Suveen K Sinha / New Delhi Apr 26, 2009, 00:35 IST
The T20 success is unlikely to change the world.
The Indian Premier League can never be accused of lacking in hype. With this second edition, the legend only grows. Hundreds of prisoners in Kolkata’s Alipore Central Jail went on hunger strike when they were refused cable television, which they wanted so they could watch IPL. The jail only allows state-owned Doordarshan’s channels.
But the tournament really needs no help from prisoners. It has been a miracle of organisation. To shift a tournament of this scale, spread over several cities, lock, stock and barrel in a jiffy and organise it in a country where the local allegiance of the teams has no relevance, will some day make a case study in a high-brow business school.
Yet, it is important for the tournament to ensure that it does not fall prey to its own hype. If you look beneath the hype, the sore spots are all-too-visible.
IPL draws deeply on television for sustenance, but all the wonder of broadcasting cannot hide the entire truth. South Africa, all things considered, cannot match India in its love of the game and of IPL. When the players arrived in the Rainbow Nation and drove slowly through the streets, television showed them blowing kisses to the crowds that had supposedly lined the streets. Only, eyewitness accounts say there were no crowds really, only sparse, curious onlookers.
Lawrence Booth, freelance cricket writer, writes that he sees more evidence in South Africa of the soccer World Cup 2010, than of IPL. Lalit Modi boldly announced last Thursday that IPL would boost the South African economy by 1.5-2 billion rand. This was clarified at Saturday’s opening ceremony by South African President Z Kgalema Motlanthe as about 1 billion rand.
In fact, Thursday’s tie between Kolkata and Rajasthan may have done more than provide entertainment to viewers. It may have revived interest in a tournament marred by lacklustre matches and rain disruptions. It hasn’t helped that the most expensive buys this year, Pietersen and Flintoff, are yet to show sizeable return on investment for their franchises. And now Flintoff is out with an injury.
In fact, The Economic Times reported that media buyers were looking to strike cheap bargains in the later stages of the tournament. This year, they also have an alternative advertisement vehicle in the Lok Sabha elections, which are bigger and wider than IPL will ever be, and touch deeper chords among India’s population.
In his speech on Saturday, Modi said that he saw before him “joy, humility, pride and gratitude”. It is important that he takes his words seriously. IPL is indeed a success, but it is unlikely to change the world.
Indeed, the IPL team owners need to be fearful when Lalit Modi is urging them to be greedy, as Warren Buffet would have put it. The hype of IPL indicates that this is a bubble waiting to burst. All but one team owner is a publicly listed company. Media reports have seldom sounded skeptical about the returns on investing in a team. Most reports have speculated on the margins of teams and seemed to have blindly take cue from Mr Lalit Modi who himself doesn't get tired of extolling himself of the so-called "IPL opportunity". There is no reason why valuations on cricket would have suddenly burst open -- everyone knew cricket was big in India and associated companies were making their profits. The sudden jacking up of sky-high evaluations was unwarranted and will in hindsight be deemed as the most irrational of all time.
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