The top 50 rates Tendulkar as the number one influencer in India, followed closely by IPL Chairman Lalit Modi at second spot and liquor baron Dr Vijay Mallya in third.

Union Agriculture Minister and President elect, ICC Sharad Pawar, Indian cricket team skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and BCCI president Shashank Manohar are fourth, fifth and sixth on the list respectively.

Some of the names in 50 most influential people in Indian sports including Tendulkar, tennis ace Sania Mirza (50th on the list), Beijing Olympics gold medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra (41st), Churchill Brothers Team owner Churchill Alemao (48th), Dempo Sports Team owner Shrinivas Dempo (49) were felicitated during a function here late last night.

“I wanted to play cricket whole-heartedly for the country. I am living my dream and have played with two-three generations. I wanted to be a special member of the team and I have done it,” Tendulkar said on the occasion.

Tendulkar added he was still receiving congratulatory messages for becoming first batsman in the history of One-day cricket to score a double hundred and that he was enjoying the good time.

“It has taken many years for a batsman to get a double-hundred (in ODIs). I am still getting great feedback. It feels terrific,” he said.

Source: Yahoo Cricket

Kapil made his international debut in a one-dayer against Pakistan in Quetta in October 1978. His Test debut followed two weeks later in Faisalabad against the same opponents.

One of the greatest fast bowlers that India has produced and its finest bowling allrounder, he ended with a remarkable 434 Test wickets and 253 ODI wickets.

In 1994, he became the leading wicket-taker in Tests when he overtook Richard Hadlee, a record that was eventually broken by West Indies pacer Courtney Walsh. Also, in 1988 he leapfrogged another West Indies fast bowler, Joel Garner, to become the most successful bowler in ODIs, a record he held until 1994 when his tally of 253 wickets was passed by Wasim Akram.

Kapil’s best bowling figures in a Test were 11 for 146 against Pakistan in Chennai in 1980, while in ODIs his best figures came in the group stages of the 1983 World Cup when he took 5 for 43 against Australia in Nottingham.

With the bat, he scored 5248 Test runs, including eight centuries and 27 fifties, at an average of 31.05. He also made 3783 ODI runs, including a highest of 175 not out against Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells during the 1983 World Cup.

At a ceremony at the ICC headquarters in Dubai on Monday, ICC president David Morgan, alongside former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd presented Kapil with a commemorative cap.

Speaking on the occassion, Kapil said, “I am proud and happy to have been inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame and it’s amazing to think that I have been picked as one of the greats of Indian cricket.

“I am delighted to have been named alongside so many great players of the game but for me, when I was growing up, the man I always looked up to was Sunil Gavaskar from the moment I started playing cricket. Now to be named also alongside greats of the game such as Clive Lloyd, Richard Hadlee and Wasim Akram it truly fantastic,” he said.

Morgan said Kapil was an all-time great player. “He did everything. He batted, bowled and he was a fine fielder. I remember the great catch he took to dismiss Viv Richards in the 1983 World Cup final – he was on the run and the ball came over his shoulder, possibly the most difficult of catches.”

Lloyd, who was Kapil’s opposing number in the 1983 World Cup final, said he was a thoroughly deserving induction into the Hall of Fame. “He was a fantastic cricketer and he was a great asset for Indian cricket during his time at the helm,” Lloyd said. “He set the pace for them early on and he came to the fore and did wonderfully well – he played like a true champion and was a brilliant leader.”

Source: CricInfo

The process has been deferred to March 21 in Chennai, where the new tenders will be opened.

“That is correct. The president and secretary, and a few other members, did not agree with it,” Modi told Cricinfo on Tuesday, when asked if the original clause, which required the bidder to have a net worth of $1 billion, was the reason behind the tender process being dropped. “So based upon complaints received from various companies they decided even before the (tender) process began the process should end.”

As a result, the IPL amended the tender by removing the $1 billion net-worth clause. It also reduced the advance deposit from $100 million to $10 million and stipulated that the winning bidder would have to pay 10% of their bid within 48 hours instead of 100% of the amount.

