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Pre-IPL 5India was beaten twice, poor show - a definite yes. Now fans want refreshment - a thunderous yes. Unlike last year's IPL when India was on an all-time high, post their World Cup win, this time IPL was more a getaway post the defeats in England and Australia. The buzz has always been a hallmark of IPL. This time around it was a similar story. Team Kochi got terminated and their players were up for auction. The bounty that they eventually got was high. The likes of Mahela, McCullum, R Vinay Kumar and Jadeja were the favourites and most likely to get some good old moolah. And expectedly so, they did. The biggest surprise was the sky-scraping amount of money Jadeja got from CSK. Enormous, to say the least. But it was not all hunky dory for all the teams out there at the auction. Prominently for DC, who never seemed like they had a plan before going into the auctions. The incredible amount of money that they paid for the likes of Dan Christian and Dan Harris was more baffling than their eventual team selections during the IPL-5. The road up to the IPL-5 was a bit rocky if you fall under the bracket of Sahara, Pune Warriors India and BCCI. The long-time team India jersey sponsor decided to back out citing BCCI's hard-nosed and perhaps a bit intolerant approach in not allowing a replacement for Yuvraj Singh who had been diagnosed with cancer, an unfortunate occurring in anyone's life. Sahara was adamant with its view for re-auction so that it could get a bunch of talented players. And with all that, IPL-5 was on the cusp of losing out on one more team and eventually Team India on its sponsors. Fortunately, some ego-massaging and a few men who were on good terms with the BCCI and Sahara made sure, both the warring parties arrived on a common ground. And while all their off-field drama transpired, pre-IPL 5 also witnessed leadership changing hands. Warne said good-bye to IPL-5 and in came Rahul Dravid as the new skipper for Rajasthan Royals; two drastically different men and two very distinct leadership styles. Mumbai Indians too witnessed a change of personnel. SRT had enough of the leadership and Bhajji took over. The absence of Yuvraj put Ganguly in the hot seat for Pune Warriors India. As mentioned earlier, people had enormous expectations from IPL-5. But more importantly, it was BCCI that was looking forward to this year's IPL with keener interest. Last year's IPL witnessed a serious dropdown in the viewership. If sources are to be trusted, then it hit its all time low during last year. Hence, BCCI wanted to see people flooding the stadiums and viewers staying glued to their TVs. People across the globe wanted to see what the IPL would deliver and whether or not CSK would continue its dominant run. Prior to the tournament, we at HoldingWilley had come up with a COLE report - A Quick Guide to IPL. It predicted the dark horses of the tourney, the players who one should watch out for and players who will outshine their colleagues. If you didn't check it out before the IPL, you can have a look at it now. COLE report - A Quick Guide to IPL next >> | |||||||
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