India unveils new Twenty20 event

NEW DELHI – Indian cricket authorities on Thursday paraded superstars Glenn McGrath and Stephen Fleming at the launch of a new Twenty20 league to counter a rival group.

The Indian Premier League will be made up of franchised teams under the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said vice president Lalit Modi. India’s famed veterans Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly were also present at the glitzy announcement in a posh hotel in the Indian capital.

The BCCI is embroiled in a bitter row with rival Indian Cricket League (ICL), which is due to start in October after signing up international and domestic cricketers for a Twenty20 tournament.With the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup underway in South Africa, the BCCI has swiftly embraced the new form of the game which it had largely ignored until the ICL emerged in April with an ambitious plan to break the mould.

Fleming was axed as New Zealand Test captain on Wednesday after a decade in favour of one-day skipper Daniel Vettori. He also announced he was retiring from one-day internationals and would soon end his Test career as well.

Former Australian paceman McGrath quit international cricket this year with 563 wickets in 124 Tests.Their presence was supported by cricket officials from most the Test nations as well as Ray Mali, president of the International Cricket Council.Retired Australian spinner Shane Warne has reportedly already rejected an offer from the ICL, bankrolled by media baron Subhash Chandra who owns India’s largest listed media company Zee Telefilms.

“Warne’s manager James Erskine confirmed last night he had sent a letter to the ICL rejecting a three-year contract believed to be two million dollars,” the Mid Day newspaper said.The ICL, which plans to hold Twenty20 tournaments between city teams for the next three years, has already signed up seven international stars and 44 Indian first-class cricketers.

Former Test captains Brian Lara of the West Indies and Inzamam-ul-Haq of Pakistan lead the ICL list that also includes Pakistanis Mohammad Yousuf, Abdul Razzaq and Imran Farhat and South Africans Lance Klusener and Nicky Boje.The BCCI has decided to bar Indian players aligned to the ICL from playing first-class cricket, making them ineligible for selection for national teams.

ECB welcomes Champions League

The England and Wales Cricket Board has welcomed the news that the Board of Cricket Control in India, Cricket Australia, Cricket South Africa and ECB are planning a Twenty20 Champions League which will offer counties from England and Wales the chance to compete for a £1million first prize.

The concept for the new competition was revealed in Delhi on Thursday and was backed by the ICC as well as the four boards involved. It will provide a great boost for next season’s Twenty20 Cup in England and Wales.

The ECB is proud that they were the pioneers of Twenty20 cricket, which is now being showcased not only in many domestic competitions but also at the ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa.

David Collier, the ECB chief executive, said: “Twenty20 cricket has excited and captured the interest of a new generation of cricket supporters during the past five years, providing a major boost for our counties throughout England and Wales.

“ECB is delighted and congratulates BCCI on launching the Indian Premier League to compliment the domestic competitions run by ECB, Cricket South Africa and Cricket Australia.

“For county, state and province players, the introduction of the Twenty20 Champions competition played between the eight best teams in the world who have earned their place through our domestic competitions provides a new and exciting pinnacle for our county champions.

“It will provide teams with the opportunity to earn the title of the world club champions in a format which will be eagerly anticipated by spectators and players alike.

“ECB warmly supports the Twenty20 Champions Competition and we look forward to the first competition in October 2008.”

The initial plans are for the two domestic finalists from England and Wales, Australia and South Africa to play off against the two Indian finalists for a £2.5m prize fund – with £1m going to the winners.

It is hoped that the competition will be expanded in future years to include the other full member countries.

Deputy chief executive Hugh Morris represented the ECB at the launch in Delhi, which was also attended by ICC president Ray Mali, Cricket South Africa CEO Gerald Majola and Cricket Australia’s chief executive James Sutherland as well as representatives from the BCCI.

BCCI Announces The Launch Of Premier Cricket League In New Delhi Today

The Board of Control for Cricket in India today unveiled its plans for a global Twenty20 tournament in October 2008 and will be named the Premier Cricket League (PCL).

The PCL will feature two teams from India, competing against domestic Twenty20 finalists from England, Australia and South Africa, the BBC in a report revealed today.

The PCL will also have a £2.5m prize fund, with £1m going to the winners.

Reports said that the PCL has been launched to counter Indian Cricket league, which is due to take start in October and November 2007.

Past and present India captains Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar were present at the launch in Delhi, along with former Australia fast bowler Glenn McGrath and ex-New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming.

Australian leg spinner Shane Warne, who declined ICL offer has supported PCL.

The PCL concept has also been welcomed by the England and Wales Cricket Board and their counteraparts in Australia.

World Clubs to Compete for $2 Million Prize in Twenty20 Cricket

Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) — Cricket clubs from England, Australia, India and South Africa will compete next year for a 1 million-pound ($2 million) first prize and the title world club champion in a new Twenty20 tournament.

Two clubs from each country will take part in the first Champions League in October 2008. The tournament may expand to other nations in future, the England and Wales Cricket Board said in a statement today.

“Twenty20 cricket has excited and captured the interest of a new generation of cricket supporters,” said David Collier, the board’s chief executive.

National teams are currently competing in South Africa at the inaugural world cup in the game’s shortest and newest form. In Twenty20 games, each side faces 20 overs, with every bowler restricted to a maximum four overs. The quick-fire format encourages big hits and more exciting play.

The Champions League will feature the finalists from each nation’s domestic Twenty20 tournament. It will consist of two pools of four teams. The top two from each group will advance to the semifinals. A venue has yet to be chosen.

