BETWEEN WICKETS
What do the figures with all those zeroes really mean? When you stare at a word long enough, it begins to look strange and meaningless. Psychologists call this ‘semantic satiation’. Look at the IPL rights figures long enough — 50,000 crore, 60,000 crore, six billion dollars, — and there is numerical satiation. The figures begin to look faintly absurd.
The IPL ignores inflation, ignores Covid-induced slowdown, and seems to have carved out a kingdom of its own in the sporting landscape, independent of the economic climate. The pressure is now on the viewers to watch the IPL. Any drop in viewership may be construed as lack of interest and discourage advertisers. We are in for more hype, more hysteria, greater frenzy – and all that before a ball is bowled next year! That is the nature of the beast.
For those willing to pay the equivalent of a small state’s GDP for the rights, it is not about cricket. It is about guaranteeing eyeballs to cement manufacturers, car makers, makers of perfumes and pan masala and tyres and fizzy drinks and more. It is about long-term audiences for their channels.
Attracting viewership
It is about attracting viewership to their other programmes through cricket. The IPL long ago reached the stage when it was too big to fail; now it is flirting with a more dangerous possibility — that of succeeding so well that the next round of rights cannot be sustained. Don’t forget somebody has to pay for all this.
What will the Board of Control for Cricket in India do with the 100% revenue increase? It has already announced a hike in the pensions of former players and umpires, which is a good thing, but money-wise small change. Will the extra money be pumped back into the game or will it be used for more travel and greater comfort of the office-bearers?
Will the BCCI demand greater accountability from the State units? Will the first class fees in the National championships for players, umpires, scorers, groundsmen be increased as many experts have recommended?
Will spectator comfort at our stadiums move from the bottom of the priority list to somewhere closer to the top? Will the IPL be guaranteed a better class of commentator?
According to reports, advertisers paid between 15 and 18 lakh for a ten-second spot during this year’s IPL. This will go up now as those with the rights have paid more for them. At what point will advertisers turn away? Then there is the question of the number of teams and matches.
Already there is talk of 12 teams and two IPL tournaments in a season. Perhaps another one abroad. That would take half the year or more. Where would that leave international cricket? Is franchise cricket the future of the game, with the World Cups the last vestiges of international rivalry?
Perhaps that is an exaggeration — but, as science fiction has showed us, what will be commonplace in the future begin as exaggerations in the present.
Breaking away
There is too the possibility that T20 cricket if not the IPL itself, could break away from the International Cricket Council, form its own eco system and offer players more money, more exposure and a better work-life balance.
When Joe Root admitted as he quit captaincy of England that it had become “a very unhealthy relationship”, he might have been, unwittingly, speaking on behalf of international players tired of long tours away from the family, and with incomes barely commensurate with the effort. Add selectorial uncertainties and career-threatening injuries, and earning more for playing less becomes terribly attractive.
The IPL guarantees more money in a shorter period of time; it can be seen as a domestic challenge with an international flavour, and that can be appealing too.
Recent five-day Tests have been some of the most thrilling in the game’s history, yet if a generation of players is convinced that the 20-over game has all the subtlety and nuance of a five-day match, it will be pointless trying to convince them otherwise. Money does make the (cricket) world go round, after all.
That the figures for digital rights for the IPL have exceeded expectations is a pointer to the way cricket is expected to be consumed (to use marketing lingo) in the future. Old certainties no longer hold; the difference between the result of the previous rights cycle and the current one is not one of degree, but one of kind. The change is dramatic, disruptive and distinct, and likely to take the game into its next phase faster than was imagined at one time.
Earlier this year, Forbes pointed out that Mumbai Indians, the IPL’s most valuable franchise at $1.3 billion is worth more than six Major League Baseball teams or 27 NHL teams. Great news for cricket’s economy, but what about cricket itself?
