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The Gamechangers
Indian Bollywood League, India's premier T20 cricket tournament, is all set for its second edition. With the hard cash that it spins around, the league is as much about cricket as it is about the starts involved – both on the field and off it, Kings of Bollywood, glamorous starlets, cricketing demi-gods, business tycoons – everyone has something to gain and a whole lot to lose during this 35-day extravaganza.
But upsetting the apple-cart for many of them is FIP, the Fake IBL Player, spreading gossip and tainting reputations with the scandalous revelations on his blog. Now super-sleuth Parminder Mahipal Singh, a.k.a. Detective PMS, has been roped in to go undercover and find the treacherous 'rat'.
With big bucks, bigger personality and fragile egos batting for supremacy, can politics conspiracy and deception be far behind? Will PMS be able to stop the Fake IBL Player from spreading his poison? And what exactly does happen behind the scenes in cricket's richest league?
But upsetting the apple-cart for many of them is FIP, the Fake IBL Player, spreading gossip and tainting reputations with the scandalous revelations on his blog. Now super-sleuth Parminder Mahipal Singh, a.k.a. Detective PMS, has been roped in to go undercover and find the treacherous 'rat'.
With big bucks, bigger personality and fragile egos batting for supremacy, can politics conspiracy and deception be far behind? Will PMS be able to stop the Fake IBL Player from spreading his poison? And what exactly does happen behind the scenes in cricket's richest league?
400 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2010
About the author
The Fake IPL Player
1 bookAn anonymous blog called Fake IPL Player took the world by storm with its scandalous behind-the-scenes revelations and tongue-in-check humour, during the 2009 season of the Indian Premier League, a Many believed the blogger to be a member of the Kolkata Knight Riders. His identity, however, is still not known.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 16, 2010
If you ask me to pick one memorable thing from the last IPL season undoubtedly I would say it was the blog of The Fake IPL Player. I remember how eagerly I used to wait for him to update his blog and I used to chuckle after reading each of his entries. His tongue in cheek humor, the inside stories, his clever names for each players were just simply awesome! No blog had received the kind of fame & readership that it had in the quickest possible time. I am sure even he wouldn’t have dreamt of the kind of fame that he got.
So when Prateek informed me about the release of the long awaited book from the author I grabbed it in no time but before I could even start reading it I came across a not so positive review of it. Thus when I started reading it I was apprehensive.
The book begins with the launch of the IBL (Indian Bollywood League) in Mumbai and eventually moves on to London where that season of IBL was being hosted. It goes on to tell us about the happenings of the season and largely concentrates on
The happenings in the teams of Calcutta Cavalry, Haryana Hurricanes & Bangalore Bangers.
Lalu Parekh, the chairman of IBL & his antics. The book outlines the ways & means he goes through to arm twist different cricket boards.
The book is largely an extension of the blog and in a way gives you an insight of what was going in the mind Of FIP! Each of his post is blended in the book and the story is developed around it. To add few interesting twists a detective is brought in to locate FIP, then there is a drug case, the desire of foreign players to play IBL & not for their respective national teams because of the big money etc.
The captain of Bangalore Bangers Rocky modeled on Dhoni is one character that you will fall in love with as the book ends.
The book comes with the trademark sense of humor that you associate with FIP. The digs at Appam Ch**tiya/ Sigwald Raees Khan (ala SRK) are classic. It also gives you an insider view of IBL that at the end of the day it is business at its purest form, Cricket is just incidental.
Though I have enjoyed reading the book but I would recommend it only to people; who love cricket/ who love this form of cricket/ who hate this form of cricket, yes I said Hate because this book serves you with more fodder to hate it.
Also the people who loved FIP & his sense of humor would like it because as have said it is an extension of the blog and answers many questions which the blog left unanswered.
Others can easily skip it not because the book isn’t good but the cricket talk might bore you! But if you like books with tongue n cheek humor then this one is for you!!!
An excerpt from the book
You might think I am full of shit to call myself a no-hoper when I am playing IBL, the richest cricket tournament ever. All I can say is that despite all the money that’s being thrown around at IBL, not much is being spent shopping for brains. I went to the team trials only to support a friend who was trying his luck. While I was there, I decided to pad up & hit a few. I had the worst hit of my life & sprayed the ball all over. But pretended I was playing them deliberately. And guess what, the Phoren Babas observing me in between swigs of bear offered me a contract. ‘Plays at strange angles, different, refreshing, exciting’ is how they described my game.
My Rating 3 stars!!!
So when Prateek informed me about the release of the long awaited book from the author I grabbed it in no time but before I could even start reading it I came across a not so positive review of it. Thus when I started reading it I was apprehensive.
