Sports Blog

The franchises of city teams slated to kickstart the Indian Premiere League (IPL), a counter venture of Twenty20 cricket by the Indian Cricket Board against rival Indian Cricket League has been auctioned recently heralding a new beginning in the cricketing world. The auction has fetched  Board Of Control For Cricket In India (BCCI)a whopping $723.59 millions against a base price of $400 millions.

It is no secret that Cricket is the biggest box-office attraction along with Bollywood in India and it was proved  once more with big corporate houses and tycoons bidding hand in hand with biggest filmstars.  Mukesh Ambani, the richest Indian and chairman of the Reliance industries got the ownership of the Mumbai team after quoting $111.9 millions - the most expensive team so far. The IPL promises to have glamor quotient in abundance with bubbly Preity Zinta winning the Mohali team with her boyfriend Ness Wadia. Shah Rukh “The King” Khan has become the proud owner of the Kolkata Team along with his business partner Juhi Chawla. If it is not enough than one can get flamboyance with Bijay Mallya who is in sports big time and owns a F1 team - not to mention his sponsorship of the Kolkata footbal teams.

But the success of the IPL will depend mostly on how much entertainment value it can provide to the audience. It is to be noted here that, IPL has already signed up some of the biggest stars in the cricketing world including legends like Shane Warne and Glen McGrath.