IPL - 2008. A Businessman's Guide

Q .What is the role of BCCI and how has it contributed to the success of the IPL?

• The role of BCCI in Indian cricket needs to be understood first:

– Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is a society registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act.

– It has set up a separate body to handle the IPL with Mr. Lalit Modi as the IPL Commissioner. Mr. Modi is an office bearer in the BCCI.

– He reports to Shri.Sharad Pawar, the Chairman of the BCCI, who is currently, the Minister for Agriculture in the Indian Government.

– Surprisingly, this society is not directly under the Government and is comprised of industrialists and politicians. But it selects and sends the national cricket team for international matches.

– It is affiliated to the International Cricket Council, which comprises of entities that manage and controls cricket in various countries such as UK, Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

– BCCI has various State Cricket Associations affiliated to it which manage venues and manages cricket teams of each state.

• BCCI’s financial strength is now considerable and has proportionate clout in the international arena.

– In 1992 it had a deficit of $150,000(Rs 63lakhs).

– It has now however, increased its profits from $1.11 million (Rs 4.62 crores) in 2004-05 to $7.64 million (Rs 32 crores) in 2005-06. This 32 crores came from overall revenue of Rs 430 crores.

– Overall income for the BCCI in 2006-07 was Rs 650 crores BCCI executives say 80 per cent of that income is from broadcasting rights. The television rights as mentioned earlier include the 5 year $612 million (Rs 2,570.4crores) deal with Nimbus up to 2010 , the Zee Telefilms for $220 million (Rs 924 crores) for the same time frame.

– The BCCI has also sold the kit sponsorship to Nike for $45 million (Rs189crores) for five years through December 31, 2010.

– The team sponsorship has gone to Air Sahara for $72 million (Rs 302crores).

– Business Standard estimates that it will get another $450 million (Rs1890crores) from the sale of other rights, including hotel, travel and ground sponsorship.

– Forbes magazine attempted a valuation of the different cricket boards. According to its calculations,

– the BCCI was worth $1.5 billion, the England & Wales Cricket Board $270 million

– and Cricket Australia $225 million. The ICC was pegged much lower at $200 million. The others were Pakistan ($100 million), South Africa ($65 million), Sri Lanka ($14 million) and Bangladesh ($5 million). "There are 10 full members of ICC, but in terms of revenue India contributes more than 70% to the game," the magazine wrote. "Most sponsorships and broadcast rights come from India, and Indian tours make foreign boards rich.

– Players make or break the popularity of a game. Iconic players with superior talent drive viewer ship and the fan base. BCCI has exclusive rights to selecting and retaining the “men in blue” or the Indian cricket team. Post 1983’s World Cup success, the game and the players have been celebrities in their own right. Exclusive access to them has given it a monopoly status in one of the country’s main pastimes.

– The BCCI has several cricketers on contract. The top Indian players -- eight at last count -- get an annual retainer of $115,000. The players in Grade B (four) get an $81,000 retainer and those in Grade C (five) get $46,000. The match fee is $5,800 a test match and $3,700 for ODI matches. The contracts were revised upwards after 2006.

– Under the existing system, 26% of BCCI's gross revenues were earmarked for player payments. The Men in Blue -- the Indian team -- got 13%, domestic cricketers got 10.6%, with the remaining 2.4% going to junior cricketers.

– Indian cricket’s governing body plans to allocate Rs 55 crore (a 30 per cent increase over last year) as match fees for domestic cricketers in 2007-08, in response to the ICL threat. ( a rival league sponsored by Zee’s Subash Chandra)

– BCCI announced domestic cricketers would be paid Rs 36,000 per match day in the current financial year, from around Rs 26,000 per match day in the last fiscal. Each senior cricketer plays up to 45 match days in domestic cricket (if his team notches up a stellar performance), taking the annual match fee earnings of local players up to Rs 16.2 lakh.

– BCCI’s also runs the National Cricket Academy and such initiatives to identify talent. It has the ability to provide raw talent for the franchisees.

• The setting up of the IPL as a separate entity was one of the decisions of the BCCI. Headed by one of its office bearers, Mr Lalit Modi as its Commissioner, the IPL has a separate management team with a CEO and a Governing Council.

• The format has been prepared carefully and the rules carefully adjusted to ensure that the league is not dominated by anyone team and the matches remain exciting and unpredictable.

• Leveraging its clout and appeal it has contracted nearly 78 international and national players to form a pool for franchisees. Most of them are on “basic” contracts where the entire player fee goes to them while there are others on a “firm contract” where a minimum fee is guaranteed by IPL and any excess paid by franchisees is kept by the IPL. If more than one team is interested in the player, it is decided by an auction. Contracts are irrevocable and for 3 years and need to be paid irrespective of whether the player is in the playing 11 or on the bench. Every year there is also trading of players. While giving players a sense of security, this automatically acts as an incentive and a whip for the player in question.

