Mumbai Razors, Delhi Sultans, Kolkata Ball Breakers - IPL team names that were dropped ahead of the inaugural season in 2008
An auction, held on January 24, 2008, determined who would own the eight participant teams at the Indian Premier League (IPL). The teams were based out of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Jaipur, and Mohali. They would play each other home and away, and the top four teams would clash in the semifinals.
Some teams had some unusual names to begin with. The Mumbai franchise named their team Razors, only to change it to Mumbai Indians at Sachin Tendulkar’s request. The razor still exists on their logo. Delhi, the city of kings, had initially thought of Sultans before deciding upon Daredevils. Years later, they changed it to Delhi Capitals.
For some reason, co-owner Shah Rukh Khan was keen on calling his team the Kolkata Ball Breakers. He had to be talked out of it. The team had to be named after the American television series, Knight Rider. Of the other teams, Kings XI Punjab would rename themselves to Punjab Kings over the years.
To this date, the now-defunct Hyderabad-based Deccan Chargers remains the only IPL franchise to not have a city or a state in their name. The three other teams – Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Chennai Super Kings – have stuck to their original names.
For the early editions, all eight franchises were assigned catchment areas, from which they had to pick at least four cricketers. The Kings XI Punjab were assigned Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Haryana: their original logo featured the letters KJHPH.
While all this was going on, some of the cricketers in the world had been signing up to be auctioned. That was scheduled for February 20 at the Trident Hotel in Nariman Point, Mumbai. The auctions were a novel concept, for every team were about to start at the same point, with a total salary cap for their team.
How did teams fix IPL 2008 salaries for icon players Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh? Why were MS Dhoni and V.V.S. Laxman's salaries fixed in a different way?
Ahead of the auction, six teams were assigned a local cricketer as an “icon player”. Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman, and Yuvraj Singh were assigned to – in that order – the Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Mohali franchises.
The icon players would not be part of the auction but would earn 15 percent more than the most expensive cricketer the franchise would buy from the auction. Of them, Laxman declined the offer: he insisted the Deccan Chargers, the Hyderabad franchise, save money. They reciprocated by acquiring Laxman from the auction and naming him their captain.
The BCCI had reached out to M.S. Dhoni to become an icon player as well. Dhoni declined the offer and decided to be part of the auction instead, along with Laxman. Dhoni became the most expensive cricketer at the 2008 auction: Chennai Super Kings got him for 1.5 million dollars.
But Rajasthan Royals had the steal of the auction, for they got Shane Warne at his base price, of $450,000. Warne had retired from international cricket more than a year ago, but Rajasthan named him both captain and coach.
At the auction, Rajasthan spent only 2.925 million dollars, less than the BCCI’s mandated minimum cut-off of 3.3 million. They had to pay a fine for that, but it did not matter: they went on to become the first IPL champion.
India had also won the Under-19 World Cup that year. The IPL committee put all 15 members (and Viraj Kadbe) into a draft. When Delhi had the first call, they picked Pradeep Sangwan instead of the World Cup winning captain, a local boy called Virat Kohli. Bangalore got him instead.
Till date, Kohli remains the only cricketer to be part of every edition of the IPL for the same team.
Why is Rajasthan Royals called the Moneyball Side of the IPL, and who was the winner of the first IPL Purple Cap?
Rajasthan Royals’ approach at the first auction was different from every other team. They were the only side with an overseas captain, Shane Warne, though Adam Gilchrist and Shaun Pollock led later in the tournament. Warne was also their coach. They paid a fine for not meeting the BCCI’s minimum spending cut-off.
There was only one big name in that first Royals side – South African captain Graeme Smith. Warne had already retired from international cricket. Shane Watson’s career for Australia had been fading out. But they scouted well, recruited intelligently, identified the important roles in the XI, and found the best possible fits. They earned the moniker of the Moneyball Side of the IPL.
They slotted Yusuf Pathan in the middle order. Pathan hit 25 sixes in the IPL. Ravindra Jadeja seldom bowled in that season, but Warne backed him as a specialist batter. Kamran Akmal was identified as a big hitter. They pushed Swapnil Asnodkar of Goa to the top and gave him full licence to go after the bowling.
