The real IPL effect

It has created an ecosystem for other sports

The commentary on Star India’s Rs 16,348 crore successful bid for the global TV and digital rights for the Indian Premier League for five years has been laser-focused on whether the broadcaster has recklessly overpaid. At roughly double the price for half the duration — Sony’s Rs 8,200 crore deal was for 10 years — this is a moot question, but given the exponential growth of the IPL’s popularity, Star may have landed itself a bargain. Amid the heavy-duty number-crunching that has gone into assessing the deal, however, it is easy to overlook one unsung but intrinsic value of this sports property — which emerged on the scene in 2008 — in creating a healthy ecosystem for other sports in India. The momentum created by the IPL’s success was well in evidence five years after it began. From 2013 onwards, several new national sporting properties were created on similar lines — hockey, badminton, football, and kabaddi. All of them have followed the same model of franchised team ownership that leverages the corporate surpluses of a (mostly) expanding economy and global sporting values to create a compelling and high standard of entertainment.

Although it is true that the basic template for the tournament was drawn from the hugely popular English Premier League, the controversial impresario Lalit Modi deserves credit for putting the IPL on the world cricketing map, attracting big money, global names and worldwide attention — a British journalist even wrote a book on it, albeit a sneeringly critical one, some years ago. The impact of the IPL, which glamorised cricket in a uniquely Indian style, on Indian cricket has been in evidence for a while now. Cynics will point to the spike in corruption as a result of which the Board of Control for Cricket in India is now placed under a Supreme Court-appointed supervisory committee. This is certainly cause for concern given the Indian cricketing body’s domination of the global sport, but should not detract from the IPL’s wider and more beneficial impact. 

By expanding the market for domestic cricketing talent beyond just the national team, the IPL has acted as a catchment area for young men from small-town and mofussil India. The enormous sums of money that franchisees spend may appear obscene by earlier standards, but they have made it possible for cricketers to enjoy a livelihood from the sport alone in place of the earlier model of relying on the generosity of public and private sector firms to offer nominal employment. The IPL’s demonstration effect has created a virtuous circle in the labour markets of other sports too. Hockey, badminton or kabaddi may not rival cinema or cricket in the overall market for entertainment, but all have seen the emergence of professional players. In kabaddi, for instance, a young player can earn between Rs 30 lakh and Rs 90 lakh a season. In the badminton league, players can earn between Rs 1.95 lakh and Rs 6 lakh a season. In the Hockey India League, where the number of teams has jumped from five in 2013 to 14 for the 2018 edition, players can potentially earn Rs 23 lakh. These figures may not compare with the earnings of even an average EPL team-member —  the weekly wage for a footballer in bottom-of-the-table Burnley is £18,000 — but they far exceed anything these sportspeople could hope to earn even a few years ago. This expanding largesse also encompasses the huge amount of indirect employment in stadiums, hospitality, fitness specialists and equipment that sustain these events and create their own dynamic of growth. Purists may shun the extraneous hoopla and baseball-style cricket that is the IPL, but its broader value for India’s nascent sporting culture cannot be ignored.