With little more than a week left for India’s ODI team to be picked for the West Indies tour, indications are that four senior cricketers – MS Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan – will be given rest. This has led to a lot of speculation regarding the replacements.

The BCCI is aware that skipper Dhoni has taken a lot of load in recent times and his hands and back have taken a battering. He has done the job behind the stumps, has captained the side with élan and also shown responsibility and some flourish with the bat. If Dhoni opts out, the selectors would in all probability opt for Delhi opener Gautam Gambhir, who led the team to a 5-0 whitewash of New Zealand last year.

There are some names doing the rounds for the slot of the wicketkeeper, where Parthiv Patel seems to have the edge over Dinesh Karthik, Wriddhiman Saha and Naman Ojha.

Sachin Tendulkar has in recent times opted out of the ODIs to give his not-so-young body much-needed rest. Even at the age of 38, he is fit and in prime form and the selectors would love to write his name first on the sheet. However, Tendulkar would want a little rest after the tiring IPL to recharge his batteries for the Test series in West Indies.

Virender Sehwag needs to rest his injured shoulder too. So, with two slots getting vacant at top of the batting order, there’s an opportunity for some youngsters to grab the ticket to the West Indies. Midway through the IPL, the names that have figured prominently as replacements are Rohit Sharma, who missed the World Cup campaign, S Badrinath and the two Tiwaris – Saurabh and Manoj.

As for the bowling, Zaheer Khan surely needs to be protected. He is not getting any younger and the ODI grind soon after the IPL would be too much to ask for.

He is India’s leading match-winning bowler and the team will need him during the Test series. So, if Zak is allowed to rest his aching limbs and Sreesanth, who did not have a memorable World Cup, is left out, two slots fall vacant if the selectors want to go with four pacers.

Munaf Patel is sure to keep his place while Praveen Kumar, who missed the World Cup due to injuries, should walk in without much fuss.

In such a scenario, Ishant Sharma and Vinay Kumar could fancy their chances. Another player who could figure in the discussions is Ashish Nehra. However, Nehra is so injury prone that the selectors may be tempted to ignore him.

In the spin department, Harbhajan Singh and R Ashwin simply walk in but there will be some pressure on leg-spinner Piyush Chawla to retain his place. IPL has given the selectors a lot of options. If they want to take along a leggie, either Amit Mishra and or Pune Warriors’ Rahul Sharma could get lucky.

As for the Test series, Sreesanth could keep his place, though Delhi Daredevils’ Umesh Yadav, who hails from Nagpur, has the pace to make the selectors say ‘you are in’.

The Indian Premier League is the second highest paying league in the world, in terms of weekly average pay.”When only weekly pay is taken into account, the number two league by average pay is cricket’s IPL.

It lasts just six weeks per year but with multi-million dollar short-term contracts for the best players and six-figure deals for many more, it is justifiable for inclusion, not least because many of those involved earn other incomes elsewhere during the rest of the year,” according to IPLindianPremierLeague.Com.

IPL is only behind NBA which is the richest league in terms of average pay per player, the report on sports salary has revealed.

In the team list, Royal Challengers Bangalore is at No. 26 with weekly wages of $86,667, followed by Kolkata Knight Riders at the 29th position with $85,545.

The other three IPL teams to feature in the top 50 list are Kings XI Punjab at 40 with a weekly wage tag of $78,189, Mumbai Indians at 44 with $76,875 and Deccan Chargers with $76,795 at 45.

According to the report, NBA basketball players in North America are the best paid sportsmen.

The Premier League remains the richest football league in the world with Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal finding their places amongst the top 30 best paid teams.

The Global Sports Salaries Report comprises average team salary calculation for 272 teams from 14 leagues such as the NBA (basketball), MLB (baseball), Premier League (English football), NFL (US gridiron) and NHL (ice hockey) and the IPL.

Sri Lankan cricketers currently playing in the Indian Premier League will return home early to prepare for the upcoming England tour, new skipper Tillakaratne Dilshan said Wednesday.

