detailed meeting on the tournament's security would be held next week.As per the revised schedule, the opening match will now be held in Mumbai, instead of Jaipur, sources said. Nagpur, Indore, Cuttack and Rajkot are the new venues under consideration apart from the nine original venues.

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.

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.

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.

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!!!!!!!!!!!!

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

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!!!!

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.

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.

IPL:Asif quits Delhi Daredevils

Mohammad Asif has been released from his IPL contract by the Delhi Daredevils after 48 hours of meetings between the player and the franchise. Asif is enduring some tough moments of his life after he was banned by IPL for using some banned substances. His bad times continued as he was detained for possession of Opium in Dubai Airport. And above all he was banned by PCB, pending the hearing of the IPL tribunal. Delhi bought Asif for US$650,000 on a three-year contract, making him the second-most expensive Pakistan player in the league. With his hearing set for January 24th, Asif's pull out comes as a surprise to many. He has said he wants to concentrate on winning back his place in the Pakistan national squad and he had quit due to personal reasons, which is understandable. Hope he comes back a better person.

Murali Vijay set to join Chennai Super Kings in IPL

Murali Vijay, who made an impressive debut against Australia when he was suddenly called up is set to sign for his home franchise Chennai Super Kings. Right from his debut, he has been a regular in the Indian squad. And he was chased by many franchises to get his signature but finally it was his home team Chennai Super Kings that got him. It was never in doubt as he is from Chennai but the Super Kings faced some stiff competition before they got their man. He is a one to watch out for in the coming IPL season.

Flintoff , Pietersen to play in IPL

The doubts over the participation of Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen has been cleared after the ECB and PCA, Professional cricketers association cleared the star players for the lucrative domestic tournament. But they will be available only for the earlier parts of the IPL,just like how the Aussies were available for the inaugral IPL as they will have to return to play in the first test against West Indies which starts onMay 6. Now its certain that they will be available for the auction on February 16. Pietersen is rumoured to have been roped in by Bangalore team as he has a good relationship with Vijay Mallya and Flintoff has been signed by Kolkata Knight Riders but both these players will have to go under the hammer during the auction. Both there players are likely to be sold for arounf $700,000 - $900,000 but that figure may even breach $1 million mark as the franchises have been given $2 million for the auction.