Boria Majumdar
You watch a cricket broadcast today and there are 30-plus cameras being used, and millions and millions of dollars riding on it. And then, when you think that just 35 years ago, there was no concept of broadcast revenue in Indian cricket, it feels almost unreal. As we get ready for the South African and Indian teams to touch down in Kolkata for the Test match, it is relevant that I recount this broadcast story, which started with the India-South Africa match at the Eden Gardens in November 1991.
Ali Bacher, the man behind the series in many ways, vividly remembers what all transpired. As Debasis Sen, my colleague, got Dr. Bacher on his mobile, he began with a chuckle. “With [Jagmohan] Dalmiya, the one thing is he wouldn’t take a no from you,” said Dr Bacher. “If you said no to him, he’d come back the next day and convince you to agree.
“It was a historic tour. South Africa had been admitted back to the mainstream just a few days earlier, and things were moving a bit too fast for us. When Dalmiya proposed that we play in Kolkata, we consulted my friends at the ANC and that’s when it was all finalised. And once that happened, it was my duty to make sure that the pictures were relayed back to people in South Africa.”
At the time, Indian cricket telecast was very rudimentary. The BCCI had no idea about the value of cricket rights and was used to paying Doordarshan a fee to telecast cricket matches played on Indian soil. That was the norm, and there was no reason to move away from it had the South Africa series not happened.
“I spoke to National Panasonic in South Africa, and got them to commit a quarter million rand to broadcast the television pictures back to South Africa for the South African public,” recounted Dr Bacher. “When I said this to Dalmiya, his eyes opened wide. He couldn’t believe what I was saying. In all honesty, it was a windfall and that’s what opened his vision up to what he was sitting on. And thereafter, Dalmiya made sure that Indian cricket was marketed the best way possible and the BCCI became the world’s richest cricket body in no time.
“I can tell you that when I first mentioned the deal to him, he felt I was joking. He had no idea such a thing could happen, and being the sharp mind that he was, once he realised the value, he went about his job brilliantly in the next few years.”
As we were about to close the conversation, Bacher stopped me and said, “This was the tour that changed Indian and world cricket forever. It was history. Not just for the euphoria and the fanfare and the warmth and hospitality, but also for the telecast monies that we were able to generate. Indian cricket today is worth many billion dollars. It all started from this tour in 1991.”
We will fondly remember this tour when South Africa and India play each other at Eden Gardens 34 years down the line.
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