COMMERCIALIZATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRICKETING INDUSTRY

(Edited)

India's Inspiration to international cricket has never been so phenomenal as it is after the
successful completion of the historic T20 IPL matches a few months ago. While the IPL's
governing council have already made the trading of players, a matter of complete authority
among the teams, their next meet would possibly be on the issue to figure out all elusive
possibilities of embedding these leagues into the fulcrum of 30th Olympics during 2012.

The reason why Dimitri Mascarenhas was the only English player to have issued a 'no objection
certificate' for the IPL league - an essential requirement to play in the IPL, was England and
Wales Cricket Board (ECB) fear of losing its players to the IPL- that coincided with the County
championship. They later also called upon the Stanford brains who were behind the
successful Stanford 20/20 tournament in the West Indies, to breed England’s own model of T20
called EPL-English Premier league.
The success of IPL has greatly churned the socio-economic-politics of major cricketing boards
around the world including Australia's, Pakistan's and smaller ones like WICB and NZCB either
in formulating their own leagues in parallel with IPL model-where cross-national cricketing
squads fight for a coherent goal, as in the case of ECB's forthcoming T20 EPL that is set to take
off in June 2010, or in raising doubts over the accountability impacts of IPL on the future of
ODIs and tests.

Socio-Political Concerns of Commercialization

Sporting professionals and experts widely agree that the plausibility of IPL generic model is only
partially faithful to cricket. They venture into possibilities that could foster a mass exodus of
international and domestic players towards this round robin tournament's huge salary caps and a
monumental fan base besides concerning over plethora of other league related unprincipled
controversies and unethical issues, that dilutes the image the game has build in the last 50 years
of its exquisite history. For instance, the issues of racism have never been a part of cricket as it
happened in the case of IPL, when cheer leaders Ellesha Newton and Sherinne Anderson, from
London and of African ancestry alleged, after being called to leave the ground at Mohali, that an
employee of Wizcraft International Entertainment referred to them with the racial slur ″nigger″.
Another episode in an initial match when Washington red skins obscene presentations
lavishingly instituted the colligate of women's 'beach volley ball' into the game of pure black and
whit side-screen, was also strongly protested by politicians and feminists alike.
Indian IPL inspires major international cricket boards that hope to consecrate IPL as a new
cricketing theory where youngsters undergo greater learning and improve their game
professionalism while rubbing off shoulders and sharing their dressing rooms with legendary
figures like Glenn Macgrath, Shane Warne, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Mutthaiya
Muralidharan, Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid etc. But boards under-regard
the notion that a player's endurance is best judged in Tests and not in T20s or even ODIs. T20's a
game that inherits winning temperament, could help you play big shots but would never help you
play a serious game for a long time.

