Monthly Archives: September 2008

Indian sportspersons as brands: Dream or reality?

September 23, 2008
Have you noticed how the heroes for the young Indian sports fan, besides some cricket stars, are actually F1 drivers, European and Latin American soccer players who feature in the European leagues, NBA stars, tennis aces like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal and champion golfers like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson?
Indeed, one of the strongest spin-offs of the strong presence of cable and satellite TV is that competition for most Indian sport comes not so much from its international cricket calendar but from all sport that we get to watch from the comfort of our homes. Nothing wrong with that per se but it has left so little room for Indian stars to be in the collective consciousness of a nation for sustained spells.

Given this scenario, are practitioners of other sport helpless in becoming brands in their own right? Far from it. They are tremendous brands themselves but remain unexploited by the Indian market. I reckon even the Indian cricketer would have remained in the same league but for it recognising opportunity and seizing it.

Some years ago, around the time cable and satellite TV came in to India, Jagmohan Dalmiya and Inderjit Singh Bindra realised that tennis and golf were popular because they were played round the year – and, what’s more, broadcast live on TV. It did not take them much to chalk out a calendar that would ensure cricket on TV nearly all the time.

Over the last two years, the Indian cricket team has been seen playing on as many as 208 days of international cricket – Tests, ODIs and T20 games. And there was 45 days of madness that went by the branding of IPL.

Contrast that with Olympic Games gold medal winner Abhinav Bindra’s schedule. He competed in 10 international events in two years, each lasting but a maximum of an hour and a half. And, we do not know when his next event will be. In fact, he has told reporters to call him up after five months to know if he would shoot again.

Take the Indian hockey team, it played but 36 matches since the dawn of 2007. And the national football team 20 matches in the same time frame, winning the Nehru Gold Cup and the AFC Challenge Cup in the process. It just reinforces my belief that if other sportsperson to become brands, they need to be seen performing very often on TV.

Their federations and they themselves need to shed traditional thinking and come up with solutions that are in keeping with the evolving, TV-driven scenario. For far too long, they have not embraced change and have stuck to doing things in a way that pre-dates the onset of TV.

I heard a former marksman lament the other day that shooting is a non-spectator sport. Can nothing really be done about finding ways to make it a spectator sport? Here’s one way – and let me warn you that is not an original idea and is borrowed from golf. How about replicating the Pro-Am event from golf in shooting? This could allow the formation of teams that include competitive shooters, recreational shooters and even first timers.

Some other reasons for failure

Let us try and look at why I-League football, PHL and the tennis circuit haven’t developed as brands.

I-League, which will start in just a few days, is not quite a pan-India event. Of the 12 teams that will feature in the second edition, four teams each are based in Kolkata and Goa, three in Mumbai, leaving JCT (Phagwara) as the sole representative from outside these three States.

Quite inevitably, football fans from States like Manipur, Kerala and Tamil Nadu would prefer idolising players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Steven Gerrard, Michael Owen, Didier Drogba and Michael Ballack.

PHL made some fundamental errors, creating city-based teams but not as franchises. The Indian Hockey Federation retained the selection and running of the teams in its own control. And, in hosting the event in one or two venues, it lost out on the opportunity to cultivate loyalties in the teams’ home cities.

Tennis has an international circuit with as many as 19 events – four ATP Challengers and six ITF Futures for men and nine ITF Women’s tournaments – and some of these events are telecast indeed. But, the quality of the telecast is such that it can drive the viewer to reach for the remote control.

The lesson to be drawn is there for all to see: Merely placing a sport on TV alone is not enough. The quality of coverage is important too. The All Indian Tennis Association can help the TV channel in question find quality producers so that images beamed are watched by sports fans and not a wasted exercise.

The stakeholders’ challenges

The challenge before sports federations is simple: innovate, draw up a calendar that is not sporadic and will attract TV and other partners. Keep your sport in the limelight (and not for the wrong reasons) so that fans can follow it with passion. The focus of the officials must be on creating and sustaining a good series of events rather than seats of power in international federations.

The challenge for the champions of all sport is to be proactive with their own federations and help design innovative events that will draw people to watch – and hopefully participate; to state things in a positive manner and not just be critical of the system. I believe they must realise they have a responsibility towards their sport in making them more popular.

Viewed from a different perspective, brand managers need to take up seemingly tough asks and make brands of champions of sport that are not so popular on TV. It is time they go beyond riding piggyback only on cricket (and Bollywood) and start looking at developing other champions as brands.

And, the media? Well, news channels, radio stations, newspapers and magazines must revert to covering Indian sport and not stop with just reacting to what the sports channels offer from overseas. There is a role for the media to play in encouraging youngsters to take to sport and then to sustain their interest.