Sohail Tanvir, of the bizarre, wrong-footed action, won the Purple Cap. Munaf Patel and Siddharth Trivedi kept things tight. Watson was named Player of the Tournament. IPL 2008 saw his meandering career take off again.
At the centre of everything was Warne himself, as bowling genius, lower-order batter, and talismanic captain. Bold with his experiments, inspiring as a leader, and a genius with his strategies, he led his side to unexpected glory. Rajasthan won all seven of their matches at home in Jaipur; topped the points table; and won the knockouts to lift the trophy.
Fittingly, Warne was at the crease when Tanvir hit the winning stroke in the final.
Who was the first cricket to score over 150 runs in an IPL match, and how were the colours for the IPL Orange Cap and IPL Purple Cap chosen?
Brendon McCullum set the tone of the IPL on the first night with an unbeaten 158 in 73 balls. Even after all these years, there have been only six bigger scores in all Twenty20 cricket, only one of which – Chris Gayle’s 175 not out – came at the IPL.
The blitz gave McCullum an early lead in the runs chart for the tournament. A week later, he was awarded the Orange Cap, a rolling award for the leading run-scorer. Shortly afterwards, the Purple Cap was launched for the leading wicket-taker. Shaun Marsh (616 runs) and Sohail Tanvir (22 wickets) won the awards in 2008.
The colours were not chosen randomly: the IPL committee picked two colours that did not feature on the shirts of any of the eight teams. Over the years, that reason lost relevance, for the Kolkata Knight Riders changed from black to purple after the first couple of seasons, while the Sunrisers Hyderabad would don orange from their first edition.
What are the biggest IPL controversies, racism in the IPL and why was Harbhajan Singh once banned for 11 matches?
Of course, there were controversies, many of them. The cricketers of Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab were shaking hands after the match at Mohali when stand-in Mumbai captain Harbhajan Singh, slapped Sreesanth of Punjab. Sreesanth broke down in front of television cameras, and Harbhajan was banned for 11 matches – effectively the rest of the tournament.
The other major controversy, also involving Punjab, was even murkier. Upon their return to London, two Punjab cheerleaders, Ellesha Newton and Sherinne Anderson, told the local media that they had experienced racism during their stint at the IPL.
Representatives of the Wizcraft International Entertainment, who handled the Punjab franchise, had asked them to leave the stage in Mohali (“people don’t like dark girls here”) and had used the n-word.
The BCCI expressed their surprised, but promised a probe if an official complaint was raised. The matter fizzled out.
How the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attack had a lasting impact on the IPL, and when did players from England first play in the IPL?
The 2009 edition saw a quasi-reversal of the previous edition: Deccan Chargers, who had finished last in 2008, won the title. In the final, they beat Royal Challengers Bangalore, who had finished second-last in 2008.
IPL 2009 clashed with the Lok Sabha Elections, forcing the tournament to be played outside India. It was held in South Africa. It was not the only change.
In the aftermath of the 26/11 Mumbai shootouts, all franchises either terminated or suspended the contracts of the Pakistani cricketers. They signed up for the auction again in 2010, but no team picked them.
No player from Pakistan has since been part of the IPL, though Wasim Akram remained the Kolkata Knight Riders bowling coach for some time. Azhar Mahmood played for the Kings XI Punjab as well as Kolkata in the 2010s, but that was after he had got English citizenship.
On the other hand, England overcame their initial resistance and allowed their cricketers to be part of the auction, even if for part of the IPL. At 1.55 million dollars each, Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff were the most expensive overseas cricketers of the edition.
Two acquisitions deserve special mention. The Delhi Daredevils signed up a 22-year-old left-hander with little international experience. David Warner would go on to become one of the IPL legends. On the other hand, Kolkata Knight Riders got Mashrafe Mortaza for $600,000. Mortaza played one match, bowled four overs, and conceded 58 runs.
It was in this season that the IPL introduced the strategic timeout – a seven-minute break after ten overs of each innings. Over time, this would change to breaks per innings, but two and a half minutes per break.
As an aside, the match between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians at Cape Town was held up for ten minutes when a black foxhound in a red collar ran on to the ground and stayed put despite attempts from M.S. Dhoni and Manpreet Gony.
