India Premier League set to start all afresh from Season XI. All new commercial deals. Teams bound to release their all players. All acquisitions through auctions. The scenario has left the teams who don’t want to lose their star players worried. In all likelihood, the IPL Governing Council is set to send all the players back to the auction pool.
A ‘right-to-match’ option could be the only hope left for IPL teams to retain their big stars. Times of India has reported quoting sources that the Board of Control for Cricket in India members are firm on sending all the cricketers back to the auction.
However, Kolkata Knight Riders, Delhi Daredevils and Sunrisers Hyderabad are in favour of having the option of matching cards, which permits team owners to retain players by matching their auction price.
According to TOI report, Team like Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians which are lead by Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma respectively are keen to retain their star players . Meanwhile , Kings Xi Punjab co-owner Priety Zinta had said that she been told by BCCI a week back that all players would be back in the auction pool without retention.
However, the two teams who will be joining the league after serving their two-year suspension -Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals – have a different take. CSK promoters are keen to get their old players like MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina, but the other teams are against the idea of the Chennai-based franchisee getting any undue advantage. IPL sources confirmed that CSK promoters are even open to the draft system which was given to two new teams Rising Pune Supergiants and Gujarat Lions.
Lastly, It is all been reported that some of the top Indian cricketers are also backing the idea of retention. Whether the IPL GC will take this into account or not remains to be seen.So all these scenario puts the teams in tricky spot ahead of the auctions next year.
Indian Premier League. Cricket’s biggest commercial venture is often talked in terms of finances, contracts, runs and records. These are the ingredients that will enthrall cricket lovers, market and certain corporate. However, there is the other side of the league, too. That goes far beyond the boundaries and boardrooms, for the cause of common masses, society and issues like environment.
IPL associates – franchisees and sponsorship brands – have been engaged in campaigns where service to the society is integrated with marketing initiatives.
KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS: #PlantA6
Kolkata Knight Riders introduced their campaign “Citizens for tomorrow” for this year. They also tried to make their fans aware about the alarming effects of plastics use. Polyethylene flags are replaced wth recyclable paper stick flags.
The franchisee also brought new initiative #PlantA6 – drive to plant a sapling for each six hit Eden Gardens.
MUMBAI INDIANS: Education For All
The Education for All initiative (EFA) was launched in 2010 with the objective of providing access to quality education in India. Through a partnership with several NGOs, Reliance Foundation and Mumbai Indians have positively impacted the lives of 100,000 of underprivileged children during the last few years.
Mrs. Nita Ambani spearheads the Education for All initiative. The EFA programme supports various initiatives that work with underprivileged children, promote girl-child education and impart life skills to the differently abled. In 2017, the programme supported twelve partner NGOs: Aarambh, Akanksha, Aseema, Deepalya, MelJol, Milaan, Mumbai Mobile Crèches, One Billion Literates Foundation, Sakhi, Slum Soccer, Ummeed, and Yuwa.
DELHI DAREDEVILS: Mother Dairy and Dare to Care
UNICEF India and Delhi Daredevils have come together to help empower girls in India. The partnership aims to support the efforts to protect millions of adolescent girls still facing obstacles in their lives by experiencing various forms of discrimination, exploitation and abuse on account of their age and their sex.
Dare to Care is an effort to help focus on issues related to empowering girls with education, which will further give them the courage to say no to an early marriage and the power to take decisions which directly impacts their lives.
Delhi Daredevils will help spreading awareness through their franchise, the squad and the ever-loyal fans. Some percentage from IPL ticket and merchandise sales will go into ‘Dare To Care’ funds. Some Daredevils memorabilia will be put up for auction and funds will be used in this campaign.
Along with this, the team sponsor Mother Dairy took this opportunity to bring forward their farmers for this season of IPL.
ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE: Tamahar and Lloyd
Tamahar, which was founded in 2009, was envisioned to provide a holistic intervention for children with special needs, to give personalised care and to enable caretakers to be a part of the rehabilitation process. In an institution where brain damage is identified, assessed and intervened, Tamahar certainly stepped out of the crease for their children with RCB.
Lloyd ACs, also the associate sponsor, took this initiative forward by contributing Rs 100 for every Lloyd AC bought. And through first-of-its-kind-initiative it also vowed to give 501 free ACs to hospitals that cannot afford to them in critical areas like ICUs, labour rooms and other significant areas.
RISING PUNE SUPERGIANTS: Mukul Madhav Foundation
Gulf Oil Lubricants India Limited (GOLIL), in association with Mukul Madhav Foundation, organised an interactive session between specially abled children from the ‘Apang Kalyankari Shikshan Sanstha’ and cricketers from Rising Pune Supergiant, the Pune-based IPL franchise.
The session was organised to acknowledge and motivate the children to follow their dreams, it also helped in rejuvenating the players from their daily schedule.