At his media briefing on Sunday, Modi had conceded that the net-worth clause had put off many potential investors. Today, he confirmed to Cricinfo that the IPL had received two bids despite the barriers. “There were two letters produced, by the Sahara and Dainik Jagran groups, saying they could afford (to bid),” he said. “Sahara said, ‘if we can afford to pay Rs 500 crore ($100 million) a year for the Indian team sponsorship, why are we being excluded? We can easily afford to pay Rs 150 crore ($30 million) a year for a franchise’.”

Modi sought to put a positive spin on the tender process being deferred by two weeks, saying the league was extending the playing field. “I was happy we had two legitimate bids and [also] a late bid. As in the first tender, in 2008, when late bids were cancelled, so my recommendation was to accept the first two and cancel the third. But the governing council members felt we should allow more people to enter. [So] there will be more people coming in.”

The abrupt cancellation of the tenders certainly upset one of the bidders, a consortium comprising the Videocon group, led by Venugopal Dhoot, Panchshil Realty’s founder chairman Atul Chordia and Bollywood actors Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor. “We had a very good consortium between Saif, Kareena, Videocon and myself,” Chordia told the Hindustan Times. “Our mood is off now, I don’t think it will happen now. For the last eight days, we have worked so hard on it – things like branding, merchandising, paper work.”

“When the BCCI have an efficient team with eminent lawyers and businessmen, why did they put stringent conditions in place and then take a U-turn? There were three legitimate bids. I just can’t understand the motive behind this.

“They just cancelled the bid without giving any reason. We were completely legitimate, we had completed all the paper-work, we had fulfilled all the conditions. If they didn’t want a stringent tender, why did they float one in the first place? The manner in which it was done was not at all sporting.

“The minimum valuation was $225 million, which is about Rs 1100 crore. So we had definitely put at least Rs 1100 crore. We must have spent more than Rs 10 crore to get everything organised.”

When this was put to Modi, he said he sympathised with the sentiment but it was not the end of the road. “Of course, they put in a lot of hard work and I am sure it is hurting them at the end of the day. But it is important to understand that the governing council said many, many people had approached them and the criteria laid down by us was too stringent. And, so, we revised it.”

Nagraj Gollapudi is an assistant editor at Cricinfo

“The preparations are in full swing and there are no hiccups. We all are ready to go. We have planned a very good opening night as well as opening ceremony with a spectacular laser and fireworks show,” Modi said at a media conference to announce IPL’s latest tie-up with Karbonn Mobiles.

Modi said the boycott by the TV news channels is continuing though they had accepted a new set of proposals two nights ago.

“Nantional Broadcasters’ Association’s is a strange case. The IPL Governing Council and their representatives had a meeting two nights ago and we had agreed to allow certain amount of flexibility in their programming and amount of video footage that can be shown,” the IPL chief said.

But Modi explained that there was a change of heart on the broadcasters’ end within 24 hours and last night a few of them came to ask for more concessions which, he said, cannot be granted.

“They agreed then but last night came back to say they needed more concessions which the Governing Council cannot agree. The boycott continues though I would like them to cover the event but not on the new terms,” he said.

Modi said the bone of contention was post-match programmes with IPL footage rights of which were with official broadcasters Sony only.

But Modi was not too worried about IPL’s stand-off with NBA and said he expected the TRP ratings of the IPL action to get boosted.

“People can see IPL action on Sony and YouTube (with whom the League has struck a deal to show complete ‘live’ action with a five-minute delay for India),” he said.

Modi said the cricket fans in India were eager to see action inside the stadium after missing it last year when the tournament had to be staged in South Africa because of security concerns as it was clashing with the general elections.

“People are waiting for IPL to start. We are going to stage it with lot of innovations. IPL will take a new avatar,” he declared.

Modi also said that the central revenue pool will be doubled as compared to last year with so many new deals having been struck by the IPL.

Source: Times of India

Brad Haddin’s second one-day international century gave Australia a 2-1 lead and the most one-sided victory of the tour, as they chased down their target with 16 balls to spare. Haddin’s 110 was his highest ODI score and he ended Daniel Vettori’s hopes of winning what he said before the match was “the most important game of the series”.

