IPL

FT

Sport and business may often be uncomfortable bedfellows. The recent problems at Fifa, the world football’s governing body, have demonstrated how difficult it is for sport to be run as a business. However, the cricket Test series between England and India demonstrates that sport can provide instructive lessons about how to use money to maximise resources and produce a winning formula.

This series saw England not only become the top Test nation in the world but also humiliate India, winning all four matches. Not even the most optimistic of English fans could have hoped for such a result. Bookmakers, who always have a shrewd idea about such things, were so convinced this was unlikely that, at the beginning of the series, they were offering odds of 25-1 against such an outcome.

The English triumph, and more so the scale of the victory, is remarkable given that India has been the number one Test country since 2009. Only three months previously, India also won the 50-over World Cup, something England has never achieved. The triumph is all the more remarkable because, as has been well-documented, India is the money bags of world cricket.

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ECB Cricket Podcast – Episode 56

England take top spot in the world Test rankings after victory over India at Edgbaston – latest from the npower Test Series with both captains, plus Alastair Cook, Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann, Hugh Morris, Mihir Bose and Podcast Pundit Mike Gatting.

Mihir and Stephen Lamb discuss India’s loss against England in the Series.

(Note: the relevent section starts at 20:00)

Click here to listen or download the podcast in full

Times Now

Sourav Ganguly’s rejection by IPL bidders was a ‘humiliation’ to his contribution to T20 cricket and it would rob the tournament of its attraction, former cricketers in Jharkhand feel. “It’s a real humiliation to a great player, who contributed to the T20 till last year. It is sad that his name was not even proposed during re-auctioneering,” former first class left-arm spinner Avinash Kumar said. Former Bihar glovesman Ashok Ghosh said, “He is a great player. I don’t know the reason behind his non-selection.” “It was sad that Ganguly was not even considered in the re-auction … his participation could have been a motivation to youngsters,” said another former Ranji cricketer Manoj Yadav.

TIMES NOW’s Editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami debates the issue with Mihir Bose, Former Sports Editor, BBC and Author; Anupam Mukherjee, ‘The Fake IPL player’; Bishen Singh Bedi, Former Indian Cricketer;  Saba Karim, Former Indian Cricketer and Mudar Patherya, Cricket Writer.

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Evening Standard

Rich talk: Lalit Modi says that every franchise in the IPL makes money and compares that to the Premier League, where clubs struggle to break even.

Lalit Modi, who changed the face of cricket when he created the Indian Premier League, has been devoured by his own revolution.

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Lalit Modi, the founder and architect of the Indian Premier League, talks to former BBC Sports Editor and renowned sports and business commentator, Mihir Bose about a number of allegations which have been levelled against him.

In this video, Lalit Modi talks about some of the allegations levelled against him during his tenure as IPL Commissioner.

You can watch the full interview here (38.35 mins)

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