Mumbai, home to cricket and Bollywood, would have been perfect for the superstar. So when Mukesh Ambani won Mumbai, leaving SRK to claim Kolkata, it was easy to suggest that the actor had got a raw deal. However, it hasn’t taken long for people to realise that SRK has played the right cards. Bagging Kolkata has given Red Chillies a cricket-crazy city that is famous for hero worship. Khan will be in command at Eden Gardens and the one-lakh capacity stadium is big enough to rake in handsome gate money.
With Red Chillies already roping in music directors Vishal-Shekhar to compose a theme song for Team Kolkata and designer Anahita Shroff working on their apparel, King Khan is ready for a grand entry to cricket’s highest platform — Eden Gardens.
Ad man Prahlad Kakkar says IPL was something SRK wouldn’t have missed at any cost. “He has reached that stage of his career where movies are just a platform to keep him in the limelight. Let us not forget that he is a bigger brand than an actor now. Red Chillies is now moving into a lot of things as SRK is diverting his revenue streams.
He will not invest in something that will consume his time and IPL is perfect for him,” says Kakkar.
Other market watchers talk about the opportunity King Khan has from making Kolkata his cricketing base.
“Imagine the scope of brand merchandising in a city that has a population of more than 80.22 million. With Ganguly leading the team in the electrifying Eden atmosphere, it’s the kind of stuff that marketing men dream of,” says an IPL insider.
Kakkar also speaks of how SRK’s close association with various brands will also come in handy when he markets his team. “He is connected to so many high-profile brands. They all will jump at the opportunity to be connected with SRK’s latest venture. No one can say no to SRK,” he says as one is assured that there will no problem for Team Kolkata when it comes to in-stadia advertisements or shirt sponsorship.

MUMBAI
Mukesh Ambani (Reliance Industries)
Cost: $111.9m

Reliance Industries has ventured into big time cricket for the first time after 1987, when they hosted the World Cup. Two questions rise: Why Mumbai? and why now? Chairman of the group Mukesh Ambani’s conglomerate goes way beyond geography, yet he settled for Mumbai at a cost that Team Reliance says is a pittance for them.
Expect Ambani to throw his weight around when the player auctions begin too, and all this, his men say, is being done because of the company’s passion for the game. “We want to do something for the sport, help develop it because we are passionate about it. Reliance has entered this league because it is definitely exciting. IPL will certainly help develop the domestic scene in the country and Reliance wants to be a part of it,” says a RIL spokesperson.
Mumbai provides Ambani with a readymade infrastructure and a highly visible vantage point in the financial capital.
“Of course, we will go all out to ensure that the city embraces its team and I agree there’s a huge opportunity to tap the market. But this is not about money, this is about passion more than anything else,” said a Reliance official.
The Anil Dhirubai Ambani Group (ADAG) lost the bid and big brother Mukesh won after procuring a slightly better margin than Bangalore’s Vijay Mallya.

DELHI
GMR Group
Cost: $84m

From redeveloping airports across the country, the Bangalore based GMR Group has surprisingly ventured onto the cricket turf. The 57-year-old founder-chairman of the group, GM Rao, insisted that a reputed service oriented company like theirs wanted to be more visible. That’s the reason a company involved in roads and power generation, apart from airport redevelopment, wants to be connected to cricket. “Intangible assets contribute substantially in the overall progress of a company” — that’s what they say at GMR.
For GMR, Delhi was the team to own. They are involved in the redevelopment of the Delhi airport. Delhi being the power centre and the number one place in terms of brand evolvement too were important factors.
“The GMR group was keen on Delhi. It makes sense because we’ve been involved in a major project here,” says Vijay Vancheshwar, head, corporate communications. “There were rumours that GMR was interested in a team down south, but there is no truth to that. Delhi is what we wanted,” he says.
The group is presently busy — until the player auctions begin — in planning their future course of action. They are putting together a back room cricket team with a point-man, who is well-versed in the sport, to help them during players’ auction and later help themselves build a brand. “Cricket has a great brand value and we definitely want to be associated with it. Twenty20 has caught the nation’s imagination,” explains Vancheshwar.

JAIPUR
Emerging Media (Manoj Badale, Lachlan Murdoch & other investors)
Cost: $67m

When Lachlan Murdoch’s name cropped up as one of the investors in Emerging Media, for IPL’s Jaipur team, it created a flutter of sorts. The surname is big enough to suggest that the consortium had powerful backing. Murdoch may be an outsider and a pleasant surprise for a city like Jaipur, but partner Manoj Badale’s name does ring a bell. Badale’s Cricket Star, the game’s first ever reality show, found its roots in India before venturing back to England, where he is based. That was two years ago and since then, the NRI has also tied up with the Rajasthan Cricket Academy (RCA) with Greg Chappell as chief coach.
After winning the bid for the Jaipur team, Badale has already made his interest known in recruiting Mahendra Singh Dhoni — a hot T20 property. “I can’t go taking names right now. We are working on it and we will try to involve the best. The IPL provides a wonderful opportunity to make a foray into the game. Every business takes time to settle and so will this one. But IPL promises a lot,” says Emerging Media CEO Fraser Castellino.
The eldest son of media magnate Rupert Murdoch, Lachlan may not be directly involved at the moment, but Badale and Castellino are making sure that they finish their homework before actual bidding begins. “Jaipur has good infrastructure. We are familiar with the place and so settled for the city. We are concentrating hard on the support staff and other requirements,” he adds.

