It was that time of the year again when cricket enthusiasts at IIM Ranchi were up for a treat. Yes, it was the fourth season of one of the most-loved events on campus – RPL – Ranchi Premier League. A month long series of matches, played in a format similar to that of IPL, was well-organized by the Sports Committee of IIM Ranchi, which always takes efforts to bring sports, fun and recreation into the hectic B-school life of the students.
This season saw 8 teams beings bought up with 87 players being auctioned. Upon an investment of INR 8000 per team, the owners of the winning team had the opportunity to quadruplicate the sum to INR 32000, while the first runner-up team’s owners could double this sum to INR 16000. The teams were divided into two pools with Pool A comprising of Team Delhi, Team Bangalore, Team Punjab and Team Ranchi and Pool B comprising of Team Hyderabad, Team Chennai, Team Mumbai and Team Kolkata. It was delightful to watch a series of clashes spanning across a month starting from 15th January. Two teams from each pool qualified further to fight it out in the semis. Finally, Team Bangalore and Team Chennai were the two teams to battle it out on the finals on 15th February. In an exciting match that saw large cheers from the crowd, Team Chennai clinched the winner’s title. With that, Team Chennai also won the distinction of being the team with 100% winning record.
The award for Most Runs and Most Wickets were given to Kishore Vellanki (103 runs) and Amaranath Lakra of Team Delhi, while Chetan Sehgal sweated it out in the final match to win the Man of the Match title.
It was pleasant to see the students take pains to make such an event a huge success among several constraints. Owing to hectic class schedules, most matches had to be scheduled at 6 am in the morning, nevertheless, it did not deter the sports-lovers’ enthusiasm. The umpteen interest was kept up with continuous updates on RPL's official Facebook page. The Sports Committee did a commendable job with the flawless organization and has promised more such exciting events in the future to keep the drab away.
