Thread by @KShriniwasRao

Thanks for the birthday wishes. : )

Here's a #Thread on #IPL.

Yesterday I shared the start & end date of IPL-2022. Must say I was a little surprised with some reverts. “74 games too many”, “1/6th of the year”, “Boring”, “jarring”, so on.

Really? Not quite. Let explain. (1/25)

Modern-day cricket, like any sport, has essentially stood on three pillars: 1) those who play it, 2) those who watch it, 3) those who administer & finance it.

The fourth pillar is of the thinking minds. Those who speak for the game and protect its identity & uniqueness. (2/25)

Here’s where I believe cricket has changed: The three pillars of the game I mentioned have steadfastly moved in one direction, at least the majority of them, for better or worse (that’s for another day).

And the fourth pillar has shown little interest in catching up. (3/25)

This growing distance is not helping because commentary is not in sync with the pace at which cricket is moving & direction it is heading in.

There are no free lunches. A sport requires finances to survive. Finances don't thrive on emotions.

It's always demand vs supply. (4/25)

How many are aware of this: No stakeholder in cricket, including its parent body – International Cricket Council (ICC) – and any of its member boards, Asian Cricket Council, and even BCCI (bilateral) will float a tender to sell media rights before the IPL gets sold first. (5/25)

You know why? Because nobody will come to the bidding table. Every single broadcaster wants to save every single penny to first attempt buying the IPL. Only those who don’t get will eye other cricket rights.

And that is why, everybody else must wait.

Why is this so imp? (6/25)

It's important because of the eyeballs IPL generates.

The 2021 IPL edition had viewership in excess of 380 million for just the first 35 games. Compare that to the 2019 ICC World Cup final that generated a total viewership of somewhere around 167 million.

Get the drift? (7/25)

The MI vs CSK game in 2020 edition of IPL had a viewership of 357 million. The same clash in 2021 saw viewership of 367 million.

Compare that to Ashes Day & Night Test that broke the record set by the India vs Australia Boxing Day Test at MCG: A viewership of 440,000. (8/25)

Please do not think for a moment that I’m comparing formats. There’s no comparison with Test cricket. I’m only talking numbers because that’s how the industry functions.

Now, every time someone shares an ‘opinion’ that IPL is killing cricket, numbers step in to defy it. (9/25)

Now, remember, the numbers I shared were from a World Cup final, Ashes & India tour of Oz. The final session of the Ind-Eng Test at Lord’s saw viewership impressions of around 10.07m.

This is as marquee as cricket gets.

I'm sure you can guess where I'm going with this. (10/25)

Only India vs Pak can potentially rank higher than any other clash in cricket today outside of the IPL – be it Ashes, India-Eng or Ind-Aus . There’s no doubt.

However, none of these contests generate close to 1/10th of the numbers that a single MI vs CSK clash does. (11/25)

Here’s something else: 70% of all global consumption I’ve mentioned above happens in India alone.

So, even if a World Cup final between England & New Zealand was played at Lord’s – 5 ½ hours behind IST – 70% of that game was still consumed by the Indian sub-continent. (12/25)

Now, let’s look at the other T20 leagues:

Combined viewership of Big Bash (61.5m), PSL (57.6m), CPL (44.5m) remains 1/3rd of the viewership IPL generates only in India.

It is important to spell out these figures. Only then the real big picture begins to emerge. (13/25)

So, what is that big picture? As I mentioned earlier: Where there’s demand, there will be supply.

No country in the world is so single-mindedly obsessed about one sport like cricket in India.

And remember, we're talking about the world's second-highest population. (14/25)

ICC will sell its global media rights this year after IPL rights get sold. You know what they have in mind? Sell only the India territory first and then sell the Rest-of-the-World.

Why? Because 80% of the revenue is coming from here. It matters more than anything else. (15/25)

Doesn’t matter where you host the World Cup, you’re in business only if India is watching.

And now, coming to the point, what does India want to watch? Well, I often use this analogy: Think of the Indian food ‘thali’.

There's space in an Indian 'thali' for everything. (16/25)

India consumes Ashes, World Cups, random bilateral, Big Bash, CPL, PSL – a bit of everything.

Just like the ‘thali’ – there’s space for rice, chapatis, daal, curry & then, there’s space for papad, pickle & sweets.

Similarly, there's appetite for all cricket in India. (17/25)

And in that, India has a larger appetite for IPL more than anything and it's time the cricketing world accepts this, just like India accepts cricket from all over the world.

If consumer is spending, respect that choice...

Which brings us to the last leg of this thread. (18/25)

The argument that 74 matches over 65-odd days are ‘boring’, ‘stretched’ -- is for those who enjoy making opinions.

Reserve price for IPL media rights (when tender comes out) will be at US$4.2b (that’s approx Rs 32,000 cr).

That means, bidding will start from Rs 32k cr. (19/25)

Who pays this kind of money for ‘boring’ cricket? There are no free lunches.

The bidding war is expected to cross US$6.5b (approx. Rs 45,000 cr). Why? Obviously because there’s consumption.

The number of IPL games will go from 74 to 84 to 94 over the next three years. (20/25)

Oz won’t compromise on Boxing Day; Eng fiercely protects its summer; Every other ICC home board is looking at ways to sustain/survive.

Blaming IPL, in the name of ‘protecting cricket’, is 'fashionable'.

But here's the thing, only fans can ‘protect’ a game. No one else. (21/25)

The English Premier League (EPL) has 380 matches every season -- from August to May.

Barring the top 6-8 teams, much of the football we see is actually ‘jarring’. The 2019-22 rights cycle was sold for US$4.55b (an 11% drop from previous cycle).

It's 30-year-old league. (22/25)

IPL is just 14 going on 15, half of EPL’s age.

Its business model is unique, India provides viewership, and the world wants to participate (at least players do).

An ‘opinion-maker’ must take this into account. I’ve said it before – future of cricket is a ‘free market’. (23/25)

Just like other cricket boards will bargain their end, India will bargain for a larger IPL window.

The reason why ICC wants a World Cup every year is this very reason: To survive in a market that’s increasingly getting dictated by IPL. ICC members voted in favour of it. (24/25)

The IPL, therefore, must do what it has to, to derive value from an industry that gets driven by the value of the dollar.

Sounds obnoxious, does it? But I’m not preaching morality here.

Yes, quality of cricket needs drastic improvement but that’s for another day.

(ends)

Note: when I mention viewership in IPL, it's peak "reach" data in line with the numbers shared by Barc.