Dilshan is among 11 players who have been asked by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to return home by May 5, more than three weeks before the lucrative Twenty20 tournament ends.

“Personally, I am not unhappy to return early,” Dilshan told reporters. “Playing for my country is more important than playing for IPL. I think everybody selected for England tour will be happy to come early.”

The Board of Control for Cricket India (BCCI) had earlier written to SLC asking them to allow their cricketers to stay on till May 15.

“We did sign a no-objection agreement with the players to play in the IPL. But there was no date to return. I am sure the BCCI will understand country must come first before IPL,” SLC secretary Nishantha Ranatunga said.

Sri Lanka will play three Tests, five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 international during the England tour starting May 14.

Ranatunga said training for the tour will start on May 5 and the team will leave for London on May 11.

He said former skippers Mahela Jayawardene (Kochi Tuskers) and Kumar Sangakkara (Deccan Chargers) will also have to return as they have been selected in the Test squad.

“The BCCI has asked us to reconsider our decision, but we have not changed our stand,” Ranatunga said.

Dilshan, who plays for Royal Challengers Bangalore along with fast bowler Nuwan Pradeep, said he hoped the franchises would understand their early exit.

“We have a new interim coach (Stuart Law) and a new batting coach (Marvan Atapattu). I am also new as captain. We need to prepare together to build up for the big England tour,” he said.

Chief selector and former captain Duleep Mendis said the early recall was necessary as Sri Lanka had been playing one-dayers and Twenty20s for the past two months.

“They have to mentally prepare and switch to play the longer version of the game,” said Mendis.

“The first half of the English summer is not very easy and we want the boys to train together and focus on playing with red balls instead of the white ones that they have been playing with in the past two months,” Mendis said.

Other Sri Lankan IPL players include Nuwan Kulasekara and Suraj Randiv (Chennai Super Kings); Dilhara Fernando and Lasith Malinga (Mumbai Indians).

Shane Warne’s Rajasthan Royals thrashed Delhi Daredevils by six wickets to pocket their second successive victory in the Indian Premier League on Tuesday.

Chasing a stiff 152, Rajasthan rode on fine knocks by Rahul Dravid and Johan Botha to overhaul the target with nine balls to spare at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.

The usually sedate Dravid struck a quickfire 38 off 31 balls and South African Botha continued his fine form with the bat, scoring an unbeaten 39 with four fours.

Ross Taylor (18 not out) capped off a fine victory for Rajasthan with a four and a six in the penultimate over to delight a sizeable home crowd.

Delhi slumped to their second defeat in as many matches after having lost to Mumbai Indians in their opening match.

Delhi were in early trouble after skipper Virender Sehwag won the toss and elected to bat but opener David Warner and Venugopal Rao posted responsible half-centuries to pull their side from the pits.

Sehwag was dismissed off the third ball of the first over when he edged Aussie quick Shaun Tait to Dravid in the slips.

Tait returned to send back Aaron Finch (11) in his second spell before Warne dismissed Unmukt Chand and Naman Ojha in the same over to reduce Delhi to a shaky 36-4.

Warner fought back with a 44-ball 54 and Rao top-scored with a superb 60 off 40 balls, containing four fours and four sixes to take Delhi to a competitive total.

Australian spin legend Warne impressed the most among the bowlers, finishing with 2-17 but Tait proved expensive with his two wickets coming at the cost of 40 runs off four overs.

Brief Scores:

Delhi Daredevils 151-6 in 20 overs (V. Rao 60, D. Warner 54; S. Warne 2-17, S. Tait 2-40) lost to Rajasthan Royals 152-4 in 18.3 overs (J. Botha 39 not out, R. Dravid 38) by six wickets.

IPL 2011 is scheduled to start in first week of april . It should begin a few days after World cup ends. Lalit Modi has been sacked and 2 teams which very removed are back again now after court intervention ( Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab ) . Kochi cricket team has come out of all problems.Now it looks as if 10 teams are going to play. So the number of matches are going to be increased.