Most analyst agree that IPL spell doom for test and ODIs if its given a regular place in the
cricketing calendar. These two can't coexist together. The alluring benefits that IPL bestows
upon its players with is enough a factor to turn most players towards a serious thinking for IPL.
Players are leaving their original cricketing platter, whether international or domestic like the
ICL in case of former Mumbai opener Shihir Hattangadi, to become a part of the IPL.
BCCI previously have banned all players who have joined the rival ICL league like in the case of
Kapil Dev. When asked how Hattangadi managed to cross the rule, they defended themselves by
saying that he has obtained a 'No objection certificate' from the BCCI earlier. The question of
ODI insecurity in the mind of ICC perhaps hold a little significance to BCCI who themselves
requested ICC to grant an excuse from international tours for signed players if they are playing
for IPL matches. Had they not meant that domestic game is more important than representing a
country outside ?, there would have been no fear of England's losing its players to such short
leagues.
Positively, It could be a good way to introduce people to cricket, in countries where its prospects
are too few, like in US or China. But in test countries like India and England, where cricket holds
its nerve stronger in stadiums and off the grounds, it could be a slow suicidal experiment for
existing cricket standards including Ranji.
No doubt that IPLs revealed India's tremendous cricketing bench strength from far off and
unacknowledged states by showing off that inexperienced youth can turn more tides than their
much experienced counterparts like Ganguly and Sachin, a fact proven earlier by
Commonwealth bank series in Australia also. But Ironically, one has paid little attention towards
the very genesis of IPL, that commercializes the cricketing sportsmanship and may deliberately
fuse into players, wrong morals of a right game.
In a personnel talk, Sachin Tendulkar said that IPL is only a new version of cricket and has
nothing to do with the future of ODIs. But, ironically, a survey by Australia's player association
brought it that nearly 47 % of the Kangaroos breed are willing to give up their international
careers for playing in the IPL or its rival ICL.This also throws lights on the issues like pressures
of performing well in international cricket and fitness affairs that all hang like a sword on the
players, now hold little meanings. To Paul Marsh, chief executive Australia's cricket association,
IPL is seen as a window of solution for the future of international players after their retirements
as they can continue playing in these leagues.
IPL, however, may not jeopardize with the future of Test, that command a special respect in the
sense that it decides ODI players and is a defacto constitution to start a cricketing career, but can
have gradual implications on the fate of ODIs that is seen only as a game of scores and higher
run rates and that's where IPL offers more than ODIs.
Shortened IPL of 3 hours surely seems to be an instant gratification for the younger pulse for
whom a wait of a complete day to witness a team's fate in ODIs was more a wait than a surprise.
Sadly, what used to be a saga of a lifetime for international cricketers to earn an
indistinguishable status of 'maximum wicket taker' or 'maximum ODI 100s', is now paced down
as a nominal issue against a bigger strike rate 'only'. Something that even Bindra would never
like to imagine.

Expanded Economics of Leagues

Some of the IPL Matches managed to address add rates close to Rs 10L/10 sec which is 30-40 %
higher than what is sold in last year's world cup matches. They even beat last years T20 world
cup add-to-program ratio by a factor more than 10. This was indeed a mature step by SonyMax,
IPL's official broadcaster, as it hit rightly the time when the calculated viewer restlessness was
maximum.
One of the main reasons, besides many of the game's original fervor, of how the revenue scaled
close to $2 billion lies in the IPL's business model that is a clever mix of two beau ideal models.
The Industry standard HR model serves as IPL's hiring model together with the potent condiment
of the Blue ocean strategy model, that serves as IPL's process model.
However the financial model of the IPL is straightforward. The revenue for both IPL and
franchisees have come from three sources. Major is the Sale of Media rights that generated a
gross of $1.026 billion for a contract period of 10 years and Out of which, $ 918m is in the hands
of central pool and the rest goes to the marketing and franchises expenses. Sponsorship adds
another vital source. Auctioning from central pool generated a net revenue of $724m that is to be
divided among IPL and franchises in the ratio 40:60 % and the sponsorships from local pool that
includes team title sponsors, partner sponsor, licensing and merchandising benefited franchises
with a gross 30cr annual worth for 5 years. Last are the gate receipts to be divided among IPL
and franchises in 20:80 % ratio. The team expenses comprises of team franchising installments,
players and personnel that counts to $4-6 m / year, event management and administration ($3-
4m/ year), stadium expenses and promotion (~30L/match).
No surprise that such an astronomical sum of money is a historic debut for any Indian game and
splendidly makes IPL stand as a true $2billion IPO in marketing sense.
This also cause financial players like private equity (PE), investment banking etc to closely
monitor on the next IPL league, which they hope would expand in terms of credits, so that they
too can borrow a piece of it. They foresee a good return of it, if not better than what they
annually have now, by investing into their clubs. Stock players, not only PE funds, are also
coming up with ideas of trading teams and players at the NSE. But IPL's is a show that last only
for a month or two, so listing by far may be a fanatic phenomenon than a close reality, unless
Bindra can manage to turn the wheel for a larger number of months.
IPL's process, as said, is fed by the morals of the Blue Ocean Strategy. It's a phenomenon of
adding or enhancing certain attributes in an industry so as to provide more value to the consumer
and hence attract more consumers even from outside the boundaries of the traditional industry.
The T20 was actually a combination of 3 industries i.e. cricket, cinema, and the corporate world.
It spotlights cinema appeal, dancing girls, Music, Auction of players, definite result and a
competitive involvement of business tycoons. Considering all Ipl's intricacies, it implicitly
transformed cricket from a game of profitable excitement to a game of 'great' accountability.
Hold Charu Sharma's accountability to Vijay Mallya and it's no deny that it has been more a
competition among business tycoons than merely between players. Moreover, its comfortable
duration attracted spectators who are hard pressed on time and thus it gave a direct competition
to the cinema market as a whole.
It seems that the new commercialized cricketing spirit overshadows the legendary glory of ODIs
and Tests, from where cricket all started, under its impeccable thrills and has enjoyed a status of
a hard entertainment industry validated by virgin TRP readings as against top TV soaps and a
pity full 'Kya App panchvi pass se tez hai'.Gone are the days when players used to fetch a money
enough only to buy a new 'commodity' as against today where a new comer like Ishant, Manoj
Tiwari or Praveen, gets about 3.5 crore, enough to incur a financial stability that help them
happily focus on their performance.
While the embodiment of business model into cricket injects a greater sense of individual
responsibility among the players and expect that they are answerable to every penny spent as
team personnel, T20 also blesses BCCI with its biggest ever revenue earner that has largely
benefited BCCI to plan a pension fund for the former players and to reserve some part of the
profit as Olympic wealth.

