Most residents can expect a fair to partly cloudy day
weather4 hours ago
The revamped and enlarged IPL-IV season kicks off with champions Chennai Super Kings taking on Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday.
It is now settled that Twenty20 is not going to devour the longish 50-50 after the breathtaking World Cup action. The purists can now relax and reassure themselves that the Test cricket can’t be touched.
If the World Cup has breathed fresh life into ODIs, now it is said all three forms of cricket have their relevance and none will upstage the other as long as the International Cricket Council (ICC) creates a level-playing field for all three to coexist.
This will also be the first IPL without its charismatic creator, Lalit Modi, who was sacked amid high drama by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) immediately after the final of the 2010 edition in Navi Mumbai. Modi’s emotional speech at the closing ceremony, even as the board’s bigwigs got ready to hand him a long charge-sheet listing financial irregularities, moved quite a few franchise owners. They still swear by him.
The IPL, now chaired by BCCI vice president and another business tycoon Chirayu Amin, will have two new teams in Sahara Pune Warriors and Kochi Tuskers joining the existing eight. There will be 74 matches played over 51 days with the 10 teams divided in two groups.
The players went under the hammer after the third edition and they found themselves signing for new owners and playing in new colours. A couple of franchises decided to retain their icons and some others went for a complete overhaul of their line-ups. Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings have retained four players each, the maximum permissible number.
The new compositions will now have to quickly settle down to create an impact.
For the first time, many players will be turning out for sides that are not from their cities, adding a new dimension and making it a truly global league. For instance, Delhi-based Gautam Gambhir is leading the Knight Riders, Punjab’s Yuvraj Singh is the Pune Warriors captain and Bangalore’s Rahul Dravid plays for Rajasthan Royals.
One thing is for sure that all franchises have been more astute in putting together their squads, not splurging money on marquee players. That has lent more balance to the teams and therefore the competition can be more intense.
Nothing like the new season throwing up new champions. The last three editions have thrown up different champions—Rajasthan Royals (2008), Deccan Chargers (2009) and Chennai Super Kings (2010) -- making it clear that the Twenty20 is a lottery and it has nothing to do with the big names.
Most residents can expect a fair to partly cloudy day
weather4 hours ago
Early this week, Dubai's Crown Prince launched a strategy which will include designating new beaches exclusively for women
uae6 hours ago
Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor hails the role of mothers in the upbringing of UAE’s future generation
uae6 hours ago
A recent bill in Florida, USA, which limits social media use for children, has also stirred discussions among experts in the Emirates
uae6 hours ago
Ederson suffered the injury on Tuesday away at Tottenham Hotspur in a collision with defender Cristian Romero
football11 hours ago
Swiatek could become only the third player in history to win the Madrid-Rome double after Dinara Safina in 2009 and Serena Williams in 2013
tennis12 hours ago
The four-time Major winner was in a defensive mood
golf12 hours ago
A meeting in Manama also calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an end to forced displacement in the Palestinian territory
mena12 hours ago