Mumbai Indians

Mumbai Indians
Captain:	Sachin Tendulkar
Colours:	Blue and Dark Blue
Founded:	2008
Home Ground:	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai & Dr. D.Y. Patil Sports Academy, Nerul, Navi Mumbai
Capacity:	45,000 & 65,000
Owner:	Reliance Industries Limited
Official Website:	Mumbai Indians

Mumbai Indians is a cricket team in the Indian Premier League. The team is led by Sachin Tendulkar, who is also the Icon Player for the team. The team is coached by Robin singh and is owned by India's biggest conglomerate, Reliance Industries, through its 100% subsidiary IndiaWin Sports.

History

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) purchased the rights for the Mumbai franchise of Indian Premier league for a total of $111.9 million during the auction on January 24, 2008. The RIL bid has made the Mumbai Indians the most expensive franchise in IPL, and hence won the right to hold the semi-finals and the final in Mumbai. The team was unveiled on the 17th of April, 2008 in Mumbai.

2008 IPL season

The season got off to a nightmarish start for the Indians, having lost their captain Sachin Tendulkar to a hamstring injury. With Harbhajan Singh taking over as captain, the team proceeded to lose their first 4 matches of the tournament. After Singh’s suspension for hitting Sreesanth, Shaun Pollock assumed the leadership duties until Tendulkar’s return on 14 May. It was during this time that the team turned their fortunes around, putting together a 6 game winning streak and an opportunity to make the semi-finals. They were unable to take advantage of this opportunity as they lost 3 of their next 4 games, with the 3 losses occurring in very close affairs. The Indians finished with a record of 7 wins and 7 losses. Sanath Jayasuriya played a vital role in securing two important wins for the team.

Mumbai Indians were the most watched team on television in the first edition of the IPL tournament, totaling 239 million viewers.^[1] After posting a revenue of INR 69 crore and expenditure of INR 85 crore, the first season left the owners with net loss of INR 16 crore and were expected to break even in the 2009 season.^[2]

2009 IPL season

During the IPL's first transfer window, The Indians acquired Zaheer Khan in exhange for Robin Uthappa and Shikhar Dhawan in exchange for Ashish Nehra. Jaydev Shah was also added to the roster, while Loots Bosman, Dwayne Smith, Dominic Thornely, Ashwell Prince and Manish Pandey were released from their contracts.

Shaun Pollock decided not to return for the second season of IPL. He, however, kept an association with the franchise, taking up the role of the Team Mentor. Pravin Amre replaced Lalchand Rajput as the coach.

At the player auction on February 6, 2009, the Mumbai Indians purchased J P Duminy for $950,000, Kyle Mills for $150,000 and Mohammad Ashraful for $75,000. They also signed all rounders Graham Napier and Ryan McLaren for undisclosed fee outside of the auction.

Logo and brand ambassador

The team logo has the Sudarshana Chakra with the team's name engraved in it. The team's colour is blue. The team's jersey is a two-tone blue with three stripes in orange.

In 2008, Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan was the brand ambassador of the team^[3].

Players

During the player auction in 2008, the Mumbai Indians successfully bid for 7 players, including two members of the Indian Twenty-20 World cup winning side in Harbhajan Singh and Robin Uthappa. Sanath Jayasuriya, Lasith Malinga, Luke Ronchi,Dilhara Fernando and Shaun Pollock were other cricketers who were successfully bid for by the franchise.^[4]

Outside of the player auction, the franchise also signed up Ajinkya Rahane and Abhishek Nayar (from Mumbai), Yogesh Takawale (WK-Batsman from Maharashtra) and Pinal Shah (WK-Batsman from Baroda).^[5] Saurabh Tiwary and Manish Pandey, the members of the U-19 world-cup winning team were the random picks drafted in during the BCCI held second auction. Dominic Thornely was also signed by the Mumbai Indians for a sum of $25000. Andre Nel the South African fast bowler was signed on in the place of Dwayne Bravo who left the tournament early.^[6]

In the 2009 player auction,the Mumbai Indians signed up South African sensation, Jean Paul Duminy for $950,000.He was the third most expensive pick after Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff (both signed up for $1.55m by Bangalore Royal Challengers and Chennai Super Kings respectively). In addition they also bought New Zealander,Kyle Mills.

