IPLL & IMPACT IN DEVELOPING CRICKET & CRICKETING TALENT IN INDIA – A CASE

IPLL & IMPACT IN DEVELOPING CRICKET & CRICKETING TALENT IN INDIA – A CASE

!.1: How IPL transformed the dreams of budding cricketers in India

(sourceAakash Sivasubramaniam@aakashs26, https://www.cricket.com/authors/Aakash_Sivasubramaniam?page=0&type=latest)

Cricket soru poduma (Will cricket feed you?)” was a quintessential saying for all the aspiring cricketers prior to the envisioning of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Until the advent of the IPL, cricket was viewed as a mere passion in several Indian households.

Domestic cricketers’ toil was tough, and it wasn’t even guaranteed that their hard work would transform into economic success. That was really when the term “playing for India is the ultimate dream” became clichéd. 

You either played for India, or you dreamt of playing for India, given how the health of the sport was. Even the ones who had played international cricket had to be dependent on other avenues to feed their families but in 2008, everything changed. 

“Compared to the small entitled group of international players, the life of the average player on the domestic circuit is tough. On the road for months, he faces serious financial insecurity,” wrote former BCCI administrator Amrit Mathur in a column for Hindustan Times.

“The money isn’t bad but harsh conditions apply— without contract, salary, regular job or stable income he is solely dependent on match fees, which is subject to selection.”

305 players have toiled hard, and in return, have gone on to play the longest format – Test cricket – for the nation but that hasn’t guaranteed riches to any of them, as the IPL has since 2008. Stable income was no longer a dream, it was a reality that was waiting for these players to realise. 

In the pre-IPL era, domestic cricketers who were regular in their respective setups earned approximately 10% of the base price (INR 2 lakh) per year. Since 2014, when the data for all uncapped players sold is available, the average money that was spent by the various franchises on uncapped players was INR 40.97 crore in an Auction window, with the highest being in 2022 – when franchises decided to shell 109.2 crores, and the lowest being in 2015 when only 8.8 crores were spent.  

Back in 2014, when the franchises had to build a core unit for the next few years, INR 37.84 crores were spent on uncapped talents, with Karn Sharma going for INR 3.75 crores. Over the next few years, the amount reached INR 40 crores in 2016, jumping nearly three crores more.

Later when the franchises were tasked to set up a core in 2018, the amount jumped to 97 crores, showing the value of uncapped talents in a competition such as the IPL. In the last Mega Auction that we had (2022), the sum grew in magnitude to 109 crores, which was the peak for any season, with 93 players being bought by the franchises. 

Indirectly or directly, the success of the IPL has in return helped to increase the pay of the domestic players but still, playing in domestic tournaments isn’t quite appreciable. While some cricketers travel across the country, playing various private tournaments, others opt to travel the world seeking opportunities. 

How IPL changed lives – a case study

In December 2019, 17-year-old Yashasvi Jaiswal was snapped at 12 times his base price, earning INR 2.4 crore. Until the age of 11, Jaiswal just had a dream, and a ticket to Mumbai. In a tent adjacent to Muslim United Sports Club, the southpaw did it all – from selling paani puris to selling fruits – to make ends meet. 

But the grand success of IPL showed him that there was a light at the end of his cricketing tunnel. In an otherwise world, the southpaw would still have had to continue his pursuit to play for the national team for economical viability. But overnight, just a sign on the IPL contract changed his life. 

Just a couple of years before Jaiswal realised his dream, there was Mohammed Siraj, son of an auto driver, who also had his eyes set on fulfilling a career in the sport that saw millions pumped into it. Sunrisers had shelled INR 2.6 crore for the speedster, who saw his life turn around and since then, his dad stopped driving an auto. 

While playing for India was still his biggest dream, he no longer had to depend on it as a source of income for himself and his family, IPL had played the perfect feeder to those dreams. In 2022, that sum of INR 2.6 crore increased multi-fold, as the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) retained him for a sum of INR 7 crore, fulfilling a big dream of his. 

