Are you surprised? I was also surprised when I read the same at a thread at a cricket forum by one of the forum members. After a lot of research, the post seemed to be quite trustworthy. Atul Sharma might be the world’s fastest bowler, the next pace sensation and a very good gift for India.
Atul Sharma has been included in the Rajasthan Royals IPL squad this year as can be found in the IPL official website and he might be the biggest find of IPL season 2 and perhaps India’s biggest fast bowling find in years.
Nobody is sure but let us wait and check out if he really turns out to be sensation in the IPL. This has made me even more eager to watch this year’s IPL and hope he really matches up to the expectations.
Bangalore Royal Challengers owner and one of India’s richest business tycoons Vijay Mallya said that he preferred England as the venue outside India. He said that the tournament would have drawn bigger crowds in England as compared to South Africa.
Mallya said
To be honest, I would have preferred England to South Africa.You could have taken just one flight from five or six cities in India to England and it would have been cheaper. Besides, an average Englishman loves his cricket and the stands there would have been full of spectators. But, I guess the weather conditions clinched the issue for South Africa
But if reports are to be believed, Mallya has also spotted opportunity in South Africa with the unexpected move. Mallya’s Bangalore Royal Challengers have six players of South African origin in their squad, including South Africa-born former England skipper Kevin Pietersen. Pietersen will also lead the team for a few matches before he returns back for county championship. The other South African players in his team include Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher, Dale Steyn, Roelof van der Merwe and Dillon du Preez.
Mallya is a clever businessman and maybe he will make profit out of IPL season 2.
Do you think the IPL franchisee owners will be able to make any significant profit this season.
After the shift of the Indian Premier League to South Africa, BCCI and Cricket South Africa is working closely to decide the new schedule. As per reports published in the Independent Online, Wanderers Stadium which is South Africa’s biggest venue will hold the IPL 2 final on May 24, one semi-final a day before and six other league matches. The 59 match competition will take start off on April 18 at Newlands in Cape Town if reports are to be believed. The official schedule for the matches has not yet been made public but BCCI and CSA is supposed to be in the final stages of finalizing the schedule and would release it hopefully very soon.
IPL season 2 was going through a tough phase since the last few weeks. The Indian government and the BCCI had various talks regarding security etc. as the IPL schedule clashed with the elections. But the IPL commissioner Lalit Modi was sure that the IPL season 2 would surely take place and that too during the same period. And after realizing that the talks with the govt. were going nowhere, he finally announced that the Indian Premier League would be moved abroad this year. England and South Africa were the two prime options for staging the IPL but SA got the edge as the weather and other factors were more suitable for the league. The dates were also changed a bit and IPL 2 would start from April 18 instead of April 10 as planned previously. The number of matches would remain the same at 59 but it would be played in a constricted period of 36 days as opposed to the 45 days initially planned.
Lets wait and see if it is a success after its shift to South Africa. I think it will marginally recover its staging costs and nothing else.
What do think will be outcome of IPL season 2 in terms of revenue.
