IPL's best sales pitch: quality cricket

After a tepid opening ceremony, the Indian Premier League needs a high-octane opening game tonight to reignite the enthusiasm of fans. The fact that two star-studded teams – Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians – play each other is an advantage of course, but the contest has to be keen and engaging enough to convince everybody that the IPL has regained its mojo.

I’ll come to this particular match and some of the other contests/players to watch out for, but for the moment I must vent briefly on making the opening ceremony like a film awards function rather than an ancillary to a sport event.

By any reckoning, Tuesday night’s event was littered with stellar names from the entertainment world. Amitabh Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, Kareena Kapoor and Salman Khan among others make for a dazzling roster, but their performances – indeed the entire evening – seemed just too contrived.

It wasn’t unusual or spectacular enough to create a wow factor; rather, it looked like something that viewers see almost every day of the week across channels surfing between assorted programmes after supper at home. Moreover, the lead artistes, barring Bachchan, seemed either too pooped or ill-prepared.

Essentially however, it was not gripping enough because it just didn’t seem a natural fit for a mega sports event. Of course, glamour, hoopla and razzmatazz are integral to the IPL. And yet, it is cricket and the players that must drive the League, not the embellishments that top it up. In essence, a ‘sporting atmosphere’ was missing which is where the brains trust of the IPL could be missing the woods for the trees.

In a week in which the BCCI struck a windfall by selling its domestic media rights (TV, digital and radio) for a whopping Rs 3851 crore, any pessimism about the IPL – and by extension, the Indian cricket fan’s appetite for cricket — must seem misplaced.

Yet everybody agrees that this season is the litmus test for the IPL. Dwindling TRPs last season juxtaposed with a spate of controversies and governance issues have left the league, well, beleaguered. Reports in the media about lack of advertiser interest and unsold inventories for the broadcaster have only added to the skepticism.

But I am not a doomsday specialist. I don’t think the IPL is a flash in the pan. In many ways it is a robust sportstainment enterprise backed by some of the biggest business houses in India. It has successfully seduced audiences with its heady mix of sport and glamour, and unless the T20 format itself collapses, the IPL is unlikely to crumble.

That said, to believe that the IPL will grow exponentially year on year is flawed understanding of sports and business. Though it was a runaway hit in the first couple of years, some correction – to borrow from stock market jargon – was inevitable. The rise thereafter has to be incremental with occasional spikes representing fresh interest of fans and/or money.

Obviously the concern of the BCCI – as also franchise owners, broadcasters and advertisers — is that interest and eyeballs should not plummet. Last year’s dip was rationalized as something inevitable after the World Cup – which preceded the IPL – had left fans emotionally and financially drained. Cricket fatigue, it was believed, had set in.

Has the situation changed for the better or for the worse after India’s poor performances since the World Cup triumph last year is the billion-dollar question that should be answered over the next seven weeks. My belief is that perception can change from negative to positive overnight – provided, of course, that the quality of cricket is of very high standard.

There are good reasons to be hopeful on that score this season. Barring the Pakistanis (for reasons beyond cricket), the best players from across the world will be seen in action this time. Recent injuries to stars like Stuart Broad and Graeme Smith and Yuvraj Singh’s battle with cancer may have robbed the league of a few major cricketers, but otherwise this seems the best assemblage in five years.

Getting top gun Michael Clarke even for 6-8 games is a coup of sorts. The Australian captain is not part of his country’s T20 side, but is arguably the best batsman in the world currently and will be a major draw. Big-hitting West Indians Kieron Pollard and Chris Gayle and young Aussie David Warner are household names in India already.

Virat Kohli has made such rapid strides in the past three months that he is jostling with Sachin Tendulkar and M S Dhoni to be the superstar from India. Harbhajan Singh, ousted from the national team, is now captain of Mumbai Indians even as he seeks to regain his blue India cap. As always, excellent performers in the IPL stand to gain instant stardom.

The spread of talent is perhaps not as even as it was in the first three years. After the completion of two auctions and trading of players, some teams look far weightier. At least on paper, KKR, Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore look, to me, ahead of the others.

But the T20 format can be cruelly and delightfully unpredictable. No-hopers India won the inaugural T20 World Championship in 2007 and unfancied Rajasthan Royals the first IPL in 2008. Both these tournaments were fascinating roller-coaster rides for teams and fans alike and had advertisers drooling.

Some such script — starting with the first game — would truly rev up Season 5 for all stakeholders in the IPL. But – if it must be reiterated – it is quality of cricket that is its best-selling proposition.