Season 18 is upon us, and it is perhaps pertinent to take a look at the journey thus far. First things first, the IPL has resulted in an unprecedented windfall for the BCCI and for franchise owners of all the competing teams – a number that has now gone up to ten. It is this unprecedented success of the IPL, repeated for 17 straight years between 2008 and 2024, that helped consolidate India’s position at world cricket’s centre, while completing the process of financial takeover of the game.
Apprehensions
The BCCI’s decision to put iconic cricketers under the commercial hammer in February 2008 met with vociferous opposition from more than one quarter. Moralists and politicians throughout India were up in arms against this public auctioning of the country’s biggest stars, even threatening to raise the issue in Parliament. The BCCI, however, was unfazed. They believed in the spectacle and were willing to travel the distance. Could you imagine the thrill in seeing MS Dhoni being sold? How exciting was the prospect of possessing the man who had won India the T20 World Cup? You could now buy them in an auction. The very thought was enough to rouse fan passions and, more importantly, investor interest.
A Success Story like No Other
There’s little doubt that April 18, 2008, will go down in cricket history as the date when the game changed forever. Modelled on Major League Baseball (MLB) and the National Football League (NFL), the IPL had come at a time when the Indian economy had opened itself to global riches and big corporates were trying to make India home and in search of lucrative investment platforms across the country. The IPL, for many, was the answer. At one go, it gave them a foothold in a market of a billion-plus and generated eyeballs that millions of dollars spent on advertisements wouldn’t.
Add to this the fact that for hundreds of millions of cricket fans, filling stadiums was hardly difficult with proper marketing and hype. With celebrity owners like Shah Rukh Khan and leading Bollywood stars doing their bit in earnest, fans had more than cricket on offer for a few hundred rupees—a great evening out at a reasonable price. In addition, with fans thronging the grounds or picking their seat in front of the TV set, sponsors queued up and paid millions for ten-second slots, on in-stadia hoardings and team apparel.
The story goes on
Over the course of the seventeen years since the inception of the IPL, I have spent time with multiple teams and owners and been amazed at the kind of passion the league generates. For example, the entire senior management of one of the teams used to leave the hotel together around 2 pm on match days to offer pujas for the team. They would never be a minute late, and the kind of discipline shown in performing this ritual was unbelievable! That the team did not have the greatest results is a different matter altogether.
Team owners, men and women who run big corporations, are not as tense in their business meetings as during the IPL games.
The future
We already have multiple IPL unicorns. And with Indian cricket growing in strength and people’s consumption patterns turning more and more aggressive, there is no doubt IPL as a brand isn’t going to lose sheen in the next decade.
Also Read: “The sound of the ball on the bat is something we long to hear”: Sachin Tendulkar