IPL 4 2011 Schedule

Apr 8 8PM . Chennai Super Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders Chennai
Apr 9 4PM . Deccan Chargers vs Rajasthan Royals Hyderabad
Apr 9 8PM . Kochi v Royal Challengers Bangalore Kochi
Apr 10 4PM . Delhi Daredevils vs Mumbai Indians Delhi
Apr 10 8PM . Pune Warriors vs Kings XI Punjab Navi Mumbai
Apr 11 8PM . Kolkata Knight Riders vs Deccan Chargers Kolkata
Apr 12 4PM . Rajasthan Royals vs Delhi Daredevils Jaipur
Apr 12 8PM . Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians Bangalore
Apr 13 4PM . Pune Warriors vs Kochi Navi Mumbai
Apr 13 8PM . Kings XI Punjab vs Chennai Super Kings Mohali
Apr 14 8PM . Deccan Chargers vs Royal Challengers Bangalore Hyderabad
Apr 15 4PM . Mumbai Indians v Kochi Mumbai
Apr 15 8PM . Delhi Daredevils v Kolkata Knight Riders Delhi
Apr 16 4PM . Chennai Super Kings v Royal Challengers Bangalore Chennai
Apr 16 8PM . Deccan Chargers v Kings XI Punjab Hyderabad
Apr 17 4PM . Rajasthan v Kolkata Knight Riders Jaipur
Apr 17 8PM . Pune Warriors v Delhi Daredevils Navi Mumbai
Apr 18 8PM . Kochi v Chennai Super Kings Kochi
Apr 19 4PM . Delhi Daredevils vs Deccan Chargers Delhi
Apr 19 8PM . Royal Challengers Bangalore v Rajasthan Royals Bangalore
Apr 20 4PM . Mumbai Indians v Pune Warriors Mumbai
Apr 20 8PM . Kolkata Knight Riders v Kochi Kolkata
Apr 21 8PM . Kings XI Punjab v Rajasthan Royals Mohali
Apr 22 8PM . Mumbai Indians v Chennai Super Kings Mumbai
Apr 23 4PM . Kolkata Knight Riders v Royal Challengers Bangalore Kolkata
Apr 23 8PM . Delhi Daredevils v Kings XI Punjab Delhi
Apr 24 4PM . Deccan Chargers v Mumbai Indians Hyderabad
Apr 24 8PM . Rajasthan Royals v Kochi Jaipur
Apr 25 8PM . Chennai Super Kings v Pune Warriors Chennai
Apr 26 8PM . Delhi Daredevils v Royal Challengers Bangalore Delhi
Apr 27 4PM . Pune Warriors v Chennai Super Kings Navi Mumbai
Apr 27 8PM . Kochi v Deccan Chargers Kochi
Apr 28 4PM . Kolkata Knight Riders v Kings XI Punjab Kolkata
Apr 28 8PM . Rajasthan Royals v Mumbai Indians Jaipur
Apr 29 8PM . Royal Challengers Bangalore v Pune Bangalore
Apr 30 4PM . Kochi v Delhi Daredevils Kochi
Apr 30 8PM . Mumbai Indians v Kings XI Punjab Mumbai
May 1 4PM . Rajasthan Royals v Pune Warriors Jaipur
May 1 8PM . Chennai Super Kings v Deccan Chargers Chennai
May 2 8PM . Delhi Daredevils v Kochi Delhi
May 3 8PM . Deccan Chargers v Kolkata Knight Riders Hyderabad
May 4 4PM . Chennai Super Kings v Rajasthan Royals Chennai
May 4 8PM . Pune Warriors v Mumbai Indians Navi Mumbai
May 5 4PM . Kochi v Kolkata Knight Riders Kochi
May 5 8PM . Deccan Chargers v Delhi Daredevils Hyderabad
May 6 8PM . Royal Challengers Bangalore v Kings XI Punjab Bangalore
May 7 4PM . Kolkata Knight Riders v Chennai Super Kings Kolkata
May 7 8PM . Mumbai Indians v Delhi Daredevils Mumbai
May 8 4PM . Royal Challengers Bangalore v Kochi Bangalore
May 8 8PM . Kings XI Punjab v Pune Warriors Mohali
May 9 8PM . Rajasthan Royals v Chennai Super Kings Jaipur
May 10 4PM . Kings XI Punjab v Mumbai Indians Mohali
May 10 8PM . Deccan Chargers v Pune Warriors Hyderabad
May 11 8PM . Rajasthan Royals v Royal Challengers Bangalore Jaipur
May 12 8PM . Chennai Super Kings v Delhi Daredevils Chennai
May 13 8PM . Kochi v Kings XI Punjab Indore
May 14 4PM . Mumbai Indians v Deccan Chargers Mumbai
May 14 8PM . Royal Challengers Bangalore v Kolkata Knight Riders Bangalore
May 15 4PM . Kings XI Punjab v Delhi Daredevils Dharamsala
May 15 8PM . Kochi v Rajasthan Royals Indore
May 16 8PM . Kolkata Knight Riders v Mumbai Indians Kolkata
May 17 8PM . Pune Warriors v Deccan Chargers Pune
May 18 4PM . Kings XI Punjab v Royal Challengers Bangalore Dharamsala
May 18 8PM . Chennai Super Kings v Kochi Chennai
May 19 8PM . Pune Warriors v Kolkata Knight Riders Pune
May 20 8PM . Mumbai Indians v Rajasthan Royals Mumbai
May 21 4PM . Kings XI Punjab v Deccan Chargers Dharamsala
May 21 8PM . Delhi Daredevils v Pune Warriors Delhi
May 22 4PM . Royal Challengers Bangalore v Chennai Super Kings Bangalore
May 22 8PM . Kolkata Knight Riders v Rajasthan Royals Kolkata
May 24 8PM . Qualifier 1 Mumbai
May 25 8PM . Eliminator Mumbai
May 27 8PM . Qualifier 2 Chennai
May 28 8PM . Final Chennai

