Kerala City Cricketers Team:
S Sreesanth (captain),
Sambasiva Sarma,
Abhishek Hegde,
Sebastian Antony,
Robert Fernandes,
Rohan Prem (vice-captain),
Raiphi Vincent Gomes,
Rakesh K J,
Tejas (wicketkeeper),
P Prasanth,
Prasanth Parameswaran,
Sanuth,
Praveen Achuthan,
Sreejith and
Manu Krishnan.

The season opener was mere moments away when the Washington Redskins cheerleaders marched to mid-field to perform a routine that brought the crowd--draped in red and yellow team colors--to its feet.

No, it wasn't a late-summer night at Maryland's FedEx Field, but rather a sweltering April evening in Bangalore's Chinnaswamy Stadium and the inaugural match of the Indian Premier League (IPL), cricket's first foray, from a business prospective, into the major leagues.

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The 2008 match between the Royal Challengers Bangalore (the team's owner, Vijay Mallya's United Breweries, hired the cheerleaders for four games) and the Kolkata Knight Riders (co-owned by Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan) was seen by 40,000 spectators, 14.4 million TV viewers in India and millions more watching on the eight networks that syndicated coverage across the globe. Signs above the playing field were branded with Citi, Sony and Vodafone logos, just to name a few. Not exactly humble origins.

Welcome to the hottest sports league in the world.

Our first round-up of the IPL's finances shows the league generated $209 million in revenue in its second season, for an aggregate operating profit (earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation) of $89 million. The average franchise is worth $67 million, a 31% increase in just one year. The Rajasthan Royals, winners of the league's first championship, has risen in value by 71%. This despite the uncertainty and logistical headaches caused by moving this year's entire 59-game slate, including the final, to South Africa with only three weeks' notice. (After terror incidents, the Indian government was anxious about providing security as parliamentary elections coincided with the month-long season.)

The IPL was conceived in 2007 near some hallowed ground for sports: in London's Wimbledon suburb. There, Lalit Modi, representing the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the governing body of Indian cricket, and Andrew Wildblood, an executive at sports management powerhouse IMG, discussed the disconnect between cricket's worldwide popularity and the lack of commercial success of any domestic league. Their solution: a franchise ownership structure modeled after top U.S. sports leagues. Since then, the league has grown at breakneck speed.

In January 2008, eight IPL teams were auctioned for a combined $724 million (to be paid in 10 annual installments to the nonprofit BCCI, an umbrella for the IPL). Just three months later, the Redskins' "First Ladies of Football" were flown in to shake their pom-poms at the sold-out opener. Proceeds from the auction, as well as portions of national media and sponsorship deals, are reinvested, mostly in India's aging (as far back as the 19th century) cricket stadiums, including some of the 10 rented by IPL teams for $100,000 per match.

How successful was that first season? The 2008 semifinals and final drew 62 million viewers in India, with a per-match average of 11% of the nation's total cable audience. In the months that followed, Modi, now IPL commissioner, opted out of TV deals with Sony and World Sports Group, risking nearly $1 billion of guaranteed payments over the next nine years. The gamble paid off, to the tune of a 98% annual increase from those broadcast partners, both of which deemed the IPL too valuable a property to lose. One reason the league is so TV-friendly is its format: Matches are held under Twenty20 rules that speed up each contest to about three hours (a traditional cricket match can last days, with tea breaks). The format is sweeping cricket worldwide.

Revenue from TV, mobile and digital rights deals totaled $100 million for the latest season, of which teams split an 80% share equally. They also divvied up 60% of the $40 million in league sponsorships, including a cool $10 million from the league's title sponsor, DLF, India's largest real estate firm, and $5.5 million from motorbike maker Hero Honda. Despite playing 5,000 miles away, Indian companies actually increased spending on team sponsorships, which grew by 60% to a collective $60 million. Ground staff scurried to change signage before every match so that none of the floating teams' advertisers were underrepresented.

Ticket sales did not go as smoothly. The move led to a 75% drop in gate receipts, as prices were slashed to fill up stadiums to make the product more appealing on TV. That must have worked: This year, the final's telecast reached 24% more viewers in India than in 2008.

Even Modi is surprised by how quickly the league has grown. "At the beginning there were not many bidders who were conscious of the fact that the league would succeed, and they had to bid on total blind faith. There was no history, everybody was writing against it, there was no support for it," he says. Then the first season averaged 58,000 fans per match (80% more than a typical Major League Baseball game), and new investors clamored to climb aboard.

In February, an ownership group that includes Lachlan Murdoch, the son of media baron Rupert Murdoch, sold a minority stake in the Rajasthan Royals to investors fronted by actress Shilpa Shetty in a deal that reflected the rapid value appreciation. Just last year, the Royals were auctioned for a league-low $67 million over 10 years.

