Extended Project: Was the Inception of the Twenty20 Competition in the UK the Most Important Event in the Evolution of Cricket from an Amateur Gentleman’s Game to a Multi-Million Dollar Salary Sport?

1. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 1 ..........................................................................................................................2. Literature Review 2 ................................................................................................................3. Discussion 6 ...........................................................................................................................

3.1. Twenty20’s Inception 6 ....................................................................................................3.1.1. How was Twenty20 conceived? 6 ............................................................................3.1.2. Traditionalist Criticism 7 ...........................................................................................3.1.3. Outcome 7 3.1.4. Evaluation 8

3.2. India and the IPL 9 ...........................................................................................................3.2.1. History of Limited Overs Cricket in India and the lead to the IPL 9 .........................3.2.2. The IPL 10 3.2.3. Result of the IPL 11 ..................................................................................................

3.2.4. Evaluation 12

3.3. Kerry Packer’s World Series 13 .......................................................................................3.3.1. Inception 13 3.3.2. Issues with World Series Cricket 13 ........................................................................3.3.3. The World Series Cricket 13 ....................................................................................3.3.4. Revolutionary Ideas and Similarities to Modern Cricket 14 .....................................3.3.5. Evaluation 15

3.4. The Switch to Professionalism 16 ....................................................................................3.4.1. Cricket before the Switch 16 ....................................................................................3.4.2. The Switch 16 3.4.3. Evaluation 16

3.5. Typical Player Analysis 17 ...............................................................................................3.5.1. After the Switch to Professionalism 17 ....................................................................

3.5.2. Kerry Packer’s World Series 17 ..............................................................................

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2. INTRODUCTION There seems to be a recurring message coming from the older generation of cricket supporters and players is one of disdain at the nature to which cricket is rapidly changing. When they played as children a game which saw over a run-a-ball striking was exciting. If you saw anything close to a run-a-ball in the modern Twenty20 game you’d be disappointed. The era of the big-hitting fast-scoring is well and truly here and here to stay. What this level of commercialism has brought to cricket is money. There is no doubt that one could now live a glamorous lifestyle on the wages of a Twenty20 cricketer. Chris Gayle, perhaps the most famous ‘Twenty20 mercenary’ has an Instagram account that constantly depicts him wearing glamorous jewellery, sunning himself on expensive yachts and standing with his fleet of luxury cars , quite akin to the accounts of celebrity footballers like Cristiano Ronaldo and 1

Neymar Jr. This sort of lifestyle would have been rarely seen in the 20th century if at all. We’re going to dissect what could have caused this rapid evolution. Through this project there are four events to be discussed. Is the evolution a quick-fire response to the consumer demands of the IPL and previously the invention of Twenty20 cricket in the UK? Or were the seeds sown earlier, in the 20th century, with the shift to an exclusively professional sport in the English first class league and the controversial World Series Cricket League set up by broadcasting tycoon Kerry Packer? To measure the evolution the changing financial situation of a typical player must be discussed. How much do they earn through their club and/or endorsement deals? Has this changed drastically as a result of any of the aforementioned events? That said, it would be possible to source many different events as contributing factors to cricket’s evolution. It is a worldwide game and played and supported by over a billion people. For example the Twenty20 cricket competition in the UK was loosely based on a ‘gimmick’ cricket league in New Zealand involving a different scoring system and zones. However it would then be easy to get bogged down by all of the contributing factors towards each event that will be discussed. In this project we will look at what are the four main events in its evolution, rather than all of the little ones.

3. LITERATURE REVIEW

It’s difficult to find literature on the economic history of cricket. There is no shortage of articles about the game itself but most see it from a leisure or spectator’s viewpoint. In

3.5.3. Twenty20 in the UK 18 .............................................................................................3.5.4. The IPL 18

5. Bibliography 19.......................................................................................................................

Instagram account is @chrisgayle3331

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Southampton library the first article of real value I found was “First Class Cricket in England: An Economic Analysis”. It was written by J.A Schofield and describes the first class game in England through a purely economic viewpoint. This allows us to see the effect of money on cricket throughout history. This looks with detailed analysis at the effect of player wages, overseas players and “developments in such matters as qualification regulations, rules of play and structure of competitions” (Schofield, 1982). It is a very useful source in looking at the early development of the professional game in England. It is also an economic paper so looks at the cricket league as a cartel and the game of cricket as a product, giving an insight into the monetary side of the sport. Schofield is a professor of economics in Canada. This may throw some doubt as to how he would see cricket as a sport. Considering this is all about development In England we might be led to believe that he lacks some of the culture knowledge that someone, like myself, would get from living and playing the sport here. Even though the traditions are somewhat mentioned in this piece, he fails to look at the moral aspect that some cricket players were hindering. For example, many cricket players felt that playing cricket for money was simply not British and, if they were put into the ‘Gentleman’s’ class, would not feel they needed to be paid. The source analyses the economic model of the cricket league in Britain as a cartel. It fails to take into account that rule changes might not be for profit maximisation and could be to further the game and its long-standing traditions. This profit maximisation that was the recurring idea was referred to as “brash and distasteful commercialism” (Ross, 1972). This traditionalist idea re-occurred when I interviewed a Marketing Director at Hampshire cricket. He said that, during an interview with BBC Radio 4, Brian Close (former professional cricketer) had said that a new format would “ruin the traditionalism of the game.” (Robertson, 2015). This, along with prior knowledge of how people see cricket as a sport in this country, made me see that Ross was most likely correct. It could also be said that Schofield could analyse cricket better as an outsider to the game. It would allow him to analyse it purely as an economic model and he will not be subjective to the games nuances. Another point of concern with this source is its date. It was written in 1982 and the game has evolved hugely since that time. The most popular format of the game in 2015 had not even been invented at his time of writing. This shows me it is not useful for trying to gain an overview of the complete economic evolution of the game. However it pointed me in the direction of one of the most important focal points in the game’s economic evolution. This gave me a huge amount of information on the professionalization of the first class game. It is cited by 29 other scholars which, in the niche field of cricket economics, is quite a lot. This allows me to assume the information is reliable as it has been used by other scholars in their economic sports articles. Every statistic is referenced in the footnotes and he uses a total of 44 academic articles. This improves his reliability as it will have allowed him to gain a large variety of information and cross reference all of his sources for reliability. One of the most positive things about this particular piece is that he would have no motives to be biased in any way. He is a professor of economics and

