THE TIMES OF INDIA, BANGALORE | MONDAY, MARCH 29, 2010

TIMES SPORT20

TONIGHTTEAM FORM

SEHWAG

BOND

NANNES

TIWARY

In Kedhar Jadhav, this team hasstumbled upon a fine talent. AB deVilliers has also discovered some of histouch and these are all encouragingsigns for this outfit

Inconsistent. Dada’s army won the firsttwo games, then lost the next three beforebeating the Kings XI on Saturday night.The bowling looks formidable, and inTiwary, they have a match-winning bat

DRAWING BOARD X-FACTOR

They should be fired up afterbeating table-toppers RoyalChallengers. The players shoulduse that win as a catalyst tostart a win spree

Get Sehwag early. And thatresponsibility must lie withShane Bond. Without Gambhir,Delhi will always struggle if Virudoesn’t fire

Andrew McDonald. The

Australian seamer can prove

to be a dangerous customer.

He has a knack for picking up

wickets at regular intervals

D Karthik (captain), V Sehwag, S Ladda, JSingh, R Bhatia, AB de Villiers, T Dilshan, MHenriques, K Jadhav, A McDonald, F Maharoof,Y Mahesh, M Manhas, A Mishra, D Nannes, SRanjan, A Salvi, P Sangwan, S Singh, D Warner,U Yadav

S Ganguly, V Aaron, A Agarkar, S Bond, ADinda, E Ahmid, R Gavaskar, C Gayle, B Hodge,I Abdulla, M Kartik, H Khadiwale, C Langeveldt,B McCullum, A Matthews, A Mendis, C Pathak,C Pujara, W Saha, O Shah, I Sharma, L Shukla,M Tiwary, G Vignesh

David Hussey. the Aussie

batsman has arrived,

and his presence will be a

huge boost to the

line-up.

EVERYBODY

RESPECTS KKR.

GAYLE IS ONE OF

THOSE PLAYERS

WHO CAN WIN

ANY MATCH ON

HIS OWN, AND

GANGULY IS A

LEGEND

AB DE VILLIERS

DD BATSMANDELHI, 8 PM SOURAV GANGULY

DINESH KARTHIK

KEY PLAYERS TEAMS

COMMITTEDTO THE CAUSE

Nitin Naik | TNN

Mumbai: When RendezvousSports World Private Limited(RSPL) made a winning bid ofRs. 1553 crore for Kochi lastSunday, there were many whowere curious about the motleyconsortium. They were alsokeen to know why the biddersopted for a city sans cricket cul-ture. After all, the state has pro-duced excellent footballers andathletes. The CEO of the con-sortium, Sanjay Gaikwad,while addressing the media ata city hotel explained, “it’s anexciting sports-loving audiencethat we would cater to and itgives us an ideal opportunity

to bring cricket to a place wherethe sport is not saturated.’’

Gaikwad also highlightedthe role of Minister Of Statefor External Affairs, ShashiTharoor, also mentor of Ren-dezvous. “He explained thatKerala is one of the few statesin the country where cricket isjust beginning to grow. A Ker-ala team would also cater tofans in the Gulf where a lot ofexpatriate Malayalees withgood disposable income reside.’’

Gaikwad, the CEO of theconsortium, which includesfive principal investors, name-ly Anchor Earth, Film Waves,Parinee Developers, Elite and

Cholayil Group and AnandShyam Real Estate, also in-formed that the group, whichruns a cricket academy in So-lapur, has plans of construct-ing a cricket stadium.

That though is for later on.Their immediate target is toform a team that can pose a chal-lenge to the other nine, comeIPL4. And they appear to starton the backfoot. After all, theydon’t have the cream of playersat their disposal when the auc-tions take place in September.

Keshav P T, of Filmwavesthough isn’t worry as most ofthe franchisees will have to useup a large sum of the $7mpurse to retain the players they

want. But that will mean adearth of player availability.“We are not early starters. Weare coming in when IPL hasalready established itself as ahuge brand. That is the pre-mium we pay for it. We don’texpect to get the best playersin the first year. But in the firsttwo editions, we have seen alot of unknown players excel.It’s not necessarily the estab-lished players who have donewell,’’ he stated.

The catchment areas havenot been specified for the con-sortium. “We have no specificcatchment areas. We will gofor players who would not be

retained. As for locals we arelooking for players from Ker-ala as we want to promote thesport there,’’ Keshav said.

In the past two IPLs one hasseen franchisees name iconplayers who are paid 15% morethan the costliest player in theteam and then used for mar-keting and branding. Ren-dezvous realise it. “It’s im-portant to have an icon play-er. It is eventually around himthat you will market yourteam. But if you look at theteams, they are using a bunchof players unless you are talk-ing about someone like Ten-dulkar, who is a team by him-self,’’ Keshav said.