While speculation about the IPL's long-term viability drove prices down at the franchise auction, the league's early success has now translated to unrealistic valuations in the other direction. Not helping is a misguided study frequently cited by cricket officials that calls the IPL a $2 billion business. Perhaps one day, but certainly not yet--our cumulative valuation amounts to barely one-fourth of that.

Our survey of franchise values is determined by multiples of revenue from continuing operations, except in cases where teams are on the verge of gaining additional money and exposure. Example: The Delhi Daredevils will play for a share of a $6 million purse in the inaugural Twenty20 Champions League this fall, on top of receiving $500,000 just for participating in the tournament. Since up to half of team revenue is accrued by dint of gate receipts, local sponsorships and merchandising--revenue streams of which teams share little with the league--market size plays a major role in making some franchises more valuable than others.

Take the Mumbai Indians, who play before a robust corporate base in India's largest city. The Indians are the IPL's most valuable team, worth $80 million for the owner, oil and gas giant Reliance Industries and company chairman and largest shareholder Mukesh Ambani, India's wealthiest man. Sensing Mumbai as the IPL's signature brand, akin to the English football's Manchester United or baseball's New York Yankees, companies from outside of India, like Adidas and MasterCard, have been quick to sponsor the team. Over two seasons, Mumbai's $43 million in revenue tops the IPL.

Some of the IPL's cachet comes from its owners: Khan uses the resources of his film company, Red Chillies Entertainment, to promote Kolkata and expand the team's reach into new markets. His strategy is paying off. Polls consistently rank the Knight Riders as India's most popular team, and they're already more valuable than two teams that were sold at higher auction prices only a year and a half ago. Such hands-on management is a far cry from the Stanford Super Series, the defunct Twenty20 competition between the English national team and all-stars from around the West Indies that was bankrolled by alleged Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford and thought to be competition for the IPL. Instead, after only one year, the SSS joined an alphabet soup of failed cricket ventures, including the IISC, WSC and APC.

Cricket has been played internationally for 165 years and was once a contest at the Olympics. With 104 nations as members of cricket's governing body, it's one of the most popular sports in the world. But before the IPL, professional leagues had never truly been run as a business. Most leagues around the world are operated by nonprofit entities and teams owned by athletic clubs with thousands of members; often, making money is a low priority. Says Donald Lockerbie, chief executive of the USA Cricket Association, "[English cricket] is as traditional a sport as there is. It's essentially a club membership drive." National teams have always been cricket's top draw.

But private franchise ownership coupled with the commercial possibilities of the new, abbreviated version of the game in India's cricket crazed marketplace has upended the sport's established order. It's also made Modi into cricket's most influential (if polarizing) figure, for whom profit always trumps tradition. A brash and charismatic promoter, he's the subcontinent's answer to Don King. In April he hired around-the-clock security after reportedly receiving death threats from the mob, the gambling operations of which stood to take a hit from the season moving to South Africa.

Unfazed, Modi is already laying the groundwork for the IPL's next chapter. "We plan to have another shorter [season] that will move around the world, with a main league that will stay in India," he says. Another plan to boost league coffers is to add more teams. IMG's Wildblood projects expansion as early as 2011 with the IPL adding one or two more squads. Unlike in the early days, bidders will have a sense of the league's long-term prospects.

"I think a lot of people discounted the fact that there was any value," Modi says. Not anymore.

The Brand Ambassador May Be ASIN

Asin Thottumkal (Malayalam: അസിന്‍ തോട്ടുങ്കല്‍), (born October 26, 1985) is an Indian film actress from the state of Kerala. She is currently considered to be one of the most popular actresses in the South Indian film industry.

Making her acting debut in Sathyan Anthikkad's Narendra Makan Jayakanthan Vaka (2001), Asin had her first commercial success with Amma Nanna O Tamila Ammayi in 2003, and won a Filmfare Award for the Best Telugu Actress for the film.

After a number of films, she received her second South Filmfare Award for Best Actress for her performance in her second Tamil film, Ghajini (2005). She played the lead female roles in hits, the thriller Ghajini (2005) and the action comedy Varalaru (2006). More recently, Asin made her début in Bollywood, with Ghajini, the remake of its Tamil namesake, subsequently winning the Filmfare Best Female Debut Award Award.

Priyadarshan and Mohanlal’s friendship dates back to several years. In fact the duo used to play cricket for a local Kerala team - City Cricketers. Their passion for cricket is now likely to give birth to a new IPL team. Yes, Kerala could get into the IPL 2010 if BCCI approves the team. The KCA has already given a go ahead signal. The Kerala IPL team has been named after their favorite team City Cricketers.

The Union Minister of State for External Affairs, Shashi Tharoor will be made the Chairman of the team.

Padmashree Mohanlal and director Priyadarshan are planning to start an IPL team for the next season in 2010. The latest buzz is that both of them have met together to discuss the matter in Priyan’s home in Trivandrum. When asked about the matter Priyan said that it would be his dream come true and would seek the help of the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) as soon as possible. Since KCA is affiliated to the BCCI, there will be lesser problems and the BCCI is ready to welcome more teams for the next T-20 premier cricket tournament.