KINGS XI PUNJAB: Yuva Unstoppable
Kings XI Punjab announced their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative for the season when they decided to refurbish a girls’ school each in both their homegrounds — Indore and Mohali. The projects will be executed with a NGO, Yuva Unstoppable, whereby Kings’ XI Punjab will provide them better sanitation, drinking facilities and overall infrastructure.
As a part of the project, team director Virender Sehwag along with David Miller, Eoin Morgan, Mohit Sharma, Varun Aaron, Akshar Patel and Gurkeerat Mann visited Govt. Middle School 27, in Indore on Monday and interacted with the students. The students performed a small skit for them as well, followed by the players playing a one-over friendly match with the students of the school.
SUNRISERS HYDERABAD: YouWeCan and Sun Foundation
Sunrisers Hyderabad, in collaboration with the Sun Foundation and Yuvraj Singh’s ‘YouWeCan’ Foundation, visited St Jude India Child Care Centre in Hyderabad on Friday, where they spent time with cancer crusader children.
Yuvraj, since his own brush with cancer, has been taking time out of his schedule to raise awareness about the different kinds of cancer, tests and treatments available.
IPL is showing the way how growth of sport can contribute to the well-being of the society. That given another sense of hope to billions of sports lovers in India – for whom this game has been a religion.
Indian Super (soccer) League is seeking to expand. Notice for invitation to bid for an ISL team is out. Franchisee interests are sought for nine cities. The aim is to add one to three teams to the existing eight. With 50 per cent rise in the franchisee’s fee value. That amounts to base price of an approximately Rs 18 crore franchisee fee as against Rs 12 crore. The existing franchisees have been paying up to 15 crores for their rights to own an ISL team. The league owners Football Sports Development Limited, a joint venture of IMG Reliance Limited and STAR India Private Limited, are ambitious. Aiming high. Really high. Prospective franchisee rights for the Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Cuttack, Durgapur, Hyderabad, Jamshedpur, Kolkata, Ranchi, Siliguri and Thiruvananthapuram cities are up for grab.
How close is this ambition to realism? That is tough question for FSDL to answer! Internally, the league has many challenges. On the competition front, ISL and soccer in the country are being relegated to the third spot by fast-rising Kabaddi, Pro Kabaddi League.
PKL, which started in 2014 the same year when ISL was launched, is beating the soccer league hands down on all fronts. Popularity, commercial values, franchisee fee and spectator interests, TV ratings and off course title sponsorship values – Rs 60 crore per annum for kabaddi to ISL’s Rs 18 crore.
Challenges the soccer league faces from itself are bigger.
Clubs are incurring losses
The ISL clubs over the years have not been able to recover 60%p to 70% of their gross annual expenses to maintain and runs the club
50% hike on franchisee fee
Will the hike FDSL are planning on franchisee fee base price be value for money? Group M’s India Sports Sponsorship Report 2017 glaringly points out sharp decline in commercial values for ISL. In such a scenario how much business sense franchisees or potential franchisees may find in investing even more is a question that will raise many eyebrows
No room for Bagan, East Bengal
There is no possibility for the traditional powerhouses of Indian soccer to get an ISL ticket. Traditional fan, the purists will be disappointed. East Bengal and Mohun Bagan had requested for a privileged consideration for their entry in the ISL. For their contribution to the sport. The request is turned down. Shelling out big fat franchisee fee is beyond their reach. In the commercial world only money matters. Similar disappoint is in store for Aizawl FC, the club that will represent India in AFC qualifiers, and its fans.
The commercial aspect of the league is most worry some. Group M’s report India A Sporting Nation in Making has this to say.
Soccer before the start of this season has also lost the status and privilege of being the No. 2 sport in the country. The statement below derived from the Group M report will further add to ISL’s woes.
Will ISL survive the these testing times. If it fails, the struggle for survival and catch up with kabaddi will become much bigger. Indeed.
Amul, Asia’s largest milk brand, is the principal sponsor of the New Zealand cricket team for the upcoming International ODI Tournament.
India’s largest food product marketing organization has unveiled the official New Zealand team jersey in Kolkata on Saturday. New Zealand team players Tim Southee, Colin de Grandhomme and Trent Boult were present.
The logo of brand AMUL which boasts of an annual sales turnover of Rs 27000 crores (US$ 4.2 billion), will appear on the sleeve of Blackcaps playing jerseys as well as on the training kits throughout the upcoming tournament.
“We are excited about being associated with New Zealand Cricket for the first time and Amul welcomes the Blackcaps to the family,” GCMMF managing director RS Sodhi said. “Coming from a strong farming and cooperative dairy culture, the New Zealand association is a perfect fit, reflecting our quality and values,” he added.