Who was the Fake IPL Player, why did fans burn effigies of KKR coach John Buchanan in 2009, and why did Anil Kumble take over the captaincy of Royal Challengers Bangalore from Rahul Dravid?
In IPL 2008, Stephen Fleming had played for Chennai Super Kings, Darren Lehmann for Deccan Chargers, and Shaun Pollock for Mumbai Indians. In 2009, the same franchises appointed Fleming and Lehmann as coaches, and Pollock as bowling coach.
This was the first time the fans got a firsthand experience of the ruthlessness of franchise cricket. The Royal Challengers Bangalore sacked Rahul Dravid as captain and, halfway through the tournament, they sacked Dravid’s replacement Kevin Pietersen as well. Anil Kumble led them to the final, where they lost to Deccan Chargers.
Kolkata Knight Riders coach John Buchanan had initially suggested a multiple-captain strategy before settling on Brendon McCullum. Local hero Sourav Ganguly’s sacking did not go well with the fans in Kolkata: they burnt Buchanan’s effigies.
The Kolkata franchise got into other controversies as well: Sanjay Bangar and Aakash Chopra were sent home mid-season from South Africa, while a support staff member uttered alleged derogatory comments to Ajit Agarkar. It was not a happy season for them, and they predictably finished last.
On April 18, a week after IPL 2009 began, a blog post appeared under the pseudonym of the Fake IPL Player. Throughout the season, the blogger published unflattering content about cricketers. While Kolkata dominated the stories, other teams were represented as well.
The incident created a major ruckus. On their official website, KKR slammed the blog as “poison pen of the dirtiest variety, but far too many factual errors”. It did not discourage the readers. Pinstorm estimated that the blog had 150,000 visitors on April 15, and the users spent 15 minutes on an average.
It was not before August 2010 that the blogger revealed his identity. Anupam Mukherji, a Bengaluru-based marketing specialist, admitted to being the Fake IPL Player. He assured that the stories were false.
Where the idea for a 20-over league come from?
In 2003, the ECB introduced a new format of cricket. It was still limited-overs cricket, but the duration of the innings was reduced from 50 overs a side to 20. The evening matches ensured packed houses and increased television audiences.
By 2006, Pakistan, Australia, and the West Indies had T20 tournaments, but it was not a serious format – though international matches were being played. The ICC announced the first ever global contest in the format, in South Africa in 2007.
No one knew what to expect of the format, not even the ICC. They did not even call it a World Cup. The tournament was called the World T20. While the Full Members qualified automatically, the others had to qualify – and the Qualifiers were played in ODI format.
However, there was one problem. India were not interested. At an ICC board meeting, BCCI honorary secretary Niranjan Shah famously asked “T20? Why not ten-ten or five-five or one-one? India will never play T20.”
The ICC knew that the tournament would fail without Indian participation. ICC president Ehsan Mani told the Asian bloc – India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh – that their proposal for the 2011 ODI World Cup was non-compliant. They would be given another chance, but only if they participated in the World T20.
India were still not too keen. They did not have a domestic T20 tournament. Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, and Rahul Dravid all opted out of the competition. M.S. Dhoni, a long-haired hard-hitting youngster from Ranchi, led India for the first time.
India won the inaugural edition, but long before that, before even the group stages had got over, the BCCI made an announcement. The country that had shown such disinterest in T20 cricket a year ago was going to launch a league of unthinkable cash in the same format.
How America's NBA influenced the IPL structure
The idea behind a league of such epic proportions came to Lalit Modi in the 1990s. Modi had gone to Duke University in North Carolina, where he was arrested for trafficking cocaine and using a weapon with intent to kill. He got a suspended two-year prison sentence and five years of community service. He returned to India after furnishing a USD 50,000 bond and inherited his family business.
Modi had seen the NBA during his days in the USA. He wanted to create a similar competition in India, but in cricket. T20 was not born yet, so Modi wanted a 50-over tournament.
The logic was sound. Day-night cricket had been a roaring success at the 1996 World Cup. The BCCI were hosting more of it. At the same time, cable television was spreading its wings in India in the 1990s. In 1994, his Modi Entertainment Networks had become the official distributor of ESPN in India for ten years. He knew the viewership ratings.
He wanted cricket to replace soaps and movies and news and win the prime-time slot in the one television set most Indian families owned.
