The first match of IPL on 18 April 2008

The most awaited IPL tournament is going to launch after a few hours. The inaugural ceremony will be taken place on 18 April. The M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore is fully prepared to celebrate the inaugural tournament between Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Kolkata Knight Riders. The match will run from 18 April to 1 June. The final will be on June 1 in Mumbai.

At 20:00 (IST) the two former captains will come to fight in the floodlight of Bangalore. Sourav Ganguly the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders and Rahul Dravid the captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore will meet each other in the home ground of Royal Challengers Bangalore.

The former India captains will walk out for the toss in a stadium plunged in darkness. Spotlights will trail them as they make their way to the middle, then finally the floodlights will come on as the home team's franchise, the Royal Challengers, take on the Kolkata Knight Riders.

I have got a nice similarity between the two teams that is both the teams have occupied the second positions form the ascending and descending way. That means the Royal Challengers Bangalore is the second highest bided team and the Kolkata Knight is second lowest bided team.

Kolkata Knight Rides Franchise Shah Rukh Khan has offered 1000 tickets for the fans to join the inaugural ceremony in Bangalore. Now it a question that which team will own the first match bangle or Bangalore? There are many storng and experienced players in the both team such as Rickey Ponting, Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum, David Hussey , Shoaib Akhtar on the other team Mark Boucher, Nathan Bracken, Dale Steyn are the strong hands.

The Kolkata Knight Riders squad for IPL

Kolkata Knight Riders is a team of Indian Premier League among the eight teams. Although Kolkata Knight Riders owners Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla Mehta and Jai Mehta acquired second lower prize by bid but they have spend more money to hire high quality batsmen and bowlers. It is an accurate decision of Shah Rukh Khan and his associate franchise.

Sourav Ganguly, the former captain of the Indian cricket team is the icon player and will lead the Kolkata franchise. Also in the team is allrounder Chris Gayle and wicket keeper batsman Brendon McCullum. The most successful captain in world cricket Ricky Ponting follows suit with a bowling attack including Shoaib Akhtar, Ishant Sharma, Umar Gul. Others include Ajit Agarkar, Murali Karthik and David Hussey.

Shahrukh, Juhi and Mehta got the franchise of the Kolkata Knight Riders for $75.09 million. It is the second lowest bid. But they did not show any hesitate to spend more money to appoint some best quality players. Here is the list of Kolkata Knight Riders squad below.

David Hussey, Ricky Ponting, Salman Butt, Akash Chopra, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohan Banerjee, Yashpal Singh, Debabrata Das, Sourav Ganguly (Captain), Tatenda Taibu, Wriddhiman Saha, Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle, Ajit Agarkar, Mohammad Hafeez, Iqbal Abdulla, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Ishant Sharma, Shoaib Akhtar, Murali Kartik, Umar Gul, Siddarth Kaul, Ranadeb Bose and Sourashish Lahiri.

Still now I do not get any list about the players who will play the inaugural match against Bangalore Royal Challengers in Bangalore on 18 April.

IPL live telecast on TV and online video streaming

Indian Sony Entertainment Television and Singapore based World Sports Group got the IPL (Indian Premier League) telecast media right on 15 January by bid. It acquired the 10 years right for US$1 billion. The dealing part is different and the BCCI will be paid US$908 million and US$108 million will be paid for the development of the IPL tournament. The inaugural IPL which is setup by BCCI and backed by ICC will be telecast live from 18 April in different media such as TV media, internet media, IPTV etc. Not only Sony and WSG but also GEO, Channel 10, Setanta Sports, TenNetwor Ten, Willow TV and Super Spots will telecast live in different continents.

Channel 10 is an Australia based television has acquired five years media telecast rights almost $15 million. Another Australia based TV Network Ten has secured five-year’s right. It will be showed in UK and Ireland. Both the TV channel will show 59 matches.

Dubai-based Arab Digital Distribution bought the rights to broadcast the IPL in the Middle East by securing a 10 year deal. Games will be broadcasted on ADD's ART Prime Sport, and will be available to viewers in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan and Libya. Terms of the deal were not released. SuperSport holds the broadcast rights in South Africa.

Willow TV, The Leader in Online Cricket, will show online live video steaming in North America. It has acquired five years right Form WSG. It has got telecast and broadcast rights of Indian Premier League. Willow TV’s exclusive rights in a five-year deal to distribute on television, radio, broadband and internet the Indian Premier League in North America (including the United States and Canada), Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean. If you visit Willow TV official website that is showing an advertisement, you will have to pay US$59 for 59 matches live video steaming to watch.

Geo Super is a first Sports pay TV channel in Pakistan. Geo Super’s offer gives the opportunities to the Pakistani people a little bit refreshment. We all know that the Sub-Continent is craze for cricket especially if it is India-Pakistan match. Viewers will have a chance to see great cricket stars besides more than 10 Pakistani players in action during these matches. Skipper of Pakistan Cricket Team Shoaib Malik, All Rounder Shahid Afridi, fast bowlers Mohammad Asif, Umar Gul, Sohail Tanvir, star batsmen Mohammad Yousaf, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Yasir Hameed and Muhammad Hafeez will represent various Indian teams during this mega event whereas inclusion of Shoaib Akhtar depends on the final decision on the hearing of his appeal.

