MUMBAI: The first season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is over. Moves are already afoot to garner fresh talent for the second season. Emerging Media, which owns the IPL’s Jaipur franchise, is scouring new team members from children of railway station porters, chemists and garage mechanics.

Not resting on its laurels, the IPL winner is to flag off its Cricket Star talent hunt. The search will visit eight cities within a span of 45 days. The winner gets to play in the third season, in 2010.

The winner of the inaugural edition of Cricket Star last year, Sukhvir Singh, is a 20-year-old fast bowler son of a bus driver from a Punjab village . He was sponsored for training at the Leicestershire County Cricket Club.

Runnerup Dinesh Salunkhe, 21-yearold leg spinner got to play in the just concluded IPL. For the second season, and this year’s winner of the talent hunt, Srideep Mangela is a 20-yearold left-hand batsman, from Thane, Mumbai. He gets to play in 2009. Former India cricket coach Greg Chappell was part of the search exercise for the past two years.
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The lucrative new Twenty20 Champions League competition announced this weekend could put Australia’s state teams and the cashed-up Indian Premier League franchises on a collision course.

Finalists from Australia’s KFC Big Bash competition will join two teams from each of the domestic competitions in England, South Africa and the IPL in the $5 million whirlwind tournament scheduled for late September.

Western Australia and Victoria will represent Australia in the competition’s debut in late September.
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IPL franchises will be able to trade players early next year ahead of the 2009 season, Lalit Modi, Chairman of the hugely successful tournament disclosed today.
“There will be a transfer window open early next year just ahead of the 2009 season to enable franchises trade players and bring in the ones they require,” he told PTI in an interview.

Stating that he had been “overwhelmed” by the success of the Twenty20 competition, Modi also disclosed that certain innovations would be introduced in the tournament.
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NEW DELHI: Riding on the IPL hype, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has hiked sponsorship fees for ground sponsors to $7-8 million annually for a five-year period for the IPL’s second season. This is against the $5-5.5 million it charged for ground sponsorship rights in the first season. Sources told ET that three slots for ground sponsorship are available for the second season.

“The IPL management is in talks with players in the insurance, retail and automobile sectors, in addition to few other categories,” said a source. All slots will be sold for a five-year period.

IPL CEO Sundar Raman told ET : “Discussions are on with various companies for additional ground sponsorship slots. All deals will be struck for a five-year period.” World Sports Group president (South Asia) Venu Nair said: “Given the huge interest IPL has generated, a whole lot of companies have evinced interest in associating with the league.
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In a conscious effort to ensure that the proposed Pakistan Premier League (PPL) does not look like a carbon copy of the hugely successful IPL, the cricket board in Karachi is toying with ideas like allowing five foreigners in the playing XI of a participating team.

“We want the PPL to be a bit different from the Indian Premier League. We want the PPL to be distinguished by itself. We plan to announce our concept and plans during or after the Asia Cup,” Shafqat Naghmi, the PCB chief operating officer, told the ‘Samaa’ television channel on Friday.
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Mumbai: Twenty a day! That is how many Rs 100 fake Indian Premier League (IPL) jerseys street vendor Amit Pandey is selling in Mumbai’s Fashion Street, even though the tournament has ended.

Strangely, it is not the local team Mumbai Indians or the champions Rajasthan Royals whose jerseys are topping his sales charts. It is Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders gold and black that seems to have struck err… gold.
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DUBAI/ISLAMABAD: Pakistani cricketer Mohammad Asif, held in Dubai on drug possession charges on his way home after playing in the Indian Premier League, will get to know whether he can leave for Pakistan only after the results of the laboratory tests on the substance found on him come in.

“We are awaiting the results of the laboratory tests on the substance found on him,” Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates Ahsan Ullah Khan said.
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KOLKATA: After witnessing a near 4% dip in sales in the first quarter (January-March) of 2008, TV sales have yet again gained momentum during April-May.

The industry saw TV sales growing by 35% during the period, courtesy the unbridled cricket mania.

The surge in demand comes at a time when TV sales normally remain flat. What’s more, manufacturers have seen robust demand from not just the metros but also rural markets. The industry feels the IPL-led TV sales will form a large chunk to meet the industry’s sales target of 12.5 million this year.
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For a man who has over 1,000 international wickets in his kitty, a mediocre IPL is hardly something to be worried about. Muttiah Muralitharan’s wicket-taking spree might have diminished in the tournament, but what really defines the man is his competitive outlook towards each game and, of course, the smile at the end of every delivery.

His eight wickets in the competition have come at an unusual 43.92, but something the stats won’t reveal is that his bowling, especially in the post-powerplay, has been difficult to get away with.
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From reigning queens to poor country cousins and back again. This appears to be the fate of the saas-bahu soaps, thanks to IPL. With the cricket fever now coming down, the mainstay of television viewers is back in action.

Polls suggest that popular serials that attracted above average TRPs had to bite the dust for the past 44 days. But with the IPL over, viewer loyalty is back.

For instance, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi , that had a TRP of 4.4 during IPL, bounced back to 5.4 on Monday, a day after the cricket final.
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