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Cricket at Crossroads - Points of View

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
I know there is an IPL thread and a sticky at that. But there is much more to the IPL concept of T-20 than just the matches, the scores, the sledging slaps and suspensions. Cricket is heading for a complete revolution it would appear. There are many aspects to it -
  • The economic : real BIG bucks for players and the Franchisees or losses for the later,
  • The administrative - Who is going to run the game eventually and how will it be run
  • The future of traditional Cricket - Will Test Cricket, let alone ODI's, survive this onslaught for the atffections of the paying public

I am going to try and post here articles by those who have some credibility to speak on such matters and open it for debate here.

Here is the first one on the Economics of the New game



Media revenues only way to keep IPL profitable
6 May, 2008, 0229 hrs IST,Muthukumar K, TNN
The Economic Times

MUMBAI: Some say catches win matches. But success in the business of cricket takes more than a T20 game. Nobody knows this better than Lalit Modi, the BCCI man who has successfully passed the initial hurdle of selling the Indian Premier League (IPL) to franchisees and sponsors.

The 5-plus TRPs that the first 12 matches got have given IPL and Mr Modi a leg up. But, the challenge now is to ensure unblinking eyeballs, match after match. Because media revenues, in the form of advertising, will play a key role in making the game profitable for franchisees.

Globally, a franchisee of a similar game format earns revenues from three broad areas, media rights, sponsorships and gate receipts. But the business model for IPL franchisees, at least in the initial years, will have to depend on media revenues.

As such, selling tickets at stadiums isn’t going to fetch much. IPL is a two-month event while EPL runs for almost seven months. Even assuming the best scenario of all the matches running at full capacity in the stadiums, all the franchisees put together would sell three million tickets. As per the arrangement, 20% of these tickets should be given to IPL.

At an average ticket price of Rs 500, the revenue generated would be Rs 120 crore for all the eight franchisees. Back of the envelope calculations show that gate revenues at best would be 15% of franchisees’ revenues unlike 35% for EPL franchisees.

In the initial years, outdoor stadium activity is going to be a no-profit-no-loss business. This leaves the revenues, and profitability, riding on the media revenues for the franchisees. BCCI has sold the global broadcast rights to Sony-WSG for $918 million for 10 years. ET contacted Sony Entertainment Television president Rohit Gupta to understand the intricacies of the contract. “This is confidential and we can’t reveal it,” he said.

But Alchemy Share Brokers which spoke to franchisees have mentioned the details of the contract in its latest report. As per the report, Sony would pay $316 million for rights of broadcast for the first five years, which would be shared between franchisees and BCCI.

The franchisees have a share of 80% in the first year, which falls to 60% in the fifth year. After five years, as per the report, Sony will pay $608 million “if this format has been remunerative in the first five years”. That gives Sony the option to back out in case the TRPs, and ad revenues, fall.

The contract also mentions that while in the first year, payouts are equal for franchisees, “TRPs would drive payouts from the second year”. Which means unpopular franchisees would have to be content with lesser share of the media revenue pie. Getting sponsors will depend on popularity of the event and each team.

IPL teams, like EPL clubs, can make money from merchandising and trading players. But then, all that takes years. EPL took 15 years to get to where it is today. Mr Modi probably knows it, as he struggles with his bleary eyes to keep the interest alive for IPL. After all, eyeballs, in any colour, matter in this business.​
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
Still on the Economic Impact of the new format - what it is expected to do for the players

Indian Premier League cash unlimited
Ben Dorries
May 06, 2008 12:00am
Herald Sun​

AUSTRALIAN cricketers could become the country's richest sports people, with Indian Premier League's salary cap likely to be scrapped.

Top players are poised for astronomical IPL contracts of up to $15 million.

In a development that has the potential to rock cricket's foundations, several of Australia's leading players have been told the $US5 million salary cap for each IPL franchise will be abolished in future years.

That will create a free market where cashed-up Indian franchises will have no limits to their buying power and can splurge much more than the top IPL price of $1.65 million paid to Indian poster boy M. S. Dhoni this year.

As recently as last week, Dhoni told one senior Australian player he had been promised the IPL's biggest names could expect extraordinary contracts of up to $14-15 million after the salary cap was abolished.

It has been reported that several IPL franchises are in a financial black hole, but two leading Australian players said yesterday their franchises were prepared to splurge many more millions.

