IPL bandwagon returns amid corruption slur

April 15, 2014

Abu Dhabi, Apr 15: Fighting for credibility after being left devastated by a spot-fixing scandal, the glamorous but controversial Indian Premier League will roll out its seventh edition here from tomorrow with the promise of putting cricket first while keeping the drama and glitz to a bare minimum.

IPL_bandwagonDefending champions Mumbai Indians, captained by Rohit Sharma, will square off against 2012 winners Kolkata Knight Riders, led by veteran opener Gautam Gambhir, in the event-opener at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium here.

The UAE is hosting the high-profile T20 event's first leg from April 16 to 30 owing to a clash of dates with the Indian general elections and security concerns emanating from that.

The tournament will return to India on May 2 after being assured of security in states where voting would be over by that time.

The razzmatazz, which has made IPL a magnet for both the fans and the cricketers world over, is not expected to just vanish because of the unsavoury scandal but the organisers have promised to tone down the glamour bit.

To start with, there would not be any opening ceremony this year, replaced by a gala dinner for the teams where Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, co-owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders franchise, is one among the stars who is expected to perform.

But when the curtains go up on perhaps the most popular domestic cricket tournament in the world, focus will also be on the off-field matters in the backdrop of the ongoing Supreme Court monitored investigation into the betting scandal in which some big names of the league have been implicated.

For one, BCCI President N Srinivasan and Chennai Super Kings co-owner N Srinivasan has been forced to step aside and the event's COO Sundar Raman is also under the scanner.Its reputation might have taken a beating but what is likely to remain unchanged is the fans' adulation for the IPL.

Even though UAE is foreign land, finding a fan-base for the tournament has not been much of an issue due to the huge expat population which has shown its support to the event by buyingbuying off tickets within a few days of them going on sale.

But questions have been raised about the choice of UAE as a venue to host the event given its history of being a hot-bed of match-fixers. The IPL organisers have tried to justify it by saying that the decision was based purely on logistical grounds.

The negative buzz at the start of the tournament notwithstanding, cricket will take centrestage when the matches start and focus would be on the multi-million dollar buys who would be aiming to justify their fat pay cheques.

Among them would be Indian all-rounder Yuvraj Singh, the costliest buy of this year's auction who coped a massive fan backlash after his flop show in the recent World T20 final.

Bought for Rs 14 crore by the Royal Challengers Bangalore, Yuvraj would be under pressure to prove his worth in the backdrop of the World T20 debacle.

Also, England swashbuckler Kevin Pietersen, bought for Rs nine crore by the Delhi Daredevils, would be aiming for a fresh start after his national career was abruptly cut short when the ECB decided to dump him for issues other then just cricket.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik would also be watched closely after Delhi splurged more than Rs 12 crore to hire his services.

Not to forget the domestic players, who would be aiming to come into national reckoning riding on good IPL performances.

The IPL has been nothing short of a boon for them given the quick buck they stand to make besides gaining popularity with just a couple of rocking knocks or magical spells.

The tournament, which will culminate with the summit clash on June 1 in Mumbai, offers a mind-boggling prize cheque of Rs 10 crore to the winning team out of a total purse of Rs 30 crore.

In tomorrow's high-profile clash, which seems perfect to kick off the tournament, Mumbai, despite being the defending champions, are slight favourites even though the impressive balance that KKR seems to have attained after some smart buys in the players' auction.

KKR, which retained just two players from last season's team (Gambhir and spinner Sunil Narine), seems quite solid with the inclusion of some value players such as Australian express bowler Pat Cummins and Indian pacer Umesh Yadav.

Fitness-permitting, both of them can make a huge difference to the side' fortunes even though the batting would continue to rely heavily on Gambhir, veteran Jacques Kallis and the off-colour Yousuf Pathan.

Mumbai more or less retained the squad that won the trophy last year but strengthened the team by bringing in Australian veteran Michael Hussey, who has previously only played for the Chennai Super Kings.

