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Indian Premier League 2010
Test cricket must go day-night to survive - Modi
Cricinfo staff
March 2, 2010
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Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, has said it is vital for Test cricket to shift to the day-night format and become more broadcaster friendly in order to ensure its survival amid the burgeoning popularity of Twenty20, which he believes will "become the dominant format - without doubt".
"I am a great supporter of Test cricket. People say I'm not but I also run the marketing department of the BCCI and Test cricket is extremely important to us," Modi told the Guardian. "All I am trying to do is remind people that we live in a modern age and Test cricket has a big problem: it is played in the daytime when most people are working."
Administrators, according to Modi, should embrace every opportunity to attract more viewers to Tests and playing it day-night was an effective way of doing so. "If you take it to day-night, then people can watch it on TV when they get home from work - or they can go to the stadium. There has been a big drop in Test cricket viewing [outside England and the Ashes] and it's because people don't have the leisure time in the day to watch it."
Modi believes that the five-day format will fizzle out unless there is a change in its timings because the broadcaster will not be interested it in. "Whether we like it or not, broadcasting determines whether a game survives. Without broadcasters you don't have money to pay players or keep the sport alive. You don't need to fiddle with the format at this stage. All you need do is change the timing. If we went day-night then we would see a real resurgence in the ratings. Look at Twenty20. It has gone to night cricket and the viewership has exploded."
Modi said the Twenty20 format - three hours for a game - was the ideal vehicle for cricket to compete with football and other sports for new consumers and markets. His aim is to make the IPL the "dominant sporting league in the world" across all sports.
"We are only a two-year-old league but we had close to 3.8 billion eyeballs last year. Every game last year we had 100 million eyeballs," he said. "But because our objective is to become the most watched sporting event in the world we are now targeting 150m every day."
Modi believes that the IPL could develop an edge over English Premier League football because, unlike the most popular league in the world, its unique model was based on team equality and therefore was unpredictable.
"Look, my son is a Manchester United fan and I'm a Chelsea fan - and I was very upset to see my team lose [last Saturday]," he said. "But, normally, we know exactly what is going to happen. My son and I know that nine times out 10 either Man U or Chelsea is going to win it. The Premier League is basically so predictable. I wanted to base my league on an unpredictable model - so we don't have a Man U or a Chelsea in the IPL.
"If you look at our ratings, all 59 games in the IPL last year were within a 5% margin of each other in ratings. That has never happened in any other league in the world. From a broadcaster's or advertiser's point of view this is a dream because, when they buy a match, or advertising, they know they are going to get value for money. The other key point is that 52 out of those 59 matches went down to the wire. No one knew who was going to win until the final stages.
"Our model works but a lot of English football clubs are going under. Look at Portsmouth going bankrupt. With the next auction we might have even more surprising figures and people coming into the IPL."
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
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Mr. Modi is WAY off base here. As Robin Jackson put it very succinctly (during his commentary of India-South Africa matches), we cannot see how a day-night test match can be played with all the dew etc coming into play during night. In fact, I don't feel it is fair to play day-night one-dayers in stadia where dew plays a big role, as it gives an unfair advantage to team winning the toss and batting second. The only way to play day-night test match is if all day-night test matches are played INDOORS!!! And we don't have ANY indoor stadia except in Melbourne!! If test matches are played during night, Iam afraid, we will KILL test matches. It is time for Mr. Modi to wake up and smell coffee!!
Posted by DrPrashant on (March 03 2010, 04:06 AM GMT)If there is one big threat to Test cricket today, its this man Modi. The analogy that comes to mind is slow poisoning, he is slowly poisoning the minds of genuine cricket lovers who love watching test cricket by making statements like these every now and then. the only way to counter this man and ensure Test cricket does not wither away is to simply stop watching the IPL circus. If no one visits the matches and if no one tunes into the IPL on TV, where will the money then come from?! I for one have already started this - I havent watched either of the 2 IPLs so far and will do the same for the next editions as well. Long live Test Cricket!!
Posted by rustin on (March 03 2010, 03:46 AM GMT)I can't stand the number of matches being played. I have simply stopped watching the IPL. Anyway the CL showed why IPL is so unpredictable. They compete with each other for playing the worse cricket.
