IPL3 auction: Mumbai Indians bag Pollard for whopping $2.2m
MUMBAI: The smartest-looking lady made the smartest bid to snare Kieron Pollard, the most sought-after cricketer in the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) third player auction held in Mumbai on Tuesday afternoon.
Nita Ambani, Mumbai Indians’ owner, walked into the bidding room at a five-star hotel here wearing a newly-designed team T-shirt. She later said she was sure of what to purchase. It is a different matter that three other teams – Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers and Kolkata Knight Riders – had walked in with similar plans. However, it was Ambani’s superior, secret, bid that prevailed.
The bidding for Pollard began at a base price of $200,000 and soon turned into a hot battle between Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata. Every passing bid of $10,000 saw all the four teams locked in a tie when the entire purse of $750,000 was emptied. Lalit Modi, the IPL chief, then called for the tie-breaker rule where all three franchisees concerned had to quote an amount – a silent bid which wouldn’t be revealed – and the team quoting the highest amount could buy Pollard.
The Knight Riders were the first to back off at this stage, leaving the other three to slug it out. Ambani wrote an amount slightly higher than Rs 6.5 crore (approximately $1.75m) which saw her pip rivals N Srinivasan (Chennai Super Kings) and Vijay Mallya (Royal Challengers). The idea, it seemed, was to keep in mind that the Kings and the Challengers would be missing out on the services of their costliest players this season – Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen – and so they would utilize that money to buy another player.
Mumbai Indians may have caught a whiff of it (considering that Chennai and Bangalore would have to pay Flintoff and KP only 10% of their cost price of $1.5m) and thus quoted a figure slightly higher than $1.5m. Pollard was theirs.
“The team strategy, discussed between Sachin Tendulkar, TA Sekar and Robin Singh was that we wanted a batting allrounder and we are happy to have him,” Nita Ambani said after the successful bid.
Pollard technically emerged the costliest player of the IPL, as the money spent on him totals up to a mindboggling $1.75m. Ironically, according to the auction rules, the Trinindadian will only get $750,000. The rest of the amount ($1.55m) will go into the IPL kitty.
Following the sale of Pollard, there was another equally intense bidding for Shane Bond in the second round. The New Zealand pacer attracted three teams and all were tied till they expended their entire amount. Bond’s latest CV update, that he doesn’t play Tests for New Zealand any more, made him a more viable option because of his availability. This saw his value rise from a floor price of $100,000 to the price cap of $750,000 after which Kolkata Knight Riders and Deccan Chargers submitted their respective ’silent bids’.
Eventually, Bond went to the Knight Riders, who quoted an approximate amount of $1m to net him. They had, in fact, entered the bidding at $640,000 first-up and shown enough inclination to buy the fast bowler.
“From what we have understood he won’t be playing Tests anymore but only ODIs and Twenty20. Yes, he is prone to injuries but his coach said he is in good shape. We wanted a fast bowler and he provides us that,” Jai Mehta, co-owner, Knight Riders, said after the bid.
Two other notable signings were South African Wayne Parnell, who was bought by Delhi Daredevils for $610,000 and West Indian Kemar Roach, who went to Deccan Chargers for $750,000. In both instances, the franchisees which ‘won out’ had to go through gruelling bidding.
Source : Times of India
Somdev-Prakash in Australian Open second round
MELBOURNE: Somdev Devvarman and Prakash Amritraj fought their way into the second round of the men’s doubles event of the Australian Open but Rohan Bopanna’s challenge came to an end with a first round defeat on Wednesday.
Wild card entrants Somdev and Prakash had to dig deep to beat Americans James Cerretani and Travis Rettenmaier 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 in their opening round at Melbourne Park.
In contrast, Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi squandered one set lead to lose 6-4, 1-6, 6-7(6) to South African Rik De Voest and Scott Lipsky of the United States.
Somdev and Prakash will next take on the winners of the first round match between 11th seeds Simon Aspelin and Paul Hanley and Marcos Daniel and Daniel Koellerer.
Mahesh Bhupathi, who was runner up here last year with Mark Knowles, and Belarussian Max Mirnyi are seeded fourth and will open their campaign against Michael Kohlmann of Germany and Jarkko Nieminen Finland.
Leander Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy are seeded third and will take on the Czech pair of Leos Friedl and David Skoch in the first round.
Source: Times of India
Man United asks players for financial help!
NEW DELHI: The Glazers are at it again. The owners of the most-recognised football club in the world have sent an SOS to the Manchester United players for financial help!
According to the British tabloid Sun, the Glazer family has appealed through a handout to the stars for a multi-million pound loan. The millionaire stars were surprised, to say the least, by the request when they returned home last week from their Qatar training camp.
Players were handed a prospectus, as owner Malcolm Glazer attempts to raise a staggering 500-million-pounds through a bond issue to refinance huge debts.
A United insider said: “The players don’t know what to make of it, really. Most are bemused that the people who pay their wages are basically trying to find out if they can have some back.” United are believed to be offering investors an annual return of seven per cent on the bonds, which start at 50,000-pounds a block.
United’s holding company carries 509.5m pounds in debt secured on the club and its assets. A further loan, secured on the Glazers’ shareholding in the club, is believed to be worth £200 million.
The Glazer family bought United in May 2005 for £810 million – £540 million of it borrowed from banks and hedge funds – and their takeover would have already cost United £340 million in cash, according to a Guardian report. That comprises £220 million in bank interest plus “early-repayment premiums” made when the borrowings were first refinanced in August 2006.
