Now that international cricket is a game of money cricket is a game of money like any other, what is bad news in financial circles is bad cricket news as well! Now everything in cricket is closely associated with TV rights, sponsorships, endorsement deals and the like. Mike Atherton, former England Captain, in his column recently, talked about how product placement is not just limited to Hollywood. Atherton urges you to watch closely “the next time Andrew Flintoff is about to go in to bat for England, watching how closely and showily he clutches a can of his favourite soft drink.”

Atherton humorously underlines the central place that India and Indian players occupy in international cricket. “If the rest of the world catches a cold when America sneezes, then the cricket world gets influenza when India so much as clears its throat and the signs are that even cricket in India is feeling the effects of the global downturn,” he says. He talks about how every cricket entity in India, from the ‘rebel’ ICL to the IPL which has the blessings of the BCCI are all feeling the heat of economic stringency.

Sponsors are chary of spending their currently meager budget allocations in sponsorships where earlier they would have done so freely and with impunity. TV rights are another space that is seriously being affected; TV companies such as ESPN would be contemplating the current scenario with much trepidation.

When there are such major problems facing the IPL franchises as losing their sponsors, one wonders at the fate of the tournament come April. The defending champions, The Rajasthan Royals are currently without a sponsor, even the Shahrukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders and the Deccan Chargers have lost their main sponsors. Co owner of Kings XI Punjab went on record to say “These are difficult times and we need to work out ways to make sure that all the franchises survive.”

These are grim forebodings for the game of international cricket; one wonders if cricket will survive and tide over the crisis, or whether T20 cricket is another bubble waiting to burst? Atherton disagrees with ECB chairman Giles Clarke who is of the opinion that a sport must continue to make more and more money to be successful.   He feels that “the business of sport may suffer over the coming year and a few Johnny-come-latelies may hurt, but sport itself will go on.” Cricket360 says Amen to that!

Comments

Add New RSS

3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

Newer news items:

Older news items: