Treatise 2010

The International Thought Challenge

The IPL – Another nail in India’s Olympic coffin

Posted by Team Manfest On January - 9 - 2010

India, a nation of 1.1 billion people, has been always disproportionately unsuccessful at the Olympics. At the Beijing Olympics in 2008, host country China picked up 100 medals (51 golds), even a small country like Belarus managed 19 medals to India’s one gold, and two bronze — its highest tally ever1. India’s ratio of medal tally to wealth(GDP) is a mere 0.000119. The main reason attributed to this is India is a one sport nation. People of India treat cricket as a religion, as their fifth Veda, akin to a national game though it is not, thanks to its Board, Government, sponsors and the media. IPL, a new and exciting brand of Cricket has proved an enormous success raking in 10,790 crore2. But it has achieved this at the cost of other sports.

Economics of IPL

IPL bagged $714 million from sale of franchisee rights, $1.02 billion for sale of broadcast rights and $ 42 million for title sponsorship 3. Add to these the individual sponsorships for each team, the figure is mind-boggling. “IPL as a format and venture presents an opportunity for involvement which runs deeper than mere sponsorship” says a Reliance Official.4 “I invested in cricket because there was an opportunity available. I think investment in sports should come through a sensible business plan. I think a lot needs to be done for propagating sports among youth.” said Shah Rukh Khan. 5 IPL is a very commercialized venture whereas Olympic Games are played for the sake of national pride. So the Government and private sponsors have to provide the funding for development of these sports.

What makes IPL so attractive

The huge stakes involved in IPL has attracted the imagination of Indian masses like never before and any youngster who watches this is more likely to engage himself in cricket rather than other sports. The maximum remuneration for any player is around $1.6 million. The quantum of money involved can alone be the most dominant motivating factor for a youngster to pursue cricket. The close interaction of the entry level cricketers with international and star players acts as additional motivation factor to work hard and improve their competitiveness. The unavailability of such attractive options in other sports is attributed to the preoccupation of Indians to cricket.

Cricket-obsessed media

IPL-2 got TRP rating of 4.177 while Neo Cricket, a Cricket-only channel has clocked healthy TRP ratings of 5.497. Contrast this with the Olympics Broadcaster Doordarshan which got a mere Rs. 41 crore as revenues8. Obsessive attention given to cricket reduces the time given to other sports like hockey where India has rich Olympic record. Saina Nehwal rues that news channels cover even the birthday parties of young cricketers whereas little attention is given to other sports.18

Multiple world billiards champion Geet Sethi, a multiple Billiards World Champion remarks about IPL, “The fanatical obsession called cricket has just joined hands with the film world to create a new pastime (I consciously refrain from calling it sport) where it will gain even further visibility and media hype fuelled by both cricket and Bollywood. This in turn will almost certainly divert sponsorship which could have gone to disciplines with a genuine chance of winning India that Olympic gold.” 9

Lalit Bhanot, secretary of India’s athletics body, believes the IPL will impact other disciplines in the long run. “Sponsors will like to partner the premier cricket league for visibility; it will no doubt affect all other sports in terms of funding.” 9

Instances of other sports getting overshadowed by Cricket

A bronze medal by Karnam Malleswari during Sydney Olympics 2000 for weightlifting, the win by Gopichand in 2001 in All England Badminton Championship were all overshadowed by cricketing feats of Harbhajan Singh when he took a hat trick, Anil Kumble’s 10 wicket haul and VVS Laxman’s 281 against Australia10. Indian hockey players had to go on a hunger strike in order to voice their opinion about equality in compensation when the Indian cricket team won the T20 World cup. 11

BCCI and the Government’s initiatives

India now provides between 60% and 80% of world cricket revenues.12 IPL has been such a hit that $225 million has been set as the base price for franchises in the forthcoming IPL13. BCCI has announced that it would grant the All India Football Federation (AIFF) a sum of $5 million for the development of Indian football. 14 It is however a tiny share as compared to cricket’s budget.

The Indian Government has started taking measures recently to recognize the importance and uplift the other sports in the following ways15:

  • Scheme for preparation of indian teams in all disciplines for commonwealth games intiated
  • Pension to medal winners doubled
  • Sports and games disciplines which are affordable and involve mass participation like hockey, football, volleyball, basketball etc. were upgraded to ‘Priority’ status entitling them for increased financial assistance.

However given the lucrative offers of IPL, sportsmen are less likely to be attracted to other sports.

It’s an unequal world

Let’s face it. Everything in this world is unequal. Sponsors will support sports that sell. They are not for charity. Media will only focus on things that will gain them higher TRP ratings. Fans will be more for a sport in which the country keeps winning. Attractive prizes given in IPL and the riches that the board rakes in are as per law of nature. Or is it really?

Like in Business, in sports also monopoly is unhealthy. It is plain cruel if worthy sportsmen are denied Olympic medals due to lack of support. So Government has to carefully avoid the monopoly of cricket and steer the funds and infrastructure towards other sports. Australian Government is able to successfully grow a culture of sports and though Australia performs well in Cricket, it comes within top 5 in Olympics. The same cannot be said about India because Government does not encourage other sports like Australia does. In Australia, there are tremendous incentives for students to pursue sports as a career like scholarships in sports, coaching facilities, importance given to sports that is equivalent to academics, funding from government and other sources, university and state level training facilities in the form of sports complexes. In India, the Indian Athletes Training centres are not sufficient in getting to the grassroots. Anju George says: “If an Indian manages to win a medal in Olympics, it will be only because of her hard work and not due to any help from the government authorities.”16Moreover, recognition is given only when a player wins a major tournament.