Australia's IPL stars gathered in Brisbane yesterday with the rest of their Test teammates where the pre-West Indies tour camp was abuzz with talk of the rivers of IPL gold.

Test opener Matthew Hayden confirmed he had heard the IPL salary cap would be wiped out in the future and said there seemed little doubt that player payments would go through the roof.

"From what I have heard, some of the stuff (payments) this year could be just the tip of the iceberg," Hayden said.

News of the possible scrapping of the salary cap - and the potential for IPL players to be paid up to $15 million - will go down like a lead balloon in Cricket Australia offices.

There were already fears the huge IPL player payments could fracture world cricket by forcing current internationals to consider their future and potentially trade a baggy green cap for a financial bonanza in the IPL.

Players could be forced to choose between country and dollars next year, with the IPL set to clash with Australia's Test tour of South Africa and a one-day series in Pakistan.

AUSTRALIA'S cricketers will spend the best part of four months in Britain during their 2009 Ashes tour.

The England and Wales Cricket Board yesterday released a fixtures list for the marathon tour, which includes the first one-day international to be held at Southampton's Rose Bowl and back-to-back one-dayers at Old Trafford in Manchester.

Australia and England will also play two Twenty20 internationals in Manchester, which missed out on hosting a Test match during the series.

During the Ashes tour of 2005, the Australians were in Britain for three months.​
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
Is the Indian Premier League actually a reality show camouflaged as cricket ? Here is what the Chief Strategy Officer, South & Southeast Asia, of the European Agency Network, Publicis thinks.

A brilliant article its serious inspite of the tongue-in-cheek snipes at the organisers and BCCI

Premier League: The new reality show on Indian TV
Partha Sinha
Chief Strategy Officer, South & Southeast Asia, Publicis​

Finally it’s here. Cricket consumed in the format of a reality show. So far it was only news that was getting dished out in a reality show style, starting from SMS polls to expert judgments to instant melodramatisation. Now IPL is here to show that even sports can become full-fledged reality TV.

The first defining characteristic of reality television is an overtly competitive format in which entertainment is consumed. It’s not about a participant singing well but singing better than the other, or the Bengali participant singing better than the Punjabi participant.

IPL first time allowed the individual competitiveness to come to fore in a significant manner. However much media tried before, jingoistic feelings always overshadowed individual contests when two countries played. Media always hyped it as Bhajji vs Hayden or Tendulkar vs McGrath, but what people consumed was India vs Australia.

In IPL suddenly Dhoni vs Ganguly becomes a reality. Since all of Kolkata and most Bengalis living in different parts of the world believe that Dhoni wrongly dropped Ganguly from the team, it makes even better consumption item. The competition can take different shades, Indian players vs foreign players, young brigade vs old brigade... the list can go on.

The second important ingredient for reality TV is a celebrity judge. Unfortunately, our Bollywood celebrities are yet to become good judges of cricket, so they are currently sitting in the gallery or becoming owners and ambassadors.

But I don’t see this as a long-term problem. If Farah Khan and Mahesh Bhatt can opine on musical notes and correctness of gayaki, very soon in the IPL format one may get to see Mallika Sherawat as the square leg umpire or Javed Akthar as the match referee.

Dev Anand, Nagesh Kukunoor and Amir Khan will be in high demand because of their vast expertise in the subject, after all they have created films on cricket. So move over Billy Bowden and Rudy Kurtzen, very soon you may be replaced by sundry TV actors, choreographers, lyricists and directors.

The next critical thing is the overdose of melodrama. The judge makes a rude comment, the contestant breaks into tears. The judge makes a rude comment in incomprehensible urdu, not only the contestant but also the co-judge breaks into tears. And for the next few days all news channels make ‘breaking news’ out of it.

IPL has already shown significant promise in this regard. We already had a display of Punjabi hotheadedness vs Malayali drama. Two ill-tempered captains had a go at each other. And news channels kept showing slow-motioned madras cuts of these events with a sense of gratitude.

Melodrama is showing a much bigger promise in IPL than any other reality TV. The possibility of some secrets from the Indian dressing room coming out in the open promises much bigger interest and TRP than an Anu Malik-Javed Akthar spat can ever generate.

