IPL 2012 Carnival: The Magical Mystery Tour VIDEO

IPL 2012 Carnival: The Magical Mystery Tour Video

What is IPL? Its a whole lot of cricketing fun, thrill, excitement, entertainment, action, tension, drama, scale and a million other things for everyone in the family. And here's our effort to bring all of this to life... kyunki #yehiplhaiboss!

Client: BCCI
Client Team: Sundar Raman, G Srinivasan
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai
Creative: Abhijit Avasthi, Anup Chitnis, Anuraag Khandelwal, Satish Desa, Sandesh Mangaonkar, Shazaad Arjani
Account Management: Navin Talreja, Dharam Valia, Makarand Nadkarni, Rahul Bhambri, Aakruti Upadhyay
Strategic Planning: Kawal Shoor, Aditya Jaishankar, Rahul Chawra
Director: Anders Forsman
Production House: Bang Bang Films
Production Team: Roopak Saluja, Payal Arora

Kochi Tuskers Kerala IPL Official promotional Theme song

Prabhu Deva to do a dance medley at IPL

Prabhu Deva has a medley ready for the inaugural ceremony of the IPL that's scheduled to take place in Chennai on April 3.

"It'll consists of songs ranging from Urvashi, Muqqabula to my latest numbers," he says, "As it's a big stage and a grand occasion, I'm hoping that audience watching it will like it."

The dancing sensation's performance will last for about 8 minutes. "There will be a lot of celebrities present both from Bollywood and Hollywood," he says, "So, time will be of essence. But I hope to make an impression in the time given to me."

Singer Katy Perry is the international star roped in for the event, but he will not be performing with her.
Fans of the director-choreographer are expecting to see him shake a leg with Salman Khan whom he directed in the super hit film 'Wanted', where they even danced together for a song sequence.The actor will also be performing at the opening ceremony.

Ask Prabhu if we can expect a performance with Salman Khan and he says, "There are no such plans as of now."

Gilchrist to coach and lead Kings XI Punjab

Adam Gilchrist will double up as coach-cum-captain at Kings XI Punjab starting this season. The franchise has appointed Gilchrist, the former Australia wicketkeeper, as head coach for the next three years.

Gilchrist will find ample Australian support on the coaching bench: Joe Dawes, the newly-appointed India bowling coach, and Mike Young, fielding consultant previously with Cricket Australia, would serve as Kings XI bowling and fielding coaches respectively. Vikram Rathour, currently coach of the Punjab state team in domestic cricket, will be the assistant coach to Gilchrist. 

Gilchrist replaced his former Australia teammate Michael Bevan, whose contract was not renewed by the franchise. "We were impressed with his leadership and his technical skills in his first year at Punjab. So it was a natural progression to make him in charge of everything cricket at KXIP," Arvinder Singh, the head of the franchise's management, told ESPNcricinfo. 

Arvinder said the franchise felt there was no need for an exclusive head coach for various reasons. "You don't have access to your players through the year. You just get to meet them a week to ten days before the IPL starts and then you play sixteen games through the season. So the coach per se is not going to be somebody who is going to upgrade your skills during that period," Arvinder said. "You need a person who can understand each individual and the kind of value he brings to the team and utilise it to the maximum."

Gilchrist, Arvinder pointed out, was the right person in the right place to accomplish that. "Gilchrist is the captain and with his vast experience is in a good position. It is best to let one guy decide along with the right support staff and let him decide things." 

Meanwhile, Patrick Farhart, who served as Kings XI physiotherapist in the first three seasons of the IPL before moving last year to Mumbai Indians has returned.

Indian Premier League 2012 - Owners in talks to sell Rajasthan Royals

The owners of the Rajasthan Royals are close to selling the majority of the IPL franchise to a Kolkata-based businessman for $200 million, ESPNcricinfo has learned. However, the deal still requires the approval of the BCCI. Should it go through, it would be the first sale of an IPL franchise in the league's five-year history.