Ricky Ponting was annoyed in the opening two games at his batsmen’s inability to capitalise on their starts, and they resolved that problem at Seddon Park. Ponting made 69 and combined with Haddin for a matchwinning 151-run partnership that justified Ponting’s rare decision to send New Zealand in. It is a gamble he has taken 24 times in his ODI captaincy career for a remarkable 20 victories.

His bowlers did the job early by dismissing New Zealand for a thoroughly gettable 245 and in the chase, Haddin set about determining the result early. Haddin loves batting against New Zealand; his only two ODI hundreds and his first Test century have come against them, and in all three forms of the game he averages 52.06 against New Zealand compared to an overall career mark of 34.55.

He did cruel things to Michael Mason, who at 35 was playing his first international since mid-2008 and must have finished the day wondering if fighting back into the team was all worthwhile. Mason’s opening delivery, a no-ball, was dabbed by Haddin for four past the wicketkeeper and the subsequent free-hit was slapped contemptuously back over his head for six.

It left Mason with the extraordinary economy rate of 66 after one legal delivery. Haddin drove two more boundaries in the over, which cost Mason 20, and the bowler was lucky that his ten overs cost only 68. Haddin brought up his fifty from 51 deliveries and also attacked with confidence against Scott Styris, who was hit back over his head for six.

Haddin’s timing was exquisite and his shots appeared effortless. Every one of his seven fours and five sixes was felt by Shane Bond, who had put down an extremely tough caught-and-bowled chance when Haddin was on 8, and later by Tim Southee, who put him down on the boundary when he had 83. He ended up being stumped advancing to Vettori with 16 runs still required, and Cameron White and Adam Voges finished the job at a reduced pace.

It was the Haddin-Ponting partnership that buried New Zealand. Ponting’s half-century came at nearly a run a ball and featured seven boundaries but it was a support role. The best bowlers, Vettori and Bond, were respected while Styris and Mason were targeted by the two Australians. They knew that Vettori’s bowling options were limited and the only wicket in the first 30 overs was the run-out of Shane Watson for 15.

All in all, it vindicated Ponting’s unexpected decision at the toss; Vettori said he would have batted if given the choice. There was little assistance for Australia’s bowlers on a good batting surface but after a footwork-free Peter Ingram edged Ryan Harris behind in the first over, New Zealand struggled to make the best of the opportunity and slipped to 55 for 3.

They had much the same problem Australia had endured in the first two games when they batted first: batsmen falling after making promising starts. Five of New Zealand’s top six made scores in the 20s to 40s and Ross Taylor was the only man who went on and registered a half-century, although even his 62 was short of what it could have been.

Having missed the Auckland loss due to a leg injury, Taylor showed the rest had not done him any harm as he rocketed off the mark with a crunching square-driven boundary off Mitchell Johnson. He struck a pair of sixes, one pulled off James Hopes and one slog-swept off Nathan Hauritz, and moved to his half-century from 45 balls.

But the Australians knew that if they could tie Taylor down they might get a chance, and it came when he faced 20 balls without a boundary just after passing fifty. Watson came on and sent down a bouncer, Taylor’s eyes lit up and he went for the hook, the ball skied off the top edge and Michael Hussey completed the catch at deep square leg.

It was a crucial wicket and left New Zealand five down in the 30th over. Styris continued his consistent series with 41 and combined with Gareth Hopkins for a 67-run stand that pushed the hosts past 200 but when they departed, so did New Zealand’s hopes of batting out their overs.

Styris skied Watson to long-off and Hopkins, who improvised well in his career-best 45, was taken at mid-off from the bowling of Harris, who finished with 3 for 48. Johnson grabbed three wickets as well and the final three New Zealanders fell for five runs and they were bowled out with 22 deliveries still available.

Of course, it was the top-order men who should have stayed at the crease longer. Brendon McCullum (23), Martin Guptill (21) and Neil Broom, who laboured to 24, missed their chances against a ball that wasn’t really swinging. Australia fixed their similar problem in this match; New Zealand must do the same on Thursday to stay in the series.

Brydon Coverdale is a staff writer at Cricinfo

“If the overseas players want to find a place in the playing eleven, they have to fight among themselves and not against Indian stock,” Dhoni said in Chennai ahead of the third season of the IPL. “It is perfect right now and I am quite happy with the system of only four players finding place in the final eleven.”

