YOU READ IT RIGHT. We are talking about a union of the super-rich owners of the Indian Premier League (IPL), not the employees or workers of the 10 franchises that constitute cricket’s biggest business story.
The IPL is a super-successful annual circus, but its founder, Lalit Modi, points out there is no place for “clowns” in this show. Ensconced in London, after being booted out by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), owners of the league, Modi’s comments have been sparked off by the theatrics of Sanjiv Goenka, owner of the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) franchise. He remarked: “This is when one gets clowns running around as owners who think they know better. It’s just not done period. Shameful is all I can say.”
Following a humiliating loss to Punjab Kings by eight wickets, the visuals of Goenka berating a sheepish Rishabh Pant, the captain, has spawned multiple memes. For all one knows it could have been Goenka pepping up his record-breaking Rs27-crore buy, but for the fans of the game it was a repeat incident involving the same owner. In the 2024 edition, Goenka had publicly lashed out at his then captain, KL Rahul, after a game was lost and nobody can be blamed for presuming that Pant received a similar battering.
The most condemnable sight in sports is a player, star or rookie, being reprimanded in front of fans of the game, either by an official or an owner. The fans are thankful for the games being organised, but come for the gladiators. And they don’t want clowns to judge their heroes. It’s their right to give the thumbs up or down for a performance.
While it’s the owner’s prerogative to talk to his franchise’s captain, coach, or players, Modi’s comments have a deeper impact on the league. “Completely unheard of the way this owner @rpsggroup sanjivgoenka behaves with his players. This is not how I envisaged @iplt20 to have been run. He should be reprimanded and fined by the IPL governing council.”
Whether the council will step in or not remains to be seen, but for the other owners of this closed league, it should be a matter of concern because the long-term value of the league could be affected by similar or worse behaviour. A precedent was set in the inaugural season itself with the flamboyant, now absconding, Vijay Mallya, owner of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) franchise unceremoniously sacking his CEO, Charu Sharma, due to poor results from the team.
Though not “clownish” behaviour, one is reminded of the instance where, in 2017, several owners of NFL franchises wrote to a fellow owner, Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys franchise, that his “antics” were not in line and his “conduct detrimental to the league’s best interests (read value)”. Jones was seen deliberately delaying the extension of the leagues commissioner, Roger Godell’s, contract. Jones’ actions were linked to Godell earlier suspending Ezekiel Elliot, a star player for the Cowboys. The fellow owners in the league hence felt the need to remind Jones that his actions have a direct bearing on their fortunes too, and hence it wouldn’t be tolerated.
Mallya’s action happened in the early days when it was a new game for even the owners. Over the seasons, the owners, though unhappy every time their teams don’t win, have learnt to manage the highs and lows of owning a sports franchise. Hence the current behaviour of newbie Goenka should come as a wake-up call for the battle-hardened owners to consolidate and set in place rules of engagement that ensures actions which are not detrimental to the growing value of the league and their franchises.
With the high stakes and prestige associated with winning, the chances of existing vanity owners, and others like them who might come in the future, not being concerned about the league’s fortunes or treating players as owned commodities is a high risk. Call it a union, consortium, syndicate, whatever. Even if it is an informal arrangement, these super-rich owners, some more equal than the others, need to frame the unwritten laws that will safeguard and grow the value of the league and their franchises. They hold the power to ensure the circus goes on, without any clown acts!