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not cricket itself. He is from Canada so we can assume he wouldn’t have any allegiance to a county in the league. He certainly makes no mention of supporting cricket anywhere in the journal. This significantly improves reliability as he can look at it purely objectively.

Another source that gave me very good economic analysis of the more modern game was “Statistical Modelling in International Limited Overs Cricket” by PhD student Muhammed Asif. Firstly, like Schofield, he analyses the game purely from an economic standpoint, rather than looking at the moral and cultural effects on the outcome of the sport. There are two factors that would affect his usefulness to us. Firstly, this is written by a student and not a professional academic, even though he may have researched all his material correctly his lack of experience could lower his reliability for us. Secondly, he doesn’t look at a range in period for the game. He only looks at the game in the present day. This means it’s less useful for me as my paper involves looking at past events in cricket only. However because of that I can look at outcomes. The paper was written in 2013 after all of the events that will be discussed. This allows us to look at the economic outcomes that the aforementioned events have affected. For example “cricket authorities have adopted quantitative methods… to ensure interrupted matches are concluded with positive results” (Ali, 2013) actually had a positive effect on revenue from cricket. One of the problems faced by organizers was that people weren’t willing to pay for days of cricket without the assurance of a positive result. “This increase in games finishing with a positive result drove up attendance.” (Robertson, 2015). This idea that Ali brings up resonated from my interview with Robertson, in which the same idea was presented.

This led me to try and find an article that looks specifically at another important event in cricket’s evolution: the invention of professional T20 cricket. I found a booklet of case studies on major sporting shifts in the world, one of which was the birth of the T20 league in the UK. This was called “International Cases in the Business of Sport” (Kitchin, 2008). What I found useful about this piece was the volume of accurate and referenced statistics. This provided me with a lot of evidence for the argument that was starting to form in my mind. Kitchin is a sports management lecturer at Ulster University and his work has been cited in the field of sport 152 times, implying that he is a reliable scholar. What was also useful was the other aspects of a cricket event he indicated would provide revenue and commercial increases. The ”pitch-side entertainment and music for the fans” (Mintel, 2005)was one of the non-sporting factors that he cited as a reason for the game being more popular, which makes it more useful than other documents that only address the sporting change in the game, as it takes other forms of product improvement into account.

Statistics and facts are always useful but you often need opinions of those knowledgeable to the topic area. The Times coincidentally came up with a very useful article outlining the commercialization of the game in the sub-continent: “Despair at Modern Cricket? Blame Jagmohan Dalmiya” (Atherton, 2015). He is certainly a reliable source as he played through

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the commercial period and it certainly would have affected his earnings. He cites Dalmiya as instrumental in the 1996 World Cup in England, in which Atherton captained. Dalmiya managed to secure a huge broadcasting price for this tournament which would have had a knock on effect to Atherton as England captain, who would have seen increased bonuses and wages from that particular tournament.

Playing for a cricket club helps one with contacts in the county cricket set up. I managed to gain an interview with the Marketing Director at the Ageas Bowl in Hampshire. He created the idea of t20 cricket. We discussed three things. The past of t20 cricket, it’s possible future expansions and the IPL and the corruption that was borne of it. What made this useful was that it was a primary source; giving me first hand access to an authoritative figure in the county game. It also meant that he answered all my questions specifically and we could build on them at the time, rather than trawling through heaps of other literature to find the answers. However we must address the issue that Twenty20 cricket was his project. He spoke about it with such passion and with such praise that it was clear how passionate about it he was. I know from watching Twenty20 cricket and reading other articles that there are fundamental problems with Twenty20 cricket, like accessibility and the way it ruins the county schedule already in place. He did not raise these issues and this was probably because he’s been studying this and researching it for such a long period of his life. However the facts and statistics he did give me were very reliable. For example he said “the number of spectators went up to an average of 5,330 per game” (Robertson, 2015). I cross referenced this with a book by Melissa Jane Johnson Morgan which said that attendance was “an average of 5330 per match” (Morgan, 2005). The fact that he was correct to a single unit shows me that he is very knowledgeable in that field. He also said that county attendance had fallen by “17% over a five-year period” (Robertson, 2015) which, after cross-referencing with Mintel’s case study, showed me to also be true.

