11 May 2008
Market Forces and Cricket: One More Thought
Posted by Aditya under: Cricket; Indian Premier League .
Pradeep Magazine has been the latest to jump onto the mad corporates killing cricket bandwagon, in his latest article on the Hindustan Times.
Now, from what I’ve read so far, he hasn’t been particularly fond of the IPL as such. So this article may come as little surprise. He takes the one incident — of Mallya’s mindless sacking of Charu Sharma — and uses it to preach doom and gloom for cricket.
Now I don’t want to go on a long rant on this again, because I’ve already done it. But I do have just one more thought to add to what’s already been said, and that is in response to this one remark from Magazine’s article:
It is said that poor Charu Sharma, who was trying his best to become a buffer between the players and the owner, had to face the music after every loss and was told to crack the whip and not be too soft on the players. The players themselves, new to this corporate governance, can do nothing but watch and absorb this new “ethos” either with amusement or accept their fate and seek solace in the fat paycheques they are getting.
Here’s my thought: can’t we, for a moment, consider that this — with all the money flying around — is indeed a business with the product being cricket; different teams represent competitors fighting to stamp their authority, as separate business entities. They all run their franchises in their own individual styles, thinking what they believe to be the right way to run their businesses. But they, just as the players, are new to this market segment. And, as with any other fledgling market, mistakes will be made along the way and business entities will learn from those mistakes, and slowly, as the market matures, you will have a more stable management style that won’t simply fire personnel on a whim.
The sports franchise model is new in India — I don’t consider the ESPN backed PHL as a franchise model — and you will have the odd moments of madness.
So just as we don’t agree with the reactionary nature of Mallya sacking Charu Sharma, we mustn’t ourselves jump to knee-jerk conclusions about how the corporate system is going to run (ruin?) cricket. So again, as I said earlier, let’s give it time.
For a start though, I’d have to agree with the closing lines of Magazine’s article, which is to leave cricket to the cricketers.
One Comment so far...
Amit Says:
19 May 2008 at 8:23 am.
do you really think mallya has that kind of time? his franchise is basically more for his personal glory than for business isn’t it? i mean, he could’ve invested in more profitable businesses (which he anyway does!) instead.. it’s like roman abrahmovich buying chelsea.. he needs his team on no. 1, not essentially a fat revenue from it.. just wondering..
