IPL, Knight Riders and Ganguly, my sweetheart!

Just saw the first IPL match. Few months ago, when the players were auctioned, I had a feeling 'crazy' times were about to begin. Players were going to be traded like stocks. It all sounded so fascinating. And India is the center stage for all of it.

It will revolutionize cricket. Each player would be playing to be in the game, to earn more, to survive. Best player increases his value subsequently and losers get out, something like free markets. Cricket will no longer be just a sport, rather a gentleman’s game; it will be pure entertainment. Like a movie.

It will revolutionize the economics underlying all of it. Look at the kind of people who own these teams and are sponsoring the event; ranging from film stars to real estate dealers. All of them agree that this is not an investment which will give them any return for at least 5 years. And yet they all seem to be hungry for their share of IPL. Clearly we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg called the IPL. There is obscene money involved and it’s only going to go on an upside. And every one is and can get money out of it. Like insurance companies???

It will give birth to a new culture. I am thinking, in a few years, I will have a choice between going to a movie or to catch the cricket match running in my city. If I were a typical girly girl, I will have a difficult time to woo my boyfriend to watch a romantic movie with me.

However I was worried about one thing. Who am I going to cheer for? I always cheered for India and abused the others. Now I have Andrew Symonds playing with Laxman. So I thought of going with my favourite player, Saurav Ganguly. My second favourite is Dhoni, but I want dada to answer all those who doubt his capability. I am not being emotional here. Why I like dada is because he has passion for the game and is an honest upfront person. You can see his passion on his face, in the field!!! If the game is going well you can see his face lit up, if its not you can see the frustration. You can see him communicating with the team all the time on the field. He has supported some good players despite the whole media and country being against them. He has been against some players even though everyone loved them. May be, its not all right, but I like undiplomatic people. I like people who just do what they feel is right. That makes them unpopular but not with me. And the fact is that before he became the Indian captain, cricket was almost dying in India.

Anyway, about the first match… what can I say; dada played the first ball and won the match by 140 runs. He didn’t contribute much in terms of runs. The whole show was run by New Zealand player B..something McCullum (please I cant google it now, too tired and office tomorrow!). But the team fielded well (not great but better than Bangalore) and they had Ishant Sharma. Dada also took two wickets. Well what can I say? Shah Rukh Khan picked a good team. Or may be dada recommended these people. They have Ponting, Agarkar, Ishant; kind of people dada would want in his team. I didn’t know about McCullum before the match but he also seems to be dada’s choice.

Plus I don’t know how many of you enjoyed, but I was so amused to see Ponting and Ishant Sharma celebrating the dismissal of Dravid. Never thought I would see that. It was an indication of crazy and fascinating times, I always keep talking about.

[Update: More links on IPL Economics – Limits to commercialization, IPL’s main challenge, Lessons from business,Nothing wrong in being commercial.]