IPL: Royalty Revisited

A few days back I was reading an article on how the titles of the IPL franchisees are basis words related to royalty – Kings (2), Royals, Knights, and Chargers - Words from the medieval world. The more I think about the co-incidence of the titles to royalty, I realize that the similarity to royalty is more than just in the name

The IPL setup: A typical ‘empire’ style model…. With BCCI as the head of the empire, and the franchisees as the ‘jagirs’…. Every jagirdar (franchisee owner) has to pay a standard sum to the emperor every year… whether they make that much money or not…

Each Franchisee has its own flag; and war cry… similar to the medieval times… where the kings had their own flag and the army rallied around it….

Like the kings and their ministers… you have the business/entertainment Czars with their Durbar sitting in the Franchisee enclosures watching the matches… The kings also are seen showing off their spoils (especially the trophies from the fairer sex)….and as in the King’s Durbar, you have clowns too for entertainment

The auctioning…. Reminds me of the way the Gladiators were traded during the Roman empire… The public way the auctioning of the players are done is akin to the human trade of a bygone era

Talking about Gladiators…. I had read somewhere that each team of gladiators were a mix of veterans and rookies…. Look at any team in IPL, you will find the similarity….

They say history repeats itself…. And through IPL, repetition is truly happening;

Santosh

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