Pepsi IPL 2013: Kolkata Knight Riders look for repeat

By Francis Saldanha
Bellevision Media Network

02 Aprtil 2013: Cricket is a religion in India and IPL is now its most revered temple where the faithful flock to. Whether you are an Indian or not, one cannot deny the fact the IPL is a success story. It’s the mother of T20 leagues and a vision for modern day cricket. T20 is the cricket for everyone. As Indians, we should be proud of it. Those who are worried for the safety of test cricket should be embarrassed of themselves because there are other forces at play here that would eventually kill the oldest format of the game. Factors like the ICC themselves with their ridiculous FTP, the BCCI’s stance on DRS, Indian pitches etc. So the IPL really shouldn’t be a cause for worry. It’s simply doing what it does best entertaining billions of fans in India and the world for the next two months with some pure T20 exciting surprises and exhilarating cricket for their respective teams.

 

 

Indian Premier League (IPL- 6) opening ceremony would see international artists including music sensation Pitbull performing along with Flying drummers, Chinese percussionists and awesome fireworks.  Further, sizzling performances from Shah Rukh Khan himself and another famous face from Bollywood, Katrina Kaif are also lined up for the event. The local theme won’t be given a miss either. It seems that Red Chillies Entertainment have arranged for a grand Rabindra theme performance of 250 artists. This grand event is scheduled to happen on April 2 at Salt Lake stadium of Kolkata, a day prior to the start of the league.

 

Global beverage giant PepsiCo has bagged the IPL title sponsorship rights for the next five years (2013-17) for Rs 396.8 crore ($71.77 million approx), almost double the original title sponsorship deal done in 2008.

 

2012 champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)

 

Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will kick off IPL 2013 by hosting Delhi Daredevils at Eden Gardens on April 3. The 76-game league will have the same format as it did in the 2012 season, with each of the nine teams playing the others home and away, before the playoffs.The top four teams at the end of the round-robin stage on May 19 will qualify for the playoffs. The Qualifier 1 will be played in Chennai between the top two teams in the league and the winner of that match will secure a place in the final, in Kolkata on May 26. The loser of the Qualifier 1 will play the winner of the Eliminator, contested between the third and fourth teams in Chennai, in Qualifier 2, and the winner of that match in Kolkata will make the final.

 

Sunrisers Hyderabad, the new IPL franchise owned by Sun TV network, will play their first game on April 5, at home against Pune Warriors. The city of the IPL winner gets to host the final of next season. CSK won in 2010 and 2011 so 2011 and 2012 finals were in Chennai. So when KKR won in 2012, it was obvious that Kolkata would host the 2013 final.

 

IPL 2013 will be played at 11 venues, the nine home venues plus Raipur and Ranchi will make debuts as IPL host cities in the 2013 edition, Raipur will act as a second home venue for Delhi Daredevils, while Ranchi will host two of Kolkata Knight Riders’ matches. Holding IPL games will help these cities to get full houses in these centers as they do not get many international matches and will help a little bit in preventing the cricket overkill at bigger venues which also hold test matches, so that the crowd interest is kept alive when we have test matches there. India must take advantage of its wide landscape and variety of venues so that crowd interest is maintained at every venue and for all formats of the game. Scheduling must also take into account local heroes. (CSK matches in Ranchi). The objective must be to get as much revenue from ticket sales, again serving two purposes, pulling crowds and making game more popular and using the money to improve the domestic cricket (Ranji) structure. Kings XI Punjab will play their last two home games in Dharamsala, while Knight Riders will travel to Ranchi for their last two home games.

 

 

The IPL governing council’s decision to exclude Sri Lankan players from matches in Chennai has been met with some disappointment and concern by the other franchises. They are disappointed at being excluded from the decision-making process, and that the decision taken did not follow precedent. Sri Lankan players are a significant part of franchises planning because of their familiarity with conditions and their availability through the tournament. This year too, various franchises recruited a few Lankan players to suit specific game-plans. Kolkata Knight Riders’ sole buy at the auction was Sachithra Senanayake, a $625,000 alternative to the West Indies spinner Sunil Narine. Pune Warriors India bid aggressively to bag Mathews and Ajantha Mendis, who, in the absence of Michael Clarke, are likely to play an important role in the team’s strategies. Thisara Perera, who once played for Super Kings, was bought by the Sunrisers, while Rajasthan Royals purchased wicket-keeper batsman Kusal Perera. Now teams will have to play Super Kings, twice winners of the IPL and of the Champions League Twenty20, at Chepauk with a tweaked game-plan and without their best side.

 

 

 

Sad to see politics in cricket, the most famous game in India is being politicized. Mixing politics with sport is insane. It is sad that sport and sportsperson who are supposedly brand ambassadors for their respective countries. This is the Heights of dirty politics played by TN politicians.

 

The short version of the game has added a lot of color to cricket itself especially after the involvement of Bollywood superstars in the event. T20 is the crowd puller and as far as I can see it will rule for the next few years until some other format comes. But for now, it is once again Indian Premier League (IPL) time and the sporting extravaganza’s sixth edition promises to be another cracker.