Batting for business, China vs India in Australia
The latest from the Indian sports wire…
The IPL will be fairly pleased with how 2008 is unfolding so far. January has seen an estimated influx of almost $1.75 billion as famous faces and lucrative TV deals have poured money in. After the sour first half of the Indian tour Down Under, a Test win and a fat wad of cash should have brought smiles to BCCI faces.
The IPL has modelled itself on privatised leagues like the English Premiership, with eight team franchises put on sale in the last week. The eight city-teams will compete in a new, as of yet untested, Twenty20 league this summer. Household names have been responsible for snapping up what could be tomorrow’s Manchester United or Real Madrid. With the stellar cast of cricketers already confirmed to appear, the worldwide attention will be immense.
Cricinfo spells it out for the financially-slow, like me:
Mukesh Ambani has agreed to commit Rs 441 crore to an idea, a Mumbai-based team that will take part in a midsummer Twenty20 league. Tomorrow, or three or five years down the line, he could be controlling India’s biggest sporting club, located in India’s business capital, for as little as Rs 40 crore a year.
He could use the players he signs - Sachin Tendulkar, of course, since the big Indian stars are promised to their “home” clubs, and even international names such as Shane Warne - to promote Reliance Industries’ business interests, make Vimal the official kit supplier, make Reliance Retail the team’s sole memorabilia seller, set up theme-based restaurants.
Once the business model is established, Ambani - or for that matter Vijay Mallya’s UB Group, which has won the rights for Bangalore, or GMR Holdings, the Delhi franchisee - could sell stakes to foreign investors, invite private equity, plan an IPO and tap the stock market. [Link]
One of the up-and-coming economic cities of India, Mohali, was purchased by a consortium featuring the junior generation of the Dabur and Apeejay families, heir to the Bombay Dyeing fortune and his girlfriend, actress Preity Zinta. The Bollywood connection continues with Shah Rukh dropping a cool $76 mill for Kolkata’s team (with a couple of quid chucked in by Juhi Chawla) and has already said he was none other than the crown prince of Bengal to captain his team, the resurgent Lord Ganguly.
Purists might lament the inevitable downfall of the Ranji Trophy, the breeding ground for all of India’s leading cricketers. But in a country so fanatical about one sport, it seems only in keeping with global trends that Indian cricket morphs into a behemoth business monster like the EPL, NFL or NBA. Whilst long prophecised, we seem to have witnessed the seminal turning point of cricket twice in thirty days. In Australia it once and for good stopped being the gentleman’s game. This week it fell in line with India’s bullish new commercialism.
Meanwhile, other Indians are making the news in Australia. Sania Mirza and “her mentor” and mixed doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi have reached the final where they will face China’s Tiantian Sun and Serbia’s Nenad Zimonjic. Bhupathi could not equal the feat in the more prestigious men’s doubles, failing in the semi-final. If one extends the definition of Europe to the one used in the Eurovision Song Contest, the Indian team and Tiantian Sun represent the only non-Europeans in any of the finals. Yuki Bhambri, a New Delhi teenager, reached the boy’s semi-finals.
Bhupathi recently alleged he turned down an offer of money in exchange for throwing a Davis Cup match in 1996. His comments are being investigated by Indian tennis authorities.
on Friday, January 25th, 2008, 8:07 pm in Business, Sania Mirza, Sports › 
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thanks Rohin for this post. I read this news on samachar or some indian newspaper which was just a couple of sentences long and didnot understand who was buying what and why there were cities names. Now I think I understand its owning teams from different cities..I hope I understood it right..ur article helped thanks..
Except that nobody outside India will really care about it. There’ll be mild interest in cricket playing nations, the sort of interest that’s tucked away on page 7 of the sports pages, or at the tail end of Sky Sports News, but outside the sub-continent, cricket is a secondary sport even in the nations that play it. I remember after India won the 20/20 World Cup, one of the players said ‘The whole world was watching India’. I can’t really explain this delusion, except that it’s what results from an acute sporting insularity and lack of perspective.
Weeelll…yes and no. You’re a Brit as far as I can recall Pablo, right? I agree the view expressed by that player is delusional. But to say that the only interest in cricket is Indian isn’t quite true. Sure cricket is a secondary sport here, a long way behind football, but it’s still popular. The majority of my friends follow the game - and most of them are not of Asian origin - and the BBC Sports website has it second after footie. Australians care about the game. The countries where cricket is losing its foothold are the WIndies and SAfrica.
But this league is only supposed to be an internal thing, so I doubt people are expecting the world to pay attention. It took many years before outsiders starting watching the Premiership, Serie A or the NBA. When I made the comparison to Man United, I meant more as a franchise that earns rich men lots of money, people who don’t necessarily know the first thing about football. I didn’t mean as a world-famous team. By the by, you know one fifth of QPR is owned by Laxmi Mittal, I’m sure he isn’t a football fan.
The EPL was set up in 1992. Even before that the English First Division was massively popular around the world. Just look at the popularity of Liverpool and Manchester United in Europe and Asia that predates the setting up of the Premier League. I wouldn’t even say that cricket is England’s second sport, rugby in both its codes edges it out I reckon. Plus, I can’t see how they can sustain massive interest in a league sport that is only payed for 6 weeks a year.
