Indian premier league or IPL the biggest event of twenty20 cricket is about start again from 11 of next month. There was uncertainty about the event this time after the terrorist attack on Lankan team and the pm election but Lalit Modi chairman of IPL made sure that the event is not cancelled or postpone, and after some changes in the schedule we are going witness the great event again. Before going further a few quick takes about the changes you might see this time:

• · English player will be playing for the first and they are rewarded with huge money for missing the first season, KP and Fredie are bought for as high as 7.5 crore INR. But unfortunately Pakistani players are out of IPL season 2.
  
• · Akshay Kumar will not be the mascot for Delhi’s team this year. Raj Kundra and Shilpa Shetty have invested Rs 75 crore for a 12 per cent stake in the Rajasthan team. Katrina Kaif resumes the role of mascot for the Bangalore team.
  
• · Bangalore trades Robin Uthappa for Mumbai’s Zaheer Khan. Mumbai’s Ashish Nehra is traded for Delhi’s Shikhar Dhawan.
  
• · This time IPL will not be confined to just eight stadiums but it will be also played some new venue like Cuttak, Nagpur, Dharamshala etc.
  
• · And this time you will watch not only foreign cheerleader but also some Indian beauties as teams are busy in hunting cheerleaders for their teams.
  

Now comes the turn of players who are bought this time:

Shaun Tait (Australia) Rajasthan $375,000 ($250,000)

J.P. Duminy (South Africa) Mumbai $950,000 ($300,000)

Andrew Flintoff (England) Chennai $1,550,000 ($950,000)

Kevin Pietersen ( England ) Bangalore $1,550,000 ($1,350,000)

Fidel Edwards (West Indies) Hyderabad $150,000 ($150,000)

Owais Shah (England) Delhi $275,000 ($150,000)

Paul Collingwood (England) Delhi $275,000 ($250,000)

Tyron Henderson (South Africa) Rajasthan $650,000 ($100,000)

Ravi Bopara (England) Chandigarh $450,000 ($150,000)

Thilan Thushara (Sri Lanka) Chennai $140,000 ($125,000)

Jesse Ryder (New Zealand) Bangalore $160,000 ($100,000)

Kyle Mills ( New Zealand) Mumbai $150,000 ($150,000)

Dwayne Smith (West Indies) Hyderabad $100,000 ($100,000)

Mashrafe Mortaza (Bangladesh) Kolkata $600,000 ($50,000)

George Bailey (Australia) Chennai $50,000 ($50,000)

Mhd. Ashraful (Bangladesh) Mumbai $75,000 ($75,000)

Jerome Taylor (West Indies) Chandigarh $150,000 ($150,000)

If we look at the price at which players are bought and compare it with the previous year you may easily draw conclusion that this time the players are bought at high prices and some body like Mortaza has been bought at very high prices comparable to the price of Ishant Sharma who was bought last year. So we could say “sabr ka fal mitha hota hai”(patience paid off). This time owner’s of the team made smart move by running after not only big name but also by picking some of the domestic players of other countries like Henderson from South Africa. This time again team owner’s spent money wholeheartedly despite recession, for example Mr. Mallaya who paid as high as 7.5 crore INR for KP; who could contribute only with bat while in case of Freddie (Flintoff) its understandable that he is a good all-rounder. But I feel money has nothing to do with the caliber of player for example Watson who was bought for less than a crore and still he was the most successful player of the tournament. So I feel money is given to the brand name rather than the actual utility of the player in this format of cricket. T o be successful in IPL I feel foreign players have limited role to play actually it’s the domestic player who holds the key for example Ravinder Jadeja , who played an important role in the success of Rajasthan Royals.

In my next post I will give you the schedule of the whole 44days of the tournament, and after which I would analysis each and every team their strength, weakness and winning probability. I loved IPL last year so this time I am trying to write my perception about it; I will try to compile all the happening about this mega event. From my side I request you to give your valuable feedback, suggestion and comment about the post and blog, so I could make this blog more interesting.