Limelight in Fading IPL

We have reached the middle period of indian premier league (IPL) where it looks like the tournament was about to fade with all the big name players such as Australians,Newzealanders & Westindians leaving to play for their respecting countries but out of nowhere came the limelight in the tournament with the announcement of Shoaib Akhtar's ban has been suspended and can play for Kolkata Knight Riders which he did with the great 4 wicket haul plus MOM preformance & with each Mumbai Indians match it was to be said Little Master Sachin Tendulkar will come back but now he finally does make the comeback which puts the extra attention or limelight in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Which it despreratly needed.

IPL Teams Their Official Websites And Fixtures

Kolkata Knight Riders

Kings XI Punjab

Mumbai Indians

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Chennai Super Kings

Delhi Daredevils

Deccan Chargers

Rajasthan Royals

Fixtures:
April 18: Bangalore v Kolkata at Bangalore
April 19: Mohali v Chennai at Mohali and Delhi v Jaipur at Delhi
April 20: Mumbai v Bangalore at Mumbai; Kolkata v Hyderabad at Kolkata
April 21: Jaipur v Mohali at Jaipur
April 22: Hyderabad v Delhi at Hyderabad
April 23: Chennai v Mumbai at Chennai
April 24: Hyderabad v Jaipur at Hyderabad
April 25: Mohali v Mumbai at Mohali
April 26: Bangalore v Jaipur at Bangalore; Chennai v Kolkata at Chennai
April 27: Mumbai v Hyderabad at Mumbai; Mohali v Delhi at Mohali
April 28: Bangalore v Chennai at Bangalore
April 29: Kolkata v Mumbai at Kolkata
April 30: Delhi v Bangalore at Delhi.
May 1: Hyderabad v Mohali at Hyderabad; Jaipur v Kolkata at Jaipur
May 2: Chennai v Delhi at Chennai.
May 3: Hyderabad at Bangalore at Hyderabad; Mohali v Kolkata at Mohali
May 4: Mumbai v Delhi at Mumbai; Jaipur v Chennai at Jaipur
May 5: Bangalore v Mohali at Bangalore
May 6: Chennai v Hyderabad at Chennai
May 7: Mumbai v Jaipur at Mumbai
May 8: Delhi v Chennai at Delhi; Kolkata v Bangalore at Kolkata
May 9: Jaipur v Hyderabad at Jaipur
May 10: Bangalore v Mumbai at Bangalore; Chennai v Mohali at Chennai
May 11: Hyderabad v Kolkata at Hyderabad; Jaipur v Delhi at Jaipur
May 12: Mohali v Bangalore at Mohali
May 13: Kolkata v Delhi at Kolkata
May 14: Mumbai v Chennai at Mumbai; Mohali v Jaipur at Mohali
May 15: Delhi v Hyderabad at Delhi
May 16: Mumbai v Kolkata at Mumbai
May 17: Delhi v Mohali at Delhi; Jaipur v Bangalore at Jaipur
May 18: Hyderabad v Mumbai at Hyderabad; Kolkata v Chenna at Kolkata
May 19: Bangalore v Delhi at Bangalore
May 20: Kolkata v Jaipur at Kolkata
May 21: Mumbai v Mohali at Mumbai; Chennai v Bangalore at Chennai
May 22: Delhi v Kolkata at Delhi
May 23: Mohali v Hyderabad at Mohali.
May 24: Delhi v Mumbai at Delhi; Chennai v Jaipur at Chennai
May 25: Bangalore v Hyderabad at Bangalore; Kolkata v Mohali at Kolkata
May 26: Jaipur v Mumbai at Jaipur
May 27: Hyderabad v Chennai at Hyderabad
May 28 and 29: Rest days
May 30: First semi-final at Mumbai
May 31: Second semi-final at Mumbai
June 1: Final at Mumbai

Playing Legend Sachin Tendulkar

A cricket blog is a waste without a blog on little master blaster SACHIN TENDULKAR here is my little effort to appriciate the maestro of world cricket.

At the start of his career he wanted to become a Fast Bowler and joined the MRF Pace Academy in Chennai under Dennis Lillee where he was turned away by Lillee saying he didn't have the height to become the fast bowler after the bis set back in a young career Sachin came back and did what it took to become a best batsmen ever.

He started his career at the tender age of 16 with the tour of pakistan in 1989 where he played his first test in Karachi and made only 15 in his first innings but really made the impression of the champions arrival when he was hit on face by a devastating Waqar Younis bouncer but still continued to bat in the blood-soaked shirt.

His first test century came when he was 17 and was the match saving innings for India at Old Trafford in England in next 8 years he went to score 16 more hundreds and till 2000 he became the one and only player to score over 50 international hundreds now currently he has 81 International hundreds what makes this even special that he did not make any hundred till is 79th Odi.