The 45days 59 matches will be more mind blowing, BCCI is expectation it. But I think it will be difficult but timing. Most of the match times are in prime time (according to IST). For Australia and New Zealand fans it is nearly mid-nigh. For England it is morning and for American fans it is earlier down. Do you think that it will hit the heart of those fans that live in those geological locations?

Important Difference between IPL and ICL

If you find on internet you will get a lot of articles on IPL and ICL and the cause of setup behind it. Opinion vary person to person. Here I mentioned some difference between ICL and IPL.

Actual meaning	IPL= Indian Premier League	ICL= Indian Cricket League
Why does it setup	To Defeat ICL	To help the help those players who are in economical problem.
Who are benefited	BCCI	The cricket players who are in rest and low class cricketers
Who are the franchise of IPL Teams	Mukesh Ambani and Reliance Industries Limited, Dr. Vijay Mallya and UB group, Deccan Chronicle, India Cements and N Srinivasan, GMR Holdings, Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia, Karan Paul (Apeejay Surendera Group) and Mohit Burman (Dabur), Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla Mehta and Jai Mehta, Emerging Media: (Manoj Badale, Lachlan Murdoch, Suresh Chellaram). So it is using bollywood start s and top class businessmen to get popularity.	Behind ICL no franchise there but Executive Board Members The Talent Scouts The Coaches The Mentors The Players
Telecast right owner	Sony Entertainment Television	Zee Sports, Ten Sports

Intervention of IPL on Journalism

To get popularity, media always plays an important role. I astonished to read the news that IPL authority has imposed rules on reporting about the IPL during the match time form the play ground. Even on the photographer too.

Various media organizations such as the Editors' Guild of India (EGI) the Sports Journalists' Federation of India (SJFI) and the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) had objected to the terms of the IPL following which the IPL had assured the media organizations that its terms would be revised to address their concerns.

Under its revised terms and conditions for media accreditation made available on April 9, 2008, the IPL has reportedly prohibited pictures taken by newspapers or news agencies to be used online (on the internet) or syndicated.

This is not a very good sign and I think it is an invisible handing on journalism. Although IPL take over some restriction form Photo journalism but it is not sufficient enough.

Shah Ruhk Khan’s Grand offer for Kolkata Knight Riders’ Team fans

Kolkata Knight Riders’ is the tam of BCCI established and ICC backed IPL that was setup to defeat ICL. BCCI and all the license holders of IPL teams are trying to make popular the IPL. After winning the ownership of Kolkata Knight Riders’ team Indian Bollywood superstar Shah Ruhk Khan’s attention to make his team to the fans. That is why, he has declared grand offer to the fans of Kolkata Team.

Thaindian reported:

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan is going all out and will buy away match tickets for his Kolkata Knight Riders’ team fans. Knight Riders will play seven away matches in the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) starting April 18 and Shah Rukh will buy 1000 tickets each.

I think it is a very good step to achieve the hearts of fans. Now it is time to see for which kinds of fans he will offer this tickets to watch the inaugural ceremony on 18 April.

Kingfisher is the Official Airline of the DLF IPL

Most expected Indian Premier League will be held on 18 April 2008. So it is almost knocking at the door. BCCI inaugurates, ICC backed IPL has almost maintain all their associates and the others. It already distributed its franchise by bid. The license holders are some of India leading business giants. The telecast right went on Sony Entertainment Television (SET). Now, news is in media that Kingfisher Airlines becomes Official Airline of the DLF Indian Premier League.

Businessindia reported

Lalit Modi, Chairman and Commissioner, DLF Indian Premier League said, "I am very pleased to have the country’s premier 5 star airline Kingfisher Airlines join us as our Official Airline Partner. I am certain that the cricketers and officials alike will enjoy the 5 star hospitality of the airline while flying the good times across the country getting from one match to another. Their decision to extend the association beyond being umpire partners further bears testimony to the fact that the DLF Indian Premier League is here to stay and is set to carve out a distinct niche for itself in the international cricketing calendar.”

Dr. Vijay Mallya, Chairman & CEO, Kingfisher Airlines Limited said, “We are delighted to extend our partnership with the DLF Indian Premier League as the official airline partner. Our multi-year agreement with the DLF Indian Premier League is further testimony of our commitment to Indian sports. I am certain that all the players and officials of the DLF Indian Premier League will undoubtedly enjoy our hospitality and fly the good times during the forty-four days of intense competition. The DLF Indian Premier League is a highly innovative concept and the Twenty20 format will undoubtedly take cricket’s popularity to a new high. I welcome all DLF IPL guests to sit back, relax and enjoy the Kingfisher experience.”

Although it was assumed that IPL authority was in problem to maintain all the players but may be they have able to solve the problem. So there is no problem to inaugurate Twenty20 formatted IPL tournament. BCCI supported IPL will be held according to its declared time schedule and venues.