(Disclaimer: The views expressed below are those of the author and not of strat.in as a blog in general)

See the greatness of the IPL (Indian Premier League), how highly it stands among other sporting events, which has already provided us so much drama before the play has actually begun. It is in the news all over, flashing here and there, and catching eyes of all. Media is so much excited! After all, everybody was so much bored to see bald-headed Headley and evil-smiling Rathore’s face every day at the breakfast. IPL has provided the idle-sitting cricketers something to chirp about, write columns and give fancy statements in the media. It has given some freshness to the Pakistani people who had all got bored burning effigies of the US and the Taliban. It has given Pakistani ministers something to brag about and divert attentions from more serious issues. continue

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When it comes to Formula 1 – three things are discussed to death – Huge money, cutting edge technology and glamour. Clearly, for a new team, it would take years to come to terms with the big spending giants like Ferrari, McLaren, Toyota, RedBull etc. However, Force India has done the unthinkable by earning their first podium within only a year and a half (around 30 races) continue

Cut to October 2007 - The first ever T-20 World cup was going to be held in South Africa. Folks in England and South Africa were harping about this new format of cricket called Twenty -twenty which the BCCI wise men had not woken up to. If anything, they were looking at T20 with caution – the between-overs commercial breaks were going to get reduced – from 99 to 39! That certainly couldn’t be good from a revenue standpoint. So, they rested the big 3- Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid. However, time had something else in mind – India won the world cup under a brand new captain, and that started it all … T-20 as a format was here, and here to stay. The rest – ICL, IPL, player auctions, IPL-2 etc – is history thats documented to death all over the internet, so no point mentioning that again. continue

As a fan of Indian Cricket, it was hugely disappointing to see what happened at the World Cup. The team has failed on all fronts – batting, bowling and fielding. The team which was joint favorite at the start of the tournament along with SA has literally fallen apart in the space of 100 highly forgettable hours for Indian cricket. So, what went wrong? Here’s my take – continue

Besides work, most of my time is spent on sports – playing and following. While cheering for Liverpool or the Delhi Daredevils, I’ve often thought about the economics of the EPL (English Premier League) & IPL (Indian Premier League) – both of the leagues being runaway leaders in their respective ball games. continue

My previous post on FIP brought in some debate – some in the comments section, and some on my GTalk. Well, at that stage, I was just playing the Devil’s Advocate. I ended my last post saying I would bring out the negatives of having an FIP in the world. Over the last 3 weeks or so, I had put up a Google Blog Alert for the words “Fake IPL Player”, which gave me an alert when top bloggers wrote about FIP. I got loads of such alerts. And given that FIP chose to be a hypocrite this week by going back on his word, most recent blogs were anti FIP. continue

No. This is not a post that will try and analyze who Fake IPL Player is. My post is about what Fake IPL Player (FIP) has done, what FIP has stirred, and what this means.

For those who don’t yet know, Fake IPL Player is a blog that is describing the scenes inside the Kolkata Knight Riders’ dressing room. The FIP blog has become a huge hit in India especially (92% of the viewership comes from India). It managed to get a traffic rank of around 10000 all over the world (and 261 now in India in terms of viewership). (For reference, google.com is Numero Uno). Around 0.02% of the world internet users have read the FIP blog. All in a matter of a few weeks. continue

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There are just a few matches left. Nothing is certain, apart from the fact that Delhi is in (and that Kolkata is out!). continue

During the IPL, there is a striking advertisement campaign by Sony Entertainment Channel itself. The promo shows a small girl walking up to her grandma with rangoli in her hands. The theme coming through is ‘Badal rahe hai aap, badal rahe hai hum’ (translated to: You are changing, so are we) This article is strat.in ’s analysis of the features and reasons behind this dynamic campaign. continue

May 28th, 2008: I am watching the IPL on SET Max. It’s the last ball of the game. Laxmipathi Balaji of the Chennai Super Kings runs in to bowl to Sohail Tanvir of the Rajasthan Royals. Tanvir pulls it to midwicket for a boundary and the Royals run onto the field for having won the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League. They went from rank underdogs to champions in little over a month. Shane Warne is hailed as a dream captain and the world falls for the IPL.
April 2009: The IPL is back. But only on television.  Its in South Africa. More players and more money. Some team changes and some glamour (Shilpa Shetty- yikes!) Not as many spectators, but many more than what I expected for sure given its South Africa where cricket is only the 5th most popular sport. continue