Just when we thought that his shady revelation was the last we would hear from him, he makes his comeback.

The Fake IPL Player is back and he is going to England to follow the ICC World Twenty20!

Oh no!

So I guess now we will hear of all the lowdown regarding international countries and players.

For some reason, I don't like the sound of that.

I took it all in good humor when the Fake gave the players nicknames. Even when some people found them crude, I thought they were just hilarious.

Its just people after all - we all make fun of them.

But calling international countries with names like "d*cks of d*ckland" and "d*cks of South Asia" is out of line in my opinion.

That is just not right.

However, I guess that puts the theories about him being hired by Shahrukh Khan or him being on Lalit Modi's payroll to rest.

Why would they pay him to for promoting the ICC World Twenty20?

Someone needs to stop him though. He can give us all the juicy details he wants, but he CAN'T call countries degrading names like that!

Unfortunately, after reading the post below, some people have concluded that Son of Bosey was behind the Fake IPL Player.

Unfortunately that also resulted in Son of Bosey writing and claiming that he is not.

Anand, Bosey, Son of Bosey - No where have I implied that you are behind the FIP.

For those of you who deduced this after reading the post below, please read it again.

All I said was that Bosey was hired by SRK for the KKR website last year.

Last year.

Not this year. Last year!

Considering that, I mentioned that we cannot rule out the fact that SRK might have hired someone this year.

Someone being FIP.

NOT Bosey.

Bosey is not FIP.

FIP is not Bosey.

I did not claim that either.

Hope this is calrified.

Thanks to Raj, we might be on to the biggest scoop ever regarding the Fake IPL Player.

After Fake's shady disclosure, we had this post up, which resulted in quite a discussion.

During that discussion, Raj mentioned Son of Bosey and how he had been hired by Shah Rukh Khan last year to do some stuff for the Kolkata Knight Riders official website.

I had not heard about Bosey before tonight, till Raj pointed me to it. They are an Indian humour site, and are apparently doing some work on Cricinfo's Page 2 as well.

Coming back to Bosey, SRK, and KKR.

According to this post, dated 18th April 2008 (the day last year's IPL began), Bosey was hired by SRK to create spoof magazine covers, ads, and newspaper articles for the KKR wesbite.

When you click on the links provided by Bosey for these spoof creations, you will notice the URL of the KKR website, but you will also notice, "Page Not Found".

Well that is because these spoof mag covers, ads, and articles were not well received by other IPL franchises, cricketers, and officials.

This unapproval of the Bosey spoofs is witnessed in the exchange of comments between Anand and Raj, in the post that I have linked to above.

Hence, these spoofs were discontinued and the whole idea died down. Even the ones created were taken off the KKR website.

Based on this, Raj concluded that it was possible that since an official idea to make fun of cricketers in the IPL did not take off last year, SRK tried to do it again this year, albeit unofficially.

Unofficially through the damn Fake IPL Player!

Now it maybe far fetched for Raj to think on those lines, but to me it makes a lot of sense. Connect the dots and you can see the potential link of the Fake to SRK.

And we're not the only ones who have suggested this link. Many other bloggers have also hinted that it could very well be a journalist on the SRK payroll.

Maybe the shady disclosure, in which the Fake IPL Player signs off with a title of an SRK movie, is a subtle hint that he is in fact on the payroll of SRK.

Doesn't sound far fetched to me at all.

That is one scoop; we at Well Pitched have another.

Bosey's spoof ads, mag covers, and articles are no where to be found on the KKR website.

However, as soon as I read Bosey's post about what he was doing for SRK, I remembered that last year I had downloaded some stuff from the KKR website.

So I dug deep into my archives and old external hard drives and was pleasantly surprised at my memory.

I had in fact downloaded all this stuff last year. Here it is, take a look for yourself as to why all this was discontinued.



And there's more where these came from.

So then. What do you think?

Is the Fake IPL Player a Shah Rukh Khan employee?

A journalist actually travelling with the Kolkata Knight Riders?

After taking a look at what SRK attempted last year and the fact that it was discontinued, I believe that the Fake is most probably that - one on the SRK payroll.

The Fake IPL Player promised that Wednesday would be the day when he comes out in the open.

He kept his promise alright.

Here's his revelation.

So who is he?

As I said, the man is a coward and a bit too smart to come out in the open and disclose himself.

With some shady shadow play, Fake reveals it all in his 4 minute speech.

All but his name.

