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Mumbai, May 3:Cricket lovers may have to wait a while before laying their hands on DLF Indian Premier League merchandise. Though retailers and franchisers are both enthusiastic about the prospects of IPL, not very many deals have been inked so far between the two. So far only the Kolkata Knight Riders has signed a merchandising deal with Videocon’s Planet M stores. Planet M will have special zones within their stores to sell the Knight Riders jerseys, key chains, caps and other accessories.

Retailers feel the format of the league is still in its early stages. According to Shoppers Stop CEO Govind Shrikhande, “The entire tournament took a proper shape and started about 60 days ago. The matches started only by mid-April. At that time, teams did not have any specific character. People were confused about to whom to support. For example, Ajit Agarkar, who always played for Mumbai, suddenly went to the Kolkata team. So, there was an element of confusion. Now, the format is settling down and the emotional connect is building up.”

However, with 30% of the international players leaving and a new set of players coming in, teams may again form a new character.

“For any retail and merchandising activities, there should be at least 90 days of preparation ahead of the event. This year, there wasn’t any time. Maybe there will be city specific merchandising activities before the onset of the next IPL season. Also, we will have to figure out how to reap benefits from IPL merchandising,” he explained. Analysts also say franchisers are deliberately not signing deals and will do so once the tournament gets over. This way, in the second half of the year, the franchisers get options to keep their individual team brands alive till the next IPL season, which is slated in 2009.

The Future Group, which has sold over Rs 1 crore worth of IPL tickets in JV with Ticketpro.com, which is officially selling tickets for the tournament, is also not considering merchandising right now. According to Big Bazaar CEO Rajan Malhotra, “Licensing and merchandising is at a very nascent stage in India and therefore the amounts floating around for IPL merchandise are economically not viable at this moment.”

Retail analysts also say that big retailers do not know which franchiser to take on board. Clearly, one retail house cannot do merchandise activities with more than one team. Hypothetically, Shoppers Stop cannot have both Mumbai Indians and Bangalore Royal Challengers. Also, because of the mixed character of the teams, retailers are confused about the marketing of the products. For example, Chennai Super Kings merchandise may have a high saleability in South India, but no one knows how it will do in the other parts of India despite MS Dhoni’s huge fan base pan-India.

They feel that the team’s brand imagery is restricted to specific geographical areas.

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