The Hindu Business Line : Royal Challengers Bangalore takes on Kolkata Knight Riders today

Bangalore, April 17 With the Royal Challengers Bangalore team set to clash with the Kolkata Knight Riders in the opening match of the DLF Indian Premier League Twenty-20 championship on Friday, the tournament promises 44 days of entertainment, innovation, and hopefully some intense cricket as well!

“We are sold out. That is the truth of the matter,” said liquor baron Mr Vijay Mallya, who expects his Bangalore team to put up a great show. (Mr Mallya’s United Spirits is the owner and promoter of the Royal Challengers Bangalore team.)

The opening ceremony of the tournament, co-hosted by DLF IPL and Royal Challengers, will be nothing short of “spectacular,” said Mr Mallya, also the Chairman and CEO of Kingfisher Airlines, at a press conference to announce the ‘Fly Kingfisher Fair Play Award’ – yet another IPL initiative from Kingfisher Airlines, which is the official airline of the IPL and the official umpire partner.

Under the Fair Play Award, umpires will award teams point for “fair play, respect to the laws of the game and opponents.” The winner of the award is the team which has played the “fairest” across the 56 matches in the regular league season. Each member of the team will be awarded a trophy.

Kingfisher Airlines also unveiled the umpire uniform for the season, designed by Manoviraj Khosla, Kingfisher’s designer.

Our Delhi/ Mumbai Bureaus report: Meanwhile, amid reports that ticket sales at Kolkata for the IPL league were lukewarm, R. Balachandran, President & Chief Marketing Officer, Reliance Retail Ltd, which owns the Mumbai Indians team, confirmed that ticket sales were robust.

“The tickets are selling fairly well. While we are selling tickets for our first match, the sales for the second match at D.Y. Patil stadium (in Navi Mumbai) have also started. The ticket sales are moving through several channels. Many young people are buying tickets. We think the pricing of Rs 250 per ticket is helping students and youngsters get the tickets. We are positive that we will sell well,” he said.

In Delhi, despite cricketers Glenn McGrath and Gautham Gambhir reportedly going to Old Delhi localities to sell tickets, interest for the Delhi Daredevils’ premiere at the Ferozshah Kotla grounds on April 19 has been lukewarm if not disappointing, say close followers of the game.

At Mohali too, tickets moved only on day one of sales, purely on the charm of Preity Zinta, co-owner of the Kings XI Punjab team. The actor who was there with Brett Lee to sell autographed tickets to curious fans reportedly tried unsuccessfully to convince them to upgrade, says a source, but fans were happy to have met her.

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