Issues plaguing Indian Olympics

Appalled at the lack of infrastructure, independent groups like Olympic Gold Quest have come up with measures to support talented athletes and provide them with funds and infrastructure34.  However, such support structures are limited to a few sportsmen.

Indian athletes have won a total of only 17 medals so far.”I don’t think we’ve got the infrastructure to keep building champions like other countries do,” Bhupathi said17. “Countries with much smaller populations, like Croatia, or Germany, etc, they’ve got the right coaches, the right training, they’ve got teams travelling with sports psychologists,” he said. “We lack quality coaches in India. Our coaches are just good enough for the beginners,” says shooter Manavjit Singh18. “The system is slow and lethargic. Everything takes a lot of time to materialize. It requires a lot of effort to get anything done,” says Anjali, the former World No. 1 shooter18.

The way forward

If good infrastructure, coaching and funding are provided for other sports, more people will be attracted towards other sports and there will be all-round development.  When people start winning, more interest will be generated and more successes will follow – Chess in India is a case in point. This will force the media to cover other sports.

Moreover, average middle class parents in India stress their kids to focus academically because it guarantees them a career. If sports is developed as a viable alternative, this stress will go down and more Olympic medals are possible. The riches in IPL has made Indians believe that it is an alternative career option. But the other sports do not inspire such belief yet.

Conclusion

Soccer rules Europe while Basketball rules USA. But these countries have been careful not to let any one sport completely dominate other sports. India should also make sure that IPL, in general Cricket, does not overshadow its Olympic dreams. No matter how successful IPL gets it cannot equal the national pride when an Indian is awarded the Olympic Gold medal. IPL, though it does not directly affect other sports, its growth has proved to be another nail in India’s Olympic coffin. IPL is commercialising sports and growing at a frenetic pace. If action is not taken to revive other sports, it will spell the death knell of India’s Olympic dreams.

Topic 7
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12 Responses

  1. Cartoons Says:

    “IPL 2008 reached 71 million viewers in its first 20 days while IPL 2009 scored 15 per cent higher with 82 million. Also, the average reach of each match has increased from 11 to 11.9 per cent. However, the time spent scores (a measure of stickiness and interest) have dropped by 8.5 per cent, resulting in a TVR fall for the 8 p.m. matches on both weekdays and weekends and a slight rise in TVRs for the 4 p.m. matches on weekends” states a research by the Lintas Media group.

    “Two of the biggest disappointments in year 2009 have been IPL’s mega television telecast rights deal and the team sponsorship deal. The telecast rights for matches in India, once one of the hottest properties for TV channels, was sold for an amount lower than the existing deal. BCCI’s high demands for team sponsorship rights failed to attract any bidders and in the end Sahara’s existing deal was extended till June 2010. The sponsor response has been muted primarily on account of excessive cricket being played in India. Even though 2009 has seen new IPL television deal with Sony and the new Champions League T20 deal with ESPN Star valuations for shirt sponsorship rights and television rights have gone down” as quoted by a leading news daily.

    In a country where cricket is almost a religion, IPL is sure to be worshipped. IPL has indisputably been a revolution in T-20 cricketing in India. Anybody who is skeptical of this fact will undoubtedly have to eat his words.

    But the excitement is dying down though not at the same pace with which it was created. What else could be the reason behind the moot question of doubts being raised that: “Has IPL 2009 delivered value for money to all its television advertisers?”

    IPL has raked in a lot of money and has proved to be a happy hunting ground for all. It has without a doubt stolen a lot of limelight and sponsorship from other sports; But this is not going to continue for long considering the decreasing popularity of this – ‘meant for sheer thrill tournament’.

    Corporates are today slowly coming round to the business potential of sports other than cricket. The Tata Group has made a foray into sports sponsorship in a big way, ranging from tennis to participants of Formula One racing. Adidas India is focusing on five major sports—running, football, cricket, tennis and hockey. Corporates like UB group and PIRAMAL group have been sponsoring football clubs.

    Today we need a revolution from the grass root level expand and have a holistic development of all sports in India. Lack of economic support and infrastructural facilities to players need to be addressed on an urgent basis. Collaboration of corporates with government can help in a big way by providing better facilities, more sponsorship and in terms of giving jobs to players.

    IPL has been a very rewarding proposition for all but until and unless we make sincere efforts for all other sports too we won’t be left to play anything in the Olympics. Medals will knock our door only if we show them the way…

    Let us remember that one sport cannot replace the other. India has alone brought IPL to the stature it enjoys in T-20 cricket, now its time we take India to the first and the foremost position in the Olympics medals tally too..

    Posted on January 16th, 2010 at 5:44 pm

  2. EaglesSecret Says:

    The Way Downward

    The easiest and laziest stance to take in the tirade against cricket is to vilify the game for killing other sports. The stance is convenient because of our affinity to blindly blame a player without assessing the situation. The team seems to have toed this line to consummation with little thought outside what has been beaten to death in the past.

