No Ganguly means no KKR: Sharukh Khan!

There were too many confusion in the KKR camp before the start of the season 2 of the IPL to be held in South Africa.

Coach John Buchanan said that he has plans to use four captains in a match--one each for toss, field setting, changing bowlers, and deciding batting order.

The current skipper Sourav Ganguly came out open and said that this plan was not discussed with him and he came to know only through media. He also said that he was not sure how his counter-parts will take it.

John replied saying that this was discussed, though not in detail, Ganguly knew that we are planning this option.

The team also did not announce the captain and the squad. It has plans to announce the squad and the captain once the team reaches South Africa.

In the mean time, to clear the air on all these confusion, the owner Sharukh Khan said the team's decision team to have multiple captains was in no way to insult or sideline Dada.

The Bollywood star did not mince words in ridiculing the concept.

"Let me tell you, there is no Kolkata Knight Riders without Dada. We love him," he said on the sidelines of a fashion show.

"We are a team and no decision is taken by one person. Twenty20 is a new format and new things are being tried. Too much has been said, we are not having four captains in one match. It's going to be one captain in one match," he said.

"But in case something goes wrong, we need to have a back-up," he added.

The plan was to field three others as captain along with Ganguly--Brendon McCullum of NZ, Chris Gayle of WI and Laxmi Ratan Shukla of KKR.

End ICL, Take a Franchisee in IPL: BCCI to Subash Chandra

The ICL (Indian Cricket League) cleared the air on the rumours on its future saying that league has not gone bankrupt. It will continue as scheduled.

They agreed on releasing few players to play for their countries, and also confident that the countries will release them to play in ICL after their national duty is over.

"There is no question of being bankrupt. We are committed to holding the ICL," ICL business head Himanshu Mody said in a statement.

He also came out openly on the BCCI's offer to take up a franchisee in IPL rather than continuing the ICL.

"The BCCI has been offering a peace deal to ICL promoter Subhash Chandra asking him to take up a franchise in return for winding up the league, but this is unacceptable to the Zee boss," Mody was quoted as saying.

He furhter said, "We are awaiting the decision on our application to the ICC on giving those playing in the league an official status. If a resolution does not come through at the next ICC Executive Board meeting, we will pursue legal options. Our stated position is that we will take ICC to court in the UK citing precedents--Tony Grieg vs Doug Insole (England) and Kapil Dev and other players vs BCCI in Indian courts."

To a question on releasing the players from ICL, he said, "Yes, we have told some of these players that they can play for their respective countries. We will give them temporary suspension letters for the same. You have to understand that they are far more valuable to us if they continue to represent their countries as well. In any case, one way or the other, the ICC has to take a stand on their status. ICL is keen that these players are allowed to do national duty and then return to play in the ICL. We have no problem with that."

"People are spreading canards about the ICL going belly up and that due to this we are releasing players. This is all nonsense. Yes, we cancelled one event due to 26/11 but that doesn't mean the ICL is defunct. We are looking at two tournaments in October-November, a league in 8-9 cities on the round-robin format followed by the World Series," he said.

I think we should give due credit to ICL without which we wouldn't be enjoying the IPL. Though IPL is much more famous and has lot of moeny than the private ICL, if ICL did not happen, I think there is no IPL as well.

Ganguly Knows about Captaincy - Buchanan

Reacting to the interview by Ganguly about the "four captains" theory, Kolkata Knight Riders coach John Buchanan has come out open and said that Ganguly is aware of the theory.

Earlier, Ganguly said that he was not informed about the plan to have four captains per match--the new idea from Buchanan.

I was not consulted: Ganguly

"I had discussed in detail with Sourav about his future role in the team after the last IPL season. It was not new to him at all," Buchanan was quoted as saying by a Bengali daily on Friday.

Buchanan said, "At least I can say that we had discussed the necessity for creating new leadership".

The former Australian coach said, "SRK has given me complete freedom". He said the whole controversy was a media creation.

IPL Schedule

PIL filed against moving of IPL out of India!

A public interest litigation has been filed in Rajasthan High Court against the move of IPL to South Africa. Due to security concerns during the general elections, the Government of India said that it will not be able to provide para-military forces and will not be able to provide adequate security to the event.

So, the IPL committee decided to move it out of India and had England and South Africa as alternate venues. Couple of revised schedules provided by IPL did not get the government's nod. So, consdering the continuity and the impact on commercials, IPL decided to move out of India. After Lalit Modi's visit to both the countries, IPL decided to conduct the event in South Africa starting April 18.

The petition was filed by the Rameshwar Nirvan, President of the All India Karate Federation. The petitioner claims that moving the event would create huge loss for the nation and also for the cricket fans.

The nation cannot come to a stand-still during general elections. He also said that this shows the incompetency of the government in handling terror threats. He demanded that IPL matches should be held in India and central government should be directed to arrange and provide necessary security including para-military forces, if required.

The matter will be heard on Monday.

Terror Attack in Pakistan! Sri Lankan Team Attacked!

March 3, 2009: Sri Lankan team was attacked by terrorists in Pakistan. This was similar to the 26/11 attack in Mumbai where two hotels and a residence were held by the terrorist.

Sri Lanka toured Pakistan for a two-test and 3-ODI series. Sri Lanka won the ODI series 2-1 with first ODI won by Pakistan and the remaining two matches by Sri Lanka.

The first test played in Karachi was drawn and the second test scheduled in Lahore. Sri Lanka scored 606 in the first innings and Pakistan were 110 for 1 at the end of day 2. The Sri Lankan team was travelling in the bus from the hotel to the ground to start day 3.

Due to the terror threat, the route from the hotel to the ground was changed everyday. The Pakistan team started 10 minutes later in the same route to the Gaddafi stadium.

When the sri Lankan team was on the way to the ground, their bus was attacked by 12 armed terrorists near Liberty market, Habibur Rehman, chief commissioner of police, said. A grenade was also thrown at the bus but it missed.

"The bus came under attack as we were driving to the stadium, the gunmen targeted the wheels of the bus first and then the bus," Mahela Jayawardene said. "We all dived to the floor to take cover. About five players have been injured and also Paul Farbrace [a member of the support staff]…"

The tour was immediately called-off and the team has decided to go back to Sri Lanka.