Hi Guys found this cool article from knowledge at Wharton.....All credit goes to the original authors and the University of Pennsylvania


Corporate cricket in India has never been of a particularly high standard. At the bottom end of the leagues, companies form makeshift teams from their own ranks. Anyone who has ever wielded a bat is enlisted to play. You bat a bit, bowl a bit and then disband for beer. (The demon bowler who could mess up the proceedings by being too "professional" is given beer before the match, not after.) "Save for Mumbai teams ... inter-corporate matches in India have never been very serious," says Sandeep Bamzai, the author of Guts and Glory: The Bombay Cricket Story.

Come April 18, it will be a different ballgame. Eight companies are vying for top honors in the Indian Premier League (IPL). They include Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries, Vijay Mallya's UB Group, India Cements, GMR Holdings, filmstar Shah Rukh Khan's Red Chillies Entertainment, and some makeshift alliances such as actor Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia, joint managing director of Bombay Dyeing, a leading textile manufacturer. These companies and combines have bid for and won franchises for eight major Indian cities. The tournament, to be played over 44 days in a 20-overs-a-side (Twenty20) format, will pit these eight teams against one another.

The marketers have already swung into action. The Bangalore team -- owned by Mallya -- has been named Royal Challengers, after one of the liquor baron's popular whisky brands. Khan has called his Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) team the Knight Riders, "inspired by the phrase knight in shining armor." The Chennai team, owned by India Cements, will be known as the Super Kings. (India Cements has brands such as Coromandel King.) Others, too, are rolling out elaborate plans.

They need to do that. By Indian standards, they have already paid large sums for these teams. The franchises for the eight cities were auctioned by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The auction took place in an extravaganza worthy of a Twenty20 match. Against a floor price of $50 million, Ambani won Mumbai with a bid of $111.9 million. Other winners included Mallya (Bangalore; $111.6 million), Hyderabad (Deccan Chronicle; $107.01 million), Chennai (India Cements; $91 million), Delhi (GMR; $84 million), Mohali (Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia; $76 million), Kolkata (Shah Rukh Khan; $75.09 million), and Jaipur (Emerging Media; $67 million). Incidentally, one of the losing bidders has offered to pay $130 million for a team if any of the franchisees is willing to sell.

Going, Going...