BANGALORE
UB Group (Vijay Mallya)
Cost: $111.6m

It would have been tough to imagine IPL without UB Group or Vijay Mallya. Much to the surprise of Reliance Industries, Mallya bid for Bangalore at a price that is almost as high as Mumbai. “It was disappointing to miss out on Mumbai,” Mallya had ruefully announced after the bidding was over and winners were announced.
However, getting Bangalore isn’t a bad bargain for the chairman of the UB Group that has its headquarters in the same city. For starters, the biggest brand of the group, Kingfisher, will be involved with Twenty20 cricket. Mallya got involved with the BCCI recently and has made it to the marketing committee.
His other sporting associations include owning a F1 team, I-League football club and being title sponsor of Mumbai Open tennis and the Indian Derby. Market analysts insist that team-owners like Mallya and Ambani have not entered the league to earn out of it. For Mallya personally, says brand consultant Atul Phadnis, the IPL provides a great opportunity to showcase his brands. “The IPL will provide an alternate form of entertainment from which business houses will have a lot to gain. It has the capacity to create a large space for team owners,” says Phadnis.

MOHALI
Consortium of Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia, Mohit Burman and Karan Paul
Cost: $76m

Along with beau Ness Wadia (Bombay Dyeing), business scions Mohit Burman (Dabur) and Karan Paul (Apeejay Surendra Group), Preity Zinta owns Team Mohali.
Wadia, Burman and Paul entering the fray is logical given their business interests and the fact that Mohali has been a traditional cricket venue in the country. Zinta’s involvement, apart from the glamour factor, is surprising. But Kakkar explains: “Preity has the smartest business manager in the country today. Inder Malik has a shrewd brain and he has advised her well. For someone like Preity being an actor is a zero percentage business investment.
She can use the gains from her movie career here. It’s a fun thing and certainly a win-win situation for her,” he says.
Brand consultant Atul Phadnis says that team-owners will be looking to bring in as much star attraction as possible. “IPL is all about luring eyeballs to the television,” he says.
The brand consultant goes on to explain how television is always looking for something new. “Let’s talk about the adult male, who usually has to share prime time television with family members, watching family sagas or news. Twenty20 cricket, a thrilling two-and-half-hour match, will provide him that fresh change,” explains Phadnis.
Zinta provides the glamour quotient that can be a factor when it comes to the team’s popularity. As Phadnis puts it, the mix of a filmstar, business magnates, star cricketers — Indians and overseas players — and the thrill of Twenty20 “will emerge as a different cuisine to those used to a staple diet” of the typical saas-bahu serials, quiz and reality shows running by the dozen.

CHENNAI
India Cements (N Srinivasan)
Cost: $91m

This happens to be the only IPL team that has a cricketing structure in place. India Cements figures in the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association League and the face of the company — N Srinivasan — happens to be BCCI treasurer. Srinivasan is to be TNCA president and is someone who is well-versed in cricket administration. When Srinivasan’s name figured as an IPL team owner, questions were raised about this being a case of conflict of interest. Modi came to the rescue by saying that Srinivasan was merely a share-holder in India Cements. As the vice-chairman and managing director of India Cements Pvt Ltd, he certainly was a share holder!
But except for this blip, IPL is seen as a venture where the BCCI has relaxed its iron fist. Gameplan’s Jeet Bannerjee, who manages players like Mahendra Singh Dhoni among others, has seen the business side of cricket for long to understand this change. “For the first time, in the business of cricket, big players in the market (like Reliance, the UB Group) are involved. Until now, cricket had always been controlled by the BCCI, even as far as the revenues went. But this is a change that was waiting to happen, given the game’s popularity and its reach,” says Bannerjee.

HYDERABAD
Deccan Chronicle
Cost: $107.01m

If some of India’s biggest business barons weren’t enough, there’s a media house in the fray too. Deccan Chronicle, or DC, is an English daily newspaper that has its roots firmly placed in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu with over eight editions. DC owns Hyderabad that also happens to be its business stronghold. The fact that they’ve been the third-highest bidders in the IPL auction extravaganza (after Reliance and UB Group) shows how keen DC had been to join the league.
With media houses like Eenadu in the region having a overwhelming presence on television, DC’s connection with IPL makes business sense. Market watchers believe that riding on cricket, DC can force its way to the television screens in Andhra. “For a newspaper industry that concentrates on a particular region and enjoys its fair share of dominance, having its own cricket team in IPL certainly provides major advantages. Brand value is all about exclusivity and for DC to have that in a market that has cut-throat competition is a huge benefit,” says a leading media professional.