IPL Case Study
IPL Case Study
Case Context
The rhapsody of cricket, glamour, million dollar cheques and billion-dollar valuation; the
Indian Premier League (IPL) had seen it all. Many of the analysts, marketing heads and
agencies looked up to the IPL with awe and why not, how many businesses see a valuation
swing from a billion dollar to 4.1 billion dollars in just 3 years! To an untrained eye, it
might seem that Lalit Modi had the Midas touch which was giving compounding returns
to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and IPL as a franchise but what was
lost in this translation was the alma mater of IPL, i.e. Twenty-Twenty Cricket, popularly
known as T20 cricket.
Had it not been the primordial ingenuity of T20 cricket, IPL would probably had been
still in its infancy. So what was the story behind the rise and establishment of T20 cricket,
how did IPL gain a competitive edge in Indian scenario and what on earth happened to
the Indian Cricket League (ICL)?
INTRODUCTION
Shah Rukh Khan flashing his dimples, Katrina Kaif cavorting to the latest melodies, dazzling
laser lights, celebrities galore and ear pounding music around; no prizes for guessing that it
was a Bollywood award ceremony night. Well, all this was common sense until 18 April 2008
when a supernova named IPL occurred. This night changed the destiny of cricket watching in
India and around the world. Since then IPL over its last 8 editions has become a heady cock-
tail of cricket, Bollywood stars and corporate India with advertisers and sponsors across the
world were vying for a lucrative pie. The larger than life format might have become a colossal
behemoth today but ironically it had a series of ‘small’ precedents to it, which often get hog
washed in IPL’s blitzkrieg. When big guys slug it out, the battle often gets murkier. The murky
tales of IPL almost went hand in hand with its maddening success. The controversy of Lalit
Modi, the chairman (Exhibit 16.1) of IPL embroidered in money laundering was perhaps the
biggest blow to the brand IPL, but other unfortunate events like match fixing, Sreesanth getting
slapped by Harbhajan, Shah Rukh Khan’s ruckus at Wankhede stadium and the latest Preity
Zinta episode brought a lot of unwanted attention to IPL. Suddenly, police enquiries, charge
sheets and FIRs began to do rounds instead of cricket and entertainment. There was even the
scare of terrorist attack in the editions of IPL.
182 Cases in Strategic Management
All said and done, IPL continued to enjoy unprecedented success despite the onslaught of
negative publicity which in itself was an oxymoron as far as IPL was concerned since the
juggernaut of IPL made you ask that question: Was there anything like negative publicity?
There could be many a debate and discussion over the unholy nexus of corporate houses and
match fixing, black money in circulation or the format stealing the aura of 50 over cricket and
Test cricket but what could not be denied was that the world of sports and entertainment had
seldom seen such a heady concoction of glamor, success and cricket.
‘HUMBLED’ BEGINNINGS
IPL was often credited to be the brainchild of Lalit Kumar Modi but the inception of such a
format happened a year back when Subhash Chandra led Essel Group conceptualized a now
defunct ICL. It was a calculated business move from Chandra who had then launched Zee
Sports and needed content for it. A 20-over format based on teams free to choose players from
the global pool and be owned and operated on the lines of National Basketball Association
(NBA). The Essel group wanted to create an entire ecosystem around this format and wanted
to take it to the smaller cities of India. BCCI then saw it as a challenge to its own might and
pressed restrictions and sanctions on the players participating in the format. Amidst a lot of
litigations and hullabaloo over this fight of might between Subhash Chandra and BCCI, the
format suffered and saw its end in 2009.
Meanwhile a deft corporate czar himself, Lalit Modi saw a huge potential in this format and
brought in his expertise of running one of the biggest corporate houses in India to the format
and made the entire equation of playing, watching, telecasting and sponsoring a cricket event
turn on its head. Team selection, which used to be a hush-hush affair suddenly were telecasted
all over. The team owners bid mind-boggling sums to garner the best of the cricketing talents
around the world. A Sotheby’s which used to auction collections and memorabilia for the ultra-
elites of the world was doing the honors of the auctions in India. A mind numbing sum of
INR 438 crore spent on bidding for players in 2014 edition would have left a lot of Indian air
carriers red faced. The coming together of names of Reliance Industries, India Cements, Wadia
Group, Hero has made it a worthwhile comparison to the Dalal Street where the fortunes were
made and lost within one delivery or one trading session.
