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Follow UsMS Dhoni is 41. But he could still play for another five years; bat well below No.8; may get a spasm every time he jumped a bit, and would still be revered as the hottest property in the IPL. Let alone a scoff, no one in the commerce chamber would bat an eyelid about his viability to the league.
No sponsor would mind. Dhoni is synonymous with CSK, so the management’s qualms are out of the equation too. The broadcasters? Perhaps they will all pack their stuff and return to the USA the day Dhoni calls it a day from the IPL. How else would you attract 22 million people simultaneously to be glued to their smartphone screens without MSD marking his way in the middle?
Is it good for the sport? Well, there can never be a definitive answer, for the sport has moved well from the era of national pride being the end-all scenario. It is still a pursuit of excellence, but it is well accompanied by “who is doing it” rather than “how has this been done” for the longest time. The Indian Premier League has only bolstered the phenomenon to take hero worship to a fever pitch. It is a win-win for every stakeholder - and more importantly, it brings in money.
As much as the cricketing merit of the IPL makes it the biggest extravaganza in the sport– even bigger than the World Cups– the sponsors and the business tycoons are the ones who have made the spectacle worth the exercise. For them to have a stake in the league, fan favorites must continue to be available thrice weekly apart from endorsing products and dancing in cringe commercials.
Take Rohit Sharma, for example. The Indian skipper across formats has averaged 25.42 in 92 IPL matches since 2017. He has a strike rate of 127.2 with a balls-per-dismissal ratio of 20.0. From whichever angle you look at it, this is one of the worst performances by a player that cost over INR 15 crores to the franchise every single year. With the spending power restricted, Mumbai Indians could have gone for four or five impactful players with that money and wouldn’t have had to struggle the way they have in the last couple of seasons.
But that’s the power of branding. Rohit is the India captain. His presence brings major money into the league. India, as a country, is laden with people overlooking facts for emotions, and when Rohit pumps in to deliver once in a while, the Hit-Man posts on social media are enough to mask the frailties.
Royal Challengers Bangalore are yet to win a single title in their 16-year sojourn in the IPL, but that said, could a Delhi Capitals or Punjab Kings– who find themselves in a similar boat– expect a INR 70 Crore deal like RCB have signed with Qatar Airways this year? Could any other franchise be able to joke around about their lack of trophies and be forgiven by their fans?
In fact, they recorded a YoY (Year-on-Year) brand value growth of 34% to $68 million last year. It is this systematic brand positioning practice that RCB have done that has done the trick. But would it have been possible without the value that Virat Kohli brings to the RCB table, simply by being Virat Kohli and adhering his unwavering support to the franchise that bought him for the first time in 2008? Your guess is as good as mine.
On a personal level, the impetus that the new-age technology and fantasy gaming companies have provided could never be ignored. Rohit and Hardik Pandya are the faces of Dream11; Kohli sells for Mobile Premier League; Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj make inroads with My11Circle. That only justifies the estimates made by the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS) and Deloitte in 2022 which suggested that the fantasy gaming industry has attracted over a US$1.25 billion in Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in 2021 alone.
The latest report by the leading brand valuation consultancy, Brand Finance, stated that the tournament has achieved a 77% increase in system value from US$4.7 billion in 2021 to US$8.4 billion in 2022.
“The IPL brand has built a strong and valuable brand in India and across the cricketing world,” said Savio D’Souza, Senior Director, Brand Finance Plc. “The IPL is scoring runs with great resilience during the pandemic, title sponsorship with Tata, new media rights, and ensuring global cricketing bodies allow the world’s leading players to play in the IPL, the BCCI has ticked all the right boxes.”
Indian content consumerism is driven by a star culture. Be it Bollywood, South Indian movies, or cricket - there is an inherent need for showmanship to go hand in hand with content. Thus, when someone like Kohli negatively impacts RCB by consuming more balls than necessary, the pursuit never ends there. Fans would be eager to put out the “average” that the Delhite has mustered, overlooking the nuances that made Kohli a not-so-impactful performer in the T20s. All of that can’t be challenged. Especially in the cauldron of the Indian Premier League, logic is useless.
Hence, don't be surprised the next time you see MS Dhoni walking out to bat even below Tushar Deshpande or Akash Singh. Or don’t bat an eyelid if Mumbai decide to drop Suryakumar Yadav but continue with Rohit Sharma for the next five seasons.
Because that’s the nature of the beast and we all are slave to it. There is no end to this circus.