Not much has been written on these topics so I was drawn back to Paul Kitchin’s work. He wrote a different paper in which he detailed the evolution of limited overs cricket, a huge reason for the economic evolution. One key moment which was addressed was the creation of the World Series Cricket League by Kerry Packer in 1976. Kitchin said that Packer was the first to introduce “coloured uniforms” (Kitchin, 2008) into the game. I cross referenced this with a website called espncricinfo.com and saw that they too cited the WSC for the innovation of “coloured clothing” into the game. Even with the most basic facts it’s important to check reliability. Then, looking at the more specific details, I found Kitchin had said: “Meanwhile the proliferation of broadcasters and news agencies using cricket programming as eye-catching content expanded dramatically with the liberalisation of the Indian markets in the 1990’s” (Kitchin, 2008). I cross-referenced this with Atherton’s article about Dalmiya and saw this repeated idea. The Indian broadcasters would not pay for cricket rights and that they did not like the shorter format of the game. This then drew me back to the interview I

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had with Stuart Robertson, who said that the Indian broadcasters wanted long matches to fill up lots of “advertising space”. Kitchin also talked about another of the important eras in cricket’s evolution, the 1960’s: “Designed to draw crowds back to the grounds a limited overs cricket tournament (the Gillette Cup) was staged in support of the traditional county tournament in 1963” (Grime, 2007). However Grime is an editor of the Lancashire CCC page. He would be very knowledgeable but has spent his whole life with Lancashire and this would point to bias on his part. This article is also only cited by two authors, thus throwing doubt as to how reliable it is. It must be said that this fact is true though. Upon looking at websites like espncricinfo.com and a journal by Muhammed Asif states that “limited overs cricket was introduced in the late 1960's” (Ali, 2013). This article and booklet of journals was made in 2008. Nothing drastic has changed in the world of limited overs cricket since 2008, with the exception of using field restrictions to aid the struggling bowlers. This adds a degree of reliability to us researching in 2015 as the analysis that he is making is of the modern game that is nearly exactly the same as the game today. This, along with the other already mentioned points about Paul Kitchin’s authorship, points to him being a reliable source to use.

The final piece of literature proved to be the most useful to me. My interview with Stuart Robertson led to talking about various cricket based internships. They have a link with Southampton Solent University, who are well known for their sports degrees. Their website led me to a paper called “Are they Cricket Celebrities” (Woodgate, 2010) by PhD student Steven Woodgate. This studies the same events as this paper will discuss, however looks primarily at the effect it is having on the players, where this paper will look at the effect on the game as a whole. The paper was written in 2010 so there is no issue with modern relevance. One issue that should be raised is that it is not perceived, academically, as useful yet. It’s been cited by no academics, which would imply there is a lack of reliability. However, after looking at his bibliography, he has used two of the same references as myself. He is drawing from similar information to me, which would raise the reliability of Atherton and Kitchin: the two sources that were used by both Woodgate and myself.

The literature points to four main highly commercial events in the evolution of the game to that which we have now: “money has changed the game.” (Woodgate, 2010) Firstly it points to the shortcomings in the amateur/professional hybrid that we had in the early 1960’s. The switch to professionalism highlighted the wages that some players needed to earn. Secondly Kerry Packer’s WSC set a new precedent for what cricket could be, as a commercial enterprise. Thirdly two events in the Twenty20 game have each shaped the sport commercially in different ways. The Twenty20 creation pointed to a need for more entertainment value in the sport, to remove the isolation of cricket support from middle aged rich men. The IPL however spawned, in some players, a primary objective of money over

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success that subsequently has spawned higher levels of greed and corruption. These are the events that will form the basis of my discussion.

4. DISCUSSION

4.1. TWENTY20’S INCEPTION

4.1.1. How was Twenty20 conceived?

In 2000 Stuart Robertson, marketing director of the England Cricket Board, set up a marketing research team funded with £250,000 from Channel 4. Its aim was to determine the reasons for the falling attendance of county cricket. Over the five previous years there had been “17% decrease in attendance” (Robertson, 2015) for cricket at a county level. At a school level there was a “forty percent drop in participation” along with the results affirming that cricket was most popular amongst men over 34 years of age. The main idea that came from the research showed that cricket as a sport was falling behind in many of the categories that other sports were excelling. These sectors were in demographic of support, ideas that surrounded the game and the physical restraints of the first class game at that time. Demographically it was failing to reach everyone except for “middle aged middle class white men” (Robertson, 2015). This included, importantly, the younger generation who are vital to the evolution of any sport. Traditionalism was also a key negative factor that surrounded the first class game at the time. Many inner-city school children had simply assumed that cricket was ‘too posh’ for them to think about. Finally the physical restraints were mostly in regards to duration. Most people interviewed weren’t willing to spend days watching the game without any guarantee as to a result. The main word that came out of this research project was that cricket was too “inaccessible” for the average sports spectator to regularly attend. However one idea that was flagged up in this research was the idea of the number of “cricket tolerators” in England who could potentially be exploited. These were people who didn’t actively dislike the game and were open to trying it out if it made the suitable changes. What was needed in order to ‘save’ the game was something drastic that would satisfy the new “cash rich time poor” type of customer without affecting the traditionalist ideas of the game too harshly. The product proposed was a shortened form of the limited overs game already in place with the domestic 50 over cup.

