Strategy: DLF IPL vs. RBS Twenty 20 Cup

| May 27, 2009 | 8 Comments

24th May saw the end of the DLF IPL Season Two. Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers Bangalore – the two bottom placed teams from Season 1 of the IPL – were going head to head in the final. A remarkable turnaround for both teams. And what a spectacle they put up, with the match being decided in the final over. It was followed by an amazingly put together closing ceremony, with performances from Eddy Grant, Akon and Katrina Kaif, among others.

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25th May saw the quiet start of the RBS Twenty20 Cup 2009 in Lahore. There was no opening ceremony. Sialkot Stallions, champions for the last two editions of this tournament, thrashed Karachi Zebras in the first match at the Gaddafi Stadium by chasing off a target of 134 in less than 13 overs. Imran Nazir played a spectacular innings, but it was sad to see that empty stands were the only ones who witnessed this special innings.

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There were highlights of the IPL semifinal being aired on Super Sport while Geo Super was airing the live telecast of the Sialkot Stallions vs. Karachi Zebras match. And believe you me; it was much more enjoyable to watch the highlights on Super Sport.

WHY?

What is it that the IPL has that our Twenty 20 Cup does not?

• IPL has international players; RBS Twenty 20 hardly has the local national stars appearing in the tournament regularly
• IPL has the flavor of their film industry perfectly blended with cricket; we don’t have a film industry to be proud of
• IPL has glamorous dancing girls at the boundary line; we have dance boys and dhool walas
• IPL has a franchise system; our Twenty 20 Cup has a city based system
• IPL only has 8 teams; RBS Twenty 20 Cup has 11 teams even though our population is less than even 20% of India’s population
• IPL lasts for over a month; our Twenty 20 Cup lasts for 5 days
• IPL has the home and away game concept (ignoring Season 2, since it was logistically impossible to do this in South Africa); RBS Twenty 20 Cup is played in one city only
• IPL has international umpires and commentators; RBS Twenty 20 Cup has local umpires and pathetic local commentators
• IPL has foreign countries wanting to host their tournament; our tournament, it seems, even the PCB is hesitant to host regularly
• IPL has a fixed time of the year scheduled when it is played every year; RBS Twenty 20 Cup gets organized whenever the PCB wishes to
• The top three teams from IPL get to be a part of the Twenty 20 Champions Trophy; not even the winners of the RBS Twenty 20 Cup get to be a part of the Twenty 20 Champions Trophy
• IPL has mega sponsors therefore huge money involved; our tournament has only two sponsors, namely RBS and Ufone

People might say, it is not fair to compare out local Twenty 20 Cup with the IPL. Well why not? If India can do it, why can’t we? We have to set high benchmarks for ourselves. The Indians have very well showcased how they can leverage a country’s passion to the fullest and create extraordinary marketing opportunities in the process. They are earning billions from the IPL. We should be no different.

Gerald Majola, chief executive of Cricket South Africa (CSA), said, that the key ingredient for the IPL’s success in a foreign country was the marketing effort that went into the event. “There is no doubt that the difference between hosting a successful IPL and producing an outstanding one was the expert marketing put into place at short notice by the organizers,” he said. “It hit the right note to a public that adores limited-overs cricket and the glamour and glitz of cricketing superstars mixing with Bollywood personalities.” (http://content.cricinfo.com/southafrica/content/current/story/405991.html)

Time for positive talk now. Let’s put forward some recommendations that could help in the improvement of our local Twenty 20 Cup, but before that we will have to analyze our limitations.

• We all know what happened with the Sri Lankan cricket team. Therefore, we should not expect any foreign player to come and play in our local Twenty 20 Cup for obvious security concerns, even if we our pay scales are comparative to those of the IPL, which in itself is highly unlikely to happen.
• Knowing how the religious extremists in our country are, having female dancers at the boundary is something that we can not afford to have.

