269 players for IPL 2; KKR have a jumbo squad of 57

A total of 269 players, including 80 cricketers from abroad, are to be seen in action in the 45-day second season of the IPL commencing here on April 10.

Barring players from Pakistan, the other eight Test playing nations as well as ICC's full member Zimbabwe would be represented in the cash-rich T20 League, according to a media release.

Apart from the centrally contracted international players from the country, a host of additional Indian first class cricketers as well as under-22 and 19 players have been drafted into the different teams as per the statutory guidelines drawn up by the IPL.

King's XI Punjab and Mumbai Indians will have only 14 and 15 Indian players, respectively, on their roster, while Kolkata Knight Riders have as many as 47 which makes theirs a jumbo squad of 57, including 10 overseas players, it said.

Royal Challengers of Bangalore have 32 Indians in their ranks (squad strength 42), while last year's champions Rajasthan Royals and runners-up Chennai Super Kings have an identical 25 Indian players in their respective rosters.

Commending the franchisees for having invested in grooming Indian talent, IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi said all the eight teams "seem to have struck a fine balance".

The squads are as follows:
Royal Challengers, Bangalore:
Overseas players: Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher, Dale Steyn, Dillon Du Preez, Cameron White, Nathan Bracken, Ross Taylor, Kevin Pietersen, Jesse Ryder and Roelof van der Merwe.

Indian players: Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Robin Uthappa, Praveen Kumar, Virat Kohli, Wasim Jaffer, Manish Pandey, Srivats Goswami, R Suteesh, Pankaj Singh, Vinay Kumar, Bhuvanesh Kumar, Karan Sharma, Saurav Bandekar, Tinu Yohannan,
Bharat Chipli, B Akhil, Devraj Patil, J Arun Kumar, KP Appanna, Sunil Joshi, Gaurav Dhiman, Jitendra Patil, Udit Patel, A Mithun, S Aravind, Kedar Jadhav, C M Gautam, Raju Bhatkal, Rajesh Bishnoi, Ishank Jaggi and Rohit Sabharwal.

Chennai Super Kings:
Overseas players: Muthiah Muralitharan, Matthew Hayden, Michael Hussey, Albie Morkel, Makhaya Ntini, Jacob Oram, Stephen Fleming, Thilan Thushara, Andrew Flintoff and George Bailey.

Indian players: MS Dhoni, Parthiv Patel, Suresh Raina, S Badrinath, L Balaji, M Vijay, Joginder Sharma, Manpreet Singh Goni, Sudeep Tyagi, Viraj Kadbe, Shadab Jakati, R Ashwin, Abhinav Mukund, Anirudha Srikkanth, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan,
Palani Amarnath, KB Arun Karthik, N Einstein and Suresh Kumar.

Delhi Daredevils:
Foreign players: AB de Villiers, Daniel Vettori, Owais Shah, Paul Collingwood, David Warner, Andrew McDonald, Dirk Nannes, Glenn McGrath, Farveez Maharoof and T Dilshan.

Indian players: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Kartik, Manoj Tiwary, Rajat Bhatia, Mithun Manhas, Avishkar Salvi, Ashish Nehra, V Yo Mahesh, Pradeep Sangwan, Umesh Yadav, Yogesh Nagar, Tejashwi Yadav and Amit Mishra.

Deccan Chargers, Hyderabad:
Foreign players: Adam Gilchrist, Herschelle Gibbs, Scott Styris, Andrew Symonds, Ryan Harris, Fidel Edwards, Dwayne Smith, Chamara Silva, Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa.

Indian players: VVS Laxman, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Venugopal Rao, D Ravi Teja, T Suman, Arjun Yadav, D Kalyankrishna, P Vijay Kumar, Manvinder Bisla, Jaskarandeep Singh, Harmeet Singh, Sarvesh Kumar, Halahar Das, Syed Mohammed and Shoaib Ahmed.

Mumbai Indians:
Foreign players: Lasith Malinga, Jean Paul Duminy, Graham Napier, Ryan McLaren, Dilhara Fernando, Sanath Jayasuriya, Dwayne Bravo, Mohd Ashraful, Kyle Mills and Luke Ronchi

Indian players: Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Shikhar Dhawan, Abhishek Nayar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jude Singh, Jaydev Shah, Rahil Shaikh, Yogesh Takawale, Pinal Shah, Ajinkya Rahane, Chetanya Nanda, Rohan Raje and Saurabh Tiwary.

