Officials from the Cricket Board and representatives of Rendezvous Sports World, owners of Indian Premier League’s Kochi franchise, are likely to visit the Jwaharlal Nehru stadium, venue for the matches, on Monday.

IPL CEO Sunder Raman is expected to be in the BCCI team that would visit the stadium to see the facilities and was expected to hold discussion with Rendezvous Sports and Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) officials, KCA sources said.

The Rendezvous team would be represented by PT Keshav, Vivek Venugopal and Mehul Shah, sources said.

Renovation work at the stadium is fast progressing and the turf was being revealed, while work on the roofing has already been completed.

Kochi is likely to be a ODI venue in October when the Australians are scheduled to visit India for a seven match ODI series, a KCA official said.

On the proposed construction of an international standard Cricket stadium at nearby Edakochi, the official said, preliminary work for construction is in the final stages.

The stadium, to come up on 23 acres with water frontage of about 400 metres will have a seating capacity of 50,000. This project would include practice stadiums, indoor practice stadiums, international quality turf wickets with facilities to conduct day/night matches and test matches.

Source: Times of India

The Union Minister Sharad Pawar has no connection or involvement in the in bids for the Pune franchisee expresses suspended Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi here on Friday.

However, Modi states that, “the current IPL commissioner was in connection in the bidding process. Pawar has “absolutely zero interests” in any IPL team he added.

In CNN-IBN media reports on Friday, Modi said that the Agriculture Minister and his family members had 16 percent share in City Corporation which was one of the bidders for Pune IPL team.

“He has no direct or indirect interests in any of the teams without any doubt. He has been misconstrued in the media by some vested interests. He had absolutely zero interests,” said Modi.

Modi insisted that Anirudha Deshpande, managing director of City Corporation, bid for the IPL team in his individual capacity and he had set up a consortium for the purpose.

“Anirudha Deshpande was a bidder for a franchisee in Pune (but) he failed to get a franchisee. He had a consortium–it was the consortium which was going to bid. We had asked the bidders to provide their net worth criteria. He used City Corp as a net worth criteria. He was going to form a new group or company which would have three partners in it,” said Modi.

Modi further states that,  Deshpande had listed Amin as one of the partners in the new company they would form if they won the Pune Mr Deshpande was holding 80 pc of the equity, 10 pc was Akruti and 10 pc was Mr Chirayu Amin,” he said.IPL team. ”

Modi’s clarification says that equity pattern would have existed had a new company been formed. “We knew very clearly that Mr Pawar and his family were not involved directly or indirectly in the bidding process. As far as the stakeholders were concerned, we knew who they were.”

Eventually, Pawar on Friday dismissed reports of his family’s involvement in the City Corporation’s bid for the Pune IPL team, by saying that Deshpande made the attempt in his individual capacity.

IPL Chairman and Commissioner Lalit Modi addressed and expressed the feeling across the fans and the players who all presented at the Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy. Here is the notes of his speech.

All decisions have been taken by the general body. I reassure you, that any bad actions or repercussions which take place are my responsibility. I reassure millions of passionate fans of the league and the game across the globe that IPL is clean and transparent. With your support and blessings we have attained worldwide recognition as one of the best sporting leagues ever. We should not allow this brand to be diluted but must emerge much stronger through this process of sublimation and be well.  With the support of millions and millions of viewers and greatest icons of the game along with some of the most promising upcoming talent we shall carry this forward and not allow for you an image to be diminished. As the stand proverb says, ‘The obstacle is our path.’

The IPL has faced many challenges this season; it has not been an easy journey. However, we have met these challenges face on and not once has the team buckled under the pressure. I would like to thank my incredible team and all led by Sundar Raman and our partners for the many thousands of work hours and unwavering support and professionalism that they have shown. Thank you also to all the teams, players, media partners, sponsors, BCCI members, IPL governing council members, the government of all states in executing this. All have played a huge part in making the IPL what it is today.