As Filmwaves, one of the in-vestors is Dubai-based, Ren-dezvous has plans to host gamesin Dubai. That though is in di-rect confrontation with IPLcommissioner Lalit Modi’sviews. Reveals Keshav, “We hopeto play in Abu Dhabi and Dubaias both venues have excellentstadiums. IPL hasn’t stated thatgames could be held in UAE, butwe would like to promote thesport. Even if we don’t play anIPL match there, may be, we canplay with some other team.’’

Considering that they paid$333.33 million for acquiringthe team, the investors wouldbe looking to break even pret-ty quickly. Keshav though isrealistic. “We are here for thelong term and don’t expect tomake profits in the first year.’’What about an IPO then?“That is not something we arelooking at,’’ he stressed.

CEO Gaikwad stated thatthe consortium came togeth-er six months ago when someof the investors known to eachother discussed the possibili-ty of owning an IPL team. Ke-shav revealed that the bid waswon despite many in the con-sortium not knowing each oth-er. “I don’t see that as a prob-lem though,’’ he stated.

Piyal Bhattacharjee

Doshi’s son Nayanreturns to roots

Sumit Mukherjee | TNN

Kolkata: Nayan Doshi, son of former In-dia left-arm spinner Dilip, is now an In-dian citizen. Nayan, born in Nottingham,became eligible to apply for citizenshipon January 22 this year after havingresided in the country for the previous 12months, a must for People of Indian Ori-gin (PIO) seeking to be an Indian citizen.

According to a Union Home ministrysource, Nayan was accorded Indian citi-zenship earlier this month, just days be-fore the start of IPL-3, allowing him to reg-ister with the Royal Challengers Banga-lore. Though he is contracted to the RCBas an uncapped Indian player, Nayan is yetto make his IPL debut under former Indiacaptain Anil Kumble, with whom he hasplayed in the county circuit for Surrey.

Like his father, Nayan too is a slowleft-arm orthodox spinner, but bats right-handed. According to his childhoodcoach Debu Mitra, who has also been amentor to Sourav Ganguly, “Nayan hasbeen bowling well in the practice gamesthis year and I am keeping fingerscrossed for him.”

Mitra is also look-ing forward to havingNayan back withSaurashtra where heis the coach. “Nayanmade his first-classdebut for Saurashtrain 2001-02, before Ijoined them. Hecould not play lastseason because theychanged the rules forforeign cricketers. Now that he has gotIndian citizenship, his return will sure-ly boost Saurashtra who have been do-ing well in domestic cricket in the pastfew seasons,” said Mitra.

“His experience in county cricket willcome in handy even as he looks to makean impression on the Indian selectors whoare scouting for quality spinning options,”he added. Nayan, who played for Der-byshire and Surrey, has 150 wickets un-der his belt in first-class cricket from 58matches, including three 10-wicket hauls.His record in T20s is even better. Despitenot having played any cricket in the past18 months or so, Nayan is still among thetop-five spinners in the shortest formatof the game with an economy rate of 6.73in 44 matches, having taken 61 wickets.

“He was on top of his game when hegot injured and had to undergo surgeryon his left shoulder. It took him a whileto get back and I have helped him to getback into the groove. At 31, he still has

plenty of cricket ahead of him and I amsure he will make it count,” Mitra

concluded.

Nayan Doshi

DD take on a resurgent KKRShashank Shekhar | TNN

New Delhi: Up and down, up anddown... go the fortunes of most IPLteams. The format and the closenessof contest make it arduous for anyteam to maintain consistency for agood period of time. And that’s the bigcharm of the League — till very latein the event, you don’t have a clear-cutfavourite and a good number of teamsare in with a chance. This leaves fans

on tenterhooks — expectant, hopefulbut queasy too. This tension-laced ex-citement makes IPL what it is.

The two teams in the high-volt-age clash at the Kotla on Monday —Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata KnightRiders — epitomize this ficklenessof the IPL. Both began the seasonwith back-to-back wins before losingtheir way. Both, then, made strongcomebacks with facile victories intheir last games. It’s, thus, foolhardy

to get into the prediction game whenwhen only thing guaranteed is tur-bulence but what one can surely lookforward to is a cracker of a game.

The team winning on Mondaywill not only earn two vital points,it will also give itself momentum asthe League reaches the mid-waypoint. Daredevils have lost both theirhome matches so far, getting out-played by both Mumbai Indians andChennai Super Kings.

