IPL or ICL (Indian Controversial League)

It’s ironical, but Lalit Modi’s Indian Premier League (IPL) dream was given a huge filip by the early launch of the ‘rebel’ ICL (Indian Cricket League). However, as IPL became much bigger than ICL, BCCI’s T20 tournament was sarcastically dubbed as ICL — Indian Controversial League. A front-page article published in the Indian Express dubbed it as another version of IPL — Indian Parivar League. The reason: Right from the beginning, IPL was steeped in numerous controversies, allegations, ungentlemanly incidents, rumours, and charges. The first of them was that Modi and BCCI had turned the new cricket league into some sort of a ‘family affair’.

This seemed especially true of Rajasthan Royals, which won the league in its first season.

One of the co-promoters of Emerging Media, which owned the Jaipur team, was Suresh Chellaram, who happened to be Modi’s brother-in-law. This was enough for tongues to start wagging: How could anyone claim that the bidding process for the franchisees was transparent if a close relative gets to own a team that won the finals? And shouldn’t there have been a clause like in any other bids, which states that ‘related persons will not be allowed to take part in the auction process?’

Before we get into the answers to these questions, it is important to trace a brief history of the Chellarams since not much is known about the family in India.

The Chellaram family started its business in Nigeria in 1923, comprising trading in consumer goods. Chellarams Plc, the parent firm, was incorporated in 1947 and listed on the Nigerian stock exchange in 1978. According to its 2006 annual report, the company’s turnover was just over Naira 8 billion, and the figure for the group was nearly Naira 9 billion. The gross profit for the same year was Naira 1.23 billion and Naira 1.32 billion respectively. Suresh Chellaram, a British citizen, was listed as the firm’s MD.

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IPL-2 may rake in Rs 800 cr for all core, fringe hopefuls

NEW DELHI: India’s newest multinational, with projected revenues of Rs 800 crore in just five weeks, is all set to take wing in Cape Town on Saturday. Welcome to Lalit Modi’s India Premier League, Stage II, the Great Redeemer in these tough times, if you ask the entertainment, advertising and tourism industry. 

And, if you believe Peter Roebuck, the famous Australian cricket columnist, “everyone except Elvis has been slated to appear at the opening”. And, some think he has half-a-chance of turning up, he wrote in Brisbane Times. 

Even before the first match, between Sachin Tendulkar’s Mumbai Indians and MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings, Multi Screen Media (MSM, previously Sony Entertainment TV), which plans to rake in close to Rs 400 crore, claims to have sold 85% of advertising space.

The franchisee teams put together may earn Rs 250 crore from sponsorship deals. The travel-tourism and restaurant sectors stand to gain revenues of Rs 50 crore each. India’s Rs 300-crore restaurant and pub industry, struggling with sagging sales, is hoping that IPL will bring it the much-needed respite. 

“We expect a 30-40% increase in footfall and revenues during the IPL season,” says Rohan Jaitley of Bistro Hospitality that runs Thank God It’s Friday (TGIF) pubs in India and has partnered with Adidas, which is designing its pubs across India and offering discounts and vouchers around the IPL. 

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Robert Key: ‘The IPL can only make us better’

As the Indian Premier League begins, Twenty20 maestro Robert Key tells Will Hawkes that – behind the glitz – this contest might just help England win back the Ashes

When the Indian Premier League first emerged blinking into the light some 12 months ago, a loud chorus of harrumphing went up in the shires. Wouldn’t this event, naysayers asked, interfere with the county cricket season? What if players chose the IPL over Test matches? Wasn’t Twenty20 going to destroy all that we loved about the summer game?

Such protests have since been quietened, as much by the success of the tournament as anything. The second season of the IPL, which gets under way today, may be taking place in its temporary home of South Africa but the event itself has a greater feeling of permanence.

English players, noticeable by their absence in 2008, are this year part of the jamboree: Kevin Pietersen will captain the Bangalore Royal Challengers, who face the Rajasthan Royals today, while Andrew Flintoff’s Chennai Super Kings, whose roster includes the remarkably named Napoleon Einstein, take on the Mumbai Indians in the first game of the tournament. Other English players, including Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah, are also expected to feature.

One man who thinks this can only be good news for English cricket is Robert Key, regarded as one of England’s finest Twenty20 minds: he led Kent to the Twenty20 Cup in 2007 and then to the final again last year. He argues that if England are to have any chance of success in June’s World Twenty20, then the country’s top players must get more practice in the shortest form of the game – and where better than the IPL?

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Watch the Cricket IPL Tourney Online Via Silverlight

After Microsoft’s Silverlight multimedia technology was unceremoniously dropped by Major League Baseball’s MLB.com in favor of Adobe Flash, Microsoft is coming back with a different sport involving a ball and a bat. Silverlight will power online streaming of the Indian Premier League Championships, an ultra short-form cricket tourney that debuted last year, to much fanfare. This year’s tournament is being held in South Africa.

This new form of cricket game is called Twenty20 and involves two clubs consisting of 11 players competing against each other. The pitching side gets to throw 20 overs (six pitches constitute an over). As a result, a typical game lasts about two-and-a-half hours. The new series, which pays cricket players hundreds of thousands of dollars for a month’s worth of  work, combines colorful uniforms, cheerleaders and jock jams for a TV-friendly showing.

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