Many a things have been said in these last few weeks about the IPL but am here as the humble servant of the game and to administer it to the best of my ability. As the Bhagvad Gita says, ‘Fear not what is not real, never was and never will be. What is real always was and cannot be destroyed.’

All I wanted was to leave a small footprint in this glorious history of this game. I thank my family, my children who have stood by me through this trying time all these years and continued to stay with me. I take strength from them. My final thank you is to you the fan, all over the world, we missed you last year in India and it is wonderful to be back home.

It is your passion and this is the reason we built the IPL. Your passion that has sustained us and your passion that enriches us. This is not just the Indian Premier League, it is the Indian People’s League. I humbly dedicate my dreams to all the fans of this wonderful country. Thank you.

Chennai becomes Super Kings as they beat Mumbai Indians by 22 runs and won the IPL 2010 trophy here on Sunday at D.Y. Patil Stadium – Navi Mumbai.

Man-of-the-Match: Suresh Raina for excellent performance in the final.

Suresh Raina set the fire on stage with his brilliant half-century to chase 69, Sachin Tendulkar’s left the hopes as the Chennai Super hero – Captain Dhoni’s moves his magic stick and gave a green signal to Chennai to chase the victory

Suresh Raina – made his day tonight by stitching 57/ 35 balls and his awesome catch as he claimed the wicket of Harbhajan Singh with his off-spin helping the Chennai emerge winners for the first time on the finale grand stage

Mumbai Indians does not create much impact  in the final, despite the fact that captain Tendulkar’s (48 off 45 balls) heroics and Pollard’s (27 off 10 balls) fierce hits at the end, Mumbai Indians ended up with 146 for nine in 20 overs.

The Chennai Super Kings (team) gave a remarkable performance in the field though; Mumbai Indians who dropped Suresh Raina twice had to hand the match to CSK.

Interesting fact of the match: Mumbai have never been all-out in IPL 2010, except for today!

The Royal Challengers Bangalore smashed Deccan Chargers in almost the one-sided game of this IPL Seasons. Since, the chargers were bowled out for 82 and Bangalore romped home with nine wickets and 37 balls to spare in hand here on Saturday at the DY Patil Stadium – Mumbai.

Man-of-the-Match: Anil Kumble

Anil Kumble remarkable performance with a shoot of four wickets for 16runs in just 3.3 overs gave a green signal to Bangalore to hit the game for tonight. Though, Praveen Kumar and Jacques Kallis also backed by two wickets each.

When electing to bat first, Adam Gilchrist thrashed Anil Kumble’s first ball for four. He left with two balls in hand which he further smashed a regulation as the full toss down the fine-leg’s throat and it was all over for Gilchrist. Eventually, Deccan falls down as their poor performance in terms of their sharp bowling.

Though, Deccan charges – Anirudh singh stand out from the crowd as he stitched 39 balls for 40 in a very tough situation. It was a very challenging job for Anirudh as he made charges a standing throughout this match.

Deccan Charges two new recruits Anirudh Singh and Venugopal Rao – for this match gave a happening performance for the game tonight. As the duo combined to score 43 runs with Singh hits a strong blows.

Royal Challengers Bangalore’s remarkable performance and with superb bowling allows them to restrict Deccan Chargers to 82 – the lowest total of IPL 2010.

With this comprehensive victory, RCB join IPL 2010 finalists Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings in the Champions League Twenty20 tournament set to take place in September.

Interesting fact of the match: Nine DC batsmen scored five runs or less!

Deccan Chargers

Adam Gilchrist (c & wk), Anirudh Singh Mohnish Mishra, Rohit Sharma, Dwayne Smith, Andrew Symonds, Venugopal Rao, Pragyan Ojha, Harmeet Singh, Ryan Harris, Rahul Sharma

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Anil Kumble (captain), Jacques Kallis, Kevin Pietersen, Robin Uthappa (wk), Virat Kohli, Rahul Dravid, Dale Steyn, Praveen Kumar, B. Akhil, Nayan Doshi, Cameron White

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