IPL-3 is in full swing. Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty,
movie actors and co-owners of,
respectively,
Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals,
are managing cricketers and a cricket franchise. How does that work? Our reporters spent time with both,
on and off the field,
to find out Preity Zinta (Kings XI Punjab) These,
then,
Read More">are
Read MoreIPL-3 is in full swing. Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty, movie actors and co-owners of, respectively, Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals, are managing cricketers and a cricket franchise. How does that work? Our reporters spent time with both, on and off the field, to find out
Preity Zinta (Kings XI Punjab)
These, then, are the remains of the day. It's a minute past midnight, March 14, Sunday morning. The plastic dug-out feels lethargic. The match is over: the Delhi Daredevils have thrashed Kings XI Punjab by five wickets at the PCA Stadium in Mohali - at home. Through all the silence, a cheering owner tries to soften the blow. Dressed in the team's colours with the logo stitched alongside, Preity Zinta, actor and co-owner of the IPL team, is at peace. Games are won, and sometimes lost. "When there is a major crisis, I'm the calmest person on the planet. I thrive in chaos. We're one big family and we will solve it," she says. Three hours of trying to inspire her team didn't.
She isn't one to give up though; clapping and cheering by the dug-out is part of the itinerary of ownership. During the post-match presentation ceremony, as part of the ensemble of dignitaries, she's often seen texting away furiously. She instinctively seems to know each time the camera pans to her and, unfazed in front of 40,000 spectators at the ground, and a few million on television, she breaks into her smiling and waving routine.
The IPL may have found an emotional connect with the common man but Zinta is both interested and distanced. "It was during the first season against the Chennai Super Kings that I learned to lose. It was the highest scoring match of the season and we lost a very close game. I had to earn the respect of the people, my people and my cricketers. When Chennai was nearing victory, fans told me my money was going down the drain. They asked me to walk away from the loss. But I stood there and watched us lose. It was a moment of clarity for me," she says.
The support system, however, worked like clockwork. "When I work with someone, they know everything about me and I know everything about them. I do not have glass walls around me. I was expected to leave the stadium but I didn't. The players came around and thanked me for being there for them," Zinta says, still somewhat upset with this latest loss to Delhi.
The clock reads 2 pm on a Saturday afternoon in Chandigarh, the lazy capital of Punjab. Some hundred-odd men dressed in khaki clothes and turbans loiter around the foyer of a five-star lobby, intervening and frisking every entrant into the area. As time passes, the area picks pace, men and women now strolling in with enthusiasm and purpose.
A few feet inside, past the security and inside a swanky room, the clock reads 2:15 pm.
But unlike the weekend in Mohali, it's filled with hyper kinetic energy waiting to be turned into its potential form.
For Zinta, it's match day. Cross-legged on the couch and without the make-up associated with her other profession, she watches the first game scheduled for the day - Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals.
Co-owning the Kings XI Punjab for the last two years - and entering its third edition - has seen her give up her acting career for large gaps. Offers for a role from the film industry have come (and have been rejected, she says), but Zinta's focus on her current job is a fixation.
"Initially, I took eight months off from the movies, it suddenly became 18. It was important for me to stay here and learn everything from scratch about the game," she says.
Screen India