Mumbai: Shashank Manohar was on Thursday confirmed as president-elect of the BCCI, a day ahead of its 78th annual general meeting. He will succeed Sharad Pawar next year.

[That Manohar would be the president-elect was reported by The Telegraph on August 22.]

The Nagpur-based lawyer, one of the vice-presidents of the BCCI currently headed by Pawar, is the only person to have sent in his nomination, secretary Niranjan Shah said. The deadline for filing of nomination ended Thursday.

Pawar is set to quit ahead of the AGM in September 2008 following his nomination as president-elect of the International Cricket Council.

The term of the new president would be for two years followed by another one-year term if he’s elected again at the end of the fixed term.

A major item on the agenda of the AGM is the nomination of a new chairman for the Bangalore-based National Cricket Academy in place of Ajay Shirke, who was appointed as the interim head, following the removal of Kapil Dev.

No fireworks are expected at the AGM with no elections to the office-bearers scheduled. The public interest would be minimal with the same set of selectors to continue both for the juniors and seniors.

Chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar and junior panel chairman Sanjeev Sharma will continue at the helm till the next AGM.

The BCCI has posted a healthy profit of Rs 232 crore and has also enhanced the match fees of domestic players substantially in the wake of the threat from the Indian Cricket League.

The projected revenue for the next fiscal is also considerably more, and these factors plus the recent victories in Ireland, England and World Ttwenty20 in South Africa are expected to make the discussions smooth.

Routine matters like the passing of accounts and the report of the secretary are some of the other items on the agenda.

An update on the proposed Indian Premier League and Champions League is expected to be provided by its vice-president and marketing committee head Lalit Modi.

New Delhi, Sept. 28 (PTI): The BCCI may have stolen the thunder from the Indian Cricket League (ICL) by announcing its own Twenty20 league but Subhas Chandra, chief of Essel Group bankrolling ICL, insists he is not intimidated by the Board.

ICL created a flutter by roping in 50 domestic players, apart from some big names including Brian Lara and Inzamam-ul-Haq, but BCCI retaliated by announcing the IPL and Champions League, which would feature stalwarts like Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Stephen Fleming.

Chandra, however, is unfazed by the development and insists he is not cowered.

“We are not intimidated by the BCCI, don’t worry. We are not worried even,” he told CNN-IBN.

Chandra confirmed that ICL has been pushed to November but insisted that the project was well on its course.

“A lot of progress has been made over the last four months. We were surprised by the public reaction and the media support. It was a tremendous response which we really did not expect.”

New Delhi: India’s triumph in the final of the Twenty20 World Cup may have created a hysteria but the Cricket Board had almost scuttled it when they voted against this slam-bang format in an ICC meeting.

At a time when other Boards were busy accommodating the abridged format, hoping to tap new market and fill empty galleries, a defiant BCCI maintained its rigid stance that India was not ready for the slogathon called Twenty20 and the Board’s top brass felt it could have an adverse effect on the 50-over game.

Reluctant

Subsequently, when the matter came up for voting in an ICC meeting, India was the lone country to vote against the format, even though Twenty20 got a huge thumbs-up with all other nine Test playing countries voting in its favour.

“We were reluctant at first to adopt this version because we thought it would undermine the 50-overs game,” BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah had said.

No choice

“But we were left with no choice after being outvoted 10-1 at the International Cricket Council meetings,” he said.

BCCI Vice President Lalit Modi, while launching the Indian Premier League (IPL) also admitted that the Board was not initially excited by the idea of Twenty20.

“We did not want to take the Twenty20 plunge because we did not have the format in our domestic structure,” he said.

With BCCI not patronising the format, the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led Indian squad left for South Africa having played just one Twenty20 international.

Sunday, 16 September , 2007, 19:07 
 
Melbourne: Legendary Shane Warne has signed with the Indian Premier League, for “significantly less” amount than what was reportedly offered to him by the rebel ICL, media reports said today.

Warne has inked the deal for less than USD 600,000, the minimum figure reportedly offered by the Indian Cricket League, which would add to the credibility of the IPL, according to Australian daily ‘Syndey Morning Herald’ today.

“However, marketing opportunities and a bidding war between the eight IPL franchises could see him earn more than USD 1 million for a month’s work,” it said.

The report said Warne was on the verge of signing with the ICL, but negotiations in the past 72 hours clinched the signature of the spin bowling great, Glenn McGrath and recently deposed New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming.

Full Coverage: Twenty20 World Cup | Exclusive: Allan Border column | Special: English Premier League 2007 | Rahul Dravid Special

McGrath and Fleming were paraded during the BCCI meeting last week to announce the IPL and the Champions League Twenty20 tournament, which would be conducted in partnership with Australian, England and South African boards.

Fleming also took a big sign-on cut to join the IPL, the paper said.

Warne will continue to play for Hampshire in the England county competition, where he has another year remaining on his contract. He will leave in April to join a franchised IPL club in India, where he will play between 10 and 14 games of Twenty20 over 30 to 40 days.

