Delhi Daredevils' new vice-captain | Jayawardena

Mahela Jayawardena, a legend in the modern cricket arena was absorbed into the Delhi Daredevils team (at a price tag of 1.4 million dollars) as the Kochi Tuskers Kerala franchise was dissolved last year. Now they have named him as Virender Sehwag's deputy for the fifth season of the tournament.

During his last series against South Africa, he had taken over the mantle of Captain of Sri Lanka (which he has held before) from fellow team-mate Tilakaratne Dilshan. From then on Sri Lanka has been showing tremendous vigor and winning attitude, which can be seen in the ongoing Commonwealth Bank tri-series. 

Delhi Daredevils' Team Mentor T.A. Sekar felt that it was an easy decision to make."He has an excellent track record as a leader of men and draws enormous respect from his team-mates," said Sekar, "We are aware of the immense value that Mahela brings to the table and are sure that the team will benefit from his presence in the leadership team."

Sekar said skipper Virender Sehwag had welcomed Jayawardena's choice as vice-captain. "Viru told us that he would find Mahela's experience as a leader very handy. We are confident that they will bring the best out of the squad this season. That will enable us stay competitive through the season - and have the chance to celebrate Mahela's 35th birthday on May 27," he said.

Will Sahara have 5 foreign players?

Yes. If all the other franchises agree to it; according to the IPL governing council. If Sahara Pune Warriors manage to get the consent of all the franchises for fielding five foreign players, we could get to see another twist to the tale in the fifth edition of the tournament.

The long term sponsor of Indian cricket team, had recently entered into a deal with the BCCI after announcing a pull out from the IPL just before the players' auction this month. In a bid to break the stalemate, BCCI and the aggrieved Sahara Group reached a compromise after a series of hectic negotiations.

We need to wait and see how Sahara makes use of this new opportunity, and hope it makes a worthy replacement to Yuvraj Singh in the middle. 

Sahara's prorable wish list | Cricinfo's take

Cricinfo.com has made an attempt to list out 5 players who would be on the wish list of the Sahara Pune Warriors in the auction window reopened after their deal with BCCI. Now they have a purse of $3.4 million and they could put it into effective use with Saurav Ganguly having a say.

Richard Levi (the recent sensation as we have mentioned before), Kevin O'Brien, Jacob Oram, Ravi Bopara and Lonwabo Tsotsobe are the picks. Kevin O'Brien has the astonishing century against England during the world cup in 2011 to his name. However his average in T20 is not very impressive. Ravi Bopara's name must have come across, after his performance in the recently concluded ODI series against Pakistan. Tsotsobe's claim to this this list must have been hin coveted ICC rank for ODI bowlers.
In addition, the fans had named some picks on their own; Owais Shah (Big Bash fame), and Martin Guptill (NZ) were some of the names worth a mention.

Lalit Modi | Back on domestic scene

Rather than the usual war of words over social media, we seem to have a patch up scenario over Twitter. This time it is the ousted IPL chairman Lalit Kumar Modi and Sanjay Dixit of RCA (Rajasthan Cricket Association). 

 The once upon a time rivals have now announced truce and come together over common rivalry against the current state administration, headed by CP Joshi.  

I have resolved issues with Sanjay Dixit. and will Team with him for betterment of Cricket in Rajasthan. I helped build the infrastructure. He went forward and implemented cricket reforms which have resulted 2 years in a row Rajasthan winning Ranji Trophy.
- A Tweet by @LalitKModi (2012-02-19)

"When two persons with [a] passion for cricket combine, [the] sky is the limit," Dixit wrote in reply to Modi's positive tweet. 

This patch-up seems to have been done with the next RCA elections in mind. All will go well if Rajasthan's cricket sees the better of all this drama and politics.

Richard Levi | Pune Warriors' Steal?

Twenty four year old, South African cricketer Richard Levi hod been shown the cold shoulder by almost all the IPL Franchises in the auctions on 4th February. Now he has made them sit up and take notice by taking just 45 balls to score the fastest century in the history of T20 Internationals. His knock included a notable 13 sixes (also a record in itself) at the Seddon Park (Hamilton) last Sunday.

