It was 6 PM in the evening. I was headed to the mess. Happy with the fact that samosas would be served I hurried a little to avoid the long queue. Queues can get really long when good food is served and samosas are one of the hot items at IIM Kashipur. Adding to it we had our end terms starting from the day after tomorrow. During the period of anxiety such as the ones like examinations, good food at mess can really soothe your nerves. The twenty minutes with good food can make you well prepared for the sleepless night that is likely going to follow. But to my surprise, not many people were there. Not that I cared as long as I could get my hand on a plate of hot crispy samosas. I grabbed my plate and found myself a table. While I was eating I overheard a couple of seniors discussing some auction. Intrigued by the conversation I went up to them to have a conversation. Only then I realized it was the auction of the players for the Kashipur Premier League (KPL) that was happening then. It was one of those moments when you curse yourself really bad for being oblivious to your surroundings. KPL Players auction, one of the most anticipated events in the calendar year here at IIM Kashipur, was happening in the academic block and I was there loitering around the mess. I hurried towards the academic block to witness the action-filled event for which every student was waiting for.
Now let me tell you something about Kashipur Premier League (KPL). Designed along the lines of IPL, Kashipur Premier League is the annual flagship sporting event here at IIM Kashipur organized by the Sports Committee. This year KPL is into its fifth edition. The league runs for a month long and the participating teams compete in three sporting events: Box Cricket, Futsal and Table Tennis. Box cricket is similar to the cricket played in the streets where there are many additional rules and regulations. The KPL event gets the students here really excited. Because they can participate in the event either as team owners or as players. The students who wish to own teams in the league have to shell out a particular amount for the same. The Sports Committee conducts a bidding process in which the participants with the highest six bids are allowed to own teams. The participants can bid individually or in a group. There are strict rules and guidelines pertaining to the amount that can be spent which the participating teams should adhere to. The team owners now have to build their squad to compete in the three sports. In order to facilitate this process, the Sports Committee comes up with the players’ auction where every player in the college goes under the hammer for a particular amount of money. This particular phase of the event is really important for the owners because it really needs some serious brainstorming. The particular set of players that the owners acquire will be playing against the opponents and they need to make sure the players are really good to do justice to their cause. In addition, they can spend only a particular amount for the players as per the rules. So the auction process not only tests how deep the team owners’ pockets are, but it also checks how attentive they were in the Strategic Management classes since it requires some serious strategy to come up with a good squad with the many constraints involved. The auction process is also important for the people participating in the event as players. The amount for which a particular player goes under the hammer remains the talk of the town. If the player gets sold for a good amount he can wear it as a badge of pride as it talks volume of the quality of the player, he or she is.
On reaching the academic block I realized I did not miss much of the action. Only a handful of players were sold till then. The classroom was packed with people who came to watch the proceedings of the auction. The front rows were occupied by the team owners with their laptops keeping a tab on the expenditure and the balance amount they had to shell out on players. Members of the Sports Committee were handling the proceedings from the podium with the wooden hammer going down every time a player was sold which was followed by the thunderous applause from the crowd. The tussle between the team owners in the auction for a few particular players was really interesting to watch. The following month will be very lively in the campus for there will be cheering, hooting, rivalry and most importantly the fearless desire of winning.