The other teams in fray also seem to finally settling into a mould after trying and testing of the past seasons. Besides Delhi, Kings XI Punjab also looks solid this time after floundering in the seasons gone by.

They have roped in the likes of Virender Sehwag, Cheteshwar Pujara and Australian pacer Mitchell Johnson to bolster the line-up.

The Rajasthan Royals have stayed true to their stance of putting faith in enterprising players, with a few big names such as Shane Watson thrown in.

Cricket aside, focus would also be on numerous anti-corruption measures which the IPL Governing Council has unveiled to keep the tournament clean and controversy-free.

One such important step was to rope in the ICC's help to thwart any unsavoury element coming close to the franchises or the players. The league previously had an internal mechanism in place which came under severe criticism from several former players and observers of the game.

Given the drama it generates both on and off the field, fans would surely be hooked on for the nearly two-month event but the organisers would desperately hope that the spectre of corruption stays far away from it to restore some of the lost credibility.

The Teams:

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (c), Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard, Harbhajan Singh, Ambati Rayudu, Michael Hussey, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha, Corey Anderson, Josh Hazlewood, CM Gautam, Aditya Tare, Apoorv Wankhade, Marchant de Lange, Krishmar Santokie, Ben Dunk, Pawan Suyal, Sushant Marathe, Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Gopal, Jalaj Saxena.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (c), Sunil Narine, Jacques Kallis, Robin Uthappa, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Morne Morkel, Piyush Chawla, Manish Pandey, Veer Pratap Singh, Chris Lynn, Andre Russell, SS Mandal, Pat Cummins, Debabrata Das, Suryakumar Yadav, Manvinder Bisla, Ryan ten Doeschate, Kuldeep Yadav.

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni (c), Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith, Ashish Nehra, Mohit Sharma, Samuel Badree, Ben Hilfenhaus, Matt Henry, B Aparajith, Mithun Manhas, Ishwar Pandey, Pawan Negi, Vijay Shankar, Ronit More, John Hastings.

Delhi Daredevils: Kevin Pietersen (C), M Vijay, Dinesh Karthik, JP Duminy, Manoj Tiwary, Quinton de Kock, Mohammed Shami, Rahul Sharma, Saurabh Tiwary, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Shahbaz Nadeem, Ross Taylor, Milind Kumar, Wayne Parnell, HS Sharath, Jayant Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, James Neesham, Kedar Jadhav, Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Shukla, Siddharth Kaul.

Kings XI Punjab: George Bailey (c), David Miller, Manan Vohra, Virender Sehwag, Mitchell Johnson, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shaun Marsh, Wriddhaman Saha, Thisara Perera, Glenn Maxwell, Rishi Dhawan, Anureet Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Akshar Patel, Beuran Hendricks, Karanveer Singh, Murali Kartik, Shivam Sharma, Shardul Thakur, L Balaji, Parvinder Awana, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Mandeep Singh.

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Watson (c), Ajinkya Rahane, James Faulkner, Stuart Binny, Sanju Samson, Brad Hodge, Steven Smith, Abhishek Nayar, Ben Cutting, Kane Richardson, Tim Southee, Unmukt Chand, Ankush Bains, Vikramjeet Malik, Rahul Tewatia, Ankit Sharma, Amit Mishra, Deepak Hooda, Rajat Bhatia, Kevon Cooper, Iqbal Abdulla, Dhawal Kulkarni, Pravin Tambe, Karun Nair, Dishant Yagnik.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (c), Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Yuvraj Singh, Parthiv Patel, Albie Morkel, Mitchell Starc, Ashok Dinda, Ravi Rampaul, Muttiah Muralitharan, Nic Maddinson, Varun Aaron, Vijay, Sachin Rana, Yogesh Takawale, Abu Nechim Ahmed, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shadab Jakati, Sandeep Warrier, Harshal Patel, Tanmay Mishra.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Shikhar Dhawan (c), Dale Steyn, David Warner, Darren Sammy, Amit Mishra, Aaron Finch, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Brendan Taylor, Moises Henriques, Venugopala Rao, Jason Holder, S Aniruddha, Manprit Juneja, KL Rahul, Amit Paunikar, Naman Ojha, Ricky Bhui, Ashish Reddy, Chama Milind, Parveez Rasool, Prashanth Parameshwaran, Karn Sharma.

