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All my blogger friends who read the partI would be itching to know my villains if not the heroes from the top 4 teams.Before i come to that something which comes to my mind is the amount of praise a cigarette company owner & a former student from a university of UK who was then charged of kidnapping and holding drugs is being bestowed with in the media.Yes a man named Lalith Modi,in whose brilliant brain(excuse me SRK) sprouted the idea of city based franchise cricket league.Are all these media people so dump??Did they forget that the ICL brought this concept??Did they forget Shane Warne & Glenn McGrath first decided to join the ICL??If the IPL was a runaway success(team owners excluded) shouldn't the whole credit go to the Essel Group chairman Subhash Chandra??Isn't he the the one whose school of thought is being cashed upon??Yes the media wont highlight these things,nor will they criticize a Sachin Tendulkar because they know where the power lies.Such is the sorry state of the so called Indian media who is undergoing a revolution.Yes,not bringing out bitter truths.So the real hero is Mr Subhash Chandra and let's forget the cigarette company owner for the moment.

DELHI:To be honest they were my second favorite team.With no show off men and the lovable and charming personalities like Sehwag,Gambhir and Dinesh Karthik i really wanted them to be there at the top.Sadly it didn't turn out to be.Being one of the most balanced sides with a much hyped bowling attack and extremely capable batsmen they had to do better(yeah should have reached the finals easily).After a flying start they struggled in the middle and lost to a better team quite badly in the semis.Even though i admit they were unlucky more than a couple of times they didn't always get their team combination right(Shoaib Malik having to bowl the last over in a close match).Their owners didn't make much noise either.Gautham Gambhir was the hero to me even though viru did his reputation no damage.Hard to pick a villain.
PUNJAB:They were the best team on paper.To some extent they did justice on the field.They had a lovely owner.They had shrewd cricket brains in Tom Moody,Jayawardhane & Sangakkara.The owners made sure the team got the TV ratings and public support(but made sure they didn't portray themselves bigger than the team unlike SRK).But a casanova captain could have well been done without.Yuvraj Singh sadly is not a captain material.The Indian team management understood that long before,no wonder Dhoni was chosen ahead of a senior & performing Yuvraj.Taking on the crowd was quite immature from yuvi & was rightly booed off after their semi final loss.He failed big time with the bat(Grand old men like dada & Rahul performed better).The captain failed to inspire his brilliant team and yuvi is the villain.His commitment to cricket has been questioned with such regularity.Yuvi will do well to remember that & that has been the reason why the most promising talent Kumar Sangakkara came across before Shaun Marsh is struggling to cement his place in the test team.Well hero,yeah the second most promosing talent Sangakkara came across.Yours truly will take this space to congratulate Kumar for walking in the semi final.He's a true gentleman.
CHENNAI:A very popular team,thanks to Dhoni.His popularity,the franchise owners thought was well worth 6 crores.Yes , to an extent they cashed in with sponsors lining up to cash in on Dhoni.Did he indeed prove worthy of it on the field will be better left unanswered.To me he singlehandedly won a match against Bangalore and he was responsible for their loss in the return match.Nothing else deserves a mention.The team surged on with an initial burst from Hayden and Hussey then struggled and were the last team to make it to the semis thanks to Morkel & Raina.Dhoni is without doubt a good captain,with a good record and the backing of his team mates.Doesn't often show pressure on the field but during the IPL final.His theory that T20 is a youngsters game was proved wrong(Jayasurya is 38,not to forget Pollock,McGrath.Saurav and Rahul).His own Mathew Hayden is 36 and he lost to Shane Warne(38) in the final(MIND IT).Wonder what will happen when he turns 33 or 34??Probably then he would reverse his statements,better wait and see.Raina,the batsman is the hero and Raina the fielder is the villain(Yusuf pathan will do well to treat him).
RAJASTHAN ROYALS:I remember discussing the various team combinations on the auction day with my friends.Unlike any other team Royals were a mere formality.When various teams signed star players first Shane Warne was their first pick(i asked myself"Why would they pick a 38 year old leg spinner???that too in T20!!!wouldn't he be carted all over the park???")Mohammad Kaif being the most expensive player speaks a story in itself.Then comes the news Shane Warne is the captain cum coach.Ohh my god!!People would have thought Emerging Media,the franchise owners dont have a penny in their pocket that they couldn't even afford a coach.Having been at Jaipur during the initial stages of the tournament i came to know that some tickets were as cheap as Rs 25.The rest is history.Now let me come to the answers of the questions i threw at the begining.Not too many people knew Emerging Media had started a talent hunt in cricket a couple of years back.Nor did people know that they are associated with the english county side Lancashire.Neither the amount of research they did to find a leader who according to their CEO, could bring out 30% more from the team members was known.That's how Shane Warne was reborn.That's were the fairytale story began.The whole of India was shocked to see the Royals leading the table , surely not the emerging media not even Shane Warne(quoting warne after their first win against punjab he said"we expect to surprise some teams along the way").They spoiled quite a few parties along the way,knocking out Kolkotta and quite fittingly the most expensive side.The amount of planning and research done by the franchise deserves it's worthy place in the sun.Yes ,the first franchise to break even will be the one which was never expected to do that.People all over the world will benefit to pick a leaf out of Emerging Media.They are the real heroes.Villain???Yes ,all of us who wrote them off before the tournament!!Yusuf Pathan is the new hero and Swapnil asnodkar is a household name.Before i call it a day let me remind my friends a poster in the beautiful DY Patil Stadium during the final which read"2009 WORLD CUP:MS DHONI CAPTAIN,SHANE WARNE COACH".Let Me Add "EMERGING MEDIA INSTEAD OF BCCI".That should be a killer combination.