4.1.2. Traditionalist Criticism Originally the idea for a shortened format came under intense criticism, especially from the male over-34 sector that had previously almost mutually enjoyed cricket. One former cricketer called Brian Close actually phoned BBC R5L whilst the T20 pioneer was being interviewed. Brian close cited that “traditionalism” was being lost as a result of this new format. He also condemned it, saying it would never work. This idea of traditionalism

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has recurred throughout cricket’s history as one of its defining factors, with the phrase “just not cricket” (Rumford, 2013) being a standout example of how popularly traditional the game is. This refers to the idea that something just isn’t fair, like the sportsmanship that is supposedly displayed in the gentlemanly game of cricket. What this has meant though is that there has been a difficulty in evolution for the game. A lot of proposed changes throughout the years have been stifled due to the idea that it would ruin the traditional values of the game. The first limited overs game took place in India in 1951, with the first county limited overs game taking place in 1963 in the Gilette One Day Cup. This 12 year gap shows a resilience to change on the MCC’s part, even with a rapidly growing popularity for the game. Twenty20 took it to the next level with an emphasis on product improvement with the organizers trying to create, as Mintel described it, “a showpiece event that transcended cricket and captured the publics, and most importantly the media’s, attention”. (Mintel, 2005) The key word in this interpretation is ‘transcended’. It was this idea of transcendence that the traditionalists were frustrated at. “For the first time in recent history the cricketing authorities were seen as innovative and flexible” (Kitchin, 2008). This was clearly lost on the traditionalists who seemed to follow the trend that ‘no-one likes change’.

4.1.3. Outcome The outcome of the inaugural Twenty20 competition was incredibly successful. County attendance rose by “245%” with “40%” of those attending cricket for their first time in their life. Other examples of greater popularity were the large attendances at certain matches. The innovative ‘Finals Day’ (the day in which both semi-finals and the finals were played in one event) saw a record attendance of 15,000 spectators and Surrey’s Oval recorded over 20,000 people at a county game for the first time since the 1950’s. The first Twenty20 game to be held at the ‘Home of Cricket’ at Lords “attracts record crowd of 27,509” (lords.org, 2015). The note that was particularly highlighted was that the age demographic had shifted and 62% of the spectators were under the age of 34, as indicated in Table 4.1. I have calculated that this indicates a 413% in spectatorship from the under 34 category, as only 15% of spectators were under 34 post Twenty20. By appealing now to a larger demographic (Twenty20 for the under 34’s and First Class for the above 34’s) cricket was now able to pull in revenue from a wider range of people. This greater ‘reach’ for cricket as a sport meant that the demand for cricket had grown.

This therefore created a shift in revenue sources. Before the Twenty20 years Counties had relied on the ECB distributing its test match revenues to them. This is proven by Somerset, a non-test-hosting county, who recorded that £2 million of their total £3.3 million revenue came from match-day hospitality, which was unusual for a club that previously relied on over half of its funding coming from the ECB. The other revenue effect that the Twenty20 cup’s inception coincided with was the increase of the ECB’s money reserves. As Fig 4.2 shows the reserve value has increased consistently since 2002-2007. As the graph indicates there

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was a rise of about £26 million to a profit, rather than the debt they were in in 2002. This is an example of how the game’s evolution had caused significant revenue increase for the governing body and therefore the game, especially in the United Kingdom. Economic results and benefits to the players were also large, as will be discussed in point 4.5.

4.1.4. Evaluation Twenty20 clearly represented a shift in the way cricket was perceived in the UK. The idea that cricket was purely for middle class men had shifted and it is being seen, even now, as increasingly commercial. The Twenty20 game went international in 2004 and there have, as of 2015, been 5 World Twenty 20 tournaments. This shows a clear evolution in Twenty20 as a concept. As of 2015 England were playing 4+ Twenty20 Internationals per year. These attracted 31,000 supporters to the two home matches. Furthermore there is also the case to say that it has furthered the popularity of the one-day game. Bacher said that “76 percent of our total capacity” (Bacher, 2003) was used in the 2003 World Cup (50 over tournament), which was the year of Twenty20’s creation. However if we want to see an example of evolution we need to look at how that has changed. 87.99% of total English capacity was used in the home One-Day International matches in 2015 . This is not a worldwide sporting 2

event and thus shows an increase in popularity of the shortened form of the game. The average attendance per match was 11,608 at the 2003 World Cup. In 2015 in England it was 21,935 . This tournament most importantly set a precedent for the furthering of this shorter 3

format of the game. We now have a major Twenty20 competition is every test-playing nation with 5 of these offering franchise based tournaments. It also meant that Lalit Modi had an example to pitch to the BCCI (Indian Cricket Board) for his idea for an Indian Premier League. This will be explored in greater depth in Point 4.2.

Attendance Statistics for the Inaugural 2003 Twenty20 Competition by Demographics

Category Attendance Ratio

Under 34 : Over 34 62:38

Female : Male 23:77

% of spectators who admitted that Twenty20 changed their opinion on cricket

Male 42%

Female 58%

Under - 25 36%

This figure is calculated from attendance figures from the Royal London (ODI sponsors) website and 2

ground capacities from Wikipedia.