• There are ‘icon’ players in each team who will be paid 15% more than the highest paid player, since they will not be auctioned. Sachin Tendulkar for Mumbai, Sehwag for Delhi, Dhoni for Chennai, Dravid for Bangalore, Ganguly for Calcutta, Yuvaraj for Punjab. For Royals and Chargers there is no icon player. This has ensured that each franchisee has a ‘star attraction’ in his team and there is an ‘anchor product’, to use a retailing term, to get in the ‘footfalls’.

• A minimum and maximum has been kept as the bandwidth for players fees. Each franchisee is expected to pay a minimum of US$3.3(Rs13.6 crores) million per annum and a maximum of US$ 5million per annum (Rs 21 crores) for the team in terms of players fees. The playing team can comprise of a maximum of 4 international players and the rest are Indian nationals. This ensures that the playing fields are level and there is no domination by anyone team which could make the match predictable and kill its main appeal which is its unpredictability.

• A rookie will pocket a minimum of 8.4 lakhs per annum, a Ranji player a minimum of Rs21 lakhs per annum and ICC ranked players from Rs 42 lakhs per annum upwards. This is sufficient incentive to bring in talent that exists in the country and create local brands that can grow into national brands. An example being Goni the fast bowler and Yousuf Pathan.

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Slapping and Sledging

The most talked about topic in corporate corridors these days, is not so much whether the RBI hike in CRR will curb inflation, or whether the export disincentives for steel and the import reductions for its raw materials will do the trick, but whether sledging is right and if a slap is the best response! Given the media columns devoted to this “national incident” and the larger issue of sledging in sports, here are a few nuggets on this episode that probably deserve second thoughts.

To the discerning, it would be clear that the 'word' is and has always been, mightier than the “sword”. In any conflict, or intense rivalry, the 'word' has been used to telling effect. Most people now concur, that its the 'mental victory' that is crucial and which dictates the events in the physical plane.

Those who have been part of the 91% viewership that the serial garnered on Sunday mornings, a couple of decades ago, would be familiar with the “Mahabharata”. (Other sources of awareness also exist! ). The focal point of the epic was the Bhagawad Geeta. It was essentially the power of 'words' that lifted Arjuna from an 'anxiety attack' and gave him the resolve and the mental strength to realize his potential.

The much debated “Sethusamudram bridge”, which is the news these days, has an interesting anecdote attached with it, in the epics. The Ramayana refers to the time prior to its construction, when the sea had to be crossed through other means. “Hanuman” was told, that he alone, could jump across and reach Lanka. A feat, he felt, was beyond him. It is said that Jambavan, another simian, referred to incidents in Hanuman's life, where as a child, he almost reached the Sun and convinced him, that it was within him to reach Lanka on his own. This is often referred to as “Jambavani”. 'Jambavani' is something that helps someone realize his true, latent, strength. Parents are advised by psychologists to provide positive 'auto suggestions' to children that work as 'Jambavani'. If we were to use modern terminology "Pygmalion Effect" or "self fulfilling prophecy" are the terms in use. Pygmalion effect naturally comes from G.B. Shaw's play of the same name, where Eliza Doolittle mentions that for Prof Higgins, she will always be a "cockney girl" because that is what he expects her to be while for others like Colonel Pickering, she will be a lady with etiquette since that is what they expect her to be! The learning her is that people take 'cues' from the environment and behave.

In a book titled "Winning Habits" by B.P. Bam, he also talks about the power of verbalisation and visualisation. Verbalisation is according to him about meditation and chanting, while visualisation is about projecting yourself to a higher level than where you are currently. Verbalisation through mantras and chants help in creating the right imagery, concentration and in focusing on the moment. Like Arjuna who saw only the target, for success focus is key both on the physical and mental planes. Visualisation is supposed to build muscle memory and create subsequent natural responses. Something which Rahul Dravid claims he has benefited by. Mathew Hayden is known to sit at the batting pitch prior to the match to visualize the actual subsequent inning he is to play. Batsmen are known to repeatedly do well in a venue and this is to some extent, due to the venue triggering nueral maps, that are positive.