On top of that, the “payments” have incurred interest payable of around £124 million since the Glazers first borrowed the money to buy United.
They are even trying to sell out Carrington, United’s training ground and get it back on lease, according to another report. All this follows the hike in ticket prices, much to the chagrin of the fans and members.
The £500 million bond and a new £75 million credit facility, which will add to an overall debt pile of more than £700 million, will be secured on the majority of property owned by United, including Old Trafford. A prospectus has been circulated to potential investors in a £500 million refinancing scheme this week, reports said.
Source : Times of India
Maria Sharapova exits in first round at Australian Open
MELBOURNE: Former champion Maria Sharapova has lost her first-round match at the Australian Open to fellow Russian Maria Kirilenko 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-4.
The 14th-seeded Sharapova, who won the Australian Open in 2008 but missed last year’s tournament due to shoulder surgery, fell behind 4-1 in the third set Monday. Sharapova rallied to get back to 4-5, but had her serve broken in the final game.
Kirilenko next plays Yvonne Meusburger of Austria, who beat Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 in another match Monday.
Source: Times of India
Flintoff ruled out of IPL after further knee surgery
LONDON: Andrew Flintoff has been ruled out of this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) after another operation on his troublesome knee that is expected to sideline him for about six months.
The Lancashire all-rounder has been out of action since undergoing a micro-fracture operation on his right knee after retiring from Tests having helped England regain the Ashes last year.
After an arthroscopy operation this week, the 32-year-old will not now be fit to play for the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, which runs from March 12 to April 25.
“It is disappointing not to be able to play for Chennai, who have been very supportive throughout my time with them, but I took this decision because I love playing cricket and want to give myself the best chance of extending my career,” he said.
Flintoff rejected a central contract from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in September but said he intended to carry on playing One-Day Internationals and Twenty20s.
The operation means he will also be unavailable for the Twenty20 World Cup in West Indies from April 30 to May 16.
Once he recovers from surgery, however, Flintoff said he now wants to play all forms of the game for his county.
“My goals have changed since last summer,” Flintoff told Lancashire’s website. “I trust the surgeon, Andy Williams, implicitly and he is very pleased with the progress of the micro-fracture operation.
“When I first had the operation I did not think I would be able to play anything other than One-day cricket, but the news of my recovery has led me to believe I may play in all forms of cricket for Lancashire.
“First and foremost I have to prove to myself that I can regain my fitness and perform for Lancashire,” he added.
“My first love remains playing for Lancashire and I want to help them win trophies and hopefully I can help achieve that later this summer.”
Flintoff is confident he will eventually return to action with England as well as Lancashire.
“I have worked extremely hard over the last few months to get to this position and realise there is a lot more hard work in front of me if I want to return and play international cricket again,” said Flintoff.
“But if I am going to go through another six months of hard rehabilitation and training for long hours, I need a big incentive to be the driving force of that and playing for Lancashire and England again will become that”, he added.
I’m ready for the challenges in Australia: Sharapova
MELBOURNE: Russian Maria Sharapova has had a frustrating year to forget but feels her fitness is returning and is confident of making a big splash at next week’s Australian Open.
Sharapova won the opening Grand Slam of the season in convincing fashion in 2008 but was deprived of defending it last year after failing to recover from shoulder surgery, which kept her out of action until May.
She returned to the circuit and won the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo in October, but didn’t play again until exhibitions in Thailand and Hong Kong this month and has yet to rediscover the form that took her to world number one.
Now ranked 14, the statuesque 22-year-old said the injury layoff taught her never to take anything for granted.
“You realise how fortunate you are to get back,” she told reporters at the Hong Kong Classic team tournament, where she posted encouraging wins against Danish teenager Caroline Wozniacki and China’s Zheng Jie.
“Obviously I stepped away because I had to. It was frustrating — very frustrating. And boring … But there is no better healer than time.”
And with the competitive juices again flowing, she is confident that she can make an impact in Melbourne.
“I keep getting stronger. I’m ready for the challenges in Australia — mentally and physically. I have great memories of the tournament and I’m sure it will be great to be back,” she said.
Despite her upbeat outlook, Sharapova has a tough task ahead of her with not just the Williams sisters to contend with but the returning Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin.
Henin, then top seed, was one of the woman she demolished en route to the 2008 title and any rematch would be eagerly anticipated.
Sharapova, who also made the final in 2007 but lost to Serena Williams, said she welcomed the challenge the Belgian posed.
“I think it’s great. I think it adds to the great story line of comebacks we’ve had, with Kim (Clijsters) as well coming back and winning a Grand Slam,” she said.
“When you’re doing something you love, you’re a champion, you’re good at it and you don’t have it for a while. To get it back, to get that feeling back as a competitor, it’s always great.”
Despite having slipped down the rankings, Sharapova, a three-time major winner, insists she is not focused on getting the accolade back, instead just concentrating on staying healthy and winning matches.
“I don’t think too much about rankings, or even look them,” she said on her website.
“I know if I can stay healthy, good things will happen on the tennis court.”
For some of her fans, the Russian’s outfit at Melbourne Park will be almost as important as the quality of her forehand or whether her serve is back at full power.
But she is not ready to reveal what fashion statement she might be making.
“It’s a surprise, but you will like it,” she said about her choice of dress.
Spectators at the 2006 tournament could have been excused for thinking she had rushed onto court straight from bed, as she sported a powder-blue baby-doll nightie.
A year late she went for a high-waisted lemon and white chiffon number with an orchid detail on the thigh, before opting for a more restrained outfit in 2008.
Source : Times of India
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