The Demo Site

In late June 2007, two men met in an English house, not far from the rain-drenched Wimbledon Championships, to discuss a very different sporting event. Lalit Modi, Vice-President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) brainstormed with Andrew Wildblood of the International Management Group (IMG), the sports management giants. In April 2008, the maiden IPL tournament that Mr. Modi had conceived and developed, was underway.

February 2008 saw the frantic player auction that created a media frenzy. Among the bidders were some of India’s richest and most powerful names, from industrialists to film stars, adding to the event’s lustre. As the sums on offer began to emerge – $1.5m for Mahendra Singh Dhoni, $1.35m for Andrew Symonds, $950,000 for the inexperienced Ishant Sharma – cricket raised its eyebrows, held its breath and braced itself for a new era.

The opening ceremony was like nothing the sport had seen before and would not have been out of place as a curtain raiser for the Olympic Games. And much to everyone's satisfaction, the cricket lived up to all expectations. The world witnessed the first ever Twenty20 competition played on a scale comparable to the biggest events in sporting history