Top 6 stars who have helped their IPL franchise increase their fan base

The excitement around the 2015 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is reaching its peak and fans have been exuberantly supporting their teams. We have seen many teams, over the years, that belong to a particular region get support from other parts of India as well because of some of the popular stars at their disposal. For example, there are many fans of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) simply because they have players like MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina, even though they might have no affinity to the city.Teams who don’t have the fortune of having such names struggle to find crowd support. There are many such stars spread across the 8 IPL franchises, but here are the top 6:

#6 Glenn Maxwell (Kings XI Punjab)

After the Kings XI Punjab’s poor showing in previous seasons, Glenn Maxwell came to the rescue last season and helped his team reach the IPL final for the first time ever.

He played a number of spectacular innings and made himself into one of the most sought-after players in the shortest format of the game.

He has also become a fans’ favourite in the IPL, which isn’t all that usual as far as Australian players are concerned. The reason for him having such a huge fan following, illustrated by the loud cheers he is greeted with every time he walks out to bat,  is his simple approach to batting and the belief that every ball needs to be dispatched for a four or a six. 

As a result, there has been a proliferation in the number of followers of the Kings XI Punjab, which previously wasn’t considered among the high-profile teams of the league.