Tuesday, April 27, 2010

POLITICS AND ECONOMICS OF IPL

The third edition of the IPL is just over. This year there was far more drama than what was seen in its previous two editions. And there was more of it off the field than on it as the slanging match between Shashi Tharoor and Lalit Modi played out, first in the social media site Twitter and then in the mass media making national headlines.
By the time Chennai Super King’s M S Dhoni lifted the trophy, both Tharoor and Modi had lost their respective jobs- Tharoor as a junior External Affairs Minister and Modi as the IPL Commissioner.
The ugly spat brings out hypocrisy all around. Modi alone is not culpable. Take the case of Tharoor first. His claims that he had nothing to do with the Kochi team except to give them ‘blessings’ turned out to be a lie after it came out in the open that his ‘close friend’ Sunanda Pushkar got sweat equity worth Rs 69 crore in the franchisee. How can one claim that he has nothing to do with an activity that fetches crores of rupees to his close friend? Quite rightly, even Tharoor’s own party didn’t buy that argument and he was asked to step down.
Now Lalit Modi is also out, though officially it’s being called suspension for now. Perhaps it’s all part of a strategy of graded response that will lead to his final ouster. Skeletons are coming out every day. Vital papers of franchisees are missing. Now BCCI claims some of the perceived team owners (read Shilpa Shetty) don’t even own shares of their franchisees. Modi is also accused of having conflict of interest among a host of charges including bungling in granting telecast rights.
Even while not holding a flag for Modi, one could ask a plethora of questions. Why were the BCCI mandarins sleeping over all this in the last three years? Doesn’t the clause of conflict of interest apply to BCCI Secretary N Srinivasan whose India Cements owns the Chennai Super Kings, the champions this year? How come they have given a clean chit to Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel without any probe?
One only hopes the investigations will not be a hogwash and a mere ploy to oust Modi.
IPL: THE NEW PRIME TIME SOAP
Whatever the charges against Lalit Modi (Let’s assume his innocence till proven guilty), one cannot take away the credit from him (looking purely from the business point of view) for making IPL Indian television’s prime time soap. It’s not merely to do with the timing of the matches. That credit goes to Kerry Packer after he introduced ‘pyjama’ cricket in day-night ODIs decades back.
Modi changed the content of cricket, bringing in glamour and to some extent sleaze. And this made IPL beat the routine soaps in the TRP game. The post match IPL parties with ticket charges of Rs 40,000 were an instant hit so much so that even cheerleaders paled into insignificance. With all this, Modi expanded the cricketing audience, bringing in even those who hardly know the finer points of the game.
The strong speculation that many of the matches were fixed to keep the number of eyeballs intact is but natural. After all, match fixing no more makes news and is seen as a fallout of commercialisation of cricket over the years.
Cricket had become business as soon as live telecast brought in sponsors whose sole concern was getting the eyeballs. It applies more to a country like India where it’s a national obsession. Modi’s IPL has again changed the complexion of the game. It has made cricket a part of the business of entertainment. No wonder IPL matches competed with Bollywood blockbusters in multiplexes.