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There were doubts about the success of IPL T20 season 2 after its shift to South Africa due to clash with the general elections in India. But Lalit Modi and BCCI has been trying their best to make this edition of the IPL T20 a huge success too. They are supposed to have introduced two five-minutes strategy break in the matches to increase the advertising revenue. Bollywood and Hollywood stars will also attend the IPL opener if reports are to be believed. And the results have been quite successful with the tickets for the IPL opener being sold out in two hours.

Now, IPL management and Lalit Modi has decided to introduce a carnival before the start of the Indian Premier League. This will be perhaps the first carnival in cricket and it would take place at 12 noon on April 16. All the players participating in the IPL and various Bollywood celebrities will take part in the carnival. It will be a grand parade on the streets of Cape Town with all the IPL teams with their own floats and there would be music, Bollywood celebrities and cricketers in this great extravaganza. Lalit Modi said that this will be a unique experience where all the 200 top cricketers from the world would be present in the parade at the same time.

It seems that IPL T20 season 2 has been marketed very well in South Africa and hope that it turns out to a huge success again as the last year. Cricket and Entertainment seems to be mixed very well in this year’s IPL extravaganza too. The ticket sales have also been quite good till now and it seems that Lalit Modi will again have the last laugh.

Former New Zealand captain and Chennai Super Kings team member Stephen Fleming will take over as the coach of the IPL team after Kepler Wessels’ contract was not renewed by CSK team management. Last year, Rajasthan Royals became the first team to appoint Shane Warne as their captain-cum-coach and the results were tremendous with RR winning the title last year. Maybe this has led to CSK management also think of appointing Fleming for the coach-cum-player role though M S Dhoni will still lead the side. Though Fleming did not have an exceptional IPL season 1 but the Chennai Super Kings management has praised his tactical insight.

However, he added that he will take inputs from Mahendra Singh Dhoni in his job as he thinks him to be a great captain. He said that they helped each other in IPL 1 and they will work together in IPL T20 season 2 too. He said that the most difficult part of his job would be to choose the best four for each game as they have a great bunch of international players. But when asked about Buchanan’s multiple captaincy theory, he said that it sounded too ‘complicated’.

What are your opinions on this decision. Is Fleming the right man for the coaching job?

Less than two weeks to go now for IPL to start which will be played in South Africa this year, maybe not as big as it was last year, but still it holds a lot of promise for Indian cricket, as we hope that new faces will get the nod and emerge as new stars like first edition where we saw number of youngsters performed really well, but those were mostly batsmen, but now this year we are looking forward to see some new young fast bowlers to show their talent and go ahead. Few young rookie fast bowlers who I am looking forward to see this time around are:

Rahil Sheikh: Rahil is a left arm fast bowler and will play for Mumbai Indians in the IPL. He made his first class debut in this Ranji season for Mumbai, played three matches took 9 wickets, but the biggest thing which impressed everybody about him was his pace and bounce. He is tall around 6 foot 4 inches, still raw, and working on his bowling under the eyes of Shaun Pollock in Mumbai Indians. He impressed Sachin Tendulkar in IPL last year when he was bowling in the nets to him and then he was signed by Mumbai Indians. I hope he will get to play in the guidance of Zaheer Khan and learn some trick from him.

Umesh Yadav: This guy was the most impressive fast bowler in the just concluded first class season as he progressed very similar to his bowling which is very quick. He first started playing U-22 matches for Vidarbha and after only two matches he was drafted in the ranji side and played 4 matches took 20 wickets, and then Duleep trophy where he took 5 wickets in the first innings including the wickets of VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid. This year he will play for Delhi Daredevils under the eyes of TA Shekher and Glenn McGrath. His biggest asset is his pace and incoming deliveries by which he trapped Dravid into shortleg which is very unusual for Dravid to get out against a fast bowler. He bowled over 140 Ks in that Duleep Trophy match and he is now a big hope of Indian cricket.

Sudeep Tyagi: This will be a long awaited debut for Sudeep Tyagi if he makes it as he was signed last season but could not play because of a serious back injury in a Devdhar Trophy match and he had to sit on the sidelines for a long time. He will play for Chennai Superkings and I hope he will make full use of the opportunities given to him. He emerged on the scene in 2007 Ranji trophy when from no where Mohmmad Kaif picked him during the ranji trials as he was impressed of his pace and bounce being a tall man and he immediately played his first ranji match and created history after taking 10 wickets on debut and at the end of the season he emerged as the highest wicket taker, but an unfortunate injury haunted his progress and he had sit out for 6 months before he was picked for India A against Australia A where he again showed whey he was rated so high by his captain. In a four day game, he destroyed Australia A batting line up with his pace and reverse swing which had players like Simon Katich, Philip Hughes, Adam Voges, Marcus North, Luke Rhonchi and all these players have played for Australia. Even Australia A captain Katich and coach were impressed with his pace and reverse swing.

Anureet Singh: He plays for Railways in ranji and will play for Knight Riders in this IPL. He is a tall fast bowler who is talked about a lot in the domestic circuit and then went in KKR trials camp and selected to play fro KKR. Lets hope he delivers what he is selected for.

All the tickets for the IPL T20 season 2 opener in Newlands, Cape Town has supposedly been sold out within two hours today. Most people were quite critical of how the South African people would react to the Indian Premier League after the venue had to be shifted to South Africa due to clash with general elections in India. But if the occupancy of the IPL opener is any hint for the rest of the tournament then it might turn out to be a huge success in SA too. The IPL opener on April 18 would include a grand opening ceremony and two matches back to back. In addition to that there will be the mix of Bollywood and Hollywood in the IPL season 2 opener. IPL has been aggressively promoted amongst the masses and most of the matches has also been organized on cities with huge Indian population. The ticket prices has also been kept quite affordable so that all the South African people can enjoy this extravaganza of cricket and entertainment without burning a hole in their pocket. And this hard work by BCCI and South African Cricket seems to have already shown the results. It was expected that ticket sales in SA might take a few weeks to catch up but the sell out of the tickets in the IPL opener has ended all the negative presumptions. And there has been booking of tickets not only from South Africa but from other countries like England, Middle East and South Africa. IPL commissioner Lalit Modi said that IPL T20 season 2 might help them in gaining a global fan base.

Although the full occupancy in the IPL opener cannot guarantee full occupancy for the rest of the matches but it is surely a definite trend that cannot be denied. Let us wish that the occupancy is full in most of the match and IPL T20 season 2 turns out to be a grand success. And whatever we say it seems Lalit Modi always has the laugh laugh.