Cricket Xtra: BCCI’s American gambit

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  • Growing the game: All-Stars T20

    As the final nuts and bolts for a two-match T20 series in the United States of America between the West Indies and India are put into place, it’s perhaps the perfect time to marvel at the possibilities that an international series – albeit a short one – involving the Indian side, may hold.

    Traditionally, bar the odd series or two, the US has never been a favoured market for cricket; and a lot of it has had to do with the bloated nature of cricket’s Test and one-day format.

    But with the advent of T20s, and a growing subcontinental diaspora, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) bosses have been forced to take a look at the American audience as a possible target market to make money out of.

    The earliest indications of the Indian board’s keenness to host matches in the US were seen earlier this year when the Champions League T20 had been scrapped and talks of a mini-IPL were doing rounds.

    The Reliance-owned IPL team Mumbai Indians had even worked out the modalities of playing a few friendly games in America, a plan that eventually failed to see light of day.

    However, the biggest precedence that the BCCI can take a lot of confidence from, is in the form of two successful seasons of the Sahara Cup in the late 1990s.

    Involving arch rivals India and Pakistan, played in the expatriate-dense city of Toronto, the bilateral contest was a runaway success and proved that cricket could indeed be consumed in North America.

    This precedence juxtaposed with the fact that the International Cricket Council (ICC) is currently trying to globalise the sport and boards like the BCCI are trying to tap into once thriving but now dormant neutral markets such as the UAE, shows that the proposed T20 series between the West Indies and India might just be an idea filled with promise.

    Over three million people of Indian origin currently reside in the US, which is around 1% of the American population; add the numbers of the West Indian community and it translates to attractive potential gate revenue and broadcast deals.

    The state of Florida, where the proposed game will be held – in the city of Lauderhill – has more than 130,000 Indians living in it.

    Additionally, the game is most likely going to be played on a weekend, starting at 10:00 local time – thereby achieving the dual objectives of making it easy for fans to fly in from other cities, and ensuring that the product is lucrative for advertisers back home, who can in turn make best use of a prime-time telecast slot.

    A huge advantage that the organisers enjoy is in the fact that cricket isn’t completely an alien sport in Lauderhill. The city, which houses the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium, has been the venue of four T20 international matches involving sides like West Indies, Sri Lanka and New Zealand that were played between May 2010 and July 2012.

    The Central Broward Regional Park Stadium has hosted T20 cricket in the past

    The Central Broward Regional Park Stadium has hosted T20 cricket in the past

    Some matches of the ongoing Caribbean Premier League are also slated to be staged at the same venue. While the opportunities are in abundance, the BCCI and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) will not want to run too far ahead of themselves.

    They’d do well to learn from the mistakes of the Sachin Tendulkar-Shane Warne led initiative, Cricket All-Stars T20 Series. Played at baseball stadiums in different US cities, the series saw stars of yesteryears battle it out in three T20 contests that pitted Warne’s XI against Tendulkar’s XI.

    The novelty of the concept notwithstanding, the series received flak from some corners for not providing anything more than nostalgia value. The lack of competitiveness and sky-high ticket prices ensured that the games weren’t outright sell-outs like many had expected.

    Competition shouldn’t be that big a concern this time around as the T20 matches between India and the Windies will involve currently playing top cricketers like Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Rohit Sharma.

    But a close watch on the price of tickets being offered is a prerequisite. The intended outcome of popularising the sport and cashing in on an untapped market might become extra difficult if apart showing up at an odd start time, fans also have to buy tickets that are priced very high.

    It’s easy to guess how the series would be promoted though. On the back of India’s World T20 2016 semi-final defeat at home at the hands of the West Indies, marketers will jump at the prospect of positioning it as a score-settling grudge contest.

    With some of the finest names set to take the field, the rest of the marketing should take place on its own. If all goes well, the cricket boards will not only emerge richer but also wiser about entering unchartered territory and making cricket hugely sellable as a global commodity.

    With the currently vacant window for the defunct Champions League T20 yet to be filled, who knows, a mini-IPL in the US might just become a reality starting 2017. And one can definitely never say never to more international cricket on American shores.

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