Cricket Australia is investigating ways of following in India’s footsteps and cashing in on the Twenty20 phenomenon, looking into a possible IPL-style domestic tournament with an international flavour.

The super-rich Indian Premier League has grabbed world cricket’s attention by recruiting the game’s best players for the 44-day tournament, with income coming primarily from lucrative television deals.
Read the rest of this entry »

It was no surprise that Adam Gilchrist came up with the fastest century so far in the DLF Indian Premier League, and the third fastest in the Twenty20 format. He had just seen teammate Andrew Symonds smash an incredibly quick one just a few days earlier, and he must have been itching to get his name on that exclusive list. That ton put paid to the Mumbai Indians’ hopes of reviving their fortunes in front of a capacity crowd.
Read the rest of this entry »

Controversial Australian batsman Andrew Symonds,who has beenbrought by Deccan Chargers at a whopping price of $1.35 million, the highest after Mahendra Singh Dhoni, is all set to make peace with Indian crowd and his ‘foe’ Harbhajan Singh in the forthcoming DLF-IPL Twenty20 tournament.

Symonds,who arrived Friday night, said he would be his normal self with Harbhajan with whom he had a troubled relationship during the recent India-Australia series.
Read the rest of this entry »

Fringe Australian player Luke Pomersbach says he is willing to play in the lucrative Indian Premier League for free to compete with the world’s leading cricketers.

Pomersbach, who made his international Twenty20 debut for Australia in Perth in December, is one of four Australian players in line to cash in on the second IPL player auction in Mumbai on Tuesday.

The eight IPL franchises have the chance to bolster their playing stocks with the Australian quartet not expected to be encumbered by national duties during the competition starting on April 18.
Read the rest of this entry »

 Most of the International Cricketers and our Indian Cricketing icons who are near to the age of retirement were thinking of career options after retirement! Some of them were seriously thinking of endorsing, into business, related to media and advertising and some even started acting in films, which are some or the other way related to cricket in India!

But that is not the peaceful and relaxing life, they can have it now!!! As it always recently reflected, Indians started showing their originality and self respect in developing new ideas and innovative thinking! Someone in the BCCI and other related cricketing and business minds had sudden whirlpool of a certain idea which developed into, three short and cute names, that is IPL! That is the birth of Indian Premier League!

Read the rest of this entry »

ANDREW Symonds fetched $1.47 million in the IPL bidding frenzy, but his commitment to Australian cricket means he will sacrifice almost $1 million of that as our elite cricketers prepare for a two-week cameo in the Indian Twenty20 extravaganza.

Test stars Symonds, Brett Lee, Ricky Ponting, Michael Hussey and Matthew Hayden will surrender $2.46 million collectively by agreeing to play only bit parts in the IPL before embarking on the West Indies tour.
Read the rest of this entry »

Adam Gilchrist may have felt like ‘a cow’ after being auctioned at the cash-rich Indian Premier League, but the just-retired Australian wicketkeeper-batsman says he does not mind being part of the ‘unique and interesting’ venture.
“There was a little element of feeling like a cow. But it’s interesting and unique. There is a slight uneasiness.
But let us allow it to settle down,” Gilchrist said at the ‘India Today’ conclave on Saturday.
Gilchrist, who was bought by the Hyderabad franchise of IPL, said playing for an unfamiliar team was not an issue with him as he had switched sides in domestic cricket in Australia.
Read the rest of this entry »