However, IPL misses out on two very significant aspects of reality TV. The first one is public viewing of private trauma and emotions. The backstage interview of the eliminated contestant, montage of their preparation, the confession room in big brother make reality TV even stickier.


IPL has started that in a modest way by getting into the dug-out, wiring a fielder up and asking him why he failed to save a boundary. But I feel there could be a bigger scope. The TV coverage should start and end in the dressing room.

The captain criticising a bad performance, players breaking down, etc will significantly boost interest level in the telecast. In fact, in the future it will be possible to include the players’ family members in this coverage. Sehwag and Harbhajan’s mothers are already media celebrities. I am sure there are more waiting in the wing.

The second and the most important aspect IPL misses out on is the audience participation. There is no audience poll, no SMS and that’s a shame for a reality show. I have the following suggestion. To start with, only three places in the IPL semi-final line up[ should be determined by match results.

The fourth place should be determined by public polling. At the end of the match each captain should be allowed to make a vote appeal and the team getting maximum votes through SMS, landline and Internet will be brought into the semifinal. This will increase audience interest and also open up a new revenue stream.

I am actually surprised that the revenue savvy BCCI has missed out on this most obvious opportunity. But I am fairly confident that this will be corrected in the near future. Subsequently, with enhanced technology audience can be given even bigger roles to play. Decisions, which are referred to third umpire, can easily be taken by audience poll.

Contrary to popular belief, BCCI today is not the apex cricket body of India. It’s actually India’s biggest television producer. It produces high eyeball entertainment and does that job really well.

Hence the success and failure of IPL should be judged by TRP and TRP alone. Questions like will it improve the standards of cricket in India are utterly superfluous. Has anyone ever asked the producers of Indian Idol if it has improved the standards of music in India?
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
The English players would appear to have missed out on the opportunity to make the big bucks this year, but England pacer Mathew Hoggard has absolutely no doubt about what the English player wants to do. Here he is talking of how to "Get Rich Quick"


(excerpts)​

The start of our season is being dominated by talk of the Indian Premier League and how Twenty20 cricket is going to take over the world, if not the universe. When the England players were discussing the IPL on our recent tour to New Zealand the general feeling was that we'd see how this first run of the tournament went. There were no gaps in the schedule this year, so participation was not an option for England players. But in the future, you would be silly to rule yourself out, such are the sums of money involved.

We're talking six weeks' work for roughly a year's salary. As they say in the States, you do the math. As long as it doesn't interfere with playing for England, then clearly players are going to be interested.

When the administrators are looking to create a gap in the schedule, I wonder whether the ICC Champions Trophy will survive any cuts in the longer term. That is a one-day tournament that none of the players would be sorry to see the back of. If there was a choice of playing in the Champions Trophy or the IPL, I know what most international players would prefer to do.

It looks as though one-day international cricket in general is going to suffer, which should come as no great surprise because it has become boring in comparison with Twenty20 and Test cricket. If you're going to watch a one-day international you only have to watch the first ten overs to get a fair idea of what's going on. You can then go away and mow the lawn while the ball is knocked around for four or five an over for the middle period, then come back to watch the last ten overs when things liven up again.

So one-day international cricket may have a bleak future, but Test cricket, I think, should not be in too much danger.​
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
There is a lot of talk as to how the sheer numbers of the Indians make anything Indians love bound to be successful. Is it really just the Indians who seem to be lapping up this new form of pajama and bikini entertainment.

Here is what the Australians seem to be saying. Are you surprised ?


SYDNEY: When sports fans talk of cricket during winters in a football loving nation, something has definitely made an impression - the Indian Premier League's Twenty20 extravaganza has Australians entranced.

"IPL will move cricket into the stratosphere that has already consumed football to global celebrity status," says Gilbert Arnold, who would like to describe himself as "a fan of national cricket with a passion for the excitement that India, the West Indies and Sri Lanka bring to the game and elation when England is beaten by any team!

"One certain outcome is a move from competition between national teams to band teams with international fans," Arnold said.

In Australia, Channel 10 has signed an exclusive five-year deal to broadcast IPL matches. This has been great news for cricket fans Down Under.

"My absolute favourite is Michael Hussey and it was good to watch his smashing century. I also like West Indian Chris Gayle and everyone's favourite Sachin Tendulkar. Retired greats Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne have added another level of competition to the game," says Dominic Bowes, a keen cricketer from the Sydney Boys High School.

