MUMBAI: A few weeks ago, Mumbai-based internet company Sportzpower held a seminar at the Mumbai Cricket Association’s (MCA) new clubhouse located amid the hustle of the city’s new business hub, the Bandra Kurla Complex. The focus was will India be able to sustain 90 days of (almost) non-stop cricket – the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Cricket World Cup 2011 (CWC) that kicked off Saturday and the Indian Premier League (IPL) that kicks-off a few days after the CWC final. The ‘sustain’ part of that conference focused around the marketing spend on both super-premier events and how the Indian public (read fans) would take the constant hammering – marketing and media activity for 90 days on the trot.
A quick visit to any of the metros where the games will be played will show the visitor that things are rather cold and that the expected madness – that the sporting world’s third largest event is supposed to create – is just not there. There simply is no real buzz apart from what fills the sports pages in the print media and on television. Quite the contrary was the excitement created during the 1996 CWC in India when major brands did a slug-fest on the crowded streets of the country with 21-foot bats eliciting wishes from the Indian fan to special music albums featuring the who’s who of the Bollywood music industry.
A few days before favorite team India took on Bangladesh, CWC 2011 still had not picked up the tempo that an event of this magnitude should have been expected to. The ICC and its sponsors have lined up a series of activities that are meant to titillate the people of India for whom cricket is religion. The world’s premier cricket organisation have lined up an official music album “De Ghumake” (hit it hard) featuring Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Enrique Iglesias, Black Eyed Peas, Rihanna, Lady Gaga and local favourite A.R. Rahman hoping it would out do Shakira’s ‘waka waka’, a tough ask. An FM channel has launched a ‘cricket anthem’ featuring Shaan and Kailash Kher aptly named ‘Go India Go’ by which they plan to zero in on the Indian fans ear-drums.
Cafes, restaurants and pubs are adopting a wait-and-watch policy before they dish out offers to their customers. Most revolve around the time when the Indian team plays matches. “We plan promotions around the World Cup and are looking at roping in a few cricketers to come to our Café and watch the games with our patrons,” said Deepak Choudhary, promoter, Fat Cat Café, a swish watering hole located in the western suburbs of Mumbai. Meldon D’cunha of Soul Fry Casa, situated in the commercial heart of Mumbai adds: “We are banking on the India games where our patrons can watch the match with promotional offers.”
Says G. Rajaraman, a senior sports writer commenting on the vital missing link in terms of the lack of buzz around the mega-event, “CWC is purely a television event considering that stadiums can house just 40 to 50,000 spectators – not a difficult task to fill. The buzz will increase as the tournament progresses and will revolve mainly around the India matches. The league fixtures will not attract too many eye-balls and the real buzz will start during the quarter finals.”
Online tickets for all India games have been sold-out in most centers while the MCA has yet to open the sale of tickets for the premier game of the tournament – the final. Die-hard cricket fanatics like Adithya Ramesh from Bangalore have made plans to see India’s crucial game against England. “We are happy that we got this game as a bonus,” says the 16-year old student who also runs a cricket blog. Bangalore’s gain was Kolkata’s loss. The ICC had relocated this important match to Bangalore after their committee decided that the Eden Gardens was not match-fit for the fixture. The move caused heartburn among Kolkattans and put a big dampener on the City of Joy.
The tremors moved beyond Kolkata and were felt by die-hard fans in Singapore too. Paul D’souza a Kolkattan living in Singapore was most disappointed as he had planned to take his 7-year old son Siddharth, to watch the match in “the best cricket stadium in the world.” A frustrated D’souza promptly dashed off a letter to Jagmohan Dalmiya, head honcho of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) saying, “Anger, frustration, disappointment – all these feelings engulfed me. Once these feelings subsided, I thought logically – It’s your incompetent team that runs the CAB that need to change their ‘mindset’, not the ICC. When my 7-year old heard that the match would not be held in Kolkata because the stadium was not ready, he asked me quizzingly – “Dad why did they sell the tickets if there was no stadium to play the match in – shouldn’t they have finished the work first?”
As tickets get sold and India (hopefully) progresses to the knock-out stages, the scalpers will be rubbing their hands in glee. Lower end ticket prices in stands that would normally cost in hundreds are likely to soar to thousands which will deter the common man to watch his men in blue. Matches that feature the minnows of the tournament will have few takers The MCA plans to give 2000 free tickets to students from civic schools. Of course, this largesse will be restricted to the two non-India matches and not the final! The illegal betting industry is expected to touch Rs 5000 billion considering the fever created around the world. No wonder the bookies are licking their chops.
While the well-connected are trying to use their influence to bag valuable tickets for India matches and the final, the whole buzz will depend on how India progresses – the die-hard fan, sponsors, advertisers and marketers along with the scalpers and bookies will be hoping that India plays and wins the final in Mumbai. And… it’s not just for Sachin!
