Photo Courtesy by 'The Hindu'Modi, Modi, Lalit for this one:
IPL auctions for new teams shocks the country again by garnering more than $600mn for Pune and Cochi alone in total. Just unable to comprehend the maths behind paying more than $330mn each for Ahmedabad and Cochi as any rationale I am trying to arrive at snubs by left bran thinking as some might call it.
As Harsha Bhogle said on TV sometime ago, to him it's like buying a stock for many a times its face value with an appreciation prospect of many times over. Hmm just hope in this case it was the work of those skilled with investment expertise and not a mere business gamble.
However what is intriguing the most is the means by which the two winners will fund everything from auction price to teams...especially considering that off late Sahara is not in the good books for its not so correct PR in the media. More interestingly, the Cochi owner Rendezvous Sports’ genesis is unknown to anyone. Even our all time favorite sniffer Google too failed miserably in giving us any information on this new entity.
However all it means to cricket aficionados is only one thing...IPL is going to get bigger and more fun (‘going to’ because from where the players will be sourced is yet unclear).
Hmm now I am going offline and will be back shortly to end this post.
March 23, 2010:
Just resumed writing this post as the headline in Business Standard today said 'Sahara Mulls IPO For New IPL Team'. WOW WOW WOW...looks like Indian businessmen have really come of age or at least are trying to be there where the Wall Street-goers blink. I mean ‘AN IPO!!!’
As this ongoing surge in confidence of Indian businessmen and their thinking looms large, the day is perhaps not far when Indians give developed countries a taste of their own medicine by redefining how businesses are run and thus clinching new deals which are unheard of :)
