Our Team! Big business houses of Mumbai had a cricket connect through their teams that played in the world's biggest inter-office tournament: The Times of India Challenge Shield, founded in 1933-34, which is older than the National Championship which came a year later. Tata's, Birlas, Mafatlals ACC, Cipla, Nirlon all had superb teams boasting of internationals.

When Reliance came on the scen,e one wondered if they would also take the big cricket plunge. They didn't until the IPL came when they saw their chance to invest and earn a return which was not the aim of the corporates mentioned earlier whose aim was sport promotion. Mukesh and Nita Ambani's Mumbai Indian team is now the Mumbai franchisee team at the IPL. Currently, the city is holding its approval even though Mumbai's darlings, Sachin Tendulkar and Zaheer Khan are in the side. This was because the team did not perform to potential in the first edition. And Mumbai's cricket fans are a discerning lot, not swayed by sentiment. Let’s see what happens this year.