Cricket and Capitalism
No, these two are not synonyms even if they basically have the same outcomes, Money and Power for the big players. The disparity between big-earners and bottom dwellers widen every passing day. I, for once, am not in the best place to comment upon the disparity of bucks earned and spent in Cricket belonging to the nation whose board is often blamed for most of it.
Cricket came to India in the colonial times when the British officers played it after they got bored with the atrocities on common people and the tax collection drives. No matter how much we want to believe that the locals started playing it the way Lagaan showed it to us, the truth is darker and less heroic. The Indian Princes, aristocrats and the Indian employees of the British empire were often patched into teams as replacements. From being replacements in the Brit teams to making their servants play with them in their palaces, Cricket spread its roots in the countryside and that’s how the circus began.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India, is the biggest Cricket board amongst the cricket playing nations. But it has not been the case since the beginning. It was formulated and reformulated a number of times, the most recent reform coming in 2015 after a Spot-fixing scandal. However, the demographic of the nation allows BCCI to be the behemoth that it is. In India, we love two things, our movies and our Cricket. Politics, religious discussions, arts and sciences all take a back seat when there is Cricket being played. And this obsession with Cricket has resulted in cashflows for the board, the players and the people involved.
It is often said, almost undeniably, that the BCCI controls the International Cricket Committee. Though it can never be proven, it is a fact that the maximum revenue generated by the ICC is when the Indian Cricket team is playing the game, no matter where in the world and with whom. Almost 70% of the viewers of the game are from the Indian Subcontinent or descendants. And hence, the dependency of ICC on BCCI increases. In ICC tournaments, maximum traction is drawn when Indian team plays and hence it is beneficial for the ICC that they play more. So, in the last decade, Group stage tournament format has been changed to Round Robin, advertising lengths increase, the social media hype is exaggerated and obviously, the Indian media giants reciprocate. Talk about India and Cows — Cash or otherwise.
And then comes the Indian Premier league. The flagship tournament of the BCCI. If you don’t know what it is, I advise you roll back under the stone you just crawled out of. There is a Short Cricket tournament organised by every Cricketing nation but the attention, money and the player’s zeal to win is unmatched by any other. Every player, Indian or International, wants to play in the IPL. Reasons are obviously the money, the attention and the social media following they get (which brings in the long-term gain, brands). The advertisements on TVs, grounds, player jerseys and associated players have increased multi-folds. If you do not look closely enough, sometimes you will miss the name of the player on back of his shirt but you will not be allowed to miss the sponsor. On Indian television, the battle for Primetime audience is dead for the two months that IPL airs. No matter what happens in the country, dinner (if the TV is visible from there) table conversations are all around Cricket. As I write this, I am guilty myself of keeping one eye on the screen for constant update on who wins tonight.
As much as I want to, I cannot distinct the purity of the game of Cricket with what it has become now. Maybe it was always meant to become the extravaganza it is. Cricket is called the Gentleman’s game not because of the way it is played, but by the aristocrats who played it. And those very people were always found guilty of washing their hands after a game not just to get the dust off, but also the blood of the people they agonised. So, it doesn’t matter if we blame how the game is duped, it was always meant to become the dystopia it is now.