Bowes, 17, who stayed up with his friends Friday night to watch the billion-dollar tournament kick off, says: "It was worth keeping awake till the early hours as the IPL opening ceremony and the game were both captivating. Young cricket fans, especially young women fans, prefer the Twenty20 format."

Channel Ten is telecasting all 59 matches over 44 days from April 18 to June 1 with starting times varying from 9.30 pm to 1.30 am, (Australian Eastern Standard Time).

"Over the first weekend, the coverage of the IPL in Australia has been very popular. Sunday night's match between the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Hyderabad Deccan Chargers has been the most popular match so far. An average audience of 360,000 tuned into the game. The audience peaked at 800,000," says Channel Ten's Sport Marketing and Publicity Manager Gus Seebeck.

"These are very encouraging figures given the relatively late start times for the matches in Australia. The matches featuring prominent Australian players such as Ricky Ponting and Andrew Symonds have rated well," Seebeck said.

As "a convert to cricket via the One-Day version of the game", Karen Grega said, "Its Hollywood meets Bollywood. I see it as a new, cricket product for the time-poor that hopefully attracts a wider audience, as did the One-Day, limited over version of the game. If it converts the uninitiated and grows the market rather than decimating it, then it's got to be good for the game in today's 'instant' society.

"Only time will tell if expectations will be met. It won't replace the strategic, thinking man's version of the game that Test match cricket offers us purists," Grega added.

As the changing face of the game gains momentum, Cricket Australia has increased the number of Twenty20 internationals in the Australian summer from two to three -two against New Zealand and one against South Africa.

CA's general manager of cricket operations, Michael Brown, told the Sydney Morning Herald that a franchise system would be considered in Australia if it could help attract new fans to the game.

Brown told the newspaper: "We will look at it and consider it. The idea is to bring new customers to the game rather than those who already attend Test and One-Day matches. We have been watching the new concept with interest - the IPL has been exciting and looks like a fantastic television spectacle.

"I think someone described it as like the Olympic Games. It's fantastic for cricket - we're here in Melbourne in an incredible AFL (Australian Football League) environment, yet people are talking up cricket," Brown added.

Even as a survey of Australian players revealed that almost half would consider early retirement to maximise their earnings in India, Brown said: "The bread and butter of cricket is based around the Future Tours Program, and we need to make sure that is protected."

With players and fans from cricket loving nations giving themselves with abandon to the glitz and glory, it can only spell success for the 'Gentlemen's game'.
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
Here is an article about the business model of IPL but it is different. It acknowledges (debatable according to others) that IPL is a resounding success as of now but discusses whether it can and will remain a sucessful business proposition in the longer run.


The Indian Premier League (IPL) is, by all accounts, a resounding success. Viewership is high, most of the grounds are packed and the cricket looks serious enough. The owners are not yet laughing all the way to the bank but they have started chortling at the sight of ATMs. The impact of the new league is far reaching not just on cricket and the way it is played, run and enjoyed but indeed on the way the market and the forces it unleashes can change the way we lead our lives.

And yet, this is a success that needs to be set in a larger context. Given our obsessive immersion in today and our growing inability to imagine how time shapes, builds and erodes things, we tend to confuse the conditionally transient with the inevitably permanent. (As an aside, remember how the BCCI petulantly told Shah Rukh Khan off for using cricket to promote himself? The shoe has clearly changed feet, but no one remembers.)

For a new format to be declared successful, we need a few years to pass. It is worth remembering that while Kerry Packer transformed cricket, the format he promoted (World Series Cricket, not too different from the IPL) began gloriously and died quickly.

he long-term challenges for marketing IPL are several. Sustaining the excitement around the format depends squarely on the ability of various teams to build loyal fan bases. Currently, the basis for building this loyalty is not particularly robust. The city is not a uniformly powerful flag to fly under; in India barring a Kolkata or perhaps a Mumbai, most cities do not enjoy a passionate sense of belonging. Even when they do, it is important for the team to believably represent the city. Now a Ganguly may be synonymous with Kolkata but a Shane Warne captains Jaipur as a result of a commercial accident.

The larger underlying issue is the mental model of what the IPL delivers. It has been imagined as entertainment made out elements of sport. What makes sport such powerful entertainment is that it transcends mere diversion. Sport makes grown men groan, moan and whimper.