THE AFTERMATH
The coup that Modi was able to pull off was startling more over for that he was able to marry
two of the biggest crowd pullers of India, i.e. Cricket and Bollywood and the offspring was a
chartbuster indeed. From raking up awe inspiring TRP ratings (Exhibit 16.2) and viewership
world over to bring in millions to the coffers of BCCI, it saw every one merrily running to their
banks. The IPL juggernaut may be termed as the one with a Midas touch since whatever it
touched turned to gold. Be it the unheard names of Saurabh Tiwary, Umesh Yadav or Kamran
Khan who just would have passed by you without you recognising them suddenly became the
rage of the nation. It suddenly gave a hope to the smaller towns of India that even their sons
The IPL Era 183
of soil could make it big on the world stage. Even Himachal Pradesh hosted matches in IPL,
which used to be a nonstarter in the scheme of things of BCCI when it came to hosting inter-
national matches. It was also a money-spinner for the sponsors who bit the bullet and lived
by it to see their fortunes rise since associating themselves with IPL gave them a household
reach and a captive audience, which did not even bother to change channels during the breaks
in the match. The likes of Karbonn and Micromax gained further acceptability in the Indian
market, which in itself can be a case study.
BRAND VALUE
IPL became the known name for entertainment and it was watched by everyone irrespective of
their ages. One of the main reason for viewer’s preference was the time spent for a full match
only by 20 overs. The Brand Value of the Indian premier league had surged season after season.
In the 7th edition of IPL, its brand value was estimated at 3.2 billion USD up from 3.0 billion
USD last season. Although, the brand value in 2010 was at 4.13 billion USD. It was valued at
2.01 billion USD in 2009 (Exhibit 16.7).
VENUES OF MATCHES
In 2008, the number of venues was limited to 8, one for each team. However, in 2009, the
tournament was shifted to South Africa and there were no matches played in India. There
was a need to cater to the more cities within India to keep the audience involved in the IPL.
Therefore, the IPL administration went ahead and the number of venues has been increased
from 8 to 13 in the last 2 years (Exhibit 16.8).
ADVERTISEMENTS RATES
The official broadcaster (Exhibit 16.9) of IPL, Multi Screen Media (MSM) India had increased
the advertisement rates by 15 to 20 percent to 4.75 to 5 lakhs for 10-second window during the
match. The broadcaster earned over 1,000 crores during last year in ad revenue only.
giving a new insight and behind the scene coverage. But the players denied to both the above
and alas not all innovations could commercialise from conception.
But this did not discount the ones, which revolutionised the way a sport was experienced.
The first step was a careful auction of franchises inducing strong loyalties for their cities
amongst the fans. No one could have ever imagined the crowd erupting into loud cheers at
Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, when Sachin Tendulkar, ‘The God of Indian Cricket’ was out. The
auctioning process, a drab affair which used to interest only the accountants was conceptual-
ised into a thrilling Live TV event with fans sitting glued to their TV sets anticipating would
their favorite players be a part of their loyal team. The drama was intensified with Film stars
and big businessmen including Preity Zinta, Shahrukh Khan and Ambanis raising Dollar
figures to catch hold of their wish list players.
The environment seemed to be electric on the fields. Unlike the European counterpart
leagues where it was soothing Sunday outing type of feeling, the environment here was a party
in its own means. Music, glamour, cheerleaders, food and obviously thrilling fast paced cricket,
you named it and they had it all. The major idea towards creating this innovation on cricket
ground was to serve a particular issue with Indian cricket. The format was heavily dependent
on TV ratings and sponsorships but in the past, the cricket ratings had a direct correlation
with the performance of Indian Cricket Team. To offset that effect, the IPL became a common
platform for family entertainment. The idea was to provide a great experience with cricket
being a means to the end. Thus it would not be wrong to say that IPL existed actually in the
industry of entertainment and not just sports.
A testimony to its success in positioning itself could be seen from the fact that Bollywood
started to see slump in revenues at the time IPL was aired. The producers were quoted saying
that they were avoiding release of their movies during IPL season. Another commercial inno-
vation that came out of IPL was screening of IPL matches in Multiplex and Movie theatres
directly competing the entertainment industry head on.
Everything at IPL was held at the grandest level possible. We always attributed opening
ceremonies to events of stature of Olympics or Common Wealth games but here IPL made a
grand entry with lavish opening ceremonies having top Bollywood stars shaking a leg and also
worth mentioning Pitbull making a performance at the event. You really can’t doubt the global
vision of IPL.
It wasn’t just the entertainment for people who came out on the stadiums but the experience
of watching cricket was also changed for the viewers at home. If only fast paced, nail biting
matches were enough, IPL came in with live commentary by Umpires and Players on the field,
getting insights into what the player was experiencing and thinking at that particular point of
time in the match. Then came IPL Season 7 and people thought that after head banging shots
by Gayle and Dhoni, umpires were coming out with protective gear on their heads (though the
umpires have been demanding this as well), but IPL again surprised the audience with Umpire
Cams fitted on their caps. Thus showing the viewers a real time scenario of what an umpire
looks at when a ball is delivered and how fast everything is giving umpires a minimalistic time.
