Indian Premier League season III – an Overview

Navi-Mumbai Stadium and the last Sunday of April combined to offer the perfect ambience for the closing game and the cricket extravaganza ceremony – Indian Premier League (IPL) Season III, one of the six largest sporting events in the world.

The tournament which included more than 80 international cricketers, State Ranji players and Under-22 boys, earlier started with an exciting opening match between the Deccan Chargers and Kolkata Knight Riders. TAM, the television audience monitoring agency, recorded the opening viewership to be a whopping 42 million, which is a 41 percent increase from the Season I opening match. Since then the manifold increase in figures of viewership, brand associations, stadium ticket sales, and revenue generated speak loads about the IPL success story. A Brand Finance study estimates that the brand value of IPL has more than doubled since last year reaching to an estimated $4.13 billion mark.

The 60 match tournament initially started with teams like Shahrukh Khan’s Kolkata Night Riders and the Delhi Dare Devils as strong contenders for the trophy this year. They fought well until the last phase but disappointed their respective owners and fans. The two teams were knocked out just before the semi-finals.

Two semis were played with Royal Challengers Bangalore against Mumbai Indians (won by Mumbai) and Chennai Super Kings against Deccan Chargers – won by Chennai. The two losing teams played for the third position and the Bangalore team easi ly earned victory by nine wickets, with 37 balls still remaining.

Undeterred by numerous controversies, blames and political rustles storming in the nation with IPL as the eye of the storm, the tournament reached its final with much pomp and show. To be played between the Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings for a winning purse of $1.5 million, the game certainly exuded an exuberant thrill. Making the match crazier was the presence of the God of cricket – Sachin Tendulkar leading his team against this generation’s cricket icon MS Dhoni’s team. But all the efforts of India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, could not make his team captain Sachin recover from his injuries to step on the ground. That was a bit disappointing, yet the game managed to retain the fizz.

Dhoni’s team, which was written off early in the tournament and barely managed to remain in the semis, not only reached the level but also grabbed the trophy in style. With most overseas players unavailable or injured, the Chennai Super Kings had to bank on players like Raina, Murali Vijay, Ashwin Ravichandran, and in the later stages, Bollinger. A couple of blunders, as declared and proved by the Mumbai Indians, made them pay for their fallacy, that too on the Mumbai home field before a crowd of 60,000 present in the stadium and 142 million cable homes accessing the live feed. Chennai won the match by 22 runs.

The curtain went down on IPL-III with sounds of Jai Ho reverberating in the air as the Oscar and Grammy winning artist A.R. Rahman set the pace for a fast-paced evening. He was joined by sizzling Bollywood diva Bipasha Basu followed by film industry’s chocolate boy Shahid Kapoor making an impressive entry atop a hovercraft. Additional highlights of the evening included seven-year-old DJ Shalom D’Souza playing a foot-tapping Bollywood numbers for the crowd.

The 60 match tournament initially started with teams like Shahrukh Khan’s Kolkata Night Riders and the Delhi Dare Devils as strong contenders for the trophy this year. They fought well until the last phase but disappointed their respective owners and fans. The two teams were knocked out just before the semi-finals.

Two semis were played with Royal Challengers Bangalore against Mumbai Indians (won by Mumbai) and Chennai Super Kings against Deccan Chargers – won by Chennai. The two losing teams played for the third position and the Bangalore team easi ly earned victory by nine wickets, with 37 balls still remaining.

Undeterred by numerous controversies, blames and political rustles storming in the nation with IPL as the eye of the storm, the tournament reached its final with much pomp and show. To be played between the Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings for a winning purse of $1.5 million, the game certainly exuded an exuberant thrill. Making the match crazier was the presence of the God of cricket – Sachin Tendulkar leading his team against this generation’s cricket icon MS Dhoni’s team. But all the efforts of India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, could not make his team captain Sachin recover from his injuries to step on the ground. That was a bit disappointing, yet the game managed to retain the fizz.

Dhoni’s team, which was written off early in the tournament and barely managed to remain in the semis, not only reached the level but also grabbed the trophy in style. With most overseas players unavailable or injured, the Chennai Super Kings had to bank on players like Raina, Murali Vijay, Ashwin Ravichandran, and in the later stages, Bollinger. A couple of blunders, as declared and proved by the Mumbai Indians, made them pay for their fallacy, that too on the Mumbai home field before a crowd of 60,000 present in the stadium and 142 million cable homes accessing the live feed. Chennai won the match by 22 runs.

The curtain went down on IPL-III with sounds of Jai Ho reverberating in the air as the Oscar and Grammy winning artist A.R. Rahman set the pace for a fast-paced evening. He was joined by sizzling Bollywood diva Bipasha Basu followed by film industry’s chocolate boy Shahid Kapoor making an impressive entry atop a hovercraft. Additional highlights of the evening included seven-year-old DJ Shalom D’Souza playing a foot-tapping Bollywood numbers for the crowd.