A nation sulks when Sachin fails. We live out something pure and timeless when we follow sport, forgetting our puny individual identities in the intense embrace of a collective tide of emotion. That is why the 'sticky eyeballs' occur, not because a cheerleader is showing leg which a camera is slavering over. The current notion of sport is as an attractive 'surface', all glitter and glamour.

Take a look at the names of the teams. Daredevils, Knight Riders, Chargers, Super Kings, Challengers —- these are generic pseudo-martial names devoid of any character and avoiding any real connection with the city they claim to represent.

The advertising for the teams is the most undifferentiated one has seen in any category — sundry 'ambassadors' sing songs full of passion while admiring their own abs. The cheerleaders too have eschewed local rallying cries in the favour of a superficial, imitative and exploitative approach to exciting passion. Overall, no real attempt has been made to provide spectators a strong reason to believe in any team. For eventually, a team is more than a motley collection of individuals; it must represent a point of view, a style of playing the game.

At a deeper level, sport is about a heroic pursuit for purity carried out people we anoint as our representatives. It is an epic tale into which we insert ourselves. It will be important for the IPL teams to tell a story that we as spectators and followers, would want to be part of. In its fourth year of operation, when the initial excitement has worn off, what will keep us watching it is the feeling that our team in some way represents our identity and worldview.

The other challenge for the IPL is to ensure that all the brands that have made investments get due returns. In spite of the success of the format so far, this is by no means certain. The trouble is that there are so many different kinds of brands vying for our attention. We have the Bollywood stars (Akshay Kumar's team or Hrithik's?), the owners who get huge attention, the star players, the broadcasters, the presenting sponsors, brands associated with each team, the city brands and finally the teams themselves.

There is another way of looking at this whole thing. Instead of seeing the IPL as either sport or entertainment, or indeed an introduction to the club format and hence using those frameworks to evaluate it, one could see it as an entirely new kind of format with its own emerging codes. Perhaps it is closest to reality television in that it allows us high stimulation at low emotional cost. When we cheer for our city team, we do so raucously, but very little emotional residue remains thereafter. It is akin to drinking a cola; a lot of burn, bite and fizz in the throat but something that evaporates before reaching the stomach. All stimulation and no residual content; all intoxication and no hang-over.

Viewed this way, the biggest challenge for the IPL is to keep the stimulation flowing. One must remember that with the IPL, excitement can wane rapidly. The first few dozen times someone hits a six off the last ball to win a match, it is exciting, thereafter it fails to stimulate a jaded appetite. Unlike cinema, cricket has very few plot surprises up its sleeve; either someone can score the required runs or they can get out, nothing else can happen. By contriving excitement using a compressed format, we are also making us immune to it.

This is why the story must include other elements — the antics of the players off the ground become vital ingredients and here with Slapgate and the Shane-Sourav stand-off, IPL couldn’t have scripted a better start. I would not be surprised if innovations in this format followed the principles of reality television, with the focus being on interactivity and surprise. Choose your own team, drop the non-performer, be captain for a match- just some of the kind of innovations that are possible.

The really interesting question about the IPL is not whether it will succeed or fail but what it will succeed or fail at. Understanding the IPL is perhaps more important than evaluating it.

Santosh Desai
(The author is CEO, Future Brands)
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
Aha. Here is an article which covers the Social Aspect. Very Interesting indeed.

Beauty and whiteness: the Indian Premier League
Binoy Kempmark

(Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He is currently in Philadelphia, and blogs at Oz Moses.)​


Former English cricketer Robin Jackman is giving his pitch report (April 25) in Chandigarh, and the girls, both blonde and brunette, mainly white, and unmistakably Caucasian, are dancing before him. He seems indifferent. He has a job to do: report the weather conditions and discuss the “toss” between the captains for audiences across the cricket world. Amidst this workmanlike program is a flurry of skirts and pompoms.

This scene is surely unprecedented in the annals of this provincial, rather stuffy sport, long given over to social hierarchies in both Britain and her former colonies. A sport dedicated to the long afternoon, the gin and tonic, and the imperial self-satisfaction, was not meant for this. Suddenly, we might as well be in Yankee stadium.