Rajasthan Royals:
Foreign players: Shane Warne, Graeme Smith, Shane Watson, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Morne Morkel, Robert Quiney, Tyron Henderson, Shaun Tait, Shane Harwood and Lee Carseldine.

Indian players: Mohd Kaif, Munaf Patel, Yusuf Pathan, Sidharth Trivedi, Swapnil Asnodkar, Niraj Patel, Mahesh Rawat, Anup Revandkar, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Salunkhe, Naman Ojha, Sidharth Chitnis, Paras Dogra, Amit Singh, Ahad Malek, Raphi Vincent Gomez, Kamran Khan, Ashraf Makda, Paul Valthaty, Srideep Mangela, Mohd Arif, Gajendra Singh, Atul Sharma, Pratmesh Salunkhe and Pushkarraj Chavan.

King's XI Punjab:
Foreign players: Brett Lee, James Hopes, Shaun Marsh, Luke Pomersbach, Simon Katich, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Burt Cockley, Ravi Bopara and Jerome Taylor.

Indian players: Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan, S Sreesanth, Ramesh Powar, VRV Singh, Piyush Chawla, Karan Goel, Uday Kaul, Wilkin Mota, Ajitesh Argal, Tanmay Srivastava, Sunny Sohal, Ryan Ninan and Yash Gandhi.

Kolkata Knight Riders:
Foreign players: Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum, Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Angelo Mathews, Moses Henriques, Mark Cameron, Mashrafe Murtaza and Ajantha Mendis.

Indian players: Sourav Ganguly, Debabrata Das, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Wriddhiman Saha, Ashoke Dinda, Ajit Agarkar, Ishant Sharma, Murali Karthik, Iqbal Abdulla, Cheteshwar Pujara, Yashpal Singh, Anureet Singh, Rajesh Verma, Aditya Dole, S Niyaz, Ishwar Chaudhary, Monish Parmar, ME Sanauth, Sheldon Jackson, Amit Das, Sanjib Sanyal, Avik Chowdhury, Sachin Rana, Sunny Singh, Gaurav Chabbra, Nataraj Behera, Shatrunjay Gaekwad, Shoaib Sheikh, Rohan Prem, Sanjay Bangar, Gnaneshwar Rao, Bhavik Thakkar, P Prashant, Kshemal Waingankar, Murtuza Hussain, Sourav Sarkar, Arindam Ghosh, Ameya Shrikhande, Chetan Suryavanshi, Abhishek Banerjee, Anushtup Mazumdar, Dhiran Salvi, Sanju Samson and Vinit Indulkar.

Home Ministry asks IPL to redraw schedule

Uncertainty gripped the conduct of high-profile Indian Premier League cricket tournament next month with the Home Ministry bluntly saying it may not be feasible to hold matches as per revised schedule and asking organisers to re-work the dates.

This follows the position taken by eight states, where matches in the second edition of the highly successful tournament were to be held, that they may not be able to provide security in view of the general elections beginning April 16.

"MHA is advising the IPL organisers that it may not be feasible to hold the matches as per the revised schedule submitted by them on March seven, 2009.

"IPL organisers have been advised to accommodate the concerns of various state governments and draw up a revised schedule and submit the same to the MHA," the Union Home Ministry said in a two-page statement.

After weeks of suspense on the fate of the cash-rich Twenty20 event, the latest communication from the Ministry has put a question mark on the tournament although IPL commissioner Lalit Modi has said they were willing to submit a new schedule.

Following hectic confabulations between senior officials of the eight states holding IPL matches and those of the Home Ministry, it said Delhi and Andhra Pradesh have expressed their inability to provide security during the election period.

Pietersen attributes India's one-day success to IPL

Former England skipper Kevin Pietersen believes India have taken one-day cricket to a different level and considers the Indian Premier League the reason behind their success.

"I think the reason why India have gone through the roof is because of the Indian Premier League," said Pietersen, who says if English players were to lift their game, they too must play in the Twenty20 tournament.

"After missing out last year, there is no way we can get up there if we don't play," he said ahead of England's Twenty20 international against the West Indies on Sunday.

Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff, Paul Collingwood, Ravi Bopara and Owais Shah are supposed to play in the second edition of the IPL, starting April 10, provided their security concerns are allayed.

If he gets the necessary security clearance, then the England middle-order batsman is looking to learn from the IPL.

"India are taking one-day cricket to a different level," the former England captain told BBC.

"Have you seen the way they are playing in New Zealand? Then compare that to what we did out there last year - India are on a different level," said the the South Africa-born player.

