Behind the buzz

Is the Indian Premier League going to be successful? Well, the Economic Times tries to find answers among prospective sponsors, merchandisers, marketers, ad and brand gurus, and sport management firms. A few responses:

Kishore Biyani, group CEO, Future Group, believes that while Indians wear a T-shirt representing Team India, he doesn’t see any display of pride in rooting for a local team. Overruling any merchandising possibilities, Biyani says: “Prima facie, there’s no emotional affinity for the audience to buy team merchandise. So right now, I don’t see any potential.

“It’s the fans who bring in viewership and not the other way around,” says Anil Nair, president, Law & Kenneth. “Can the team owners get 10,000 Kolkatans to travel to Mohali to cheer Kolkata? That’s the test the IPL has to pass.

“What we have to figure out is how to keep the IPL alive from June 2 this year (when the IPL ends) to the next tournament. How do you keep the local fan base excited about IPL for one whole year?” queries Piyush Pandey, group chairman , O&M .

In the Daily Telegraph, Simon Heffer says cricket is in a crisis and suggests a radical idea to save it from ruin.

If the cricket authorities have the vision to see it, and the guts to act on that vision, what they should do about the insurgency by Indian riches into cricket is quite obvious. From the county, state or provincial level up to the international, cricket needs to be split into two games or, to use a rugby analogy, two codes.

There would be two discrete groups of players. One would play first-class cricket. The other would play Twenty20. There could be a negotiation about which, or whether indeed both, would play the 50-over game. There would be little money in the first-class game, except from certain Test series.