Cricket is a game, T20 is entertainment and IPL
is business !
Heard of Trevor Penney ?
- irony that the same idea failed one while it showers money to the
other. Indian Cricket League (ICL),
funded by Zee Entertainment Enterprises
came a cropper bringing misery to all those associated with it. The Indian Premier League (IPL) has come a
long way since the inaugural season in April 2009 when it lasted for 46 days
with 59 matches scheduled, out of which 58 took place and 1 was washed out due
to rain. In 2010, IPL became the first sporting event ever to be broadcast live
on YouTube. Its brand value is estimated
to be around US$2.99 billion in fifth season.
With so many corruptions being exposed now, IPL too is engulfed in some scandals with allegations of betting, money laundering and spot fixing etc., One of the original franchisees – the Deccan Chargers ran into rough. DC was run by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd, the media group which acquired the franchise for an amount of USD 107 million on 24 January 2008. Their logo is a charging bull.
Due to financial problems Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd,
the team owner of Deccan Chargers announced an sale of their team by
auction. It was announced that the sale
will be through a bidding process – but it ended up different with team's
owners rejecting the sole bid they received from PVP Ventures. Thereafter, BCCI announced that the Decaan
Chargers IPL franchise was terminated due to various violations of BCCI
codes.
DC was based out of
Hyderabad
– they rose to prominence in IPL 2 when they won the championship under the
captaincy of Adam Gilchrist. The team
was coached by Darren Lehmann, former Australian cricketer. After the debacle in the inaugural tourney,
DC management sacked the entire administration associated with the tournament
in that year. They removed their CEO J. Kalyan Krishnan, Coach Robin Singh and
the Captain V.V.S. Laxman and replaced them with Tim Wright, the former
Australian batsman Darren Lehmann and former Australian Wicket-Keeper Adam
Gilchrist respectively. In the
subsequent years, they did not do anything great, finishing in the lower rungs
all the years.
Now they are in news as the
Sun TV network has won the
Hyderabad
franchise of the IPL, bidding Rs 85.05 crores per year (around $15.9m) for a
five-year deal. So, DC perhaps is no
longer part of IPL - the new owners can
select the players from the Deccan Chargers team depending on their requirement
and opt for those unsold players as well.
Sun TV, the new owners of the
Hyderabad
franchise have complete rights to go in for a brand new name for their team.
Retaining the name Deccan Chargers would mean seeking the rights from the past
owners. There could be some confusion as DC had its base in
Hyderabad
and played matches in Andhra as its
home; Sun TV is head-quartered in Chennai where CSK has its base.
It is reported that the other bidder PVP Ventures, offered Rs 69.03 crores per
year (around $12.9m). In all, four firms had bough the tender document. Besides
Sun TV Network and PVP Ventures, Jaypee Group and Videocon had bought the
document but didn't submit the bid. The first thought is that Sun TV are paying
double of what the Deccan Chargers did Rs 85.05 crore per year compared to DCs
Rs 42.04 crore – thus the BCCI is having a windfall. But … is that the reality
?!?!?!?
In an attempt to draw more bidders, the base price for the
franchise had been lowered to about $56m (about Rs 300 crore) for five years,
compared to the base price of $225m for ten years in 2010, when the Pune and
Kochi
franchises were
bought. So, Sun TV Network won the
Hyderabad
franchise of the Indian Premier League for an amount of Rs 85.05 crores per
year.
In Mar 2010, Sahara
Adventure Sports Limited made the winning bid of $370 million (approximately Rs
1981 crore by today’s value) for the Indian Premier League’s Pune
franchise. The bid is the highest bid by
any company in the history of IPL and it likely to remain that way given that
the Sun TV Network won the Hyderabad Franchise for an amount of Rs 85.05 crore
per year.
Sahara
, in comparison, are paying
190-odd crore per year. Would it
surprise anyone if
Sahara
decided that they
wanted to renegotiate their contract in the wake of what everyone else is
paying for their franchise to the BCCI?
In 2008, when Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd made the highest
bid for an Indian Premier League franchise ($124 million for Mumbai), many
termed it as a gamble.
When
Sahara
made that $370
million purchase, the BCCI spoke in glowing terms about how it was an
affirmation of the IPL’s increased brand value. Rendezvous Sports World had
also forked out $333.33 crore for
Kochi
,
a team that doesn’t exist anymore. Those
two bids were worth a total of about Rs 3,235 crore (when converted to
Indian rupees) which was more than the Rs 2,853 crore that was collectively
paid by the existing eight franchise owners in the first auction. But now the sale is on a song – so low
!!! - has the IPL brand value fallen so
low.
Former IPL chairman Lalit Modi fired a fresh salvo at BCCI
president N Srinivasan, alleging that he is trying to “gift” the
Hyderabad
franchise to
his “friends”. “So finally Sun TV has got an IPL franchise. I had predicted 3
months ago it will be SUN as BCCI president wanted it that way. Can’t be a
bigger scam than this. Someone should see
N Srinivasan
’s
relationship and India Cements relationship with Sun TV. Don’t forget Kalaignar
TV and India TV scam,” Modi wrote on Twitter.
Away from all this muddle, will Hyderabadi
fans still retain the loyalty for DC with the new Chennai boss – or will
Chennai fans have trouble in ‘whistling for CSK’ when another team can stake
claim for Chennai base !! The TV group
which has – Sun, Gemini, Udaya, Surya and host of other channels can easily
promote their brand advertising all the time in between Cinema, comedy shows,
songs and more or will it be more advertisements in between the matches – don’t
be surprised if the bowler waits for an
advt to get over before delivering his next ball.
Trevor Lionel Penney
born in
Salisbury
,
Rhodesia
played county cricket and
was known for his fielding prowess. Penney is the current fielding coach of the
Indian cricket team; he is also the fielding coach of Deccan Chargers.
With regards –
S. Sampathkumar
.
