So we are just one day away from the first test between England, and the team from Caribbean at Lords. To start with it will be interesting to see how the windies will adapt to the conditions in England and I have to say that till now they have not come out with good performances in the warm up games.


Windies have been further hampered by Gayle joining the team late as he wanted to play one more IPL game! well being the captain of your national team it does not look good.

As far as selection issues are concerned they are probably still debating on who will be the third seamer and in the race are Richardson, Baker, and Sammy and for the all rounder slot Bernard will likely fit in.

For England as we know that it will be the first game for Flower as a permanent coach and he would like to start on a good note. As far as the team is concerned it looks straightforward what with Panesar likely to miss out and Bresnan as well as Onions getting their first chance in tests. I am actually impressed by Onions as he can generate good pace from a short run up and gets late swing also he is reasonably accurate.

I do think that England are the favourites as the Windies team do not look well prepared. For England I expect Anderson to be the key as if there any swing he will trouble the top order. Strauss is in good form and of course KP is also there. It would be interesting to see how Bopara will play at 3 which has become the problem area for England.

For them their openers namely Gayle, and Simmons have to fire but Simmons's habit of closing his face off the bat and Gayle being struck in the crease early on may mean that if there is some movement bowlers like Anderson can trouble them but if they do get a good start then the strong middle order can come into play, of course both Edwards, and Taylor have to fire with the ball too.

Financial facts and figures of the Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament, which starts in South Africa on Saturday…

IPL model
IPL or Indian Premier League is a domestic Twenty20 tournament recognized by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Eight teams aligned to different franchises contest against each other.

Each team plays each other twice in a round-robin league with the top four teams qualifying for the semi-finals. There are 59 matches, including the semi-finals and final.

Television rights
Joint bid by India’s Sony TV network and Singapore-based World Sports Group secured the global broadcasting rights for 1.026 billion dollars for a 10-year period.

The deal was re-negotiated this year after the IPL cancelled the Sony-WSG deal citing poor production quality. Sony-WSG won back the rights after agreeing to pay 1.63 billion dollars for the next nine years till 2017 in an out-of-court settlement.

Dollars paid by individuals and groups at an auction in January 2008 to buy the eight teams
- 111.9 million by industrialist Mukesh Ambani for Mumbai Indians.
- 111.6 million by liquor and airline tycoon Vijay Mallya for Bangalore Royal Challengers.
- 107 million by newspaper group Deccan Chronicle for the Hyderabad-based Deccan Chargers.
- 91 million by BCCI secretary and businessman N. Srinivasan for Chennai Super Kings.
- 84 million by business group GMR Holdings to buy Delhi Daredevils.
- 76 million by Bollywood star Preity Zinta and her friends for Kings XI Punjab.
- 75 million by Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan for Kolkata Knight Riders.
- 67 million by Emerging Media group, partly owned by Lachlan Murdoch, for Rajasthan Royals.

Revenue-sharing model
The BCCI will give out 54 percent of the revenue earned every year from the IPL to the franchises, six percent is put aside as prize money and 40 percent goes into the cricket board’s coffers.

The franchises can generate funds separately through team sponsorships and gate revenues.

IPL tax obligations
The Indian government earned 910 million rupees (approx 18.2 million dollars) as tax revenue from last year’s IPL season.

Top IPL earners (per season, in dollars) :

1.55 million - Kevin Pietersen - Bangalore Royal Challengers
1.55 million - Andrew Flintoff - Chennai Super Kings
1.50 million - Mahendra Singh Dhoni - Chennai Super Kings
1.35 million - Andrew Symonds - Deccan Chargers
975,000 - Sanath Jayasuriya - Mumbai Indians
950,000 - Ishant Sharma - Kolkata Knight Riders
950,000 - Jean-Paul Duminy - Mumbai Indians
925,000 - Irfan Pathan - King’s XI Punjab
900,000 - Jacques Kallis - Bangalore Royal Challengers
900,000 - Brett Lee - King’s XI Punjab
850,000 - Harbhajan Singh - Mumbai Indians
Note: Players not available for the entire tournament are paid on a pro-rata basis per match.
India’s ‘icon’ players
Five Indian stars were given ‘icon’ status and were not put up for auction last year, thereby ensuring they played for their ‘home’ teams. They earned 15 percent more than the highest-paid player in their respective teams

Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai Indians) - 1.12 million dollars
Sourav Ganguly (Kolkata Knight Riders) - 1.09 million dollars
Yuvraj Singh (Kings XI Punjab) - 1.06 million dollars
Rahul Dravid (Bangalore Royal Challengers) - 1.03 million dollars
Virender Sehwag (Delhi Daredevils) - 833,750 dollars
Prize money

Winner: 960,000 dollars
Runners-up: 480,000 dollars
Losing semi-finalists: 240,000 dollars
Fifth-placed team: 160,000 dollars
Sixth–placed team: 140,000 dollars
Seventh-placed team: 100,000 dollars
Eighth-placed team: 80,000 dollars


IPL Sony Set Max Pormo