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England's loss, Modi's gain
The ECB has not turned Twenty20, its big idea, into big bucks
Richard Gillis
April 13, 2009
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Matti Makkonen is a shy former mobile telecom engineer from Finland, who in appearance could be a geography teacher - tweed jacket, friendly smile, and no doubt, a bag of boiled sweets tucked away in his coat pocket. His contribution to the world is the SMS (text) message. These days he is introduced to audiences as "The Father of Text Messaging", and he recently picked up a lifetime achievement award from the Economist. His story is unusual in that it took 18 years for Makkonen's contribution to be recognised - the Eureka moment took place in a Copenhagen pizza parlour in 1984 - a period in which text messaging grew to become a central part of modern life, not to mention an industry worth tens of billions of pounds.
Makkonen is lucky to be recognised at all: history shows we credit the wrong people for some of the great innovations of our time. Thomas Edison did not invent the lightbulb; he was rather the first to bring it to public attention. Likewise, Henry Ford did not make the first car, but he had the marketing power to get the message out. Elisha Gray would be a great deal more famous had Alexander Graham Bell not given a headline-grabbing presentation of his telephone at the World's Fair in Philadelphia in 1876; Gray patented his own telephone the previous year, on the same day as Bell.
In years to come cricket historians may come to forget the names of Stuart Robertson or John Carr, two ECB officials who have both been credited at various times with the "invention" of Twenty20. But Lalit Modi? His place as cricket's great innovator is secure: fame and fortune tend not to go to the people who come up with the idea but to the risk-takers who turn the idea into money. By contrast, timidity has defined the ECB's approach.
It is now six years since the ECB launched Twenty20 to an appreciative audience, four-and-a-half years before the first World Twenty20 (in South Africa in 2007) and five years before the inaugural IPL. In 2004 26,500 people crammed into Lord's on a balmy summer evening to watch a Middlesex v Surrey match, the first sell-out of a (non-final) county game at headquarters since 1953.
Rather than act then to create the English Premier League, the ECB stalled, wasting valuable time commissioning a market-research report, the findings of which told the board what it already knew: people want more Twenty20. It was during this time that another decision was made, which continues to have huge effects on English cricket and that led ultimately to the Stanford debacle.
| Rather than act five years ago to create the English Premier League, the ECB stalled, wasting valuable time commissioning a market-research report, the findings of which told the board what it already knew: | |||
Keen to add value to its TV deal with Sky in 2005, the ECB chose to bundle the television rights to the Twenty20 Cup into the rest of its inventory of domestic Test matches, ODIs and county games - all of which was bought by Sky for £300m.
This was the stick-or-twist moment, and again the ECB chose the safe option. The received wisdom back in 2005 was that Sky was paying for the Tests and ODIs with county cricket, the audience for which is relatively small, the makeweight in the deal. Now, in a post-IPL world, those value judgments have shifted. Rather than create a whole new revenue stream for English cricket by selling Twenty20 separately, Sky effectively got Twenty20 for free. Years later, when Allen Stanford came calling, the ECB saw his millions as a way of filling that hole.
Compare this approach with that of the ECB's Indian counterpart. Lalit Modi has taken the innovation and turned it into a multi-billion dollar industry. At the key moments Modi has taken a risk and been rewarded, which in essence is the role of the entrepreneur. For the IPL to become reality Modi used the BCCI's money to underwrite the acquisition of the world's top 50 non-Indian cricketers, a bold move that guaranteed the players a minimum of US$200,000 per season for three years - a total of $30m underwritten.
He was then able to go to broadcasters with an exciting new product, for which Sony Entertainment Television paid $1.3bn. Much has changed since Twenty20 was launched in England in 2003. Boom has turned to bust and the downturn has made the selling of the ECB's English Premier League, or P20 as it is now being called, more challenging. This latest incarnation - 18 teams, two leagues - is itself a fudge, less compelling than the Keith Bradshaw-David Stewart proposal of city-based franchises, and strangely, less fun than the current Twenty20 Cup, which as a "product" has been a popular and distinctive addition to the county season.
The story of Twenty20 will define the Giles Clarke and David Collier era, who as chairman and chief executive of the ECB respectively, were charged with making English cricket more business-like. Certainly their legacy is a more corporate organisation - swish offices, legions of corporate-communications officers, marketing five-year plans, new logos, new kit deals and so on. But these are ornaments. When it came to the real stuff, applying the skill of the entrepreneur in turning a great idea into money for its stakeholders, the ECB's men in suits have been found wanting.
