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Ever since the inception of the IPL, I have spent time with multiple team owners and industry leaders and have seen, up close, what the league has come to signify for each of them. That, to me, is the best proof of the IPL’s success. These men and women run the country, and to see them vulnerable and anxious is not something we are used to.
Each of them wants a share of the IPL pie, and each wants to win the league. That is how coveted it has become, giving the IPL a stature no other tournament has achieved before. For example, the entire senior management of one of the teams I had the opportunity to follow closely used to leave the hotel together around 2 pm on match days to offer pujas for the team. They would never be a minute late, and the discipline shown in performing this ritual was unbelievable! That the team did not achieve the greatest results is a different matter altogether.
Team owners – men and women who run large corporations – are not as tense in their business meetings as they are during IPL games. One team owner clutched a worn-out picture of his family deity for the entire duration of a match, and every wicket that fell or boundary scored was greeted with a pranaam.
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Surrounded by friends and family, an IPL owner’s box best defines the complex modernity of India today. Most people in this box wear branded clothes and watches, carry sophisticated phones with powerful cameras, and drive to the stadium in luxury cars. But when it comes to the game, they transform into devout, god-fearing Indians who pray for the success of their teams.
So what if they are not playing, or have never played the game themselves? Many feel that prayers are enough to win cricket matches. Prashad is passed to the team members hours before the game, and every possible ritual is observed. Team names and jersey colours are sometimes altered to align better with the stars, and it is this unique kind of fandom that makes the IPL a very different beast compared with international cricket.
When it comes to performance, however, the owners are ruthless. Reputations do not matter; it becomes a case of winner takes all. Consider the case of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). When Shah Rukh Khan’s franchise parted ways with Sourav Ganguly in 2011, there was huge backlash in Kolkata. Some predicted that KKR was about to lose its fan base and that matches would be played to near-empty stands at Eden Gardens.
Others suggested that Gautam Gambhir would find it impossible to fill Ganguly’s shoes as captain. Yes, it started badly for KKR. A couple of games did see poor attendance. However, soon after the team began performing well, the fans returned to fill the stands. Furthermore, once Gambhir led them to the title in 2012 and again in 2014, the bitter saga was all but forgotten.
This is what the IPL is about: a commercially driven, ruthlessly competitive business proposition with a dedicated base of followers, one which is expected to grow exponentially over the next decade.
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