BCCI releases provisional schedule of IPL 2011

OWING TO the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry, the governing body of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has released a revised provisional schedule of IPL 2011.

The fourth installment of the hugely awaited IPL 4 is set to commence from April 8 until May 28. The Mahendra Singh Dhoni led Chennai Super Kings, which was the winner of the IPL 3, will take on Kolkata Knight Riders in the opening match of the IPL 4 on April 8, 2011 at MA Chidambram Stadium in Chennai.

IPL 4 will see 10 teams battling it out for the top spot.

The IPL 2011 Revised Schedule is placed below:

Date	Time	Teams	Venue
April 8	8 PM IST	Chennai Super Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders	Chennai
April 9	4 PM IST	Deccan Chargers vs Rajasthan Royals	Hyderabad
April 9	8 PM IST	Kochi v Royal Challengers Bangalore	Kochi
April 10	4 PM IST	Delhi Daredevils vs Mumbai Indians	Delhi
April 10	8 PM IST	Pune Warriors vs Kings XI Punjab	Navi Mumbai
April 11	8 PM IST	Kolkata Knight Riders vs Deccan Chargers	Kolkata
April 12	4 PM IST	Rajasthan Royals vs Delhi Daredevils	Jaipur
April 12	8 PM IST	Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians	Bangalore
April 13	4 PM IST	Kings XI Punjab vs Chennai Super Kings	Mohali
April 13	8 PM IST	Pune Warriors vs Kochi	Navi Mumbai
April 14	8 PM IST	Deccan Chargers vs Royal Challengers Bangalore	Hyderabad
April 15	4 PM IST	Rajasthan v Kolkata Knight Riders	Jaipur
April 15	8 PM IST	Mumbai Indians v Kochi	Mumbai
April 16	4 PM IST	Chennai Super Kings v Royal Challengers Bangalore	Chennai
April 16	8 PM IST	Deccan Chargers v Kings XI Punjab	Hyderabad
April 17	4 PM IST	Pune Warriors v Delhi Daredevils	Navi Mumbai
April 17	8 PM IST	Rajasthan v Kolkata Knight Riders	Kolkata
April 18	8 PM IST	Kochi v Chennai Super Kings	Kochi
April 19	4 PM IST	Delhi Daredevils vs Deccan Chargers	Delhi
April 19	8 PM IST	Royal Challengers Bangalore v Rajasthan Royals	Bangalore
April 20	4 PM IST	Mumbai Indians v Pune Warriors	Mumbai
April 20	8 PM IST	Kolkata Knight Riders v Kochi	Kolkata
April 21	8 PM IST	Kings XI Punjab v Rajasthan Royals	Mohali
April 22	4 PM IST	Kolkata Knight Riders v Royal Challengers Bangalore	Kolkata
April 22	4 PM IST	Mumbai Indians v Chennai Super Kings	Mumbai
April 23	8 PM IST	Delhi Daredevils v Kings XI Punjab	Delhi
April 24	4 PM IST	Deccan Chargers v Mumbai Indians	Hyderabad
April 24	8 PM IST	Rajasthan Royals v Kochi	Jaipur
April 25	8 PM IST	Chennai Super Kings v Pune Warriors	Chennai
April 26	8 PM IST	Delhi Daredevils v Royal Challengers Bangalore	Delhi
April 27	4 PM IST	Pune Warriors v Chennai Super Kings	Navi Mumbai
April 27	8 PM IST	Kochi v Deccan Chargers	Kochi
April 28	8 PM IST	Kolkata Knight Riders v Delhi Daredevils	Delhi
April 29	4 PM IST	Rajasthan Royals v Mumbai Indians	Jaipur
April 29	8 PM IST	Royal Challengers Bangalore v Pune	Bangalore
April 30	4 PM IST	Kochi v Delhi Daredevils	Kochi
April 30	8 PM IST	Kolkata Knight Riders v Kings XI Punjab	Kolkata
May 1	4 PM IST	Rajasthan Royals v Pune Warriors	Jaipur
May 1	8 PM IST	Chennai Super Kings v Deccan Chargers	Chennai
May 2	4 PM IST	Mumbai Indians v Kings XI Punjab	Mumbai
May 2	8 PM IST	Delhi Daredevils v Kochi	Delhi
May 3	8 PM IST	Deccan Chargers v Kolkata Knight Riders	Hyderabad
May 4	4 PM IST	Chennai Super Kings v Rajasthan Royals	Chennai
May 4	8 PM IST	Pune Warriors v Mumbai Indians	Navi Mumbai
May 5	4 PM IST	Kochi v Kolkata Knight Riders	Kochi
May 5	8 PM IST	Deccan Chargers v Delhi Daredevils	Hyderabad
May 6	8 PM IST	Royal Challengers Bangalore v Kings XI Punjab	Bangalore
May 7	4 PM IST	Kolkata Knight Riders v Chennai Super Kings	Kolkata
May 7	8 PM IST	Mumbai Indians v Delhi Daredevils	Mumbai
May 8	4 PM IST	Royal Challengers Bangalore v Kochi	Bangalore
May 8	8 PM IST	Kings XI Punjab v Pune Warriors	Mohali
May 9	8 PM IST	Rajasthan Royals v Chennai Super Kings	Jaipur
May 10	4 PM IST	Deccan Chargers v Pune Warriors	Hyderabad
May 10	8 PM IST	Kings XI Punjab v Mumbai Indians	Mohali
May 11	8 PM IST	Rajasthan Royals v Royal Challengers Bangalore	Jaipur
May 12	8 PM IST	Chennai Super Kings v Delhi Daredevils	Chennai
May 13	8 PM IST	Kochi v Kings XI Punjab	Indore
May 14	4 PM IST	Royal Challengers Bangalore v Kolkata Knight Riders	Bangalore
May 14	8 PM IST	Mumbai Indians v Deccan Chargers	Mumbai
May 15	4 PM IST	Kings XI Punjab v Delhi Daredevils	Dharamsala
May 15	8 PM IST	Kochi v Rajasthan Royals	Indore
May 16	8 PM IST	Pune Warriors v Deccan Chargers	Navi Mumbai
May 17	8 PM IST	Kings XI Punjab v Royal Challengers Bangalore	Dharamsala
May 18	8 PM IST	Chennai Super Kings v Kochi	Chennai
May 19	8 PM IST	Pune Warriors v Kolkata Knight Riders	Navi Mumbai
May 20	8 PM IST	Mumbai Indians v Rajasthan Royals	Mumbai
May 21	4 PM IST	Kings XI Punjab v Deccan Chargers	Dharamsala
May 21	8 PM IST	Delhi Daredevils v Pune Warriors	Delhi
May 22	4 PM IST	Royal Challengers Bangalore v Chennai Super Kings	Bangalore
May 22	8 PM IST	Kolkata Knight Riders v Mumbai Indians	Kolkata
May 24	8 PM IST	Qualifier 1 First v Second	Mumbai
May 25	8 PM IST	Eliminator Third v Fourth	Mumbai
May 27	8 PM IST	Qualifier 2	Chennai
May 28	8 PM IST	Final	Chennai