DD bowling weak

Almost halfway throughthe group phase of IPL3, the competition is be-

coming intense. Any team canbeat anybody on any given day,and almost every team still har-bours realistic hopes of finish-ing in the top four and qualify-ing for the semifinals. This iswhat makes the tournament sospecial. This is why IPL 3 seemseven better than IPL 1 or IPL 2.This is why so many peoplearound the world are watching.

From the Delhi Daredevilspoint of view, there is a verystrong conviction among theplayers that we have turned the

corner. After winning our firsttwo matches, the disappoint-ment of losing the next threehas been erased by the victoryover the pace-setting RoyalChallengers Bangalore. Ournext challenge is to sustain ourimproved form when we playthe Kolkata Knight Riders inDelhi on Monday as much asanything, it will be good to giveour home supporters some-thing to shout about.

I have seen it written that wehave probably the strongest bat-ting line-up in the competitionand possibly the weakest bowl-ing attack. I don’t agree with thesecond half of that assessment.Our batting is strong. Headedby Viru Sehwag, there is nodoubt about that although wecertainly recognize the need tobe consistent as a group. Suchis the quality of the IPL. TCM

Twenty20 cricket hardly merits any rest

As we approach the midway pointof IPL3 and more of the inter-national stars begin to arrive

from Australia, New Zealand and Eng-land, I have no doubt that the old top-ic of resting will be raised once again.Should franchises be resting some oftheir big players as we head towardsthe business end of the tournament?

Let me say immediately that T20cricket is the least physically de-manding of any form of the game andit hardly merits being rested, even ifyou played three games on successivedays. Every single player involved inthe IPL has been raised on a muchharder diet of cricket so a three-hour

match is not going to exhaust anyone.If there is a legitimate argument

to be made for resting players, how-ever, then it would be from everythingelse which goes withbeing involved insuch a big tourna-ment. Some days be-gin with very earlystarts and others endvery late in theevening with variousfranchise commit-ments to sponsors, ad-vertisers, promotersand other officials.Iam yet to hear any-body complainingabout any of these du-ties but I have hearda few players mentionhow the three hours on the field is ac-tually the easier part of the job! Some-times a three hour match can involve

eight or nine hours of travelling andanother different hotel room — and itis that part of the tournament sched-ule which can be tiring.

If players be-come jaded as thetournament pro-gresses, then it isfrom all the otherstuff rather than thecricket itself. If asenior player wasrested at some stageof the competition,then I believe hemight breathe a sighof relief at missingout on another cou-ple of airports rat-her than missingthe chance to bowl

four overs or have another innings. Idon’t believe there is a single playerwho would be happy to miss a match.

There may be even more of an ar-gument for trying to keep key playersmentally fresh once teams have qual-ified or almost qualified for the semi-finals but that situation still seems along way off with only the unfortunateKings XI having dropped off the paceat the bottom of the table. And I stillbelieve they are capable of winningfive or six matches in a row and get-ting back into contention.

All this talk of resting, by the way,does not mean that I am thinking ofhaving a rest far from it! I am fit andraring to go and, as far as the RoyalChallengers are concerned, I am thor-oughly enjoying being a part of thebrand and working with all of ourvarious sponsors. We have a fantas-tic spirit within the squad and the en-tire extended family of the franchiseand the idea of being removed fromit has absolutely no appeal at the mo-ment. HAWKEYE COMMUNICATIONS

We’ll Be Here Long, Say Kochi Side Bosses

Rendezvous Sports World Limited CEO Shailendra Gaikwad (left)along with Filmwaves’ Keshav PT, who bid successfully for the Kochi-based IPL team, address the media in Mumbai

Win againstRCB instilledconfidence

The last fortnight hasproved that there are noreal favourites in the IPL

because every team has the abil-ity and the players to beat anyother side. For example, Ra-jasthan Royals beat an in-formDeccan Chargers the other nightto take significant strides up thepoints table. Since no one teamhas really forged ahead, it wouldtake a brave man to predict thesemifinal line-up at this point.

I landed in Delhi on Thursday,the day Delhi Daredevils regis-tered an impressive win againstRoyal Challengers Bangalore in

Bangalore. I started training withthe team on Saturday, and it’sgreat to be back with my oldmates once again. It’s wonderfulthat we have won a game after abit of a rough patch, and judgingby the mood in the side, the winagainst a form side like Banga-lore has instilled confidence inthe group as we look ahead.

We now come up againstKolkata Knight Riders, who wouldbe boosted by their comfortablewin against Kings XI Punjab onSaturday. There is no doubting thematch-winning potential of KKRas they have quite a few playersin their side, who can win a gameon their day. GAMEPLAN

ABDEVILLIERS

ABC OFTWENTY 20

JACQUES

ALL-ROUNDVIEW

KALLIS

Yuvi needs to shed flabI

am a little concernedfor Yuvraj Singh. Hehas scored 99 runs in

6 matches at an average of16.50 so far in IPL 3. Butthat is not what really con-cerns me, what worriesme is the way he lookedthat night at Mohali in thegame against the KolkataKnight Riders.

