MUMBAI: Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Rajasthan Royals has signed England batsman Owais Shah as a replacement for Shane Warne, who has retired from all professional cricket. Warne led the Royals in the first four seasons of the IPL.

Shah has represented the Kolkata Knight Riders, Delhi Daredevils and Kochi Tuskers Kerala, in previous seasons of the DLF IPL.

Jaipur IPL Cricket CEO Raghu Iyer said, "We are delighted to have signed on Owais Shah to play for the Rajasthan Royals. He is one of the most exciting batsmen in the world and has been particularly outstanding in the shorter forms of the game.?

MUMBAI: Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Delhi Daredevils has launched its new official ?Munday Dilli Ke? to herald the coming season of DLF India Premier League.

The song, sung by Jaspreet Jasz and composed by Arijit Datta and Micu Patel, was launched on Delhi Daredevils? radio partner Fever 104 FM.

GMR Sports head marketing Hemant Dua said that the new song is in keeping with the vibrant feel that the squad has with players skipper Virender Sehwag, vice-captain Mahela Jayawardene, Kevin Pietersen, David Warner, Ross Taylor and Irfan Pathan.

?The theme for the song is in keeping with our Dare to Succeed philosophy and a clarion call to all Delhi Daredevils supports to come out and play on the frontfoot. More importantly, this was commissioned in response to a demand from our supporters to revamp the song,? Dua added.

Arjit Datta said it was a wonderful experience putting the song together for the Delhi Daredevils. ?Micu and I loved doing it. It was pure magic and the manner in which the song has panned out made us realise that we were sitting on something big. The song has an urban, in your face, touch to it, with the dhol adding a Punjabi flavor.?

Jaspreet Jaz ? who calls himself a Dilli ka munda at heart and has sung in Telugu and Hindi movies ? said he loved singing the new official song of the Delhi Daredevils. ?I have followed the response to the song and feel humbled by the overwhelming show of support already,? he said.

MUMBAI: Delhi Daredevils has traded Indian fast-medium bowler Ashok Dinda and Australian all-rounder James Hopes with Sahara Group-owned Pune Warriors India for the coming Indian Premier League season.

"Ashok Dinda is a quality paceman, who has done well for the various teams he has represented in various formats of the game, be it Bengal, East Zone, Kolkata Knight Riders or Delhi Daredevils," said Sahara Adventure Sports Ltd Director Abhijit Sarkar.

He added, "The versatile James Hopes is an ideal cricketer to have in your camp, especially in the shorter forms of the game. Both players will boost our prospects in the upcoming IPL."

Hopes and Dinda were part of the Kings XI Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders outfits respectively, before being acquired by Delhi Daredevils in the 2011 IPL Players Auction.

In another development, Shreevats Goswami, the wicketkeeper-batsman, has been transferred from Kolkata Knight Riders to Rajasthan Royals."

Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians have signed up T20 sensation Richard Levi as a replacement of former Australian batsman Andrew Symonds, for the fifth edition of IPL.

MUMBAI: Blow hot, blow cold. That could be the approach of Sahara India as it announced that it would walk out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and withdraw from all sponsorships under India?s cricket board, while founder-promoter Subroto Roy indicated later in the day that a reconciliation could be possible if the BCCI adopted a flexible approach.

"We are not rigid," was the quick response from Roy during a press conference when asked whether there is ground for reconciliation. Roy also said that he will think "twice" about his decision if there is player?s interest at stake.

Will the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Sahara Group reconcile? Well, that could or could not be a possibility but if the noises emanating from both sides is any indication, then a patch-up is not that difficult a task. After all, there is a lot at stake for both parties.

Talking to Indiantelevision.com, IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla said that the BCCI is open to reconciliation with the Sahara Group, which had bought the IPL Pune franchise for a whopping $370 million and sponsored the Indian team at a fee of Rs 33 million per Test match, ODI and T20.

The BCCI, of which IPL is a sub-committee, has not received any official notice from the Sahara Group on termination of contract.

"Whatever we have heard is through the media. We haven?t received any notice from them," said Shukla.

"They have been our partners for a long time, we can sort out the differences with them (Sahara)," he added, while stressing that the IPL cannot change rules for just one franchise.

He also found comparison between Champions League and IPL unfair since the two are different tournaments altogether. IPL is a qualifying tournament for CL T20, which involves top clubs from six cricket playing nations.

Sahara had in a media statement stated that the BCCI had bended rules during last year?s CL T20 by allowing Mumbai Indians to replace their injured Indian player with a foreigner which meant that the team fielded five foreign players instead of the rules permitting only four to be part of the final eleven.

The company had requested the BCCI to allow it to carry the prize purse of Yuvraj Singh, who has been ruled out of IPL season 5 due to lung tumour, into the players auction which the BCCI flatly refused thereby triggering a strong reaction from the Lucknow headquartered group.

The IPL chairman said that the BCCI would have given the same concession to any other IPL team who had qualified for Champions League if they had been confronted with the same situation.

"That is not just Mumbai Indians. We would allow other franchises in Champions League to avail that facility, but IPL is a different case. They (Sahara) should not compare IPL with Champions League," Shukla affirmed.

Shukla also hinted that the IPL might go back to the original format if things don?t work with Sahara. "The IPL was originally an eight team event and was quite successful," Shukla revealed.

Earlier in the afternoon, Roy indicated that Sahara would be accommodative if the BCCI changed its inflexible approach. He was responding to a question at a press conference held in Mumbai.

Roy then went on to recount instances wherein the company went out of its way to accommodate BCCI?s requests which the latter never reciprocated.

Sahara had issued a statement in the morning stating that it was unhappy with the BCCI due to the fact that they haven?t taken into consideration any of its suggestion like having an open player auction, which according to Roy would have given all the teams an even playing field and strengthened the IPL.

He was also annoyed with the fact that they had to pay the same franchise fee despite the BCCI cutting down on the number of matches to 74 instead of the 94 matches that was promised during franchise auctions.

Roy believes the franchise was paying 25 per cent more franchise fee due to the cutting down of total matches. The company had also requested the BCCI to take the matter to an arbitrator and sort it out but the BCCI refused.

He also clarified that the company?s decision to back out of Team India?s sponsorship had nothing to do with team India?s performance, but more with the fact that it did not want to deal with a body with which it had fallen out.

Meanwhile, the BCCI in a statement today made it clear that rules would not be bent for any IPL franchise. It would, however, still reach out to its long-term partner "as soon as practicable to clarify its intentions".

"We understand that Sahara Adventure Sports Limited has issued a statement in which it indicates an intention to withdraw from its involvement in Indian cricket, including as regards the Indian Premier League. We intend to contact Sahara Adventure Sports Limited as soon as practicable to clarify its intentions," BCCI Secretary Sanjay Jagdale said in a statement.

"If we understand Sahara Adventure Sports Limited?s statement, it intends not to participate in the 2012 IPL Auction or in the 2012 IPL Season," the statement added.

"During the last few days Sahara Adventure Sports Limited has requested that IPL vary its Player Regulations by allowing it to increase its Auction Purse from $1.6 million to $3.4 million in light of Yuvraj Singh?s unfortunate illness. Whilst all within IPL and BCCI have a huge amount of sympathy for Yuvraj Singh and wish him all the best for a speedy recovery, it is unable to vary the Player Regulations," the BCCI insisted.

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.