At the launch of the Indian Premier League?s (IPL) Mohali team, Kings XI Punjab, Preity Zinta, part owner, did the bhangra with captain Yuvaraj Singh and bowler-cum-break dancer Sreesanth. At Delhi?s Daredevils do, top Bollywood star Akshay Kumar shared the stage with captain Virender Sehwag. Hyderabad?s Deccan Chargers roped in Sameera Reddy at the logo-and-team launch. Hrithik Roshan is ?batting? for the Mukesh Ambani and Sachin Tendulkar-led Mumbai Indians… It?s an established fact now that Bollywood is taking the business of cricket seriously.
So is everyone else. As the BCCI gears up to launch the premier league in India in the Twenty20 format through eight franchisees ? the inaugural match is on April 18 in Bangalore between the Bangalore Royal Challengers and Shah Rukh Khan?s Kolkata Knight Riders ? everything and more is being done to get the crowds in. According to IPL sources, most teams will be spending Rs 8-10 crore on marketing initiatives and entertainment alone.
Majority of the teams are busy tying up with sponsors to get the revenue streams in place. For instance, the Chennai Super Kings have already signed up three to four big sponsors including Airtel, S Kumar?s and Reebok, and Caf? Coffee Day for food and beverages. What?s more, Singh is confident the team will make some small money this year itself. ?The revenue streams are huge. If we have spent Rs 55-70 crore on players and coaches, advertising and publicity, we will be getting back at least Rs 35 crore from the central pool (broadcasting rights and lead IPL sponsors DLF and Hero Honda), at least Rs 25 crore from the team sponsors and about Rs 10 crore from ticket sales and other ground revenues.? According to Fraser Castellino, CEO, Emerging Media, which owns the Rajasthan Royals, led by Shane Warne, the business will break even after the third year. ?We are investing around $12 million on players, marketing and so forth and the base assumption is that the business will break even after three years.?
That?s the time?three-four years?Sriram Ramdas, head, marketing and business development, GMR Sports, who is overseeing marketing initiatives for the GMR-owned Delhi Daredevils says. ?We are in the business for the long run. We plan for five years of losses, but we are hoping to break even in the third or fourth year.? Ask him if IPL will be a success and Ramdas draws a parallel with the telecom industry. ?Everyone was scared but a few took risks and look where the industry is today. Give the IPL format 5-10 years to stabilise and do well.?
In the meantime, the Delhi Daredevils has got the backing of ?some of the best marquee brands? in the country, including Hero Honda, Kingfisher, Religare and Adidas. It?s also going the whole hog on the entertainment front, planning music, dance, fireworks to get Delhi to participate in the event. They also have Akshay Kumar on their side.
But even those who haven?t signed on stars are going all out to give the fans ?an experience of a lifetime?. Take the case of the Deccan Chargers. The team, owned by media group Deccan Chronicle, hasn?t signed on any film personality as brand ambassador. ?All our cricket players are stars in their own right? we have all the stars on the ground,? says J Krishnan, CEO, Deccan Chargers, which has Aussie super cricketers Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Symonds, South Africa?s fiery Herschelle Gibbs and Very Very Special Laxman among others. That said, Krishnan?s getting cheer leaders from abroad who will travel with the team. ?Besides, for each of the seven matches we have planned entertainment programmes that will have Bollywood song and dance, local talent, fireworks and so forth.? There?s a lot of ground-level activity going on in Hyderabad and the catchment area of Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and even Bhubaneswar ?where our fan base exists? to create an interest around Deccan Chargers. The Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium at Uppal can hold 40,000 people and tickets have been kept affordable?Rs 200-250 at the lowest to Rs 2,500?to draw fans to the matches.
That?s the key aim of King?s XI Punjab, which is led by Yuvaraj Singh and has speedsters Brett Lee and Irfan Pathan in the side, too. ?About 45% of the ground can be accessed for under Rs 250. We have a special Rs 50 ticket for students too,? says CEO Neil Maxwell. ?With Preity and her friends around, there?s always going to be fun but our key product is cricket which is supported by other forms of entertainment,? he adds. ?Ticket sales started this week and the response has been very positive. We have opened doors to the people and we have adopted a very customer-friendly stance.?
Is being customer-friendly enough to get the people into the stadium? ?It?s the best form of propaganda,? points out Rakesh Singh, head, marketing, India Cements, who is spearheading marketing initiatives for Chennai Super Kings, led by M S Dhoni. ?We have been involving the people from day one. We even held an SMS contest before going for the auction to pick the team. Srikkanth, who is very popular in Tamil Nadu, has been roped in and launched the name and brand immediately after the auction in January,? says Singh. He didn?t stop there. ?We also signed up two popular stars Nayantara and Vijay?he?s the SRK of the South?as brand ambassadors to woo youth to cricket because we feel that the whole concept of IPL will be successful if people come to the stadium.?
During the matches, Chennai spectators, always the most sporting of all, will have drummer Sivamani cheering for the team for every boundary or dismissal.
The Redskins experience
For the inaugural match, DNA Networks, which is overseeing the entertainment, is getting a cheer-leading squad from the US National Football League. ?They are the cheerleaders for the Washington Redskins and one of the best in the business,? says Venkat Vardhan, MD, DNA Networks. Once in India, the cheerleaders will hold auditions for their Indian counterparts through a reality show and two weeks later, the group will be on the field dancing with the Redskins cheerleaders.
Vardhan, who has got many rock bands and divas into the country, says big acts are on the cards. ?The UB Group, which owns the Royal Challengers, has always been involved in music and we will have high-end entertainment,? he adds. For the inaugural, there?s going to be a laser show, live entertainment, performances by Katrina Kaif and so forth. Besides Hrithik Roshan, the Mumbai Indians, according to sources, have tied up with Shiamak Davar to choreograph in-match entertainment. Each team has a theme song, video, logo, apparel, the works.
But will the hype over entertainment and the business aspects kill cricket? ?Look,? quips Charu Sharma, CEO, Royal Challengers, Bangalore, ?no entertainment ever interferes with the game. The entertainment happens before and after the match, and during the drinks and innings break. It adds to the flavour but can only be a secondary support column for the cricket.?
So, are players taking their cricket seriously? ?Considering the money involved, inside the field no professional cricketer will perform 1% less than he can. Twenty20 is a very demanding form of the game and it?s clear to all the players that the rewards are strictly based on performance,? adds Sharma.
That?s perhaps one of the reasons why the Kolkata Knight Riders have already begun a camp at Eden Gardens with captain Sourav Ganguly, Ricky Ponting and the team taking tips from John Buchanan (erstwhile Aussie coach). Though Shah Rukh?s Red Chillies Entertainment officials admit privately that one of their biggest stars on the ground, Shoiab Akhtar?serving a Pakistan Cricket Board ban?will be sorely missed, the West Bengal government levying an entertainment tax, which could amount to Rs 1 crore per match if the stadium fills up, is creating further problems for the king of entertainment, Shah Rukh Khan. As one IPL insider puts it: ?He?s the biggest brand ambassador of all, but if he can?t perform, it will hurt IPL?s chances to succeed.? Says Mohammad Morani, who?s organising the entertainment for Red Chillies: ?We have planned loads of entertainment but are awaiting permission from the authorities. We are launching an album which will include songs by Bappi Lahiri and Usha Uthup.?
No, no one will fault SRK ? or any of the eight team owners ? for not doing his homework. As one analyst puts it: ?There?s too much money riding on IPL.?