So, in the 1990s, Lalit Modi submitted a proposal to the BCCI, of a cricket tournament that was nothing like cricket had known. There would be city-based, privately owned teams featuring Indian and foreign cricketers. The 50-over matches would be played under lights and have extensive television coverage. The entertainment would last four to six weeks a year.
The BCCI were not convinced by the astronomical amounts mentioned in the proposal. Nor were they keen on ‘sharing’ cricket. The idea of selling to private organisations did not appeal to them.
By the time Modi relaunched his idea in 2007, two things had happened. First, Modi had found his way inside the BCCI and climbed very close to the top. And secondly, there had been an outside threat.
Who started the Indian Cricket League, and what happened to it?
Eleven days after India were knocked out of the 2007 ODI World Cup, Subhash Chandra of Zee launched a T20 tournament with a million-dollar prize money. His Indian Cricket League was going to be a private league that will run parallel to the BCCI.
Back when cricket did not pay as much, Indian players used to participate in privately organised masala matches for money in the past. What Chandra launched was of epic proportions, far beyond any private cricket had known in India, that too in a format India had not yet woken up to.
He was trying to settle a score with the BCCI, who had denied him broadcasting rights. So, like Kerry Packer three decades before him, he decided to buy the cricketers. Unlike the IPL, he owned the teams as well. The matches would be telecast live on his own Zee Sports.
There would be six teams to begin with, but there were promises of expanding to sixteen within three years. Each team would have own state-of-the-art training facilities, psychologists, mentors, physios, and media managers. There would be an ombudsman for the cricketers, and an executive board and a rules committee.
The ICL would be played in T20 format, but would expand to ODIs – in 2007, still the most popular format.
Chandra also claimed that the BCCI had been unable to create a “reserve pipeline of players”. He assured that Indian cricket would have an “ideal pool with killing instinct”. He focused on uncapped cricketers. Each of the six squads had two Indian internationals, four overseas players, and eight domestic players. Many of the latter group were unlikely to play for India. The ICL scouts travelled across India to look for young talent.
By launching the ICL, Subhash Chandra became the first man to seriously challenge the BCCI’s monopoly on Indian cricket.
Why was Rohan Gavaskar, Sunil Gavaskar's son, banned by the BCCI?
The BCCI came down hard on the ICL. They issued a lifetime ban on every ICL cricketer from playing for India. The ICC subsequently issued a similar ban on non-Indian cricketers who had signed up. They sacked Kapil Dev, new ICL executive committee head, as NCA chairperson, and denied the ICL their venues.
Chandra had signed up former cricketers like Brian Lara, Chris Cairns, and Inzamam-ul-Haq, and active ones like Andrew Hall, Abdul Razzaq, and Ian Harvey. He also got some former India players – Rohan Gavaskar, J.P. Yadav, Hemang Badani, Deep Dasgupta, Reetinder Sodhi – but the squads largely comprised domestic cricketers.
He also appointed Kapil Dev as head of the ICL executive committee (whom the BCCI promptly sacked as National Cricket Academy chair) but could not get the men who mattered. There was no Tendulkar or Dravid or Ganguly or Kumble or Yuvraj or Harbhajan or Dhoni.
Chandra fought back with his limited resources. He found venues. He used his Bollywood access to get the stars to perform at innings breaks. And the fans loved the cricket.
But two days after the 2007 World T20 began, the BCCI launched the IPL, their own T20 tournament. The money was big, and since this would be an official league, no cricketer would be banned for playing in the IPL.
The ICL stood no chance. To pay his cricketers throughout the year, Chandra had to make them play more. The second season of the ICL was played only three months after the first. A new team, the Lahore Badshahs, consisted of only Pakistani cricketers. He then ran a tournament with an India XI, a Pakistan XI, and a World XI – in other words, he used the India-Pakistan rivalry to compete with the IPL.
But the first season of the IPL became a hit of such proportions that by the time it got over, the ICL was as good as forgotten. By 2008, the ICL was over. In 2009, the BCCI offered amnesty to everyone they had banned. Many accepted it. Some even played in the IPL.
But Chandra did leave a legacy. The BCCI doubled the match fees of domestic cricketers from INR 16,000 to INR 35,000. It has continued to rise since then.
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