Dhoni quoted the examples of youngsters who have either gone on to play for India after making a mark in the IPL, or cement their places in the national side, as in the case of Suresh Raina.

“We had Manpreet Gony, M Vijay and S Badrinath coming into the side,” Dhoni said. “We are contributing a lot towards Indian cricket. Overall, we are trying to groom the Indian cricketers for the betterment of the game in India.

“I want to make more players for ourselves. We are grooming Indian players from the Under-19 level or players on the verge of making debut for India. All those individuals rubbing their shoulders with international cricketers from India and overseas help them in learning cricketing skills.”

Stephen Fleming, the Chennai coach, had his first practice session with the squad on Monday and said he was confident the Indian players in the squad would respond well to the challenge.

“Our team’s performance will depend on how well our local players perform,” Fleming said. “We are lucky to have some talented players from Tamil Nadu.”

The team was jolted ahead of the third season with the news of Andrew Flintoff’s pull-out due to injury and the likelihood of allrounder Jacob Oram missing the entire tournament, also due to injury. The two other overseas bowlers, Muttiah Muralitharan and Makhaya Ntini, have struggled for form, thereby affecting the balance of the team, whose strength lies in the batting.

But Dhoni felt there was no need to panic, as the local stock looked capable of filling the void. “As a team we rely more on our batting strength. We have strong options in bowlers like Gony, L Balaji, Sudeep Tyagi and spinners like R Ashwin in our ranks,” Dhoni said.

“When our main bowlers have an off-day, we have strong options to use others as bowlers and Justin Kemp is one of them. Such options in a Twenty20 match are good for the team. Kemp is a big hitter. He can be an asset to the side.”

He was also confident that Murali would deliver. “He is the best spinner in the world and still in the international circuit,” Dhoni said. “He can be useful in every format of the game. He is a great guy to have in the dressing-room, like Makhaya Nitini and others.”

New Zealand Cricket Players Association boss Heath Mills’ said Bond will declare himself available for the upcoming IPL-3.

Al Qaeda had threatened to target players during the IPL, but Bond, Daniel Vettori, Brendon McCullum and Jacob Oram (if fit) are now more likely to attend than when the terror warning was first issued.

“They’re going of their own accord; New Zealand Cricket isn’t involved so it comes down to an individual decision at the end of the day.

“Bondy will be the first one to go, so he’s probably getting close to making a decision and all I’m going to do is keep relaying information to him from our security adviser, Reg Dickason,” Mills said.

“The measures they’ve put in place have got a lot better so they (the players) are getting more confident. Certainly more confident than they were two weeks ago,” Mills said.

“I’d say they’d be of a mind to go at the moment, but that’s their call and obviously I wouldn’t want to be seen to say that they’re definitely going,” Stuff.co.nz quoted Bond, as saying.

Mills said that security strategies around the 12 venues and host cities in India had shown marked improvement in recent days and he felt they would improve again in the lead-up to the tournament.

Source: Times Of India

The new process will also amend two existing clauses: One will be a reduction of the advance deposit from $100 million to a $10 million “performance guarantee”, to be submitted 24 hours in advance of the bid being opened. Another original clause gave the IPL’s governing council the discretion to seek from the winning bidder 100% of the amount with a minimum time-frame; under the new process, the winning bids will be expected to pay 10% of their bid within 48 hours.

The minimum bid amount, however, remains the same at $225 million; the existing tenders were not opened at the IPL governing council meeting in Mumbai and were returned to the bidders.

“The relaxation [of the clauses] was because we received letters from many, many companies who had expressed interest but said that the $1 billion net worth criterion [was one] which owners of the existing franchises were not asked for earlier,” Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, said at a brief press conference. “So they asked why they were asked for the new criteria, which eliminates them from bidding, hence the clause has been amended to give more people the opportunity to bid.”

Sources told Cricinfo that the opposition came from within too – senior BCCI officials had objected to the radical revision of clauses from those of two years ago. It was a reversal of Modi’s stand that the high entry fee was a means of keeping away frivolous investors. “We put a high-end clause for entry because we need to get solid companies,” he had told Cricinfo on Saturday. “This business requires a long gestation period and that is the reason we want to secure ourselves. The BCCI always secures itself.”