If his Indian team finishes in the top two, Warne may represent that team at the 10-day international Champions Twenty20 League, though that is yet to be confirmed – he could still be offered to the highest bidder.
 

Having joined the Indian Premier League (IPL) post-retirement, former Australian pacer Glenn McGrath now wants to explore other business opportunities there.

Like fellow Aussie Brett Lee, McGrath realises India is the biggest market for cricketer and the pacer has no qualms in admitting that IPL would give him the opportunity to look at those options.

“I’m keen to be involved in it and whether that’s playing or whatever, we’ll see what happens,” McGrath said.

“The Indian market is a big market for cricketers and ex-cricketers. We were going to spend a bit of time over there anyway.”

In India, McGrath also sees a potential market for many of the Aussie state players who can join franchises of their choice.

“Theoretically you could have Ricky Ponting playing for Mumbai against Sachin Tendulkar playing for New South Wales,” he said.

McGrath may have taken the Twenty20 plunge but the former Australian spearhead made it clear that he does not want the slam-bang format to overshadow other versions of the games.

“Hopefully there is room for all three forms of the game but we’ll wait and see. Hopefully the cricketers will continue playing Test cricket and one-day cricket.”

The rebel Indian Cricket League was too small an entity to challenge the authority of BCCI, Board secretary Niranjan Shah said on Sunday.

“ICL is too small to challenge (BCCI), it is very small against the BCCI,” Shah said. He said the BCCI initiative to start the Indian Premier League would benefit young and upcoming cricketers.

“IPL is formed to benefit players. The league wants more and more young and talented players and it will obviously benefit the players,” Shah said.

He also sought support from private enterprises and said they should come forward to help make the concept successful.

Shah expressed hope that Rajkot would host a Test match in the near future. ICC match referee Alan Hurst had recently inspected Rajkot, Jaipur and Vishakhapatnam to find out if they could be upgarded from ODI centres to Test match venues.

Richard Scudamore marches into work at the Premier League every day fretting less about England’s talent pool, foreign ownership and overplaying and more about problems most fans have never heard of, such as the rights dispute threatening the very future of the Premier League. “Some things are skirmishes, but these are wars, and I’m trying to fight them,” Scudamore said.

The Premier League’s success is phenomenal. “I go to the finest stadia ever and watch some of the quickest, slickest, most exciting football,” said the organisation’s chief executive, sitting in his neat office near Marble Arch. But success brings problems.

	Richard Scudamore: with Premier League success comes problems

“Everybody is coming at us. The Premier League is so pervasive, so much part of news, front and back of papers, that basically all the world wants a big slice of us. Reuters would love to come into our grounds, take pictures of our goals, and syndicate them on a world news service – for nothing paid to us. Their argument is that we are of such interest to the world now that it is news.

“If Reuters could get somebody at the European Commission to say the Premier League is news, therefore they can have news access, it would be our entire business gone. If suddenly what we do is available in video form around the world, that’s all our income gone.

“We are constantly out there trying to protect our intellectual property.Littlewoods Pools haven’t paid us for our fixtures for 2½ years. They say we have no copyright. We have to make a decision whether we take them on in court. We have a class action against Google and YouTube in the US. They have no appetite for taking down clips. If every clip of every goal is available on YouTube, what appetite will Virgin Media have for buying them?”

Billions are at stake. “We have started our planning for the next [TV] rights deal,” said Scudamore, who believes fees will rise again for the 2010-2013 period, from their present £1.7billion. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. We are in a maturing pay-TV market. I don’t think we have maxed out. There is more scope, more places to go. As long as the interest in the game is there, we should be able to take it on again. Internationally, there is some growth to go.

“International TV rights were 10 per cent of our income, and are now 28 per cent of our income. We could be at 50 per cent of our income in three years’ time [with international rights touching £1billion]. But it’s not just a case of taking these commercial dollars from these people. We need to give something back internationally, so we are doing community work in India, in townships in South Africa, in sub-Saharan Africa, and in Egypt.”

A sport born in northern mill towns and southern public schools has grown into a global brand. Ownership of famous English clubs transfers – for huge sums – into foreign hands. Scudamore rejects the suggestion that the Glazers, Lerners, Abramovichs and Shinawatras are here solely for the money. “They could get better returns making other investment decisions. It brings them a credibility, a profile, a reputation, whether in their home country or this one, which you can’t get with other investment.

“Any financial aspirations they may have only work if they deliver success. Their interests are aligned to the fans. You don’t buy a Rolls-Royce and try to turn it into a Ford Fiesta.”

The cash flowing into West Ham, Aston Villa and Manchester City has encouraged upward mobility. “I’m not saying we have altered the natural order of the Premier League entirely, but it creates more uncertainty. After the first few weeks, the table looked upside down! City could finish top three or 13th. West Ham could do extremely well.”

He is quick to defend owners like City’s Thaksin Shinawatra. “I don’t work for Amnesty International. I work for the Premier League. I’m not shying away from those issues, but there has to be a reality check. This man was democratically elected, a military junta ousted him, and his party may well get back in forthcoming democratic elections. It would be pretty hard for us, or the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, to say we are with the military junta against the democratically elected prime minister.