186 Cases in Strategic Management
If you were amongst those who criticised the umpires for wrong decisions, well IPL has put
you out of business then.
The greatest feat that IPL was able to achieve was that it was able to penetrate into the house-
holds of Indians. Gone were the times when husband and wife used to fight over whether to
see cricket or daily soaps. Now even the mothers had an opinion on the game and true loyalty
for Shahrukh Khan’s Kolkata team. The Gentleman’s game was now a family experience.
IPL did not stop right here. It was not satisfied with just a slice of pie. It went on to become
the first ever-domestic tournament to be covered globally and first sport event to be streamed
live on YouTube. That was truly innovative and impressive.
Though various national leagues inspired IPL across the world, yet it did not follow them
blindly. They created a separate revenue model for themselves. While the European football
leagues (the major inspiration) followed a revenue model of earning majorly from stadium
tickets, IPL predominantly depended on broadcasting rights, sponsorships and advertisements.
So much so that every brand wanted to have a pie of IPL and we could see a buffet of spon-
sors from DLF player of the day, Vodafone star of the match, City catch of the day, Pepsi VIP
box, from players to umpires to billboards and blimps. IPL was wooing advertisers and soaring
revenues by accessing across the people from diverse demographic profiles disregard of age,
gender and income level. They also loved the extra topping on the cake by providing a mid-
innings timeout.
In times of high uncertainty, IPL never lacked the talent to innovate or courage to imple-
ment it. When in 2009, Indian Government asked IPL committee to shift the dates of the
tournament due to security issues as General Elections were at the same time, IPL took a bold
step and the tournament was held in South Africa. Moreover, Lalit Modi moved IPL to South
Africa and the new hosts embraced IPL as their own child. During this season, IPL showed
true act of defiance, audacity, execution and innovation.
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE
Was the IPL sport or entertainment? It was the question which remained unanswered since
its inception in 2008. When the format of 20-20 was introduced for the very first time into
the world of cricket, it seemed to be a savior of the game. It was started to bring back the lost
interest of the cricket fans but got transformed into a bigger entity. IPL is a game where drum-
mers, DJs, singers, fireworks, celebrities, all together make it extravagant. In a nation like India
where people were crazy about cricket and worshiped players like god, everything else took a
back seat when IPL season was on. It was not only the matches and teams which attracted the
people but also all the entertainment stuff which came along with it. IPL was considered to be
the mixture of glamour, money, and was incomparable to any other Indian sport. Both auction
and cheerleading was its important part while the former helped in creating the buzz about
the event and indicated the scale of the event latter provided on field glamour and entertain
viewers whether at the ground or on television. In fact cheerleading was first introduced in
India by IPL, which was considered to be an integral part of almost all the American sports.
The IPL Era 187
Despite some protest about cheerleading, this segment of the game had only evolved over the
past years. Shahrukh Khan commercialised cheerleading when he did auctioning of cheer-
leaders for his team Kolkata Knight Riders.
Chief financial officer1 of Sun TV, owner of the Hyderabad franchise V.C. Unnikrishnan
said, “We are into the business of media and entertainment. Cricket is possibly the largest enter-
tainment in the country, in terms of sports.” Most popular TV programs registered a downward
turn in their TRP (Television Rating Point) during the IPL. From live steaming on YouTube
to special showcasing of the matches in the multiplexes, it was ensured that nobody missed
the fun of this once in every year festival of cricket. The superstars and Bollywood celebri-
ties added more glamour to this event. The opening ceremony of the event became memo-
rable by the esteemed guests of Bollywood like Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Kareena
Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Prabhudeva as well as Pop artist Katy Perry performed to enthrall
the audience. The parties thrown by franchise owners and players had also become a source
of entertainment for viewers and players. The IPL matches were so crisp that it acted as an
alternative of going to a 3-hour movie. The entertainment value of IPL could be gauged from
the fact that Directors shied away from releasing their movies during the IPL season, as they
fear low turnout during that season.
PRESSING ISSUES
Currently the biggest debacle for the IPL had to be the infestation with corruption and spot
fixing. When Sreesanth, Ajit Chandala and Ankeet Chavan were arrested by the Delhi police
on 16 May 2013 on charges of corruption, the whole nation was shocked and IPL’s image
suffered the greatest possible setback! Some investigation and a few days’ later probes lead to
the arrest of Meiyappan Guranath, a chief CSK official and son-in-law of BCCI president N.
Srinivasan. And now there were big question marks on not only the credibility of IPL, but
the credibility of its roots and that of BCCI as well. A reminder was in place for the big Lalit
Modi scandal worth INR 470 corers in 2010, but then it had been the BCCI versus one man
and somehow its image had been salvaged. This time though they were facing the heat. BCCI,
the richest board in the world, was by definition a “charitable organization” which was exempt
from the IT department. Hence, questions were also being raised about the underbelly of BCCI,
its possible link-ups with the underworld just like it had been in the Bollywood.
