Loyalty for your IPL Team
The Indian Premier League (IPL), the official cricket league in India kicked off in dramatic fashion last week and it has been a virtual mayhem almost every day in terms of soaring sixes and hard-hit boundaries. Due to its Twenty20 format, there is hardly any time to breathe and this has kept the excitement levels high. But is the excitement from the stands or even in front of the television screens high enough to match that on the field? There are 8 teams currently – Kings XI Punjab, Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils, Bangalore Royal Challengers, Chennai Superkings, Hyderabad Deccan Chargers, Kolkota Knight Riders, and Jaipur Rajasthan Royals – with each located in a major Indian city from which it is expected to draw its fan base. Or does it? Although a tad early, it is difficult to see how fans are choosing their teams. Will resident Delhiites root for Delhi? Will people born and raised in Delhi but living elsewhere say, Bangalore now support Delhi or Bangalore teams? How will the diaspora support the teams? Does a Dravid fan from Mumbai now support Mumbai Indians against Bangalore Royal Challengers? I hope you get the picture. How will multiple associations play out in developing a fan base?
Couple of my friends, Semantic Overload and Aalaap (via Twitter) fear that the league format will not work in India because of the dominance of the sport at the national level. They don’t see Indians cheering for foreign players especially when they play against Indian players. For e.g. will Indians in Jaipur cheer on Shane Warne when he bowls against Sachin Tendulkar? I see the problem but hope that the Indian cricket fans will mature as support for IPL and the Twenty20 format grows. Fans will have to differentiate between their support for the national team and the regional team they choose to support. However, since cricket is such an individual-effort dominated sport and national team matches constitute a major part of the cricket season, it is doubly difficult to isolate your loyalty. We do not have such problems in other sports like American Football (NFL) and football. In case of the former, you do not have any form of international competition and loyalty is traced to the city that hosts the team and in case of the latter, international games are restricted to the World Cup which comes once in four years and the schedule is dominated by club league games. The closest Americans came to facing this dilemma was when they witnessed Ginobli whooping the asses of their national basketball team in the 2004 Olympics. I wonder if Spurs fans were conflicted in their loyalty. So unless cricket experiences a decline in national matches in lieu of IPL-type league matches, building a loyal fan base is going to be an uphill task [image source].
Although difficult it is not an impossible task. Fans can be a complicated lot and they can cheer for their favorite college team just as passionately as they would for their favorite NBA and NFL teams. Indians so far haven’t been exposed to this multi-loyalty format and cheering for the national team has come naturally to them. Even in purely individual sports like tennis, we would support Leander Paes if he played Roger Federer although you literally worship the latter at other times. Vijay Mallaya also managed to turn a purely commercial team driven (no pun intended) primarily on corporate sponsorship like F1 Racing by latching on to the India brand. Can Indians not be swayed by anything else other than Brand India? Not really, if you witnessed the recent Indian Idol fan following, the regional support for the singing wannabes can reach ridiculous proportions. So can we develop a similar albeit a less crazy version of such loyalty for our IPL teams?
I remember a particular funny moment during my Architecture college days which might give you an insight that rooting for your regional teams in India is possible. Architecture colleges all over India come together once a year in a city for 4-5 days of competition and fun. This event is organized by NASA (National Association of Schools of Architecture) and hosted by one college. As Arzan who helped host the event in 1997 will attest, 3000 students from 100 colleges all across India soon divide themselves up into regional teams just for the purposes of taunting other regional teams. Although all colleges in Mumbai passionately hate Sir J.J. CoA (and each other), they will come together amidst chants of Bol Mumbai Halla Bol Halla Bol to taunt Delhi colleges like SPA and Habitat. It can be amusing to see colleges traditionally locked in serious competition with each other band together to compete with colleges from other regions in a show of solidarity for their region.
Getting back to the IPL, the organization headed by Lalit Modi is increasingly micro-managing not only the marketing of the league but also its functioning. But apart from attracting businessmen and Bollywood celebrities to bid for franchises, is the BCCI taking any active efforts to develop its fan base? Currently, I see them preoccupied with minutiae in terms of media and telecast rights without actually being more concerned about giving their investors more bang for their buck. Just because it is cricket doesn’t mean that any format or conditions it is played under will naturally reap benefits in proportion to the astronomical investments made by its sponsors. As Amit Varma fears that any failure in getting back their investment might sound the death knell for the Twenty20 format and although it was the marketing mess that doomed it, it will be blamed on the format. I believe that in order for fan loyalty to develop, individual team owners would have to take efforts to boost their fan following. They have to drum up support for their team not just in their own city but among people in other cities who may owe allegiance to their city of origin. They have to go beyond hiring Washington Redskins cheerleaders and making one-time promo ads. An outreach effort in the city would help much more especially with the help of merchandising [image source].