"It's important for our players to learn how to hit fours and sixes. You can do that in Twenty20 cricket and you can practise it. You must practise it in order to play it."

"In the middle when you try to play like that you have to know you've practised it," and Twenty20 is a boundary fest.

"I'm afraid to say it but they have taken the game to a new level because of the IPL and I think the players recognise that," added Pietersen, who was lapped up by Bangalore Royal Challengers for a record USD 1.55 million.

Pietersen, meanwhile, is taking advice from England security expert, Reg Dickason, on the current situation in India.

"I've just got an email about security there and I'm going to follow it up over the next couple of days," said Pietersen.

"They are still gathering all the information. I definitely want to play Twenty20 cricket and in the IPL. I'm taking advice from Reg and from Bob Nicholls, who is the security consultant and is a mate of mine, also from my manager and one or two other options," he said.

Tendulkar masterclass steers India to victory

A magnificent 163 from Tendulkar and half-centuries from Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni inspired India to a 58-run win in their third one-day international against New Zealand, in Christchurch.

The Indian batsmen plundered some inviting bowling from the home side, racking up a record-equalling 18 sixes on their way to 392 for four in their 50 overs.

In reply, a maiden one-day hundred from Jesse Ryder gave New Zealand some hope of chasing down the 393 required but the loss of quick wickets undid the good work done by Ryder (105) and stand-in captain Brendon McCullum (71) at the top of the order and despite a late burst by Kyle Mills (54) and Tim Southee (32), the hosts were bowled out for 334 with 29 balls remaining and now trail 2-0 in the five-match series with two games to play.

India's innings was the second-highest total in one-day internationals behind the 413 for five they scored against Bermuda and the highest total made in New Zealand against all countries.

Tendulkar was in imperious form, striking five sixes and 16 boundaries in his 133-ball innings, his first one-day century in New Zealand. But he was forced to retire hurt with what looked like a pulled stomach muscle after the 45th over and did not return to the field for New Zealand's innings.

The bulk of the damage was done during the batting powerplay when Tendulkar and Yuvraj belted 69 runs in the five overs as they moved from 121 for two to 190 for two.

McCullum – standing in for Daniel Vettori who had returned to Auckland for the birth of his first child – opted to use Southee, who had replaced Iain O'Brien, and part-timer Ryder for the bulk of them and they came at a cost with Southee conceding 25 runs from his two overs and Ryder going for 30.

New Zealand's reply got off to a superb start as Ryder and McCullum got after the Indian bowlers early. The tourists' fielding let them down at times with Dhoni dropping a simple catch when Ryder was on 43; the big left-handed opener responded immediately by blasting his second six to bring up his half-century in only 36 balls.

Pathan then dropped McCullum, who was on 38, in the very next over and having been handed that lifeline the stand-in captain made the most of it.

He was eventually run out by Raina for 71 when Ryder opted unwisely to take a quick single.

It marked the start of a batting collapse, with the hosts slumping from 166 for one to 218 for seven as Ross Taylor (seven), Martin Guptill (one), Ryder (105), Oram (seven), Elliott (18) and McGlashan (seven) went in quick succession.

Mills and Butler, who was forced out of the bowling attack with a strained quad muscle, got New Zealand past the 250 mark before Butler (24) was bowled by Yuvraj.

Mills and Southee then gave India a scare with an 85-run partnership before Pathan and Praveen Kumar struck.

Why target sports persons?

The act of targeting innocent public by the terrorists is sickening enough, but the recent attack on the Sri Lankan cricketers, who were the true ambassadors of their country, on the third day of the second Test at Lahore has left the world shocked and numbed.

Millions of sports followers world over must be asking WHY TARGET SPORTS PERSONS?

I don't think the terrorists themselves have an answer to that as the cricketers who were fired upon were neither decision makers nor were they connected with petty politics in any way.

After this deplorable incident, the first thought a foreign sports team or a player would mull over will be to ask himself hundred times 'is the sub-continent safe enough to hold sports events and is it safe for him to participate in them'.

If you look at the recent incidents in the four cricket playing nations - India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh - sports seems to be taking a back stage and terrorists activities and soldier mutiny (Bangladesh) seems to be consuming more news print and more time on TV channels.

But what is shocking is why target sports persons, who are generally not only the most gifted but also most sought after entertainers in the world. A cricketer not only sacrifices all sorts of social commitments and single mindedly and selflessly pursues his career so that he can entertain the masses, he also becomes a role model for millions of fans who literally become demi-gods of sort.

