A tale of two owners

One of the attractions(?) of IPL has been the team owners - well, at least the two more audible, visible or high profile ones, namely Vijay Mallya and Shahrukh Khan (with due respects to pretty Preity, high-profile she may be, but she hasnt been as audible as the other two during IPL).

Mallaya's team, as well as Shahrukh's team has been on losing streaks. Mallaya's team has won 3 out of 12, while Shahrukh's have won 5 out of 12. The difference though, has been the way in which losses have been handled. Shahrukh seems to have kept his spirits (and tried to keep the team spirits) high. Mallaya has been brooding over what went wrong, and pointing fingers (to the extent of firing CEO Charu Sharma). Mallaya has of late, blamed the captain Rahul Dravid for team selection and has openly said that Rahul Dravid didnt chose proper players (players of Mallaya's choice).

Net result? Despite Kolkata Knight Riders turning out to be a damp squib, Shahrukh ended up a winner, with his popularity higher than ever (and as significantly, with a stronger fan following for the Knight Riders). In Vijay Mallaya's case though, it is probably worth asking who is a more sore loser - the team owner, or the team?

Know your IPL teams :)

The IPL has 8 teams.

Mumbai Indians:: has Shaun Pollock, Sanath Jayasuriya, Luke Ronchi, Dominic Thornley, hmmm ... and still, Indians. sweet.

Deccan chargers:: hyper charged Symonds, Gilchrist and Afridi, led by discharged (at least from the Indian ODI and T20 teams) V.V.S. Laxman.

Kolkata Knight Riders:: Knights fight with spears. But the Knight riders will use a beanpole amidst them - Ishant Sharma. And, just like the 300 Spartan knights had a war cry of "hau", these knights sing korbo, lorbo, jeetbo re ...

Punjab Kings XI:: Upstarts!! With a captain called yuvraj, they call themselves kings? Prince, heir apparent etc might be better names. Princess (queen?) Zinta is too greedy for the throne, eh?

Chennai super kings:: If vice-captain of Indian T20/ODI team Yuvraj dares to call himself and his team "king", the Indian skipper Dhoni will call his team "Super Kings". Quite natural. ada paavi. what else would you expect?

Rajasthan Royals:: Royals they may call themselves, but they spent like paupers in the IPL player auction and even got fined by IPL for spending too less an amount of money, way below the minimum agreed amount. Huh! The nerve some people have.

Bangalore Royal Challengers:: In these days of democracy if there is going to be so much of kings, super kings and royalty, obviously someone will challenge them. So, enter Royal challengers.

Delhi daredevils:: Led by Virender Sehwag, who likes to drink milk. Hmm... each day we learn something new. Now, we come to know that devils drink milk rather than blood. kewl.

Poor Rahul

Rahul Dravid came, saw, conquered ... and got booed. The IPL game between Mumbai Indians actually saw the Mumbai crowd boo Rahul Dravid when he hit a four. The ever-observant Rahul observed: "It's really unusual to come to Bombay, hit and four and see nobody clapping for you".

This is Mum-bhai bheedu, hum se panga lega to ...

Seems like some IPL teams have already started gaining a dedicated fan base. But one wonders, for how long...