As any team sport franchise will attest, fan loyalty and following is a key in the success of your team. No wonder Lambaeu Field for Green Bay Packers and Kyle Field for Texas A&M Aggies wouldn’t have that aura of invincibility if its weren’t for the fervent support of its fans. In one of the few posts on the blogosphere on fan loyalty for IPL, Chica supports the Kings XI Punjab as a shout-out to her Punjabi roots and love for the Punjabi spirit. Of course, the only team owned by a woman (Priety Zinta) and a nice-sounding name also helps her choose the Kings over others. Great Bong and Bongo Pondit appear to support the Kolkota Knight Riders predictably.
I just hope the loyalty thus developed doesn’t transcend into excuses for violence and rioting like the infamous English football hooligans. I hope just like our college teams, we get together at the end of the day celebrating a good game of cricket while secretly hoping that our defeated team kicks their ass next time and muttering curses behind our smiles.
Which IPL team are you supporting and why?
Update: Prem Panicker incidentally had an extensive post on this very topic just hours before I published mine. Plenty of MSM columnists are also concerned about the lack of fan base for these IPL teams. At the end of the day, it seems more like a circus than a hard-fought cricket contest. Fans and their intense loyalty make it a sport.
“Loyalty for your IPL Team” [Short URL: http://www.ipatrix.com/?p=2508] was published Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 3:12 pm by Patrix, filed under Sports, and tagged as competition, cricket, fans, India, IPL, loyalty, Sports. Both comments and linkbacks are closed.
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1. Group identities can be remarkably sophisticated and hierarchical. In case of an IPL fan, (s)he may be a part of multiple group identities (e.g. Dravid fan club, Mumbai pride, anti-shane warne, etc.) , but at any given time/game the hierarchically highest group identity will take precedence, and all this happens quite naturally and automatically. So the multiple associations will play out in an organic fashion (not entirely predictable, but deterministic) among the fans.
2. My fear is that the regionalistic nature of the T20 teams will only serve to deepen the already troubling regional chasm in places like Mumbai and Chennai. We see something similar with college rivalries in American football. Texas Aggies wouldn’t be half as newsworthy if it wasn’t for their rivalry with the Texas Longhorns. There have been incidents of beer cans and bottles being thrown at a truck with A&M decal on UT Austin campus. So, you may get the fervent fan base you are looking for in T20, but the question is: Is that really want we want? Look at the potential side-effects and decide for yourself if its worth the money.
2 years ago replySemantic, I don’t agree that developing regionalistic fan bases is that bad an idea. How else would you develop teams? And the examples you give of rowdy fan behavior are miniscule given the number of teams and fans there are in the U.S. the success of IPL may not entirely depend on developing a loyal fan base but as I mention, it may definitely help in making it more popular than its international counterpart if done right and in a pure marketing fashion. I just hope they make the fan experience a top priority like they do in the U.S. and upgrade the facilities.
2 years ago replyHad a post in draft form on that, will put it up after applying some finishing touches. Been pretty busy with work lately.
2 years ago replyI am not sure what outrages me more – (i) the fact that we feel the need to have non-Indians (completely unconnected with cricket, and actually members of an NFL team) as cheerleaders or (ii) seeing, from the picture in your blog, that those imported cheerleaders have cellulite.
2 years ago replyPiker, busy out herere too. Has this post in draft mode (in my head0 for almost a week now. Waiting for your post. Hope you can add a few more points.
Lekhni, LOL! I hadn’t noticed the cellulite until you mentioned it. And yup, I disagree with the whole importing the cheerleaders concept too. Cheerleading is an American tradition and simply bringing it to India somehow makes me think that we aren’t creative enough to come up with our own. Given my college experience, we have plenty of cheers that can be put to dhinchak dance with apne desi people.
2 years ago replyThe one with the cutest cheerleaders. ;)
2 years ago replyThe IPL franchisees will be profitable even without a loyal fan base. They have quiet a trickle down coming from the IPL through television and other royalties.