“It’s not ideal, but it is part of our role to bring some sense to the debate. I was also at Manchester City when he got a standing ovation. I respect the columnists and opinion-formers but ultimately the fans are the audience that matters. You can get yourself into a moral maze.

“Our intelligence company checks everybody, trying to unearth anything that might contravene our ‘fit and proper person’ test. Do we apply such checks to every businessman in our high street? People forget we have some very credible chief executives, like David Gill at Manchester United, and Alistair Mackintosh at City. Morally, if the foreign ownership was wrong, these credible chief executives would not have stayed in the game.”

SYDNEY, Australia: Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath is looking forward to his involvement in a new Twenty20 cricket league in India but remains a lover of five-day tests.

McGrath, 37, who retired from test cricket last year as the top all-time wicket-taker among fast bowlers, has resumed light training in preparation for his part in the Indian Premier League. He said Wednesday he was looking forward to promoting the game, but hoped Twenty20’s popularity did not impinge on tests.

“Hopefully there is room for all three forms of the game, but we’ll wait and see,” McGrath said. “Hopefully the cricketers will continue playing test cricket and one-day cricket.”

McGrath predicted the new Indian Twenty20 league would be a success, especially since it was based in India. I think in India anything to do with cricket is going to be successful,” he said. “The effect it will have on test cricket or one-day cricket, hopefully it won’t be negative.”

Details of the IPL have yet to be finalized but McGrath said he saw it as an opportunity to promote the game. “To have players like myself and Shane Warne, and Stephen Fleming, it’s more of an ambassador role to give it a bit more credibility,” he said.

“People coming to watch the game are probably not your mainstream cricket fans so it’s bringing more people to the game, which is great.” Like former Australian teammate Brett Lee, McGrath is looking at business opportunities in India.

“I’m keen to be involved in it and whether that’s playing or whatever, we’ll see what happens,” McGrath said.

West Indian Cavaliers wrestled the Notts Premier League title away from defending champions Caythorpe to earn their seventh championship crown in nine seasons in the ECB Premier League while Finedon Dolben matched them for clean sweeps in the Northants League.

The Nottingham side finished with an 11 point lead after the last round of matches were abandoned due to rain and Finedon Dolben retained the Northants Cricket League Premier Division title, having wrapped it up with three matches of the season still to play.

Seven of the 25 leagues welcomed brand new champions to their ranks in 2007. Spondon ruffled a few feathers in the Beechwood Derbyshire Premier League by relegating Sandiacre Twon and Ockbrook & Borrowash, who have dominated the league since 1999, to second and third places.

North Devon defied the odds by lifting the Devon Premier League title for the first time in the Club’s history having only been promoted from the A Division where they had been for two seasons. They left it to the very last day of the season to claim their title beating Barton by three wickets.

Having led the East Anglian Premier League all season, Swardeston beat Norwich in their final match to establish a convincing 22 point win over runners up Godmanchester while Ardleigh Green won their last match of the summer to pip Wanstead to the Essex Premier League title, completing an unprecedented league and cup double.

Oxford (Home Counties) and Audley (North Staffs/South Cheshire) both recorded their first League Championship titles in a season that was badly disrupted by rain. In the highly competitive West of England League, Frocester who mid season had been contemplating relegation, scored a seven wicket victory at Keynsham to seal their title.

Elsewhere, South Northumberland made up for their Cockspur Cup disappointment by scooping the Northern Rock North East Premier League title for the fifth consecutive year after going into the last game just one point behind Sunderland. In Cornwall, St Just made it four in four and in Lincolnshire, Bracebridge Heath were crowned champions for the fifth consecutive year.

Sachin Tendulkar has been appointed ambassador for the Manchester United Opus in India and the publishers are planning a similar epic about the Indian batting great.

Tendulkar, who was the guest of honour at the Premier League match between Manchester United and Sunderland, has been named Indian ambassador for the voluminous hardback epic about the club – and he revealed that the publishers, Kraken, are planning a similar book on Tendulkar.

“This started little more than a year ago,” Tendulkar was quoted as saying by a Press Association report.

“They’re really doing their homework. It’s wonderful to be part of this and I’m looking forward to it,” said Tendulkar who watched Alex Ferguson’s team beat Sunderland at Old Trafford on Saturday.

Tendulkar has gone without a century in the one day series so far but the Indian run-machine said more than personal milestone, his priority was now to help India make a comeback in the series.

“I feel I have been batting well and since we left Indian shores I might almost have had five hundreds by now. Nobody wants to miss hundreds but sometime it happens. It doesn’t matter if I score a hundred or get out on 99 as long as the team wins. That’s what matters to me the most,” he said.

He said the ongoing ODI series has been a see-saw affair even though the hosts managed to have an upper hand.

“If you look at the third and fourth one-dayers, both were evenly poised. At one stage, especially the last one-dayer, we were almost 90 per cent there. Stuart Broad and Ravi Bopara batted quite sensibly and all credit to them.”