The Cape Cobras opening batsman, had a base price of just USD 50,000 but was not picked by any of the teams. Now it sounds like a great miss. However we still have a chance to watch his shots at play if Pune Warriors choose to rope him in at a steal away price. Post the deal between BCCI and Sahara, the Pune Warriors, who are back in the IPL, should certainly hire Levi as he has raised quite a few eyebrows already with his knock.

Other teams who have lost out on him could just blame it on their poor homework, as the right-hander who plays for South Africa Academy has quite a reputation in their domestic cricket arena. He has an impressive strike-rate of over 106 in 51 List A matches.

On Sunday he crossed his personal best score in the Twenty20 format and ended up with a tally of 117 runs of 51 balls (which is also the record for the highest score in a Twenty20 International innings, a record he shares with West Indian Chris Gayle) in the match against New Zealand.

Sahara - BCCI deal | End of standoff

Sahara group and BCCI standoff has finally been mitigated, with both parties reaching compromise on Thursday. Sahara group emerged winner claiming that most of its demands were met by the BCCI and will continue to sponsor the Indian cricket team and also own the Pune Warriors team during the fifth season of IPL this year.

The auction window for Pune Warriors is being reactivated and the trading window will be extended from the 17th to 29th February. This window refers to the period during which players can be transferred across teams. IPL chairman and Congress MP Rajiv Shukla informed NDTV that  the Kolkata Knight Riders co owner and bollywood superstar, Shah Rukh Khan proved a key mediator.

Earlier this month, Sahara, the Indian cricket team's official sponsor for 11 years, announced separation of its ties with the BCCI, claiming that it was treated unjustly and the last straw proving to be the BCCI's refusal for Yuvraj Singh's price to be added to Pune Warriors' auction purse after the former's prolonged treatment for lung tumor and consecutive ruling out of this season of IPL. 

Had Sahara walked out of the deal, the Board's biggest headache will be to look for a new team sponsor. Sahara have been contracted to pay the BCCI approximately Rs 3.34 crore per match (Test, One day and T20's). Also, the IPL franchise Pune Warriors was bought by Sahara for Rs.1,702 crore, as the most expensive franchise in the league. In the worst case, the BCCI could be losing out on around Rs.2,234 crore.  

Meanwhile,  BCCI president, N. Srinivasan stressed that no rules would be bent to accommodate the demands of Sahara but BCCI would be willing to work within their framework to help the franchise. 

At a time when there was a wait from all corners if things would start moving smoothly ahead of the IPL, the new deal comes as a sigh of relief. Let's hope that the new season brings a renewed spirit in the Pune Warriors camp and see if they can put up a challenge for the rest of the teams.

New Dawn New Knights | KKR's makeover

Shah Rukh Khan always believes in shaking things up in the marketing arena to create visibility. This time it's not another Bollywood publicity stunt. The arena is the already in the scene IPL 2012. The co-owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders along with  Juhi Chawla, Jay Mehta along with the CEO of KKR Venky Mysore has refreshed the KKR outlook with a new logo and fresh tagline "New Dawn New Knights".

The new KKR logo, designed by Sophie Lutman of Lambie-Nairn agency, does away with the original gold and black colour scheme and has gone in for a stylish purple and gold.

Reacting to the new colors, the actor said that he replaced black because it wasn’t “lucky”. “The golden color was because I like gold, and the black has been changed because I was told that it was not lucky. Last year, since we couldn’t make it to the top four I can’t even argue with it,” he said.

However, taking forward the discussion Shah Rukh said Juhi wanted the clothes to be in pink. "Juhi's suggestion was to make our clothes into pink and that suggestion may follow if you don't win the finals this year. And you can imagine Yusuf Pathan in pink dress," the 46-year-old said.

Social networks Twitter and Facebook took turns in promoting the news soon after the unveiling, with Shah Rukh tweeting, "New KKR logo launched...was so good to be with people who have positive goals in heart and mind. I love my KKR team and friends Juhi & Jay." and the team’s Facebook page overflowing with fans commenting on the new design.

Let's wait and find out if the change in the logo, jersey and tagline motivate the players enough and tilt fortunes in favor of the Knights this time around.