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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.

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