    Cricket: Vicarious

    Any form of entertainment appeals to us because we derive a vicarious thrill. Even the most rational human being envisions an idyllic world in which he/she is the cynosure of that world’s reality, a “Hero Worship” of oneself so to speak. This however is non-existent practically and therefore the human mind derives pleasure in seeing an ideal reality presented to it in some form, be it art or sport. Why is Bollywood so popular in spite of being mind numbingly plagiaristic as opposed to Bengali Cinema which lays claim to some of the most brilliant creations hitherto in the world of art?

    This is how it works in a sport. When a cricket fan sees the Indian cricket team win, he bursts in joy because he sees himself being uplifted by virtue of his country’s win. He idolizes a set of players who help him derive this vicarious pleasure.

    For cinema or sport to command this appeal, they need to cater to these sentiments succinctly. 5 day matches used to be the last word in cricket before it was supplanted by One day cricket and now the T20 seems to be pushing the ante further. The reason is simple. The fan is delivered his share of intensity over a shorter period with an emphatic bang. The faster the wickets fall and the quicker the runs scored, greater is the adrenaline rush. The fan’s adoration multiplies as he experiences a self-fulfilling achievement blow up. This however is not the end of the thread. To complete the circle, the fan must be able to involve in the sport to transmute his dreams to reality. This is where a sport’s ease of play comes to fore.

    Cricket: Facile

    Cricket as opposed to Hockey or Football or Swimming or any other Olympic sport is an easier sport and much less taxing. An examination pad can substitute for a bat while an assorted circular object can moonlight as a ball and the equipment needs are complete. Compare this with the physical exertion and equipment that hockey, football or swimming or weightlifting or boxing entail. These worked in a country like Australia and not in ours because Indians did not think throwing ball in a park was higher up the pecking order in comparison to academic and career pursuits.

    Cricket thus emerged because it completed the circle of life. It was a perfect play of Adrenaline, Aspiration and Aggrandizement – A package that only the national cricket team has successfully delivered. The 1983 world cup win, the exponential increase in viewership, the subsequent jump in sponsorship, the smart uniforms, the smarter heroes, the coupling with mainstream cinema et al are lessons in branding however crass they may be deemed. The other sports suffered not because of cricket but because of inefficient packaging as well as inadequate accessibility.

    IPL: Case in point

    IPL saw 48 million viewers tune in for the first 7 seven matches alone. This given that the teams comprised a jamboree of foreign players. Deriving on the inherent strengths of the game and Bollywood, IPL was “cricketainment”. This was a latent demand and IPL served it to the consumer. (Ranji Trophy: A class example of why even a strong sport can fail if inadequately packaged) This was not done at the expense of an Olympic sport because the Olympic sports were plagued to begin with.

    Lessons in Marketing Excellence

    India’s sportsmen and women don’t have the requisite set up for honing their expertise and ergo our dismal performances at the Olympics. The best that we can do is to repackage these sports and whip up energy around them to increase viewership. It is illogical to expect sponsorship or investment for these games without building up a critical mass for them. This critical mass will congeal only if these sports fuel the viewer’s intrinsic aspirations as explicated earlier.

    The responsibility of pursuing this course of action lies with the sporting bodies managing these sports and the Government if anything. The problem with the team’s argument is that it leads us to believe that the rise of IPL directly or indirectly precludes the growth of others sports played in the Olympics. IPL is not managed by the same sporting body as Hockey or Swimming. Other sporting bodies feign innocence and get off the hook by blaming the rise of another game when they can take matters into their own hands.

    Season Finale

    Sporting investment in India is not a zero sum game. To argue that the success of cricket in general and the IPL in particular comes at the cost of other sports in the country is equivalent to saying that the total wealth in the world is a constant. It follows that the failure of other sports in India cannot be attributed to the success of cricket. The primary reason why multiple sporting bodies came into being is for managing sports in India, reinventing and energizing the game to sustain interest. Tragically, they have done a shabby job and they found an easy red herring – Cricket!

    Currently no sport delivers what Cricket does – Adrenaline, Aspiration and Aggrandizement. However scandalizing and crude this may seem, this is the mantra for success. We rest our case.

    Posted on January 16th, 2010 at 5:48 pm

  3. Gotama's Men Says:

    Looking for Scapegoats?

    The defense has listed several indisputable facts such as lack of infrastructure, obsession of the public with cricket etc. as explanations for problems that plague the Olympic dreams of India. However, the given topic demanded a look into the role that IPL, in specific, has played in it. In fact, cricket has had a fanatical following in India for a very long time and the poor athletic performance in Olympics by India has existed even longer. Proper evidence should have been presented by the defense to back up their proposition that in the two years since IPL has started the Olympic woes have only increased, and that IPL is directly/indirectly responsible for it.

    The defense repeats at several places in their argument, the mistake of equating the simultaneous popularity of the first few editions of IPL and the long-existing infrastructure problems that plague Indian sport. To come up with logic for the success of a nascent tournament like IPL seems fallacious in light of the fact that the tournament is only two years old and that the second edition has already had a dwindling TRP. Moreover, it should be noted that the first edition of IPL happened in 2008 barely a few months before the Beijing Olympics, India’s most successful Olympics so far. Therefore, to derive any reason sufficient enough to equate the impact of IPL on India’s sporting behavior and hence the Olympics seems impossible at the moment and requires a much detailed study even later.

