MUMBAI: Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Rajasthan Royals and Dainik Bhaskar newspaper have announced the launch of Cricket Star Rajasthan, a talent hunt programme.

Cricket Star seeks to uncover cricket talent in Rajasthan. And for Rajasthan Royals (RR), it is an opportunity to further build its brand in Rajasthan and so will travel through the state of Rajasthan to test young cricketers.

In this edition after a two-stage process, the winner of Cricket Star Rajasthan 2012 will to intern with the Rajasthan Royals. As part of the internship, the winner will get opportunities to train with the Rajasthan Royals team, be part of the practice sessions and get exclusive mentorship of Rajasthan Royals coaches. Dainik Bhaskar will also provide publicity for the winner through all their media publications.

Sanskar School Jaipur is the Associate Sponsor for Cricket Star Rajasthan.

This talent hunt is for the age group of 14 to 21 years as on 1st Sep 2012. Applicants can be from any part of Rajasthan and will have to come to one of the cities where the selection trials will take place such as Jodhpur, Udaipur and Jaipur. The application process for this programme takes place from 7- 22 October.

Applicants will be required to send an SMS to a designated number (to be announced shortly), giving their name, and preference of city of trial. After sending the SMS, the applicants will receive a registration code, and date and venue of trials.

The first stage is the selection trials to be held at Jodhpur, Udaipur and Jaipur. The winners at each city will be invited to the Cricket Star Academy to be run at Sanskar School Cricket Grounds. These cricketers will be tested through matches and cricket sessions by Rajasthan Royals experts and coaches. At the end of the academy, the coaches will announce the winner ? Cricket Star Rajasthan.

Emerging Media, one of the franchise owners, had introduced this talent hunt concept way back in 2006. Incidentally, it was the country?s first cricket based reality show.

Mumbai: The promoters of Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd (DCHL), Hyderabad-based publisher of newspapers and owner of Indian Premier League (IPL) team Deccan Chargers, have pledged 54 per cent stake to Future Capital Holdings Ltd.

The promoter holding in DCHL at the end of June 2012 was 73.83 per cent with T Venkaram Reddy, T Vinayak Ravi Reddy and P K Iyet owning 24.61 per cent stake each, according to information on the National Stock Exchange.

In a filing to the stock exchanges, Future Capital Holdings said over 112.8 million shares (or 54 per cent) of DCHL have been pledged by the promoters as part of collateral for funds borrowed by DCHL and a company named, Aviotech Private Ltd. The amounts of borrowings by DCHL from Future Capital were not disclosed.

DCHL‘s annual report for 2011-12 is not available. According to the company‘s 2010-11 annual report, DCHL had loans of Rs 3.13 billion but also had cash and bank balances of Rs 7.03 billion as on March 31, 2011.

DCHL shares fell 19 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange to close at Rs 18.55 per share on the pledging of a substantial portion of the promoter shareholding. DCHL‘s share price has fallen from a high of Rs 73.50 per share as on July 29, 2011.

The market value of the 54 per cent of the shares pledged works out to Rs 2.43 billion.

DCHL is the publisher Deccan Chronicle, a leading English newspaper in South India with a circulation of over 1.45 million copies per day across Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. DCHL also publishes ‘Asian Age‘, an English daily newspaper in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and London, a financial English daily ‘Financial Chronicle‘ from Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai and a Telugu Daily, weekly, monthly, all titled ‘Andhra Bhoomi‘ in Andhra Pradesh. DCHL also owns a chain of 50 retail stores of lifestyle products, including books, music, stationery, gifts, toys, pens, and eye ware.

MUMBAI: The BCCI will not allow Indian cricket players to participate in the Sri Lanka Premier League, a move seen as protecting the Indian Premier League from facing any competition whatsoever.

The BCCI?s main contention is that if it permits Indian players to play in the Sri Lanka league, then it may set a precedent for other leagues across the world.

Though a severe setback, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has decided to go ahead with the event with or without Indian partcipation.

SLC Secretary Nishantha Ranatunga said, "We will go ahead with the tournament with or without Indian players".

Ranatunga also said that SLC had not been officially told that Indian players would not take part in SLPL.

The league will take place in August before the Twenty20 World Cup. Last year the league did not take off as the BCCI did not allow Indian players to take part.

MUMBAI: Sporty Solutionz, the Delhi-based sports rights management company, has signed up Geo TV and Carlton Sports as official broadcast partners for the Indian Premier League in Pakistan and Sri Lanka respectively.

Sporty Solutionz had acquired IPL broadcast sub-licensing rights for the two territories from Multi Screen Media, the official broadcast rights holder of the tournament in Indian subcontinent.

The company has earlier successfully acquired the worldwide rights to market and license the Bangladesh Premier League in the event?s opening season. It also plans to invest into various other sports properties besides cricket.

MUMBAI: Former Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Lalit Modi will be appealing against the High Court of London?s verdict in the libel case filed against him by ex-New Zealand captain Chris Cairns.

Modi has to lodge papers by 20 April. Modi lost a libel case to Cairns and was asked to pay 90,000 pounds in damages to the all-rounder.

Cairns had sued Modi over a tweet in which the latter accused the New Zealander of being involved in match-fixing during the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) in 2008.

Meanwhile, Modi criticised the opening ceremony of the IPL held last night that had the likes of Katy Perry performing. He tweeted: "So according to IPL fans ? nearly 100% have Tweeted they would have preferred Pre Game Opening Ceremony rather than an opening like today. Can?t bear to watch it anymore ? as on TV it looks appalling. Was really looking forward to seeing something well presented. I am sure the Ratings will show."