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News Network
April 8,2020

London, Apr 8: England wicketkeeper Jos Buttler has raised more than 65,000 pound (USD 80,000) to help fight the coronavirus by auctioning off his World Cup final shirt.

Buttler's shirt, which he wore when completing the last-ball run-out that saw England beat New Zealand at Lord's last year, was sold to raise money for specialist heart and lung centres provided by the Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals in London.

Buttler, who earlier in the showpiece match had hit a fifty and batted in the Super Over, put his long-sleeve keeping jersey up for sale on eBay a week ago.

By the time the auction closed on Tuesday, the shirt had attracted 82 bids with the winner paying 65,100 pound.

Buttler, speaking on Monday, said: "It's a very special shirt but I think it takes on extra meaning with it being able to hopefully go to the emergency cause.

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Agencies
July 7,2020

New Delhi, Jul 7: Wicket-keeper batsman MS Dhoni is known for his finishing heroics and ending the match with a big shot to send a billion people in a frenzy.

For over a decade, Dhoni's swashbuckling batting style, especially the famed helicopter shot, gave international bowlers a headache. As the former Indian skipper celebrates his 39th birthday today, let's relive his first century in international cricket.

It was on April 5, 2005, when Dhoni had registered his first international century. The former skipper registered the feat against Pakistan in the second ODI of the six-match series. The match was played at the Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam.

Dhoni had made his ODI debut against Bangladesh in 2004. However, he did not have a good outing as he scored just 19 runs in the three-match series. But the wicket-keeper truly arrived in the series against Pakistan in 2005, as he scored 148 runs in the second ODI of the six-match series at Visakhapatnam.

In the match, India won the toss and opted to bat first. The side lost Sachin Tendulkar's wicket in the fourth over of the innings and it brought Dhoni to the middle.

Dhoni, along with Sehwag, took on the Pakistan bowlers and the duo formed a 96-run stand, which saw Sehwag going past the 50-run mark. Sehwag (74) was sent back to the pavilion in the 14th over, but Dhoni then found support in Rahul Dravid and the duo stitched a 149-run stand.

Dhoni smashed 15 fours and four sixes in his innings and scored 148 runs from 123 balls, taking India's total to 356/9 in the allotted fifty overs.

India then managed to defend the total as the side bundled out Pakistan for 298 as Ashish Nehra scalped four wickets.

Dhoni has so far played 350 ODIs with his highest score being 183 against Sri Lanka. He also remains the only captain to win all major ICC trophies (50-over World Cup, T20 World Cup, and Champions Trophy).

Also referred to as 'Captain Cool', Dhoni is known for his calmness and exquisite captaincy on the field.

Over the years, he has cemented his place as one of the finest wicket-keepers across the world. His agility behind the stumps has given India many breakthroughs as the Ranchi-based wicket-keeper has done successful stumpings in no time.

He is also known for his knack of opting for reviews and many have jokingly remarked to change the 'Decision-Review System's' name to 'Dhoni-Review System'.

In December 2014, he announced his retirement from Tests and gave a chance to the likes of Wriddhiman Saha. Dhoni called time on his Test career after playing 90 Tests, managing to score 4,876 runs at an average of 38.09.

Then in 2017, he handed over the captaincy to Virat Kohli in the 50-over format. However, the wicket-keeper enjoys a great camaraderie with the latter and the duo have been seen often taking decisions together on the field.

Under Dhoni's leadership, India also managed to attain the number one ranking in Test cricket. His Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK) has also won the tournament thrice under his leadership.

Dhoni was slated to return to the cricket field on March 29 during the IPL's opening match between CSK and Mumbai Indians. However, the tournament has been postponed indefinitely due to COVID-19 pandemic.

