Nagpur, Vizag new venues, match dates skirt voting

The Indian Premier League revised schedule sent last week, which avoids any clash with polling dates, has raised hopes for the Twenty20 tournament with the Home Ministry more amenable to the dates except for a few matches in certain high-profile venues like Mumbai where election-related security concerns are quite high. Fresh opin ion of states has been sought while discussions with IPL authorities are underway.

The tournament had come under cloud in the wake of the terror attack on Sri Lankan players in Lahore which raised concerns in the Home Ministry about the security aspect of the IPL tournament as it clashed with Lok Sabha election dates.

With organisers drawing up a revised schedule from April 10 to May 24 , the Home Ministry is learnt to be by and large fine with the revised dates, except a few matches to be held just prior to election dates.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.indianexpress.com

World exclusive - T20 in Olympics? Let’s aim for 2020

120,000 devoted fans at the ground and 3.9 billion worldwide television viewers nervously await the one remaining ball in the gold medal match between India and Pakistan. India has scored a respectable 218 in its 20-overs and Pakistan requires four to win and to become Olympic champion. Spin-wizard Piyush Chawla takes a deep breath and prepares to bowl the ball that stands between him and Olympic gold immortality.

Chawla sends down a perfectly flighted leg-break that whirs as it pitches just outside the line of leg stump. Nasir Jamshed, Pakistan’s champion middle-order batsman is deceived by the flight and plays around the ball while trying to work the delivery forcefully down to deepsquare. The spinning cherry spits the middle and the leg stumps, the bails fly and India is the Olympic champion.

This may seem like a pipe dream but it is a potential reality. It doesn’t matter where the 2020 Olympic Games are held but many of us who’ve experienced international Twenty20 cricket and the IPL are convinced that cricket should bid to become an Olympic sport in time for the 2020 Olympic Games, wherever they’re held.

Cricket was part of the 1900 Olympics, when Great Britain beat France.

But with Twenty20 cricket here to stay, now is the time for the 10 full member-nations of the ICC to plan for the development of the sport over the next 100 years. Over the next century, the challenge for all of us who love the game is to spread the word of cricket to parts of the globe that have never heard of it and currently don’t play our sport. We have a responsibility to grow our game in new territories and amongst the women of the world. I believe the Olympic Games is the vehicle the sport should use to aggressively sell the message of our sport to all 202 competing Olympic nations, so our sport is strong and robust in countries where it is currently played and exciting and ground-breaking in countries who haven’t yet caught the ‘cricket-bug’.

The IPL has been such a success and has changed cricket forever. I saw the revolution first-hand during my time in Hyderabad.

To read the full article, click here...
To read the ePaper, visit: http://www.dc-epaper.com/deccanchronicle

DLF IPL: Hyderabad Deccan Chargers unveiled

The Hyderabad team for the DFL Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 event has been christened as 'Deccan Chargers'.

The players of the Deccan Chargers were introduced at a glittering function at Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC) last night. The name, logo and anthem of the Hyderabad team was also unveiled.

Chairman of Deccan Chronicle T Venkatram Reddy said, "The Deccan Chronicle group had always believed in promoting sports, including cricket and the Deccan Chargers is our way of contributing to hit this vision. We are confident that Deccan Chargers would inspire a whole new generation of young crickters in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa to build on their talent and scale greater heights.

President and CEO of Deccan Chargers J Krishnan said 'the logo for the team, the 'Charaging Bull' signifies strength, power and aggression. The team flag comprises Red and Gold. Red stands for aggression and dominace, while Gold signifies victory.

Stating that Deccan Chronicle was committed to the growth of sports especially cricket, he said it had decided to start a Sports Academy for the benefit of youngsters.

He said the team management also announced that Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist would be the deputy to VVS Laxman.

State Labour Minister and President of Hyderabad Cricket Association G Vinod unfurled the team flag and handed it over to Laxman.

Later, talking to newspersons, Laxman said it was an honour to be the captain of a wonderful unit of international players.

He said IPL T20 would also provide a great platform for young players to play side by side with international greats and hone their skills.

"Any cricketer of my team can play at any position and team management will sit and decide the batting order, Laxman said when asked about the batting order of the team."

Captain Laxman said "The concept of T20 cricket is to enterain the masses and I am sure no one coming to the ground to watch us play will be disappointed."

Coach Robin Singh, expressing his happiness said: With players like Adam, the best thing to do is to leave them alone. They are match winners. It is a risk a coach has to take when you have players like that in your team. In a way, I am happy to deal with such guys because you don't have to do too much with them.

Laxman and his Indian compatriots were present at the function but none of the overseas players made it to the official launch.

In a message, Adam Gilchrist said "Boundary lines only exist on cricket grounds, but there will be no boundaries within the team players.' He expressed his appreciation for the Hyderabad cricket fans and said "they are extremely knowledgable and terrific supporters of the game."

Accepting the positon of Vice-Captain, Gilchrist pledged to bring his international experience to support the growth of young cricketers in the Hyd franchise.

Team Deccan Chargers had a great mix of young and experience with some of the finest cricketing talent from across the globe.

Besides Captain Laxman, it has the world's best wicket keeper-batsman in the shape of Adam Gilchrist and match winner Andrew Symonds.

Deccan Charges would play their first game against 'Kolkata Knight Riders' in Kolkata on April 20 and will play its first home game against the 'Delhi Daredevils' on April 22 at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium.

Chargers: VVS Laxman(capt) Adam Gilchrist(vice-capt, wk), Andrew Symonds, Herschelle Gibbs, Shahid Afridi, Chaminda Vass, Scott Styris, Chamara Silva, Nuwan Zoysa, R P Singh, Rohit Sharma, Arjun Yadav, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Pragyan Ojha, Doddapaneni Kalyankrishna, P Vijaya Kumar, Y Venu Gopal Rao, Halhadhar Das (wk), Sanjay Bangar and Sarvesh Kumar. Coach: Robin Singh.