Confessions of a sports manager

“The father of one of the best IPL players we have had was a well-known bookie. The son had to lose many times for his father”

The annual Indian Premier League (IPL) is just a marketing and partying extravaganza. It consists of everything but the game. After parties were banned during the last IPL season, they still continued under the name of ‘Team Dinners’. These parties do get ugly at times. One of the teams in the last season was losing consecutive matches, which resulted in fights and foul-mouthing in the dressing room. But the loss did not deter their party spirit. They went for the ‘Team Dinner’ anyway.

It is sad to note that one of our most revered players from yesteryears is not a saint. During a function hosted by a sports managing company, he did not leave his room because he was not paid a meagre amount over and above the already hefty amount given earlier. In the sports fraternity, he is well known for his tantrums. The same player was the only one difficult to deal with when a popular telecom brand decided to do ambush marketing during the World Cup this year. All other players, including greats like Allan Border, came across as easy-going people.

It is also known that the father of one of the best players we have had was a well known bookie. The son had to lose many times so that his father could make good money out of it. His son is in the same profession.

One reason why a few teams did not do well this IPL was because their leaders thought they were too good to be interacting with their team members. One of the teams’ captains came to matches in his car rather than the team bus and carried around him an inflated ego. This prevented team members from connecting with him, resulting in a colossal loss.

Apart from all these, girls are a constant source of distraction to all players, resulting in delays for shoots, award functions and other events.

(This person has been working with a sports managing company for the past year)

As told to Jahnavi Sanghvi

cricketIPLsports manager