The highly anticipated 15th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is likely to commence from the first week of April. Eight teams play some intense and entertaining cricket for almost two months every year for the prestigious IPL trophy. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) made things even more interesting when the entity decided to add two more teams. The team auction was held on October 25, 2021, wherein the two new teams got acquired and followed by this a couple of months later they announced the official names of their franchises.
Lucknow Super Giants:
The team representing the city of Lucknow in the IPL was acquired for a record-breaking Rs 7090 crore by the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group. The owner of the franchise had also bought the Pune-based franchise named Rising Pune Super Giants in 2015. The similarity of the name rightfully depicts the perspective of the owners to sustain a strong identity for their franchise. ‘Super Giants’ generally known to be massive in stature and fierce in nature reflects the aim of the team for the upcoming season.
As mentioned by Sanjiv Goenka that this name is a crowdsourced decision, one can observe how this suffix has influenced the cricket audience in recent years. With an impressive season of the Rising Pune Supergiants in 2017 or the title victory of Madurai Super Giants in Tamil Nadu Premier League’s third season, this name has resonated amongst the masses denoting victory. The Lucknow-based team would aim to give justice to this name by performing well in their debut season with the likes of KL Rahul, Marcus Stoinis and Ravi Bishnoi. The new franchise has also commenced its innings on the commercial pitch. The team has got on board My11Circle, GIGABYTE and AORUS as commercial partners.
Gujarat Titans:
On the other hand, the Gujarat-based franchise was bagged for Rs 5625 crore by the CVC Capital Partners. The franchise after a lot of thought, recently announced the official name of the team, Gujarat Titans. CVC Capital Partners Partner, TMT and India Siddharth Patel said, “We want this group to achieve great things for Gujarat and its many passionate fans, which is why we have chosen the name Titans. We want individuals that are not only highly skilled but who are inspired to be Titans of the game.”
Titans, which are famous for being muscular and aggressive, highlights the team’s agenda of building a similar influence on the field of cricket. With notable teams having the same name such as Pro Kabaddi League’s (PKL), Telugu Titans and NFL’s, Tennessee Titans, this suffix reverberates amongst the sports enthusiasts and directly bring the notion of success.
Gujarat Titans would aim to have a successful stint in their debut season with some star players under their roster. The team that would be led by Hardik Pandya also has Rashid Khan and Shubman Gill. On the commercial field, the Gujarat team has reportedly signed a sponsorship deal with Slice.