Indeed, the organisers of world cricket’s newest attraction, the Indian Premier League (IPL) would like to believe that. This brainchild of world cricket’s leviathan, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, arose as a means of coping with Subhash Chandra’s Indian Cricket League. International players, along with a potpourri of promotional gimmicks, were sought to sweeten the mix. Ostensibly catchy names for the teams were also thrown into the bargain: the Mohali Punjab Kings, and the Kolkata Knight Riders. Then came the cheerleaders.

The match begins after an introduction and patchy analysis from commentators whose smiles linger for too long over pearly white teeth. This is the IPL, a league that is aspiring to be a baseball world series. Then come the performers, dressed in gaudy, somewhat jarring colours, who fight out a match of 20 overs a piece. Each over comprises six deliveries, and field restrictions are strictly designed to fetter the bowler and empower the batsman, who then proceeds to pummel to his heart’s content.

Some viewers, at least those who are being targeted by this format (audiences in South and South-East Asia) do not quite know what to make of the modern variants. An open question submitted on the Yahoo Malaysia search engine gathered a host of responses on the 20-20 format of the IPL. Where, posed the questioner, had the vigorous “sledging” gone? The racial taunts were absent, as was the direct questioning about spouse and parentage so typical on the modern cricket field. Even Andrew Symonds and Harbhajan Singh were behaving, their exploits of a few months prior scotched by a mutual hunger for money.

The questioner, calling himself “Laughing Tears”, even went so far as to suggest that the format of the game be altered to bolster the competitive spirit. No girls please, but more rehearsed sessions of testosterone-charged machismo, “like WFF fighters”. This “artificial drama of sledging can be pre-planned to make this game more attractive”.

Organisers of this form of sport see cricket consumers as fast-food addicts. Like the documentary maker Morgan Spurlock, they are overtly keen on consuming the same food for a month, with its inevitable consequences.

The IPL, much like the polystyrene parallels of the fast food world, is also a peculiar cultural package. Take the insistence of its organisers on cheerleaders in the form of short-skirted scantily clad Caucasians. The Indian ideal of the model woman, at least in the commercial sense of the term, is a Caucasian beauty with flawless white skin. Indian audiences are constantly reminded of that fact.

This is far from peculiar to India - other Asian countries adhere to the canon that one white feature covers three aspects of ugliness. Whiteness was aristocratic and sheltered, a glaring contrast to the field hand or sun-burnt labourer. “Flawlessly milky skin is to die for”, promotes one particular website for Asian women.

This fascination with whitening comes with its hazards - in 2002, some 1,262 people flooded a hotline established by the Hong Kong health department fearing a toxic cream outbreak. Mercury levels in Rosedew and La Rose Blanche, both whitener creams, were somewhere between nine to 65,000 times the recommended dosage.

The advertising machine is driven to producing whiteness, and the cricket behemoth that has given the IPL is no different. An Aryan obsession dominates like an imperialist trope - the Dravidian cowering, indeed covering, is still there.

Black, or for that matter brown, is not beautiful in the commercial drive of the subcontinent. Physical fairness is what counts, as the Indian National Party Congress Chairman Sonia Gandhi finds in her supporters. One columnist went so far as to find in this Italian-born figure and widow of Rajiv Gandhi the “highest Vedantic ideals”.

The jiggling dance fest is posing problems for the Indian authorities. Some players have complained - Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi has demanded their removal, citing them as a distraction to his keen sense of hard-hitting. “Cricket itself is an entertainment. It does require such cheerleaders to entertain.”

The authorities are also caught in a bind. R.R. Patil, State Home Minister, threw out the bar dancers of Mumbai in 2005. He now sees a sporting equivalent in open play, and is wondering whether to act. The conservative Bharatiya Janata Party Maharashtra President Nitin Gadkari could barely restrain himself. In the Legislative Council on April 23, he posed the question: “If the state has banned dance bars, then how is it allowing vulgar dances by scantily-clad cheerleaders in IPL matches?” An investigation of work permits may soon commence.

Capitalism, but to be more exact, commercialism, is indifferent to bonds, to ties, to community. It dishevels, it parts. Every major historical revolt against capitalism has a common assumption: rampant, unmonitored commercialism throws up factions which re-order society. So, the girls dance, fleshy, nubile, exquisite, some Indian patrons hurl abuse, and the BJP protests. Are Indians, despite an increasingly insatiable middle class, ready for this?

