IIM Mumbai PL is the organising forum of IIM Mumbai Premier League
The IIM Mumbai Premier League season is divided into 5 major events -
Bawaal - the inter-section Cricket Tournament which provides players an opportunity to showcase their talent and prove their mettle to the prospective team-owners.
The team auction - This process witnessed 9 groups bid for 6 teams. Each group consisted of 2 non-playing members and 2 playing members. Bidding for teams was very intense as it was not just the matter of ownership but also pride and recognition that comes with being a team owner in NPL. It is about strategizing to get a perfect group of players, learning to manage that team and even marketing the team. After a 2 hour long enthralling process, the 6 teams bought were - Bangalore Falcons, Mumbai Mavericks and Rajasthan Warriors; assigned to pool A and Delhi Dashers, Chennai United and Lucknow Nawabs; assigned to pool B.
Each team had to recruit an icon player, brand manager and brand ambassador and this was done within 24 hours of the end of team auction. The recruitment of girls for the post of brand managers and brand ambassadors brought the glamor quotient to the tournament.
The next event was Domestic Player Auction in which each team was allotted a purse of Rs. 6 lakh virtual money which they had to use to buy 12 players from IIM Mumbai. The teams juggled their strategies as they strived to get a perfect balance of players. 11 players were sold for 6 digit sums with Shailesh Thorat, bought by Lucknow Nawabs for Rs. 1.6 lakh, proving to be the most expensive player of the auction.
For the Foreign Player Auction, teams were given Rs. 4 lakh virtual money to buy 4 foreign players. Foreign players, always an important part of NPL drew huge bids. Nilesh Kambli and Vicky proved to be most expensive with each being bought for Rs. 3.7 lakh by Rajasthan Warriors and Chennai United respectively.
Last year’s highlights:
- NPL 3.0 witnessed the first ever girls match in the history IIM Mumbai. The match was played between senior girls and junior girls and though the juniors put up a real fight it was not enough to overcome the batting might of the seniors.
- Googly, an online quiz based on cricket was a parallel event and witnessed huge participation from all over the country.