As concerns grow over the Indian Premier League, Australian legend Shane Warne last night became the latest and greatest player to abandon his county commitments because of the 20-over boom.

Warne, who was expected to captain Hampshire in the second part of the season, announced that he would not be returning to the club because of “exciting business opportunities” and confirmed his retirement from the first-class game.

The news will fuel fears that cricket’s centre of gravity is shifting to the east, especially as five New Zealand players also announced yesterday that they will be missing their team’s first two warm-up games in England in order to play in the IPL.

Warne, 38, has taken on a major role at the Rajasthan Royals, the IPL franchise owned by the London-based businessman Manoj Badale. He will captain and coach the team, while also acting as an “ambassador” for the IPL concept.

A late convert to 20-over cricket, Warne always made a point of skipping the English Twenty20 Cup. But he has committed himself to the IPL programme, which runs from April 18 to June 1. His enthusiasm can be judged by the fact that he is flying from Melbourne to Jaipur and back again for the Rajasthan Royals’ launch today.

Warne has various commitments this summer, including a poker tournament in Las Vegas in June. He would only have been available to Hampshire for a couple of months at the end of the season, and this was felt to be unacceptable for a county captain.

Hampshire chairman Rod Bransgrove emphasised that the split was amicable. “It’s not just about the IPL,” he told the BBC. “I think the cumulative effect of his business commitments, poker tournaments, TV appearances and so on meant that another two months away from home would have been more than he could reasonably bear. We also had to think about how much we could squeeze our season to accommodate one player, however great he is.”

The Hampshire captaincy now passes from Warne to Dimitri Mascarenhas, the big-hitting allrounder who has also signed for the Royals. The difference is that Mascarenhas - so far the only English player to join the IPL - has restricted his involvement to the fortnight between May 12 and May 26. He will miss just one county championship match.

India’s 20-over explosion has already had a disruptive effect on several counties’ plans for the coming season, though the other cases involve the rebel Indian Cricket League.

The South Africans Justin Kemp, Andrew Hall and Johannes van der Wath were among five ICL players denied registration last week by the England and Wales Cricket Board.

28/03/2008 12:39am GMT

Source: telegraph

KOLKATA: Bengal Cricket Lover’s Forum on Monday filed a case against Sharukh Khan’s ‘Red Chillies Entertainment’, CAB and the BCCI at the City Civil Court claiming that they are entitled to free tickets for the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches to be held in Kolkata.

According to Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) rules, life, annual and associate members are entitled to watch all matches at Eden Gardens free of cost except for charity games, petitioners’ lawyer Ajay Sanyal claimed. The forum has been floated by nearly 6,000 of the total 31,000 members of CAB, sources said.Claiming that the rights and privileges of all the CAB members are being infringed by asking them to pay for viewing the IPL cricket matches to be held here from April, Sanyal told PTI that the Forum has filed the prayer before the court seeking restoration of the members’ rights.Apart from Red Chillies, CAB, its President Prasun Mukherjee and BCCI have been made parties in the case filed by the forum.

Finally New Zealand Cricket Association has announced a May 1 deadline for its Indian Premier League players to arrive on the upcoming tour to England.

The five IPL players – Team Captain Daniel Vettori, Jacob Oram, Brendon McCullum, Kyle Mills and Ross Taylor are required to report in England the day before the third tour match against Essex at Chelmsford.They will also play a four-day match against the England Lions, a national ‘A’ side, in Southampton from May 8-11 before the first Test starts at Lord’s on May 15.

The decision means that IPL players will miss two warm-up matches against the MCC on April 27, which will be captained by former all-rounder Chris Cairns, and a three-day match against Kent from April 28-30.

New Zealand Cricket CEO Justin Vaughan believed the outcome was a fair and reasonable one given the players’ duty to their country and praised them for their ‘loyalty and commitment’ to the team.

Vaughan said, “I have met with individual players, the coach, the Black Caps team as a whole and the New Zealand Cricket Players Association (NZCPA) to discuss the arrival options for the IPL players and have reached a decision which I believe is fair and is also consistent with the best cricketing outcome,”.

“The 1 May deadline date will give the players time to acclimatise to playing in English conditions as they will be available for two First Class matches, prior to the Test series beginning. The England and Wales Cricket Board has also been consulted and is happy with the decision”.

The IPL has the ability to retain players in the international game and has our full support. The global cricket landscape is changing rapidly and we must be flexible enough to change with it, while protecting the integrity of the international game”.

“I am very happy with the attitude shown by the affected players. They have shown loyalty and commitment to the Black Caps and were willing to abide by whatever decision NZC reached.”

Heath Mills, executive manager of the NZCPA was also praised the decision, saying: “This is a good pragmatic decision by New Zealand Cricket in a changing cricketing landscape.”

It is important that the Black Caps have good preparation opportunities prior to international series and the ability to participate in two First Class matches prior to the first Test certainly provides this opportunity to these players. The decision has our full support.”

The final squad for New Zealand team for the England tour is expected to be named in early April. 

27/03/2008 2:19:01 PM

Source: Sportal