Calculated using ECB statistics at http://www.ecb.co.uk/news/articles/christmas-countdown-record-3

crowds

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4.2. INDIA AND THE IPL 4.2.1. History of Limited Overs Cricket in India and the lead to the IPL India actually hosted the first professional limited overs match in the early 1950’s, but the fact was that India were comparatively slow to accept what is now the most commercially popular form of the game. Up to the early 1990’s India were slow to accept limited overs as a truly economically viable form of cricket. The problem was that “advertisers believed that the shorter form of the game offered limited space for advertising” (Robertson, 2015) in comparison to the long form of the game. The advent of both winning the Cricket World Cup in 1983 and hosting the Cricket World Cup in India in 1996 set the precedent for Jagmohan Dalmiya’s transformation of the game. By using these two events to propel Indian cricket into the spotlight he managed to create a different atmosphere around cricket. He tapped into the Indian public’s love for cricket by making it more accessible, and therefore higher in revenue potential. He first off destroyed the monopolization of broadcasting that Doordashan owned and “effectively declared the airwaves open for business” (Atherton, 2015). The example of his rapid transformation of revenue is shown by the fact that he sold the 1996 World Cup rights for “$10million (now about £6.5million)” (Atherton, 2015). However “World Sports Group bought the rights to the next two World Cups for $550million” (Atherton, 2015). This growth of 2250% in revenue between World Cups is an example of the potential economic 4

goldmine that Indian cricket could potentially be.

Fig 4.1 - Source: (Kitchin, 2008)

This is calculated by halving the $550 million figure for two World Cups to account for price per 4

World Cup. The percentage figure was then calculated accordingly.

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Fig 4.2

4.2.2. The IPL In 2007 BCCI director Lalit Modi met the Sports Marketing giants IMG to discuss a proposed world-class Twenty20 tournament to plug the gap of a truly world-class domestic competition. The idea was to create a “new departure for the cricketing world” (Parker, et al., 2008). This implies they were trying to create an evolution in cricket, by departing from what was still a fairly niche sport worldwide. The first tournament was to be held in 2008 with the solution being “A franchise ownership structure modelled after top U.S. sports leagues” The IPL looked to use the most popular aspects of the NFL within their new league. The two 5

main aspects that the IPL was based on was the idea of a player auction, similar to that of the draft system of the NFL, and the franchise system. This franchise system meant you could gain greater wide support outside certain regions, however by tying them to certain cities you could gain the greatest home grown stars. The best example of this was the purchasing of Sachin Tendulkar by the Mumbai Indians . Each franchise was given a salary 6

cap of $5 million with an option to pay their ‘icon player’ 15% above their next highest salaried player. This was to create a fiercer rivalry between teams. 7

The IPL employed many methods and regulations to create not only an entertaining tournament, but also a good method for breeding Indian talent. An example of a product improvement method employed would be the minimum salary cap of $3.3 million which was to ensure that “no team spends too little for competitive balance to be maintained”. This has clearly worked with no cluster of teams emerging at the top of the league each year. There have been 5 different winners in the last 8 years showing the spread of talent across the franchises. The way that the IPL have promoted Indian cricket talent is through their overseas rulings. It would be fair to say that given the opportunity the franchises would use more than the 4 allocated overseas that they are allowed in their starting XI. However adding to this rule the BCCI also decreed that “each team must have four under 22 players” (Parker, et al., 2008). Whilst this doesn’t specify that the ‘under 22’ must be Indian the high majority of those bought by teams to meet this quota were Indian. The BCCI knew that this was an effective way to showcase Indian talent to the world and develop their skills on what is effectively the world stage with the first season being broadcasted in every continent on the planet.

The broadcasting rights to this tournament were astronomical. The BCCI will receive over $1 billion over a ten year period for the rights to this tournament (Basu, 2008). Each team also

The Director in charge (Peter Griffiths) of the IPL subsequently moved to the NFL management team 5

in 2015 showing the close ties between the NFL and the IPL.

It would be fair to argue that Tendulkar has a near god-like status in India due to his contribution to 6

Indian cricket and his general sporting personality.

An example of this would be CSK vs. MI which was also branded as Dhoni vs. Tendulkar. These 7

players both have huge status within India and would have increased the atmosphere surrounding the match

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had to have a starting bid, to participate, of $50 million (Basu, 2008). The final bids ranged from “$67 million to $112 million” (Parker, et al., 2008). If we compare that to the world’s second most successful franchise cricket league, the Big Bash in Australia, we see that the IPL on average costs five-times more per year to own rights to than the Big Bash (Hayes, 8

2013). This shows just the revenue that the IPL brings to the cricketing table.

4.2.3. Result of the IPL It’s difficult to quote an attendance for the first IPL. Despite sportingresearch.com actually contacting the IPL and individual franchises no statistics have come forward directly from the IPL. There was an average attendance for this tournament of 58000 per match. This attendance is incredibly high for a domestic league. This would skyrocket it straight up with the highest attended domestic leagues. The NFL in America recorded an average lowest/highest attendance of “60,652 and 77,888” (espn.go.com, 2008) respectively. As USA MEDC it adopts more of a consumer attitude to that of the LEDC India. This shows that for India to be registering attendance figures like this is huge and an example of the popularity of cricket and how it has evolved in India.

IPL 2008 charged 3 lakhs per 10 seconds for advertising space. The IPL in 2010 charged 5 lakhs every 10 seconds for advertising space (Joshi, 2013). This increase shows growth in the popularity of the tournament as advertisers realise the growing viewership of the IPL.

The title sponsorship deal that spawned for this IPL was around $30 million for five years . 9

When you compare this with the title sponsorship for the India home games from 2015 to 2019 there is also a figure of around $30 million. This figure is actually less in value due to inflation showing domestic Twenty20 cricket in India brought in high revenue for the game. It made the BCCI a profit of Rs 350 crore . This “would be more than BCCI’s profits of RS 235 10

crore for all of 2007” (iplcricketlive.com, n.d.). This is a clear indicator as to the financial goldmine that the IPL proved to be for India.

