New story of cricket

The amount may appear staggering in India, where, despite the establishment of football and Hockey leagues, professional club sports are still something of a novelty. But with the high-profile purchase of Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises for fantastic prices, there appears a good likelihood that Indian domestic Cricket may tread a similar path to American,

The IPL represents the grandest, most ambitious experiment yet in professional sports in India. It is no surprise that the franchisees should include leading industrialists and Bollywood stars, all of whom are evidently banking on India’s insatiable appetite for cricket. But what investors may not have considered is the feeling of ownership or identity that must necessarily be instilled in supporters to ensure the enterprise’s long-term success. Kerry Packer’s experience with World Series Cricket notably demonstrated that a massive influx of investment alone was not enough to guarantee a sporting competition’s future.

Countries with longer and richer histories of professional club sports than India have witnessed the establishment of complex, profound relationships between clubs and their supporters, players, staffs and stadiums. In many cases, support for a team connotes not just parochial sentiments, but also political leanings (in Rome, Lazio supporters were traditionally right-wing while A.S. Roma’s leaned left), religious identities (Catholic Glaswegians support Celtic and their Protestant brethren Rangers), and ethnic pride (Catalans regularly rally around FC Barcelona and Basques frequently identify with Athletic Bilbao). Such sentiments appear even more irrational given that these clubs’ players are frequently foreign nationals. Yet such distinctions, developed over decades, provide the clubs with large, unwavering fan bases.

But instilling clubs with an identity is also not a sole guarantor of success. While last year’s initial Indian Cricket League (ICL) competition was perhaps unprecedented in enabling international stars to play alongside domestic Indian cricketers divided along regional lines, the single venue and short-term nature of the competition worked only to minimise the cultivation of potential supporters.

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