IPL 2011: Was IPL 4 auction rigged???

INDIAN PREMIER League, the brand in the making for the first 2 years, one which brought about the commercial side of cricket in India, now stands; once again I may add, amidst controversies and fall outs. This time around it is the Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, who is at the epicentre of this fiasco, N.Sreenivasan. Interestingly, before I started writing this piece. I wanted to know more about this guy and so I searched and found that Wikipedia describes him as
"an Indian industrialist, chemical engineer, sports administrator and socialite who is the Managing-Director of the India Cements Limited and owner of the Chennai Super Kings Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket team. He is also currently the Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India."

Now, the first four cognomens does showcase the versatility of the person which has to be well respected but the last four keys does ring some bells. The wrong bells of course. IPL auctions being rigged is not a new thing, last year also these allegations were there about Lalit Modi favouring certain teams and this time around there is a certain team, who might have benefited owing to N.Sreenivasan.
Now the hard news is that Mumbai Indians think that auctions were rigged and a special someone, who knew about the auction inside out sat in the auction with a particular team, clearly helping them out. Well they are running around the bush for sure, but most of us know that the reference is for Chennai Super Kings. And from his Wikipedia bio hardly any doubt is left.

Honestly, even I was perplexed on how well CSK were performing in the auctions, what ever they wanted, they got it, and their bidding was bang on. But these all probably my perception and N.Sreenivasan and CSK are just the cream of the issue.

Issue is most definitely an over used word and why not, IPL does tend to have a lot of issues. Capped players, uncapped players and what not .Again as I further read on about the issue, ....aah I should use some other word next time around, well anyway, A column by Sharda Urga fascinated me, in that column she stated how rules of uncapped players were bend at the last moment and it also clearly indicated the big honchos in the fray. Interestingly that big honcho was Mumbai Indians, who had proposed that uncapped players be retained rather than going for the auction but it did not happen.

What happened was the uncapped players could be racked up just like that. A sort of internal matter, meaning that if an uncapped or capped players were of that high demand some extra "perks' might be added to lure them in to any particular franchise. Not a fair play right??? And moreover who the hell decides these rules.

Well one of those rule makers might be the name mentioned earlier.

IPL 2011 To Comprise Eight Teams And 60 Matches

The 2011 edition of the Indian Premier League Twenty20 competition will comprise eight teams and include 60 matches with an altered play-off system.

Although the competition's governing council has decided on the number of teams, it is not clear which teams will be participating as issues surrounding the Kochi franchises are yet to be resolved.

The tournament is scheduled to begin on 8th April, just six days after the World Cup final in Mumbai and player auctions are to be taking place on 8th and 9th January - also in Mumbai.

Teams will be allowed to retain four of their current players ahead of the auction and their auction purse will be reduced accordingly.

The new play-off system will see the top two sides in the league standings play each other to determine the first finalist. The sides finishing third and fourth will then meet to determine which side plays the loser of the first play-off for the second final place.

Chennai Super Kings are the reigning champions, while the Rajasthan Royals won the inaugural event in 2008 and the Deccan Chargers triumphed in 2009.

Earlier this year, the governing council revealed that the Kings XI Punjab and the Royals had been thrown out of the tournament.

Kochi, who have been given a deadline of 27th November to sort out internal problems, are one of two new teams for 2010 along with the Pune Warriors.