The Tipping Point. Yes, we know it is a book by Malcolm Gladwell. But we don’t know if Mahendra Singh Dhoni has read it. What we do know is that this legendary wicketkeeper-batsman marshalled a relatively young and inexperienced team that ultimately led to the tipping point for Indian cricket’s burst into the modern era and dominance since. On a warm afternoon on September 24, 2007, Pakistan were within touching distance of victory in the final of the inaugural Twenty-20 (T20) World Cup in the historic South African city of Johannesburg. Star Pakistani batsman Misbah-ul-Haq had hit the second ball of the final over for a six. With just six more runs needed for victory, the batter wanted to finish off proceedings with a flourish. Misbah went for the scoop shot over short fine-leg, but only skied the ball—and was caught. Pakistan were all out and India—led by first-time captain Dhoni—were champions! The victory saw India erupt into unbridled celebration, with a frenzy not seen since the country’s first ICC tournament victory, the legendary ODI (one-day international) World Cup win at the hallowed Lord’s ground in England in 1983. Then, too, a bunch of no-hopers had gone on to lift the then greatest trophy in the sport.
The 2007 win and the subsequent hysteria birthed a new idea in the brains of Indian cricket’s administrators and money managers—T20 cricket could be milked for far more money than the sport had ever seen before. And thus, it was that on April 18, 2008, was born the Indian Premier League or IPL, with the first match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore seeing the former pulverise its opponent courtesy a knock for the ages by Kiwi wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum. That explosive knock by McCullum (158 in 73 balls, 13 sixes) was emblematic of the journey that the IPL would take, not just for Indian cricket as a sport, but also for Indian cricket as a multi-billion-dollar industry. “The rest of the world was saying the IPL was much bigger than what Kerry Packer had done in the 1970s,” says celebrated cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle. “We had players prioritising the IPL over everything else since there was big money to be made.”
Its [IPL’s] capacity to aggregate viewers at such scale in a short burst of time combined with the intense engagement it delivers renders it unique
SANJOG GUPTA, Head-Sports, Disney Star
Today, the IPL, spread over eight weeks, with 10 teams comprising a total of 163 players, many of who are from other countries, and played across 12 cities, is a spectacular, fast-moving caravan of sheer entertainment, sporting conflict, heroes, villains, and humongous crowds of men, women and children in the stadiums—and multiples of that at homes and screening centres across the country—screaming themselves hoarse with every six and four, and equally, screaming in agony with each dropped catch and each wicket.
This kind of popularity and involvement of the audience, the league’s core customer, has made IPL a veritable money-spinning machine. Media rights for the tournament have been climbing. In 2008, Sony had paid Rs 8,200 crore for television rights for the period 2008-17. After that, the then Star India picked up the television and digital rights to the marquee tournament for RS 16,348 crore ($2.55 billion) for the period 2018-22. Smelling more money, the television and digital rights were then split and given to two different entities—Disney Star for television and Viacom18 for digital streaming—for a combined value of RS 48,390 crore ($6.2 billion) for the period 2023-27.
That makes IPL the fifth-most valuable sporting league in the world, an appellation that would bring a wry smile to your face, considering the top-drawer of the sport comprises just about seven to eight countries. “Purely from a financial implication, the arrival of the IPL is the biggest tipping point since it moved the balance away from two to three established powers towards India,” says Bhogle. IPL is now behind only four major leagues—the National Football League in the US (NFL, media rights worth $112.6 billion for 2023-33); the NBA (National Basketball Association, $24 billion for 2014-2025); English Premier League soccer ($12.85 billion for 2022-25); and Major League Baseball in the US ($12.24 billion for 2022-28).
But Indian cricket is not only IPL. Media rights for International Cricket Council (ICC) tournaments have also been sold for close to $3 billion to Disney Star. The impending sale of rights for all bilateral matches to be played in India and organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is expected to fetch at least $1 billion. And if you add what IPL’s two new team owners spent last year, that’s almost RS 13,000 crore. Adding to these what other IPL team owners have paid in the past, cricket in India is a RS 1 lakh-crore industry. That’s big, and it’s only growing bigger.
Read More at https://www.businesstoday.in/interactive/longread/there-s-money-to-be-made-how-ipl-t20-gave-booster-shot-to-cricket-economy-264-09-06-2023
Comments