IPL's Success and Credibility

Cricket has never been so adventurous and odd-experimenting Never was seen such a field
inflammation from a fan base as when the lowest bidded squad with traditional Rajasthani logo
supplied in an orange and blue background owned by A.R Jha, Lachlan Murdoch, Suresh
Chellaram of Emerging Media, finally lifted up the trophy against Chennai super kings and
clearing off all the adrenalin and nation wide surprises.
The inaugural 44 day extravaganza, that started on 18 April with 59 late afternoon matches
consisting of eight franchises of 16 men squads each and ended June 1, 08 surpassed everything
that was expected from such a cricketing essay.
IPL truly signifies more than success in foregrounding India's takeover of international cricket,
to what was a game of spectators and a few match fixers has become a league that augments the
game with new rules of revenue generation in domestic market-a factor eagle-eyed by most
Indian economists and hooked upon many global analysts, added entertainment with unique
participation of cinema and business breeds alike and issued unexpected dimensions of some
unethical controversies that unintentionally but added the 'spices of TV soaps', the experiment in
totality seemed to realized a mammoth task.
One of the most important aspect of T20's perfect coalesce with IPL is to fortify the credibility of
BCCI in global perspectives. Indian cricketing industry has seen much a hike in respect and
position after the world witnessed Indian takeover of cricket with Indian captaining global stale
warts during blitzkrieg IPL sessions. .
It could be easy now to search sponsors if we were to increase the number of Olympic
contestants or to raise funds to uplift the sad plight of neglected sports like women's hockey and
table tennis or to build infrastructure for popular games like squash and rugby football.
Besides this, IPL's combination with franchises has flooded minds of decision makers, analysts
and investors about revolutionizing the structure of the game at the grass root level so that people
from the lower strata also can build a more optimistic picture of the game, not only in terms of
the revenue, but in terms of cricket as a possibly safe career option.

Carrying Bindra's vision : With all this, the core proposition remains the nail biting
uncertainties of cricket, and that are now more amplified than ever before where twenty runs in
an over was not a big deal. Although the net worth of IPL's richest squad of 230 million is puny
as compared to top US baseball team from which IPL essentially inherits its execution model, the
inspiration and experimental success stands a record as far as Indian sporting history is
considered. While media wildly speculate IPLs and the likes impact on the macrocosm of ODI
and Tests the world over, the questions of how this model can be put to function with normal
cricketing calendar and whether this queer and more than a successful cricketing experiment, that
offers all cricketing surprises in just a three hours of span, be able to give cricket a place in a 15-
16 day Olympics, are some of the hardcore issues that that top policy makers of sporting
diligence and economists alike are finding hard to figure out.

Truly, IPLs unimagined success of its debut version takes command of every cricket pious nerve
in the nation including eager potential market investors like Ambani's and Sahara who have have
already queued up the space for the next play.