King Cricket: Down with this ‘cricketainment’ business
October 16th, 2009 by Alex Bowden in Champions LeagueThe Champions League Twenty20 began with defeats for each of the IPL sides in their respective opening fixtures. Champagne corks have been unaffected, but we have to admit that we’re pretty pleased.
It’s not that we’ve got a problem with Delhi, Bangalore or Hyderabad. It’s more that we’ve got a problem with GMR Group, United Breweries Group and Deccan Chargers Sporting Ventures. Yes, cricket clubs are businesses – non-profitable ones if they’re English counties – but the IPL sides are businesses first and sports clubs second.
So many elements of the IPL teams leave us cold because we can’t see them without being aware of the thinking behind them. The kits are fine (it’s Twenty20 cricket – wear a Cher-style fishnet body stocking if you want), but when we see them we can’t help but see some demographic-citing tool asking: “What colour best represents our brand?”
We can’t even look at the individual players without wondering whether they were the subject of lengthy discussions about how their presence in the side would ‘position the franchise for consumers’.
“How does Andrew Symonds represent the Deccan Chargers ideals and values?” they’d have asked. “Do his qualities fit with our image? What’s our official stance on the shoulder-charging of streakers? Do we have one? Why don’t we have one? Let’s say that we’re pro shoulder-charging streakers so that we can sign Roy.”
But to apply a hackneyed cricketing phrase, the marketing men can only control the controllables. They can and will do everything in their power to ensure that their ‘product’ has the best chance of success, but they can’t directly control what happens on the field. Yet you’d hope that winning cricket matches would be a key element in their marketing plan. Maybe it isn’t. Maybe it’s all about making cricket bats look like they’re on fire in promotional images.
In future years, it’s easy to see the Champions League Twenty20 being restructured to ensure the best chance of success for the IPL sides. There’s been so much cash sunk into them, they need to win at least the odd game. Humiliating defeats to poverty-stricken county sides take the shine off ‘brand identity’.
Until that happens, we’ll be watching the CC versus PLC matches and cheering on the former. There are people in this world who describe Virender Sehwag as a ‘cricketainment asset’. If something makes such people cry with frustration, it can only ever be a good thing.
King Cricket blogs at www.kingcricket.co.uk. He is a cult figure in the world of cricket blogs and was TWC’s first Best-of-blogs winner in April 2008.
Posted in Champions League | 9 Comments »
October 16th, 2009 at 4:38 am
Viva the real teams!
Having a bunch of brought in overpaid dorks – that’s what top level football is about.
This is cricket – F**K Off franchises and all that you stand for!
October 16th, 2009 at 11:31 am
the ‘foreign’ ipl players have been the major contributors for their sides in this championship, the standard of indian players does not seem high it is purely commercial, sign a few big names, bring in the boundaries substitute entertainment for realsim where possible and keep the pitches hard all so the the spectators will keep glued, and where are the current world T20 champions, not a single player of the winning squad is in the ‘champions league’ id rather see a good battle between the bat and bal like in this years ashes or india australia or india pakistan matches with the intensity they carry this is turning ‘real’ cricket into a joke.
October 16th, 2009 at 11:41 am
the group/league games are really overkill, you see a team play against every other team which is not necessary. neutral or first time spectators want to see knockout games what i would like to see is the champions league take on a 24 or 32 team format structured like the football world cup that would be brilliant
October 17th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
IPL (read Modi) is not cricket but just a business and self proclamation of Modi brand. If cricket had anything to do with it then the team from Indian domestic circuit should play and why the team from Pakistan is missing? ….. shame to call it a Champions league and I do feel sorry for the IPL brands who are falling like nine pins even though they have over paid stars from India and outside !!
October 18th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
[...] IPL sides have made the last four, possibly resulting in a serious downturn in marketing synergies and the value of cricketainment assets everywhere. It seems home advantage and the first pick of everyone else’s players wasn’t [...]
October 18th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
I understand your indignation but consider cinema and music. The Modi-fication of cinema has already happened. 100%. It’s called Hollywood. Ever seen the Titanic? Putrified filboid sludge, you might say. Or not. Regardess, “Best Picture,” says the Academy. We know what Ringo Starr said about Beethoven but do you object to the limited harmonic or poetic innovation in the Beatles’ music? “I am a Walrus? What bosh!” your dad said.” “No, no it’s Lewis Carroll,” you retorted. And then Michael Jackson sings, “You’re just a little buffet, you’re a vegetable. They eat off you, you’re a vegetable.” And now you are speechless. Or not. And then Britney Spears croons something and…You get the idea. So my question is. Why cricket? Why not begin your purge of the crass and the commercial, at the top. You’d find yourself letting go of quite a few things you love. We may not like it but change is the walrus, it’s the buffet. The IPL caters to the new generation. You and I? We’re just old.
October 19th, 2009 at 10:05 am
Jay, what makes you think this was where we started?
What makes you think that we haven’t got the energy to moan about each and every tiny thing that bothers us?
October 19th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Yes, you’re quite right. For exactly the same reason I can’t stand watching cricket full stop. I mean it made absolutely no sense to watch Michael Atherton in ODIs without wondering whether he added to nPower’s brand value. I’m sure you felt the same as I did every time Shane Warne came into bowl, is it really worth losing a grip on “real cricket” to watch VB’s poster child try to imprint Australian beer culture on all of us! And what about the Ashes, it has degraded to commercial spectacle to the extent that you might not even be able to see a millisecond without wondering why half the country needs to have cable TV access to share this most boring of pleasures.
I see exactly where you’re coming from. We shouldn’t just kill commercial franchises, we should kill all commercial cricket! Then nobody could complain about anything at all, ever. Or maybe…
October 19th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Perhaps the expression “at the top” was an unfortunate choice. Mine was an arbitrary demarcation designed to highlight your equally arbitrary decision to assail the IPL. I do not believe that Hollywood and Pop Music started the rot any more than the IPL did. That honor rests with the pome at our beloved Lord’s according to at least one mythology. I do accept your second assertion. It *is* our inalienable right to moan about anything that bothers us. But you seem quite intelligent and I was trying to save you the bother.