He is looking slightlyoverweight and is not asathletic as he once was.Could it be that he is notdoing the kind of fitnessroutines a player at thehighest level needs to do ?

It could also be that theinjuries that have haunt-ed him recently may havenot allowed him to workout too much. But thencouldn’t he have done what many injuredplayers in this situation do? Watch that dietand with it, the lifestyle. Yuvi, in my eyes,is one of the best limited overs batsman theworld has ever seen. Very few in the worldare able to give the sheer pleasure that Yuvigives when he is in full flow. His 6 sixes inan over on an International stage has notgot as much world acclaim as it should have,only because it was an English bowler whowas at the receiving end.

It was one of the rareexhibitions of batting ex-cellence seen in one overon a Cricket field. It wasnot just the 6 sixes but theway he hit those sixes thatwas remarkable. He isclearly a batsman that re-lies more on his skills thanhis mind for all his suc-cess. Now, for such play-ers, it is especially criticalthat they take good care oftheir bodies. For it’s thephysical machinery and agood eye that these guyshave to depend on to excelat the highest level.

After a couple of breat-htaking shots off Agarkar,he mistimed the third toget out at Mohali. Thesekinds of misjudgments

happen more often as you age but by beingin peak physical condition you can surelyslow the process. What Yuvi needs to do isactually quite simple. Just hang out morewith the right kinda guys on the cricketingjourney. Guys who have extended their ca-reers beyond expectations by making a fewsacrifices and are now enjoying the fruitsof their labour. And such guys are not so dif-ficult for him to find, he will find a few ofthem in the Indian dressing room itself. TCM

SANJAYMANJREKAR

FINEPOINT PAUL

COLLY’STAKE

COLLINGWOOD

Taylor’s blazington rescues NZ

Hamilton: A sizable crowdwas treated to an entertain-ing batting show by centuri-on Ross Taylor though NewZealand didn’t make the mostof their dominant positionagainst Australia in the sec-ond Test here on Sunday.

The lone bright spot in theNew Zealand batting was Tay-lor, who posted the fastest Testcentury by a Kiwi batsman.His ton came off just 81 ballsas the right-hander went onto make a sensational 138 offjust 104 balls even as the hostswere bowled out for 264 for a33-run innings lead on the sec-ond day. The Australian open-ers Simon Katich and ShaneWatson comfortably knockedoff the deficit to take the to-tal to 35 for no loss before badlight stopped play.

Taylor smashed 19 foursand four sixes in his recordinnings and took a particularliking to the spin of NathanHauritz, plundering the offiefor 25 runs in an over includ-

ing three sixes in a row a four,two singles and a no-ball. Butunfortunately the other mid-dle order batsmen were un-able to stick around.

SCOREBOARD

Australia (I Innings): 231.

New Zealand (I Innings, o/n: 19/1):

McIntosh b Bollinger 4, Watling b

Bollinger 46, Sinclair b Johnson 11,

Taylor c Haddin b Bollinger 138, Guptill

c Ponting b Harris 4, Vettori c Haddin b

Harris 15, McCullum c Ponting b John-

son 5, Patel c Ponting b Johnson 7,

Southee (not out) 22, Arnel c Haddin b

Johnson 7, Martin b Harris 0. Extras

(B-0, LB-0, W-1, NB-4): 5.

Total (all out, 63.3 overs) 264. 278

Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-30, 3-114, 4-143,

5-167, 6-193, 7-234, 8-236, 9-263.

Bowling: Bollinger 14-3-57-3, Harris

15.3-3-50-3, Johnson 16-2-59-4, Hau-

ritz 13-1-68-0, Watson 5-1-30-0.

Australia (II Innings): Watson (bat-

ting) 28, Katich (batting) 6. Extras (B-

0, LB-0, W-0, NB-1) 1.

Total (for no loss, 14 overs) 35.

Bowling: Martin 4-0-15-0, Southee 2-

1-4-0, Arnel 5-1-14-0, Vettori3-1-2-0.

WWW.BLACKCAPS.CO.NZ

Getty Images

CUT AWAY: Kiwi batsmanRoss Taylor smashesone to the fence inHamilton on Sunday

Delhi Daredevils skipper DineshKarthik — spoilt for choice whenit comes to picking a bat —prepares for a hit at the nets inDelhi on Sunday. The Daredevilsface Kolkata Knight Riders athome on Monday

PTI

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