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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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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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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Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said he was pleased with the improvements his team had made during the IPL following their defeat in the final to Rajasthan Royals.

Royals won the inaugural final of the competition by three wickets on the last ball of the game, and despite defeat Dhoni said he was proud of what his side had achieved.

“I think the standard of our cricket was really good and it improved as the tournament progressed,” he said.

“In the final I think we were up to the mark. We lost as a team, the whole team took the responsibility; there were a few errors in batting, a few in fielding and a few in bowling so we are not really unhappy about it. That’s part and parcel of cricket. It went up to the last ball and we lost. We will not get bogged down by it. We will go back to the hotel and enjoy it because that’s what it’s all about.

“We had belief in each other. I am very happy with the improvement. If you see the way we played in the first game and compare it with the last game I am very happy with the performance of the team.”
Source: Joseph Caron/Setanta Sports

Mahendra Singh Dhoni may have lost the Indian Premier League final but every run he scored in the 44-day tournament was worth nearly Rs 1.5 lakh.
The Chennai Super Kings captain attracted the highest bid in the landmark IPL auction in February when the Chennai franchise owners shelled out a whopping Rs six crore for the Indian ODI and Twenty20 captain.

Dhoni tallied 414 runs at an average of 41.40 in 14 innings and each run that flowed from his blade was worth Rs 1,44,927.
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3 - Number of maiden overs bowled by Manpreet Gony, making him the only bowler to send down 3 maiden overs in the IPL. In 15 matches, his overall figures reads as: 56-3-413-16 with economy rate of 7.37. Only Punjab’s Irfan Pathan and Delhi’s Glenn McGrath have two maiden overs each to their credit.

21 - Number of sixes conceded by Piyush Chawla in 15 matches, making him the highest six conceded bowler in the IPL. As a result, his economy rate is as high as 8.30 runs per over.

47- Number of deliveries required by Parthiv Patel to reach his fifty, making the slowest player, in terms of balls faced, to reach 50-run mark. He hit 8 fours on the way to fifty and then remained unbeaten on 51.

616 - Number of runs scored by Shaun Marsh in 11 matches, becoming the first and only player to muster more than 600 runs in the IPL. He enjoys a healthy average of 68.44 and strike rate of 139.68. He has hit 59 fours and 26 sixes.
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The Rajasthan Royals suffered a blow ahead of the Indian Premier League finals tomorrow with South African batsman and opener Graeme Smith ruled out of the match due to a hamstring injury.
“Unfortunately, he (Smith) is out for tomorrow’s game. We have to make the big decision to make on who will open the innings with Swapnil (Asnodkar),” Rajasthan Royals captain Shane Warne said today at an event organised by Advanced Hair Studio, of which he is a brand ambassador.

“Yunus Khan and Kamran Akmal come to my mind as being likely to open in the finals,” Warne said.
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KARACHI: Pakistan’s star all rounder Shahid Khan Afridi returned home from India on Thursday morning after playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Afridi represented Deccan Chargers in the eight-team competition where his team failed to qualify for the semi-finals. Talking to Daily Times here, Afridi said he was disappointed with his batting performance in the IPL. “This version of cricket suits my aggressive style of batting. But I took pressure in the league. I wanted to give my best in this shorter version but unfortunately I failed.” Afridi lamented that his non-performance with the bat was one of the reasons for Deccan Chargers languishing at the bottom of the table.
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After winning the battle of wooden spoon with a five-wicket victory over Deccan Chargers Sunday, Bangalore Royal Challengers captain Rahul Dravid said a captain was as good as his side and the team management will have to ponder how to make an impact in the next edition.

“A string of early losses put paid to our hopes. But these are part and parcel of cricket. If you don’t reach the semifinals then you naturally will have to improve. All those involved will have to think over what to do next (in next edition),” Dravid said at the post-match press conference here.
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Australian stars Shane Warne and Shane Watson may leave the Indian Premier League after an estimated 80 people were killed in terrorist bombings in Jaipur on Tuesday night.

Rajasthan Royals teammates Warne, Watson and Graeme Smith and team manager Darren Berry are refusing to return to Jaipur – the team’s home city – and are considering leaving the country altogether.

Eight bombs were set of simultaneously during peak-hour among crowded markets, leaving about 80 dead and 200 injured.
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