1. Glamourous IPL Opening Ceremony Today
A glamour-filled opening ceremony will be held on Friday at Mumbai, featuring Bollywood personalities and all-girl English pop band TBC for Season 9 of the Indian Premier League that starts on 9 April.
Tinsel Town’s top stars like Jacqueline Fernandez, Yo Yo Honey Singh, Katrina Kaif, Ranveer Singh, American singer Chris Brown and many others will be present at the ceremony along with TBC who will perform in India for the first time.
The ceremony will see 200 dancers and mass cast performers and a huge number of folk artists and percussionists.
Mumbai Indians take on the new franchise, Rising Pune Supergiants in the opening game of the tournament at Mumbai on Saturday.
2. Yuvraj Singh to Miss First Two Weeks of IPL
India’s star all-rounder Yuvraj Singh is still recovering from the knee injury he incurred during the World T20. The Sunrisers Hyderabad coach Tom Moody confirmed that Yuvraj will be missing at least the first two weeks of IPL.
Sadly, Yuvraj will be out for a couple of weeks but we don’t know how long that is going to be. A player like Yuvraj Singh is important to any team. He is not only a match-winner with the bat but he is a very useful bowler in those middle overs.Tom Moody told iplt20.com
3. HC Allows Inaugural IPL Match in Mumbai on Saturday
Declining to put on hold the first match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2016 season starting in Mumbai on Saturday, the Bombay High Court on Thursday asked the Maharashtra government to specify whether the water supplied to various stadiums was potable or non-potable.
A division bench of Justice VM Kanade and Justice MS Karnik said that until this was made clear, the issue of granting a stay on the match could not be considered.
The bench was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the wastage of huge quantities of water for cricket pitches when the state is reeling under a drought.
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4. ICC Clears West Indies’ Sunil Narine’s Action
The ICC has cleared West Indies’ Sunil Narine’s action just two days before the opening game of the IPL, which is on Saturday. The spinner was suspended in November last year after he was reported for suspect action during the ODI series against Sri Lanka.
All of Narine’s deliveries with a remodelled action has been cleared and he is free to participate in domestic and international matches.
Narine has been an integral part of the IPL team, Kolkata Knight Riders. He has picked up 74 wickets for the team and helped them win the IPL in 2012 and 2014.
5. Australia Humiliate India 5-1 in Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament
Australia beat India 5-1 in the latter’s second match of the Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey tournament at Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
Playing their first match of the tournament, Blake Govers put Australia ahead in the fifth minute but India swiftly restored parity three minutes later through Rupinder Pal Singh.
But Australia then wrested the initiative and went on a scoring spree, netting in the 13th, 20th and 26th minutes to build a sizeable 4-1 lead and put the game to bed.
India were able to play out a goalless third quarter but Matt Gohdes completed India’s humiliation with a fine diving effort in the last quarter. India take on Canada on Sunday.
6. Kambli Tweets His Interest in Being Pakistan Coach
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is looking for a new coach and from the looks of it, former Indian cricketer Vinod Kambli is interested in taking up the job.
After their failed Asia Cup and World T20 campaign, head coach of the Pakistan Cricket Team Waqar Younis resigned from his position. And almost immediately the PCB released a job opening for the post of head coach and even tweeted the same, immediately. Seems like they are in no mood to waste any time.
Vinod Kambli found this opportunity to create some social buzz as he tweeted to Asma Shirazi, a Pakistani journalist, that he is ready to take up the job.
7. Almost on Cue, an IPL Link in Panama Papers
A mysterious offshore firm was part of a 10-member consortium that made an unsuccessful bid in 2010 for IPL’s Pune team, according to an Indian Express report in their ‘Panama Papers’ series. The consortium reportedly used the services of the Panama law firm at the centre of attention – Mossack Fonseca.
All 10 members of the consortium signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) forming a company called P-Vision Sports Private Limited. All parties invested in the company and owned shares “for the purpose of operating the IPL franchise on successfully winning the bid”.
Read the entire report here.
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