The Hindu Business Line : Welcome to the business of cricket

Those backing the league teams now are hard-nosed businessmen who are not going to invest a rupee unless they spot a business opportunity. That they have thrown millions into the ring only proves the potential that is there in the business of cricket.

Sensing a killing.

Raghuvir Srinivasan

Cricket is not just a game anymore. Cricket is business and a big one at that. For those hoping against hope that it is not so, the final proof came in the frenetic bidding for players on Wednesday in the Indian Premier League (IPL) player auction.

Who would have ever imagined that the captains of the national teams of India and Australia would be auctioned off to the highest bidder, almost like in a village shandy? Or for that matter other big names such as Andrew Symonds, Muthiah Muralitharan or Brett Lee?

The IPL and the player auction have attracted a lot of attention and comments. Purists are deriding the commercialisation of cricket, the so-called gentleman’s game, forgetting that commerce first entered cricket more than three decades ago when Kerry Packer started his rebel series in Australia. There are those who are mighty offended by how their idols are being auctioned off as if they are a piece of furniture.

And then, there are those sceptics who are questioning the big bucks being thrown into the IPL by businessmen and wondering if they will ever get to see a return on the investment. One thing is for sure though. The League has captured the imagination of people across the spectrum and opened their eyes to the growing role of commerce in cricket.

Another business

At its simplest level, the IPL is all about businessmen sensing an opportunity to profit from the game’s craze among a growing mass of people with high spending power. There is big money waiting to be made by all concerned — the businessmen now bankrolling the league, the players, advertisers, the media and, of course, the BCCI.

Those backing the league teams now, such as Mr Mukesh Ambani, Mr Vijay Mallya and Mr N. Srinivasan, are hard-nosed businessmen who are not going to invest a rupee unless they spot a business opportunity. That they have thrown millions into the ring only proves the potential that is there in the business of cricket.

Assuming that the concept succeeds, it is not inconceivable that a few years down the line one or more of these teams will make an initial public offer (IPO) and get their stocks listed as, indeed, in any other business.

Just think of the business concept at its most elementary level — the product is the game, the players are the assets, the spectators inside the stadium and television viewers are the market, the revenues will come from in-stadium advertising, player endorsements, entry tickets, share of television rights and lo, you have a complete business.

When we bring the concept down to this elementary level, it may be easier for us, as die-hard cricket fans, to digest a Sachin Tendulkar or a Rahul Dravid being auctioned off like an inanimate asset. Players, much like land or machinery, are assets for the business and just as when you spot a prime piece of real estate that you think will be good for your plant or your showroom and bid for it, so you do when you find a class player on the block. Nothing wrong with that surely.

Sport as a business is not a novel concept anyway. We have the example of football where clubs, especially in the UK, are listed companies and run as any other business. Football clubs such as Arsenal, Tottenham and Newcastle United, to name just three, are all listed on the London and other stock exchanges. The well-known Manchester United was a listed club until its delisting in 2005.

And again, football’s iconic players such as Maradona, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and David Beckham were all bought and sold between the different clubs playing the European football league. There are no national affiliations here, just a common love for the game and of course, money!

Cricket’s innocence lost?

The IPL has caused emotional trauma to some fans of the game who consider themselves as purists and who claim to watch and play the game just for the joy of it. The advent of big money, they say, somehow robs the game of its charm. There is no doubt something to be said for the concept of players donning the national colours and playing the game for their country.

But then, the IPL is not going to be a substitute for international cricket played among national teams. It is going to be yet another dimension to international cricket. Of course, the great players are not going to play for national honour but for money. But what’s wrong with that?

Why should they be grudged the money they earn for showcasing their awesome skills that gives so much entertainment and joy to millions of people? Why should cricketers not be valued based on their skills just as an investment banker or a CEO is and paid accordingly? We do not complain when we hear of the multi-million dollar salary packages and bonuses earned by top flight investment bankers who may after all have earned that just for lending to sub-prime clients!

Till the advent of the IPL or for that matter the Indian Cricket League of the Zee group, cricketers had a single employer — their respective national cricket boards. Of course, most of these boards took good care of their players but there was never really a market to determine the real worth of a cricketer.

And again, talent was at the mercy of the Board and it is not difficult to point out instances, especially in India, where talent was ignored or even suppressed for reasons other than cricket alone. That will no more be possible with a market developing for cricketers, a market that respects performance alone and does not care about anything else.

Here, the pioneering initiative of the Indian Cricket League (ICL) should be acknowledged. But for the ICL and the threat it posed to the BCCI, the latter might not have conceived of the IPL at all.

For those bemoaning the loss of innocence in cricket, the answer is that this is the age of free markets and marketing. Cricket cannot remain insulated to market forces when everything around it dances to the market’s tunes. The commercialisation of cricket was inevitable after it became a profession years back with players depending on the game for a living.

The game ceased to be a gentle sport played for the love of it long ago just as other sports such as football, basketball or rugby. It is just that cricket managed to retain its “innocence” longer than the other sports.

And again, there is also something to be said for cricketers of different nationalities playing together in the same team, especially in the backdrop of all that happened in the just concluded Test series Down Under. At a serious level it will help players understand each other better while at the frivolous level, it will help them recognise the swear words that each other uses so that there will be no more “monkey” affairs!

Await the verdict

All these arguments will be futile if the IPL bombs. Will it? That is an interesting question. Everybody involved with it — the sponsoring businessmen, the players, the television rights owners, the advertisers and the media — are working on the assumption that the game will sell and the spectators will throng the stadiums to see their favourite international players in action. The entire business model, to use market lingo, is built around this assumption.

But if the ICL experience is anything to go by, there is enough reason to keep fingers crossed. Of course, the ICL does not boast of marquee players like what the IPL does.

Anyway, is there as much charm in watching league cricket between city teams that boast of international players, as in watching conventional cricket between national teams?

There is the experience of league football in India where crowds have thronged Kolkata stadiums to watch clubs such as Mohammedan Sporting and East Bengal play each other. But can it be extended to cricket?

The real test will be whether the masses that throng stadiums and assemble before television sets now are doing so because they are real connoisseurs of the game or are they doing so just out of nationalistic fervour? IPL’s business model is based on the assumption that it is the former, but God help if it is the latter.