|
|
|
|
Cricket's home moves closer to the
money
By Raja M
MUMBAI - From August, cricket's global headquarters
will be a little closer to South Asia, where it is
by far the most popular - and lucrative - game.
After 95 years of ruling world cricket from a
small office at the Clock Tower of London's
Lord's cricket ground, the International Cricket
Council (ICC) will move to Dubai in the United Arab
Emirates, a move reflecting the game's changing
financial epicenter and one that is aimed at
taking advantage of the tax-free status of the
emirate.
Inderjit Singh Bindra, a leading
Indian cricket administrator credited with
visionary ideas, approved of the ICC move. "All
major sports organizations, including the
Federation Internationale de Football Association
[FIFA], have moved to tax havens," he told Asia
Times Online. "The ICC cannot afford to pay 30%
tax - it will save millions of dollars with this
move."
Bindra, a civil servant for 40
years and cricket administrator for 30 years,
presides over the Punjab Cricket Association that
owns one of the best cricket stadiums in India. In
March, Bindra made a startling claim that Indian
cricket could be worth US$2 billion within the
next four years, becoming one of the top
money-spinners in global sport and in the Indian
economy. India's famed entertainment industry as a
whole is estimated at $4.3 billion.
Megabucks,
according to Bindra and his friend Lalit Modi,
the Rajasthan Cricket Association president, will
come with their brave new idea of an exclusive
cricket TV channel in India, owned by the
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the
game's presiding authority in the country. At
present, the BCCI has a notorious habit of being
drowned in controversy and dragged to court after
any TV rights sale. Recently, it was sued for $362
million by Zee TV for being denied telecast
rights, despite Zee being the highest bidder.
Bindra, a former BCCI president when India hosted the
1996 World Cup, told Asia Times Online that the
new cricket channel could be like Manchester United's
MUTV, the first sports club-owned TV
channel. Bindra said experts have worked the
numbers over the proposed pay channel, which the
BCCI is planning to discuss. "If American college
football can be sold for $600 million annually,
why can't Indian cricket sell better?" posed
Bindra, referring to CBS's purchase of National
Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament rights. "In America,
about seven leading sports compete with each
other, including baseball, basketball, tennis, ice
hockey and American-rules football. In India, cricket is
bigger than Bollywood in terms of following. We
can make it as big as the NBA [the US National
Basketball Association]."
If Bindra's dream
comes true, then India's superstar cricketers will
become some of Asia's richest people. Thirty years
ago, when Bindra became cricket administrator,
Indian international players earned about $50 a
Test match (five full days of work). Allowances
were so paltry that Sunil Gavaskar, the legendary
former Indian batsman, revealed in his
autobiography Sunny Days how he and his
teammates devoured biscuits (cookies) served with tea at
county grounds in England to save money on meals.
In comparison, current superstars Sachin Tendulkar
and Virender Sehwag earn about $1 million annually
from endorsements, including annual contracts with
the BCCI that are worth $134,000. Bindra says
Tendulkar and Sehwag could earn $40 million a year
if his proposals take off, on par with Michael
Schumacher, Formula One racing champion and a
close friend of Tendulkar.
India is now
acknowledged to be the epicenter in world cricket,
a game played at various levels among 92 ICC
member countries, including leagues in Hong Kong,
Thailand, Malaysia and Japan. "Some 60% of income
in world cricket is generated from India," said
Bindra. "Even in the 1999 World Cup in England,
not only sponsorship revenue but 60% of ticket
sales came from Indians and people of Indian
origin."
It took an Indian to change the
financial health of the ICC. When Jagmohan
Dalmiya, Bindra's former friend and now bitter
rival, took over as the first Asian president of
the ICC, the world body had $37,000 in its kitty.
When Dalmiya left, the ICC had $11 million. The
ICC 2003-04 balance sheet shows total assets of
$94.9 million, a net cash outflow of $79.5 million
and $79 million in cash and investments.
The turning point in the cricket power
center shifting toward Asia came with India
winning the 1983 World Cup in England. Next, the
subcontinent wrenched the next World Cup hosting
rights in 1987, the first time it was hosted
outside England. Big money rolled in with the BCCI
beginning to sell TV rights since 1993. In 1994,
the board earned $1 million for TV rights. In
2004, it rejected a $308 million bid for telecast
rights in a murky controversy that's now in court.
More interesting, the Bindra group wants
to make the BCCI a public limited company, launch
an initial public offer, be listed in stock
exchanges, be monitored by the regulator Security
and Exchange Board of India and answer to the
cricket fan as a stakeholder. "We want
professionals to run cricket," said Bindra.
Presently, the BCCI and its "honorary" top
office-holders, mostly leading politicians,
administer the richest sports body in South Asia
in a manner ranging from amateurish, ad hoc to
accusations of acting like a mafioso.
Bindra's new business order promises
paying the 26 affiliated regional cricket boards
in the country $23 million annually, compared with
the $450,000 they currently receive from the BCCI.
He envisages 50 million of the 100 million cable
TV homes in India paying $1 a month subscription
fee for the cricket channel, which works out to
$600 million a year.
"With selling rights
for the Internet, cellular phones, TV advertising
and merchandise, we are absolutely convinced about
earning at least $1 billion annually in post-tax
profits," says Bindra. "We have had leading
experts study the numbers." His partner in the
proposal, Lalit Modi, had earlier nursed the
marketing of ESPN, Dubai-based Ten Sports and
Doordarshan Sports in their infant days in India.
Bindra talks of a new inter-city cricket
league, privately owned clubs, telecasting
domestic cricket and buying rights to get more
international cricket in India. He is also upbeat
on compact formats of the game, such as the new
"Twenty 20" that lasts for three hours instead of
one day or five days, providing relief to those
worried about cricket's negative impact on the
Indian economy in terms of man-hours lost in front
of television. As Bindra's friend Modi reminded a
local news weekly recently, "Since India is
driving the business of cricket, why should we not
be in the driver's seat of world cricket?"
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
rights reserved. Please contact us for information
on sales, syndication and republishing.) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
All material on this
website is copyright and may not be republished in any form without written
permission.
© Copyright 1999 - 2005 Asia Times
Online Ltd.
|
|
Head
Office: Rm 202, Hau Fook Mansion, No. 8 Hau Fook St., Kowloon, Hong
Kong
Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
|
|
|
|