Toil, sacrifice, drama and plenty of dedication – demonstrate Thangarasu Natarajan’s journey as a cricketer. Growing up, his back was always against the wall, with his father working as a daily wage labourer, but he never gave up the sport. His mom too had a stall, where she would sell chicken pakoda in Chinnappampatti. 

In fact, it was only at the age of 20 when he made a switch from a tennis ball to a cricket ball did he realise that there was a life in front. Jump to 2017, there was an INR 3 crore paycheck waiting for him, something that then not only helped him fulfill a dream but also propelled him to fulfil other dreams as well. 

“Most of the boys come from struggling families. So, me (Natarajan) and Jayaprakash try our best to take care of them. From buying balls to mats – we take care of everything. If they bring shoes and whites, that’s enough,” Natarajan said in a conversation with Arun Venugopal on his YouTube channel Gethist Creative. 

“So, if those players have any gear which they don’t use, we tend to pass it onto the boys in Chinnapampatti. Till I’m here, I’ll try my best to take care of the needs of the boys at the academy,” Natarajan added.

Sure, playing for India is still the biggest dream for budding cricketers but no more is it the only dream that could help them meet ends. Look at Pravin Tambe, who made his IPL debut at the age of 42. Only once in his entire career before playing IPL had Tambe been close to a Mumbai call-up, in 2000. 

The leg-spinner made ends meet desperately with a job and a condition: that he would continue to play cricket. It wasn’t something that won him bread anymore, the sport was just him merely continuing a passion. Tambe kept chipping away at the sport, and in 2013, when he trialled for Rajasthan Royals, he was 41. 

Over the years, IPL has definitely shaken up the broadcasting scene in India but alongside that, it has also given the budding cricketers a chance to dream. A dream that no longer requires cricketers to represent India in order to meet ends.

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1.2: The Rise and Rise of the IPL

The IPL was a smash hit right from the start. Over the years, the IPL has helped create a robust sports industry in India. An ecosystem that provides jobs to plenty of individuals, not just during the tournament, but beyond the season.

Source: Published : Mar 26, 2022 15:15 IST, DHIRAJ MALHOTRA, https://sportstar.thehindu.com/cricket/ipl/2022-the-rise-and-rise-of-the-ipl-curtain-raiser-memories/article38462108.ece

It was the year 2007. We were in South Africa for the first edition of the ICC T20 World Cup. I distinctly remember the day when two gentlemen walked up to me, and a few others, to discuss how to run what they kept calling “the world’s biggest and greatest cricket league”.

But what they were calling a global league, was in reality a domestic league, right? We were not sure what exactly was in store. It sounded all very ambitious and grand, but we were nervous and skeptical, Unlike the two gentlemen in question, who were 100% confident that what they were proposing was going to change the sport forever.

IPL 2022: New season, new teams, new possibilities

Before I knew it, I was named Tournament & Marketing Director for the Indian Premier League. So, how was this going to work out? How were teams going to be sold, when was it going to be held, what were the television rights going to be like? So many questions! Over the next few months, we would have the answers, as the league started taking shape and form, bit by bit. We were very clear that the IPL was going to bring into people’s drawing rooms something called ‘cricketainment’ – and for that SONY seemed like the perfect choice as the broadcaster. When the bids opened for the franchises, we were quite taken aback by the money the owners wanted to pour in. It was overwhelming, to be honest.

In fact, if one were to just look at the owners and the organisational structures of the franchises, it is easy to trace the trajectory of this league. The owners, all distinguished industrialists, and established movie stars had no experience of running a sports league. But look at how all of them, and the structures of the franchises have evolved today. Going into its 15th season, the league and its franchises are run 100% professionally. Owners and every one part of the ecosystem are fully aware of all aspects of the league, be it the cricket itself, or even the commercials and operational aspects of it. The franchises have also realised the importance of having specialists take care of different aspects of running it, just like other global leagues do. This did not happen overnight, and with every passing season, we have all learnt from our mistakes and moved on to get better.

Where talent meets opportunity: The IPL has provided Indian youngsters like Harshal Patel, Ishan Kishan, Mohammed Siraj and Shreyas Iyer and many more to showcase their talents and stake claim for a place in the national side.