Recommendations:

• There is no point in having two teams each from Karachi and Lahore, where one is very strong and the other very weak. This hurts the competitive level of the tournament. It also confuses the viewers from these two cities, as in which team to support.
• Do away with 11 teams. There should be no more than 6 teams in the competition. This will mean only the best cricketers from the country play in the tournament, which will essentially raise the level of competition as well.
• The teams should be a mix of city and franchise system. Franchise system is necessary because it will help pump in money into the game. City based system will help ensure the interest of the crowd.
• The tournament should be in a league format, where every team plays the other twice, on home and away basis. The top two teams should then play each other in a best of three finals to decide the champion.
• The tournament should have adequate playing days and should not be subject to cramped scheduling.
• Media coverage also plays an important role. The level of commentary seriously needs to go up. It is sad to see Pakistani commentators like Ramiz Raja, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, among others, not being involved. Some young educated commentators and hosts should be brought in. A commentator/host does not necessarily have to be a former cricketer. We have Harsa Bhogle’s example in front of us. Yahya Hussaini should not be speaking in English (Now I request Mr. Abdul Razzaq come have few word) if he can’t at the post match interviews. Urdu would be good enough. Geo Super needs to cover the matches with more cameras; the numbers of cameras currently being used are not adequate enough.
• The overall league should be marketed better. PCB needs a dynamic marketing department with young and exuberant business graduates forming the teams. They need to have a separate wing especially working towards the promotion of the Twenty 20 league. Entry should be free, so as to attract a larger crowd to the stadiums. There should be some sort of entertainment for the crowd other than the cricket. We can’t have girls dancing. Concerts have been done too often, but they can still be effective if the sound systems inside the ground are upgraded/improved. Indian songs should not be played when a four/six is hit or a wicket falls. We should only play Pakistani music or at the most western music, but no Indian music. There should be free giveaways from the franchises/sponsors to the crowd, like for instance a shirt, a cap, a franchise flag or something similar. This would also help add color to the otherwise dull clothes our crowd usually wears. The franchises can make songs/documentaries which could be played during intervals on television in an attempt to win over fans. The marketing team also needs to pitch in to various corporations and get more sponsors. The individual franchises should have their own separate sponsors. This would bring in more money into the game, which would mean cricketers would be compensated better.
• A sense of rivalry between different franchises would have to be created through marketing efforts by the PCB, the franchises themselves and the media. This will get more people talking about these matches and overall popularity of the league would increase.
• PCB should improve its diplomacy internationally and should make sure that the top two teams from our Twenty 20 league should get an opportunity to play in the International Twenty 20 Champions league. This would raise the stakes even more and would ensure a hard fought battle between the teams. (http://content.cricinfo.com/pakistan/content/current/story/406091.html)

I would love to have the readers contribute with their suggestions and recommendations on how to improve our Twenty 20 league.

Tags: 20-20, 2009, actresses, Advertisements, Akon, bollywood, city, comparison, country, cricket, cup, dance boys, dancing girls, Deccan Chargers, diplomacy, DLF, DLF IPL, Eddy Grant, franchise, franchise system, Gaddafi Stadium, Gerald Majola, Imran Nazir, India, Indian Premier League, IPL, karachi, Katrina Kaif, Lahore, live telecast, Marketing, models, national stars, pakistan, pakistan cricket board, PCP, performances, Rameez Raja, RBS, RBS Twenty Twenty Cup, remarkable turnaround, Royal Challengers Bangalore, season, South Africa, Sports, Super, system, system ipl, tournament, twenty20 cup, Waqar Younis, Waseem Akram

Category: Brands, Other Stuff

About the Author (Author Profile)

Hey! Currently a MBA student at IBA, I did my BBA (in Marketing) from SZABIST. I’ve previously held the ‘Associate Account Manager’ designation at Corporate & Marketing Communications (CMC)- An affiliate of Ketchum. My work revolved around developing strategies and action plans for clients regarding perception and image management.
I’m a die hard Pakistani and even in these gloomy times I see hope for my country. Additionally I’m a sport-o-holic, both in terms of playing and following. My interest in marketing, social media and entrepreneurship are things that I think would somehow or the other shape my future. The above mentioned passions (if you might want to call them) will be heavily reflected in what I write here. Your feedback and comments are welcome. Happy reading.