    Climbing Both Horns Simultaneously

    The defense, at one point, attributes the poor performance of Indian Sportsmen to low participation in Sports in general in India. It had cited the over-emphasis on academics by Indian parents as one of the reasons. However, it also makes a contradictory argument that IPL is taking away youngsters from other sports. Surely, if there are enough people left in India who are mere couch potatoes – passive but passionate spectators who don’t take to the field – the problem for India’s poor performance in Olympics can’t be attributed to either IPL or a competition between sports for interested youngsters.

    Cursory Analyses and Customary Logic

    The defense makes a bold assertion that the grandeur and attractiveness of IPL will make any youngster who watches it to engage in cricket than any other sport. This claim is totally unsupported and hangs loosely in the air. In fact, the TRP ratings of the second edition of IPL showed a remarkable decrease from the first edition’s and similar was the fate of the T20 Champions Trophy. Moreover, it is widely acknowledged that the BCCI is worried about the T20 format taking the sheen and glamour away from its long-time cash cow, the ODIs, which happen throughout the year while the IPL is seasonal. With the dwindling popularity of test cricket, all this could very well free up the viewer’s mind in the rest of the year for appreciation of other sports. This is indicated by the growing popularity of other premier sport leagues like the EPL and NBA in India (In 2006, EPL reached a record audience of 42.8 million).

    Riding the wrong horse

    While it is true that the media sells what is bought in the market, it is also equally true that cricket is not telecast 24/7 by all sports channels. Meanwhile, 24/7 channels, in general, draw their loyal base from those who are already committed to the sport. Hence, blaming telecasters comes across as a poor device to use in this argument. While invoking the TRP of Neo Sports and at numerous other occasions, the defense has resorted to providing an explanation of how cricket is affecting other sports in India while the debate, ideally, should be only about the ramifications of IPL.

    Commissions and Omissions

    The defense also talks in detail about how the BCCI makes huge money, often at the cost of other sports. It also has instructions in store for how the government should divert money from cricket to other sports, build adequate infrastructure and make sports a cultural priority. While the latter can atleast be accepted as a superficial but valid suggestion, the mere assumption that the government was doing something currently to further cricket in this country sounds ridiculous. This makes us think whether the defense does not even know that the BCCI is a private body – the most democratic sports federation in the country, to be precise – which has built the game in India over the last three decades mostly by working outside the outdated, outmoded and dilapidated official sports think-tanks in this country. Apart from the commission of such serious fallacies, the defense also makes equally serious omissions by presenting a very poor picture of the sports sponsors in this country. One small look at the real facts, however, point to the contrary. The Telecast rights for India’s national football league were bought by Zee, the group behind the Indian Cricket League (ICL), for $70 million in a ten-year deal effective 2005. Vijay Mallya’s football connections predate his links with F1 and the IPL’s Bangalore franchise – he bought over Kolkata’s two traditional rival clubs, Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, a decade ago. Sometimes the links are bizarre: the Durand Cup, the oldest football tournament outside Britain, has been sponsored for the past two years by Osian’s, the Mumbai-based art dealership and auction house of the swish set, and telecast on one of the news channels – often the specialised business channel – of NDTV, India’s most respected news programming television network.

    Missed opportunities

    After India’s only victory in the cricket world cup in 1983, the BCCI performed a coup by leveraging the occasion to the maximum and when India hosted the next world cup in 1987, Cricket was already a religion in the average Indian household. Compare this with the IHF, which had an opportunity to leverage eight Olympic Golds. Compare this with the All India Tennis Association – which had the exploits of Mahesh Bhupathi & Leander Paes, Ramesh Krishnan, Vijay Amritraj and recently Sania Mirza in the world turf to take advantage of. If the Athletics Federation of India was not able to leverage the success of Milkha singh, P.T. Usha, who is to be blamed for it? Should we follow the defense’s lead in taking a superficial view of things and opt for the easy way out by blaming IPL and the aggressive ways of the BCCI for the failures in Olympics? Or should we accept that these are systemic failures and proceed to address them?

    Posted on January 16th, 2010 at 5:54 pm

  4. India Says:

    Olympic glory has been an elusive commodity in the Indian psyche. At the time of important athletic meets especially Olympics there is a frantic search for reasons which could explain India’s continued woes in the sports arena. Post Olympics surgery sees a few administrators changed, a few coaches dumped and piecemeal solutions administered and then things are back to square one. There is also a tendency to search for a whipping boy, like cricket to pass over the blames. With the introduction of IPL there has been a talk that it will hurt India’s chances at Olympics. Such a statement hides more than it reveals and the outcome is a distorted picture.

    Sports: a Case of Culture

    Post independent India for a long time considered sports as a leisure activity. It did not use it as instruments of youth development and community building. India lacked sporting icons which could be held as role models by the coming generations. In the list of 100 most influential athletes published by the Independent newspaper only Dhyanchand manages to secure a place.

    Sports were never considered as a proper career in India. The famous saying from the Hindi heartland “Padhoge likhoge to banoge nawab kheloge-dhupoge to banoge kharab” summarizes the Indian attitude to a large extent. All great sporting nations have a vibrant sporting culture motivating talented individuals to focus their energies towards their chosen area of vocation. The mindset must change before changes could be observed on the ground.