James Wear, commercial director for New Zealand Cricket said, “We are delighted to have Amul on board and hopefully this is the beginning of a long-term relationship”.
Amul, known for its quirky and witty marketing campaigns with its iconic mascot the Amul girl, in the recent past, has been associated with World Cup Cricket and Formula One.
Amul India is the largest market for dairy products in India. And it seems that the dairy giants are taking a shot with sponsoring New Zealand team. It is evident that Champions Trophy will be highly viewed cricket tournament in India and globally.
The Gujarat Cooperative Mill Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which markets dairy and food products under the Amul brand, has been lately talking about its interest in sporting events. Value of the deal is not disclosed.
The NZC players are very excited about the association with Amul, a brand that stands for energy and good health that’s so important for every sportsperson.
The first time New Zealand will play with Amul on the shirt is a warm up match with India on 28th May followed by Sri Lanka on 30th May. The group matches of the New Zealand team are scheduled versus Australia on 2nd June, England on 6th June and Bangladesh on 9th June. The top 2 teams of both groups will advance to the Semifinals. All matches will be telecast live in India and all regions of the world.
Kabaddi has virtually all parameters acquired the status of number one non-cricketing sport in the country. Not because it is liked by masses. Because it is made to be liked by masses. There is no madness in methodology to drive this rural, combat team sport to the pinnacle – on professional and popularity scales.
Mashal Sports is building and nurturing each aspect of the game. There is no madness in their methodology. It’s thorough professionalism. That made a rural, combat sport one of the top two hottest sporting properties in the country. That with a well thought out planning and thorough execution is grooming the amateurs to the demands of the pro, corporate world.
Those sat on the laurels are left to lag behind. That will best describe the difference Pro Kabaddi League has created to surge ahead of Indian Super League.
Eyebrows were raised when Mashal Sports claimed that they want to make kabaddi as big as cricket. These were not mere claims. This ambition is driven by superb strategies, excellent execution. The think tank behind the success of kabaddi is well ahead of times. Claims are based on certain road maps for success.
The plan of creating the talent pool for auction was put on place with the decision to expand the PKL to 12 teams from 8. The talent hunt has been pan-India and screening systematic. The exercise has reached its final stages. In-residence, month long New Young Players Training Camp is currently on at Panvel.
This is the third phase of the New Young Players Program, which is intended to train the next crop of talent for PKL. Mashal Sports worked in collaboration with the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India through this talent hunt to groom Gen Next of kabaddi pros. It started with an open camp in phase 1, conducted through State and district associations. Ability to play kabaddi with a valid Identity Card and being in the 18-22 age group were the criterion to participate.
Phase one involved as many as 4,710 aspiring youngsters in 15 cities across 11 States. Mumbai (713), Coimbatore (532) and Jaipur (445) were the cities with best interest. Players’ game skills and drills, performance under pressure scenarios, fitness and physical qualities (height & weight) were the parameters for assessment. The scrutiny left the trainers with 310 youngsters for the second phase of training.
The second stage of assessment and training was tough. It was a five-day scrutiny to identify potential champions from the promising talent. The filtered 131-strong talent pool is trained at a 30-day camp to be ready for extremely competitive action and razzmatazz of the commercial world of kabaddi.
This is one glimpse of what makes PKL title worth Rs 60 crores per annum – 333% more than the next best ISL, which has a title tagged at Rs 18 crore annually. This is one indication of what brings country’s best corporate with interest in sports to kabaddi to grab all the stakes available. PKL’s available four new franchisees are grabbed by JSW, Adani Group, GMR and Sachin Tendulkar-N Prasad consortium. While the closest rival remains uncertain in its expansion plans – whether to add one, two or three teams to its existing eight.
Australian cricketers will not stay away from Indian Premier League. Former Australia captain Michael Clarke believes that cricketers from Down Under will continue to be part of the richest T20 league in the world. The remark comes soon after the reports that Cricket Australia has offered long-term contracts to some of its key players to stop them from playing in the IPL.
“I don’t think it’s fair for me to comment (on the reported offers) as I haven’t spoken with anyone from Cricket Australia or individual players. But I can guarantee that I was given every opportunity to come and play in the IPL. Cricket Australia was very supportive of the decisions I made,” Clarke has said at a Press conference to announce the tie-up between Michael Clarke Cricket Academy and a newly-opened Aditya School of Sports in India.
“Unfortunately, I had a lot of injuries in my career which restricted my IPL appearances. I played one year with Pune Warriors and enjoyed the experience very much. And now I am back here commentating. IPL is a wonderful tournament.”
Asked if the possible absence of Australian players will harm IPL, Clarke said, “Cricket is bigger than any individual. If Sir Donald Bradman can retire and the game goes on, it doesn’t matter who comes in and who goes out. Cricket is the greatest game in the world. But the David Warners and Steve Smiths will keep coming to IPL. They love it over here.
