There is no doubt that Sports is by far the best reality TV show and hence the most entertaining watch. Specially during that peak hour of the evening, popularly known as “prime time” – last I checked, the average viewership of an IPL match is between 150-300 million viewers each night during the league stage.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) started 18 years ago! Such has been the meteoric rise of the IPL that as per Deloitte, on a per-match basis, the IPL is the second most valued sports league after the USA’s NFL. Recently, the IPL franchise Rajasthan Royals was acquired by two of India’s global business tycoons valuing it at $1.65 billion!
So, what led to the success of the IPL? Here’s the catch (pun intended) – cricket was already India’s dominant sport well before IPL was launched. There was already an eco-system of cricket in schools, districts, state, and university competitions. Cricket grounds in India, known as maidans are widely considered the “nurseries” of Indian cricket. These open grounds have nurtured generations of players, serving as the early training arenas for legends such as Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, and Virender Sehwag. Domestic tournaments such as the Ranji Trophy served as a testing ground for cricketers who learnt the art extending their duration on the pitch whether as a batsman or a bowler. It is indisputable that tournaments such as the Ranji Trophy provided a platform for budding cricketers to earn a call-up to the coveted national squad.
The IPL simply encashed on an already cricket-crazed population by shifting the sport from a traditional, long-form pastime to a fast-paced entertainment product built for prime-time consumption. Let’s say the apple cart was placed behind an already wining horse. The IPL managed to accelerate and commercialised an already deep cricket structure in India.
Ironically, many other sports have tried the IPL formula and failed. Barring Pro-Kabaddi League, almost every other professional sports league has failed to take off. So, when I recently heard about yet another sports league starting, namely the Indian Basketball League (IBL), I couldn’t help rolling my eyes with exasperation and disappointment. We already have the Tennis Premier League (TPL), Indian Super League (ISL), Premier Badminton League (PBL), or the scarcely known Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) failing to be financially viable. These sports leagues aimed to build a profitable franchise by monetising all aspects of a professional sports league. And this is rightly so, because franchisee profit is what will drive equitable monetary benefit to players.
However, India needs a sports eco-system first before we build an entertainment package around it. And by that “eco-system” I don’t just mean coaching and facilities; I mean developing an environment which fosters sports skill development, and which should include technical and tactical training, combined with the key ingredients of sports fitness (both physical and mental), nutrition, and most importantly a consistent and well-structured tournament format.
Almost all sports federations in India have miserably failed to provide support to junior sportspersons in terms of talent identification, training facilities and a structured tournament calendar beyond the metropolitan or large cities in India. Add to that the federation politics which continue to be detrimental to the development of world class sportspersons in our country.
Let’s face it. India’s sporting future likely depends less on celebrity launches, Bollywood laced sporting events and more on building a robust and nationwide inter-school ecosystems, high performance coaching quality, regional academies and a consistent competition structure over the next 10-15 years. Organisations in the USA, UK, Canada or Australia like the NCAA or the BUCS have helped create massive pipelines towards a professional career in sports. University sports, coaching education, district and state leagues across the country, adequate public facilities and women’s participation is the only answer to sustained sporting development.
Until we build mass participation at the bottom of the pyramid with structured youth competition in the middle, we cannot expect elite athletes at the top! Starting with glitzy Sports leagues by our various National Sports Federation’s myopic view of prime-time entertainment and short term profit cannot ensure long term success in sports.
