Shoaib joins the Chargers

Syed Mohammed Shoaib, a 22 year old fast bowler from Hyderabad has been signed on as the newest member of the Deccan Chargers. With his inclusion, the squad now has 27 players. He has had a good season for Hyderabad in the Ranji trophy this year taking 24 wickets.

Apparently Shoaib was selected to appear for trails to the Kolkata Knight Riders team earlier in the year, but he couldn't make it in time to appear there. The Chargers selectors noticed this guy only after he took 7 wickets for Hyderabad against Andhra in the Pillai Trophy!! Hope the Chargers selectors start notiocing local talent sooner before other teams gobble them up next time.

Reacting to the news of his inclusion in the team, Sohaib said, “I am delighted to be in the Chargers team. It will be a great honour to play alongside some of the finest cricketers like Adam Gilchrist and V.V.S. Laxman. The IPL stint should benefit my bowling as I will try to pick up a few tricks." Talking about his dreams to represent the country, he said, "This should also help me in realising my ultimate goal of playing for the country. I will not be found wanting in commitment and hard work. This is surely a golden chance to progress as far as my career is concerned.”

All the best Sohaib, have a great season!!

Chargers team - Gilchrist (c & wk), Rohit Sharma (vc), Laxman, Symonds, Harris, Gibbs, Styris, Vaas, Zoysa, R.P Singh, D. Smith, F. Edwards, Silva, Venu, Arjun Yadav, Teja, Ojha, Kalyan, Vijay, H. Das (wk), Sarvesh, Bansal, Jaskarandeep, Abhinav, Suman, Bisla (wk) and Sohaib.

Source - The Hindu

Schedule for Chargers

The Deccan Chargers match schedule for the 2nd season of the Indian Premier League is:

April 11: vs Kolkata Knight Riders - Kolkata
April 13: vs Chennai Super Kings - Hyderabad
April 16: vs Delhi Daredevils - Hyderabad
April 18: vs Kings XI Punjab - Mohali
April 22: vs Rajasthan Royals - Jaipur.
April 26: vs Mumbai Indians - Visakhapatnam.
April 30: vs Royal Challengers - Visakhapatnam.
May 02: vs Mumbai Indians - Mumbai
May 04: vs Rajasthan Royals - Hyderabad.
May 07: vs Royal Challengers - Bangalore.
May 10: vs Kolkata Knight Riders - Hyderabad.
May 12: vs Chennai Super Kings - Chennai.
May 14: vs Delhi Daredevils - Delhi.
May 16: vs Kings XI Punjab - Hyderabad.

The semi-finals of the IPL will take place at Chennai on May 21st and 22nd..
The finals will be at Mumbai on May 24th.

Vizag named second venue for Chargers

The port city of Visakhapatnam, has been named as a second venue for the Deccan Chargers, in addition to the existing venue at Hyderabad. The ACA-VDCA stadium, which will host the Deccan Chargers in two of their home games, was built in 2003 and can host 46,000 fans. The pitch is known to be ideal for batting (the highest score recorded was 356/9 by India against Pakistan), so expect lots of excitement at this new venue.

Weekly Chargers Roundup - 1

The current test series between England and West Indies, has seen one of the new recruits of the Deccan Chargers - pace bowler Fidel Edwards - enjoying some cricketing action. Sadly Edwards has been putting in below par performances compared to the impressive Jerome Taylor. Neglecting, the abandoned, 2nd test, Edward's performance has been :

Overs : 50
Runs : 170
Wickets: 3
Economy:3.4

Hardly flattering figures. We hope Edwards can pull up his socks and get out of his lean patch soon!

Deccan Chargers IPL team announced

Finally, the team for the Deccan Chargers, which fared poorly in the first edition of the Indian Premier League has been unveiled. In a low key announcement - as has been the norm of the team this season, at odds with the hype generated in the first season - 26 players have been unveiled for the team.

VVS Laxman, has been stipped of captaincy but the most notable exclusion in the team is the explosive Shahid Afridi, who won't be taking part in the IPL because Pakistan has banned its players from playing this season. Also, ex-India allrounder Sanjay Bangar has been dropped after an indifferent first season.

The new entrants are Ryan Harris, a promising all-rounder from Australia. Dwayne Smith - allrounder from West Indies and Fidel Edwards, a pace bowler from West Indies. 5 new domestic players have also been added. M S Bisla is a wicketkeeper for Himachal Pradesh. With his inclusion, the team now has 3 wicketkeepers (Halahar Das is a wicketkeeper for Orissa). T Suman, and Abhinav Kumar have been consistent batsmen for Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy. Jaskarandeep Singh and H S Bansal are fast bowlers from Punjab. On March 7th, it was reported that Syed M. Sohaib, a 22 year old fast bowler from Hyderabad has also been signed up, taking the total number of players in the roster to 27.