Cricket, match fixing, bollywood, entertaiment, he links it all and talks sense.

Maybe some people would be able to figure out who he is, I could not.

A few things are for sure though - he's not a cricket player as he first claimed. He's a journalist with inside info. He's from Delhi but is a major fan of Kolkata.

And he's a fan of Bollywood and SRK as well - why then his chosen name for SRK, I'm not sure.

You know what I think. Now I'm pretty sure that he was someone on the payroll of SRK. Looks and sounds like that to me.

The question now is, will the blog continue or was this his last post?

The race to the IPL semi finals, the revelation of the Fake IPL Player, the announcement of the Ashes squad - all this is hardly news.

This is what is News!

Ness Wadia and Mohit Burman, co-owners of the Kings XI Punjab, flagpoling the daughter-in-law of Ajay Gupta, an influential industrialist in South Africa.

And Burman ending up with a black eye.

Yes, a real fist fight at a cricket match. That's a first for sure.

Looks like some of the owners took that 1 run Punjab victory over the Deccan Chargers a bit too seriously.

Where was Priety Zinta when all this was happening?

I forget, hugging the players ofcourse.

But what were Wadia and Burman up to?

Flagpoling!!?

Lalit Modi, the Godfather that he is, had to play mediator between the Punjab owners and Ajay Gupta, who is so influential that he had his own team of security guards that bashed up Wadia and Burman!

And how did the Fake IPL Player miss this scoop?

What are you more excited about - the unravelling of the IPL Semi Final plot, or the Fake IPL Player revealing his identity?

This IPL has been more of a suspense thriller than any suspense thriller every produced.

Who will make the semis?

Who is the Fake IPL Player?

Will KKR win any match?

Will the Fake IPL Player reveal himself?

Will Buchanan be fired?

Who will captain the Royal Challengers?

What inspired the Deccan Chargers this season?

Will Ganguly captain KKR again?

Why hasn't McGrath got a single game?

Who will win Miss IPL Bollywood?

Why is Priety Zinta keeping her distance from Ness Wadia?

Why is Sehwag so woefully out of form?

Why is Yuvraj Singh so grumpy?

Who will win the Sandy Baddy Babe bet?

There have been more questions than answers in the IPL this year.

The sounds more like LOST!

But one question is definitely going to be answered tomorrow.

The Fake IPL Player has promised to come out in the open tomorrow.

It is the Kolkata Knight Rider's last match of the IPL, thank heavens for that, and as the Fake promised, he will be revealing his identity.

Tomorrow is the D-Day for the Fake IPL Player.

The Day he comes out in the open.

Its finally time to stop guessing and hear from the Fake himself.

The other day we told you that the Real IPL Player has landed in South Africa.

Now he has his first post out.

He's not hiding like the Fake IPL Player. Som is out in the open, in South Africa, sitting in hospitality boxes and all.

And you know who else was there?

Banjo Cassim!

Yes Him!

Read for yourself.

If you are then you can read about all the bored IPL moments.

Or you can click on one of the links on the right and read more about the IPL.

Find out what we have to say about the Fake IPL Player.

Or check out the stats at different stages of the IPL.

And if you have a lot of free time then maybe you can see all about the IPL that there is to see on Well Pitched - all the way from last year to date.

Don't get bored of the IPL - it just got interesting!

I was looking for some reactions to the match fixing claims surrounding the Kolkata Knight Riders and Bangalore Royal Challengers match, and I found this:

"Why would someone pay us to lose a match when we are doing the same for free?"

The Fake IPL Player at his best! That was just absolutely hilarious!

Fake goes on and talks about how he and his KKR team mates are being investigated for match fixing.

Then Homer pointed me to this piece of news, in which Lalit Modi denies that any team in the IPL is being investigated for match fixing.

So then who is right?

The Fake IPL Player or Lalit Modi?

Either Lalit Modi is covering up the investigation that is going on.

OR

The Fake IPL Player has finally given us reason to doubt his credibility.

Fake has a new poll running on his site, which asks you to vote on who you think the Fake IPL Player really is.

Currently, "Journo with inside info", is leading the polls with 30% of the votes. While 18% think that Fake is none of the 10,000 choices he has given in the polls.

However, after this, i.e. getting caught talking about an investigation that was a mere media rumour than anything else, I sense the votes for "a complete fakey" could go spiralling upwards.

Vote and decide for yourself.

