Who’s Who in the IPL Zoo…

The IPL Twenty20 tournament in India is hotting up. Large sums of money are being bandied about and the frenzy shows no signs of abating!

The tournament itself will see 8 franchises (teams) playing home-and-away games against each other. The whole shindig is expected to start on the 18th of April and will last 44 days, featuring a total of 59 matches (56 home-and-away matches, 2 semi-finals and a final) to be played in 12 Indian cities.

To the best of my knowledge, there appears to be no website for the IPL.

So what’s on offer? What are the teams? Who’s Who in the Zoo? I thought I’d take a look at what the possibilities might be as things take shape over the next two weeks or so.

Before we go further, let us pause for a minute and consider the fact that even before a comprehensive blueprint was available for the IPL, the 10-year team-franchises alone have netted the BCCI a staggering $US1.749 billion. Teams will then need to spend more on players, a coache, physio, a management team, etc.

Players that Franchises can chose from:

The most interesting foundational aspect of the tournament, in my view, is the rule that says that each IPL franchise has to include at least four Under-21 players from India! Given that each IPL team will be coached by a strong team of internationally recognised coaches, and given that each team will have a certain clutch of legends of the game, the experience for these U21 players will be invaluable. Players like Virat Kohli (from Delhi), Pradeep Sangwan (from Delhi), Tanmay Srivatsa (from UP) and Abhinav Mukund (from TN) would think that their Christmases or Diwalis came early this year! The 32 U21 players (4 in each team) will be offered a fixed salary of 20 lakhs ($50,000) per year/tournament.

In addition, franchises can only chose a maximum of 4 overseas players in any match. The BCCI has signed up a total of 80 players already. This includes 49 overseas players and all the BCCI- contracted players. In addition, the BCCI will add a few non-contracted players (reported to be around 20 players) to the mix, yielding a total of 100 players to chose from. If we add to this (I think) the 32 Under-21 players, each team would then have approximately 16 players in its books. Certainly sounds good.

Iconic players and personnel:

Some allocations of “iconic players” have been pre-ordained.
– Sachin Tendulkar will play for the Mumbai franchise.
– Sourav Ganguly will play for the Kolkata franchise.
– Rahul Dravid will play for the Bangalore franchise.
– Yuvraj Singh will play for the Mohali franchise.
– M. S. Dhoni is slated to play for the Jaipur franchise.

Each franchise will, in addition, need to appoint a captain, a management team including a CEO and Team Manager, a coach, a physical trainer, a physiotherapist, etc.

This brings an ironic smile to my face. The BCCI, one knows, does not have a management team, a Board, a CEO, struggled for nearly 9 months to find a Team India coach and has just learned that the Team India physio, John Gloster, is quitting after the current India series in Australia!

Ho hum!

So what is happening in each of the teams then?

Team owners and costs:

• Mumbai Team:
  Owner(s): Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani (Indian billionaire)
  Cost: $US111.9 million
  Name: Undecided
  CEO: Unknown
  Manager:
  Coach: John Buchanan (likely)
  Physio:
  Event organisation:
  Likely Players: Sachin Tendulkar
  Team catchment area:

• Bangalore Team:
  Owner(s): United Breweries Ltd, Vijay Mallya (Indian billionaire)
  Cost: $US111.6 million
  Name: Undecided
  CEO: Charu Sharma
  Manager:
  Coach: Venkatesh Prasad, Team India bowling coach (likely)
  Physio:
  Event organisation:
  Likely Players: Rahul Dravid, Robin Uthappa, Anil Kumble
  Team catchment area: Karnataka, Goa and Services

• Hyderabad Team:
  Owner(s): Deccan Chronicle
  Cost: $US107.01 million
  Name: Undecided
  CEO: Unknown
  Manager:
  Coach:
  Physio:
  Event organisation:
  Likely Players:
  Team catchment area:

• Chennai Team:
  Owner(s): India Cements
  Cost: $US91.0 million
  Name: Undecided
  CEO: Unknown
  Manager:
  Coach: Robin Singh, Team India fielding coach (likely)
  Physio:
  Event organisation:
  Likely Players:
  Team catchment area:

• Delhi Team:
  Owner(s): GMR Holdings
  Cost: $US84.0 million
  Name: Undecided
  CEO:
  Manager: T. A. Sekhar, Sunil Valson
  Coach: Greg Shipperd, current coach of Victoria, Australia (likely)
  Physio:
  Event organisation:
  Likely Players:
  Team catchment area:

• Mohali Team:
  Owner(s): Priety Zinta (Bollywood Actress), Ness Wadia (Wadia Group)
  Cost: $US76.0 million
  Name: Undecided
  CEO: Unknown
  Manager:
  Coach: Tom Moody (likely)
  Physio:
  Event organisation:
  Likely Players:
  Team catchment area:

• Kolkata Team:
  Owner(s):Red Chillies Entertainment, Shah Rukh Khan (Bollywood Actor), Juhi Chawla (Actress) and Jay Mehta.
  Cost: $US75.09 million
  Name: Undecided
  CEO: Unknown
  Manager:
  Coach:
  Physio:
  Event organisation:
  Likely Players:
  Team catchment area:

• Jaipur Team:
  Owners: Emerging Media and Lachlan Murdoch.
  Cost: $67.0 million
  Name: Undecided
  CEO: Fraser Castellilno
  Manager:
  Coach: Greg Chappell (most likely)
  Physio: Ian Fraser (likely)
  Event organisation: Wizcraft (likely)
  Likely Players:
  Team catchment area:

Not all details are fully available. As they become available, we will try and populate the above table and see where this heads too.

While it appears somewhat of a mish-mash, especially with the dilly-dallying by the Australians, if this party comes off, it could be a coup for the BCCI as well as Team India.

This is going to be, one feels, a long and arduous party in India. There appears to be a lot of abundant hype and hoopla about. Hopefully, some good will come out of all of this. It remains to be seen though.

— Mohan