Story of the ‘Fake IPL’ player - IPL’s first big controversy

Pen names are not uncommon in cricket literature. Felix was used by test cricketer Tom Horan in the majority of his essays, while Andrew Thomas in Great Moments in Cricket is David Frith.

The Fake IPL Player was unique, both in stature and personality. The blog did not attempt to be serious, instead focusing on made-up "inside stories.". To understand why the blog's focus on the Kolkata Knight Riders worked, some season-specific facts may be required.

The 2009 IPL was a nightmare campaign for the Kolkata Knight Riders. The franchise, led by four captains—Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle, Brad Hodge, and Sourav Ganguly, a brainchild of coach John Buchanan—won three of their 14 matches to finish at the bottom of the points table in the 2009 IPL.

Given what happened off the field, anything else would have been surprising. The competition was held in South Africa. After four matches, the Kolkata team management sent Aakash Chopra and Sanjay Bangar home.

Ajay Jadeja, a television analyst for the tournament, accused Andy Bichel, a member of the Kolkata support crew, of verbally harassing Ajit Agarkar.

Rumors of schisms within the camp emerged. The Fake IPL Player—a name carefully chosen over Faceless IPL Player—blog thrived on these fictional stories. The site offered anecdotes and snippets about cricketers, and the tone was genuine enough to persuade thousands of fans and media outlets around the world.

The first post of the Fake IPL player was posted on April 18 and didn’t paint the IPL cricketers in a good light. Following a lawyer's advice, the blogger avoided using the cricketers' real names, but the nicknames were frequently too clear for comfort.

The blogger's attention was drawn to the confusion within the Kolkata camp. That, in turn, fueled by modern media, convinced many that the blogger was a member of the squad. Coincidentally, there was little activity on the blog when Bangar and Chopra returned home. Chopra and Anureet Singh became prime suspects for the fake IPL player.

The KKR camp outright slammed the blogger, and even Shah Rukh Khan, co-owner of the franchise, commented that the Fake IPL Player was “obviously very sick, perverted.”. He also stated that the blogger had very little information and correct data to be part of the squad.

The popularity of the blog soared in numbers, especially after the Fake IPL Player successfully managed to predict a team selection. As per Pinstorm, the blog attracted 150,000 visitors on April 26; the readers spent 15 minutes on the blog on average.

Four weeks, 43 postings, and almost 17,000 comments later, the blogger (a male) posted FIP RIP, a four-minute video of his silhouette. He acknowledged being a long-time fan as well as a "fly on the wall"; he also hinted at writing a book.

That book, The Gamechangers, was about a fictitious Indian Bollywood League with made-up controversies. It debuted during the 2010 IPL season and received generally positive reviews.

That August, Anupam Mukherji, a marketing expert from Bengaluru, claimed to be the Fake IPL Player. “I only pulled off the hoax because I played with believable stereotypes,” he admitted.

He also stated that he had never met a cricketer and had made up his stories. It remained the worst swindle in the history of the IPL until a group of non-cricketers organized the completely made-up Century Hitters T20.

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