Kings XI Punjab

Chennai Super Kings

Chidambaram Stadium

KKR

Shah Rukh Khan

Royal Challengers Bangalore

In the summer of 2015, a bunch of Hindu priests and their apprentices, their foreheads emblazoned with flamboyant religious markings, descended on the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium in Pune, and lit a ‘havan’ in one corner of the stadium. They were there to ‘prepare’ the stadium before an upcoming match at the behest ofco-owner Preity Zinta. The rather annoyed stadium staff kept their cool even when the priests ordered their apprentices to fetch a few blades of grass from the pitch and ‘merge’ them with the fire, but all hell broke loose when priests ordered that anyone who had consumed eggs or meat for breakfast that day should keep their distance from the ‘sacred spot’ where the ‘havan’ was being conducted.“You may have your beliefs, but they should never inconvenience other people’s work. We had to intervene that day since our work was held up for hours,” says Ajay Shirke, then boss of the MCA.The sacred fire ritual didn’t work for Zinta’s team. It lost all three of its matches that year in Pune, but Kings XI Punjab earned over Rs 10 crore from gate collections at the venue, an amount that was way over their usual earnings at their Mohali HQ.Preity Zinta is not the only one to set great store by sacred fires, the utterances of holy men as well as numbers and colours. The stakes are so high in IPL that several team owners have been known to do pretty bizarre stuff which, they believe, delivers their team an advantage. Mirror takes a look at some of them.’ dressing rooms are supposed to be interesting places to be in, and they have been that way for the past decade, especially since the dressing room atis known to be extensively redesigned every IPL season. During the 2012 final between CSK andin Chennai, there were rumours that a few mysterious red spots had been painted on the walls of the visiting team’s dressing room. KKR went on to win that match, though. For the record, when the teams met each other in Chennai on April 8 this year, there were no spots of any colour on the walls. Another feature of CSK’s dressing rooms is the rigid seating positions that are allocated as per the Vedic sun signs of the players, and no player is allowed to violate the diktat regarding the positions that is said to be issued every year by CSK owner N Srinivasan’s personal astrologer. Srinivasan’s belief in astrology is well documented, and while pujas and ‘havans’ are par for the course at CSK, he is also very much into auspicious timings. So much so that the Champions League Twenty20 final in 2014 in Bangalore, it is said, was advanced by an hour so the game could start at the ‘right’ time. Never mind the official explanation that said something about mitigating the impact of dew.Mumbai Indians, too, it is said, is not immune to superstitions. Immediately after the 2011 World Cup final at Wankhede, officials from the team repainted certain areas of the dressing room and its entrance area – originally yellow -- in blue. Several players and support staff also claimed that ‘auspiciousness’ is an integral part of the team’s preparations. Key players are said to be given certain times to enter the dressing room before each match, and Vastu Shastra holds sway inside it. After their poor showing in the initial years, numerologist Sanjay Jumaani claims he advised the team to add more of the golden colour to their jerseys and accessories. Which is among the reasons, claims Jumaani, the team switched to gold-coloured pads. “They have won three titles since,” points out Jumaani. The numerologist also consults with two-time IPL winners KKR and claims to have “made subtle changes in the colour combinations” of the team. “They initially wore black jerseys but I advised them to move to purple. I have also suggested them to slightly modify the logo of the franchise,” said Jumaani. Officials from KKR, however, told Mirror that the change in the logo was an exercise in brand building. Sources told Mirror that KKR co-ownersand Juhi Chawla’s patronage of Jumaani may have a lot to do with the tweaks and colour changes. Colours of jerseys are not the only thing team owners keep tinkering with – team names, too, are fair game. Sanjiv Goenka, owner of the now defunct Rising Pune Supergiants, is supposed to be a major believer in numerology, and decided that his team should be addressed in the singular. From the looks of it, the tweak worked wonders. After a disastrous debut season, Rising Pune Supergiant almost won the IPL in their second and final season in 2017.Vijay Mallya, the former owner of, did not believe in rituals and Vastu, but he is known to have thought much about his own knowledge of the game. Mallya would insist on having a discussion about the team’s composition before each match, and once told an eminent former India captain about how he had advised his team’s captain against employing Jacques Kallis after the 15th over. Mallya felt the South African great gave away too many runs in the death overs. After nearly every match, he would write to the coaches about his impressions of the game, and mark a copy to other important members of the management. Another high profile set of team owners conducts post-mortems of matches lost seriously. The captain and the coach of the team are often asked to meet the owners well past midnight after each game. N Srinivasan might OD on rituals, but he has never been one to interfere with his team’s cricket. The same goes for the Marans, the low profile owners of Sunrisers Hyderabad. In fact, they are so low-profile that Ashish Nehra, a senior player, once told this writer that he had no clear idea who the team’s owners were. While Rajasthan Royals have generally left their cricketers to figure out their stuff, they are believed to be in touch with numerologists and astrologers to suggest some tweaks to the team’s name.While franchisees previously calculated averages and strike or economy rates of players while going into an auction, of late, the buzz is owners are increasingly consulting their personal astrologers who delve deep into the date and time of birth of their players before advising their patrons. A source told Mirror that a rather junior player of a North India based team was recently appointed captain because of the way his planetary signs were aligned. Greenstone Lobo, a prominent, city-based ‘sports’ astrologer, claims he was consulted by several owners before this year’s IPL auction. “I cannot go into the details but I suggested a few names and they have followed my advice,” says Lobo who maintains a database of every cricketer’s zodiac sign and other related information. The IPL grapevine also has it that a few captains are in constant touch with soothsayers over the composition of the playing XI. Mirror is privy to a recent change in the playing XI of a side, in which a former India pacer was replaced by a rookie India bowler. The rookie is a promising player, but the pacer was removed despite performing pretty well in the previous game.‘Havans’ are not the only things Preity Zinta banks on. Apparently, on the advice of her guru, she once ordered new bat grips in a specific colour and ordered all the batsmen in her team to use them. The colour was supposed to lucky for her team. Now, bat grips are a very personal thing, and so, while some of the juniors did as they were asked, a few senior batsmen told her, in not so many words, to take a walk. The subtle telling off by the team’s seniors did not deter Zinta, though. Last year, the former Bollywood actor was back, again on the advice of her guru, and this time she wanted the jersey numbers of some of the senior players, who were not performing too well, to be changed. The move was resisted, but this year, though, the cricketers seem to have had no choice. KXIP captain R Ashwin sports a different number on his jersey (23) as opposed to last year. Jumaani claims to have had a hand in the change of the number on Ashwin’s jersey as well. “He had one bad year, but he is back with a bang. He will succeed as captain and I have advised him to wear number 23, something accomplished legends like Shane Warne, too, wore. Ashwin, like Warne, is a Virgo,” says Jumaani.