There is a lesser known tale of Karna and his charioteer “Shalya”. It is believed that Shalya constantly was ‘chatting’ with Karna and reminding him of his birth in a low caste family, a sore point, with the otherwise brilliant warrior. Apparently, this led to the warrior fighting depression and the Pandavas!. To make things worse, he could not kill any of the Pandavas except Arjuna, because he had given his word to Kunti, who confesses to him that she is his biological mother, one day prior to battle. To make things worse, Karna was also constantly the target of jibes from Bhishma and on the occasion of Kurukshetra, chose not to fight for his friend Duryodhana, as long as Bhishma was leading the Kaurava army. Parashurama his guru, gives him a 'curse' which is an 'auto suggestion' of sorts that he will forget all that the learned, at the most crucial time. It works like a self fulfilling prophecy at the Kurukshetra, when he is without a chariot and he falls to Arjuna. Karna is also burdened by the fact that he knows that he is fighting a loosing battle. There are references that Vyasa gives, which indicate that Karna knew who Krishna was and how the battle would end. He still chooses to do his duty by his friend and benefactor. Karna is a clear case of a talent that is unmatched and without equals being denied a platform and circumstances to flower and find full realization. Something that is a common occurrence in sports, arts and even in the corporate arena. Being denied admission due to caste, community, colour, being discriminated for the same reasons, being forced to work for not so ethical people, or for organisations and teams whose value system does not match with one's, being forced to do jobs not suited to one's skills and ability, are all situations a lot of talented people are faced with. Having a "shalya" remind you of that is a sure fire trip to "disaster" or "self destruct".

A mild form of shalya vani would be the 'ash scanning' , or head on comparisons that companies do. Sometimes it is straightforward competition and sometimes it looks like juvenile gamesmanship.The Pepsi – Cola wars are full of such anecdotes. The “nothing official about it” was a “slap” on Coca Cola. Now too, the exclusivity that Coca Cola has on advertising has been made to look silly with Pepsi coolers in the background and obliging commentators (whose grandchildren are probably the target audience) endorsing the brand! Sprite in turn is intent on taking the mickey out of Pepsi and seems to winning the share of “sniggers and laughter market” and possibly the seedhi baat is that it is garnering market share too.Taking huge hoardings outside the competitors office is one way of gaining a psychological advantage. There are many more when you get down to the shopfloor.

A variant of this, is the malicious rumour, or character assassination.

The Ramayana mentions how a malicious Mantara’s words led to Kaikeyi’s shift in attitude and her asking for her stepson’s exile to the forest. This inspite of the fact that she had a lot of affection for her nephew and that it was reciprocated with respect.The 'Maryada Purushan' himself was also not immune to “words”. A stray remark from a washerman apparently led to Sita being banished. Never mind that he won her after breaking the Gandivam and that she followed him to the forest, not to mention the fact that she was pregnant with his children.

The corporate world is not innocent of this either. To bring down a colleague who seems to be moving a little too fast, we find the grape vine suddenly buzzing with a few details of his misdeeds which could be complete fiction. Sometimes it is a lot more open with snide remarks and innuendos in the open.

Media releases both direct and through leaks are made to get competitive advantage.The “Rising” of an Amir Khan was stopped with a rumour that collections were poor at the opening, when it was not so. A simple use of words to render a project futile. When Camay International was launched, there was a rumour that it contained “beef tallow”. The damage control was done, but it did cause a stutter at the retail level. Sting operations are a sophisticated variation of this and where technology makes credibility built in.

Whistle blowing is a threat most companies guard against. Most sensible companies ensure that an employee who is leaving becomes an ambassador of the company and not a source of negative word of mouth.

In the light of all this,where does sledging fit in?

Sledging seeks to reverse the positive imagery that helps someone or a team play to its potential. When sledging, rumour mongering, press releases about opponents misdeeds, failures etc, trigger negativity and anxiety in the target, the sledger is successful. The objective of sledging is to make the other player loose concentration and trigger negative images in him. Given the rules of the game, if he looses to provocation on the field, the results are disastrous. The Zinadine Zidane vs Masseratti at the World Cup is an example. If the target is provoked, but cannot do anything about it, the stress sets in. The ones who are mentally strong react with more focus and aggression which may boomerang on the sledger. Remember the Yuvraj – Flintoff episode and the recent Shane Warne - Afridi episode? . For McGrath, the sledge came back like a boomerang, when Sarwan retorted and touched a raw nerve.But it did work against Rahul Dravid in South Africa, when Alan Donald tried it. Sidhu was a target for most people because he used to oblige every sledge with a response. Slater is known to loose it as also Daryl Cullinan.

Dhoni got it dead right when he said that there is an art to sledging. A shrewd assessor of situations, he has hit the nail on the head. The elements of sledging would require a good knowledge of the target, his weak points, the selection of the right time and the occasion. Using abusive language is indicative of poor parentage. Slapping people in full view of cameras is indicative of a lack of common sense.

There is a time and place for everything and if done with a plan, things work out fine.

ENDS...