When asked about the matter Mohanlal said that there are many talented players who lack exposure and world class training facilities. They will be surely given a chance to prove themselves. According to him the most successful IPL players of this year have been local guys like Manish Pandey, Pragyan Ojha, and Kamran Khan. He also thanked Shah Rukh Khan for giving a chance for players like Mohammed Niaz, Mohammed Sanuth, Rohan Prem, P Prashanth and also master blaster Sanju V Samson to attend the selection trials of the Kolkata Knight Riders. Though they did not get selected the exposure will have surely helped them.

Both Priyadarshan and Mohanlal had formed a cricket team during their schooling days called City Cricketers. During those days Priyan was the opener and Mohanlal was the all-rounder. They wish to keep the same name for the IPL team. For further progress, they have decided to make Trivandrum MP and the new Union Minister of State for External Affairs, Mr. Shashi Tharoor, the chairman of the cricket team. The whole expense is estimated to be almost Rs. 250 Crore. For this they have already bagged two NRI’s and also some multi-corporates to fund for the team. They have also discussed with Robin Singh, the former Indian cricketer and fielding coach of India to become the technical director. They have also decided to make a huge cricket stadium im Kovalam, Trivandrum.

Former Indian allrounder Robin Singh has been signed to be the technical director of the team.

Priyadarsan says : “Thanks to Shah Rukh Khan, we were able to send five promising lads — Mohammed Niaz, Mohammed Sanuth, Rohan Prem, P Prashanth and teenage batting sensation Sanju V Samson — to attend the selection trials of the Kolkata Knight Riders. They might not have made it to the team, but they got to see how international players train and the exposure has helped them”

What mohanlal says: “We’re trying to nurture local talent, as the most successful IPL players this year have been little known guys like Manish Pandey, Pragyan Ojha, and Kamran Khan. There are a lot of youngsters in the small towns of Kerala and Tamil Nadu waiting to get a break. They have the talent, but lack exposure and world class training facilities”.

City Cricketers, IPL Team Kerala by Mohanlal, Priyadarshan, Asin, Shashi Taroor


Kerala is all set to launch its own Indian premier league (IPL) team titled City Cricketers. Malayalam superstar Mohanlal and bollywood director Priyadarshan are behind the team. As per the reports, they have roped in new bollywood sensation and Kerala born actress Asin to be the brand ambassador and Shashi Tharoor, Union Minister of State for External Affairs, as chairman of the Kerala IPL team - City Cricketers.


Kerala team will debut in IPL 2010 if BCCI approves the inclusion of more teams in the next edition.

The team will be probably named as City Cricketers , the name of the local cricket team in which Mohanlal and Priyadarshan used to play during early years.

The team will have an initial budget of Rs. 200 Crores and will have a practice ground near Kovalam, Trivandrum.

When the likes of SRK, Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty are minting money with their IPL teams, can our very own Southern superstars be left out? According to media reports Mohanlal is all set to enter the the bandwagon as well. Accompanying him will be best friend and ace director Priyadarshan. Lalettan and Priyan have apparently expressed interest in entering a Kerala based franchisee for the 2010 edition of the Indian Premier League.

However from the looks of it, it is easier said than done. First of all Kerala doesn’t have a proper stadium. Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium at Kaloor, Kochi which has so far hosted international matches in the state doesn’t even have a roof to escape the scorching sun. The floodlights are hardly in any working condition. With all the corruption in the Kerala Cricket Association, even if a Tripura or Nagaland is ready to host an IPL match, our administrators in Dheivathinte Swantham Naadu will be still fighting among themselves for a seat next to the cheerleaders. And when cities like Ahmedabad and Kanpur which have better stadia are around, it is unlikely that money hungry BCCI will even consider Kerala.

Apart from Sreesanth, the only Kerala Ranji player in the IPL is Raiphi Gomez of the Rajasthan Royals. Even the Chennai Super Kings of which Kerala is a catchment state, doesn’t have a single mallu in the team. If Kerala’s Ranji recors are anything to go by, even the lowly Knightriders won’t have any problems dispatching them. Priyadarshan has said that he hopes to develop talented cricketers from the state. Hope he doesn’t mean players like Sreesanth. One Appam is more than enough to give us malayalis a ‘good’ name.

City cricketers is the lmohan lal priyadarshanatest Team to register in the Indian premier league. This team is owned by Famous Malayalam actor Mohanlal and Famous Director Priyadarshan.

Both Mohanlal and priyadarshan were friends from child hood and “city cricketers” were the name of their local team.

They have approched Shashi Tharoor the union minister for External Affairs to be the Chairman of the team. Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) has given the full support for the team.

Now they need to contact BCCI to get the approval. If they get the approval then in 2010 IPL T20 there will be one more team to participate.

Some NRI’s and corporates are willing to help the team. The project will cost more than 200 Crores and the team will be having a ground near Kovalam