Jio Hotstar have put out an interesting advert in the build-up to the Australia-India ODI series. It starts with the word ‘Kangaroo’ and ends up with ‘Ro-Ko’. Then, the last poster has Mitchell Starc and Mitch Marsh on one side, and Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli on the other. That’s what brings me to the point. Shubman Gill is the captain of India. Shreyas Iyer is the vice-captain. Logically, the image should have one of them. And yet, it is all about Rohit and Kohli.
Let’s be clear, that is a very fair call. Broadcast has always used star power to sell a product and that’s how it will always be. For example, it will be MS Dhoni as the face of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for as long as he plays. Whoever captains, it will be Dhoni. Similarly, with Rohit and Kohli making a comeback to India colours, it had to be them on the poster.
That brings me to the issue of star power. Whether we like it or not, we need it in sport. We need to sell a product. It is big business, and hyper-commercialised sport is a spectacle. And there is no spectacle without stars. Whatever Rohit and Kohli do in Australia is a story. If they score runs, they set the narrative against any retirement talk. Social media will be in a tizzy asking how anyone could ask them to retire when they are scoring runs. And yes, we can’t bracket the two of them together. Whoever scores will set the narrative, and fans will question Ajit Agarkar and the selection committee as has always been the norm.
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If they don’t score, or if one of them fails, the narrative will be fundamentally different. The retirement talk will gain pace and people will start questioning intent, and why the two of them did not play the India A games ahead of the tour.
Either way, Kohli and Rohit will dominate all talk. They will set the narrative and make headlines. They will make sure that the series has huge numbers on television and is prime Diwali viewing in India.
Let’s not get into the good and bad, for it is not relevant. The truth is sport will always need to build such narratives for it to be all-pervasive. Unless there are larger-than-life characters in sport, there will be no fandom. Kohli and Rohit are such figures. Their legions of fans will engage, argue, fight, celebrate and do everything that will make this series a commercial success. That’s the point about commercialised sport. Unless you are able to sell it, there is no broadcast. And without broadcast, there is no sport.
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None of us know yet what Kohli and Rohit will do. Whether or not they will score. A Starc yorker, and things could indeed go wrong for either. And yet, they will be the discourse. Not Gill or Iyer. They might play better and score better. Yet, for this series at least, they are the support cast for these two heroes. That’s the script. And Jio Hotstar have every right to milk it.
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