THE TEAM

1. Adam Gilchrist (captain) - Australia
2. Rohit Sharma (vice captain) - India
3. V.V.S. Laxman - India
   
4. Andrew Symonds - Australia
5. Herschelle Gibbs - South Africa
6. Scott Styris - New Zealand
7. Ryan Harris - Australia
8. Dwayne Smith - West Indies
9. Chamara Silva - Sri Lanka
   
10. Y. Venugopal Rao - India
11. N. Arjun Yadav - India
12. D.B. Ravi Teja - India
13. Chaminda Vaas - Sri Lanka
14. Nuwan Zoysa - Sri Lanka
15. Fidel Edwards - West Indies
16. R.P. Singh - India
    
17. Pragyan Ojha - India
18. D. Kalyankrishna - India
19. P. Vijay Kumar - India
20. Halahar Das - India
21. Sarvesh Kumar - India
22. H.S. Bansal - India
23. Jaskarandeep Singh - india
24. Abhinav Kumar - India
25. T. Suman - India
26. Manvinder Singh Bisla - India
27. Syed M. Sohaib - India
    

The team will be coached by Darren Lehmann, who will be assisted by Mike Young,(fielding coach) Kanwaljit Singh(asst. coach), Steve Smith (trainer) and Sean Slater (physio)

Tim Wright - a mistake?

In the end, it was a good show. The auction for the signing of new players for the second season of the Indian Premier League took just over 2 hours to complete. Though not as long as the monstrously long first auction, the auction had its moments.

That Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff and the Aussie-slayer JP Duminy would be the 'hot' buys was always expected. (Pietersen and Flintoff bagged US$ 1.55 million, while Duminy went for just under a million dollars). The unexepected was the US $ 650,000 for the relatively unheard of Tyron Henderson (South Africa). Tyron was a consistent performer in the twenty 20 cup in England, but splurging more than half a million for a 34 year old player seems to defy logic. The story of the auction,however was how a young man from Bangladesh, with a base price of $50,000, is laughing his way to the bank with an cheque 12 times that amount! There is no other way to explain Mahrafe Mortaza's jackpot other than the fact that he is extremely marketable for the Kolkata franchise - whose ambition is to build a fan base in the neighbouring country.

THE MISTAKE!
But in the middle of all this money changing hands, one story has gone almost unnoticed. It is that of the struggling, wooden spoon franchise of the inaugrual IPL, the Hyderabad Deccan Chargers and its new CEO, Englishman Tim Wright. The Chargers had the most explosive line-up in the first edition of the IPL, after buying big hitters with bigger reputations (Adam Gillchrist, Andrew Symons, Herschelle Gibbs, Shahid Afridi etc). With so many superstars in the team, the team was billed to be the favourite to win the top prize. However, the team ended up as the flop of the first season, winning just 2 out of 14 games and losing all 7 home games!

In a hasty reaction, the owners of the team appointed a new CEO, Tim Wright barely a week after the completion of the first season. Wright was the senior vice president of the sport marketing company IMG, with over 17 years of experience. He was brought to turn around the fortunes of a superstar team. The appointment seemed great at first with Wright singing all the right tunes, and professionally handling the various crises that happened in the team including sacking of the captian, VVS Laxman.

But on 6th Feb, when he was supposed to be at the ball room of a resort in Goa, India, for the auction, Wright went missing. News started filtering around that the CEO of the struggling franchise had left the country, and was no longer with it. Later on it became clear that he had committed serious violations of Foreigners Registration Act (FRA) and was avoiding the country fearing police interrogation. It also became clear that these offences were committed a long time ago and he was fully aware of the proceedings against him. Now, it might be too early to judge the impact Wright had on the franchise, but abdicating his responsibility when the franchise needed him the most just as the new season is building up, doesn't give a good testimony about the man. If Tim was aware of the proceedings, and innocent, why didn't he clear his name first, knowing his importance at this stage to the team? If guilty, why did he take up the assignment, knowing that he would be prosecuted sooner or later?


Overall, its a good reminder for the teams, not to take hasty decisions. When people are appointed to positions of responsibility, it shouldn't be based on their professional expertise alone. Their characters should also be examined. This is something that is overlooked today, in the competitive world. If for all positions of authority; alongwith expertise and experience, moral character is considered, the world - not just sports - would be better off.