World champions look to avoid underdogs' bite
Thirteen years ago an Australian adventure in the Caribbean rivalled in prestige a trip to England for the Ashes. The West Indies was also a top destination for supporters desperate to see what had made the region's players so great for so long. Since Steve Waugh's 200 at Sabina Park captured the Frank Worrell Trophy in 1995, the collection of countries has lost its cricket lustre to the point where the opening Test is no longer a major event. Not even for the players.
Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Dwayne Bravo may fulfil the trait of struggling sides and literally be asleep in the field over the next week. Sarwan and Chanderpaul arrived in the West Indies a few days ago from the Indian Premier League; Bravo touched down on Tuesday in a private plane, about 48 hours before the toss. The squad camp to prepare for the series had already concluded before the big names decided to arrive with their jetlag.
They flew from the star-filled Twenty20 stadiums into a contest that cannot match the hype, payments or short peaks of excitement they experienced over the past month. Tests offer tradition, style and stature. Whether those values remain attractive will be gauged during the three-match series and beyond.
The Australians swear wearing whites under the shadow of a baggy green cap will always remain the pinnacle. Every player in the squad attended their camp in Brisbane two weeks ago, but this week it has been revealed Matthew Hayden has been carrying an achilles injury that developed while he trained during the IPL. Yet the only game he missed was the warm-up against a Jamaica XI at the weekend, and he is in serious doubt for Sabina Park.
When Hayden last withdrew from a Test, in Perth in January, Australia's 16-match winning streak ended. Without him the batting loses strength, a problem which is compounded by the absence of Michael Clarke, another regular, who arrives on Friday from compassionate leave. At the camp the team expected a rebuild through the middle, where Brad Haddin steps into the unenviable job of replacing Adam Gilchrist, but if Hayden withdraws some serious reconstruction involving Simon Katich and Brad Hodge will be necessary. They are changes that give the home team hope.
It might be the beginning of a new age for Test cricket, but there is little doubt over the place of West Indies. A distant eighth in the world rankings, they remain the underachieving underdogs. After the 1995 series, when the Frank Worrell Trophy and the unofficial No. 1 ranking were taken away, they have won five of 21 Tests against teams led by Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh, Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting. Only one victory has come in the past three series. There have been no draws.
In the past they had Brian Lara to provide the occasional match-turning miracle, or at least make defeat more acceptable. He signed off with 226 on the previous Australia tour and for the first Test they don't have Chris Gayle, the captain missing with a groin injury, or the suspended Marlon Samuels.
The visitors' batting newcomers are matched by those in the home set-up. Brenton Parchment, Ryan Hinds and Runako Morton have come in after West Indies won the final match against Sri Lanka to record a drawn series. Tim Nielsen, the Australia coach, has already spoken of the unknowns in the home team, and their support to the more established men, such as the IPL representatives, could be the difference between an even or one-sided contest.
The fast bowling in both outfits is more settled and Australia will be looking for Stuart MacGill to out-perform the opposition's spinner - Amit Jaggernauth and Sulieman Benn are in the squad; one or none of them could play in Jamaica. MacGill is back after regaining fitness and form since the Australian summer and should enjoy encountering a team with traditional frailties against legspin.
Australia showed some weaknesses in the series against India, losing and drawing the final two Tests of the four-game contest, and a couple of personnel adjustments leave them with points to prove. However, even though West Indies are at home, the world champions should not have many troubles disposing of them. Especially if the hangover from the IPL makes their three key players slow starters.
(c) Cricinfo
Saj Cans IPL Offer Too
Sajid Mahmood has become the latest England player to reveal he has rejected offers to join the Indian Premier League.
The Lancashire seamer's admission came less than a day after Essex all-rounder Ravi Bopara confirmed he had turned down a lucrative six-figure deal to play in the Twenty20 competition as he feared jeopardising his future international prospects.
Mahmood, 26, has not played for his country for more than a year.
He is hoping for a recall but hinted he could be tempted by the IPL if he continues to be ignored.
"A lot of people on the circuit are saying the IPL is the way forward," Mahmood told BBC Sport.
