ICL is all set to start this Friday... the stars have flown in. The teams, coaches, commentators have been announced. It's a huge galaxy of stars... most of them retired; all of them credible.
Just a few months back, media baron Subhash Chandra was worried about his channel Zee Sports. All his bids to acquire Cricket Broadcast rights in India had fallen short. Nimbus ran away with domestic rights, and ESPN-Star with International broadcast rights. International football, F1 and Basketball were already gone. Hell, he didn't even have the WWE wrestling matches like Ten Sports.
Subhash Chandra is a onetime rice trader turned media baron. He launched India's satellite television revolution through Zee TV. He never plunges into the market; he plunges into the darkness with his vision and creates the market. Just check out the man's other interests; packaging, theme parks, lotteries; cinema multiplexes... He believes in the first mover's advantage.
So what could he do here? He definitely couldn't afford to leave the Zee Network's umbrella without a first rate sports channel....
April 2007: India crashed out of West Indies world cup. People were angry. People were disillusioned with the players and BCCI. People were ready for a change.
Bingo... the stage was set for the arrival of this century's Kerry Packer.
The Indian Cricket League (ICL) was proposed; a private cricket league that would run parallel to the existing cricket league managed by BCCI (Yeah, BCCI is private. No connections with the government whatsoever).
The genie had been let out of the bottle. For a long time now experts of the sports business had been betting on the kind of money creation of Franchise Leagues would generate in Cricket. It had worked wonders in case of Football, Basketball, Hockey (PHL in India), Rugby and Baseball.
As expected, soon the dirt started flowing in public. BCCI cried foul. ICL was termed as 'The Rebel League'. Pakistan Cricket Board warned the players contracted to the ICL saying those who turn out for the rebel league will not be considered for selection in the National team in the future. ICL replied back. Players were signed (several Pakistaanis); debates erupted all around over the conditions of players, over BCCI methodology, its corruption and politics... the media Baron had revealed his plans with perfect timing. ICL got free publicity worth crores of rupees.
BCCI was getting kicked from all sides... Big International Stars were signing up for ICL. Promising young guns, mostly hapless victims of their respective boards now had another viable option. The Honorable HC ordered PSUs not to fire players who join ICL (IOC and Air India had threatened employees to terminate their services if they join ICL). Even the ICC had to sit up and take notice.... After all, it was the financial powerhouse of International Cricket that was under fire.
The BCCI was loosing it fast... and all because of one single thing.
IT'S LACK OF CREDIBILITY.
The ICL had delivered the knockout punch at the very beginning by making the legendry Kapil Dev the public face of ICL. The financial muscle of BCCI wielded no power against the stature of a simple hard working Haryaanvi....
The big Guns at BCCI sat back at took a realistic look at things. They rolled with the punches and waited for the opportune moment. And miraculously, The wheel of fortune turned in favor of Team India. First a good outing in England. And then the T20 world cup happened, and Team India rose like a phoenix. The men in blue became the boys in blue, enthusiastic, friendly, aggressive.... led by MSD. Ads featuring Cricket stars came back with a bang. Time was ripe for BCCI to strike back.
And BCCI got the bull by it's horns and came out with IPL, on the lines of football’s English Premier League and the National Basketball League (NBA) of the U.S.
BCCI gathered all its trump cards and opened them simultaneously.
First of all, MONEY MONEY MONEY. BCCI offered the players obscene amount of money. It offered a decent share of the pie to ICC, which bowed down. Moreover, ICC's blessings mean that players in IPL can still play for their country. Their scores and wickets will be added to International T20 statistics. So current superstars could breath easy, and continue playing for their National Teams. But still all this couldn't counter the presence of Kapil Dev... So, BCCI roped in Sunil Gavaskar as the public face of IPL. BCCI got a CREDIBLE respected personality. It followed the same policy when it appointed Vengsarkar the chairman of selectors and Ravi Shastri the head of NCA. The BCCI’s masterstroke was surely the presence of McGrath and Fleming at the launch of IPL, as they had been in talks to join ICL.
About IPL
IPL will debut in April 2008 with 59 matches spread over 44 days. The IPL will primarily be played under lights with play beginning at 5 p.m. Two matches will be scheduled each day. The IPL will initially start with eight teams and will offer $3 million in prize money, making it the richest tournament in domestic cricket. It will be a franchise-model wherein corporate and sponsors will be allowed to buy and run teams. SRK, Sachin Tendulkar, ADAG and Russel Crow are some of the high profile speculated bidders. Player buy-outs will be an added feature, something that cricket is not accustomed to. Under the franchise model, a sponsor wanting to have its team will pay a stipulated fee to the BCCI to get ownership. The franchisee will also have to share revenues with the cricket board. The franchisee will, however, collect the gate money and the income from in-stadia advertisements, and at a later stage can list the team on the stock exchange and trade.. It is rumored that the bidding price for each IPL team will start from $ 50 million. And then, throw in the broadcast rights.... as per conservative estimates, the one time financial spin-off would be $ 600 mn - $ 1 bn.
About ICL
The ICL is starting with T20 format. Tau Devi Lal stadium in Panchkula, a place near Chandigarh will be hosting the ICL for season 2007. This stadium has 20,000 seating capacity and ICL is planning to lease this stadium for 10 years. The names of the teams are Chandigarh Lions, Mumbai Champs, Kolkata Tigers, Delhi Jets, Chennai Superstars and Hyderabad Heroes. A former cricketer is involved as coach in every each of the participating team. Three former Indian cricketers- Sandeep Patil, Madan Lal and Balwinder Sandhu will serve as coach along with Australia’s Michael Bevan, South Africa’s Darryl Cullinan and Pakistan’s Moin Khan. ICL has enough galaxy of stars to start off.
So, what happens to the ICL now? Is it the end of an idea? Will ICL generate decent revenues? Or will it be crushed under the Financial and Political power of BCCI?
Well, I believe Subhash Chandra isn't looking to break even in the first year itself. ICL has Essel Group’s backing; Even Subhash Chandra has a net worth of $2.3 bn; that means truckload of money. The main purpose behind the launch of ICL was the revival of Zee Sports anyway, and the upward movement in the Stock of Zee Telefilms vindicates this. Sponsors will come, eventually if not soon, because the Indians love Cricket. Lalu Prasad Yadav has said that the ICL can use the cricket infrastructure of Indian Railways.
My bet is that there is enough room for everyone. ENOUGH. As far as the events don't clash, I don’t see any reason why ICL will collapse. The Indian market itself can sustain it all... ICL, IPL, County Cricket and the international matches. It will be analogous to how USA alone sustains Baseball. The private leagues will have the USP of mixture; like the possibility of Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar bowling together... International matches will provide the Nationalist flavour.
My bet is that there is enough room for everyone. ENOUGH. As far as the events don't clash, I don’t see any reason why ICL will collapse. The Indian market itself can sustain it all... ICL, IPL, County Cricket and the international matches. It will be analogous to how USA alone sustains Baseball. The private leagues will have the USP of mixture; like the possibility of Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar bowling together... International matches will provide the Nationalist flavour.
ICL and IPL will co-exist in time to come. There will be bloodbath before the eventual peace, but ultimately Cricket will grow. Players will grow. And BCCI will become more accountable, as there will always be someone else to capitalise on it's debacles.
The real debate will arise when the young Indian players perform spectacularly in ICL. How will the BCCI justify keeping them out of Team India, especially when times are bad, as in April 2007 (World Cup Exit)... or March 2000 (The match fixing scandal)
Consider this irony; Sunil Gavaskar's son Rohan Gavaskar has joined ICL.
