MUMBAI: The Mukesh Ambani owned IPL franchise Mumbai Indians has added five cricketers - Apoorva Wankhede, Sujit Nayak, Rahul Shukla, Kuldeep Yadav and Sushant Marathe - to their list of players for the fifth season which starts on 4 April.

Shukla returns to Mumbai Indians after being part of the squad for IPL 2010, while the other four have been picked up by the franchise for the first time.

Earlier during the transfer window, the franchise brought in wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik and left arm spinner Pragyan Ojha. During the auction it bought Herschelle Gibbs, Mitchell Johnson, Robin Peterson, RP Singh and Thisara Perera.
 

MUMBAI: Top players from expelled Kochi Tuskers Kerala dominated the proceedings at the IPL players auction on Saturday in Bangalore.

Ravindra Jadeja, who has time and again proved his worth as allrounder, was the most sought after player with Chennai Super Kings eventually buying the youngster following a tie-breaker with Deccan Chargers. Jadeja had a base price of $100,000.

Both the franchises had bid $2 million before the tie-breaker was enforced to decide who will get the player. In the tie-breaker, both teams enter the bid amount in a secret ballot following which the team with highest bid gets the player. The final amount Jadeja got was not disclosed.

Former Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene was secured by Delhi Daredevils for $1.4 million on a base price of $300,000. Swashbuckling New Zealand batsmen Brendon McCullum was bought by his former franchise Kolkata Knight Riders for $900,000.

Both Jayawardene and McCullum were part of KTK for season four of the tournament.

R Vinay Kumar, another KTK players, too went back to his previous franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore after the team team bid $1 million to secure his services.

RP Singh and S Sreesanth were bought by Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals for $600,000 and $400,000 respectively. While Singh $400,000 went for more than his base price, Sreesanth was sold for his base price.

Indian players who remained unsold were middle-order veteran VVS Laxman and Punjab medium pacer VRV Singh.

Three South African players found their way into the IPL teams. Herschelle Gibbs went to Mumbai Indians for $50,000, while spinner Robin Pietersen and pace bowler Marchant de Lange were taken by Mumbai Indians and KKR respectively.

Marchant who had made a sensational test debut for SA landed his first IPL contract.

Australia?s Bard Hodge was bought by Rajasthan Royals for $475,000, while Mitchell Johnson went for Mumbai Indians for his base price of $300,000. Australian spinner Brad Hogg went to Royals and his compatriot James Faulkner was snapped up by Kings XI Punjab.

Indian wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel will don Deccan Chargers jersey, while spinner Ramesh Pawar will be back to his previous franchise Kings XI Punjab.

Spin sensation Muttiah Muralitharan will now play for Royal Challengers Bangalore after being bought by them for $220,000. His compatriot Thisara Perera struck big with Mumbai Indians finally managing to have him for $650,000.

West Indies players were also in demand at the auction as several of them managed an IPL contract. Spinner Sunil Narine was bought by KKR, keeper Dinesh Chandimal went to Royals, all-rounder Andre Russell was grabbed by the Delhi Daredevils and pacer Kevon Cooper was snapped up by Mumbai Indians.

In all, 25 players from across the world were bought by the franchises, with MI and RR bidding successfully for five players each. DD, KKR, KXIP and DC snapped up three players each while RCB took two.

Former Pakistani all-rounder Azhar Mahmood became the only player from that country to play in IPL 2012 after Kings XI Punjab bought him for $200,000.

CSK used their entire purse of $2 million in their successful bid for Jadeja.

MUMBAI: The Indian Premier League (IPL) today announced the fifth transfer of the 2012 Trading window.

Andrew McDonald, the fast-medium bowling allrounder from Australia, will move from Delhi Daredevils to Royal Challengers Bangalore, for the 2012 season of the tournament. The all-rounder is leading the Melbourne Renegades in the ongoing Big Bash League in Australia.

Royal Challengers Bangalore team manager Avinash Vaidya said, ?All-rounders are a priceless asset and we are pleased to add Andrew to our squad. He has excelled with bat and ball in different formats. We have no doubt that he will make a big difference to our prospects in the coming IPL season."

GMR Sports head cricket TA Sekar wished the 30-year-old McDonald who played six matches for Delhi Daredevils, scoring 76 runs and taking five wickets the very best. "He would fit in well with the Royal Challengers Bangalore,? he said.

IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla said, ?The process of player-transfers during the Trading Window is gaining in momentum, and we are likely to see more action in the days leading up to 20 January 2012, when the first part of the trading window will close?.

McDonald will move to Bangalore where he registered his most memorable performance in a T20 match on Indian soil where he claimed four Royal Challengers Bangalore wickets for 21 runs in a Champions League match for Victoria on 15 October, 2009.

The following trades have been confirmed earlier:

Dinesh Karthik from Kings XI Punjab to Mumbai Indians; R Satish from Mumbai Indians to Kings XI Punjab;
Harmeet Singh from Deccan Chargers to Kings XI Punjab; and Kevin Pietersen from Deccan Chargers to Delhi Daredevils.

MUMBAI: The new Stadium in Pune, subject to final completion, will make its debut as an IPL venue, by staging all eight ?home? games of the Pune Warriors India.

Dharamsala, Cuttack and Izanagi will host two games each.

As had been reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, the league will start from 4 April 2012 with nine teams and 76 matches. The league will commence with Chennai Super Kings, the defending champions, taking on the Mumbai Indians, the Champions League T20 winners, at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

The league stage, which comprises 72 matches, with each team playing the other eight in a home-and-away format, will go on till 20 May 2012.

The venue of the two finalist teams from 2011 edition will host the Play offs. Bengaluru will host Qualifier 1 (1 vs 2) and the Eliminator (3 vs 4) on 22 and 23 May respectively. Qualifier 2 and the Final will be played in Chennai on 25 May and 27 May respectively.

MUMBAI: The New Year is seeing the emergence of a new media czar. Stuffed with a rich pile of cash, India?s richest billionaire is swiftly building a broadband-media-entertainment empire. The role model could be somewhat like an expanded Netflix.

Mukesh Ambani had already spelt out his intentions that he would enter the content game. His joint venture with sports marketing major IMG had given him rights to several emerging sports properties like basketball (Basketball Federation of India) and soccer (AIFF). He also owns IPL team Mumbai Indians.

In June 2010 his Infotel Broadband had won nationwide BWA spectrum paying $2.7 billion. And to support the wireless data flow he had content ambitions and last year recruited former Star India COO Jagdish Kumar to head his entertainment division. Besides, Reliance Industries invested Rs 26 billion in Eenadu, the fulcrum that led him to bargain his way into Raghav Bahl-promoted TV18 Group.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has got Rs 21 billion from TV18 Group for divesting part of its stake in Eenadu. It will, in turn, invest in the rights issues of Network18 and TV18. What it will indirectly hold as equity stake (after convesersion of OCDs) in these two entities is not disclosed.

According to estimates by a media analyst at a local broking firm, TV18 is buying only 64 per cent of economic interest in ETV?s revenues. Network18 and TV18 will go for a rights issue of Rs 27 billion each. Since N18 holds 50 per cent in TV18, the net aggregate rights proceeds will be for Rs 40 billion.

The promoters of TV18 and N18 will put Rs 17 billion in the net aggregate rights issue and minority shareholders will have to shell out Rs 23 billion.

The rights issue will help pare down debt and acquire ETV Network.

TV18 Broadcast will buy ETV Network (with various shareholding across channels), from a subsidiary of RIL, for a consideration of Rs 21 billion. A trust of RIL will fund the promoters of N18 through OCDs (Optionally convertible debentures). The promoters will then be able to subscribe to the rights issues.

"In our view TV18 has acquired effective 64 per cent economic interest in ETV Network?s revenues by paying Rs 21 billionn valuing the 100 per cent entity at Rs 33 billion. Assuming that media reports of Rs 5.25 billion sales in FY?11 is true for ETV Network, TV18 has paid a trailing EV/Sales valuation of 6.3x which seems on the higher side when compared to Sun TV?s trailing EV/Sales of FY11 at 5.5x (with dominant viewership and highest profit margins) and ZEEL?s at 3.5x," said the analyst.

The rights issues will inject funds into the two debt-laden companies. Network18 had a net-debt of Rs 14.3 billion while TV18?s net debt pile stood at Rs 6.8 billion as on September 2011.

ETV?s portfolio and stake bought in each channel by TV18:

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TV18 to snap up ETV, plans rights issue

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