INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE (IPL) 2013.........!

The sixth edition of the premium league IPL gets under way with the first face-off between the edition five Winners, Shah Rukh Khan owned, Kolkata Knight Riders taking on Delhi Daredevils in Kolkata on 03 April 2013.

The major change in the tournament has been that of the sponsor. Out goes DLF and in walks the global soft drink giant, Pepsi.

There has been a setback with the exit of the Hyderabad based, Deccan Chronicle, the winner of the second edition of the tournament. DC become the second team to go out of the tournament from the Cochin based, Kerala Tuskers.

The franchise was purchased by the Chennai based Sun Group who rechristened the team as Sun Risers Hyderabad and retained Hyderabad as the base.

A total of 76 games are to be played in the entire tournament, with 72 games being played in the round-robin league and four games in the play-off stage with the FINAL game to be played in Eden Gardens on 26 May 2013.

The nine teams have announced their squads as on 06 March 2013.

With the legendary Wasim Akram, expressing his inability to be associated with the team, Kolkata Knight Riders, the Australian speedster Brett Lee is taking up the role of ‘bowling mentor’, in addition to being a regular in the Playing XI. Trevor Penny joins the squad as the ‘fielding coach’ and would be a member of the support staff led by the chief coach, Trevor Bayliss.

Ricky Ponting, who recently retired from international cricket was procured by Ambani owned, Mumbai Indians and is likely to lead the team, taking the baton from Harbhajan Singh. Legendary spinner, Anil Kumble opted out of Royal Challengers Bangalore and joins Mumbai Indians as their mentor.

It would really interesting to see the two ‘best in the business’, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar and Ricky Thomas Ponting play for the same side and possibly bat together. This is one spectacle which any ‘die-hard’ cricket fan would want to witness and cherish.

Vijay Mallya owned Royal Challenger Bangalore made a significant change by appointing Virat Kohli as the captain replacing the Kiwi, Daniel Vettori. In the previous edition, Kohli had successfully led the team on quite a few occasions.

Pune Warriors India, owned by Sahara, added the ‘off-spinning all-rounder’, Parveez Rasool of Jammu and Kashmir in their squad. Rasool had a great Ranji Trophy outing in 2012-13. PWI consider him to be a valuable addition to the team.

The former New Zealand skipper, Ross Taylor, who played for Delhi Daredevils in the previous edition of IPL, was swapped with PWI for Aashish Nehra. Ross Taylor, in the first three editions of IPL, played for RCB, then shifted to Rajasthan Royals in the fourth edition and moved on to Delhi Daredevils in the previous edition. PWI is actually the fourth franchise that Taylor would be playing for.

It would be interesting to mention over here that the Australian, Glenn Maxwell, has been the ‘billon dollar baby’ in the 2013 auction and was picked up by Mumbai Indians.

All in all, it appears to be a high octane and action filled 54 days of quality cricket, played across the length and breadth of the country. IPL is the premier tournament that the entire world would be waiting to watch.

A lot of new talents would be unearthed during the course of the tournament, who eventually might go on to play for their respective national teams at some point of time.

So lets us all ‘pad up’ and get ready for action commencing on 03 April 2013.

K Subramanian

09 March 2013