4.2.4. Evaluation A lot of the evaluation for this tournament would fall under the same results as Point 2.1, the increase in Twenty20 popularity around the world and the increase in Twenty20 on an international scale. However the one thing that the IPL has done is stimulate growth in Indian cricket at a lower level. A key factor to evolution in cricket would be gaining a popularity amongst the younger generation for the game. “In all, IPL will bring revenue of Rs 1,200 crore a year into cricket, more than double the government’s entire sports budget of Rs 490

By using heraldsun.au I calculated the cost per year for broadcasting the Big Bash. Then using the 8

‘$1 billion for ten years’ figure I calculated this costs $100 million per year, in comparison to the Big Bash costing $20 million per year.

Using Barve’s statistics this figure was calculated at the exchange rate as of 09/12/2015 from INR to 9

USD

This figure is approximately $50 million10

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crore.” (iplcricketlive.com, n.d.) This money will then trickle down to the grassroots level so that India can start developing new talents. This is shown by India having won 2 of the last 4 Under 19 World Cups, an indicator of the great youth talent India possesses and how the game has evolved in India. Since the IPL there has been greater investment in grassroots cricket with big brands eager to get their names involved. The most prominent example is the newly created Under 16 Coca Cola Cricket Cup. It will involve “11,000 young players from 700 schools.” (coca-colaindia.com, 2011) Coca Cola is India’s leading beverage company so having a company as large as this invest is a sign of the emerging growth and importance of the grassroots cricket movement in India. 11

The IPL profit increase for the BCCI also helped to gain India power in the cricketing political world in an unexpected way. The ICC had a change up in 2014 in a move that created a cricketing oligarchy, consisting of the ECB, Cricket Australia and the BCCI. These three new main powers will now also gain a “larger share of revenues, in a ratio that is linked to the ICC’s revenue growth” (Ugra, 2014). This is an example of the IPL helping secure future investment, and therefore potential growth, for cricket in the country. Pre-IPL the power in cricket was mostly in the hands of the IPL and the national governing bodies. The IPL has created a power shift meaning the players can “pressure their national teams to make concessions in order to allow them to play in the Indian Premier League” (Waldman, 2014) or simply “play both at home and in the professional league” (Waldman, 2014). Waldman goes as far as to say that the IPL created a “power shift as many national teams are in a position where making concessions for players offered contracts is the only way to avoid losing their top players” (Waldman, 2014). This is another show of how players are starting to play more for the lucrative reasons rather than a loyalty to their country. In some places like West Indies it is almost compulsory to play these tournaments to support a comfortable life. Effect on players’ salaries will be further discussed in Point 2.5. This idea of a power 12

shift to the players is a great example of how the game if finally evolving to suit the players.

4.3. KERRY PACKER’S WORLD SERIES 4.3.1. Inception Like with most cricket playing nations at the time in the years leading up to 1977 there was a broadcasting monopoly in Australia with regards to international cricket by state broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Kerry Packer decided he wanted to change this and applied for rights to the Australian Cricket Board for his Channel Nine Network. This was rejected in favour of the ABC. Through the years of 1976/77 Packer secretly set about

It would be fair to link this to the IPL as there would never have been enough support for a limited 11

overs tournament like this before the IPL stimulated Indian interest in the shorter form of the game.

The West Indies national team pays less than other big nations and has had ensuing problems with 12

paying players and strikes.

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gaining contracts for top players. This controversially included the help of then England Captain Tony Greig and former Australian captain Ian Chappell. He secured the rights for dozens of star cricketers to play in his new league. The news of the tournament broke on the eve of the Ashes tour by Australia to England. The announcement stunned the world by saying 13 of the 17 in the tour squad had been selected for Packer’s League. Tony Greig was stripped of his England captaincy and began to be subjected to “vitriolic attacks by the press” (Williamson, n.d.). Packer then launched a press campaign in the UK and set about a worldwide campaign for international players. The Australians subsequently lost the Ashes series 3-0. This set the scene for what would be a turbulent period for the ICC worldwide.

4.3.2. Issues with World Series Cricket The ICC were slow to respond but once they did they decreed that all Packer matches could not be deemed as first-class matches and that all players entering the league would be barred from test and first class cricket. Packer took them to court and won £250,000 but was banned from calling them ‘test matches’ or calling his primary side ‘Australia’. He bypassed this by branding them ‘super-tests’ and calling his three sides WSC Australia/World/West Indies XI. He was also barred from using traditional pitches and grounds. This meant a new pitch method had to be devised for non-cricket playing grounds. 13

4.3.3. The World Series Cricket The first matches to take place were trial games and then a Super-test between the Australia XI and the West Indies XI. The turn-out was poor even with most of the Australia national team turning up for the WSC equivalent. This gained an attendance of just under 2000 in a venue that could hold 79,000. The national team played India at the same time and recorded good attendances even though it was a more second string Australian side. This would suggest that Traditionalism was still the main factor amongst the spectators.

However Packer invested heavily in the marketing campaign and changed super-tests to a one-day format. The result again was not good, with the day-night games gaining a slightly higher attendance than the day matches. Australia beat India in the ensuing national series 3-2, which only enhanced traditionalist ideas that had become accustomed with cricket before WSC.