    The Case of Cricket

    Cricket, once considered a colonial by-product, has done a lot to bring the focus on sports as a serious career option. The World Cup win of 1983 changed the fortunes of the game and its practitioners forever. The nation got a new set of heroes in Kapil and Mohinder Amarnath. The small town boy making it big at international level captured the imagination of a nation like never before. Now, The IPL is not only about all about glitz and glamour but it is also about giving opportunity to many who would not have got a chance to join the big league.

    IPL: Game vs Glam

    If the T-20 season 1 was a watershed then its season 2 was supposed to be a consolidation but TRP’s prove otherwise. Season 2 lagged behind season 1 in its average TRP ratings. Also, the opening day viewership rating stood at 5.55 per cent in 2008, as opposed to 8.21 per cent on IPL’s first day in 2007. All these statistics are indicators that the novelty of the concept is wearing off. IPL may have captured the fancy of the Indian youth but the phenomenon is not here to stay.

    The Case of Effective Participation

    Though India has 2nd largest population in the world, poor health of a large section of a population inhibits their participation in sporting events. Information and access is another major concern. There is a strong correlation between winning medals at Olympics and social mobility. Particularly the north eastern states and Jharkhand could become an athletic powerhouse if the government is generous enough in its support.

    Olympic glory is the result of arduous amounts of training hours. As Abhinav Bindra remarks, “The World Championship and the Olympic gold medal were mere outcomes for me…there was so much more to it.”

    Fiascos: a Never Ending Saga in Indian Sports

    Indian sports have seen a string of fiascos related to the management of sports by their respective bodies. These highly politicized bodies are being run at the whims and fancies of their heads without an iota of professionalism. The players are relegated to the background. The current Hockey fiasco is a case in point. After the Gill saga got over we have the strike of players protesting against payments. The Hockey World Cup is going to happen next month and what could be more shameful than the home team itself boycotting the event. Contrast this with BCCI, which is a non-government body. After the world Cup triumph in 1983, BCCI capitalized on this success and built infrastructure, revised payment etc. These steps came a long way in taking cricket to the level which it enjoys today.

    Feeder Systems: The Life Line

    Sporting excellence requires producing champions on a continuous basis through an efficient feeder system. Cricket has been able to develop a feeder system which can identify talent at an initial stage. Other sports have not kept pace.

    Infrastructural Woes

    From stadiums to equipments to world class trainers, everything is short in supply. It severely hampers the training schedules of athletes. In sports like archery, shooting, etc athletes need to accustom themselves to modern equipment. The Indian cricketers are coming together to raise funds for the hockey players. BCCI has also given funds for 5 Olympic disciplines.

    Success reaps money

    Today India is as market economy, money follows success. Results ensure that one gets the money which goes long way in sustaining the success; this is a vicious circle. This fact is amply illustrated by the numerous prizes and sponsorship deals earned by Vijender Singh or Abhinav Bindra after their superlative performance in the last Olympics. Despite of the T-20 mania, their feats swept the nation off its feet overnight.

    Conclusion

    This statement from New York Times sums up India’s problems, “Much of the problem with developing Olympic champions here seems to be rooted in the very same things that make India a perpetual also-ran to China in economic development: poor infrastructure, entrenched political corruption and infighting, and chaos and disorganization. Money earmarked for Olympic training is often mysteriously sidelined, facilities for training are in poor shape and equipment goes missing.”

    All the reasons cited above are not the creations of the IPL but of its own making. Cricket never got the popularity out of charity. Same has to be the case with other sports. IPL cannot be said to be the nail in India’s Olympic coffin.

    Posted on January 16th, 2010 at 5:59 pm

  5. Kurukshetra Says:

    INTRODUCTION

    “A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.”

    – John Burrows.

    Like all Indians, we too would love to see India topping the table charts in the Olympics. However due to various reasons (some of which have been discussed below), India’s performances in the Olympic Games have been abysmal to say the least. This has been the case over the last 70 years or so, with an exception in a sport or too. But to blame a successful version of another popular sport as one of the reasons for the same is ridiculous and we certainly would beg to differ from the stance put forth by Team 6 and argue against the topic, “IPL is the last nail in India’s Olympic coffin”

    ATTACK

    We strongly object to the point made by Team 7 that “IPL has achieved this at the cost of other sports”. Which sport did IPL sabotage? By their own admission, India has performed very poorly in Olympics and surprisingly won the highest number of medals (pun intended) in the same year that IPL was started. Also, while the authors have pointed out that while cricket has been rising in popularity with IPL and that that the other sports have deteriorated at the same time (which itself is doubtful, but let us accept it for the moment), we wish to point out that correlation doesn’t mean causality. The only causality that the authors provide is that IPL due to its huge money on offer attracts youngsters who might instead be playing other sports.

    Secondly, Team 7 in compares the TRP ratings achieved by IPL with the amount of money made by Doordarshan while telecasting Olympics. This is a very faulty argument for two reasons – Firstly comparing TRP ratings of one channel and money made by another channel is equivalent to comparing horses and mules. Secondly to compare the way a professional channel positions a program with Doordarshan (government channel) is certainly not acceptable, as the private channels focus much more on presentation and advertisement.