"Which of the IPL franchises will become Twenty20’s equivalent of Manchester United, Real Madrid or LA Lakers?"
That is not me asking you. The CEO of MTI Consulting asks that in a new report on the IPL titled, IPL Brand Value Scorecard 2009.
The report is a joint effort between MTI Consulting and Intangible Business, and presents the Brand Valuations of the 8 IPL franchises.
The report is quite an interesting read as are the results of the Brand Valuation Excercise.
Surprised? So was I!
Well atleast the Kolkata Knight Riders are topping some sort of table.
But one surely raises an eyebrow when they see the worst performing team of IPL 2009 at the top, no matter what the excercise, and the defending champions right at the bottom.
MTI Consulting and Intangible Business explain this by stating that on-field performance hold no bearing over the valuation of a brand.
That does sound slightly strange considering that the valuation excercise is that of sporting entities, hence how strong or how good a team is should have some bearing on its value.
That is not the case however. The value being calculated is of the brand name, in a way the business entity that a Kolkata Knight Riders or Delhi Daredevils is, rather than the cricket team.
Hence the factors that go behind calculating the value of these 8 IPL franchises are things like their ability to engage with local communities, star power, media exposure, international relevance, ability to generate future income, public interest, and so on.
So what MTI Consulting and Intangible Business did was gather data regarding the teams such as website visits, match attendance, TV viewing figures, and other things.
They say this was publicly available data, and all from 2008, hence the Fake IPL Player plays no part in the calculation of KKR's brand value.
Well atleast Shahrukh Khan has something to smile about!
The whole methodology, the data used, what it means, and the rankings with explanations in detail can be seen in the full report, which as I said is an interesting read.
You can download it from here, or send me an email on wellpitched@gmail.com and I will mail it to you along with the quotes from the directors at MTI Consulting and Intangible Business.

Its true.

Check out his latest post.

He calls out to the people.

He thanks them for making him who he is.

He thanks them for paying him.

He tells them that its his duty to entertain them.

He tells them that they all are a part of his identity.

It looked liked the Fake IPL Player had just won a Filmfare award and Sajid Khan did not get him off the podium in time!

Here's the part I enjoyed the most:

"Now, while I created FIP, your participation by way of comments, love,
appreciation, feedback, criticism, jokes, converations, brickbats, abuses etc
have made FIP what it is today. FIP belongs to all of you as much as it belongs
to me. And whether FIP's identity should be disclosed or not, or how it should
be taken forward, is as much your decision as mine."

He has left it to the people to decide whether he should reveal his identity or not.

He's got a poll running on his Fake IPL Player blog. Check it out and vote for what you want.

Somewhere in there I sensed that he was hoping that the people would not want him to reveal his identity.

But an overwhelming 62% want him to!

Another 3% of the people, which is about a 100 of them, want to see the Fake IPL Player get his ass kicked.

I wonder if that's the KKR support staff. About a 100 of them? Yeah.

Do you want to know who he is or get his ass kicked, or would you rather let it remain a mystery?

Vote and let him know.

The Fake IPL Player's previous two posts have come in quick succession.

He hasn't been as regular as before, especially since he came under the eyes of the Kolkata Knight Riders officials, so I was a bit surprised to see 2 quick posts.

But his posts are no longer as funny or as revealing as they used to be. He has stopped writing about the nocturnal activities of the cricketers and even says why in his latest post.

He explains the lack of gossip by mentioning that other teams and commentators are more wary of where they go now so that they are not pried on by the Fake IPL Player.

I don't believe that.

I think that everyone who is a part of the IPL - the teams, the players, the coaches, the officials, the commentators - everyone now knows who the Fake IPL Player is.

Remember when KKR announced a witch hunt on their squad members? When everyone's laptops and mobile phones were confiscated?

The KKR camp was serious about finding out who Fake was. They even claimed that they would reveal who Fake is within 24 hours and send him packing to India.

But then, we stopped hearing about the Fake IPL Player from the KKR contingent.

No one mentioned why he wasn't caught.

No one mentioned what happened to the 24 hour deadline to catch him.

No one mentioned what was found on the laptops and mobile phones.

Everyone just stayed mum.

I believe that during that witch hunt, the Fake IPL Player's identity was revealed.

Remember the 2-3 day gap between the posts when the witch hunt was going on? When Fake claimed that laptops were taken away and he was posting visa sms through his brother?

I believe that was the period when the authorities were negotiating with the Fake IPL Player.