The second season was where the revolution started to gain momentum. The West Indians selected WSC players for Australia’s tour of the Caribbean, thus setting a precedent for other countries to be affected by. What this shows is a cricket board willing to sacrifice their image, reputation and traditionalism in order to simply win matches. The first ever floodlit match at a cricket ground at the SCG registered an attendance of 44,377 people and after

See Point 2.3.413

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Australia were beaten 5-1 by the English there was a call for ‘Packer’s defectors’ to be returned to the Australia side. 14

The final nail in the coffin for the traditional ACB was attendance for the final game of the summer. The official test against England drew an average attendance of 5,500 per day. The WSC game drew an average attendance of 13,333 per day showing a dramatic increase in need for excitement in the game and not the more traditional entertainment that the Ashes provided. This shows an early example of how popular fast, brutal games could be.

4.3.4. Revolutionary Ideas and Similarities to Modern Cricket A lot of what cricket players and spectators now take for granted was actually conceived in the WSC, which at that point, was not even an official tournament. Firstly was the inception of ‘drop in pitches’ which are grown under specific conditions in a greenhouse then literally ‘dropped in’ to the area where the wicket would be. This is used a lot in cricket in the 21st century even though it comes under harsh criticism and most grounds prefer to prepare them in the traditional way.

The second was the day-night game. Packer decided to stage a games at times more accessible to the working man under floodlights. This meant a change in regulations was needed with regards to the ball and clothing. Packer was the first to introduce coloured clothing and the white ball to his WSC matches. This was then later applied globally to one day cricket and all shortened forms of the game, with most weekday one day international games now using this format.

To market his league as exciting the WSC removed the regulations on bowling bouncers at tail-enders. This resulted in a horrifying breaking of a players jaw, as helmets were not used at that time. This sped up the process of helmet innovation and saw them introduced to the game shortly after.

Finally significant advancement in marketing and much improved television coverage resulted from the WSC as its primary objective was to make money by providing a good product and good marketing for that product. As quoted by WSC co-founder and ex-Australian captain Ian Chappell “The standard of play during the WSC was the highest I’ve ever experienced” (Chappell, 2012). Coming from one of the world’s leading batsmen at the time this is a testament to the quality of cricket provided in the WSC, through its fast bowling and big hitting batting.

This idea of defection draws a lot of similarities in the game in the 21st century. Players such as Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo have both been dropped from the international sides due to their wishes to play in domestic limited overs cricket. When they have subsequently shone

See Point 2.3.4 for evaluation on similarities and how this defecting is present in modern cricket. 14

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in the domestic tournament there have been calls for their re-instatement to the national side and subsequent frustration from fans.

Also as discussed in Point 2.2.1 Dalmiya’s battle for a de-monopolization of the airwaves for Indian cricket broadcasting stimulated growth not only in the game’s popularity but also the game’s subsequent advancement. This mirrored Packer’s battle 20 years previously, implying that broadcast battles could be significantly relevant to cricket’s evaluation.

4.3.5. Evaluation The result was a peace agreement between the WSC and the ACB. The agreement meant that Channel 9 gained access to TV rights for the Australia matches and Packer could market the game in which ever way he pleased. Even though the WSC players weren’t 15

immediately re-incorporated back into the national game by 1980 they were back in and around national teams around the world. Whilst the WSC was a short lived venture it was the message and ideas that the WSC sent to the world that was its lasting legacy. Therefore it comes as no surprise to see that the majority of limited overs tournaments that appear globally draw remarkable similarities with WSC. Most Twenty20 tournaments brand fast exciting cricket as their USP and the coloured clothing and different coloured balls is normal in modern cricket.

While in the cases of the IPL and the Twenty20 tournament we can directly look at the financial impact on the game, it is clear that the World Series Cricket set more of a precedent in ideology and the image of the game. It could be argued that Packer’s primary goal was not purely profit, but to erode the traditionalist ideas of the ICC and the ACB at a time where they had done him wrong. It is clear he was a cricket fanatic who seemed to have his idea of cricket on the agenda. He was trying to add a “more commercial orientation to cricket broadcasting” (Szymanski, 2005). Thus implying that World Series Cricket gave birth to the rise of commercialism in cricket today.

4.4. THE SWITCH TO PROFESSIONALISM 4.4.1. Cricket before the Switch Cricket in the years running up to 1962 was a completely different formation of game to that of the subsequent years. County teams were made up of two different types of player. The ‘Player’ and the ‘Gentleman’. This was an intra-cricket class system based solely on the prominent class system of Britain during the Victorian and Post-Victorian times. The idea was that technically skilled working class would take on cricket as a profession and as their

See Point 2.3.4 for evaluation on similarities and how broadcast battles are present in modern 15

cricket.

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sole form of income, these were the ‘Players’ and were professional. The Gentleman were those from the Upper and Middle classes who graduated through the schools and university cricket systems. They were paid expenses and normally had other forms of income. For example W.G. Grace ran a medical practice and was perhaps England’s most famous and prolific Gentleman. They were not paid as it was the MCC’s idea that “a gentleman ought not to make any profit from playing cricket” (Bowen, 1970) In 1888 it was decided that as only middle and upper class men would be made officers in the army the same principle was applied to test cricket and only gentlemen could become England captain up until 1952. This is one of the sole reasons that cricket in general is still seen as ‘posh’ sport to play, as was one of the problems with cricket in the UK in the early 2000’s . Due to the fact that there are 16

still people alive from this period of time we still see traditionalist criticism for the new forms of the game.

