Desh Gaurav Chopra Sekhri: Unsleazing the IPL

This season of the Indian Premier League, or IPL, has been pretty disastrous for its off-pitch image. Sadly, soap-opera sagas and tabloid-worthy revelations dominate a sporting event that has so many positives for what is arguably India’s most popular sport. Remember: the IPL is India’s first professional sports league and should have easily immersed itself into youth culture as well as pop culture, much like the English Premier League in England or the National Football League in the United States. The IPL has a lot going for it, and if it can focus on solid league-based fundamentals, it can easily dispense with off-pitch scandals while remaining relevant and remunerative for its stakeholders. In order to do that, however, it needs to get away from its predilection for show-off pomp and start from scratch when it comes to grass-roots processes.

 

The IPL has limitations. The most limiting is the short calendar in which the tournament is played. Seeing is remembering, and brand recall is founded on constant reminders. The IPL struggles to keep fans engaged and active during what is an extraordinarily long lag time between seasons. Along with waning interest in the league during the off season, a short tournament window also makes it difficult to build fan loyalty.

Audiences need to be engaged, and for that they need to understand the league as well as the core ingredient that makes a sports league successful — the players. So the first thing that the IPL ought to do differently next time around is to introduce a uniform draft system as opposed to an auction. The politics and obstacles that accompany this suggestion aside, a league-mandated draft for players will help reduce allegations of illegal payments, corruption, spot-fixing — and, more than anything else, should alter the negative cultural perception that has begun to surround the league. And if there’s anything the IPL needs right now, it’s undoubtedly a cultural makeover. For the fans, a draft system usually ensures that audiences are given an opportunity to understand who the established and emerging players are, what their statistics and strengths are, and that audiences are given enough information so that they can track the players’ careers going forward, if they choose to.

It’s also important to further increase the involvement of the local fan base and to initiate the concept of team – and city – loyalty. So, uncapped and emerging domestic players who are not chosen in the draft should only be eligible to represent the team from their home city or state, since this will trigger a sense of belonging to the home team, both for the players and for the fans. The “icon player” tag can remain for the team-defining individual such as Dhoni or Tendulkar, while the remaining established Indian players should be entered into the draft. Uncapped players who are not chosen in the draft should be contracted to their home teams with league-mandated salary structures.

Familiarity builds team loyalty and support, which is why one cannot build the foundation of a team merely on foreign players. It’s important to build upon in-season and out-of-season loyalty-building initiatives, involving the players and team logos so as to ensure that the “out of sight, out of mind” syndrome doesn't eat into a team’s support. Before IPL-6, the teams must engage in out-of-season initiatives — social, recreational and competitive tournaments for kids, perhaps. The teams should also expand the platform to other sports. The way for a team and the IPL to become a part of culture is by community involvement that extends beyond just the development and growth of cricket and the league. Each of the team owners and especially the local and central sponsors are involved in various sports in India, and they should leverage this expertise and opportunity to disseminate the brand and its logos.

The target demographic for T20 cricket and the IPL is youngsters in the age band of 6-24 years — those who will understand the dynamics of the league, become season ticket holders and, above all else, will sport the team logo and premiums willingly and proudly as they associate with the team itself. Teams must get involved with incentivising season ticket packages for loyal fans, and they must also package the merchandise in such a way that the cost is shifted to value offerings, so that the apparel and equipment are disseminated and worn by fans. The demonstration effect of merchandise is a universal phenomenon. The IPL has challenges and competition and, above all else, is struggling with negative perceptions. It needs to fix that.

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The author is a Sports Attorney at J Sagar Associates. These views are personal