IPL Season 5: Curtain Raiser (Part 1)

Team Bellevision

[Indian Premier League or IPL- season 5 is about to begin.  In this series of articles on IPL 5 leading to the tournament, we bring you team overview & compositions, past performances, IPL 5 schedule and much more…]

 

29 March 2012: Indian Premier League or IPL- 2012 edition is just about to commence and the first match is scheduled to be played on 4th April 2012.  It is going to be a cricketing extravaganza lasting a whopping 54 days and 76 matches.  The inaugural match of the season will be played at Chennai between defending champions Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians and the finals will be played in Chennai on 27th May 2012.

 

Even though IPL has been dubbed as money making formula of BCCI by purists, the shorter version of the game has gained popularity in leaps and bounds over the years.  It has attracted a wider audience including women and children, which has mostly kept longer version games away from their lives.  Other cricket leagues born on the recipe of IPL like BPL, SLPL etc is the proof of its popularity.  The on field heroics of cricketers with added glamour, celebrities, and cheer girls make this an exciting event and every cricket fan is looking forward to the tournament.

 

It is like watching a three hour bollywood movie with everything of drama, emotions, music, a hero and a villain (at times it becomes a multi starrer) thrown into it.  TVRs of IPL games sore to 5.51 per game in 2010, then dropping to 3.91 per game in 2011.  Can IPL 5 prove to be a blockbuster for cricket loving nation as well as cash hungry BCCI?

 

 

IPL 2012 Teams:

IPL 5 has 9 teams and every team will be playing twice against each other in league matches once at home and once in an away match. Team Kochi has been terminated from the IPL 2012 season.

 

Here we start a series, where we bring you the details of all IPL teams starting with defending champions Chennai Super Kings and Bollywood Badshah Shah Rukh Khan co-owned Kolkata Knight Riders in the first series.

 

Chennai Super Kings

Defending Champions and arguably the best team in the championship is Chennai Super Kings.  They are the most consistent team in the IPL’s history of four years so far winning back to back titles in 2010 and 2011 and also getting their hands on the prestigious Champions League T20 under the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni.  They will be looking to keep the momentum going when they start their IPL 2012 Campaign against Mumbai Indians.  The prize catch of the team is Ravindra Jadeja whom they bought for $ 2,000,000 in auction this year.

 

            

 

M S Dhoni, Suresh Raina, R Ahwin, Michael Hussey, Albie Morkel are some of the players to watch out for.  Ben Hilfenhaus has performed well in recently concluded test series against India and Commonwealth Bank Tri Series.  The leading run scorer in the side is Suresh Raina.  He is expected to perform well in this edition on tailor made pitches that suits to his style of batting.  Albie Morkel is the highest wicket taker for CSK.  Murali Vijay and Michael Hussey are the other two players who have performed well for the team in the last season.  Can team of south along with captain cool deliver this time to lay their hands on the trophy third time in a row?

 

 

Owner(s):
N. Srinivasan, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of India Cements Ltd.

 

Squad:

 

Captain:
Mahendra Singh Dhoni 

Coach:
Stephen Fleming, former New Zealand Cricketer

Bowling Coach:
Andy Bichel, former Australian Cricketer

Fielding Coach:
Steve Rixon

Home Ground:
M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai

Performance: 

 

Matches:

 

Kolkata Knight Riders:

Kolkata Knight Riders has the most fan-following amongst the nine IPL teams.  They are hunting for that elusive glory in the IPL 5 season.  It will be interesting to see how this year’s event goes for Shah Rukh Khan co-owned team from Kolkata.

 

Kolkata Knight Riders have played well in the last edition of the tournament and reached semi final stage but they just cannot pass the final hurdle to put their hands on that coveted trophy which they will be looking to achieve this year. Their record in the IPL has been poor overall to say the least in comparison to the amount of money spent on the team.  KKR have launched a new marketing campaign titled ‘New Dawn. New Knights’ this year.

 

             

 

Gautam Gambhir was made the captain of the team replacing Sourav Ganguly who was dropped from the team.  Other big names include Eoin Morgan, Brendon McCullum, Manoj Tiwary, Ryan ten Doeschate, Brett Lee and Brad Haddin.  KKR team has got in their list some of the best all rounders the game right now has like Jaques Kallis, Yousuf PAthan and Shakib Al Hasan.  Can this team pull this off for the Don this time?

 

 

Owner(s):
Shah Rukh Khan
Juhi Chawla
Jai Mehta
Red Chillies Entertainment

Squad:

 

 

Captain:
Gautam Gambhir

Coach:
Trevor Bayliss

Assistant Coach:
Vijay Dahiya

Bowling Consultant:
Wasim Akram, former Pakistan all-rounder

Home Ground:
Eden Gardens, Kolkata

Performance:

 

 

Matches:

 

 

To be continued...