BCCI Corporate Trophy kicks off today!!!

Fresh from a much-needed break of nearly two months, India's leading cricketers will begin another packed season with the Corporate Trophy, the BCCI's new showpiece domestic one-day tournament - with Rs 1 crore (US$204,272) for the winners - starting on Tuesday.

The Indian board has invited 12 corporate teams to take part in the eight-day tournament, which will see most of the Indian team - with Sachin Tendulkar a prominent exception - play for their employers across four venues. There are two teams from Air India, which has seven members of the Indian team on its rolls including MS Dhoni, the captain.

On the face of it, the corporate trophy is a high-profile season starter that will help ease top cricketers back into 50-over mode ahead of the one-day tri-series in Sri Lanka -which starts for the Indians on September 11 - and the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa later in the month. The BCCI has staked big money on this - the runners-up get Rs 50 lakh (US$102,109) - claiming that the tournament's prime objective is to promote employment opportunities for domestic cricketers in India's corporate houses.

But the real significance of the tournament possibly lies elsewhere - in its design to kill off another tournament. It was conceived in January, just four months before the Indian board announced its amnesty offer for ICL cricketers. ICL players have since admitted privately that after the corporate tournament was announced they received calls from their employers asking them to wind up their association with the unofficial league. "And then, as we were wondering how we could possibly return to the official fold, came the BCCI's amnesty offers," a leading Indian ICL player said.

As it turned out, the corporate trophy was, in fact, the first nail in the ICL's coffin; the unofficial Twenty20 league cancelled its March programme and that finally led to an exodus of players back into official cricket. At the same time, the BCCI has ensured that the corporate trophy, despite a glittering launch last week, will not cut into the IPL's glamour either in format or content; no foreign players here, and no high-octane promotional campaigns, just the prize money and two major venues in Bangalore and Mohali with Visakhapatnam and Dharamsala hosting the other matches.

Besides, the preliminary rounds don't make for close contests, if the stronger teams play to full strength. Air India (Blue) and ONGC are the clear favourites in Groups A and B. ONGC, led by Gautam Gambhir, have a bowling attack that could represent India on a lean day: Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel and Amit Mishra. Air India (Blue) feature Harbhajan Singh, Dhoni, RP Singh, VVS Laxman and Mohammad Kaif.

Groups C and D are more evenly placed. In Group C, Indian Oil, with Wasim Jaffer and Rohit Sharma being their big draws, could be challenged by Tata Sports Club, who have Rohan Gavaskar, Ajit Agarkar and Ramesh Powar in their ranks. But it's Group D where the real competition is at, with Air India (Red) holding a slight edge over India Cements, who have Rahul Dravid, S Badrinath, L Balaji and Sudeep Tyagi in their line-up.

IPL-III to start in Hyderabad

Title holder Deccan Chargers will take on Kolkata Knight Riders at Hyderabad in the opening match of the 60-match IPL season 3 to be played from March 12 to April 25, 2010. This was announced by Lalit Modi, Chairman of the IPL Governing Council here on Monday.

The additional match will be a play–off for the third and fourth position between the losing semifinalists.

It was also announced that Mumbai Indians will play a few matches at Nagpur, Deccan Chargers at Visakhapatnam, Kings XI Punjab at Dharamsala and Rajasthan Royals at Ahmedabad.

Modi also announced that in 2011 two more franchise teams would be added to make for 10 teams and playing 94 matches in 12 centres.

The governing council has also in principle decided to provide an opportunity for former ICL players to feature from the 2009 event.

“The BCCI had taken a decision that the former rebel players, who accepted the amnesty offer by May 31, will not be allowed entry into the IPL for 12 months.

“But the Working Committee here on Thursday is likely to allow them and issue guidelines.

It’s been proposed that they should not be paid lower than Rs. 8 lakh and in excess of Rs. 20 lakh. It’s up to the BCCI to draft the guidelines and identify players in the two categories.

“If a franchise had signed in a player from the former ICL group, it will be treated as null and void,” said Modi.

Revealing that the expenses for season II held in South Africa were much higher, Mr. Modi said the modalities of making up the shortfall of the eight franchises will be addressed at a meeting next week with the team owners.

“The prices of tickets were much lower than it was in India in 2008 and the capacity at each ground in South Africa was lower than the venues in India. Taking all this into account we will work out ways to meet the shortfall of the team owners. The IPL will try to understand all factors and cover the shortfall.”

A significant change has also been made to the strategic time out (seven and half minutes after the first 10 overs in South Africa) for the season III next year. The fielding captain will have the option to take a two and half minute STO between the 6th and 10th overs and the batsman will have the option to take a two and half minute STO between the 11th and 16th overs.

Among other decisions taken were: IPL will use the services of ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit; Transfer window from December 15 to January 5, 2010; All capped international players will have to go through an auction that will be decided in consultation with the franchises; IPL to maintain $ 7 million cap at the auction; Players to obtain NOC from member countries of ICC every year.

This is to maintain the paramount nature of the ICC’s Future Tour Programme (FTP); Icon player status to be abolished.

India will ask ICC to shun WADA

The Indian board (BCCI) will suggest to the ICC that it should walk out of the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) umbrella and opt for its own cricket-specific anti-doping code. The BCCI feels that this is the only possible solution to the deadlock over this issue after its players refused to abide by a clause in the WADA code that requires them to reveal information about their whereabouts three months in advance.

Cricinfo has learnt that the BCCI will propose this solution, which was formulated after a series of discussions among senior Indian board officials over the last week, possibly as soon as the next meeting of the ICC's executive board in early October. The Indian board is confident of getting the support of other major national boards on the issue at the ICC level and expects its suggestion to be ratified.

On Sunday, the BCCI's decision-making working committee resolved to back its players and reject the 'whereabouts' clause in the amended WADA code, which was implemented by the ICC from January 1. This contentious clause requires cricketers in the ICC's international testing pool to reveal before every quarter details of their location for an hour every day for the next three months to facilitate out-of-competition testing. The 11 Indian players in the pool have expressed security concerns in this regard, especially because some of them such as Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni face threats from terrorist organisations. The BCCI has said that this clause, which prescribes severe penalties for defaulters including a ban for up to two years, also violates privacy guarantees provided in the Indian constitution.

Other international cricketers in the testing pool from other countries had also expressed privacy and practicality concerns about the clause but agreed to abide by it within the July 31 deadline.