NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) has shot down a proposal by Reliance-owned Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Mumbai Indians to have a pre-season tour to the US.
IANS quotes a source close to the developments as saying: “The team would have headed to the US and also play a few games with local teams so as to attract cricket lovers in the region and get them up close and personal with their favourite stars.
“In fact, MI was also keen to share any revenue earned in the process. The IPL clause says that if you as a franchise play outside of the tournament, any revenue earned is to be shared. MI had no problem with that as the idea was to take the game to more homes and increase the fan base.
“MI even asked the CoA to provide the window as per their suitability. Playing local matches would popularise the sport as we all know that cricket is not followed much there and also, there are many Indians there and the franchise wanted to go and experiment and see how they can give back to the game.”
Give back to the game? That’s a bit rich for what MI was clearly seeing as a fan activation exercise and one that could potentially be profitable considering how the Indian diaspora would make for a ready made captive market.
Not that SportzPower sees anything amiss in what is a perfectly normal fan engagement / outreach effort for any team looking beyond its home market.
