I referred to the IPL as the Indian Problem League a while ago. With the air of uncertainty around the IPL clearing, the tournament has been off to a rousing start. Nearing the mid way mark, it is for sure the number 1 chagrin of spouses who are not so clued on to the sport and mothers who are addicted to the mega serials.

The thing that I’ve always liked about the IPL is the fact that it’s been a huge opportunity for a lot of budding cricketers. Yusuf Pathan came into his own here, so did Pragyan Ohja to name a few.

This year’s edition has been no different with most teams throwing up the one or two uncut diamonds – Delhi has Pradeep Sangwan and Rajat Bhatia, Chennai has Sundeep Tyagi and Shadab Jataki, the Rajasthan Royals have Kamran Khan and N Ojha, Mumbai’s Nayar continues to be a shining star and Bangalore is helping Uthappa to some decent form.

Not wanting to be left behind, Punjab’s Piyush and Karan rock and the Deccan chargers have Suman hitting a few away and RP roaring back to form. I keep telling my friends; thank god they are all Indians! That said, I am also appreciative of the contributions that some of the overseas players have made. I think this is undoubtedly the best thing to happen to Indian cricket. Some of the western players wanted to be a part of this IPL seeing the impact that this has had on Indian cricket.

A notable exception to this is of course the KKR – languishing at the bottom of the pile, their drudgery continues, and for this,  I’ll blame the owner, whom I now call Dildo, thanks to the Fake IPL player.

If the owner is expected to call the shots (I disagree with this idea though), he saw trouble brewing when Bukka had this novel idea of multiple captains and choose to support it. Too many cooks spoil the broth is an adage that most Indians have grown up listening to. I fail to understand why Dildo didn’t get something as simple as this. Can you attribute this to the lack of his education? Hmm – Maybe I don’t want to go down that path. Was it his lack of cricketing knowledge? Hmm – but this is common sense. What could it be? Oh well, despite the benefit of hindsight, I still don’t know.

True to the spirit of showing who the boss is, he mediated a truce between the Lord Almighty (this is Saurav and by now, I am sure you know I am addicted to reading the FIPL blog)  & Bukka  only to have Bukka announce that he had his way, on the eve of the tournament. To make matters worse, the Chak De man of Indian movies (read as sports) was there, watching as a silent spectator. Anyone knowing Lord Almighty knows how political he can get. Even in his hay days as the captain of the Indian team, he liked to divide and rule.

There were his boys and then the others which was the pissing point for Guru Greg. He had a chance to fix this with his iron fists and choose not to. (If I were him, I would have sacked one of them). He let the divide in the team go on this meandering path that the boys lost so much of their confidence and the rest is history. If this was bad, Bukka now wants more phoren players in the IPL.

Do we need to remind him that this is the INDIAN PL and not the F (PHOREN) PL? If I was Dildo ( I am so glad, I am not), I would have asked him to shut up and focus on delivering results. The icing on the cake was his walking out because the team wasn’t winning. Public knowledge has it that he just walked away like this angry kid refusing to come back and then asks questions on expenses! ( I must tell you that my 2 yr old son is better behaved)

Here’s the point Dildo – Leadership is about staying the course when times are tough. You’ve got the take tough decisions when you have to and not be in sport for just the money. This is not your movie business where you can recover your losses from one flop with another hit. This is sport where only the committed can survive. I don’t know if your heart is in the right place. Look around the learn from the other folks Dildo – Mallya, from whom you can learn the importance of staying invested, Shilpa & Preity  from whom you must learn that you must let the captain and the coach run the show, good or bad

Shame on you to abandon a ship when it probably needs you the most.

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What do Mallya and Shah Rukh have in common? Quite a lot, you would say. Both are highly successful in their professions, are Type A personalities, are passionate about winning and are very flamboyant. They are also shrewd businessmen and love sports. Naturally, they understand the money generating potential of cricket. No wonder they own a franchise each in the Indian Premium League.

Unfortunately for them, their vision of success could not be replicated in the field during the first season of IPL. While Shah Rukh’s Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) came 6^th in the field of 8 teams, Mallya’s Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) finished at the 7^th position. Mallya gave vent to his frustration by sacking the CEO Charu Sharma even before the tournament was complete.

According to some estimates, RCB lost the most money during the first season of IPL, around Rs. 43 Crores. But Shah Rukh proved to be the most business savvy among the franchise owners and his franchise was the top profit generator in IPL, an estimated net profit of Rs. 13 Crores. This number is impressive considering the fact that only 2 teams apparently made profits, the other one being the winner, Rajasthan Royals (RR). RR reportedly made a profit of Rs.6 Crore. Regardless of the performance of their teams in the first edition of IPL, they were hoping to turn around things in 2009.

But the IPL-Season 2 has started on a wrong note for both RCB and KKR. Before the start of the new season, both Mallya and Shah Rukh made several changes to their franchises. Both were not happy with their respective team captains. Mallya sacked his captain, Rahul Dravid, and replaced him with Kevin Pietersen, whom Mallya bought for a whopping Rs.6.61 Crore. Unfortunately for Mallya, at the end of 5 matches, RCB occupies the bottom of the points table. RCB won only one of their 5 matches and have a huge challenge in getting to the semi-finals. The gamble of buying the costliest player in IPL has not out worked well so far.

KKR has only done marginally better than RCB. Like RCB, KKR has also only won only 1 out of their 5 matches, but have an extra point from a match washed away by rain. Shah Rukh and his franchise coach, John Buchanan, are trying a new strategy of multiple-captains and this has not gone down with the fans of the local hero and captain, Saurav Ganguly. KKR has been moving from one controversy to another since then. First, Gavaskar criticized KKR’s multiple-captains theory and Shah Rukh fired back at Gavaskar. Ganguly’s fans think this is a conspiracy to sideline Saurav and sent hate mails to Shah Rukh. Shah Rukh being a shrewd businessman, must be aware that controversy is always good. Controversy can generate more TV viewership for his franchise matches which means more advertisement revenue and surprise (not really), more profit!!

But the biggest news related to KKR has nothing to do with its performance in the field. Rather, it relates to a blog that goes by the name Fake IPL player. (If you haven’t already heard or read his blog, here is the link for you – http://fakeiplplayer.blogspot.com/ ).

The “Fake IPL player” is apparently someone in the KKR team who gets to play very little cricket. He blogs about the team’s inside news and bashes the franchise-management in a very sarcastic tone. This did not go well with Shah Rukh and Buchanan and they tried different ways to plug the leakage of inside news. They banned laptops, wireless and whatever technology is available for blogging in the team dressing room, but to no avail.

The latest news that KKR is sending back two senior players, Sanjay Bangar and Akash Chopra, to India has raised the speculation that these were the people blogging as Fake IPL Player. But Fake IPL player’s latest blog suggests that it is not the case. So, the hunt for Fake IPL player is still on.

Fake IPL player may be a big headache for KKR, but cricket fans love his blogs. The internet forums are active with discussions about Fake IPL player and on an average, each of his blog posts get thousands of comments. But the mystery regarding his identity continues.

Both KKR and RCB have 9 matches left in the tournament and we will have to wait and see if either of them can put up a better performance in the remaining matches. Will Mallya and Shah Rukh have the last laugh?

PS: The following are my pick of teams to reach the IPL semi-finals.

1. Mumbai Indians
2. Deccan Chargers
3. Delhi Daredevils
4. King’s XI Punjab

What is yours?

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