4.4.2. The Switch In 1962 the MCC decided to abolish this idea of a distinction between amateurs and professionals. “The abolition of the pro-am distinction in 1962 was also undertaken as a cost-cutting measure”. The idea was that this would start creating part time professionals which would in turn cut down the amount of full time staff needed and therefore paid for. This did not change the make-up of the game straight away as the previous amateurs started to get paid for their services.

4.4.3. Evaluation The financial results of this switch are impossible to calculate as the greatest ones are knock-on effects of this switch. The important result of this event is the image alteration that cricket now undertook. Like with football it was now fully professional and could be seen as a way to make money for all class members. Without this switch it would still be a sport dominated by the generally less technically skilled ‘Gentlemen’. This would have meant the 17

traditionalists would have stayed in a position of power, thus significantly stifling development so as not to ruin the ‘spirit of cricket’. This, like the WSC discussed in Point 2.3 is more of a precedent for the future development that took place in the IPL and Twenty 20 tournaments.

4.5. TYPICAL PLAYER ANALYSIS 4.5.1. After the Switch to Professionalism To accurately determine how far cricket has evolved we need to analyse how the life of a typical cricketer has changed. Before cricket went fully professional we saw players playing for free, with merely their expenses being paid for them by their county cricket board.

See Point 2.1.116

This point is an assumption based on the results of the annual ‘Players vs. Gentleman’ game which 17

was frequently won by the Players team.

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However for the professionals this switch provided no difference for them. It is well known that you could not play cricket for a glamorous lifestyle in this era. You played because you loved the game. The average international cricketer in the year 1977, 15 years after the switch, could “earn directly from his skills…£8,000” (Wisden Almanack, 1986). That translates to a healthy, but not substantial sum of £44,390 at today’s value, which signifies 18

the maximum an international professional could earn. This figure is not much compared to other sports, like football and golf in which the most highly paid players could earn substantially more.

Sponsorships did not become commonplace until this switch and even then they started at relatively low rates. At this point in time a player would earn little from personal sponsorship, even though club and tournament sponsorship was introduced in the 1960’s. So if you could not supplement your income with another profession or family wealth then the life of a professional was far from lucrative.

4.5.2. Kerry Packer’s World Series This is most certainly a turning point in the commercialism of cricket. As we have seen before this event players were earning relatively little. We also saw “players earn higher incomes from playing for World Series Cricket compared with what they had previously received from the Australian Cricket Board” (Dabscheck, 1991). However the aftermath of this event saw a huge rise in money being paid to cricketers. What achieved this was the public spotlight it gained with its TV broadcasts. This raised sponsorship deals and therefore money injected into the game.

However it could be argued the WSC bought about the biggest financial revolution in the history of county cricket. A minimum wage of £4,000 for a capped over 21 was introduced by the MCC in 1978 and a result of this the counties ended up paying out an increase of 285% from the £700,000 (Wisden Almanack, 1986) paid out in 1977. Dabscheck also cites World 19

Series Cricket as establishing the “practice of placing leading players on contract”. This practice is now commonplace within the international teams, so as to have the prominent players services committed to their national side. This then subsequently bought about the increase in wages to those players so that teams could ensure their services remained loyal.

One of the greatest factors that was affected by the WSC was the value of the TCCB’s Marketing Committee contracts. In 1985 “these totalled £2,321,000” (Wisden Almanack, 1986) in comparison to the £476,000 that the contracts valued in 1977, the year before the WSC took off. This signifies the first real evidence that cricket was becoming a more

This figure is calculated using www.measuringworth.com with the initial year as 1977, the initial 18

figure as £8000 and the desired year as 2015.

Figure calculated from the increase from £700,000 - £2,000,000.19

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consumerist sport, with the counties now spending about five-times more on marketing their matches to create higher gate receipts.

4.5.3. Twenty20 in the UK Waiting upon the statistics from the correspondence

4.5.4. The IPL There is no doubt that the IPL has brought about the largest change in player pay in the history of cricket. The auction fee is paid directly to the player and even in its first two years players like M.S. Dhoni and Andrew Symonds earning $1.5 million and $1.35 million respectively for their services over 6 weeks. When you compare this to the sums earnt by players for the whole of the season in the 80’s you can see a huge difference. This represents a more ‘footballer-like’ wage for cricket, as previously unseen in cricket’s history.

Fast forward 7 years to 2015 and the IPL seriously pays. Yuvraj Singh, who it would be fair to say is past his best, was paid $2.5 million for 6 weeks of cricket. If we were to compare this to the average salary of a top international cricketer, which Yuvraj is not in 2015, we would see an increase of 3810% . This is also just for six weeks of cricket, as Yuvraj also 20

plays domestic cricket in India and would be paid for his services there also.

Yuvraj’s pay is not an anomaly in the IPL either. Even players who did not play in the six weeks tournament earned a minimum of 10 rupee lakhs, which would convert to a minimum of around $15,000 for not playing any matches at all. If we compare this figure to that of a reserve first class player in England in 1977we can see a huge difference: “one county reserve wicketkeeper received £400” (Wisden Almanack, 1986). At today’s value that equals about £2,200 for a full season’s play. This the greatest piece of evidence that cricket has 21

undergone huge commercial evolution.

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