Posted by shnivtni on (March 03 2010, 02:19 AM GMT)Mr.Modi. I know a perfect way to save test cricket. Why don't you just disappear with your IPL then everything will be back to normal. Seriously IC_M how can you say that T20 and the IPL can save the players' marriage? Cmon cricketers are not the only married men on earth. What about thoses who are involved in defence forces around the world? What would happen if they duck their missions to save their married life? If we compare International cricket to a high-profile movie: TEST CRICKET is the main story that actually makes the entire film rich, ODI can be compare to the action and stunts, T20 is the sudden excitement and the IPL.......... just an explicit R-rated scene! Nothing to gain from. Long live TEST CRICKET.
Posted by testcricketrocks on (March 03 2010, 02:14 AM GMT)I don't think Modi alone can kill cricket, however, his suggestions are indeed in that direction. Having cricket at night is not going to bring the spectators of T20 into the test arena. What is needed is appropriate scheduling of matches in select cities and timings of the year where longer breaks are available for common people. Pongal, diwali, christmas, new years, holi can be marked with a test. Passionate fans need to shun the T20 to teach this Modi a proper lesson. He is embarrassing for the country and the fans.
Posted by amin72 on (March 03 2010, 02:02 AM GMT)Unless somebody stops people like Mr Modi to rule cricket, one day we will all regret how much loss eventually he will make to this world of cricket. Just, see Bret Lee, Shane Bond are opting for shorter version of the game, India is playing 2-match test series instead of 3 or 5-match..this is the beginning of collapse of Test Cricket. I know T20 is popular, I too enjoy it but overdose of everything is extremely harmful. In last IPL, it was really extremely boring for me in the middle of the tournament despite being a great fan of cricket. T20 is good with all other formats..you can see the power hitting T20s and the class of Tendulkar, Dravid, Ponting, Lara, Shane Warne, Akram, Murali...list goes on.. in test cricket (not to mention previous greats). Imagine without Test Cricket whether we would have been fortunate to see the skills of these greats..
Posted by ashok16 on (March 03 2010, 01:57 AM GMT)100 million eyeballs per match in IPL? Does 1 person count for 1 eyeball or2 eyeballs?? As for test cricket, problem is a lot of people follow it but nobody wants to watch it live. Neither on TV nor at the stadium. I dont think that will change even if it becomes an evening game. Somebody clever than Modi will have to come up with a way to monetise this interest.
Posted by IC_M on (March 03 2010, 00:21 AM GMT)People, stop bragging Modi, he is right, who has the time to watch 5 days of boring test cricket, what a waste of time to be honest, no other sport in the world goes for 5 days and yet will end in a draw. Though I grew up listening test cricket commentary in radio, watching it on TV, i just think that it goes for too long. I'm a converted 20/20 & IPL fan. I just love it and can't get enough of it. It is the future, if cricket needs to be a global sports, then 20/20 is the way forward. It saves cricket players life with less injury, players will have more time for their family, it saves players marriage, etc. it's a win win to players and cricket administrators. GO THE 20/20...
Posted by jackiethepen on (March 02 2010, 23:18 PM GMT)I think it is an excellent point that people remember Test matches because they are long games. One of the fascinating things about cricket is its back history and how each game is recalled and argued about and takes its place in stats and memorable encounters. Test Cricket has a rich past as well as the present. Twenty-20 cannot compare even when it has a past. The games flash by at a tremendous rate and more quickly forgotten. Part of the enjoyment of cricket is therefore lost - the great debates about the game. Modi seems to have missed the point about the attraction of Test cricket - it is wonderful on television because it is a long running drama with a fantastic range of characters. Test cricket by its very nature will always ebb and flow, offer collapses and fightbacks, heroic stands and sudden exits. Marvellous.
Posted by jeromedascorp on (March 02 2010, 23:02 PM GMT)Lalit Modi of all people shouldn't be talking. In any case Test Cricket is not dying. The Media and certain cricket boards though are doing their best to try and kill it. Maybe boards like the BCCI should schedule Test cricket better with matches played strictly on weekends and only in Test Centers like Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kanpur. But the bigger problem appears to be with boards like the BCCI preparing garbage pitches in all forms of the game. Stop flat pitches. Make some bowler friendly pitches for Test and ODIs. I guarantee you Sachin wouldn't have scored a double if better pitches were prepared. The media and certain boards want Test cricket to die so that they wont have any real reason to prepare good pitches.