Liquor baron, Kingfisher airline owner and owner of the Bangalore Royal Challengers Vijay Mallya and the Chennai Super Kings owners must be kicking themselves for banking heavily on England recruits Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff and expecting the two of them to give them flying starts at the beginning of the on-going Indian Premier League (part-II).
While Pietersen has failed to deliver and can be called the biggest flop during the tournament, despite being the most costliest batsman to be bought at around Rs 7.5 million INR (1 million GBP), injury prone Flintoff has broken down yet again even before completing his six-match tenure thus denting his team's exchequer by around 1 million GBP.
Nobody is questioning the two star players' talent and reputation as world class players but the amount of faith and money spent on them for one tournament looks a bit outrageous as the gamble taken by the two teams has failed to come off with a bang.
Also the obsession of the IPL franchises with foreign players and elevating them as captains even before proving their worth to their respective teams only exposes the owner's holding sway in matters related to cricket. Unlike in the English football Premier League, where the managers have a big say in the selection of the teams, the IPL has shown more and more interference by their owners in matters concerning team selections, which has left the respective team managements shocked and the players confused to say the least.
The case in point is the Bangalore outfit and its owner Vijay Mallya. Even before the Indian team could return from their successful tour of New Zealand, Mallya, in a very unprofessional way removed iconic player and probably one of the greatest middle-order batsmen in test cricket Rahul Dravid from the captaincy and shared it between Pietersen (for the first six matches) and local player Jacques Kallis (for the rest of the tournament).
Dravid, like a true professional that he is, went about his business unaffected and unconcerned - topped the batting average while Pietersen flopped innings after innings before managing his highest score of 37 in the tournament. He has left to join his England team mates for a series against the West Indies. Let’s hope he re-gains his form for the two Tests.
Another clear-cut case of obsession with foreign players can be seen from the Kolkata Knight Riders' owner Shah Rukh Khan. The team was settling down under Sourav Ganguly nicely, but was unnecessarily disturbed by the team management announcing a new captain in Brendon McCullum a day before the tournament started. The Kiwi wicketkeeper can, by no stretch of the imagination, can be on par with the prince of Kolkata, be it captaincy or batting up the order. The prince of Kolkata (Sourav Gangluy) needs to be made captain.
At the same time Rajasthan Royals, partly owned by another Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty, has emerged as the best team in terms of return on investment, although it is ranked third in terms of brand value. The valuation exercise of the entire IPL franchise, along with the individual teams, have been conducted by UK-based international brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance Plc. The entire enterprise is valued at $2.01 billion, Brand Finance said, adding, its methodology took into account various revenue lines such as broadcasting, IPL sponsorship, team sponsorship, merchandising and gate receipts as well as the effect of performance, the presence of iconic players, etc. KKR has been ranked the most valued team with a brand value of $42.1 million, followed by Mumbai Indians ($41.6 million).
One sunshine does not make a summer, McCullum's one blistering innings is not good enough for him to lead a side which is more loyal to Ganguly than to former Aussie coach John Buchanan, who has been given a free hand by the Bollywood star to run the show, which in the real sense has been a no-show so far.
Both Pietersen and McCullum are no Shane Warne, who himself is struggling to rekindle the first edition magic of Rajasthan Royals after losing the player of the tournament (Shane Watson) and the bowler of the tournament (Shoail Tanvir) for various reasons, to produce miracle results and the burden of the captaincy is showing in their performances as well.
So under the circumstances only Deccan Chargers Hyderabad's gamble of thrusting the leadership to former Aussie great Adam Gilchrist (a proven skipper) from another great Indian Test star V V S Laxman seems to be paying rich dividends.
However, the worst thing that has happened so far during the IPL seems to be the team owners' targeting of Indian players for poor performances and sending them back home, including players like Mohammad Kaif, who has served the country with distinction, Aakash Chopra and Sanjay Bangar, back even before the tournament has reached the midway mark. Meanwhile, certain foreign players are getting away despite failing terribly.