The IPL’s biggest contribution on-field has of course been in giving India (and other countries, too) world-class cricketers. Last year, for instance, we had teams playing tournaments in England and Sri Lanka simultaneously, purely because that’s the kind of bench strength India has. And there is no denying the fact that the IPL has had a massive role to play in creating that bench strength, and that too from various corners of our country. A lot of international cricketers also realise what an incredible platform this is and take time out each year to come and be a part of it.

But I want to highlight the contribution of the league beyond the cricket field. It has, over the years, helped create a robust sports industry in India. An ecosystem that provides jobs to plenty of individuals, not just during the tournament, but beyond the season. The IPL was a smash hit right from the start. And it did not take long for other sports in India – hockey, football, badminton, wrestling, kabaddi, badminton – to hop on to the league bandwagon. The basic blueprint was there, and the adjustments and adaptions had to be made for each sport. Having been a part of many of these leagues, I have witnessed first-hand how it has been beneficial to so many professionals. Whether it’s fitness trainers, physiotherapists, tournament operations staff, photographers, videographers – so many professionals have now created systems for themselves to work across leagues and teams, and that is extremely heartening to witness. In fact, a lot of the staff that works on the IPL are currently from India. This was not the case, even 10 years ago when people were hired from overseas because the talent available here did not have enough experience or expertise to handle the running of a tournament of such scale. But that has changed drastically now.

Come to think of it, there’s barely a season of the IPL that goes by without a bit of controversy. Each time there are debates over whether the tournament has lost its sheen, are sponsors still keen and are the audiences still interested? But the IPL has weathered all these storms, and more. In the last two years of the pandemic, the tournament flourished. The IPL was among the first of the tournaments to be held (in Asia at least) amid the pandemic, in strict bio-bubbles, and the competition in the UAE was highly contested, and enjoyed by everyone at a time when they needed to relax and enjoy some good quality sport. This time around there will be 10 participating teams, with the new teams having paid astronomical amounts to win the franchise rights during the bidding process. The marketing and sponsorship teams of the franchises will tell you how a whole new range of brands and products now want to be associated with the IPL – E-learning, E-commerce, digital payment brands, NFTs, fantasy gaming apps and so much more. So, if anybody had the slightest doubt about the brand value of the league dropping, those thoughts can be put to rest!

As we inch closer to the 2022 edition of the tournament, my mind goes back to the very first match of the very first year of the IPL in 2008.

The gates of the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru were to open at 4 PM for a grand opening ceremony before Royal Challengers Bangalore were to lock horns with Kolkata Knight Riders. Just 30 minutes after the gates were opened, there were 50,000 people inside the stadium! It was unbelievable what we were witnessing.

READ: BCCI mulls over Women’s IPL with six teams in 2023

The match that followed was a sign of things to come. I had to head to the airport after the first few overs but was stuck in traffic right outside the stadium with Shane Warne, Virender Sehwag, M. S. Dhoni, and Yuvraj Singh for company. By the time we did reach the airport, Warnie told us that Brendon McCullum had smashed 158 off 73 balls for KKR. It sounded too good to be true, and Yuvi joked Warnie was probably reading the team score, not the individual one. But Baz had indeed scored all those runs, making history and giving this splendid tournament just the start it needed. As clichéd as it sounds, the rest is history.

As someone who has seen this tournament right from its rudimentary stages, I am delighted it is back in India, and I look forward to seeing the crowds back in the stadium to see their stars in action. From that day in 2007, when I was approached about joining the league and running the tournament to now – it’s been one heck of an adventure.

And in case you’re wondering who those two gentlemen were who had their faith in the IPL even back then, let that be a mystery for the time being.

…………………………………………………………………………………… 1.3: How has the IPL benefited Indian Cricket

Source: Curated By: Cricketnext Staff

Last Updated: JUNE 07, 2019, 12:29 IST

https://www.news18.com/news/india/how-has-the-ipl-benefited-indian-cricket-2162875.html

A lot of good has come out of the IPL and long may it continue.

Starting off in 2008 and now in its 12^th edition, the IPL keeps getting bigger. Recently valued at over 6 billion USD, It’s the big daddy of T20 leagues around the world.