    Thirdly, we very strongly accept the point made by Team 7, that IPL is a commercial venture while Olympics is played for national pride. However, we must also concede that IPL has placed Indian cricket on the global map. There was a time when great cricketers as reputed as Dennis Lillee and Greg Chappell refused to tour India (Gavaskar, 1999); but to now see India functioning as cricket’s lucrative port of call with the emergence of IPL should make every Indian proud.

    The authors mention about Hockey players going on a hunger strike to match equality of pay with the Indian cricketers after winning the T20 world cup. This is just one side of the story. The hockey players refused to attend the practice session strongly opining that even if the board receives a good sponsorship, the players hardly receive an increment in their pay scale (Lokapally, 2010). This means that it is the undemocratic Hockey India that should be blamed for mismanaging the issues and not the rise of IPL.

    Moreover, the authors blame the media for its undue attention to the game of cricket for acting as the death knell on our Olympic dreams. Then how is it that countries such as Kenya and Jamaica with a media attention not comparable to India win 10+ Olympic medals? It’s surprising that Zimbabwe with an inflation of 200,000,000% (AFP, 2009) has managed 4 olympic medals!! And does Team 7 expect us to buy their argument of throwing a fraction of the blame on a version of a popular sport that began in 2008!!

    As the authors themselves point out, with the aid of a quote from Anju Bobby George, that it is the Indian sports administration to be blamed for India’s abysmal performance in the Olympics. Instead of comfortably passing the blame baton over to IPL, there are a few lessons that the administration can learn from the way IPL is managed

    1. The IPL has been very professionally managed. Due to Lok Sabha elections in 2009, the IPL had to shift to South Africa. (Mohan, 2009) However the top management of IPL planned the event meticulously and ensured the smooth transition. However this is in sharp contrast to the way the Commonwealth games have been handled by the CGF. The Chief Minister of Delhi Ms. Dixit “prays for the success of the event” (Times Of India, 2009).

    2. The entry of corporate players bidding for players would mean that meritocracy exists over any influence exerted by the board. The corporate teams investing money on the various teams would want the best combination of players to play for their teams. A lot of players, who would have gone unrecognized, have come to lime light due to IPL (Kaul, 2009).

    3. The Indian media is like any other business and works on the supply demand dynamics. The reason Indian cricket and IPL gets a lot of attention is undoubtedly because of its popularity among Indian masses. There were period when Indian cricketers received a very poor pay (Gavaskar, 2009) and played for national pride and regional victories in Ranji trophy and the game has seen quite a number of superstars emerging from India. This resulted in popularity and in turn the media attention. The other sporting events need to focus on winning over the trust of the people by performing exceptionally well and the media attention would automatically come over.

    CONCLUSION

    We completely agree with the recommendations made by the authors about the need for the government to improve the infrastructure and system in place to spot talent in Olympics. However to pass a verdict that the commercial success of a sport would cast a maligning influence on the Olympic dreams of India is unacceptable. It is as unacceptable as the anti-semitic rhetoric of Hitler, when he blamed the success of the Jews for all the evils that were inflicted upon Germany. (History Learning Site)

    Posted on January 16th, 2010 at 6:04 pm

  6. Team Me, Myself & Chotu Says:

    IPL and Olympics are different ball games

    The East India Company invaded India, or was it the Princely –State structure of India that led to its invasion. Predator or Casualty, choose the one. Cricket or Olympics? What! I did not hear, louder huh? So what are we doing about Olympics? Me, You, Who? Did not hear it, louder please! Who do we expect to take the issue up with?

    When Kapil lifted the cup in 1983, cricket took off. Where were the other sports till that time? Were they doing any better or worse? What do you say- How does it matter, huh? And IPL not a transition of the sport and not a paradigm shift responsible for the death of other sports? IPL came out of the best of sport and entertainment, a revelation for the taste of the audience. But how does it matter, tell me, huh? And are we not the greatest proponents of Neo- Capitalism (McDonalds, Adidas and Davidoff); how does it matter, tell me? And if we grumble about the inflow of funds in a sport as the reason for its popularity and vice-versa, then we need to revisit the fundamentals of consumer behavior. And it matters, it does, yes it does, because if does not, then what else will and when?

    Hazardous as it is to not look for a reason, it is even more so to find one just for the sake of it. It is a collective responsibility and not just a sport killing the other one. When Sachin used to practice as a 12 year old, hanging a ball from the ceiling, cricket was still raw. We feel the pride in Chak De and the latest development in Indian Hockey over the last one week is a proof of a transition. By the way! And just by the way, the BCCI has still not been able to figure out a sponsor for the Indian kit for 2011 World Cup. Any takers?

    To open the Beijing 2008 medal tally and just look for a small country that got more medals than India is easy, but to blame IPL for it is like blaming the fattest cow for deforestation.

    Reforms are time consuming

    For the worth and the noteworthy who think that there already was a coffin prepared for the scope of Indian Olympics, are yet to hear the enthusiasm of Indians in EPL or Wimbledon. We are graduating, albeit slowly and gradually, and reforms don’t happen in a week or a month. That there could also be a last nail in such a coffin is too far fetched an assumption. Oh! So did you not emerge the winner because the other fellow played foul? And his foul was to try harder, huh… brilliant reasoning indeed.

