T20 World Cup this year has not been in the favour of the Indian Cricket Team and Indian fans as well. We all have seen the anger and frustration of the audience after India’s loss to Pakistan on October 24th. This not only affected the image of the Indian cricket team but also left the sponsors, advertisement companies, and the authorities in financial distress.
A similar scenario was seen in the year 2007 when the Indian Cricket Team was playing ICC 50-over World Cup in the Caribbean and didn’t even make it to the second round of the world cup. This sudden exit wasn’t a digestible truth for the fans, sponsors, advertisement firms, and almost everyone who had invested in the team. The revenues of the advertisement companies took a disastrous hit.
Companies like Pepsi that had booked the advertisement slots in advance with taglines such as “If you fight it, you win”, wanted their invested money back or to redraft the agreements. Not only had this but the tour and travel companies faced a tremendous loss when passengers from India and the world started to cancel their flight and hotel bookings to the Caribbean.
Kunal Dasgupta, Sony Picture India’s head back then said “It’s a 48-day tournament and if teams like India and Pakistan are bowing out for playing two bad matches there is something wrong with the format and organization of the matches.”
The aftermath of India’s bad performance in ICC 50-over World cup and then unexpected exit could be seen on the TRP’s and the revenue collection.
Talking about ICC T20 World Cup, India still made an exit in the first round itself but unlike 2007 there are only three matches left after India’s exit which was 31 matches in the year 2007 after India was out of the World Cup. The Indian team couldn’t make it to the semifinals and the loss which the broadcasters and sponsors have to bear will not be as much as in the year 2007. Drawing parallel between both the years it needs to be kept in mind that stakeholders still have to look into the bigger picture and have a lot to deal with on their plates.
Broadcasters Star India’s which is now owned by Disney eight years telecast rights deal with the ICC (Indian Cricket Council) came to an end.
Because of the pandemic and the postponement of the 2020 edition of the game to the 2022 edition, it hasn’t been easy for the broadcasters and has caused financial variability.
45% of the revenues that the broadcasters had to make to the governing bodies were going to depend on the last three editions of World Cups- the 2020 and 2021 editions of the T20 World Cup and 2023 50 over edition.
Professionals and audience following cricket closely shared “Remember, in a format like this one (2021 T20 WC), there were only those marquee games” and how the vibe of the game was missing since the tournament was organized in a neutral arena.
Around 16 teams were a part of this World Cup and the format had been quite difficult from the opening. 08 out of 12 teams were knocked out in the super12 stage. No quarter-final stage was there.
The broadcasters came up with almost 10-12 sponsors generating revenues close to 100crores just for India versus Pakistan match and ten-second slots for the same India and Pakistan matches were sold for 25 lacs. The viewership numbers clocked for India versus Pakistan match on October 24 was 167 million and this makes it the most-watched T20 international till now, told by broadcasters.
From these stats, we can imagine the enthusiasm if India and Pakistan would be competing against each other in the finals. That match would have broken all the records in case of viewership and changed the current dynamics of the finances of the broadcasters and sponsors.
Also Read: A Rivalry is Born