The book begins with the launch of the IBL (Indian Bollywood League) in Mumbai and eventually moves on to London where that season of IBL was being hosted. It goes on to tell us about the happenings of the season and largely concentrates on
The happenings in the teams of Calcutta Cavalry, Haryana Hurricanes & Bangalore Bangers.
Lalu Parekh, the chairman of IBL & his antics. The book outlines the ways & means he goes through to arm twist different cricket boards.
The book is largely an extension of the blog and in a way gives you an insight of what was going in the mind Of FIP! Each of his post is blended in the book and the story is developed around it. To add few interesting twists a detective is brought in to locate FIP, then there is a drug case, the desire of foreign players to play IBL & not for their respective national teams because of the big money etc.
The captain of Bangalore Bangers Rocky modeled on Dhoni is one character that you will fall in love with as the book ends.
The book comes with the trademark sense of humor that you associate with FIP. The digs at Appam Ch**tiya/ Sigwald Raees Khan (ala SRK) are classic. It also gives you an insider view of IBL that at the end of the day it is business at its purest form, Cricket is just incidental.
Though I have enjoyed reading the book but I would recommend it only to people; who love cricket/ who love this form of cricket/ who hate this form of cricket, yes I said Hate because this book serves you with more fodder to hate it.
Also the people who loved FIP & his sense of humor would like it because as have said it is an extension of the blog and answers many questions which the blog left unanswered.
Others can easily skip it not because the book isn’t good but the cricket talk might bore you! But if you like books with tongue n cheek humor then this one is for you!!!
An excerpt from the book
You might think I am full of shit to call myself a no-hoper when I am playing IBL, the richest cricket tournament ever. All I can say is that despite all the money that’s being thrown around at IBL, not much is being spent shopping for brains. I went to the team trials only to support a friend who was trying his luck. While I was there, I decided to pad up & hit a few. I had the worst hit of my life & sprayed the ball all over. But pretended I was playing them deliberately. And guess what, the Phoren Babas observing me in between swigs of bear offered me a contract. ‘Plays at strange angles, different, refreshing, exciting’ is how they described my game.
My Rating 3 stars!!!
June 28, 2015
Indian Bollywood League, India's premier T20 cricket tournament, is all set for its second edition. With the hard cash that it spins around, the league is as much about cricket as it is about the stars involved - both on the field and off it. Upsetting the apple-cart for many of them is FIP, the Fake IBL player, spreading gossip and tainting reputations with the scandalous revelations on his blog. Now super-sleuth Parminder Mahipal Singh a.k.a Detective PMS, has been roped in to go undervcover and find the treacherous 'rat'. With big bucks, bigger personalities and fragile egos battling for supremacy, can politics, conspiracy and deception be far behind? Will PMS be able to stop the Fake IBL player from spreading his poison?
TGC is a compelling cast of characters from Kings of Bollywood, glamorous starlets, cricketing demi-gods, business tycoons; a setting where everyone has something to gain and a whole lot to lose during this 35-day extravaganza. It also gives an inside view of what exactly does happen behind the scenes in cricket's richest league. FIP blog in 2009 developed a cult following and this book extrapolates it further in the realms of fictional events and incidents. The book is thoughtful and provoking, yet provides insight to those little nuances of cricket.
The main punching point about the blog or even the book is how uneasily it mixes fact and fiction in equal proportions, never making any pretension of crossing those sacred lines. It is not an easy story to appreciate specially if you are not very well versed with cricketers and IPL teams. There is a story within a story, each of the characters has two names - one in the story, one on the blog, and add a third one if you connect it to real cricketers. This just increases the possibility that you may miss some of the in-jokes. At 400 odd pages, no doubt it is long but with brisk narrative and short crispy chapters, the author keep the interest alive. His trademark tongue-in-cheek humour is pretty evident here. My only regret are the portions cut-paste from his blog entries of IPL-2. Someone who has followed his writings in 2009 will find them repetitive and to an extent, boring.
The sub-plots involving the Indian cricket captain’s love interest and the power equations in the cricketing world, add the right masala ingredients to make it a Bollywood potboiler. The digs on SRK or Sreesanth alike characters are exactly what legends are made up of. However, my favourite portion in the book is when the actions of FIP are compared to a poker player towards the climax. It is engrossing because here FIP deliberates how he made a fool of everyone by just observing reactive action of the players and reading their minds, but at the same time making sure not to reveal his own true identity.
I am going with 3/5 for FIP's, The Game Changers. People who don't follow cricket may be bored with it, but then this book is not meant for such philistine people in any case. The message is pretty clear, the cricket in IBL is strictly secondary... the machinations and the mind-games behind the scenes is what makes this tournament so exciting. Worth reading for all those cricket fanatics!