As for the fans, as the tournamnet matures, so will the fans.
2 years ago replyI guess the point you made is valid where you say that Cricket is too nationalistic a sport but that’s because the leagues such as ranji have never been publicised well enough. I think the regional feeling that IPL is inducing is okay.
2 years ago replyI think loyalty is developing already. As Dravid said after the Mumbai match, “I hit a four and no one clapped, it was a strange feeling, but I guess I will have to get used to it”. It wasn’t just him. Laxman’s dismissal was met with loud cheers at Eden Gardens. As Prem has noted in his recent post, Sehwag murdering Symonds was met with deafening silence by Hyderabad crowd. Can’t ask for better proof of loyalty than that.
2 years ago replyAs someone who just doesn’t follow cricket, it’s no surprise that I want to find out how ‘PZ’s team is doing, or SRK’s or mallya’s..its a lil wierd, but for me too, PZ’s team comes before the mumbai team in terms of loyalty. ie. if it were a PZ vs. Ambani match, I’d cheer for PZ’s team. weird, huh?
..after this declaration, i wonder if i shd have signed off as ‘anon’..
2 years ago replyAmit, I’m glad at least you’ve your priorities straight :)Let us hope Mumbai Indian cheerleaders do not do the Laavni to cheer the team.
Ottayan, they have the revenue stream for this year. But if they don’t develop a fan base and no one is interested in watching the game, that will dry up soon. I’m just thinking in the long term.
Rishabh, I like your belief that even loyalty can be developed through marketing :)
Mohan, I haven’t seen any IPL game yet so didn’t know about fan reactions. I’m glad that Indian fans are more mature and complex than pundits think.
Sqrl, LOL! Nope you shouldn’t have signed off with Anon. People choose their teams on far weirder criteria.
2 years ago replyI think its a little too early for anybody to decide which team they support or not as the concept as such is new in India. On that front, I think SRK has done a fabulous job in marketing Kolkata team.
The most sorry marketing was that by Mumbai and Bangalore. Simply roping in Hrithik would hardly do a trick, and Bangalorean ad was more like a kingfisher AD rather than a sporting team ad (come to think of it, I think royal challenger ad campaign is borderline illegal in India!)
I think if (and IF!) the format survives the next few years then we shall start seeing some loyalties develop.
Right now I am quickly losing interest in IPL due to various reasons: Too many matches, too long, and not enough time to develop identity. Ideally they should have relegated matches to weekends only, and allowed the week to sink in the team… but here there’s no time and everything’s happening in a hurry.
2 years ago replySupremus, I agree that marketing and scheduling of the current IPL games hasn’t been consumer-friendly. And it looks like they are simply out to make a quick buck. Nothing wrong in that except I hate it when it comes at the cost of consumer satisfaction.
I haven’t seen any IPL games yet but have heard of plenty of grumblings already like too many matches in a short duration, random ad inserts, bad stadium facilities (not new for Indian fans), etc. I just hope the market matures as time passes and individual franchises take extra efforts to develop loyalties and give the fans a better game experience.
2 years ago replyOh man !! U bring back memories….
When it was regional all Bombay colleges would pounce on JJ Architecture….some samples of which are…
“Bambai mein aaya bhoot…JJ teri maa ki ch#$%”
“Galli Galli mein shor hai….JJ college chor hai”
“JJ JJ in the air..
JJ lost its under wear…
JJ says I dont care….
For I dont wear no under wear”.
Well those were the days of crazy immature student days…something I would give an arm and a leg to go back to.
Anyways….this all changed when we were at Annual NASA events. There, any attack on any Bombay college was met with the combined wrath of about 400 Bombay students. No one dared to argue with us.
The delhi colleges were outnumbered, and the bangalore and chennai colleges could never come up with witty ones in a language that anyone else understood…so of course Bombay kicked ass there. Whats new you will say and I will say….sahi hai baap !!
2 years ago replysrk and ganguly like people should be thrown far away from indian cricket as they seem too much over excited.laxmi and dinda like youngsters are reacting stupidly and spoiling their own careers.in ganguly”s shadow these youngsters are crossing their limits,ganguly has been most selfish cricketer bcci has ever selected.he wants to prove himself for t20 but reality everyone knows.pujara, bose type cricketers are ignored? crowd of eden has hopeless uptill now.
2 years ago reply