    IPL resonates with Indian crowd

    India is a land of emotions. Any game, if attached with the emotions of the public, will be liked by them. It was due to the continuous gold medal winning spree by the Indian hockey team in the Olympics, which urged Indians to like the game. This winning spirit is seen in the Indian cricket team, and as a result, the public is mostly attracted towards this game.

    The performance of the Indian cricket team keeps improving with every subsequent match. Indian cricketers are making world records that are unbeatable, then how can its craze go down? The reasons may be several, but the most important one is the low dependency on the Government. The BCCI seeks money from the government, whereas this is not the case with other sports in India. A self sufficient board could generate their own resources, which is true with cricket in India.

    Cricket has had a number of effects that would appear to have contributed to social cohesion in India, just to mention three of cricket’s contributions in particular. First, cricket has served as a catalyst, reflection, and expression of India’s independence struggle. Second, cricket has provided a central social activity that has created shared experiences and memories, and in doing so has helped to meld many ethno-religious sub-cultures into one broader Indian polity. Finally, cricket has served as a tool for international diplomacy and as one of India’s greatest expressions of national prestige.

    Cricket thus is popular because there is a “cricket culture” in India which means a mass participation in the sport. Because the game is embedded in the consciousness of the Indians it becomes easy to market such a product. Mind you, the sponsors do not pump money into the game out of altruism but because cricket is saleable and ensures maximum possible ROI. To even remotely suggest that the ills of other sports are due to cricket and that pumping in money — without a culture for those games — would remove those ills is a monumental absurdity. It is like putting the proverbial cart before the horse. Money is important — yes, to the extent that it helps in building infrastructure. But its importance ends there because it cannot buy audience.

    Final Word

    To say that cricket and subsequently events like IPL kill other sports is like saying that Microsoft kills other IT companies! It is certainly not true. The truth is that the game of cricket has more following and is a big entertainer when compared to other sports. The thrill of the game and money attracts many youngsters and so many turn up for cricket coaching academies. And this in no way belittles the other games such as tennis and chess. In America, baseball reigns supreme and would one say that baseball kills football, which is a less popular sport in that country?

    At the end, it all boils down to a successful marketing of the game. In India cricket happens to be that successfully marketed sport! If other sports generate more interest and India has more successes in other sports certainly sponsors will queue up to support them.

    To understand the point, just look at West Indies cricket. When the cricket culture was present in the Caribbean islands, cricket was the most popular game despite lack of proper facilities and financial strength. Today, despite money flowing into WI cricket — as compared to yesteryear — cricket has taken a beating in terms of popularity. Why? Simply because the culture for cricket is absent.

    Finally, to all the proponents of the idea that cricket and IPL in a way kill other sports in India, Hello and welcome to the world of capitalism, the world of causality and the world of progress. Opportunities galore and winners take the podium as we bid adieu to those who defy the basic spirit of sportsmanship. Alta Vista! The blaming losers, come back next time, better prepared and well equipped, for this is the world of Sport and we don’t hit below the belt to a rising siren, such as IPL. We salute the true spirit, we do. Is this not what we shout! What? Is it not?

    Posted on January 16th, 2010 at 6:08 pm

  7. supreetha Says:

    In a country like India where cricket is god, the question of whether its IPL or some other cricket match doesn’t count. Its only about the CRICKET.People watch it however it is.

    Posted on January 19th, 2010 at 4:15 pm

  8. Team Manfest Says:

    Summary

    Cricket in India is treated as a religion and IPL has capitalized on this aspect, having contracted revenues of Rs. 10790 crores. Cricketing events like IPL have played a very important role not just in grabbing viewership during the events but also in creating a lasting effect on the state of affairs of Indian Olympics too. India had always been underperforming in the Olympics and a testimony to it is the medals tally in Beijing Olympics 2008, which stands at 3 as compared to China, which is 100.

    The title sponsor of IPL itself is to the tune of $42 million. The sponsors prefer to be involved with IPL more than Olympics because IPL offers not only brand building opportunities, but also a rich business model to generate profits. With tremendous fan following that IPL gathered, there is little chance that sponsors will consider other disciplines of sport. The quantum of money involved in cricket has always been the most dominating factor for any youngster to get drawn in towards it. The introduction of IPL with its bidding model and the opportunity to play alongside their idols has further strengthened the case.

    With the introduction of IPL, cricket is being seen more as an entertainment show than as a sport. This is supported by the involvement of Bollywood stars in bidding, owning and promoting their teams, and also by the extensive media coverage that it gets. There have been many events in the past where distinguished achievements of Indian Olympics went unnoticed in the midst of cricketing feats.

    Building a sports culture in the country is a vital factor in the success of athletic sports, and the government plays a very important role in it. Though Indian government has initiated various measures to uplift other sports and the BCCI too contributing in their own way to set up a football federation, these measures are not significantly large enough to bring about a dynamic improvement in performance of Olympics. Adequate training and coaching along with infrastructure is the key to improving the grassroots of athletics in our country. This needs a much bigger investment and better initiatives from the government.