Indian cricket has benefited a lot from the success of the IPL and continues to benefit from it.

We take a closer look.

Huge Financial Benefits

For all involved! The players, BCCI, the boards of other countries, the coaches, the support staff etc.

Just to begin with, over the last 11 years, the BCCI has paid over 2.5k crore in taxes itself.It has raked in so much more by way of sponsorship and broadcast rights. This has ensured that India remains the commercial powerhouse of world cricket. The BCCI has done its bit by passing on over 2.5k crores to the various state boards. The BCCI also paid 110 crores recently from the profits of the IPL to ex cricketers as a one-time benefit. These sums, ranging between 25 lakhs up to 1.5 crs were especially a boon for retired and ex cricketers who player at a time when money in cricket was not so lucrative.

Big Money for the Players

There is no doubt that the biggest beneficiaries of monetary improvements have been the players themselves. It is easily the highest paying T20 league by a long way and if you consider it’s a 6 week tournament then it is one of the best paying leagues in the world across all sports if you compare the money received for the no. of games played/duration played.  In terms of cost of  broadcast rights per game, IPL  ranks third behind the NFL of the US and the English Premier League football.

The top international cricketers like to be part of it because they earn a big buck during the competition.  But IPL money has revolutionized the money domestic players can earn. There have been many rags to riches stories of the IPL. Players like Md. Siraj, Pawan Negi come to mind of people from humble backgrounds raking in big moolah, only because they deserve it. But we will delve deeper into that a bit later in the piece. Then there are players like Robbie ( Robin earlier) Uthappa, who despite not being part of the Indian team set up any more, make very good money during the IPL. This has had a cascading affect in the pays for other domestic tournaments as well. Due to the limited number of places up for grabs in the teams playing the IPL, there are many very good domestic cricketers who don’t find a place just because they aren’t of the ‘T20 mold’. The big contracts were bypassing them even though they were providing very useful service to their domestic teams. The BCCI realized this and steadily increased the pay of domestic cricketers. This benefited some international India stars as well, who were invaluable in the test arena but not finding an IPL contract. Think Cheteshwar Pujara and Ishant Sharma. Pujara is the most important Indian test batter after Kohli and realizing that he was not making as much as some IPL contract winners even though he was doing so much for the Indian team, the BCCI raised the annual retainer for contracted players in a big way.

Ancillary Beneficiaries

There was a recent article about a couple of sports goods shops in Chennai named after famous Indian cricketers. The highest selling Item in these shops was the CSK jersey. From such shop owners, jersey makers, the tea stall guys near the various stadiums, the face mask painters, the stadium ushers, the guys selling ice creams, snacks, soft drinks in the stadiums, to the transport companies that lug the various teams, broadcast infrastructural equipment and hotels across the different cities have all benefited from the IPL in some way or another.

The Main Beneficiary – Indian cricket

The game of cricket in the country has benefited from IPL the most. Player skills, their fitness, their mentality, their approach to the game, the caliber of the Indian coaches and support staff has all drastically improved and this improvement is attributable to the IPL.

When the IPL started, the first thing a diffident young Indian domestic player realized that there was an Indian superstar or two in the same dressing room as him and a couple of international greats of the game to go with it. At first he must have been slightly intimidated but then he got to know them and realized they are ‘human’ too after all, he shared a few laughs with them, discussed techniques and took some tips from them and before he knew it, they were to him, what any other team mate would be, sure the admiration and willingness to learn from them was there but gone was the feeling of intimidation. Then in a couple of years when a younger domestic player came around, he was the first to tell this younger players that the big stars were very approachable and part of the gang, “Don’t feel intimidated by them”. And, in this way, young Indian cricket players stopped getting intimidated first in the dressing room and then on the field.

When they stepped on to the field at first, the screaming spectators, the spotlight may have got to them a bit, but then, there was a Dhoni or a Dravid or a Warne at the other end, coaching them on the go if you like and asking them to focus on the job at hand rather than think of the macro elements which were beyond their control. So, slowly but surely, young Indian cricketers got used to playing naturally on the big stage.