Mittal has bought into QPR because of the obscene amounts of money that are flowing around the Premiership and he wants a slice of that pie. It’s a realistic ambition for QPR to reach the PL within 4 or 5 seasons and at the very minimum their percentage would be an investment in itself with the value of it increasing exponentially once they reach that level. Plus there is the social cachet of being involved in football. In England to be an owner of a football team gives you a level of social status few other things can give you.
Rugby? Are you sure? Maybe it’s the circles I hang out with, but rugby doesn’t come close to the popularity of cricket. Both are big amongst the upper classes, but perhaps rugby has a groundswell of working class support that cricket lacks. I went to a school where football was frowned on, rugby and rowing were number one and cricket was a pleasant summer pursuit, yet I still think we all like cricket more than rugby. Anyway.
You’re precisely right with your last line, it’s as much about business acumen as it is about cachet. Still…QPR (disclosure: Crystal Palace fan). Although I am going to Loftus Road tonight. Toodle loo.
you are correct in one respect - that the sport doesnt enjoy the global acceptance of soccer - perhaps the only sport that has a solid player-base around the world.
still - when you consider that india itself has a diversity exceeding north america and matching that of europe, and that the championship’s viewerbase matches (if not exceeds) that of football or baseball, i would not characterise the statement as a delusion.
in more concrete terms, when you consider that there were viewers in the Carribean, Oceania, South Asia, Europe and Canada, one can legitimately call cricket a world sport.
Do people care about the NFL, MLB, NASCAR etc outside the United States. MLB maybe to some extent, but the answer for the rest is a big NO.
Even if BCCI is able to establish a tough domestic league, with some inputs frm Aus, Eng, WI etc, then it’ll roll in dough.
khoofia — nobody really gives a hoot about cricket outside the subcontinent and about 5 or 6 countries in which it isn’t even the most popular sport. To say ‘The whole world’s eyes are on India’ was a delusion. As for cricket’s viewership exceeding football’s because of the size and diversity of India, please. Football is the global obsession of Europe, Africa, Latin America and most of Asia outside the sub-continent. Not only do local league fixtures in their totality and passion dwarf any viewing figures cricket garners in India, the EPL matches featuring fixtures like Liverpool v Manchester United pull in half a billion twice a season by themself. Let alone Champions League, World Cup, European Cup, South American Cup, African Cup of Nations, and all the rest of it, the finals of some of which will bring one third of the world to a stand still.
Rohin, take a look at the attendance figures for rugby fixtures both league and union and compare them to county cricket matches. Then compare attendances at Twickenham to English cricket test matches, let alone attendances during the 6 nations in Cardiff or Edinburgh, where cricket’s about as popular as lacrosse. I’d wager more kids play rugby at school and amateur club level, both union and league, than play cricket.
The hyper popularity of cricket in India is because it’s the only game Indian’s even half decent in. Add in the nationalism that catalyses it, and that explains how some Indian players and followers of cricket suffer from delusions of grandeur.
brown_dbd
No doubt it’ll roll in dough at all.
Add in the global popularity of the Spanish league and the viewing figures for Barcelona v Real Madrid and some Italian club fixtures into the mix too.
pablo, i meant football in the sense of the game played in north america. NFL and MLB market their championships as ‘world’ championships.
your points on soccer are well taken though. When one factors in the popularity of the women’s league, the presence and popularity of the sport around the world and legitimate contenders from all over the world (i have korea in mind in particular), it is the TRUE global sport. I dont disagree with your points, I just felt your earlier comment could be more accomodating of the happiness of the speaker who first voiced the thought of cricket being a world sport.
And that’s what makes me think that the IPL would not be a popular notion in India. Because Indian’s identify with a national team, not a city based team. Will everybody be as excited about a team featuring Ganguly and Ponting playing for Kolkatta Tigers vs a team featuring Tendulkar and Clarke, playing for Mumbai Champs, or against a Mohali team featuring Harbhajan and Symonds (perish the thought!)?
Cricket’s huge, I’ve lived in England till last year, Its huge, sure footballs large, but cricket represents this whole status of upperclass eliteness that few other things do. When i was in the Hague rich people would play cricket, and like wise in african countries (former british colonies) there everykid who attends a british school feels that cricket is the stuff. Its huge, the entire thing is monster, and no doubt football is number one in the world but cricket is number 2 in england and the world, and its the general trend, there are several countries where its number 1, heck its england’s national sport, so you neeed to check your facts pablo, look before you talk… oh and besides virtually no one ive ever met in europe, africa, asia, australasia, the carribbean and south america doesnt know about cricket or cares about american sports… even several americans dont…
Im an English man, and i couldnt give a hoot about football… as far as im concerned its an over hyped sport with minimal emphasis on skill and fair play… you will agree with me that no sport, none at all comes remotely close into being a judge of character quite like test cricket.
>> Except that nobody outside India will really care about it…I can’t really explain this delusion, except that it’s what results from an acute >>sporting insularity and lack of perspective.
Pablo, you are missing the point. The IPL is for South Asia(India to be precise) market. If Manchester united or the other team he mentioned (heck, I dont even know which sport these teams play) come to India and say they will even play for free , not more than 1000 out of 1.1 billion will turn up and notice. Also the guys who are throwing close to two billion $ for IPL will cough up no more than $10K for the afore-mentioned teams. So I dont know whose lack of perspective is it that you are comparing IPL with MU, NFL and other unknowns in South Asia ( I would say overall Asia which holds 2/3rd of the world market).