“Fans will now have the extra excitement of knowing the teams they support locally could be going on to compete for a global title against the best of the best from other countries,” Cricket Australia’s Chief Executive James Sutherland said in a statement.

Indian League

Separately, the Board of Control for Cricket in India unveiled its own Twenty20 tournament today. The Indian Premier League will begin in April with a prize fund of $3 million, Web site cricinfo.com said.

The competition will feature 59 matches over 44 days and players including former Australia international bowlers Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne have agreed to play, cricinfo.com said.

The tournament will rival the Indian Cricket League, created in April by Zee Telefilms Ltd., India’s biggest broadcaster. The BCCI has refused to sanction the $1 million league, and told any Indian players who sign up that they’ll be barred from playing for the national team.

India internationals Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly joined former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming and McGrath and Warne at a BCCI press conference in Delhi today, cricinfo.com said.

England’s cricket board introduced the Twenty20 format in 2003 to boost crowds and widen the appeal of cricket among women and families.

The future, ladies and gentlemen, is in Twenty20 cricket

Disturbed by the loud roar let out by a bunch of excited Indian journalists crowded round the ticker at the 1986 Asian Games press centre in distant Seoul, a girl volunteer politely inquired what all the sudden commotion was all about.

Told that the five-day India-Australia cricket Test match back home in Madras (the southern metropolis had not then been re-christened Chennai) had ended in a tie, she curiously remarked: ‘Five days of play, six hours each day, and yet no team wins, and no gold medal for anyone! What kind of a game is it? What a waste of time? Your P.T. Usha did a better job, winning four gold medals in much less time.’

Seeing the bombardment of sixes and fours at the start of the Twenty20 World Championships in Johannesburg and the fill of excitement provided to the spectators at the Wanderers ground in a few fast-moving action-filled hours, the sweet little thing was not wrong, after all, when she reminded Indian reporters about the waste of time.

 As for gold medals, may be a couple of Olympiads from now cricket may find its way to the quadrennial Games and fetch teams gold, silver and bronze medals. Plans are already afoot to bring cricket into the Olympic fold. And then, for all you know, Korea or China, even Russia or the baseball-crazy Americans may be seen dangling medals from their necks.

 Seeing the fireworks at the Wanderers, the actual cricket fireworks at the batting crease to be more precise, exhibited by Chris Gayle of the West Indies (117 runs, 57 balls, 10 sixes, 7 fours) and later by the South Africans, powered by a tornado-like 120-run unbeaten stand off only 57 balls between Herschelle Gibbs (90 runs, 55 balls, 2 sixes, 14 fours) and Justin Kemp (46 runs from 24 balls), Kapil Dev’s 175 not out, with six sixes and 16 fours, against Zimbabwe in the 1983 World Cup in the one-day international (ODI) format looked pedestrian.

The future, ladies and gentlemen, is in the Twenty20. Even ODIs will be seen as time consuming. Not long back, one is amused to remember, India strongly opposed the very idea of a Twenty20 World Championship when it was mooted by the International Cricket Council. The Indian cricket board, as also the breakaway Indian Cricket League, are now seen as vying to outdo each other in their plans to hold 20-overs a side tournaments.

It hardly needs to be stressed that for a tournament to grip the public imagination it has to have the ‘official’ stamp. Everything else is seen as a ‘tamasha’ (exhibition), however attractive marketing professionals and event managers may manage to make it, as indeed they’ll be out to do. It is something they are paid to do.

If Lord’s 1983 has stuck in the Indian public’s mind, it is only because the victory of Kapil Dev’s team came in an official World Cup final. It was after that that cricket became a craze, or a religion, in the country.

Even at the Wanderer’s Tuesday night, the crowds came to watch the cricket and the add-ons in the shape of fireworks, dance and music because it was all ‘official’. The Gayles and the Gibbses have given Twenty20 the right kind of start. No one could have asked for anything better. You can expect more swashbucklers to follow the trend, which has been set so brilliantly.

Wary of chasing big totals, Dhoni says India will bat first

DURBAN, September 12: Aware that his team often fumbles when it comes to chasing big totals, Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said he would like to bat first in the opening match of the Twenty20 World Cup against Scotland here tomorrow.

“A lot depends on the conditions but we would probably love to bat first,” said Dhoni.

“It’s always better to bat first, and since batting is also our strength, we would like to give the opponents a big total. Also there is a lot more pressure when chasing big totals,” said the cautious skipper even though India’s opponents, Scotland, remain minnows in international cricket.

The Indian captain also made it clear that the batsmen would not look to play too many fancy shots and would instead try to concentrate on playing good, conventional cricket.

“If you’ve seen last evening’s game between South Africa and the West Indies, they all played proper cricketing shots. I think, it’s important to play it as a normal cricket match. The stress would be on playing conventional cricket and not doing anything extraordinary,” he said

Asked whether all the excitement that happens beyond the boundary — with cheerleaders and music creating a festive atmosphere — affects the players, Dhoni replied in the negative.

“I don’t think any cricketer gets distracted. They are too involved and focused on the game to be distracted. All the music, the cheerleaders or fans hardly matter. Remember it’s the World Cup,” Dhoni said.

While Dhoni wasn’t willing to give out anything about his team composition, he reckoned that conditions would play an important role in influencing his decisions. Kingsmead usually has a bouncy pitch and in recent days the wind has been pretty strong too.

“We will definitely plan out things according to the conditions here. The ball does a bit here in the evening,” he said.

Dhoni was also hopeful that his young side would put up a better fielding performance.

“We have made a lot of efforts in that area. We will try and take all the catches that come our way. We will also try and save as many runs as possible because it would mean you need to score that many runs less while batting.”