"My aim is and always has been to play for England, but if you're not getting in the side, the IPL is a big carrot."
England players who decide to join the IPL risk not being picked at present.
Mahmood added: "I've had offers to join the IPL but I'm desperate to work my way back into the England side.
"That's the reason why I got into cricket in the first place and the desire is still burning brightly.
"I'm only 26, I've got a lot of years ahead of me in the game, and it would be great to spend those years representing my country and taking wickets.
"However, if things don't work out in that regard, the IPL is a massive draw. There is a hell of a lot of money on offer out there and a cricketer's career is a short one.
"There's not much I or anyone can really do at the moment, though, with the way things are.
"My aim is by the end of this year, three-quarters into the season, to be back in the England side. If not then I can start having a chat and see about looking at my options."
Hampshire skipper Dimitri Mascarenhas is England's only current representative in the IPL, but established stars like Kevin Pietersen and Ryan Sidebottom have also declared their interest in participating in future.
Mahmood believes there is little reason why England's stars cannot enjoy the "best of both worlds".
"It is only three or four weeks out of the season," he said.
"If players can go out there, benefit financially as well as test themselves against the top players in the world, they can come back better for it.
"It's a chance to impress on a big stage against quality players and that's something that could impress the ECB and selectors."
In the meantime, the Lancashire ace is keen to prove his form and fitness after six months out of the game.
"I had a complete break from the game and it has benefited me immensely," he said. "I feel I am physically and mentally a better cricketer.
"I will always have pace but now I am adding consistency and accuracy to my game and my aim this summer is to get overs under my belt, take loads of wickets, and force my way back into the selectors' thoughts.
"I'm confident that I can do that. There's a lot of competition in the pace bowling department but, at my best, I'm not far away at all."
(c) Cricket365
IPL big hit with gamblers, Kolkata team current favourite
MUMBAI: The Indian Premier League (IPL) is only into its second week but has already become a big hit with gamblers, leaving betting on other major events far behind.
The police here estimated the amount changing hands in the first week at a whopping Rs 2,00,000 crore.
A police official said this is at least 20 times higher than the betting money in the last cricket World Cup in the West Indies.
The reasons attributed to this quicker turnover for punters are the glamour involved, big money at stake, and shorter match durations producing faster results. Added to it is the tremendous public response to the IPL matches around the country. At some of the stadiums, corporate boxes have been sold out and in some places like Mumbai, general tickets were sold in black.
"There is a strong hype surrounding the IPL, the summer vacations are on and matches are being marketed well in all cities," said a Mumbai bookie, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
In order to ward off police and the private security agencies deployed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), bookies are operating with extreme caution. The underworld is reported to be active in the gambling operations in a big way.
"We accept bets only online, through certain websites. Punters are provided with passwords which are kept confidential and we keep changing them for every match," the bookie said.
The current hot favourites are Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai - in that order. While Shah Rukh Khan's Kolkata Knight Riders commands a price of Rs 4.50, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi teams follow a close second with Rs 5.00. The next on the list are Hyderabad at Rs 6 and Mohali at Rs 7.
This means that for every Rs 1 that is bet on any particular team, the punter would get the current rate being quoted for that team. So, if Kolkata wins the match, the punter would make Rs 4.50 on his bet of Rs 1.
Though both Mumbai and Hyderabad are yet to win a match they are rated higher than Bangalore, which has won a match. Bangalore is pegged at Rs 11, followed by the Jaipur team at Rs.14. The odds are higher against their winning.
The favourite players are Michsel Hussey, Brendon McCullum, Robin Uthappa and Abhishekh Nair.
The bookie revealed that when several international players from Australia, West Indies and New Zealand leave the IPL to fulfil commitments back home next month, betting trends might undergo a major change after assessing the teams' strengths afresh.
So far, the average per match betting is in the region of Rs.50-100 billion, depending on the team and its players.
The money collection and disbursal is done through 'angadia' (unorganised couriers) and by 'hawala' (money laundering racket).
