The IPL just got bigger! The glam, gloss and the whiff of money turned crazier. Zinta, Shetty, Mallya- all came out in full swing to heighten the glamour quotient of this season’s IPL.
The auction saw money do the talking, as millions and millions were splurged by the franchisees on buying the best possible cricketing talent for their team. The auction seemed like a market trading humans, the only difference being the fact that here, they were up for grabs solely for their sporting abilities.

With $ 900 million available for expenditure in a matter of two days, the 2011 IPL auction is being touted as one of the biggest gambles the sporting world has witnessed ever.
Saturday saw the who’s who from the world of business and glamour gathering under one roof, spread across the 7000 sq ft of Mysore Hall of ITC Royal Gradenia Hotel in Bangalore. Bollywood’s baton was held high by Preity Zinta - Kings XI Punjab, Shilpa Shetty - Rajasthan Royals and a few representatives of the King Khan- Kolkata Knight Riders. The trio took home a handful of bats and balls in their goodie bags.
PZ and Shilpa Shetty-nee-Kundra couldn’t match up with the nerdy calmness of Nita Ambani of Mumbai Indians as she went on and on raising the auction card without a flutter. Nita’s sobriety in a white tee was far impressive than Shilpa’s caked up look and Preity’s variant layers of foundation. Preity lost her dearest Yuvi, thanks to the not so harmonious relations with her fellow investors. Well, who can forget her avatar at the last bidding, where any name that she mentioned was put in her shopping bag by beau Ness. Things change, don’t they? And, so do shopping lists. Period
But, none could possibly match up the flamboyance of liquor baron Vijay Mallya, not even his sonnie boy Siddharth. Guess, girlfriend Deepika is giving Sid dear a few lessons on how to be in news. Though he’d little to do at the auction, his mere presence made daddy swell with pride, while Sid was still busy replying to Deepika’s messages! Me thinks, Sid would need more of these outings to be the Mallya that he is.
Kumble was seen exhaling, perhaps a sigh of relief, for in all probability he thought he’d put in his papers at the right time or else he would’ve met the same fate as his contemporaries- Saurav Ganguly, Brian Lara n blah blah.
Talking about the franchisees, all of them did pretty well. SRK was conspicuous by his absence. Kochi still seemed cheesed out by the controversies they had to weather in the past, playing pretty much the phone bidders that they’ve been. Still wondering who was sitting on the other side of the phone! On the contrary, the representatives of Pune didn’t blink at a prospect, thanks to the excellent funding that backs them.