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Meera Mohanty

New Delhi, May 19

Cricket academies and overseas fan clubs are being planned by the Indian Premier League teams. Fighting it out in South Africa, individual teams are still finding connect with home fans, if city-wise audience ratings are anything to go by.

In Chennai, for example, average viewership for Chennai Super King’s (CSK) matches were at almost 3.3 TRP compared with an average 1.8 TRPs for the matches that its team did not feature in till May 17, according to data from the Audience Measurement and Analytics (aMap).

The highest TRPs of 4.7 in the city were reserved for the May 9th match it won against Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets with 10 balls remaining. The CSK owners are looking to leverage this connect with Tamil speaking audiences outside of the country, in Singapore and Malaysia, in particular. In Durham, for example, it found a significant fan following amongst people of Tamil origin.

Mumbai recorded 8.5 TRPs, the highest, for the May 14 match against Rajasthan Royals, but two days later losing to CSK in a critical match that ended its chances at the IPL, its ratings stood at 3.1. Chennai saw its second highest ratings. With gate collections being a significant earning, local support will be important for teams. According to Mr Debashish Shyam, Business Head, United Spirits, consumer bonding and loyalty is stronger than ever; merchandise partner Reebok has run out of Royal Challengers t-shirts. The recent closely-fought matches are being followed with vociferous cheering in pubs that compares in pitch to national matches, he says.

Viewership ratings in Kolkata at an average of 2.3 TRP for the initial fortnight declined to 1.7 average TRP in the last week, with the disappointing performance of its team. KKR denies it ever planned distancing itself from the city, ‘Kolkata’ was only compromised for aesthetic value on certain hoardings, says an official who didn’t want to be named.

Some believe bad performance apart, the marketing strategy is not capitalising on Kolkata’s zeal for cricket and ‘Dada’ or Sourav Ganguly and is over-dependent on brand Shahrukh Khan.

Royal Challengers, which had planned activities with its stars, is using its remaining cricketers and brand ambassador Katrina Kaif to interact with fans across five cities, more than 30 of whom are being flown to South Africa. Karnataka might have more followers so there is no reason why Royal Challenger shouldn’t reach out to fans outside, says Mr Shyam.

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