The Mumbai Police Cyber Crime Cell is keeping a close tab on the developments on the betting front, an official said, but they have not reported any breakthrough in penetrating the ring.
(c) 2008 Times Internet Limited
Cricket SA asks ICC for a six-week cricket break during IPL
Cricket South Africa has rallied strongly behind its Indian counterpart BCCI and asked the International Cricket Council for a six-week window in April-May to accommodate the Indian Premier League that opened in Bangalore two days ago.
"I believe, however, that it is vital that the ICC creates a six-week window in the international programme each year for the IPL tournament so that it does not encroach on any international tours," Gerald Majola, CEO of CSA, said in a media release.
"In this way, there can be no conflict between national playing contracts and those of the tournament. An ideal time would be the last two weeks in April and for the month of May," he declared after praising the launch of the IPL at Bangalore as a "very exciting new jewel in cricket's crown".
Majola's views are radically different to those expressed recently in Mumbai by outgoing ICC CEO, Malcolm Speed, who feels there's no hurry to rush things up and carve out a window in the Future Tours Programme of the ICC to slot in the IPL.
"The players know that the only reason they are approached for the Twenty20 is because they are the stars for their country. They have become good players because they have been brought up in the system within their country. IPL hasn't started yet. Before we go carving windows in the structure that is basis of the finances of all countries including the BCCI, let's see how good it is. There is no rush to do this," he emphasized.
Copyright (c) 2008: IPLCricketForum
IPL set to revolutionise cricket world from today
RAWALPINDI: Cricket is all set to get a glamorous new facelift with the launch of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in Bangalore today. A bevy of Bollywood stars and many of the top names in international cricket are determined to change the staid face of cricket once and for all.
Introduced by the British to the subcontinent, cricket was once the sport of Rajas and Nawabs, with patrons like the Nawab of Pataudi and Maharaja of Patiala. Today, cricketers are much wealthier than royalty, and the Rajas and Nawabs can be seen queuing up for their autographs.
After Kerry Packer brought about his revolution, league cricket has now attracted the attention of commercial concerns the world over. Whereas the International Cricket Council (ICC), which has been running cricket affairs for long, auctions rights of all tournaments for eight years for $1 billion, the Indian Premier League (IPL) is going to sell 10-year rights for almost the same amount - and this is just the beginning. A 10-second commercial during a match will cost Rs300,000 because there is no dearth of money available to the IPL.
Every organisation is making efforts to advertise its products during IPL matches and investment of billions is expected in the initial phase. Kerry Packer had set up his circus in Australia while the festival of Lalit Modi is being staged in India. Not just one but eight parties interested in gaining a franchise have appeared on the scene in their own fashion and style.
The world cricket festival will get under way with a grand opening ceremony in Bangalore today (Friday). In the tournament, around 75 superstars from around the globe will prove their cricketing mettle. In the tournament spanning over 45 days, sensational competitions are expected in 59 Twenty20 matches among eight teams.
The IPL is being held on the pattern of the English Premier Football League. Football is the most popular sport in the world and millions of spectators enjoy football matches every year. Now the Twenty20 edition of cricket is being patterned on the same lines and large Indian companies have planned to advertise their products through the platform. This is the reason that film stars, billionaire businessmen and industrialists, like Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Mukesh Ambani and Vijay Malia, have bought IPL franchises.
Players will earn millions of rupees through this tournament while the bank balance of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will also be doubled. Lalit Modi, the BCCI president who also happens to be a businessman, floated the idea of IPL after observing sports marketing in the United States for a long duration and accepted the challenge of running the cricket league on the pattern of English Premier League.
The importance of the tournament could be judged by the fact that its 10-year telecasting rights have been bought by local companies for Rs 66 billion. Geo TV has also purchased the rights from them. The IPL franchise will get Rs 58.750 billion from the income of televising rights while the organisers have announced a staggering sum of Rs 6.910 billion on the publicity of the tournament.
Eight teams have been named after various Indian cities and these teams will get 80 per cent of the income generated through the auction of telecasting rights. According to a modest estimate, every franchise will annually earn from between Rs 450 million to Rs 500 million. These teams will hire grounds from the BCCI and will prepare them for the game.
