The IPL Story, part 1: Power, Politics and Cricket in its originaga

Like all the great stories that extend both myths and facts, the IPL -Saga has many starting points. But we will use a daring prediction on the front page of a newspaper as a handy start.

On the morning of December 4, 2003, the people from Rajasthan woke up with an advertisement on the front page of two popular Hindi Dailies. It said: 'BJP 120-Plus; Bye-bye Ashok Hlot. '

Towards the end of that day, when votes for the 200 assembly constituencies were counted in Rajasthan, the BJP did indeed end with 120 seats, ending the five -year rule of Gehlot as CM.

That evening a small group of BJP leaders, including the one who had predicted the outcome, gathered, and good friends from Vasundhara Raje (the CM face of the BJP), gathered in the Majestic Ram Bagh Hotel in Jaipur and an enormous bill that partys all night.

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One of the members of this cheerful band, a spectacled man in a sharp suit and a sharper mood, made the table in delight and made another prediction: “My next target is cricket.”

The entire Rajasthan and the cricket world would soon get to know this man as Lalit Kumar Modi. But until that evening he was just one of the many 'brown Saahibs and Mrs.' who descended Jaipur with Maharani Saahiba-Raje. So nobody suspected anything when a Lalit Kumar registered as a member of the Nagaur Cricket Association in West -Rajasthan.

Rajasthan's Cricket was at the time the personal loan of the athletes, a business family of Jaipur. The office was run of the backyard of one of their factories and its office carriers were chosen by members nominated by the Spechter.

In the winter of 2005, when elections were held for the RCA, Raje had already prepared the field for her friend Modi. Due to an amendment in the rules for sports organizations, the voting rights of the nominated members were withdrawn and only the district associations were allowed to vote.

After a day of high drama characterized by intrigues, betrayal and betrayal, Lalit Kumar (Modi) won the election through a lonely mood. And started the story of the IPL.

A mix of myths and facts suggests that Modi had dreamed of a franchise-based Cricket League in India in the late 90s. He discussed it with advertising and marketing honchos of that time and eventually brought it to the BCCI, where it was shot. The reason: the BCCI did not want to deal with an outsider. So Modi decided to become an insider.

Once he became the head of the Rajasthan Cricket Association, a series of Serendipitous events helped him to strive for his dream. First Subhash Chandra, chairman of the Zee Group, seduced some retired players from both abroad and India to create a pool of famous stars. He added a few domestic players to this and launched a T20 competition, led by the legendary Indian captain Kapil Dev. Rumors soon began to swallow that many active Indian stars could participate in this bandwagon – called the Indian Cricket League – because of the money it paid.

The BCCI, the organization that claims Monopoly about Indian Cricket, was given no choice but to launch its own competition, for fear of a disturbance of the Kerry Packer type in the game.

By that time, Modi had helped Sharad Pawar, a powerful Maharashtra politician and member of the coalition that ruled the central government, Jagmohan Dalmiya as president of the BCCI. He now had a plan, a chair on the BCCI High table and the confidence and blessings of his president. And the Gambit of Subhash Chandra gave him the opening he needed to implement the idea of ​​city -based franchises that are owned by private investors.

In September 2007, when he announced the IPL – the official competition blessed by the BCCI and the International Cricket Council – had not heard much of Instant Cricket. India had only played one T20 International – a low scoring match against South Africa that was won in the last by Dineh Karthik. And it was considered so low in priority that many seniors were not even part of the Indian team that was sent to the inaugural T20 World Cup.

But India won the World Cup. Yuvraj Singh's Six Sixes, the disastrous scoop of Misbah-Ul-Haq, and the thrill-a-minute brand of the game became part of the spirit of the new millennium.

Nobody could stop the idea whose time had come – and so it was with the IPL.

However, the problem was to find buyers for the idea – the money to finance the experiment. And here too Modi found happiness and his friends and family favors.

Modi and his team approached at least 1,000 potential bidders for the teams to be auctioned. But on the day of bidding, only ten arrived on time. With $ 50 million as a basic price, bids were invited for 12 city franchises, with the clause that only the top eight cities would be eligible for the inaugural championship.

Anil Ambani, head of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, and a consortium led by Deutsche Bank were the lowest bidders and were therefore lost to the other eight. Under the cities, Kanpur, Ahmedabad, Cuttack and Gwalior were thrown away in favor of Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata and Mohali.

Modi gave the favor to the city that had given him his first major breakthrough. Jaipur also received a franchise, thanks to Modi's brother-in-law Suresh Chellaram, who was part of a consortium that appreciated it at $ 67 million the lowest.

The friends and relatives of Modi bought use in two other teams – Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab – both teams attract bids that were much lower than the other cities.

In this way a story began that had to be entangled in controversies, scandals and bitter political fights. But the most tragic part of the Saga was that it devoured its own makers in the coming years.

We will then tell you the story of the doomed fate of men and women who gave rise to the IPL. It is a pity that nobody predicted it on the front page of a newspaper.

Sandipan Sharma, our guest author, likes to write on cricket, cinema, music and politics. He believes they are interconnected.