Mannoj Jain, the founder and promoter of the Jain Group of Industries, has offered to buy 88.3% stake from three of the four shareholders in the franchise - Tresco International (Suresh Chellaram and family), which owns a 44.2% stake, Emerging Media (Manoj Badale), which owns 32.4% and Blue Water Estate Ltd (Lachlan Murdoch), the eldest son of Rupert Murdoch, which owns 11.7% - according to a person familiar with the developments. 

The deal values the Royals at $226.50 million, almost three-and-a-half times more than the $67 million the owners paid for the franchise at the original auction in 2008. Raj Kundra and Shilpa Shetty, who bought an 11.7% stake for $15.4 million in 2009, will retain their share in the franchise. The deal with Jain raises the value of their holdings to $26.50 million, an increase of 72% over a three-year period. News of the deal was first reported by the Economic Times on March 20. 

Jain told Times of India on Wednesday that his group wants to buy the franchise but are waiting on the board to evaluate the proposal. "The franchise-owners are willing to sell their stake and are currently in talks with the BCCI," he said. "Everything now depends on the BCCI." 

A top board official said that the BCCI was reluctant to give consent to the deal because there is a strong opinion that Lalit Modi, the former IPL commissioner who was suspended by the BCCI for alleged irregularities during his tenure, might financially benefit from the sale. This is due to unsubstantiated allegations in the past around the possibility that Modi may have hidden stakes in the Royals' ownership. "We suspect if the deal is allowed to go through Modi can benefit financially and some in the BCCI at least do not want that to happen," the official told ESPNcricinfo. 

When contacted, the management of the franchise said they were not aware of a deal and were focused on getting ready for the IPL season that begins on April 4.

According to the Jain group's website, Jain has businesses in infrastructure, steel, power and real estate. The company made a profit of Rs 694.26 million after tax for the year ended 2009-10. Among their projects is the Kolkata Sports City, a sports township set on 250 acres in Rajarhat. 

The Royals have had something of a chequered history in the IPL. Led by Shane Warne, the team won the inaugural tournament in 2008, surprising many in the process. Two years later the BCCI abruptly terminated the franchise from the league, along with the Kings XI Punjab, on charges of transgressing shareholding and ownership norms that threatened to "shake the very foundation of the tender process". However, the Royals fought their expulsion in the Bombay High Court and won, with the court ordering they be restored to the league with all their rights and privileges intact. The court also referred the case to arbitration, the proceedings of which are still on.

IPL 2012 - Ganguly to lead Sahara Pune Warriors

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly will be leading Sahara Pune Warriors in the IPL's fifth season in the absence of the injured Yuvraj Singh. Ganguly, who joined the Warriors in the second half of their campaign last year, had already been appointed as a mentor by the franchise and will be involved in multi-tasking in the absence of a head coach. 

"His experience will count for the team in the absence of Yuvraj," Abhijit Sarkar, corporate head at Sahara group that owns the franchise, told ESPNcricinfo. "We need someone who can motivate the team. And Ganguly is active as a player and he can perform the leadership duties better than someone sitting on the bench outside the field," Sarkar said. Former Australia opener Geoff Marsh, who was Warriors' head coach last year, had to leave after the franchise decided not to renew his contract. 

The Warriors, who were involved in a bitter dispute with the BCCI, ahead of the IPL players' auction, have brought the South African pair of Allan Donald and Paddy Upton to the coaching bench. Donald, the former South African fast-bowling spearhead, will be the bowling coach while Upton, who was part of Gary Kirsten's coaching staff for India till last year's World Cup, will serve as mental-skills coach while simultaneously performing the duties of a fielding coach and also a trainer. 

One of the team officials said Ganguly was the biggest name on the team roaster in the absence of Yuvraj and he had the capability of bringing together players from different continents and make them work for one goal. "To get the best out of international players and domestic Indian players and make them work for one goal is a difficult task and someone like Ganguly, a former India captain, who has a lot of respect was in a good position to do it," the official said. Also, he felt, Ganguly's experience at Kolkata Knight Riders in the first three years of the IPL, would allow him to perform the leadership role easily . 

Meanwhile the Warriors' squad will start their camp from March 26 at their new home ground in Pune. Upton will multi-task as fielding coach, mental skills coach and even as a trainer.