Currently, the BCCI earns Rs 10.5 billion annually whereas the England and Wales Cricket Board earns Rs 9.5 billion and Cricket Australia generates Rs 5 billion annually. This shows that the BCCI is the wealthiest among the world boards. With income from the IPL, the BCCI will earn double its current annual income.
There are eight teams participating in the IPL. The franchise of the Bangalore Royal Challengers has been auctioned for Rs 7.150 billion. Rahul Dravid is the captain of this team while Venkatesh Prasad is its coach. Among others, the team includes Mark Boucher, Chander Paul, Jack Kallis, Misbah-ul-Haq, Ros Taylor and Nathan Bracken.
Varinder Sehwag has been named captain of the Delhi team, which has been auctioned for Rs 5.370 billion to GMR Holdings. Ferozshah Kotla Stadium in New Delhi has been refurbished at the cost of Rs 300 million. The team includes Abe de Villiers, Glenn McGrath, Pervez Maharoof, Muhammad Asif, Shoaib Malik and Daniel Vettori.
The Kings XI Punjab has been bought by Ness Wadia, and a company fronted by Preity Zinta, for Rs 4.860 billion. Yuvraj Singh has been named its captain and Tom Moody the coach. Mahela Jayawardene, Brett Lee and Simon Ketich are part of the team.
Sachin Tendulkar will captain the Mumbai team while Lal Chandar Rajput has been named its coach. The Reliance Industry of Mukesh Ambani has bought the team for Rs 7.160 billion. Prominent among its members are Sanath Jayasuriya and Shuan Pollock.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni will lead Chennai Super Kings while Kepler Wessels has been named its coach and India Cement has bought the team for Rs 5.820 billion. It includes Muttiah Muralitharan, Mathew Hayden, Stephen Fleming, Michael Hussey, Abie Morkel, Makhaya Ntini and Jacob Oram.
The Prince of Kolkata, Sourav Ganguly, has been named captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders team bought by Red Chillies Entertainment of Shahrukh Khan for Rs4.480 billion. Renowned Australian coach John Buchanan has been appointed its coach while its prominent players including Shoaib Akhter, Chris Gayle, David Hussey, Brendon McCullum, Salman Butt and Umar Gul.
Middle order batsman VVS Laxman and Robin Singh have been appointed captain and coach, respectively, of Deccan Chargers, bought by the Deccan Chronicle for Rs 6.840 billion. It includes Herschelle Gibbs, Shahid Khan Afridi, Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds, Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa.
The eighth team is Rajasthan Royals which has been bought by Emerging Media of Lalit Modi for Rs 4.280 billion. It will be captained and coached by Shane Warne. It includes Younis Khan, Kamran Akmal, Graeme Smith, Sohail Tanveer and Shane Watson.
Players have been auctioned in the IPL for the first time. Indian wicketkeeper batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been bought by Chennai for Rs 96 million while Andrew Symonds was auctioned for Rs 84 million and Jayasuriya was sold for Rs 62.4 million. Young Indian fast bowler Ishant Sharma, whose father earned a meagre Rs 6,000 per month, was auctioned for Rs 59.2 million.
This tournament is similar to the World Cup and betting is bound to take place during the IPL matches. This is the reason that an influential official of BCCI, IS Bandra, has proposed that betting should be given legal status.
As many as 75 foreign players have been auctioned for Rs 2.350 billion but five Indian players - Sachin Tendulkar, Varindar Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Yuvraj Singh - have been declared icons, therefore, they have not been auctioned and rather they will get 15 per cent more than other players.
The Bollywood stars have been named brand ambassadors for publicity of the IPL and new ads are being run on television, cinema and in newspapers to attract attention of the cricket lovers. During matches, musical shows will be arranged at all centres. In the IPL matches, the most renowned cricketers of the world will demonstrate their cricketing skills before Indian spectators. The sale of tickets for IPL matches has started and spectators will enjoy matches on Saturdays and Sundays as a picnic.
