The Indian Market

Sometime ago. I had written this

1. Why is it so difficult for the rest of the world to understand that their opinion vis a vis the IPL matters not a jot! The only people who can make or break the IPL are the Indians. More specifically, the Indians residents in the 8 cities that make up the ICL teams.

and

4. The BCCI and the individual franchises are going to have a pretty hard time selling the game to their constituents. And not because of the marquee names. The ICC World XI was full of marquee names and we all know what happened to the Super Tests. For the next two years, with the team rosters already set, I wonder what the degree of attachment will be for a team comprising of fewer local and national players and more of international players.

thought that I harked back to when I red the following paragraph from Andrew Miller’s article on the EPL

Most crucially of all, the English time zone (as football has discovered) is tailor made for the Indian market, with matches beginning at 9.30pm India time and ending shortly past midnight. Set against that, however, is the difficulty of persuading people to watch. The beauty of the IPL was the richness of the talent in each side – with only eight franchises to choose from, the best players were on show in each and every game.

Now, from a County and EPL perspective, the second point ( of selling the game to their constituents) is a non starter – because of the way the county teams and structured with their foreign imports and the Kolpak players.

What is crucial is the first point.

That the EPL will be a success is not in doubt – 5 years of domestic 20/20 cricket has shown that there are enough patrons willing to spend money and time to have 3 hours of solid entertainment.

But for the EPL to become a real money spinner, the Indian market becomes crucial – get enough eyeballs in India and you have the advertisers queuing up to pay top dollar – unlike the IPL where the English viewership did not make a significant difference to the overall revenues of the enterprise.

And there are plenty of mitigating factors. Here are a few

• Season 2010 sees England host the West Indies and Bangladesh ( with Australia thrown in for good measure). India, in the meantime, will play the Champions Trophy and the Asia Cup along with the IPL as a lead up to the inaugural EPL.Season 2011 has the World Cup on the sub continent followed by India’s tour to England for 4 tests and 5 ODIs.Because of the way the first two seasons are structured, even if the ECB and the BCCI are willing, Indian player availability is suspect.And if the Indians don’t play, Indian spectators don’t watch – simple as that.
• Because of the structure of the FTP and because of the Champions Trophy in 2010 and the World Cup in 2011 ( along with the IPL), a lot of the advertising money will be concentrated on these three events. Indian advertising revenue for the EPL – little to none.
• 57 games in 25 days with a TV window of between 9:30 PM and 12:00 AM – even if India is agog with EPL fever, how many eyeballs and for what games?
• Ownership of the teams is by the Counties, unlike the IPL where the free market forces are the final arbiters. Given that there will be a profit sharing mechanism in place ( 18 counties ahead of 9 city based teams is proof enough that there will be a profit sharing dynamic with all of the counties getting a piece of the pie) and given that counties are given annual stipends (?), and given that there will be a salary cap in place, where is the motivation for the counties to field the best teams or to be ultra competitive? I mean, if a second division team stands to earn twice what it does currently just by showing up, what is the motivation to do anything more – just cap the costs to the barest minimum, bring in the money allocated by the ECB and show profits.
• The BCCI – The ECB has been playing hard ball with English player participation in the IPL. Count on the BCCI to reciprocate in kind.And, if the BCCI can persuade the BCB and the PCB to join in, the entire Asian contingent in the stands goes. And with it goes the noise and the color and the vibrancy Asian crowds bring to the cricket field. And that is just the crowd factor.TV rights is another sphere where the BCCI can screw the ECB. And screw it will.
• Zimbabwe – the ECB reversed it stand on the Oval test of 2006, the Indians bailed them out vis a vis the World Twenty20 next year, god knows what other compromises were made – there is a blow back waiting to happen.
• Allen Stanford – and his annual quadrangular featuring the West Indies and England to be held in England. Try fitting all of that ( in addition to the FTP) in a cricket calender that extends from May until August ( September would mean clashing with the other EPL).

I am all for the ECB to make money- that should never be the monopoly of a select few.

But now is a good time as any to remind ourselves that when Jagmohan Dalmiya took over as the head of the ICC in 1996, the ICC was nearly 15-20,000 pounds in the red.