    Causality

    It has been argued that IPL is too young to establish a causality relationship with the failure of Olympics. When you value a stock, you see the future potential of the company not just its past performances. Similarly, we cannot simply say Indian Olympic performance has always been dismal and IPL is too young to be blamed for it. Going forward, the future potential of other sports vis-a-vis IPL needs to be taken into account. We maintain our stand that today’s young aspiring sportsmen are more prone to take up cricket than any other sport because it has the big money associated with it. Logically, any youth watching the events unraveling in Hockey, where players have to literally fight for their deserved money (they were paid a mere $14 a day during their successful event in Malaysia1) will not want to enter into sports other than Cricket.

    IPL not the one and only factor

    We completely agree with the authors of rebuttal articles that Indian sports administration is in bad shape. In fact we have openly admitted this in our article. Comparison with Hitler only sexes up their argument. Most of the authors have pointed out that Olympic sports have their own problems which cannot be compared to IPL and cricket. We have acknowledged that fact in our earlier article but we contend that IPL has added on to them. We have never mentioned that IPL is the only nail, but it is definitely another nail in India’s Olympic Coffin.

    Ineffective Marketing

    Most of the rebuttal statements convey that other sports suffered not because of cricket but because ineffective marketing. Our question is how can other sports market themselves when there is no money? Marketing is a slow process and it needs constant support. You cannot expect a plant to grow without water.

    Article 2 states that sporting events are not a zero sum game; more viewership in one game does not necessarily cause a lack of viewership in the other. But this is true only for nations which have strong culture of Sports like Australia. In India, the viewership for other sports, though growing, is dismal. One could ask what the mistake of IPL is. We are not finding fault with IPL but only state that IPL has indirectly become a factor in the fall of other sports.

    It is true that success reaps money. IPL success is here to stay as it is conducted year after year with increasing glam but Olympics which has to compete against it has no glam but only national pride associated with it.

    Talent recognition

    The higher level of viewership that IPL generates in the Indian masses cannot be solely attributed to the fact that the tournament is telecasted on private channels. In general, Indian crowds are crazy about Cricket. An IPL telecasted on Doordarshan would attract an equal viewership base.

    The media attention makes sure that the talent gets recognized and such players get a chance to play in the national side, Ranji team and so on. This factor is crucial to develop any sport and this is conspicuous by absence in other sports. Thus, Team 5’s claim that Kenya and Jamaica win medals without getting media attention is not strong enough as those countries have lesser media influence in all forms of events.

    TRP ratings

    At multiple instances it has been argued that IPL-2 saw a dwindling TRP in just the second season. However, there are many more factors causing it, and not necessarily just the waning interest of viewers. One of the prime reasons was that IPL2 was held in South Africa and this caused a difference in the timing when the matches were held, thus reducing the viewership. Moreover the strategic breaks introduced during IPL-2 contributed to the downfall.

    Vicarious Pleasure?

    Team 2 mentions that cricket gives the viewers a vicarious pleasure, and the same is applicable to any kind of entertainment. Even when India wins in other sports, Indians do not get that vicarious pleasure. How many Indians know about the successes of Viswanathan Anand or Indian Hockey in the past 10 years? Isn’t this causing a further decline in Olympic viewership as more people move towards cricket with the introduction of IPL?

    Sponsors

    While Hockey India’s regretful treatment of players is a cause for concern, one cannot deny that sponsors for other sports suffer badly due to IPL. Due to this reason, groups like Olympic Gold Quest have to pool money for players of other sports. Team 3 has cherry picked the instances where there are sponsors for successful teams of other sports. Such instances have created teams that do not have any competitors (sponsorship for Mohun Bagan and East Bengal by Vijay Mallya) and hence less scope for growth. We completely agree that one Game cannot replace the other and we need more corporate sponsorships for other games as started by TATA and Adidas as mentioned in Article 1. Nevertheless, currently those sponsorships are incomparable to the scale of IPL.

    Academics, Career option and IPL

    Article 3 talks about a contradiction in our argument that academics in India is taking away sportsmen in our country, but at the same time says that IPL is taking away youngsters from other sports. We contend that focus on academics has been the grassroots on which Indian culture is based on. Cricket has been the only sport which attracted Indian youth, and IPL has only reinforced it by making cricket as a career option.

    Less onerous?

    We accept that Cricket is much less taxing on the physical body than the other sports as mentioned in Article 2. However, there are more forms of sports like Golf, Archery, and Table Tennis that are lesser taxing on the physical body than cricket. Thus, their argument is not strong enough.

    BCCI and Olympics

    Team 3 poorly interpreted our statement that the efforts taken by BCCI and the government both, are not sufficient in causing a dynamic improvement in the athletic talent scenario. We are well aware that it is a private body, and also that it is one of the most democratic boards. However, this argument by them is very insignificant in proving that IPL and cricket does not affect the prospects of Indian Olympics.

    Conclusion

    In order to compete internationally in sports, India should not let one form of game dominate every other sport. IPL may generate a lot of excitement for the audience and profits for the organizers, but our Olympic achievements are more important as it is a cause for national pride. IPL has directly or indirectly opened up the long term and serious concerns for other sports that need to be addressed if we are to prevent them from getting buried under the dust.

    Posted on January 25th, 2010 at 3:40 pm

  9. Tyson F. Gautreaux Says:

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    Posted on February 1st, 2010 at 12:43 am

  10. Ovel Inad Says:

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