The popularity of the IPL could be gauged by the fact that several international players want to retire to join the IPL. Besides youth, the tournament will also be popular among women, children and people of all age groups. Some people are inviting friends to parties at their homes to enjoy the IPL matches while arrangements have been made to telecast matches live in various Indian parks on large screens.
The IPL matches are expected to affect the business of cinema houses because people will be enjoying cricket matches at the same times as the cinema's peak hours. Shows that start at 6 p.m. will be particularly affected. The catering industry is also expecting to get a boost because of dinner parties that will be hosted to coincide with the IPL extravaganza.
Cricket: Big hitters on a turning wicket
It isn't just the players who have been excited by cricket's newest and most lucrative tournament, the Indian Premier League.
If India's Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Australian Andrew Symonds were delighted by a talent auction that made them instant dollar millionaires, sports spread betting specialists are almost equally pleased by the prospect of the eight-team tournament from April 18 to a final on June 1.
Karl Suntay, head of trading desk and client services at Sporting Index, says: "It takes place in the last six weeks of our financial year and we hadn't budgeted for it, so it's a huge bonus for us."
It is not just a matter of happy timing and comparatively short notice. As Spreadex's cricket trader Ben Graham points out, the Twenty20 format under which the tournament is to be played is ideal for spread betting: "Unlike a test match it doesn't take all day. A lot happens in a short space of time, there are lots of possible markets and a huge amount of volatility."
James Lippitt, head of sales at Spreadfair, points to the popularity of markets based on individual player performance, calculated on the basis of wickets, catches and runs: "A player may be quoted at 27 or 28. There are big hitters capable of scoring 20 an over, so you might make your money back in a few minutes and then enjoy seeing your profits rise as that player bats on. It is a bet with a fairly limited downside and the potential for big wins on the upside, so it appeals to a lot of people."
The World Twenty20 tournament held in the autumn in South Africa was big business for the betting companies, helping cricket retain its title as the fastest growing sport for the specialist companies.
Mr Suntay reckons it now accounts for close to one fifth of Sporting Index's business, not far off three times the share it supplied before the spectacular growth-spurt stimulated by the 2005 Ashes series.
Audiences may be slightly reduced by the British rights having been bought by Setanta rather than Sky, but Mr Lippitt believes this should not make too much difference: "I think it is a real coup for Setanta...The people who bet heavily on cricket won't be put off by paying GBP 9.99 ($20) per month."
Mr Lippitt describes the tournament as "like another World Cup, but potentially even bigger for us". This is not only because it is slated to be played annually rather than once every four years.
"You've got the world's best and most exciting players, the glamorous players ... but they're mixed between the different city teams rather than in their usual national teams," he says. "If you look at the Chennai team, that has Matthew Hayden, MS Dhoni, Mike Hussey, Makhaya Ntini, Muttiah Muralitharan and Albie Morkel - a big hitter from South Africa. It'll be fascinating to see how they work as a group. You've got Shane Warne and Graeme Smith, who are known not to get on, in the Jaipur team, which will make the team chemistry interesting."
All of this helps create the uncertainty which makes life tough for traders, but can stimulate punters who see a possible killing. Mr Lippitt expects to see serious money placed on the number of sixes: "We'd normally expect to quote around 10 for a Twenty20 match, but my guess is that it will trade as much as a point and a half higher."
Sporting Index is now offering the option of player-versus-player bets on performance in a match, calculated on points awarded for runs, wickets and catches.
"Supremacy" bets on the match result can also be big winners. "You'll probably get a couple of nine or 10-wicket wins during the IPL programme, which can produce big winnings," says Mr Lippitt. Sporting Index paid out close to GBP 100,000 to one punter after India's six-wicket win over Australia in the first match of the Commonwealth Bank series final.
"You count one point per run in the winning margin, and 10 points per wicket, so India's supremacy was 60 points," explains Mr Suntay. "The spread had been 35 to 45 in Australia's favour, so our customer was around 100 points up."
At the same time more traditional forms still bring in business. Jeremy Scott, sports spokesman for IG Index, says that the current New Zealand versus England series saw a fair amount of pre-series interest, with many bets on England paceman Matthew Hoggard taking 13 or more wickets in the three matches.