The IPL limits the use of foreign player to 4 and sides usually have a couple of Indian stars, so at least 3-4 places on the 11 are filled largely by domestic players. So, there was immediately great competition to be in that list of 3-4 players. These players could not afford to be the weaker link of the team. The players also became conscious of the platform IPL provided and if they wanted to be part of it year after year, they needed to perform well game after game. This means, they had to be skillful players and execute their skills perfectly. That’s why, in recent years you have seen ‘mystery’ Indian spinners like M Ashwin and Varun Chakravarthy be picked up for large contracts. You also see players like Mayank Markande and Rahul Chahar make a name for them-selves as they had the ability to successfully execute their plans.

Indian Fast bowling has improved by leaps and bounds in the last 5-7 years and a lot of that has to do with the IPL. Teams spent big on acquiring marquee Indian players and international stars. These mostly happened to be batters and a smattering of fast bowlers, this meant that usually the 2^nd or 3^rd seamer in the team had to be an Indian, thus big money went after good fast bowlers. Domestic bowlers realized that if they could bowl to a plan and execute their skills consistently, they would be picked for IPL teams and if they did well there, they could go on to bigger things. Players like Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar are prime examples.  There is a next tier of Indian fast bowlers like Saini, Prasidh Krishna, waiting in the wings.

Young batters too realized that they needed to make most of opportunities given to them and learn as much as they can from the international stars around them. They have developed different facets of the game and now you no longer surprised to see young Indian players playing the reverse sweeps, ramps or scoop shots. Think Sanju Samson, Sarfaraz, Rishabh Pant.

In fact, it is when the likes of Virat and Rohit play such shots that it looks askew.

There has been a drastic improvement in the approach of the Indian players as well. They have been part of dressing rooms where they have observed closely how expensive international stars and Indian cricket stars bounce back from failures. They have also watched them closely as they prepare for big games or big situations within a game. This has helped young Indian cricketers learn the mentality they must try to adopt in such situations themselves. Also discussions with former greats of the games like Tendulkar, Sehwag, Ponting, Warne and Jayawardene who are attached to teams as coaches and mentors helps them understand what it takes to succeed at the big stage and how must they prepare to get there. Imagine the pearls of wisdom a young Prithvi Shaw picks from a Ricky Ponting who was himself viewed as a young talent once. Or the tips a Shreyas Iyer gets on captaincy from a Sourav Ganguly.

There is no too big a name or too big a game for these young Indians anymore. Pretty early on in their career they secure a good price tag for themselves and they know they must keep performing to justify that tag. They need to meet expectations and learn how to deal with such pressures from a very early stage.

It is only very seldom that a good performance in the IPL leads to an immediate Indian team berth, almost never for an out an out youngster. This in a way is a good thing because it keeps the domestic tournaments very relevant .The BCCI usually though does fast track these outstanding IPL performers to the India A sides, so the players realize that there is a shorter road to the Indian team if they play consistently well. But just doing well at the IPL is not enough, as Sanju Samson will tell you.

IPL and T20 cricket demands for the absolutely fittest cricketer. Every IPL team has brought in the best of fitness coaches to ensure their teams are not found wanting on the field due to fitness issues. This has led to the standard of fitness in the domestic set up increase manifold. Fitter players make for sharper reflexes and better fielding. The fielding of the Indian team also has improved by leaps and bounds in the last 5-7 years.

The IPL has also made the Indian players versatile players. We are not just developing crash bang wallop batters and white ball specialist spinners. Younger players like KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant and Prithvi Shaw can succeed in IPL and test cricket too at the same time as they are starting to demonstrate and the same applies to Bumrah, Bhuvaneshwar, Shami, Jadeja, Ashwin  and Kuldeep Yadav. So, the players are learning when and how shift gears and what kind of game is appropriate for what situation.

Over the last few years, the fortunes of the Indian team too have taken a turn for the better and currently it is perched at the top of the rankings in Tests and near the top in ODI and T20. Such consistency by the Indian side across all three formats has never been seen before.

It could be mere coincidence or the IPL could have something to do with the kind of players that are coming through to represent India. I could wager that a majority of them had a stellar IPL or two in the last 5-6 years. That too could be a co-incidence.