Richard Gillis an award-winning sports-business journalist. This article was first published in the April 2009 issue of the Wisden Cricketer. Subscribe here
© The Wisden Cricketer
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Agree with the article. Innovation is great, but you also have to market the idea for it to become a great product. Apple is a great innovator and it also knows how to market its Macs, iphones, ipods, itunes and the like. It's true, England innovated by introducing T20, however, they missed the bus when it came to packaging, promotion, and taking it to market. Modi did just that and the results are for everyone to see. @PottedLambShanks, what is the premise of your theory about India struggling in Test cricket in 5 years' time? They've been performing very well in the longer format of the game. They beat Australia and England in India and now they've beaten NZ in NZ. If you are alluding to the impending retirements of Sachin, Dravid and VVS, let me assure you, we have the replacements identified. Yes, they'll take a couple of years to mature, but there's no doubting their talent. 2 of India's best cricketers retired recently but that hasn't affected India's performance, has it?
Posted by boooonnie on (April 15 2009, 09:38 AM GMT)As much as I like sticking it the pommies I think few countries in the world could have taken the 20/20 to the level India has with the IPL. Very few countries have the population and year round passion for the sport as India. But keep writing up those "why are the english so hopeless in cricket" articles - they appeal to my Aussie sensibilities.
Posted by bccci on (April 15 2009, 08:56 AM GMT)As an earlier comment mentioned, 20-20 is not an invention. It is being played in gullys and small alleys all acroos India - 20,25,10,15 ovrs and many other formats. May be it could have probably been picked up by Stuart Robinson or John Carr on a trip to India by chance. I played these fast & furious formats myself on streets near my home. So deservedly Lalit Modi makes the most out of 20-20.
Posted by SachTLG on (April 14 2009, 03:49 AM GMT)The point here is that Modi took a risk and was successful. The E.C.B was not bold enough to market T20. Maybe this summaries the on-field approach of England as well, their cricket clearly lacks Aggression. This is of course nothing new in history as mentioned. Nevertheless an EPL wouldn't have been as successful as the IPL simply because in India Cricket is a craze whilst it is not so in England. T20 is in the hands of BCCI who could of course do better than the ECB in terms of marketing the game. However some comments on this are so strange and irrelavant.I really fail to understand the mentality of cricinfo readers. And people like the one who says " T-20 is not an invention" truly miss the point. Maybe t20 was played in the gullies.But what the writer tries to state is T20 at a professional level was initiated in England.
Posted by arian77 on (April 14 2009, 03:10 AM GMT)PottedLambShanks:- Is your comment focussed 5years in the past or the future? I wonder...Cos in 5 years time in the future, India will be fighting it out against the likes of Aus & SA while I see England fighting out the bottom lot. Now I wonder if you are gonna return to this blog.
Posted by sap1979 on (April 14 2009, 03:07 AM GMT)@Jimmy Pitt Alan Turing was trained at Princeton and hence the refinement and coherent approach in his research something sadly not present in british bred researchers. Also the less I talk of that show pony eddington the better it is. The bulk of electromagnetism work was done by Tesla and Lenz anyway. The english may be good with their hands but when it comes to interpreting results they are poor. Also Andrew Wiles seems to have chosen Princeton as his workplace. Hardly surprising.
Posted by sushCric on (April 13 2009, 21:11 PM GMT)Someone in the blog indirectly suggested that T20 might be bit of an over kill. T20 is not played regularly enough to even come under such a threat. IPL, world cup T20 are only played once a year. While most of the time teams play the ODIs. If the ODIs are still popular, surely T20 craze can't die just like that. While Tests aren't even affected by so many ODI matches in a year, I somehow doubt T20 will have the capacity to destroy Tests once in for all. The author is right sure as hell about ECB administrators. They missed a golden chance to promote a new innovative concept in cricket. Modi has definitely brought cricket to a new level and the results can be seen in the way Indian cricket is rising while English cricket is still lingering trying to find consistency.
Posted by JimmyPitt on (April 13 2009, 20:02 PM GMT)sap1979: Maxwell also was British, as was Alan Turing, a great mathematician. Also Andrew Wiles. When you talk of "British DNA", you demonstrate that you are not only sap by name but a sap by nature.
Posted by myth_buster on (April 13 2009, 16:56 PM GMT)You have to be a consummate i***t to claim Twenty20 to be an 'invention'. 20 overs a side are being played in every gully of India (and probably Australia/Eng/NZL) probably more than 30 years. A fifth grader playing cricket after school, knows that in that short time, you can play a quick 20 overs a side.
Posted by Nampally on (April 13 2009, 16:31 PM GMT)Richard, for any new planned venture to succesd, it needs initiative, drive,hard work and action. Modi's venture exploited India's pulse & popularity of Cricket. There is no other pastime in India more popular than Cricket/Films. Cricketers and Bollywood stars are more popular than any other profession. It is just like soccer mania in England or Hockey mania in Canada. Modi's risky venture succeeded because it was timely and well calculated. He made huge financial investments in his venture while risking it all. He involved film stars in franchise ownwer ship.On the other hand British idea was great but too conservative & poorly planned details. Its approach was not action orientated, shaky & lacked strong TV or fan backing. Traditional approach of market research and resulting delays did not help matters. IPL could have flopped if any of Modi's gambles failed. It is highly fortunate that all his "risky ideas" worked making Modi look like a genius. Nothing succeeds like Success, Eh!