The 39-year-old has been currently enjoying some time away from the game. He last played competitive cricket during the 2019 World Cup. 

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News Network
January 27,2020

Los Angeles, Jan 27: Kobe Bryant, the 18-time NBA All-Star who won five championships and became one of the greatest basketball players of his generation during a 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, died in a helicopter crash Sunday. He was 41.

Bryant died in a helicopter crash near Calabasas, California, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press. A different person familiar with the case confirmed that Bryant's 13-year-old daughter Gianna also was killed.

Both spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the crash had not been released publicly. The crash happened around 10 a.m. about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer said it was a Sikorsky S-76 and it was not known what caused the crash. The LA County Sheriff's Department confirmed five dead in the crash, but had not released identities.

Bryant lived south of Los Angeles in coastal Orange County for much of his adult life, and he often used helicopters to save time and avoid Southern California's notorious traffic. Even as a player, he often traveled to practices and games by helicopter, and he kept up the practice after retirement as he attended to his business ventures.

The crash occurred several miles from Mamba Sports Academy, Bryant's basketball training complex in Thousand Oaks, California. Bryant, who had four daughters with his wife, Vanessa, dedicated himself to boosting women's sports in his retirement.

Colin Storm was in his living room in Calabasas when he heard ``what sounded like a low-flying airplane or helicopter.''

“It was very foggy so we couldn't see anything,'' he said. ``But then we heard some sputtering, and then a boom.''

A short time later the fog cleared a bit and Storm could see smoke rising from the hillside in front of his home.

Bryant retired in 2016 as the third-leading scorer in NBA history, finishing two decades with the Lakers as a prolific scorer with a sublime all-around game and a relentless competitive ethic. He held that spot in the league scoring ranks until Saturday night, when the Lakers' LeBron James passed him for third place during a game in Philadelphia, Bryant's hometown.

“Continuing to move the game forward (at)KingJames,'' Bryant wrote in his last tweet. “Much respect my brother.''

Bryant had one of the greatest careers in recent NBA history and became one of the game's most popular players as the face of the 16-time NBA champion Lakers franchise. He was the league MVP in 2008 and a two-time NBA scoring champion, and he earned 12 selections to the NBA's All-Defensive teams.

He teamed with Shaquille O'Neal in a combustible partnership to lead the Lakers to NBA titles in 2000, 2001 and 2002. He later teamed with Pau Gasol to win two more titles in 2009 and 2010.

Bryant retired in 2016 after scoring 60 points in his final NBA game.

Bryant looms large over the current generation of NBA players. After James passed Bryant on Saturday, he remembered listening to Bryant when the superstar came to speak at a childhood basketball camp.

“I remember one thing he said: If you want to be great at it, or want to be one of the greats, you've got to put the work in,'' James said. “There's no substitution for work.''

James later teamed up with Bryant on the 2008 U.S. Olympic team in Beijing.

“He had zero flaws offensively,'' James said. “Zero. You backed off of him, he could shoot the 3. You body him up a little bit, he could go around you. He could shoot from mid-range. He could post. He could make free throws. ... He was just immortal offensively because of his skill set and his work ethic.''

Bryant was a basketball superstar for his entire adult life. He entered the NBA draft straight out of high school in 1996 after a childhood spent partly in Italy, where his father, former NBA player Joe “Jellybean'' Bryant, played professionally.

The Lakers acquired the 17-year-old Bryant in a trade shortly after Charlotte drafted him, and he immediately became one of the most exciting and intriguing players in the sport alongside O'Neal, who had signed with the Lakers as a free agent. Bryant won the Slam Dunk Contest as an upstart rookie, and the Lakers gradually grew into a team that won three consecutive championships.

Bryant and Gasol formed the nucleus of another championship team in 2008, reaching three straight NBA Finals and eventually winning two more titles.

In 2003, Bryant was charged with attacking a 19-year-old employee at a Colorado resort. He had said the two had consensual sex. Prosecutors later dropped the felony sexual assault charge against Bryant at the request of the accuser.

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