IPL team Deccan Chargers' stake sale

The IPL bidding wars have begun. The first team on the block is Deccan Chargers with at least 10 firms, including a few media houses and some of the leading private equity funds in the race to acquire a majority stake in Hyderabad’s Deccan Chargers, the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket team currently owned by the Deccan Chronicle group.

According to highly placed sources, KPMG, the advisors for Deccan Chronicle Group on the stake sale of Deccan Chargers, is currently in talks with at least 8-10 ‘interested parties’.

“There are a couple of leading media houses and some private equity funds (including some international funds) that have shown interest in Deccan Chargers. We should be closing the deal quickly,” a source close to the development said on conditions of anonymity.

The Hyderabad IPL cricket team has been on the block since last month after the Deccan Chronicle group acquired it earlier this year by paying $107 million (about Rs 502 crore) to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Deccan Chargers is the second IPL team hunting for investors after Rajasthan Royals, which represents Jaipur and won the maiden tournament, has been on the lookout, sources said.

It might be a bit tough to sell the stake in Deccan Chargers in times of financial turmoil in the economy, however, sources in KPMG say that IPL, as a television property, generated high viewership ratings consistently between April and June and therefore has proved to be an event that attracts both viewers and advertisers.

“The fact that IPL ratings beat the ratings of several leading entertainment channels confirms that the format worked. Investors and all interested parties believe that there is a lot of return value in owning an IPL team,” a source close to negotiations with the potential investors said.

Deccan Chargers was the most expensive IPL team after Mumbai and Bangalore and the Deccan Chronicle group paid $107 million over ten years to the BCCI. Later, Group M, the leading advertising agency group, acquired 20 per cent in it, sources said.

The team spent over $5.88 million (Rs 28 crore) acquiring 11 players (both domestic and international). Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds was one of the highest-paid IPL players, with a fee of $1,350,000, almost double Adam Gilchrist’s and over four times captain VVS Laxman’s earnings.

Twenty 20 cricket inventor concerned about sport

The marketing man credited with inventing Twenty20 cricket has some concerns about the super-shortened format's effect on the sport.

Stuart Robertson was marketing manager of the England and Wales Cricket Board in 2000 when he devised the format for the 20-overs-a-side game, trying to overcome dwindling crowds at county matches.

Now star players having come out of retirement to sign lucrative contracts with the cashed-up Indian Premier League and the game, packaged perfectly for three hours of television or an afternoon or night away at a stadium, could spread to the United States and even China.

Robertson said on Thursday that he's not sure whether the sport and its stars can be stretched so many ways in a schedule full of international commitments.

"That's going to be a really tricky and interesting one going forward," Robertson, now the commercial director of English country Hampshire, said at a Cricket Victoria lunch.

"If the model is to replicate the IPL, the IPL is so powerful because it has all of the world's stars playing in it, I guess you're going to come to a point where it gets saturated."

England will next year host the second world championship and England, Australia and South Africa are also planning to improve their domestic competitions by attracting foreign players.

India will also host the inaugural Champions League competition later this year, featuring eight domestic Twenty20 teams representing five countries.

Robertson urged the International Cricket Council to monitor the amount of Twenty20 tournaments played, to prevent the risks of too much cricket and players getting burned out. "I kind of wonder if the ICC should be playing a stronger role perhaps in managing it," he said.

Robertson admitted the priorities of elite cricketers could change if Twenty20 continued its popularity. "If you ask a current player, they've been brought up since they were 5, 6, 11, 12 knowing test cricket is the pinnacle of their sport," said Robertson, who remains a supporter of test and 50-over matches.

"It would be interesting to ask a young Indian player who's now 16 or 17 who is breaking into a Twenty20 environment, and ask them in five years what the most important part of their sport is."

Bangla Players to Play in Indian Premier League (IPL )

The next Indian Premier League season is to begin on April 10, 2009 but things have started stirring up a bit already. The auction of IPL teams is to take place in January 2009, two months before the IPL twenty twenty 2009 season begins.

More players will be included from different regions. For example the BCCI has promised the Bangladesh Cricket Board to rope in more cricketers from the neighboring country into the lucrative Indian Premier League in its second season April next year.

IPL Chairman Lalit Modi said the Indian Cricket Board will help Bangladesh recover from the exodus of 13 top players to 'rebel' Indian Cricket League by also including a team from Bangladesh in the 2010 Champions Twenty20 League. It looks like that BCCI and politicians are already playing a tournment of one up man ship between Indian Premier League (IPL) and Indian Cricket League (ICL).

"We will definitely play an active role in helping them out. We are looking at adding a few Bangladesh players for the next IPL auction. And we are also looking at a team from Bangladesh participating in the Champions League from 2010 onwards," Modi told cricinfo website.

Left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak is the only Bangladesh player currently in the IPL, signed up by Bangalore Royal Challengers for $50,000.

National Boards will receive a significant sum for participating in the Champions Twenty20 League, along with a separate participation fee for the domestic Twenty20 teams that are invited.