“I don’t know of one Australian cricketer who has not had a good time in IPL. I don’t think we need to keep talking about that. I am confident you will continue to see Australian cricketers being part of IPL,” adds Clarke.
CA-PLAYERS ROW INTENSIFIES
Meanwhile, tension between CA and Australian players seems to have escalated. CA has threatened its contracted players they will not be paid beyond June 30, 2017, unless they accept the governing body’s proposed overhaul of player remuneration, a report said Saturday.
The escalating tension reached new heights after chief executive James Sutherland told them in a blunt email to accept its offer. It is reported that Sutherland sent the email on Friday to Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) chief Alistair Nicholson who then forwarded it to players around Australia.
The email read: “CA is not contemplating alternative contracting arrangements to pay players beyond 30 June if their contracts have expired. In the absence of the ACA negotiating a new MoU, players with contracts expiring in 2016-17 will not have contracts for 2017-18… if a new pay deal is not struck”.
The ACA had moved on Friday to enter mediation with CA over the pay negotiations, which show no sign of resolution.
In the email Sutherland told Nicholson: “The ACA is fast running out of time to engage with CA’s proposal and optimise the outcome for players. In the coming weeks, CA and states will be making contract offers to players. The terms of these contracts will be consistent with CA’s proposal, and contracts will be conditional on a new MOU being in place.”
Australia’s top cricketers will effectively be free agents from July 1 unless a deal is made. Sutherland has accused the ACA of having “unfairly placed current players in a difficult position”.
Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins Saturday tweeted on social media in response:”Players are staying strong #fairshare” and former Test paceman Mitchell Johnson added:”Players past & present will stay strong #fairshare.”
Sachin Tendulkar remained a private person. Who has been shy about discussing his personal life in public. Always. His billions of fans will now get to see the romantic side of the legend, who you thought to be in love only with his game. The docu-drama “Sachin: A Billion Dreams” will also depict Sachin-Anjali love story on silver screen. The master blaster told so in an interview with India Today.
The love at first sight, that made a cricketing legend and a doctor who won’t even know a ‘c’ about cricket made for each other, will be part of the movie. The flight of friendship, to love, to wedding and a happily married journey, has taken off from an airport in Mumbai. This is all enacted on-screen in Sachin: A Billion Dreams, releasing May 26th.
SPECIAL SCREENING FOR AIR FORCE
The movie, also screening Sachin’s family, will have a special screening in New Delhi for the Indian Air Force officials. Sachin, an honorary Group Captain with IAF, is himself expected to be present for screening, slated a day or two before the release.
The film, though tipped to be a docu-drama, is a complete commercial venture. Producers are strategically marketing the movie, have in a well-planned manner released two songs and the first poster is also out in print media.
The upcoming ICC Champions Trophy in England and Wales from 1-18 June carries a total prize money of $4.5 million(INR 29.25 Crore) with the winner of the eight-team tournament taking home a cheque of $2.2 million(INR 14.30 Crore), the International Cricket Council announced today.
The eighth edition of the tournament sees an increase of $500,000(INR 3.25 Crore) in prize money from the 2013 edition, which too was played at the three venues being used this time – Cardiff Wales Stadium, Edgbaston and The Oval.
The runner-up of the tournament will get a cheque of $1.1 million(INR 7.15 Crore), while the other two semifinalists will earn $450,000(INR 2.90 Crore) each. Teams finishing third in each group will take home $90,000(INR 58.5 lakh) each, while the teams finishing last in each group will get $60,000(INR 39 lakh) each.
Meanwhile, the ICC has also announced the schedule of media conferences that will take place in the lead up to the tournament.
Two-time former champions Australia will get the ball rolling when Steve Smith will hold his presser inside the Lord’s Museum on Wednesday, 24 May, at 12h30.
On the following day, also in London but at The Grange Hotel (8-14 Cooper’s Row), defending champion India, Sri Lanka and New Zealand captains will hold their media conferences at 13h00, 13h45 and 15h00 respectively. Prior to the three pressers but at the same location at 11h30, Chairman of the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, will address the media.
Pakistan and Bangladesh captains will hold their pre-tournament media conferences at Edgbaston in Birmingham on Friday, 26 May, at 13h00 and 14h00 respectively.
The ICC has also confirmed the schedule of mixed zone activities post the warm-up matches.
Each team, except England and South Africa, which will be busy in their bilateral series, will attend mixed zone in which they are expected to put up, at least, four players each who will only take questions that are related to the tournament. The same format will be repeated during the tournament proper.
Soccer before the start of this season has also lost the status and privilege of being the No. 2 sport in the country. The statement below derived from the Group M report will further add to ISL’s woes.
Will ISL survive the these testing times. If it fails, the struggle for survival and catch up with kabaddi will become much bigger. Indeed.