Beginning this week, cricket will rule the minds, hearts and conversations of most Indian consumers. With the ICC World Cup and the Indian Premier League (IPL) almost back-to-back, every marketer is looking at getting maximum bang-for-the-buck with the advertising during these matches. Businessworld puts together views from three media pundits and a marketer on where they would put their money on — the World Cup or the IPL.

‘It is not an either-or decision’
it is clearly not indian premier League (IPL) versus the World Cup (WC). Advertisers cannot look at both the cricket tournaments as an either-or decision. Therefore, the decision to invest in WC 2011 or IPL 2011, or both, will be based on the brand or advertiser’s marketing objective, and not the viewership as both these tournaments are expected to deliver a similar viewership at similar efficiency benchmarks.

WC 2011 has many interesting facts going for it. Given that India has been performing well both in Tests and ODIs (one day internationals) over the past four months, there would definitely be heightened interest in WC 2011. This Indian team is more formidable than any other in the past decade and the fact that they will be playing in sub-continental conditions has increased viewer expectations. Then, this tournament is potentially Sachin Tendulkar’s last World Cup. Keeping these factors in mind, the World Cup might well reach average ratings of 5.5 per cent, which is very close to the projected rating for IPL 4 at 6.0 per cent.

The IPL 2011 is expected to garner viewership from a wider demographic set, as opposed to a male-dominated World Cup viewership, because of the combination of cricket, glamour and drama vis-à-vis pure cricket. This will result in a greater set of FMCG and women-focused brands investing in IPL 2011 as against WC 2011. Considering that general entertainment channels have shown a drop in viewership of about 20-25 per cent during IPL and major ICC tournaments, these brands will not have too many channels to invest in.

Brands that predominantly target males and youth will associate with both the tournaments in some form as staying off-air is not an option for them during this season. Traditionally, large advertisers on cricket have already taken up sponsorships on both the tournaments or on WC 2011 as it comes at the start of the purchasing season for consumer durables, financial products and automobiles. But the brands with new initiatives and launches in FY2012 will pick up IPL 2011 as it will come under the fresh budgets for the year.

