A roar of excitement filled the air as the proceedings of the much-awaited ISL started after a hectic month-long preparation. The event was ushered in with a fine rendition of a Carnatic-style welcome song.  Following the music, the audience was entertained to a series of foot-tapping renditions of all-time sporting sensations including “Wavin’ Flag”, which had soared to popularity during the football World Cup in 2010. The Dance Club also had the audience charged with some of their energising performances.

 

Gayatri Reddy and Professor Ramabhadran Thirumalai of the ISB, addressed the participants and members of the community. Once the event was declared open, each of the four teams officially introduced themselves and launched their sporting campaign for the year. 

 

The ISL, a unique concept amongst B-schools, was conceived by ISB’s Class of 2010. Fashioned along the lines of the Indian Premier League, the ISL is an entirely student-managed sporting event that will bring together the ISB community in a season of competitions across 10 sporting games including cricket, football, frisbee, basketball and water polo. Points across games are added up to decide on the winning franchise.

 

Each franchise builds its own team through player auction. Earlier this year, the four teams were auctioned to students who bid for the teams using real money. The players for each team were then “sold” in a live auction using virtual currency.

 

This year, the total bid value for the four teams came up to Rs 18.1 lakhs, up from Rs 6.30 lakhs in 2010. The winning team takes home 60% of the prize money accrued from the bids. The runners-up get 35% of the prize money while the remaining 5% goes towards organising the tournament.

 

For more information and to be a part of the action, please visit http://www.isb.edu/isl/