The beauty of IPL is the unpredictability

In an interview to Mint, a business paper, Kolkata Knight Riders co-owner, Jay Mehta, talks about choosing the wrong players in the first auction, how the team has attracted pan-India support and a slew of sponsors thank to having Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan as a co-owner, and his concerns over two new teams joining the competition next year.

The addition of two more teams means there will be more competition for players, sponsors and fans. I am not too concerned on sharing of revenues. But it will mean more teams vying for the same sponsor base.

In the Guardian, Jason Burke watches IPL mania build up in Kolkata, while in the same paper, Dileep Premachandran warns that the bounty on offer at the IPL could distract Bangladesh's upcoming young stars.

You also wonder how much both Ashraful and Mortaza have been affected by IPL fortune. The Knight Riders' signing of Mortaza for $600,000 represented perhaps the most bizarre acquisition in the annals of sport. As everyone assembled at the auction in Goa and thousands watching on TV scratched heads in disbelief, he joined the august rank of misfits like the footballers Andrea Silenzi and Juan Sebastián Verón. Apart from being carted all over the park by Rohit Sharma in a match that the Knight Riders had as good as won, he did next to nothing in South Africa.

Also read this Economic Times article which suggests that brand clutter is gaining momentum with more than 100 brands competing for the consumer’s attention during the IPL.