Studies on IPL 2010 sponsorships and innovations reveal that the investments made by advertisers is not a surefire route to heightened visibility and increase in awareness/perception measures. Out of 65 brands that were associated with IPL 2010 in some form or the other, only four brands garnered unaided awareness of 25 per cent or more. This clearly indicates that a co-presenting sponsorship or an associate sponsorship does not necessarily mean greater visibility than a spot buy or an action replay package, etc. Greater return on investment on both WC 2011 and IPL 2011 will depend on a combination of factors like overall media visibility of a brand, likeability of the television commercials, and advertising proposition among other factors.

Nov 25 (IANS) Kochis Indian Premier League dream is all but over as the squabbling franchise owners Thursday wrote to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that they have failed to settle their ownership patterns and were, therefore, withdrawing from the league.

The development came just two days before the the boards deadline to sort out the differences among the owners expires.

Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) secretary T.C. Matthew told IANS that the owners have informed the BCCI about their decision in a letter.

“We all wished and hoped that the consortium members would sort out whatever difference of opinion they had. But it appears that things have all turned sour and the bad news has come out that there will be no team from Kerala,” said Mathew.

“I have been informed by some of the partners of the Kochi franchise that they have informed the BCCI about their decision to withdraw from the fourth season of the league. It is a very unfortunate incident for Kerala cricket,” he said.

Rendezvous Sports World in March won the franchisee rights for the Kochi IPL team for a bid price of Rs.1,500 crore.

Despite getting a 30-day notice to settle their ownership pattern, the owners failed to sort out their internal problems. Anchor Earth, Parinee Developers, Rosy Blue and Film Wave hold 74 percent of the equity while the Gaekwad brothers, who own Rendezvous Sports World, own the remaining 26 percent stake as free equity for services rendered in successfully bidding for the franchise.

The stakeholders, however, were in no mood to give 26 percent as free equity to the Gaekwad brothers, who did not want to part with it.

The consortium successfully bid for the Kochi franchise pledging a whopping $333 million (Rs.1,500 crore).

If there was one crestfallen person it would be none other than former union minister and Lok Sabha member from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor. Having worked behind the scenes to put the Kochi team together, he lost his ministerial berth after news broke out that his then friend and now wife Sunanda Pushkar had earned sweat equity in the Kochi IPL franchise.

Tharoor tweeted: “the dream is over for now, those who didnt want a Kerala IPL team have finally succeeded. Some of us have paid a high price for trying.”

With Kochis exit, Ahmedabad and Rajkot are the two likely cities to bid for a slot in the IPL. The IPL Governing Council has decided to go ahead and conduct auction for the eighth team by December 15.

“After the suspension of Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals, the IPL couldnt have afforded to lose a third team as it would have posed more problems,” a top official in the Governing Council told IANS.

The official said Ahmedabad and Rajkot are among the cities that would be interested in bidding for the eighth team.

“Ahmedabad and Rajkot will definitely take part in the auction,” said the official.

Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group and Adani Industries have shown interest in Ahmedabad. Ambani lost in the first auction while the Adanis bid fell short of Pune and Kochi bids at the auction in Chennai.

Here You are Watch Deepika Padukone Performance in IPL Opening Ceremony Online for Free… You can also get More Free IPL Season 4 events News Up dates…

Deepika Padukon Performance

Here You Watch Juhi Chawla Reviews aginst IPL. You can also get More Information Indian Premier League 2010/11…

IPL To Ramayana for Juhi Chawla

Great Ceremony IPL 2010 Night Rocked by AR Rahman

Chennai Super Kings Won DLF IPL 2010 event Thus ending the IPL 2010 Match Series, This great night was indeed to be celebrated and was celebrated on 25th April 2010, Watch Online Videos here of the great night which are enriched with the outstanding performance by AR Rahman, You can watch AR Rahman performing Live in the videos here.

AR Rahman Rocking IPL