The manner of the announcement – a public event scheduled to launch the next phase of the IPL’s remarkable success story – and the scale of the cutbacks in the clauses represent a departure from the usually sure-footed manner of the league’s workings and suggests that it had overestimated the viability of its terms and conditions for potential franchise owners. It also gave credence to the claim made on Friday by Priyadarshan, a film director, that the $1 billion clause was unviable and had put him off bidding for a franchise.

The atmosphere at the Four Seasons hotel in downtown Mumbai was already shorn of the usual bustle associated with any IPL event, given the boycott by the National Broadcasters’ Association (NBA), an umbrella group of Indian TV channels. Not even the surprise entry of Bollywood stars Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor could raise more than a muted reception.

Eventually only three bidders evinced interest: a consortium of Khan (son of former India captain MAK Pataudi), Kareena and her sister Karisma, Pune’s Panchshil group of industries and Venugopal Dhoot, owner of electronics manufacturer Videocon, who were bidding from Pune; the Adani Group for Ahmedabad and the Jaypee Group from a undisclosed venue.

“The reason given was that they unilaterally cancelled the bids,” Atul Chordia, chairman and chief executive of the Panchshil Group, said. “It is not the question of happiness about the previous terms. Whatever terms and conditions were there we abided by it, whatever the tender form asked for we gave it, we tendered. We gave the 100 million dollar bank guarantee.”

Chordia said he and the other investors in his group would be back to bid for the new tender.

The cities in the fray were Pune, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Kanpur, Dharamsala, Vizag, Rajkot, Cuttack, Baroda, Kochi, Indore and Gwalior. The base price for the bid is more than four times the value set in January 2008, when the original eight franchises were auctioned. Other terms and conditions were similarly stringent – all bidders had to stump up a returnable deposit of $100 million before the bid, as against the $5 million (approximately) stipulated in 2008.

Nagraj Gollapudi is an assistant editor at Cricinfo.

Gautam Adani, the 48-year-old chairman of the trading and export company, whose personal wealth is believed to be valued
at $6.7b, has bid for the Ahmedabad franchise. Highly placed sources said the bid is in the $260-280m range.

TOI had first reported the interest shown by Adani, when he said “if it is Ahmedabad, I’ll be bidding for it.” The floor price for prospective bidders has been kept at $225m, which in turn suggests that the Adani Group is likely to offer a bid 25% higher.

Essar Group, a multinational conglomerate managed by the Ruia family has shown interest in investing in a personal stake along with Adani. But TOI has learnt that the Adani Group has been contemplating an individual bid. Pune-based industrialist Adar Poonawala and actor Abhishek Bachchan are also being speculated about as bidders but this could not be confirmed. Pune, the other likely contender, is most likely to be bought by the Dhoot family, which owns Videocon.

The Ahmedabad-based Adani group and the Dhoot family of Pune, owners of Videocon, are frontrunners for the two new Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises up for sale, with the idea behind roping in Ahmedabad also being seen as part of the ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ project.

“The plan is part of the ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ project,” a highly placed source said. ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ is a government organised investor summit to understand and explore business opportunities in Gujarat, an idea backed by chief minister Narendra Modi.

Videocon is one of the largest manufacturers of electronic consumer goods. The company’s 59-year-old chairman Venugopal Dhoot, based out of Pune, is an avid cricket fan. He launched the Videocon School of Cricket in Kolkata, which runs under the guidance of former India captain Sourav Ganguly and trains and promotes young cricketers of India in the age group of 10 to 17.

The bid is not likely to exceed $260m and is expected to have personal stakes of two separate parties involved. To Dhoot’s advantage, the new stadium coming up in Pune city – on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway – is likely to be completed and available for play by March 2011. “I wouldn’t like to comment on speculation,” Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) president Ajay Shirke said when asked to comment.

Meanwhile, it should be mentioned here that both the new franchisees are most likely to have their respective states’ political backing too. Nagpur, another prospective venue that was being speculated as a favourite to host an IPL franchise, is now out of the race.