One of his best preformance has come on the his first tour to Australlia as a 19 year old when he scored an swash-buckling century on the fastest bowling pitch at Perth since then he has scored many hundreds against Australia specially the one comes in mind straight is his knock in sharjah where he single handedly took aussie bowlers apart in the final and won india the tournament in 1998.

The best achievement in his life came when he was awarded the WISDON CRICKETER OF THE YEAR in 1997 and more so when he recieved the ultimate compliment from Sir Donald Bradman who told his wife that Tendulkar Reminded him of himself.

This is just the very small blog on the little master who has so many achievements & still has not finished playing so expect more to come on Playing Legend Sachin Tendulkar.

INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE (IPL) Auctions Report

After 8 rounds of bidding in Mumbai Indian players ruled the roost as Mahendra Singh Dhoni led the way with 1.5 Millions US$ most expensive player in the market and shocking to see Andrew Symonds the most hated by indian fans a month ago turns out to be the 2nd most expensive player with 1.35 Million US$ ahead of 37 year old Sri Lankan All rounder Sanath Jayasuriya who has just been dropped from Odi squad against West Indies were the top 3 gainers apart from Iconic players who were Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh & Virender Sehwag representing their home clubs.

Young Indian cricketers like Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir, Ishant Sharma, Robin Uthappa, R.P.Singh, Suresh Raina, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Sreesanth and much forgotten Mohammad Kaif Bagged more Dollers than some great International players like Muttiah Muralitharan, Ricky Ponting, Mathew Hayden, Anil Kumble, Chaminda Vass & VVS Laxman this shows the players were purchased according to their Off-feild value rather then their On-feild values. Their were no takers for Glenn Mcgrath, Micheal Hussey, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Justin Langer, Simon Katich & Loots Bosman initially and had to wait for the reserve round. Mohammad Yousuf & Ashwell Prince were the only 2 players went unsold & were withdrawn from the auctions.

This is the way teams have lined up so far:

Jaipur: Shane Warne (US$450,000), Graeme Smith (US$475,000), Younis Khan (US$225,000), Kamran Akmal (US$150,000), Yusuf Pathan (US$475,000), Mohammad Kaif (US$675,000), Munaf Patel (US$275,000), Justin Langer (US$200,000)

Chennai: MS Dhoni (US$1.5 million), Muttiah Muralitharan (US$600,000), Matthew Hayden (US$375,000), Jacob Oram (US$675,000), Stephen Fleming (US$350,000), Parthiv Patel (US$325,000), Joginder Sharma (US$225,000), Albie Morkel (US$675,000), Suresh Raina (US$650,000), Makhaya Ntini (US$200,000), Michael Hussey (US$350,000)

Mumbai: Sachin Tendulkar (icon), Sanath Jayasuriya (US$975,000), Harbhajan Singh (US$850,000), Shaun Pollock (US$550,000), Robin Uthappa (US$800,000), Lasith Malinga (US$350,000), Dilhara Fernando (US$150,000), Loots Bosman (US$175,000)

Bangalore: Rahul Dravid (icon), Anil Kumble (US$500,000), Jacques Kallis (US$900,000), Zaheer Khan (US$450,000), Mark Boucher (US$450,000), Cameron White (US$500,000), Wasim Jaffer (US$150,000), Dale Steyn (US$325,000), Nathan Bracken (US$325,000), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (US$200,000)

Hyderabad: Adam Gilchrist (US$700,000), Andrew Symonds (US$1.35 million), Herschelle Gibbs (US$575,000), Shahid Afridi (US$675,000), Scott Styris (US$175,000), VVS Laxman (US$375,000), Rohit Sharma (US$750,000), Chamara Silva (US$100,000), RP Singh (US$875,000), Chaminda Vaas (US$200,000), Nuwan Zoysa (US$110,000)

Mohali: Yuvraj Singh (icon), Mahela Jayawardene (US$475,000), Kumar Sangakkara (US$700,000), Brett Lee (US$900,000), Sreesanth (US$625,000), Irfan Pathan (US$925,000), Ramesh Powar (US$170,000), Piyush Chawla (US$400,000), Simon Katich (US$200,000), Ramnaresh Sarwan (US$225,000)

Kolkata: Sourav Ganguly (icon), Shoaib Akhtar (US$425,000), Ricky Ponting (US$400,000), Brendon McCullum (US$700,000), Chris Gayle (US$800,000), Ajit Agarkar (US$330,000), David Hussey (US$675,000), Ishant Sharma (US$950,000), Murali Kartik (US$425,000), Umar Gul (US$150,000), Tatenda Taibu (US$125,000)

Delhi: Virender Sehwag (icon), Daniel Vettori (US$625,000), Shoaib Malik (US$500,000), Mohammad Asif (US$650,000), AB de Villiers (US$300,000), Dinesh Karthik (US$525,000), Farveez Maharoof (US$225,000), Tillakaratne Dilshan (US$250,000), Manoj Tiwary (US$675,000), Gautam Gambhir (US$725,000), Glenn McGrath (US$350,000).