The second major concern for IPL was its decreasing popularity and reducing shares in
primetime television, its major source of revenue. There was a time when television shows
and movies were not launched in the period of IPL; owing to the way it gripped the public
imagination. However times changed and today people felt free to launch new television serials
and released movies in this period, like ‘2 States’ and ‘Heropanti’ did reasonably well despite
1
Online Resource: http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies (accessed 27 October 2012).
188 Cases in Strategic Management
being released in the mid of the tournament. According to television producer Rajan Shahi,2
“IPL has really become a cricket reality show and people are fed up of this ‘tamasha’.” Well there
had certainly been a cricket overdose, with international fixtures and the IPL occupying your
calendar all the year round. In this scenario, it was but obvious that people tend to lose their
interest, more so with the initial excitement and novelty of the IPL fading away.
Last, but perhaps the most fundamental issue was the IPL’s impact over the quality of cricket
and cricketers alike. With the advent of IPL as the flag bearer of T-20 cricket in India, the style
of playing had definitely gone through a complete makeover. While the scoops and cheeky wide
Yorkers worked brilliantly in this format, its effect on the orthodox cricket was catastrophic
with players getting impatient and inconsistent alike. The recently concluded India-England
series was a glaring example, where IPL stalwarts were found missing on the basic technical
elements of the game. Definitely it was the T-20 format that was to blame, but in India the
format itself was synonymous with the IPL.
At the same time there were problems in certain cases where nationalistic feelings suffered
due to the tournament. There were players, especially from the poorer nations, willing to
play the tournament at a cost of playing in their national side. Quote unquote Chris Gayle, he
would rather retire and play in the IPL. There had also been instances of international fixtures
clashing with the IPL matches and players choosing the club over their country. And although
on face value this did not seem to be doing any harm to IPL itself, this could definitely lead
to serious issues in the future over international players and their commitments. Problems
also were over the national team itself getting fragmented due to different club loyalties and
the inherent groups. Evidence could be derived from Virender Sehwag accusing Dhoni of
groupism, or the ugly episode between Gambhir and Kohli.
Simultaneously came the question of what the tournament did to young talent, and the
answers were shady to say the least. Firstly, with IPL came a lot of money and glamour–some-
thing every cricketer yearned for. But this soon leads to a distraction and even before they were
fit to join the national team their young careers seemed to have run their full course. This was
the reason why we rarely saw a Goni or Manish Pandey do good at the big level despite being
stars in the IPL. On the other hand, there were Rahane and Pujara who had come through the
orthodox way and found them firmly placed in the national squad. One needed to understand
that the ultimate achievement for any cricketer was to be part of the national squad, but with
IPL the tournaments like Ranji Trophy and Dulip Trophy got sidelined greatly. But the lure
drove the young players and valuable talent was wasted there. On the other hand were young
cricketers who understood the importance of the local tournaments, made it their priority to
find a place in the national squad and then maybe go for other lucrative ventures like the IPL.
But then, again due to the IPL, these players felt sidelined and neglected. This was the reason
why our under-19 World Cup stars Harmeet Singh and Akshdeep Nath raised concerns over
the adverse effect the tournament had on the young talents.
2
Online resource: www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com; Times of India report (accessed 21 April 2014).
The IPL Era 189
EXHIBITS
Chennai Super Kings 5,825,000 1,740,000 350,000 3,995,000 +4 2,000,000 1,285,000 9,966,000
2012 India–Chennai, Mumbai, Mohail, Pune, Kolkata, Visakhapatnam, Dharamsala, Bangalore, Jaipur,
Hyderabad, Cuttack, Delhi
2013 India–Jaipur, Dharamsala, Mohali, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, Ranchi, Raipur, Bangalore,
Chennai, Hyderabad
2014 United Arab Emirates–Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah
India–Mohali, Delhi, Ranchi, Ahmedabad, Cuttack, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad
Exhibit 16.9 Broadcasting Forecast for 10 Years for Set Max-Set Six
Years 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Ad Inflows 2725 3134 3604 4144 4766 5243 5767 6344 6978 7676
Promotions 432 432 432 432 432 432 432 432 432 432
Outflows 2448 2448 2448 2448 2448 2448 2448 2448 2448 2448
P/L – 155 254 724 1264 1886 – 85 439 1016 1650 2348
(Source: http://www.iplt20.com/ (accessed 22 June 2013))
Note: All the figures are in Millions INR
2011 – Change in format: Each team will have to play 5 matches in other teams home grounds
– Spider Cam introduced in India
2012 – In-match interviews with players & umpire using light-weight microphones
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