Bollywood stars bank on IPL success

MUMBAI (AFP) — The involvement of some of Bollywood's biggest stars in the Indian Premier League (IPL) means the world's best one-day cricketers are not the only draw when the competition starts this weekend.

Leading figures in India's Hindi-language film industry are closely involved in the eight teams who will battle it out for Twenty20 supremacy in South Africa from Saturday.

Top actor-producer Shahrukh Khan part-owns Kolkata Knight Riders, actress Preity Zinta has a stake in King's XI Punjab and fellow star Shilpa Shetty has taken a share in defending champions Rajasthan Royals.

Action hero Akshay Kumar is brand ambassador for Delhi Daredevils, movie hearthrob Hrithik Roshan is flying the flag for the Mumbai Indians, while screen siren Katrina Kaif is supporting the Bangalore Royal Challengers.

Top performers and music directors have also got in on the act, producing music videos for many of the teams that owe much to Bollywood's song and dance routine tradition.

In their oversized filmstar sunglasses and designer clothes, Shetty, Zinta and Kaif added much-needed glamour to the gathering of corporate suits at the auction for new players in the resort state of Goa earlier this year.

For the actors, many of whom who have been making the rounds at promotional events before the start of IPL's second season, merging cricket and film makes perfect sense given the fanatical following that both have on the subcontinent.

"Cricket is not a sport in our country, it's a religion," said Shetty in February after she and her partner, British Asian businessman Raj Kundra, bought a 16-million-dollar stake in the Rajasthan Royals.

"I am very passionate about cricket and who better to invest in than the current reigning IPL champions. It completes the success story for the IPL team by merging with Bollywood."

Shahrukh Khan, who stumped up 75 million dollars with his business partners for the Knight Riders franchise, said he got involved to help promote sport as a profitiable career option for young people.

"For me, it will be great to change the lives of youngsters who need to go out and channel their youthful aggression for good purposes rather than putting it to destructive use," he said.

But with the IPL as much a commercial as a sporting exercise, the glitzy, fast-paced tournament tempts stars and corporate firms alike with the promise of big bucks.

"They (Bollywood stars) have got involved because people today are not just actors. They want to be entrepreneurs. They want to explore all business avenues and not just the film industry," film critic Taran Adarsh told AFP.

"The fact that they're coming together for the second time means that the first time was lucrative for them."

Indian cricket's governing body made nearly 1.75 billion dollars from the sale of television rights, 108 million dollars from promotion and about 700 million from franchises, according to cricinfo.com.

About 240 million dollars in sponsorship are riding on the event this year alone, India's Economic Times newspaper said last month.

For Kundra, using Shetty's "tremendous" following in Britain, Australia and South Africa is another way of making Rajasthan Royals a global sporting brand.

"Bollywood joining cricket is about cricket's undersold potential," he said.

Ironically, the only loser could be Indian cinema itself: multiplex owners -- already hit by a producers' strike over box office takings -- fear empty theatres through April and May as millions tune in to the IPL instead.

ICC should make window for IPL: Warne

Cape Town: International Cricket Council lacks 'common sense', otherwise it would have created a separate window for the Indian Premier League, said spin legend Shane Warne.

A vociferous advocate of a separate window for the Twenty20 event, Warne said no international matches should have been scheduled for the month of April to allow all players compete in the cash-rich league.

"If the ICC had any common sense, they would create a window for the IPL," Warne, who led the Rajasthan Royals to a fairytale victory in the inaugural edition of the league was quoted as saying by The Star.

Mumbai Indians

Mumbai Indians will be representative of the city of Mumbai in the Indian Premier League. The team will be led by Sachin Tendulkar, also the Icon Player for the team and coached by Lalchand Rajput, the former Manager of the Indian Cricket Team.

Reliance Industries Limited through its subsidiary Reliance Retail Ltd purchased the rights for the Mumbai franchise of Indian Premier league for a total of $111.9 million during the auction on January 24, 2008. The RIL bid has made the Mumbai Indians the most expensive franchise in IPL.

The team logo has the Sudarshan Chakra with the team’s name engraved in it. The team’s colour will be blue. The choice of the name “Indians” for a regional competition is widely regarded as a blunder.

The mascot is still unknown.
Players

Sachin Tendulkar is the designated icon player and also captain for Mumbai Indians. During the player auction Mumbai Indians successfully bid for 7 players, including two of the heroes of Indian Twenty-20 world cup side in Harbhajan Singh and Robin Uthappa. Sanath Jayasuriya was also another prized catch, along with South African legend Shaun Pollock. The team also added the Sri Lankan speedster Lasith Malinga.

Outside of the player auction, the franchise has also signed up Ajinkya Rahane and Abhishek Nayar (from Mumbai), Yogesh Takawale (from Maharashtra) and Pinal Shah (from Baroda)

* Name - Age - Country - Position

Batsmen

* Sachin Tendulkar (Captain) - 35 - India - Right-handed Batsman
* Robin Uthappa - 22 - India - Right-handed Batsman
* Loots Botsman - 30 - South Africa - Right-handed Batsman
* Ashley Prince - 30 - South Africa - Left-handed Batsman
* Manish Pandey - 18 - India - Right-handed Batsman
* Saurabh Tiwari - 18 - India - Left-handed Batsman

Wicket Keepers

* Yogesh Takawale - 23 - India - Right-handed Batsman - Wicket keeper
* Pinal Shah - 20 - India - Right-handed Batsman - Wicket keeper

All Rounders

* Sanath Jayasuriya - 37 - Sri Lanka - Slow left-arm orthodox spin
* Shaun Pollock - 35 - South Africa - Right-arm medium-fast
* Ajinkya Rahane - 19 - India - Right-arm medium

Bowlers

* Harbhajan Singh - 27 - India - Right-arm off-break
* Lasith Malinga - 24 - Sri Lanka - Right-arm fast
* Dilhara Fernando - 29 - Sri Lanka - Right-arm fast-medium
* Abhishek Nayar - 24 - India - Right-arm medium-fast
* Ashish Nehra - 28 - India - Left-arm fast-medium


Administration and Coaching staffFront Office:

* Owner - Reliance Industries Limited
* CEO - R Balachandran
* President - Mukesh Ambani

Coaches:

* Head Coach - Lalchand Rajput
* Assistant Head Coach - TBA
* Physiotherapist - TBA

Kings XI Punjab

Kings XI Punjab

Coach : Tom Moody

Players Yuvraj Singh Ajitesh Argal Amanpreet Singh Brett Lee Burt Cockley Irfan Pathan James Hopes Jerome Taylor Karan Goel Karan Goel Kumar Sangakkara Mahela Jayawardene Luke Pomersbach Piyush Chawla Ramesh Powar Ranadeb Bose Ravi Bopara Ravikant shukla Sahil Kukreja Ryan Ninan Shaun Marsh S. Sreesanth Simon Katich Sunny Sohal Taruwar Kohli Uday Kaul Vikramjeet Malik VRV Singh Wilkin Mota Yash Gandhi Tanmay Srivastava Kings XI Punjab - Mohali Team Owner: Preity Zinta/Ness Wadia; Captain: Yuvraj Singh The Mohali team was bought by Bollywood diva Preity Zinta, her industrialist beau Ness Wadia, along with renowned industrialists Karan Paul and Mohit Burman for $76 million for a period of 10 years. ‘Icon player’ Yuvraj Singh is the captain of Kings XI Punjab. Australia’s Tom Moody is the coach of the team. Check out IPLt20.com for more details.