Earlier in the week, Legbreak sent me this article from Sportsfreak about the Fake IPL Cricketer's blog. See the trick with the fake cricketer is that he is actually (or at least claims to be) a real cricketer who feeds information about his team (with names cleverly changed) to his brother. The brother then types it all up on blogspot for the world to see.
But unlike the usually interesting but far from racy writing of Ian O'Brien, the fake IPL player says things like:
…did you know that the commentary team has a few rounds of bets going on. One of the bets is on which commentator will end up bedding the Sandy Baddy babe. Several of the commentators are part of this betting syndicate. They have all pooled in $200 each, and the one who ends up bedding her gets all the money. If nobody beds her, they spend it all in one night of partying in Jo'burg.
2 commentators - our Kishen Kanhaiyya and the one who crossed over the border for this tournament - have a score card going of how much of the fairer sex company each will enjoy during this 36 day extravaganza. And there's money in this bet too.
Of course there was never any way that this blog would have been allowed to continue. As fun as it is for us to hear about the sordid, behind-the-scenes stories of players (and their entourages) playing in a foreign country (in an Any Given Sunday "OMG do you think they really do that?!" kind of way), the tournament's organisers and sponsors can't be seen to be endorsing such actions (nor should they). And so the hunt began:
The team management is tracking this blog carefully. They have identified 12 members of playing/non-playing staff who are beyond suspicion. Every body else is a suspect until the real one is caught. Someone even mentioned that there's a reward on for anyone who catches the me red handed. May be they should install CCTV cameras in the bathrooms... Hmmmm... I am sure Dildo will enjoy that!
Suddenly the fake IPL cricketer isn't a kiss-and-tell cad airing his team's dirty laundry and reveling in the retelling of sleaze, now he's a Robin Hood, stealing stories of sportsmen's excess and giving them to the public while the evil corporate sheriffs chase him down.
Then I saw this tweet today (via @BeigeBrigade):
Flash: the fakeipl blogger's name will be outed by tomorrow morning, tops. Officials know. Criminal case in offing
I imagine the case (if one does eventuate) will be mainly around breach of contract etc. This is actually pretty sad. Because even though his blog revelled in dishing dirt and was cheeky to the point of precocious, the fake IPL cricketer was interesting.
The official IPL blogs in contrast require a login to even view them, which I didn't bother signing up for.