I think the KKR lot, other officials, and above all Lalit Modi were all involved in those discussions with Fake, which ended in the conclusion that in the best interest of everybody it made sense to let the blog continue and let the Fake IPL Player's identity remain a secret.

Provided ofcourse that he tone down what he writes.

Hence, no talk of which commentator is winning the Sandy Baddy Babe bet, no talk of how many women Warne is taking to his room, no talk of what Yuvraj Singh's score is, no mention of Ravi Shastri's extra curricular activities.

It makes sense to me, and it sure as hell makes commercial sense to Lalit Modi.

Think about it - Lalit Modi cutting a deal with the Fake IPL Player.

Once his blog is compiled as a book, imagine the amount of money Fake will make.

I'm quite sure Lalit Modi has his share of the pie decided on already!

SP reported it on BCC!, while Jrod asked how much you would pay for the Kolkata Knight Riders.

But it seems like all those used spoons and cutlery, mangy towels, rechargeable batteries, crisps, milkshakes; and everything else you all were willing to offer Shah Rukh Khan; will not be of any use as King Khan has denied that he is looking to sell his cricket team.

"The amount of love I have invested in it, nobody in this world can afford to buy it"

That is what SRK said after casting his vote in India.

Now we know that its SRK's love that is invested in KKR and not his money.

No wonder the team hasn't been able to win anything in the IPL.

Someone needs to tell SRK that he needs to stop paying his players in kind and needs to dish out the moolah.

That will get them to perform.

On the pitch that is, not where SRK wants them to perform.

We also know now that SRK's love is not for sale!

You can't buy it. You can only earn it.

Karan-Arjun will vouch for that.

Despite denying the rumors that he was selling KKR, he did say that he will not be returning to South Africa any time soon.

"If my team continues to lose like this, I am not going back to South Africa. I will go only when they play well and win"

SRK has ditched his team alright, but he's not selling it.

So if he's going to keep it and since KKR are not going to win anything, then SRK is definitely thinking of an overhaul.

Bye bye Buchanan and family? Surely.

What about McCullum? He'll play I guess but won't captain for sure.

And Saurav? Will probably come back and lead unless SRK wants burnt effigies of himself all over Kolkata.

What about the Fake IPL Player? Maybe he'll get a game, but his latest post says that he's going to retire from all forms of cricket following the IPL and also disclose his identity!

Suddenly, I can't wait for the IPL to be over!

"Coaching in the IPL is tougher than in tests and ODIs"

Well well John Buchanan, wouldn't that be agreeing with what Shane Warne has been saying all along?

According to Warne, international test and ODI teams don't even require a coach.

Ofcourse it was easy for you Buchanan to coach a rampaging successful Australian side that won everything.

You had star players, you had brilliant captains, you had an awesome team.

It would have been a cakewalk coaching them.

In fact I'd be surprised if you had any work to do with the Aussies considering they were so good at what they did.

But now, when you are in charge of a hapless team in the IPL that can barely win anything, you are finding the going very tough.

Don't you think it shows your true character?

The fact that you can't manage to get the Kolkata Knight Riders to win anything?

Are you suggesting that the intensity and all of the IPL is too much for you to handle?

Or is it that you and your family of coaches and support staff have no hold over the "stars" in your team?

You are definitely finding it difficult to make them play together.

Obviously it did not require much to motivate the likes of Warne, Waugh, Gilchrist, Hayden, and the rest.

You say that the Fake IPL Player has had no impact on the team but I think you are feeling the pressure he is putting on you.

Its quite obvious that the Fake blogger knows what goes on within your team.

Murali Karthik played today, while your captain did not keep wickets something the Fake had suggested many posts ago.

I'm sure that through the Fake IPL Player you have also found out how many players do not like you taking over their team.

Oh wait, you may have known that all along.

I don't think coaching in the IPL is tougher. Maybe it is, but the fact that you were the Super Coach of the Super Australia, surely you should be able to coach the KKR to atleast another win in the IPL.

That looks beyond you right now though!

Here it is, thanks to NC.

First the Fake IPL Player increases the daily hits on Well Pitched.

Actually I should say phenomenally increases them by multiple times!

Then the Fake gets Well Pitched into the Mail Today.

He maybe be detrimental to Kolkata Knight Riders and the other IPL teams, but to us, and I'm sure to other blogs, he has been great!

The Fake IPL Player has created the type of frenzy that I have not witnessed before in the online world.

The best part is that he continues to entertain and his identity continues to remain a mystery.

For the sake of the bloggers, I hope it remains that way!