In my last post I briefly touched upon the money aspect that was the fuel for the explosion of ODI cricket in the nineties. India is easily the world’s largest cricket sponsorship market with no dearth of sponsors ready to put their name to a tournaments title sponsorship or signing up for on-air deals. For a large corporation planning a brand launch there is no comparable media buy to rival the reach that an India cricket match brings. With the price of television rights increasing with the advent of new channels, media owners who shell out big bucks must maximize to break even. Fifty over a side matches simply offer more scope to slot in commercial inventory than a Twenty20 game.
Eighty percent of the games revenues come from India and as long as the sponsors keep pouring in the money the ODI format won’t go away. Even the risk of an early Indian exit from a major tournament as happened in 2007 when ratings dropped 50% drop in ratings and losses amounted to Rs 150-160 crore after India crashed out of the WC 2007 does not deter advertisers. Unsurprisingly India has played the most ODIs in the post WC 2007 period – 72 vs. 58 for the next team. To their credit the ICC has tried to innovate by introducing the Powerplay changes and modifying the Champions Trophy format to sustain fan interest. Where it has faltered is in the basics like allowing month-long 7 match bilateral series that drag on forever, turning a blind eye to small grounds that deliver meaningless 350+ scores and venues like the Premadasa where results are highly toss or weather dependent.
The 50-over format has not been helped by the quality of cricket on offer either with one-sided results even among top 8 teams becoming commonplace: Eng-SA 4-0, India-Eng 5-0, SA-WI 5-0, Aus-WI 5-0 and now Aus-Eng 6-1. In the last decade while Australia have won 3 successive World Cups the supposed No.2 South Africa have repeatedly disappointed unable to overcome their chokers tag in every major tournament. What ODI cricket needs is more equal contests and for the 2nd tier teams like Pakistan, NZ, West Indies and England to challenge the Top 4 more seriously. The Twenty20 World Cup and IPL have had two great editions because both had surprise winners each year that captured the minds of spectators and viewers well into the final stages. A case in point was this year’s Twenty20 World Cup which despite the early exit of the pre-tournament favourites India and Australia retained pulling power due to the Pakistan teams’ fairytale run to the title.
This week’s Champions Trophy could yet change the minds of those calling time on the format if it produces some quality cricket and a worthy winner on the 5th of October at the Centurion. Quite ironic that a much-maligned tournament that few teams have embraced should now be the last roll of the dice that ODI cricket hedges its future on.
No comments:
Post a Comment