TGC is a compelling cast of characters from Kings of Bollywood, glamorous starlets, cricketing demi-gods, business tycoons; a setting where everyone has something to gain and a whole lot to lose during this 35-day extravaganza. It also gives an inside view of what exactly does happen behind the scenes in cricket's richest league. FIP blog in 2009 developed a cult following and this book extrapolates it further in the realms of fictional events and incidents. The book is thoughtful and provoking, yet provides insight to those little nuances of cricket.
The main punching point about the blog or even the book is how uneasily it mixes fact and fiction in equal proportions, never making any pretension of crossing those sacred lines. It is not an easy story to appreciate specially if you are not very well versed with cricketers and IPL teams. There is a story within a story, each of the characters has two names - one in the story, one on the blog, and add a third one if you connect it to real cricketers. This just increases the possibility that you may miss some of the in-jokes. At 400 odd pages, no doubt it is long but with brisk narrative and short crispy chapters, the author keep the interest alive. His trademark tongue-in-cheek humour is pretty evident here. My only regret are the portions cut-paste from his blog entries of IPL-2. Someone who has followed his writings in 2009 will find them repetitive and to an extent, boring.
The sub-plots involving the Indian cricket captain’s love interest and the power equations in the cricketing world, add the right masala ingredients to make it a Bollywood potboiler. The digs on SRK or Sreesanth alike characters are exactly what legends are made up of. However, my favourite portion in the book is when the actions of FIP are compared to a poker player towards the climax. It is engrossing because here FIP deliberates how he made a fool of everyone by just observing reactive action of the players and reading their minds, but at the same time making sure not to reveal his own true identity.
I am going with 3/5 for FIP's, The Game Changers. People who don't follow cricket may be bored with it, but then this book is not meant for such philistine people in any case. The message is pretty clear, the cricket in IBL is strictly secondary... the machinations and the mind-games behind the scenes is what makes this tournament so exciting. Worth reading for all those cricket fanatics!
November 29, 2013
This book has been written around the Fake IPL player blog that created quite a sensation in 2009. It provides a fictitious account of the efforts to nab the FIP. In the process it pokes some more irreverent fun at the people involved with KKR and some from other teams.
The writing style is similar to the blog and some parts are hilarious. A detective is called in to catch the FIP and that provides the central thread to the story of this book. Around this thread, the author weaves stories of power play and sports politics. The writing stance is anti-establishment; just like the blog and the IPL big-wigs that are part of this story don’t come out looking very good.
The plot is rather straight forward but provides enough space for the author to tell stories about the self-centeredness of the rich and powerful and the politics behind the game of cricket. Spicy gossip about the players, commentators and administrators is liberally sprinkled throughout the narrative. The stories mostly reinforce the stereotype images of these people. Had the stories really been from the inside knowledge of the author, they may have revealed startling things, hitherto unknown, and shaped public opinion. Since that is not the case, the author sticks to stories that reinforce popular images of these personalities.
The book is a breezy read and cricket lovers will find it worthwhile.
The writing style is similar to the blog and some parts are hilarious. A detective is called in to catch the FIP and that provides the central thread to the story of this book. Around this thread, the author weaves stories of power play and sports politics. The writing stance is anti-establishment; just like the blog and the IPL big-wigs that are part of this story don’t come out looking very good.
The plot is rather straight forward but provides enough space for the author to tell stories about the self-centeredness of the rich and powerful and the politics behind the game of cricket. Spicy gossip about the players, commentators and administrators is liberally sprinkled throughout the narrative. The stories mostly reinforce the stereotype images of these people. Had the stories really been from the inside knowledge of the author, they may have revealed startling things, hitherto unknown, and shaped public opinion. Since that is not the case, the author sticks to stories that reinforce popular images of these personalities.
The book is a breezy read and cricket lovers will find it worthwhile.
April 2, 2020
The gamechangers was the book which brought havoc to IPL due to it's very accurate fake description of going on in an IPL team for a domestic player. It was nice.
People who don't read generally ask me my reasons for reading. Simply put I just love reading and so to that end I have made it my motto to just Keep on Reading. I love to read everything except for Self Help books but even those once in a while. I read almost all the genre but YA, Fantasy, Biographies are the most. My favorite series is, of course, Harry Potter but then there are many more books that I just adore. I have bookcases filled with books which are waiting to be read so can't stay and spend more time in this review, so remember I loved reading this and love reading more, you should also read what you love and then just Keep on Reading.
People who don't read generally ask me my reasons for reading. Simply put I just love reading and so to that end I have made it my motto to just Keep on Reading. I love to read everything except for Self Help books but even those once in a while. I read almost all the genre but YA, Fantasy, Biographies are the most. My favorite series is, of course, Harry Potter but then there are many more books that I just adore. I have bookcases filled with books which are waiting to be read so can't stay and spend more time in this review, so remember I loved reading this and love reading more, you should also read what you love and then just Keep on Reading.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews