Looks like the Party is over for BCCI

Been away from the forum for several months. So not up to speed on what might have been discussed. If there is already a topic / discussion on this then apologies.
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Emperor's clothing is diminishing fast, yet the pink glasses won't be discarded.

What did BCCI have ? A nation of over a billion people, a majority of them grow up loving the game. Add to that a nation passionately desperate to kick off the colonial era and rightfully reclaim its place in the globe. From a sporting perspective cricket had a monopoly. Apart from the fact that kids grew up loving the game the fact that this was just about the only sport where their nation had a chance of grabbing a so called world crown not withstanding the fact that it was really a Commonwealth game.

In many ways a majority of the fans lived their lives through the eyes of their heroes, many still do. Before the economic boom it was much more pronounced since there was very little entertainment or purchasing power for the average fan other than movies and cricket.
Over the last two decades several things have happened. The primary driver was the economic boom. Add to that the absolutely outstanding advances in communication and technology. Now the purchasing power of the average fan has grown several fold and his access to information and options were opening up all the time.

Yet Cricket was still the monopoly and if one were to pass judgement based on the first three seasons of IPL not including the recent event, one could be excused for thinking that in fact Cricket's monopoly was growing.

However a few things were fundamentally and seismically changing and it is no surprise that an outdated bunch of incorrigable men masquerading as officials in BCCI could not see or read any of this.

1. IPL took off in a major way due to several reasons. One of them being that the average Indian saw this as the first Global brand created and run by India. Also it was marketed well and aided by the glitz of Bollywood and the likes it went on for a few years. However with India staging other global events such as the F1 and the likes the fans don't have to rely on Cricket to meet this need. The F1 by all accounts was a huge success with close to a 100,000 at the circuit and high TV ratings.
2. The younger generation which makes up for a majority of the Indian population had really not tasted any global success in terms of Cricket victories for over two decades up until a couple of years ago. Just in the space of two or so years they have seen the 20-20 Crown, 50-50 triumph and the No: 1 spot in tests. A satisfied need is no more a need. The subject moves on to new needs. Many of the average Indian fans and here I am talking about the teenagers and younger lot have many more choices and are want their Country to scale other peaks. They seem to have realised the fact that Cricket does not have to be the only vehicle for global triumph.
3. With the awakening of many social movements such as the anti corruption and so on the average fan is also now more aware of the pathetic organisation BCCI still is. And they are not willing to take kindly to this despite their heroes and love for the game.

Accordingly what has transpired is that Crowds at the grounds have declined steadily. This decline has been absolutely acute post that day at Mumbai when India beat Sri Lanka at the ODI final. The recent IPL which started after the CWC registered 25 – 30 % less TV ratings than the previous year. The more stark picture was shown for the recent England ODIs and the WI tests. The TV ratings, which is the prime driver of revenue for BCCI via advertisements showed just about one session per week where Cricket telecast got into the top 100 TV shows for the week. In raw numbers an ODI between India and Pakistan would draw upwards of 12 as high as 18 at times only a few years ago. Other high profile teams would rank up to a 10. The most England, who are most definitely a high profile team could muster was around a 1. something. And the most WI could muster ine one week was 0.92. Even the bleating of those paid mouthpieces Shastri and Gavaskar on how the England series was an opportunity for revenge etc. did not make a difference. For those of you who are not across this, Shastri and Gavaskar are paid close to 1 Mil US$ per annum by BCCI to serve as their mouth pieces. Not withstanding the fact that they are not exactly intuitive the conflict of interest meant that they were not about to pass any comments that might rub BCCI the wrong way.

Accordingly after the Dismal Delhi crowds we had Ravi shastri blaming the start day, start timings at Calcutta and ticket prices amongst other irrelevant factors in explaining the morgue like Eden Gardens atmosphere.

And as expected those two also played to the least common denominator fan in how they should come to the ground to will Tendulkar's impending feat. No disrespect to the champion, his achievements deserve the right adulation and respect but it was not going to change the mood of the average Indian fan. So despite dropping ticket prices to as low as 1 US $ and also being Tendulkar's home ground the fan count at Mumbai was nowhere near the past.

My cousin who is the Deputy CFO for one of the major companies which owns and IPL franchise tells me that they revenues are diminishing and they expect to lose money, quite a bit of it over the next few years. This is in start contrast to the Business case of BCCI where they had projected a heady revenu growth of year on year over the 10 IPL years of the franchise.

The most scary aspect from a BCCI perspective should be the general apathy that has been growing astronomically towards their teams, stars in the recent past. These signs have been there for a while. They say the difference between a genius and others is that the genius can pick up the subtle changes and be prepared. We are talking about BCCI and so no surprise that they cannot see it even now or don't have the gall to acknowledge and respond even now when it is so stark.

What does it all mean for the future ? I suspect that BCCI's financial clout will start shrinking rapidly and with that their influence. The Indian advertiser will have other options and more sports will start taking a stronger foot print both from a commercial and fan base perspective. The BCCI will be dragged kicking and screaming to become a professional organisation with more accountability and transparency. All this can only be good for Global cricket.

As for the IPL, not sure if it is my wishful thinking because of my personal feeling towards it but I expect it to become unsustainable over the next couple of years and potentially morph into something much smaller and less pervading. The next IPL tv ratings will be a big indicator for this.

Fingers crossed.

another ghost returns!

Welcome back

Welcome back Josh, glad that you’re around again. I think that maybe the BCCI did too much too soon – too much jazz, too many foreigners... the clamour was madness overall. It’s not difficult to suggest that the average Indian may get tired of the hype. I watched small amounts and most of the ‘innovations’ they had detracted heavily from the cricket. It was awful. Also, franchises aren’t going to maintain avid support IMO which is why I was glad England didn’t go down that route.

did you write that?

The One wrote:did you write that?

No. He has a ghostwriter.

The One wrote:did you write that?

Who? Josh?

yeah. i meant josh. a bit confused whether it's a copy-paste or he actually wrote all of that

Think it's him, it reads like it.

The One wrote:yeah. i meant josh. a bit confused whether it's a copy-paste or he actually wrote all of that

Yep I wrote that. Can see why you might be suspicious given that I have not had a go at Sachin

Some developments.

BCCI in some bother over 1000 Crore rupees (about 250 Mil US$).

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/top-stories/BCCI-unable-to-encash-Rs-2000-crore-bank-guarantee/articleshow/11099978.cms

This next one is very funny. Sunny Gavaskar who was licking his way up BCCI's rear in pursuit of his 1 Mil US$, as per the original post appears to be getting the shaft from BCCI. Will be interesting to see his future reactions, more interestingly Ravi Shastri's since he has even less emotional control when it comes to his perceived impediments that come in the way of his self serving greed. Shastri has a history of lashing out indiscriminately at one and all if his interests are not allowed to bear fruit I recall the time when he was the manager of Sachin's advertising interests and had an agenda to push during his earlier commentary stints. When this conflicted with BCCI's stand on advertisement sponsors at that time, Shastri absolutely lost his cool in the commentary box and started literally screaming at Dalmiya the then BCCI president. In effect he was biting the hand that was feeding him but that is Shastri.

Now it looks like BCCI will not be paying the highly touted 1 Mil US $ and the future reaction of these two leeches will be interesting to see.

I just hope that neither of these two guys is invited into the Australian commentary box. If they were then it would be interesting if they got chatting with Tony Grieg who by the way is apparently fuming at these guys and BCCI for more than one reason. Most importantly he has not taken kindly in being frozen out of the lucrative Indian cricketing scene in particularly IPL.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/faith-in-bcci-shaken-says-gavaskar/887559/

The leech does some backtracking, I suppose after some after-thought realisation of being fully cut off from the money pot.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/top-stories/Sunil-Gavaskar-clarifies-after-hitting-out-at-BCCI/articleshow/11109460.cms

I doubt there has been a great player who has disappointed so much as a person in retirement as Gavaskar

BCCI is a sewer that breeds the worst or seems to bring out the worst. That said if a person has strong personal integrity he should be able to live up to sound values since this is not a survival situation. In Sunny's case it definitely is not a survival situation since he would be amongst the top 0.5 % of wealthy Indians. But then greed seems to bring out the worst of the ultra wealthy as we can see from the financial markets globally.

The declining revenue stakes of BCCI is the catalyst cat amongst the pigeons.

No money for Sunny. Wonder if Shastri was also shafted.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/top-stories/BCCI-never-promised-Gavaskar-to-pay-Rs-5-crore-Shukla/articleshow/11123998.cms

Josh Carney wrote:No money for Sunny. Wonder if Shastri was also shafted.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/top-stories/BCCI-never-promised-Gavaskar-to-pay-Rs-5-crore-Shukla/articleshow/11123998.cms

F*cking awesome! They shagged the whores and didn't pay!

BCCI never pays anyone.

After the humiliation in England and now in Australia BCCI is mumbling something that looks like it might be half sensible. Only problem is that they don't mention about the cancer (IPL) just want to treat the symptoms.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/series-tournaments/india-in-australia/top-stories/Rattled-BCCI-looks-at-long-term-recovery-plan/articleshow/11406203.cms

Looks like the slide that started last IPL has really hit the roof this time a bit more forcefully. I hope it collapses like a house of cards by next year. It was suspected that IPL was losing steam for a while now but the media denials are being forced back a bit more forcefully now:

IPL not moneyball anymore - LINK!

What started as a billion-dollar spectacle in Indian sport may be crumbling unexpectedly.

A day before the Indian Premier League (IPL) begins in Chennai, HT has learnt that its title sponsor and realty major DLF is considering pulling out from next year. Then, 40%


of ad slots on SET Max, the official broadcaster, remain unsold.
And Bollywood, which, in the past had been wary of releasing movies during the IPL season, is shedding its cricket phobia and boldly going ahead with 22 film releases during the league’s eight-week schedule, Taran Adarsh, a film trade analyst, told HT.

The signs, analysts said, are clear: IPL is no longer as hot as it used to be. But the organisers denied any crisis.

“I don’t think there is any cricket fatigue. Everything is fine and response to everything is great. The answer will come once the tournament gets underway,” said Sundar Raman, CEO, IPL.

Former IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi said IPL still remained the most innovative league in the last 30 years, despite the setbacks.

“There have certainly been some issues in the run up to the fifth edition which haven't been helpful...Perhaps I would have done things differently,” Modi told HT in an emailed response.

Sources told HT that DLF is not keen on investing any more in IPL.

It had won the title sponsorship rights for the first five editions of IPL for Rs 200 crore. The league’s organisers will call for fresh bids later this year but DLF enjoys the first right of refusal. It means the title sponsorship will go to another bidder only if DLF refuses to extend the contract at the price quoted by the highest bidder.

It’s too early to comment. But if the bids for the next five years are beyond a certain threshold limit, we might consider not continuing with the title sponsorship contract,” a DLF spokesperson told HT.

Then, demand for ad spots on official broadcaster SET Max has been lukewarm.

The channel has priced each 10-second ad spot for IPL 5 at Rs 5 lakh, down almost 40% from Rs 8 lakh last year, but media buyers said most advertisers haven’t committed any funds yet, and would rather wait till the tournament gets underway – to negotiate even lower rates.

Till Tuesday, SET Max had sold only about 40% of the 2,500 seconds of ad spots on sale for each match, a media buyer from Madison India, who spoke to HT on condition of anonymity, estimated.

“This is sharply lower than in previous years when it had blocked about 90% of the ad spots before the tournament got underway,” he added.

“We have cut down our advertising spend in the tournament by 80% compared to last year,” said Alok Bharadwaj, senior vice president, Canon India.

“Return on investment is plummeting sharply. Where the rates are jumping over 15-20% year on year, the returns are not directly proportionate," he added.

The organisers and broadcasters, however, maintained that everything was business-as-usual for the 76-match tournament that takes place from April 4 to May 27.

“Advertiser’s traction is okay. It is better compared to the time we started a month ago. Let the tournament gain momentum,” said Rohit Gupta, president (sales) at MSM India, which owns SET Max.

So DLF not going to the maximum.

The party may look over a bit for BCCI but not for it's chief's son:

BCCI Chief's son arrested for bar brawl - Link!

The fokker should be arrested for blowing 30 grand a night on boozing alone.....


I am quite certain if any ordinary citizen had assaulted a cop, he would have been lucky to even walk till the court.

Brilliant