Other prospective bidders who had bought the tender include the Muthoot Group from Kerala backed by film director Priyadarshan and actor Mohanlal, the Jaypee Group, Sahara and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) from London among others.

Meanwhile, as reported by TOI, the bidders will have to provide a bank guarantee of Rs 460 crore (approx $100m) as bid performance guarantee at the time of submitting the bid.

If the bid is successful, the winning bidder will have to further produce a bank guarantee of an amount up to or including the total bid amount. Following that, the bid performance guarantee of Rs 460 crore will be returned.

Source: Times Of India.

Daniel Vettori stuck his stiff neck out with a brilliant innings that nearly delivered victory for New Zealand but Ryan Harris chopped him off to end the plucky fight as Australia levelled the series 1-1. There were some very nervous moments for Australia as they let New Zealand recover from 131 for 6 to almost reach their goal of 266 before the visitors’ blushes were saved.

It came down to 13 required from 11 balls when Vettori walked across his stumps and attempted a shot he had used to great effect throughout his innings. However, this time when he tried to flick Harris behind square leg his stumps were rattled, his fightback finished at 70 from 49 balls, and Australia avoided going down 2-0 with three to play.

Vettori almost sat out of the game – he would have rested his sore neck again had his vice-captain Ross Taylor not been a late withdrawal with a leg injury – and he ended up as the Man of the Match in his lost cause. He compiled important lower-order partnerships with Gareth Hopkins and Daryl Tuffey before Mitchell Johnson and Ryan Harris ended the dream.

Johnson went from villain to hero for Australia with a four-wicket haul that included two breakthroughs at the top of the order and two vital strikes to remove Vettori’s partners. Johnson had been booed when he first walked to the crease, following his altercation with Scott Styris in Napier, but by the end he had let his bowling do the talking.

He had Tuffey caught at slip for 20 and bowled Shane Bond for 6 to help Australia over the line after they looked to be cruising when rain interrupted New Zealand’s chase. The hosts lost five overs and had their target reduced by eight runs and it was the loss of top-order wickets that was the big problem for them.

Brendon McCullum had struck two sixes in his 24 before he fell to a brilliant catch from Brad Haddin, leaping high to his right to take the ball in front of first slip’s face off Johnson. Harris followed by trapping Peter Ingram and Neil Broom lbw from consecutive balls and although James Franklin survived the hat-trick ball, he was soon caught behind off Johnson to leave New Zealand at 46 for 4.

The resistance started with Scott Styris’ 46 and 35 from Hopkins, before Vettori started to find the gaps and improvised by walking across his stumps and backing away with superb judgment. In the end it wasn’t enough but Australia cannot sit back and assume that all is hunky-dory.

Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke, their captain and vice-captain, fell to dreadful shots before they were settled and there was a 300-plus total on offer after the openers pushed the score to 73 for 0 in the 14th over. Shane Watson made a bright 47 from 48 before he picked out the man at deep midwicket off Tuffey.

Haddin (53) looked like anchoring the innings and twice sent Vettori deliveries back over the bowler’s head for six. He was trying a similar drive when Vettori took a lightning fast reflex catch thrusting out his left hand as Haddin’s shot seemed to be rocketing past him.

At least Haddin could consider himself a trifle unlucky. Ponting had nobody to blame but himself when from his fourth ball he went for an uncharacteristic wild swipe at Vettori and skied a catch to cover. Clarke made 11 and also failed to show his best judgment when he tried a strange, mangled pull from outside off that lobbed to mid-on and gave Bond his first of two wickets.

From there, it was Michael Hussey (56) and Cameron White who rebuilt. White compiled his runs steadily until the 43rd over, when he launched Franklin for two sixes from the first two deliveries. Neither came out of the middle of the bat but the small Eden Park dimensions allowed him to clear the boundary at midwicket and mid-on.

However, when he tried to do the same with the third ball he mistimed it and was taken at long-on by McCullum for 54. The drama didn’t end there as Franklin left the field along with the batsman, having hurt his hamstring. It added to an ultimately disappointing day for New Zealand, who had already lost Jacob Oram to a knee injury in the first game. But as Vettori showed, the walking wounded can still fight.

Brydon Coverdale is a staff writer at Cricinfo.