The donors and the stake holders of this giant enterprise won’t care - unless it affects the purse strings. Like the concept of fast food consumption, the 20-20 format of the IPL is set to be replicated. Allen Sanford, the Texan billionaire is keen to run the model in England. An otherwise conservative English Cricket Board might just relent.​
 

Goughy

Hall of Fame Member
An otherwise conservative English Cricket Board might just relent.[/INDENT][/FONT]
haha, typical bashing from the writer. Lest anyone remember who introduced this format to the World. The ECB are pioneers in this regard rather than conservative.

The first article is interesting as it applies real numbers and looks to back the point up with evidence.

Most of the others are based on rumour, speculation and unsubstantiated claims. Cant say those articles make me want to pick up a copy of Economic Times.
 

SJS

Hall of Fame Member
haha, typical bashing from the writer. Lest anyone remember who introduced this format to the World. The ECB are pioneers in this regard rather than conservative.

The first article is interesting as it applies real numbers and looks to back the point up with evidence.

Most of the others are based on rumour, speculation and unsubstantiated claims. Cant say those articles make me want to pick up a copy of Economic Times.
Even Economic Times needs to sell to make economic sense :)
 

Goughy

Hall of Fame Member
Still on the Economic Impact of the new format - what it is expected to do for the players


AUSTRALIA'S cricketers will spend the best part of four months in Britain during their 2009 Ashes tour.

The England and Wales Cricket Board yesterday released a fixtures list for the marathon tour, which includes the first one-day international to be held at Southampton's Rose Bowl and back-to-back one-dayers at Old Trafford in Manchester.

Australia and England will also play two Twenty20 internationals in Manchester, which missed out on hosting a Test match during the series.

During the Ashes tour of 2005, the Australians were in Britain for three months.[/INDENT][/FONT]
This isnt true either. The Ashes tour in 2009 is shorter than in 2005. Just under 3 months compared to just over 3 months.

The difference being there is the seperate tour to the T20 World Cup that is unrelated.

The Herald Sun should know that unless intentionally being misleading.

There has always been so much rubbish written about cricket (along with the great works) but the IPL seems to have got a lot of non-cricket writers increasing the garbage levels :)
 
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archie mac

International Coach
Without a doubt :)

If a format is under pressure then it isnt Tests. Hoggards opinion above is very close to my own
I think the players will have a bit to say, they enjoy 50 overs more then 20/20

I still think they should try two 25 over innings for ODI:)
 
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chaminda_00

Hall of Fame Member
I think the players will have a bit to say, they enjoy 50 overs more then 20/20

I still think they should try two 25 over innings for ODI:)
They enjoy money more then ODIs or Twenty20 Cricket. If players have a say it will be reduce ODIs and Twenty20 Internationals, so they have more time for IPL and maybe other tournments like this.

I can't see Test Cricket being effected as players complain already about 2-Test series. But if players have a say then we might see the death of tri series, 7 match ODI series as well any potential multi match Twenty20 International series (even though they are hardly occuring yet).
 

archie mac

International Coach
They enjoy money more then ODIs or Twenty20 Cricket. If players have a say it will be reduce ODIs and Twenty20 Internationals, so they have more time for IPL and maybe other tournments like this.

I can't see Test Cricket being effected as players complain already about 2-Test series. But if players have a say then we might see the death of tri series, 7 match ODI series as well any potential multi match Twenty20 International series (even though they are hardly occuring yet).
True, but I never liked 7 match series anyway, I much prefer 5 matches
 

pasag

RTDAS
I have to say, that I still think Test cricket will be around here in a 100years:)
Yeah, can't remember where I read it, but was reading a book on cricket that outlines how throughout every cricketing generation there's been a concept of 'cricket at the crossroads' and how the big issue of the day is threatening game etc etc and cricket has always survived and arguably gotten a lot stronger. I think (or maybe it was the author can't remember) the question gets asked so often because as cricket fans we tend to over analyse things a bit too much, at times.
 

archie mac

International Coach
Yeah, can't remember where I read it, but was reading a book on cricket that outlines how throughout every cricketing generation there's been a concept of 'cricket at the crossroads' and how the big issue of the day is threatening game etc etc and cricket has always survived and arguably gotten a lot stronger. I think (or maybe it was the author can't remember) the question gets asked so often because as cricket fans we tend to over analyse things a bit too much, at times.
Ian Johnson called a book just that in the 50s
 

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