Cape Cobras inflicted a highly venomous defeat on the Royal Challengers Bangalore. No antidote was capable enough to stop the poison from the King Cobra Duminy. The crowd applauded with fireworks. What a chase! What a start to the tournament opener! I became a fan of this team (Started following it on Facebook too.).
A cricket team from Cape Town named as Cape Cobras. What a unique name! I don’t know what’s the relationship between Cape Town, Cricket and Cobras but I can say that some sports teams have very unique name. Diamond Eagles is another team in Champions League from South Africa which has an uncommon name. I guess 'Diamond' could be because of the infamous diamond mines there but why 'Eagles'. We have another team Victoria Bushrangers in the tournament. Bushrangers, were outlaws in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who had the survival skills necessary to use the Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. Otago Volts, Sussex Sharks and Somerset Sabres have equally strange name.
If we look at the owners of some of the cricket teams in India then we will see that this group is full with either film actors or businessmen. Kolkata Knight Riders, the "Korbo, Lorbo, Jeetbo Re" team, is owned by Shahrukh Khan, Juhi Chawla & Jai Mehta. Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals are partially owned by Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty respectively. The other partner of the Punjab team is Mohit Burman from Dabur and partners of the Rajasthan team are Emerging Media and Lachlan Murdoch. Deccan Chargers are owned by Deccan Chronicle, Delhi Daredevils by GMR group, Chennai Super Kings by India Cements and Mumbai Indians by Reliance Industries. Vijay Mallya of United Breweries and Kingfisher Airlines owns Royal Challengers Bangalore. Mallya’s interest does not stop at cricket only. He also owns Formula One team Force India. He sponsors the East Bengal and Mohun Bagan football clubs. He also owns the company, United Racing and Bloodstock Breeders which has interests in horse racing. It runs the Kunigal stud farm.
I suppose the trendiest team names are the NBA teams. There one team is Detroit Pistons while another is Philadelphia 76ers. There are also some other teams with funky names like Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, Charlotte Bobcats, Minnesota Timberwolves, Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Hornets.
Though English football teams do not have very unusual names, their owners are pretty rich guys. Roman Abramovich, among the richest in the world, owns Chelsea. Though Arsenal's parent company is Arsenal Holdings, American sports tycoon Stan Kroenke owns a large chunk of it and another major part is owned by Alisher Usmanov. Other American businessmen like George Gillett and Tom Hicks own Liverpool Football Club and Malcolm Glazer owns Manchester United. (We have a local ManU team also, Mangalore United. It plays in the Karnataka T20 league.) Manchester City is owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the Ruling Family of Abu Dhabi. Fulham is owned by Mohamed Abdel Moneim Fayed, the owner of Harrods. Fayed's oldest son, Dodi had a close relationship with Diana, Princess of Wales. Both of them died in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997. There is an Indian connection with an EPL team. Queens Park Rangers Football Club is partially owned by steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal.
Sports is always interesting, both on field and off. Sometimes it is people like Mohammad Asif, who failed a dope test, and sometimes it is people like Serena Williams, because of her outburst during the US Open. There are also times when sportspersons like Kim Clijsters inspires a million and Vijender Kumar encourages a billion-strong nation. Sports has its pieces. Champions T20 League is another chapter in it. Hope it brings joy to its followers and hope my hissing reptiles ‘Cape Cobras’ win it.