Transfers

In the 2008-2009 transfer window, Mumbai Indians conducted two straight swap deals, with no money exchanged. Ashish Nehra was swapped with Shikhar Dhawan of Delhi Daredevils^[7] and on the last day of the transfer window, Robin Uthappa was swapped with Zaheer Khan of Royal Challengers Bangalore^[8], who plays for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy. In a three-way trade, Jaydev Shah of the Rajasthan Royals - captain of the Saurashtra Ranji squad that made it to the semi-finals and son of former cricket board secretary Niranjan Shah - will move to the Mumbai Indians. Batsman Gaurav Dhiman of the Mumbai Indians will turn out for the Bangalore Royal Challengers and lanky Rajasthan Ranji Trophy team pacer Pankaj Singh, of the Rajasthan Royals, will don the colours of the Bangalore Royal Challengers in the coming IPL season.

Current squad

• 10 Sachin Tendulkar(Captain)
• 84 Shikhar Dhawan
• 15 Saurabh Tiwary
• 27 Ajinkya Rahane
• -- Jaydev Shah
• 21 Jean-Paul Duminy
• 09 Mohammad Ashraful

Wicket Keepers

• 16 Pinal Shah
• 23 Yogesh Takawale
• 13 Luke Ronchi

| style="width: 40px;" | | style="font-size: 95%;" valign="top" |

All Rounders

• 47 Dwayne Bravo
• 01 Sanath Jayasuriya
• 17 Graham Napier
• 37 Kyle Mills
• 25 [[Abhishek Nayar]
• <FONT-FAMILY: COURIER NEW;>21/SPAM> Template:FLAGICON [[PRINCEPATEL]

• 02 Jude Singh
• 08 Ryan McLaren

• 99 Lasith Malinga
• 03 Harbhajan Singh
• 30 Dhawal Kulkarni
• 33 Rohan Raje
• 34 Zaheer Khan
• 26 Dilhara Fernando
• 63 Chetanya Nanda
• 24 Rahil Sheikh

| style="width: 5px;" | | style="font-size: 95%;" valign="top" | Coaches

• Head Coach: Shaun Pollock
• Asst Coach: Pravin Amre
• Bowling Coach: Shaun Pollock
• Fielding Coach: Jonty Rhodes
• Fitness Coach: Ramji Srinivasan
• Physiotherapist: Nitin Patel

→ More Rosters |- |}

Stadiums

The Mumbai Indians have two home grounds, the Wankhede Stadium and the Dr. D.Y. Patil Sports Academy. For the IPL's 2009 season, the Mumbai Indians had agreed to use the Cricket Club of India's Brabourne Stadium while the Wankhede Stadium underwent renovation. Brabourne Stadium would have hosted 5 of the 7 home matches, if not for the IPL being moved to South Africa.

Administration

• Owner - Reliance Industries limited
• Director- Shishir Hattangadi
• Media Adviser - Harsha Bhogle (2008) ^[9]
• Brand ambassador - Hrithik Roshan

Fixtures and Results

2009 season

No.	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result
1	18 April	Chennai Super Kings	Cape Town	Won by 19 runs, MoM – Sachin Tendulkar – 59* (49)
2	21 April	Rajasthan Royals	Durban	Match did not start after intermittent rain
3	25 April	Deccan Chargers	Durban	Lost by 19 runs
4	27 April	Kolkata Knight Riders	Port Elizabeth	Won by 92 runs; MoM – Sachin Tendulkar – 68 (45)
5	29 April	Kings XI Punjab	Durban	Lost by 3 runs
6	1 May	Kolkata Knight Riders	East London	Won by 9 runs; MoM – Jean-Paul Duminy – 52 (37)
7	3 May	Royal Challengers Bangalore	Johannesburg	Lost by 9 wickets
8	6 May	Deccan Chargers	Pretoria	Lost by 19 Runs
9	8 May	Delhi Daredevils	East London	Lost by 7 wickets
10	10 May	Royal Challengers Bangalore	Port Elizabeth	Won by 16 Runs; MoM – Jean-Paul Duminy – 59* (41)
11	12 May	Kings XI Punjab	Pretoria	Won by 8 wickets; MoM – Harbhajan Singh – 1/9 (4 overs)
12	14 May	Rajasthan Royals	Durban	Lost by 2 Runs
13	16 May	Chennai Super Kings	Port Elizabeth	Lost by 7 Wickets
14	21 May	Delhi Daredevils	Pretoria	Lost by 4 Wickets

2008 season

References

External links

• Official Website