Gujarat Lions make one obvious choice in Suresh Raina, another not so

Suresh Raina and Keshav Bansal, owner of Intex’s IPL team Gujarat Lions, at the launch in New Delhi on Tuesday. PTI

As far as names and logos go, this was a straightforward choice. A franchise based out of Gujarat christened Gujarat Lions, with a roaring lion embossed on the insignia. Given the region the team represents, it made sense when you factor in their drive to establish a local connect and reach out to the vast, and mostly prosperous and cricket-crazy, Gujarati community around the world.

The choice of appointing Suresh Raina as skipper was also a sensible one.

Earlier, in the draft, they weren’t disheartened after missing out on MS Dhoni (they knew beforehand as Pune were the first bidders). Instead, they smartly picked an efficient core of players including Raina — who was named skipper in their launch function here — local boy Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, and the Trans-Tasman pair of Brendon McCullum and James Faulker.

A bunch of high-profile buys you could say, and a more balanced ensemble, which according to owner Keshav Bansal was their wishlist, than Pune’s. And then chose, among a spate of high-profile coaches, Brad Hodge, who though a canny player doesn’t have much to brag about on the coaching front. A more clear-cut decision was making Raina the captain, considering his stature in the IPL, its most prolific run-getter and having not missed a single match.

Tapping in on this seemingly massive fan-base, and thus creating a brand both for the franchisee and Intex Technology, is of optimum priority. “We want to cater to the entire Gujarati community and not just a specific city, hence the state-centric name. They are spread across the world and if we can market our brand smartly enough, we can reach out to them and make this into a huge brand. Intex already has a good market there. But we have to market the brand aggressively, build a fanbase and create a buzz on the social media. For that we are also holding talks with the Gujarat government for starting a cricket academy,” outlines Bansal.

Youngest team, owner

At 23, Bansal is the youngest owner of an IPL franchisee by a fair margin. But that doesn’t make his life any less taxing. Just think of the intricacies involved — the franchisee has a two-year life-span stuck on it, are ineligible for allowances from the BCCI’s central revenue pool, which the older teams are entitled to, have to feed a chunky sum to the home association for stadium and facilities, besides the logistics. Just existing, forget profit-spinning, in this cut-throat space is difficult enough, as even the established ones would easily testify.

Hence, some of the nervousness Bansal conceded was excusable. After every presentation, he checks with the emcee whether everything is in sync He restlessly bristles his palms through the primly-trimmed beard that veils his child-like visage, arching back and forth on his chair, when taking question. His answers sometimes seem rehearsed, but put ourselves in his shoes and we will be reduced to nervous wrecks.

But Bansal professes a make-the-most-of-it approach. “My whole point is that we have to work really hard and try to make a brand and not think too much on how it will turn out to be. It gives you a lot of visibility and you have the opportunity to promote your brand, besides playing good cricket and entertaining the crowd. You never know what will happen in the future and two-year time frame is not playing on the back of our mind. Rather we just need to enjoy the two years,” he outlines.

Approaching auctions

The Lions’ brains-trust must be working over time to figure out who they want to purchase in the auction next week. It won’t be as straightforward, wishlist-coming-true scenario, as the draft auction, where Team Pune was the sole other bidder. So obviously you won’t get every player you want. Considerable home work has gone into it, reveals Bansal: “I have been monitoring a lot of players over the last six months. We have a team working on it and now have roped in a team CEO to work in tandem with us,” he says. Bansal and Co can’t be blamed for nerves when the auction begins on February 6 in Bengaluru, for they are competing teams with eight-year legacies. But he, a self-advertised cricket fan, says they won’t fall for big or sellable faces. “How do players become sellable? Clearly when they play well and win matches. So we are not just looking at marketable faces or local players, but a hard core set of players who can win matches for us,” he asserts.

So far, they have went about the whole purchasing business shrewdly. But how long and how far they can sustain this will be the bigger question.

‘Hodge called me and I was impressed’ 

Amid speculations of Gujarat Lions embracing the services of a rather high-profile coach—several celebrated names did the rounds including former India and South Africa coach Gary Kirsten’s—the franchisee went for the untested former Australian batsman Brad Hodge, who until last week was playing for the Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash League.

Hodge, who last featured in the IPL for Rajasthan Royals in 2014 after stints with Kolkata Knight Riders and Kochi Tuskers, comes with little experience of coaching any side. But with nearly two decades of experience, playing first class cricket in Australia and England, besides plying in T20 leagues world over, he surely is not a bad pick.

According to Gujarat Lions owner Keshav Bansal, Hodge contacted him last month and instantly impressed him. “He called me one day and I was impressed. I asked him to meet my uncle in Australia, and after that he made a powerpoint presentation. There were other big names too, but decided to pick him after discussing it with the players in the team,” he elaborated. ENS