Hyper-active Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan seems to have turned desperate. He was on pins and needles when the Indian Premier League (IPL) started a few of weeks ago with his team Kolkata Knight Riders winning two consecutive matches. However, King Khan seems to have sensed the danger following four consecutive defeats later. Now, the news is doing the rounds that he is roping in the one-time WWE Champion the Great Khali to support his team.

It is said that King Khan is doing all he could to lift his team to a safe position. And so, he is said to have offered Rs.3 crore to the Great Khali to cheer for his team. Khali had earlier signed to act in the film Rama The Saviour, starring Sahil Khan and Tanushree Dutta.

Source:entertainment.oneindia.in

JAIPUR: After the IPL auctions earlier this year, Rahul Dravid had wished that players were never ‘sold’ again. Strangely enough, before the next edition of the IPL, he himself could be put up for sale.When the trading window opens in February next year, icon players like Dravid and Sourav Ganguly could well find themselves on the transfer list. According to sources, some of the franchisees are unhappy with the performance of their icon players and are even exploring avenues to ‘sell’ them off.

IPL commissioner Lalit Modi informed TOI that although the icon players had been given special status, the franchises would be permitted to trade their ‘non-performing assets’.According to BCCI sources, some of the franchisees have indicated that they be allowed to trade below-par performers for those the owners feel might be quality replacements. But Modi made it clear on Wednesday that “if the franchisees want to dispose off the icon players or the underperformers in the team, the owners will have to pay off the three-year contract money to them”. Or else, they can be traded to some other teams when the IPL trading window opens next February.

“This format is quite unpredictable. The top team in the first seven matches may not be the same when the league finishes. But if some franchisee wants new players and wants to dispose off their icon, they will have to pay the three-year contract money. If some other teams are willing to buy them, then those players’ salaries will have to be paid by the new owners. In fact, the trading window opens next year in February,” Modi said.”The IPL rule is fixed for next three years. There will be eight foreign players in the team out of which four can be inducted in the playing XI. On top of this, if the franchisees want to sign up new players, they are welcome to do so. But in that case, you will have to pay that player’s salary. But the rule to have eight of them in the team and four on the field will remain,” Modi said.

There are some franchisees like team Mohali and Delhi Daredevils, though, who are quite happy with their icons Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag.

Source: ipl.timesofindia.indiatimes.com

JAIPUR: Guess who are the bookies’ hot favourite in the Indian Premier League (IPL)? You don’t have to try too hard. With five wins on the trot, Shane Warne’s boys — who started off as the underdogs — are the favourite in betting circles, both in India and the UK.A day before Team Jaipur take on Mumbai Indians, desi bookies and one leading British betting agency, William Hill, are already tipping them to win IPL, while another British agency, Ladbrokes, is backing them to top the league tables.

Ladbrokes has not yet offered odds on who will ultimately win the IPL this year, but it is taking bets on which team will top the league. It is offering 11/4 on Team Jaipur, which means that for every rupee you bet on Warne and his men, you will win Rs 2.75 (you also get your rupee back). For the second spot, it is offering 7/2 on both Delhi Daredevils and Team Mohali, which means you win Rs 3.50 for every rupee you bet.William Hill is offering the same odds on Team Jaipur as Ladbrokes and is also picking Punjab and Delhi jointly for the second spot, but with slightly lower odds (10/3), which means you can win Rs 3.33 for every rupee you bet. The difference is that William Hill is talking about winning the IPL, not topping the league.

Indian bookies have a somewhat different take: they are placing equal odds on both Team Jaipur and Team Mohali to win. You could pocket Rs 3.70 for every rupee you bet on either Team Jaipur or Team Mohali to win the IPL on June 1. They have placed Delhi Daredevils in the third place.Team Chennai, which started off as one the favourites because of Twenty20 World Cup winning captain MS Dhoni, is fourth on everyone’s rate-card. They are behind Jaipur, Delhi and Mohali because they lost back-to-back matches.

Another factor that has affected their standing is the absence of Australians Matthew Hayden and Mike Hussey from the batting line-up. Lack of depth in their bowling department is another reason that has contributed to the lukewarm response of the bookies. Shah Rukh Khan’s team — Kolkata Knight Riders — is fifth on the list. With Shoaib Akhtar joining the Knight Riders, skipper Sourav Ganguly may hope the sky is the limit, but the bookies seem to believe it will take something special for this team to get into the top four.

The three worst teams so far —Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore — are, not surprisingly, at the bottom of all three lists. The odds are, of course, likely to keep changing as fresh results come in.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

The DLF Indian Premier League today announced that Vodafone Essar, one of India’s leading cellular service providers, has been chosen as the official telecom partner for the league for a period of five years.

Lalit Modi, chairman and commissioner, DLF Indian Premier League said, “Vodafone has a long standing association with sports globally, ranging from Formula 1 with the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes to the UEFA Champions League. I am sure that the company’s association with the DLF Indian Premier League as its official partner will prove to be mutually beneficial.”

With this, tickets for the DLF Indian Premier League matches will now be available on Vodafone live! for Vodafone customers. Vodafone customers will also be able to participate in the Predict the Man of the Match contest and the winner will be announced as the Vodafone winner of the contest, at the post-match presentation ceremony.

Source:business-standard.com

NEW DELHI: In a bid to derisk their business model, multiplex owners are turning to sports to generate an alternate source of revenues. While PVR Cinemas would test-pilot the screening of the entire F1 series and Euro 2008, others like Adlabs and Inox are also keen on screening sports content like the Indian Premier League (IPL) to sustain occupancies.

PVR Cinemas has acquired the theatrical rights from Star India to showcase the entire F1 series. In addition the multiplex chain would show some of the key matches of soccer series — Euro 2008. PVR Cinemedia CEO Gautam Dutta said: “We are partnering the UB Group (Kingfisher brand) for the live screening of F1 series in select cities from May 11. It will be our first experiment with live sports series. We believe that as a multiplex player we need to transform ourselves into a complete entertainment brand.”

UB Group, which owns Force India, would partner with PVR and sponsor some of these races by inviting F1 enthusiasts to watch the races. Mr Dutta added that initially the revenue stream through sports content would be low, given the fact that F1 has niche audience. However, it has the potential to become a significant alternate revenue stream.

Adlabs Cinemas, which is in the process of building megaplexes in 15 cities, has said in the past that it would look at screening sports and other genre of content. This would be necessary as it will be unviable to screen only films in these megaplexes, believe experts.

The Indian Premier League has already caught the fancy of multiplex players. High costs per screen is currently making it economically unviable for cineplexes to show the entire series. However, all multiplexes are in the fray to screen at least the last key matches. Inox Leisure COO Alok Tandon said: “We are looking for the best viable options to be able to screen sports content, as and when they happen. We are even in talks to screen IPL matches and would like to show at lease the last few matches.”

With real estate prices going on an overdrive and movie producers asking for higher margins, sports could emerge as an interesting alternative. Says AT Kearney principal Debashish Mukherjee: “Movies would be the primary source of revenues for multiplex players. Sports, if well timed, can also bring in good revenue for movie exhibition players.”

Mr Mukherjee added that usually movie producers release their movies during summer, Diwali or in the Christmas season. “If sports content can help fill in the gaps for cineplexes, it can be an add-on source of revenue,” he said.

Source:economictimes.indiatimes.com