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India falls in love with Twenty20 – September 2007
Pakistan’s Misbah-ul-Haq top-edges a sweep off Joginder Sharma, and is caught by Sreesanth round the corner with four needed off three balls. India win the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 watched by over 400m people on TV, one of the biggest audiences ever outside an Olympics or football World Cup. India’s first major trophy since the 1983 World Cup is the cue for open-topped bus rides through Mumbai and mass Twenty20 hysteria (after early indifference) in the world’s second-largest economy.
Celebrity, money, cricket – February 2008
In the ballroom of the Hilton Towers Hotel in Mumbai, at the inaugural IPL auction, 10 of the best players in the world are bought and sold for a collective $7.175m in the first two hours. By the time dusk falls, India’s richest men have spent just shy of $35m. MS Dhoni goes for $1.5m in the first round of bidding, while Hyderabad fork out $1.35m for Andrew Symonds. Cricket is now a high-stakes game. After a slow start for his Royal Challengers Bangalore franchise (cost $111.6m), Kingfisher beer tycoon Vijay Mallya sacks the team’s chief executive as they walk to his private jet.
