It was bound to happen that there would be T20 leagues in India or any other type of Cricket league. India accounts for more than 80% (guess, but won’t be much off from actual) revenue and audience for game of cricket but hardly 5-10% of Cricket being played is attractive for this huge India audience. When India is playing some top team (Aus, Pak etc) or when there is a marquee series like Ashes that people like to watch Cricket. Though most of the International Cricket being played gets telecasted live in India, but interest is usually low unless India is playing.

 

This imbalance could have been addressed by India specific cricket only. Unfortunately, India’s domestic cricket is not strong enough or not marketed well to attract the captive audience.

 

T20 is ideal format for Cricket marketing. The matches are short, can be played at the prime time and in most cases, guarantee a close finish. Cricket is played at fast pace and there is hardly any period when people feel bored. There are also enough breaks – over change, wicket fall or change of innings that can generate advertisement revenue. Ideal mix for everyone involved.

 

Zee TV saw this huge opportunity provided by imbalance on the quantity of cricket and T20 gave it a vehicle to market Cricket very effectively and it started ICL. It has made a decent start but did not catch people’s imagination as Indian Cricket’s big stars were missing from the roster which would have attracted the audience. IPL has taken it to next level and looks to me as pointer to how cricket will be played in future. India provides the biggest market in Cricket and its audience has every right to choose what they want to watch, who they want to watch and where they want to watch.

 

I doubt if any other country can come even close to having a parallel league like IPL or ICL. But in India, we can definitely have multiple leagues as there is huge appetite for the game of cricket.

 

There will definitely be implications for International cricket. Sponsors now have a choice to invest in International cricket with India being one of the many countries playing or invest in India specific league where they can get the very audience they are targeting for their message. No doubt, International cricket involving India will be the most saleable cricket item but the series involving lower ranked countries will definitely take a hit in terms of sponsorship and may become difficult to sustain.

 

Finally, Cricket may be going the way of Basketball (NBA in USA) or Ice hockey in US/Canada. Basketball is played in very limited number of countries and there would be more people following NBA then international matches or world championship of basketball. NBA has done a lot of customizations to make it TV-friendly and so has T20.