IPL 2010 Cricket

Having cut ties with the Indian Cricket League, Bengal batsman Abhishek Jhunjhunwala and left-arm medium pacer Eklak Ahmed are all set to play in the next edition of the Indian Premier League.

While Jhunjhunwala has been contacted by Rajasthan Royals and is doing duties for them in England, Eklak has got a call from Mumbai Indians after he accepted BCCI`s amnesty offer.

Eklak and Jhunjhunwala were among the 79 ICL players who benifited from the BCCI`s amnesty offer that allowed them to return to the domestic fold.

 ”I have been approached by Mumbai Indians and I am most likely to join them in the upcoming season,” Eklak told reporters.

He had represented Royal Bengal Tigers for three seasons and bagged most of the wickets last season for the side.

The stylish Bengal batsman, Jhunjhunwala, on the other hand, had attended a weeklong training camp for the IPL champions in Jaipur.

The camp, which concluded Wednesday, was conducted under the supervision of Darren Berry, the team`s coach, and former Indian team physio John Gloster and it prepared the side for their T20 charity match with English T20 champions Middlesex Panthers at Lord`s on Sunday.

After the November ICL tournament was scrapped due to the non availability of Pakistan players in the league, Jhunjhunwala headed to England to play for the Essex leagues where he was spotted by Rajasthan Royals.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is proving costly for domestic tournaments conducted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). To accommodate the multi-million dollar league, the BCCI has decided to scrap the Deodhar Trophy for the 2009-10 season, after having cancelled the national T20 meet for the Mushtaq Ali Trophy in 2008-09. “The IPL is scheduled to start on March 18 and if we hold all our tournaments, the domestic season will spill over to April. That’s why the Deodhar Trophy has been cancelled for this season,” the BCCI’s Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty told HT on Wednesday after a meeting of the BCCI Tour Programme and Fixtures Committee. The Deodhar Trophy has been a prominent fixture in BCCI’s annual calendar for 36 seasons from 1973-74. Named after the forefather of Indian cricket, Prof D.B. Deodhar, it traditionally featured the five zones. In the 2008-09 edition in Cuttack, a Zimbabwe XI became the first foreign team to take part in it, which increased the number of teams to six. “Because of the IPL we couldn’t hold the national T20 meet last season and after having brought it back into the calendar this time, we can’t find space for the Deodhar Trophy, given that the IPL has been scheduled for March next year,” Shetty added. Also, the Mohammad Nissar Trophy match between the domestic champions of India and Pakistan has been withheld. This was understandable as it was Pakistan’s turn to host the fourth edition of the one-off first-class fixture. The previous matches were held in Dharamshala (2006-07), Karachi (2007-08) and Delhi (2008-09). ODI venues decided

The venues and dates for Australia’s tour of India for seven ODIs in October-November have been decided. However, the final schedule would be decided after the logistics are worked out. Guwahati and Delhi get to stage ODIs as matches allotted to them last year (England-India ODIs) were cancelled following the terror attacks in Mumbai. The other five venues – Mohali, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Jaipur and Mumbai – get to stage the ODIs on the rotation policy. The first ODI would be played on October 25 with the other dates being October 28, 31, November 2, 5, 8 and 11. First corporate meet

South Zone will be the venue for the first BCCI Corporate Trophy from September 1 to 8. Twelve teams split into three groups will vie for the trophy in the league-cum-knockout event. One-dayers for women

The BCCI has also decided to do away with the national two-day meet for women, their equivalent of Ranji Trophy. For the next three seasons, there will only be one-dayers and T20 for women.

For those who wanted to know about the third edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), here is some news. The IPL III is tentatively scheduled to start on March 18, 2010. The tournament will last about 36 days, which means the final could be some time in the last week of April 2010. It could be on April 23.

So where does that leave the World Twenty20 in the West Indies, which was originally scheduled to start on April 23? The scheduled dates of the tournament are from April 23 to May 9.

So will the IPL be clashing with the World T20? Unlikely.
Now one hears that the World Twenty20 will be postponed by a week or 10 days. A source in the West Indies Cricket Board said it could be from April 30 to May 16.

The International Cricket Council officials, currently inspecting the venues in the Caribbean, could not be reached for clarification.

The cascading effect of the IPL will be felt at the domestic cricket level. Because of the advancement of the IPL dates, the next year’s Deodhar Trophy will take a beating.

A top official of the Board of Control for Cricket in India told DNA that the fixtures committee could not find a slot for the premier domestic one-day championship. The Ranji Trophy will begin on November 3 and the first match of the season – Irani Trophy – is likely to be held from October 2.

The fixtures committee has decided to introduce two-tier leagues at the age-group level from this year. The under-22 and under-19 cricket will have Elite and Plate leagues, just like the Ranji Trophy. The committee also decided to revive the inter-state T20 tournament from this year.

Among other things, the committee has identified the venues for the seven ODIs against Australia in October.

There are reports that Kolkata has been ignored but one gets to know that Cricket Association of Bengal has been told that its turn – as per the rotation system of the BCCI – will come during the Sri Lanka series.

Guwahati and New Delhi, which missed out on hosting ODIs against England last year because of terror attacks, have been given the Australia matches. The detailed fixtures of the season will be announced in a couple of days.