Indian sportspersons as brands: Dream or reality?

September 22, 2008

Have you noticed how the heroes for the young Indian sports fan, besides some cricket stars, are actually F1 drivers, European and Latin American soccer players who feature in the European leagues, NBA stars, tennis aces like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal and champion golfers like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson?

Indeed, one of the strongest spin-offs of the strong presence of cable and satellite TV is that competition for most Indian sport comes not so much from its international cricket calendar but from all sport that we get to watch from the comfort of our homes. Nothing wrong with that per se but it has left so little room for Indian stars to be in the collective consciousness of a nation for sustained spells.

Given this scenario, are practitioners of other sport helpless in becoming brands in their own right? Far from it. They are tremendous brands themselves but remain unexploited by the Indian market. I reckon even the Indian cricketer would have remained in the same league but for it recognising opportunity and seizing it.

Some years ago, around the time cable and satellite TV came in to India, Jagmohan Dalmiya and Inderjit Singh Bindra realised that tennis and golf were popular because they were played round the year – and, what’s more, broadcast live on TV. It did not take them much to chalk out a calendar that would ensure cricket on TV nearly all the time.

Over the last two years, the Indian cricket team has been seen playing on as many as 208 days of international cricket – Tests, ODIs and T20 games. And there was 45 days of madness that went by the branding of IPL.

Contrast that with Olympic Games gold medal winner Abhinav Bindra’s schedule. He competed in 10 international events in two years, each lasting but a maximum of an hour and a half. And, we do not know when his next event will be. In fact, he has told reporters to call him up after five months to know if he would shoot again.

Take the Indian hockey team, it played but 36 matches since the dawn of 2007. And the national football team 20 matches in the same time frame, winning the Nehru Gold Cup and the AFC Challenge Cup in the process. It just reinforces my belief that if other sportsperson to become brands, they need to be seen performing very often on TV.

Their federations and they themselves need to shed traditional thinking and come up with solutions that are in keeping with the evolving, TV-driven scenario. For far too long, they have not embraced change and have stuck to doing things in a way that pre-dates the onset of TV.

I heard a former marksman lament the other day that shooting is a non-spectator sport. Can nothing really be done about finding ways to make it a spectator sport? Here’s one way – and let me warn you that is not an original idea and is borrowed from golf. How about replicating the Pro-Am event from golf in shooting? This could allow the formation of teams that include competitive shooters, recreational shooters and even first timers.

Some other reasons for failure

Let us try and look at why I-League football, PHL and the tennis circuit haven’t developed as brands.

I-League, which will start in just a few days, is not quite a pan-India event. Of the 12 teams that will feature in the second edition, four teams each are based in Kolkata and Goa, three in Mumbai, leaving JCT (Phagwara) as the sole representative from outside these three States.

Quite inevitably, football fans from States like Manipur, Kerala and Tamil Nadu would prefer idolising players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Steven Gerrard, Michael Owen, Didier Drogba and Michael Ballack.

PHL made some fundamental errors, creating city-based teams but not as franchises. The Indian Hockey Federation retained the selection and running of the teams in its own control. And, in hosting the event in one or two venues, it lost out on the opportunity to cultivate loyalties in the teams’ home cities.

Tennis has an international circuit with as many as 19 events – four ATP Challengers and six ITF Futures for men and nine ITF Women’s tournaments – and some of these events are telecast indeed. But, the quality of the telecast is such that it can drive the viewer to reach for the remote control.

The lesson to be drawn is there for all to see: Merely placing a sport on TV alone is not enough. The quality of coverage is important too. The All Indian Tennis Association can help the TV channel in question find quality producers so that images beamed are watched by sports fans and not a wasted exercise.

The stakeholders’ challenges

The challenge before sports federations is simple: innovate, draw up a calendar that is not sporadic and will attract TV and other partners. Keep your sport in the limelight (and not for the wrong reasons) so that fans can follow it with passion. The focus of the officials must be on creating and sustaining a good series of events rather than seats of power in international federations.

The challenge for the champions of all sport is to be proactive with their own federations and help design innovative events that will draw people to watch – and hopefully participate; to state things in a positive manner and not just be critical of the system. I believe they must realise they have a responsibility towards their sport in making them more popular.

Viewed from a different perspective, brand managers need to take up seemingly tough asks and make brands of champions of sport that are not so popular on TV. It is time they go beyond riding piggyback only on cricket (and Bollywood) and start looking at developing other champions as brands.

And, the media? Well, news channels, radio stations, newspapers and magazines must revert to covering Indian sport and not stop with just reacting to what the sports channels offer from overseas. There is a role for the media to play in encouraging youngsters to take to sport and then to sustain their interest.

