Monday, 23 March 2009
Entrepreneurial sport
Any decision to shift the IPL away from India calls into question some interesting issues regarding the role of entrepreneurship in sport. For Europeans, who are used to the socio-cultural embeddedness of sport, such transportability may be anathema. What role therefore do sports entrepreneurs like Lalit Modhi, Dietrich Mateschitz (Red Bull), George Gillett and Tom Hicks (Liverpool etc.) et al. play in sport? Are they crucial to the development and future health of sport? Do they bring much-needed managerial competence and innovative approaches to sport? Do they see things, and act, in a way that changes sport for the good? Or are they simply business people, who ignore the history, culture and relevance of sport in favour of securing the highest possible commercial returns from it? Are they therefore using sport? Perhaps they don't even care about sport? In which case, what managerial challenges does this pose when such commercial managers are juxtaposed with people in sport who have a completely different orientation?
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I donot know enough about Gillett and Hicks or Mateschitz for that matter, but I can tell from having followed the IPL from within India that it was a victory for cricket, a victory for the people who loved cricket and therefore a victory for the business of Lalit Modi. People in India couldn't get enough of it. It became a part of the culture of the country for those few months. And because of the reduced time length of the game, it became less time consuming and easier to follow. It was timed so well in the evenings such that school going kids, office going fathers and mothers would all be free to watch the games.
ReplyDeleteT20 is the future of cricket. And if i were to disclose a secret to you, then a traveling league like the form it is beginning to take up might be the way forward for this form of cricket. This way, the other cricketing boards get their share of the gold mine, the players get to play for the best teams, the league remains competitive and therefore for the viewers, more star studded and more entertaining.
Imagine there were just the uefa champions league all year round and the top say 20 teams in europe kept playing each other home and away?
How awesome would that be for the fans? ( All of them love one of the big clubs anyways...if not more)...and therefore, obviously, it would be so much more commercial...i don't think in sport, money can survive without the fans. The fans safeguard the sport. So there never can be anything to worry...