Saturday, January 30, 2010

Team : Rajasthan Royals

Rajasthan Royals

Rajasthan Royals is the Jaipur franchise cricket team of Indian Premier League. The franchise is owned by Emerging Group and chairman is Manoj Badale. Investor list also includes Lachlan Murdoch, Aditya Chellaram and Suresh Chellaram. The group purchased this franchise at the cost of $67 million. This was the least expensive franchise in Indian Premier League.

Rajasthan Royals was the least fancied team in the league as there were very less players from the playing squad of the other countries. Bollywood Actress Shilpa Shetty and her business partner Raj Kundra shared around $15.4 million for 11.7% wager. There were no hopes from the team at the start of the tournament as it was considered as the weakest team.

Intelligent captaincy and fantastic coaching of the Shane Warn with his dedication flabbergasted everyone when they booked their first win against Punjab franchise, Kings XI Punjab. After that game, Royals did not look back claiming 5 wins in a row. They finished in 1st place in league table with an incredible record of 11-3. Rajasthan Royals was the first team to book place in Semis.

With a win over Delhi, Royals booked place in finals and became hot favorite for the league. They won inaugural IPL by defeating Chennai Super Kings. Many players of the team performed consistently good claiming many individual awards throughout the tournament. Team was awarded with DLF IPL trophy and $1.2 million prize money.

In 2009 IPL, Royals came in ground with lots of hopes but they failed achieve what they did in 2008 season. The team failed to qualify for even semi-finals. Absence of players and players missing their form were the major reasons for poor performance. In 2010, Royals haven’t claimed any player in auction yet but with return of Shane Watson in the squad, this golden blue team is hoping for replay of 2008 performance.

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