Sporting Index reckon to do well out of the English County Championship, which starts on April 16, with a lot of enthusiasts for bets on first innings' leads, where potential wins and losses run into hundreds.
Special individual player markets have Mr Suntay hoping - even though his office is just down the road from the Oval - that Surrey's Mark Ramprakash is not as spectacularly successful as over the past two seasons: "It doesn't seem to matter what we do. We've been overpricing him, and the punters still haven't been able to get enough of him and have still been winning."
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
One year on, Inzamam remembers tragic Woolmer
KARACHI (AFP) - Twelve months after the death of Bob Woolmer, former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq has admitted that he will never forget the inspirational cricket coach.
"Pakistan cricket will always be indebted to Bob Woolmer for his contribution to the game," Inzamam told AFP in an interview to mark the first anniversary of the former England Test batsman's death which sent shockwaves through the sport and cast a shadow over the 2007 World Cup.
"I want to forget the tragedies of the World Cup, but I can never forget Bob. He was not only an excellent coach, but also a very good human being."
Woolmer, 58, who had also coached South Africa, was found dead in his hotel room in Jamaica on March 18, 2007, just a day after Pakistan had been sensationally knocked out of the World Cup following a shock defeat to Ireland.
The tragedy was initially treated as murder with some commentators insisting that Woolmer was killed to prevent him blowing the whistle on illegal betting, the curse of the game in Asia.
However, after the biggest manhunt in Jamaican history and following months of wild speculation, an inquest jury in October eventually returned an open verdict on Woolmer's death.
Inzamam was so shattered by the events that he quit one-day cricket in tears immediately after Pakistan's last game in the doomed Caribbean campaign.
"He was helpful to all and very accommodating. He always thought about the team and saw to it that we kept improving," added Inzamam, who also quit Test cricket in October last year.
"After the defeat to Ireland we were all depressed but Bob was trying to console everyone and was trying to convince us that it was just a bad day and things would improve for the team.
"He asked me what were my plans. I told him that my mind was not working and we would talk the following day, but that opportunity never came and we got the shocking news of his death."
Woolmer had himself ruled out any hasty decision over his own future with the team.
"I'm deeply hurt and I don't know how this is going to affect me, but I will let you know," Woolmer had told AFP in an exclusive interview following the defeat.
When his death was initially treated as murder, the Pakistan players were finger-printed and DNA-tested before Jamaican police finally announced in June that Woolmer, who suffered from diabetes, had died of natural causes.
Former international leg-spinner, and bowling coach, Mushtaq Ahmed said Woolmer was an inspiration for all those he coached.
"Bob was successful at county level where he coached Warwickshire, then lifted South Africa and was hoping to build Pakistan into a great team before he met a cruel fate," said Mushtaq.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have dedicated their indoor cricket school to their late coach, which was inaugurated by both the Pakistan and South African teams.
"Bob will be remembered in Pakistan cricket and hopefully his legacy will continue. His memory is still fresh because his contribution to Pakistan cricket was immense," said PCB chairman Nasim Ashraf.
When Woolmer joined Pakistan in June, 2004, it was a period of turmoil for the game in the country.
The defeat at the hands of arch-rivals India -- both in Tests and a one-day series -- had shaken Pakistan cricket and had led to the axing of legendary batsman Javed Miandad as coach.
Woolmer took time to settle as Pakistan levelled their tw-Test home series against Sri Lanka before Australia thrashed them 3-0.
The turning point came when Pakistan beat Ashes-winning England 2-0 on home soil in 2005 before squaring Test series in India and the West Indies, and beating Sri Lanka away.
Both Inzamam and Mushtaq said they were willing to help at Woolmer's academy in South Africa.
"I feel for his family because they are the real sufferers. Whenever they need me to coach at Bob's academy, I will be more than willing to go," said Inzamam.
"Perhaps through this we can pay back for what he did for Pakistan."
Copyright (c) 2008 AFP. All rights reserved.
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