MUMBAI: Uday Shankar, president, The Walt Disney Company (Asia Pacific) and chairman, Star & Disney India, on Tuesday said that COVID pandemic and the China-India face-off have led to a “perfect storm”. And that his network would have to “figure out a different monetisation model” for the Indian Premier League (IPL) IF the growing demand for a boycott of Chinese companies was acted upon by the government.
Shankar was speaking at the ongoing “E-ADDA” webinar series event organised by Indian Express.
Asked if the ever louder calls for a boycott of Chinese companies would impact the IPL, Shankar said: “If company X or Y is not there because in larger social or national interest it has been decided (to ban them), then we will have to figure out a different monetisation model.”
Shankar, however, said they did not invest “on the back of any country or specific company”.
“We believe cricket has a power and that power comes from the depth of engagement it has with Indian consumers. If people like something so passionately, there will be people willing to back it financially,” he said.
When quized about the possibility of conducting the IPL this season, Shankar said that it is important that people get the IPL experience for the love of cricket and signalling that life triumphs.
“Internally, we are discussing and planning but we also wouldn’t want the tournament to be held unless the atmosphere is safe,” he said.
Shankar, however, said their investment was not made “on the back of any country or specific company”. “We believe cricket has a power and that power comes from the depth of engagement it has with Indian consumers. If people like something so passionately, there will be people willing to back it financially,” he said.
Shankar was also asked about the possibility of sports commentators being dropped because of public opinion. “There is a distinction we need to make between cricket journalists and cricket commentators. A journalist is at liberty to say what you want to say. A commentator, in my view, is not a journalist. A commentator is part of the entire package to make the game more entertaining, more popular. I routinely see a tendency among commentators who make this mistake. There is a role for a journalist and role for a commentator. I have very clear views on that,” he said.
However, Shankar admitted that “commentary, especially in cricket, has been too sanitised”. “That is why a lot of fun has gone out of the matches. What we call colour, and I am not saying colour in a flippant way, the more well-rounded, lively description of the sport has gone away. We keep talking about the life going out of cricket and it becoming too transactional but I think we are also responsible for that. We need to think about how we create well-rounded, lively experiences for people that go beyond scores and runs,” he said.
On the possibility of conducting the IPL this season, Shankar said it is “important that people get the IPL experience for the love of cricket and signalling that life triumphs”. The cricket board was forced to indefinitely postpone the IPL, which was to begin in March, because of the pandemic and the nationwide lockdown.
“Internally, we are discussing and planning (about IPL) but we also wouldn’t want the tournament to be held unless the atmosphere is safe,” Shankar said.