Waqas Ather Saeed

  • Khawaja Umer Tanveer

    There is another thing that needs to be mentioned is responsibility and pride of the country. The private sports channel which is showcasing Domestic Twenty20 event asked the Board to shift the event a few days back to accommodate the IPL. Had Domestic Twenty20 started on the original date, it would have clashed with IPL match dates and had caused losses on advertisements to the Private sports channel of Pakistan. Its up to us to decide whether its Pakistan’s cricket we want to see prospering and grooming or Indian cricket.

  • http://waqasathersaeed.blogspot.com/ Waqas Saeed

    Very valid point made Umer, one that I was not aware of. But looking in hindsight, personally I think it was the correct decision made by the PCB (obviously after being pressurized by Geo Super). Why would you want to take the IPL head on at this stage and risk losing whatever little television viewership you have. It would have been stupid. In my post I have compared both the leagues, and recommended that our league learns from theirs, but no where have I suggested that we need to take them head on.

  • http://mazaqah.wordpress.com muhammed ansari

    Good points although I would like to add that Nasim Ashraf the former PCB chief was working on getting A Super League together where he had even thought of inviting a team from Dubai. To me I personally believe the problem lies with where the matches are held if we move to cities like Faislabad, Sialkot, Hyderabad, Multan trust me the stadiums would be jam packed. Despite no marketing we saw a huge number of people turn up for the final match yesterday so we don’t necessarily need to pour in huge amounts of money bring in foreign players and move to a franchise based system. The players that we have now need to be spread amount equally and maybe 2 international players per side would be more them enough. We have to face the reality that we can not be as big as IPL so we shall try and play smart and make use of the limited resources that we have.

  • http://waqasathersaeed.blogspot.com/ Waqas Saeed

    Yeah we all heard that there was a PPL (Pakistan Premier League)in the pipeline, but then i guess it stayed there only, in the pipeline. There was a lack of serious effort that could clearly be seen.

    I agree with your suggestion of having matches at places like Faisalabad, Multan, etc as these centers usually attract a larger crowd than Karachi or Lahore for that matter.

    I agree its not easy to get the international players involved in our league but i think money does need to be spend in other areas to make the league as glamorous as possible. This will make sure large corporations take notice of it and look at it as a marketing opportunity for their brands.

  • http://www.saroshwaiz.com Sarosh Waiz

    I agree with you Umer. The problem is that we have not been able to build a brand out of the cricket talent of our country. These times are ruled by the consumer choices, and not meeting their demands and needs will not help us create brands. This is where the PCB is lacking in building up a good league in my opinion.

    We should look into having a brand team for our cricket league (whether Twenty-Twenty or something new that we can start).. a thought to ponder over …

  • http://waqasathersaeed.blogspot.com/ Waqas Saeed

    You’re right in your suggestion Sarosh. But external factors also need to be accounted for, all can’t be blamed on the PCB only. We have played very little amount of cricket in the last two years due to security problems in the country. This obviously does not help. Without presence it is hard to create a brand.

  • http://www.saroshwaiz.com Sarosh Waiz

    I definitely agree to the point of “external factors” Waqas… my point still being the same that brand building is a process that should be started at the grass root levels. The problem is that until we start working on the grass root levels to improve the level of cricket in our country, or at least maintain it, we will not be able to create a brand in terms of a cricket league similar to IPL. In fact, we can’t even gather a good playing eleven that ensures a good fight. The fitness of our cricketers says it all. No body language, no fitness, no attitude and no passion. We can’t instill passion in these idiots by just whispering “passion passion” in their ears, it has to come from within.

    As with any other product, the quality of the product should be strong and up to the mark for it to become a good brand. But when there is flaw in the grass root levels, how can we expect to have consistent product quality in the level of cricketing in our country? That’s why I would like to believe that until we sort out internal issues of improving the “product” quality, we are not going any where with this team. The thing is that we cannot keep relying on TALENT only? We need to nurture talent, and we need to make great cricketers rather then expect the so called talent to come out of the blue every time.

    With respect to PCB, yes its not only PCB but its the whole environment. But with this passion-less attitude, we are not going to go anywhere.

  • http://babarkj.blogspot.com Babar Javed

    omg this post is huge!

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