Moreover, by targeting soft target like the cricketers, who were only obliging the Pakistan Cricket Board's request to come and play when every sensible nations, including Australia and India refused to go anywhere near that country, the culprits' only intention is to garner publicity and be in the news for all the wrong reasons.

Probably the terrorists' action on Tuesday clearly shows their frustration over not realizing their dreams of mass destruction. By trying to kill a Muthiah Muralitaran or a Kumara Sangakkara or Mahela Jayawardene or Ajantha Mendis they hoped to shift the focus on their condemnable deeds. Luckily for the cricketers, the terrorists failed miserably in their attempt and will now be cursing themselves for being 'big time' failures.

However, this incident should be an eye opener for future tours to the sub-continent, particularly Pakistan. Some might argue that India is a safe heaven but is it worth taking a chance especially after the alleged Pakistani terrorists penetrated the Indian coast guards to create a war-like situation in Mumbai not so long ago.

One really shudders to even think about the loss of life and sufferings if the lunatics (terrorists) succeed in blowing up a packed cricket stadium during a match (most Indian stadiums are packed). On this ground alone the Board of Control for cricket in India (BCCI) should at least postpone the Indian Premier League indefinitely as nobody can guarantee the

safety of the players or the spectators or even the police themselves.

Also, after seeing the matches being played in a festival environment for the past 25 years or so, is it worth it to go to a stadium now where you are sure to be frisked ten times before you reach your seat and another ten times before you reach the car park.

Though the terrorists failed in their mission of destruction, they have sounded a warning for the things to come. For the time being they might have succeeded in generating a fear Psychosis in the minds of cricket loving public but one thing is certain, if the Governments and the respective boards approach the situation cautiously (wait and watch theory) and make sure adequate security is provided to the players and the public alike, the terrorists will never succeed in their mission.

We as responsible citizens should unite to fight these murderers not just in Pakistan but in every corners of this world. To show that we are not intimidated by these creeps, we should continue to host international events but tread cautiously and plan things (particularly security) carefully, unlike the security lapse we all saw on our television sets where the terrorists escaped with ease after committing the heinous crime.

The good always has to prevail over the evil!

We're not a Test team any more: Mallya

New Delhi: After a disastrous performance in the inaugural IPL, the Bangalore Royal Challengers will be looking for a change in fortunes this time. And team owner Vijay Mallya is excited about his prize catch Kevin Pietersen. CNN-IBN caught up with the king of good times.

CNN-IBN: It seems the good times will get better with Kevin Pietersen on board.

Vijay Mallya: That's my hope. We clearly needed to beef up our batting and I think we have done it remarkably well with Kevin Pietersen in particular, and of course Jesse Ryder as well. I don't think people can now say we're a 'Test team' any more.

CNN-IBN: You seemed to be very delighted when you got Pietersen in the IPL auction. What does he bring to your team?

Vijay Mallya: I've spoken to some of our stalwarts in cricket and people rate him amongst the best batsmen in the world. Obviously I'm excited.

CNN-IBN: There has been a lot of talk about the captaincy issue and there seems to be a lot of speculation that Pietersen might just be stepping in for Rahul Dravid. What is your take on that? Do you believe that a more dynamic leader is required in the IPL?

Vijay Mallya: I will let you know when I take the decision.

Players should take their own decision on IPL, says Vettori

Skipper Daniel Vettori has said that New Zealand players should take their own decisions on going to India to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL) next month.

Overseas players in the IPL are apprehensive of playing in the league post the terror attacks on Mumbai and the Sri Lankan cricketers in Pakistan.

Vettori's team mate Jacob Oram, who plays for the Chennai Super Kings, has already expressed doubts over his participation in the lucrative Twenty20 competition. Vettori called Oram's comments 'a very individual thing'.

'Jacob probably spoke from the heart and he is that sort of guy. A lot of the other players will trust from what New Zealand Cricket does and the Players Association says about security around all sub-continent tours in the future,' Vettori was quoted as saying by The New Zealand Herald Saturday.

The captain added that the players should take heed of the security experts' opinions.

New Zealand Cricketers' Association boss Heath Mills said the world players' body FICA had been trying without luck to get information on security plans from the Indian board for IPL set to start April 10.

'Once and for all, this (Lahore attack) ought to have put safety and security as the No 1 priority for the International Cricket Council,' said Mills.

'They must immediately implement world benchmark safety standards. We can't have situations where independent security consultants aren't involved.'