Best IPL Franchise Owner: Bubbly – Chublee Confident Preity Zinta

After trouncing Mumbai Indians at Mohali, Kings XI face and one of the owners, Ms. Preity Zinta was bubbling with joy, and was seen in her best confident moments after the match. She has always been bubbly-chubblee. She has always been confident of herself too. But she is confident of her team winning remain 4 matches and reach knockout too. Does Kings XI Punjab need more inspiration!!

Preity- The Revolutionary
Preity was always seen as one of the revolutionary types in Bollywood. Her roles as unmarried pregnant woman in Kya Kehna and some others out-of-league movies proved so. She has always worn the nationality on her sleeves too. She has always felt happy more happy than other celebrities, when talking about national icons and Indian players. Even in IPL, she openly praises Indian players from other IPL teams, who contributed in her own team’s defeat – even if those players had played in her Kings XI earlier and are now representing or leading other teams.

Preity and Other Franchise
Comparing with other franchise owner will not be right, but comparing with her bollywood franchise owner is inevitable. Shahrukh Khan rules the roost as star and has led his franchise to profits just on his shoulders, even if his team (Kolkata Knight Riders) has the dubious distinction of being the only team who has not entered knockouts in three editions. Shilpa Shetty shares the same fate. Her team did reach knockout and won the tournament in inaugural edition, but then Shilpa was not the owner. Since her arrival as owner in 2009, Rajasthan Royals are yet to reach knockouts. Preity on the other hand has seen her team reaching semifinals in inaugural edition.

Best Quote
“Kings XI has given three captains (Yuvraj for Kings XI, Mahela for Kochi, Sangakkara for DC) to IPL (in 2011),” answered a proud Preity when she was asked about the strength and chances of Kings XI in 2011 during the initial days of fourth edition.

Even in the past three edtions, she has given the most vociferous support to her team, even when mostly they lost in last two editions. She always stood behind to support her teammates, even though there were news of in-fighting and discontent among the Kings XI team members of 2009 and 2010.

Master Stroke or Suicidal step!!
Kings XI did not retain any of the players, and revamped the team. Many people questioned the move as most of them expected local lad Yuvraj Singh, who was also one of the five Icons of first three editions, to be retained, if not players like Sangakkara, Mahela and Irfan Pathan. But, Preity’s franchise did not try to retain any. It appears that the legal tangles stopped them from being sure of their participation and hence no effort to retain the players. Then blockade of their kitty amount resulted in buying with cautious approach as kitty was almost half of the normal quota of each franchise. Still, on seeing the overall result, it appears the move turned out to be master stroke only. Better to have stars who cannot produce result for the team than having a team that can perform without big stars.

The Left-Outs and Effect on Kings XI
Kings XI is almost at the bottom of the Points Table. Still they are the team which is still in contention if they can win remaining 4-matches. The teams led by Sangakkara (Deccan Chargers) and Yuvraj Singh (Pune Warriors) is already knocked out of the tournament, while Mahela’s team (Kochi Tuskers) is also in a must-win situation and considering the tough Away matches remaining, they are unlikely to win more than one match now. Irfan Pathan (Delhi Daredevils) remained one of the top 5 buys of the auction 2011. But, he has not only failed to perform, but has been one of the worst player of IPL, considering his experience – with ball, bat and even while fielding. He is one of the biggest reasons of DD’s failure in current edition.

Pretty Smile and Gilly Factor
Win or loss matters but not to create animosity. Preity with smiley on her face and childish twinkle in her eyes is always there for her team, to support. Now, it is time for her team to give her reasons to smile more. Ironically, Gilchrist was the captain of DC, when they needed 5 must-win matches in the end to qualify for semifinals in 2010. Now, he is again at helm, now of Kings XI and his team needs 5 must-win matches to sail through. They have already won the toughest (against MI), four more to go!!

Why Preity is the Model Franchise Owner!!
She saw her team dithering away due to infights within the team. She could not sort out issues, probably because she was the owner not the captain or coach, and also even she had to undergo the seperation from Ness Wadia. Despite all the turmoil, her smile and confidence in her team can make Kings XI players proud of themselves and inspire them. Often it has been discussed in the news that other franchise owners cannot make their team so comfortable as much as Preity does. Infights and Modi-scandal defamed her team and took them to rock bottom. Now, only she can enthuse the confidence in team to perform better than they generally can. Probably other owners do the same, but it is publicly apparant in her reactions that she owns the team not just for moneey, but for the love of the game and that motivates her to keep 33% share forever in Kings XI, despite the additional avoidable challenges it is posing for her.