Wednesday, May 7, 2008

A Model IPL Franchise - Rajasthan Royals

The least two expensive IPL franchises are heading the Points table half way through the tournament. Kings XI Punjab (Total Franchise Cost $76 M) is leading the Points Table followed by Rajasthan Royals (Total Franchise Cost $68M).

Master Spinner Shane Warne is the captain-coach of Rajasthan Royals. He is leading by example having bowled, batted and captained his side brilliantly till now. Sambit Bal in cricinfo writes about Shane Warne's inspirational captaincy in motivating no-name young Indian players to step up big time against big name international super stars. Dinesh Salunkhe, Yosuf Pathan, Swapnil Asnodkar have all tasted success under Shane Warne. The team is very relatively stable with no major International players leaving half-way thorugh the tournament like other teams. The team is largely composed of Indian players supported by Greame Smith, Sohail Tanvir, Shane Watson and Younis Khan.

Shane Warne is using this unique IPL opportunity to showcase not only his captaincy skills but also motivational leadership to young Indian players. After this tournament, some international test teams will be eager to speak with Shane Warne on coaching opportunities, even though Warne is not much of a proponent of formal coaching in cricket for Professional test players.

Rajasthan Royals in my favorite team after my home team Chennai Super Kings.

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