Meeting Tom and delving into his passion for sport

September 18, 2008
There were two reasons I gave up the chance last Friday to listen to British climber Mick Fowler speak about four spectacular climbs in Tibet – Siguniang, Grosvenor, Kajaqiao, and Manamcho. First, my friend Tuhin Sinha was launching his book 22 Yards. And, I was keen to meet actor Tom Alter, who was to be the special guest at the Oxford Book store in busy Connaught Place.
I was exposed to Tuhin’s enthusiasm for the game around this time last year. We met in Mumbai and he told me he was writing a fictional account around cricket. We downed some cups of coffee and chatted about shared passion for cricket. And it was pleasing to hear from him about the launch that his publishers, Westland, had put together for him.
By the time my friend NP Singh and I reached Oxford Book Store, the book had been launched, Tom and Tuhin were winding up the conversation that had been having about the game, its players and the book itself. It made sense to buy our copies of the book and wait for the formal interaction to be completed.
Tuhin got busy talking to some mediapersons, his friend and well-wishers, signing autographs in the copies of the book that people had bought. There were a number of people wanting Tom’s autograph as well. The veteran answered questions from them patiently, never more when someone shuffled up to him and rifled dozens of questions.
As the man shot of question after question, it was clear that he did not know who Tom was or what he did for a living. Not for the first time in his life, Tom was being mistaken for an American who developed a passion for cricket – and life at large. The fact that the actor did not mind it all and answered all questions was a veritable lesson in humility.
It was amusing – and wonderful – to see him grill a TV reporter about the event Abhinav Bindra won the Olympic Games gold medal in. And about how wrestler Sushil Kumar was given a second chance to win an Olympic bronze. I can promise you it was not a very nice sight to see the reporter squirm and then try to hold his own against the seasoned Tom.
When you hear him speak about how Suresh Kalmadi had achieved precious little in his time as top honcho of Amateur Athletics Federation of India, you realise it is not the lament of the armchair critic who has picked up some wisdom by watching TV channels or reading newspapers reports. Indeed, his own novel, The Longest Race, has some criticism of the system in India.
When he speaks of badminton player Saina Nehwal’s emergence as the brightest star on the Indian women’s sports firmament, you know it is not an off the cuff remark by an arm-chair critic. “She has that something special,” he says, a few days before the Haryanvi-Hyderabadi girl went on to win her second Grand Prix title.
There was a twinkle in Tom’s eyes when NP spoke to him about some pieces that he had written in the weekly magazine Sportsweek all those years ago. “You remember those?” he said, in amazement. In the silence that enveloped the group for a few moments, you could see that he was dipping in nostalgia. “None of the 12 pieces was on a cricketer. Of the 12 sportspeople I had interviewed – actually spent several days with each one of them – just swimmer Anita Sood paid tributes to her coach, Sandeep Divgikar,” he said.
He recalled that middle-distance ace Bahadur Prasad allowed Gulab Chand to win a race in the inter-Railway championship just because it would help the younger runner to secure a promotion. And he also told us that he had named the central character in The Longest Race Bahadur in honour of the ace.
How could a conversation with Tom at a cricket book launch not focus on cricket?
He regards Sachin Tendulkar at his peak as the brightest Indian batsman of them all ahead of Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Viswanath, Dilip Vengsarkar, Rahul Dravid and all else. But the stress was on the words at his peak. “He was God then, Tom says.
And when he spoke of the change in Tendulkar’s approach to batsmanship, he recalled Steve Waugh comments that he saw fear in Tendulkar’s eyes for the first time on India’s tour of Australia in 1999-2000 and that the little big man was now playing the cricket ball off the pitch rather than off the bowler’s hand.
There was a lost look in his eyes when I raked up the issue of match fixing – some if it figures in 22 Yards. “I wrote then that the lights at the Wankhede Stadium were not only switched off but seemed to be hanging their heads in shame. It hasn’t been the same for me since then,” he says.
The other aspect of modern cricket that anguishes his soul is clearly IPL. “I didn’t watch a single IPL game. It was conceived on the twin tenets of greed and revenge and anything that is resting on such pillars cannot be good,” Tom says, making it apparent that, like some of us, he remains a stickler for Test cricket and its romance.
That is the reason he is hurt by India’s ODI captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s decision to not play the recent Test series in Sri Lanka. “Had Dhoni gone, we would not have lost the Test series,” he said. “See how well he played both Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan in the one-day games. He may have looked a bit ungainly in the process but he delivered results, did he not?”
Evening stretched into night. Cha Bar closed and its staff made their way home, leaving some of us parched when we looked for some tea. Happily, the book store staff waited patiently for us to leave, never even suggesting that we rise from the table that had become a vast canvas of our thoughts.

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