IPL auctions or Cattle being sold - The sordid saga of Cricketers sold as Cattle!

First published on Facebook on 19th February 2021

IPL Auctions 2021

Too much hype and too much money paid for foreign players! At least some of the franchisees will end with an egg on their face!14.5 crores for Maxwell, 1 crore for Umesh Yadav, and no buyers for Hanuma Vihari! What a bloody joke!

Comments: 

Qutub Mohd Khaja: Black money

Manya Nagaraja: Booming post-Corona economy!! Money, in a poor country, seems to have no value.( haves- have nots gap is unimaginable, even amongst best IPL players 1625 -20 lakhs)  Raju, as a marketing expert, can you pl explain how they (franchise Co) recover or make money, in brief.

Anil Ramesh: Manya Nagaraja sure bava give me some time, will respond by tomorrow!

Manya Nagaraja: You must write an article on this. IPL entrepreneurship - a cost-benefit analysis.

Aditya Sunkara: Especially when Maxwell has proven to be a 'dud' purchase in the past... And Chris Morris has been a useful all-rounder for Delhi, but he is now a bit past his peak.. 16.25 Cr for him will definitely blowback.

Worst of all, SRH, being a Hyderabad-based franchise has not really found a local player who can bring stability but an import from the owner's homeland... Vijay Shankar and Kedar Jadhav are not at all the answer for their middle-order balance...

Anil Ramesh: Manya Nagaraja bava, I will try to explain and that too briefly. IPL is all about money and it is the sixth most-watched event in the world.

The size of the Indian market means that it attracts enormous eyeballs (attention) and money through sponsorship deals, advertisements, and other ways of making money (deals, events, shows, celebrity events, acting as chief guests for shop openings, etc) and gate receipts of people coming to watch the matches.

There are rumors that a lot of betting goes on. Ten years ago the amount per match was Rs 5,000/- crores.

Some say up to a tune of Rs 50,000/- to 1,00,000/- crores are being bet on each match all over the world. In a true sense, it is a parallel economy in itself!

The 45 - 50 days of IPL means a lot of advertisements and sponsorship deals for the team owners. All franchisees are cash-rich and get tremendous publicity from the players and also get sponsorship deals from other corporates.

Gate receipt money and the attraction of winning the IPL is another lure!

Coming to the money that is paid, it is demand and supply. Players like Pujara and Vihari are seen as test specialists and don't have many takers.

Actually speaking, Indians have to get more bids as 7 Indians can play to 4 overseas players in the playing eleven.

But auctions are like chess games and teams sometimes bid and pick up a player simply to deny some other team, a player whom they actually don't need but does not want their opponent to have!

For example, KKR wanted to buy Krishappa Gautham but CSK beat both and bought him at 9.5 crores only because SRH wanted him and quite desperately too.

Some players are bought as back up and 2 crores for Kedar Jadav and 1.5 crores for the Afghan spinner is a good buy for SRH!

There is no guarantee that IPL auctions are fair. There is a possibility that they could be fixed.

Foreign players like Maxwell keep failing but still get fancy sums. Chris Morris is good but not at 15.5 crores.

And bava, players actually don't get the entire amount. 30-35% goes as tax, the team management keeps some amount and respective boards also get money.

That is why England and Australia toe the line as far as IPL is concerned. It is their money gravy train. All is all we can expect the foreign players to only get 50% of the auctioned amount.

Also bava, the usual auctions are for 3 years and expect the teams to retain the players for three years and pay the players a third of the amount per year.

If the players don't perform they are thrown back into the auction pool next year and the price goes down.

For example, Steve Smith went down from 10.5 crores to just 2 crores.

National sentiment play a role and except for big-ticket players like Maxwell, the rest of the Aussie players were simply ignored by the franchisees.

This type of bidding leads to jealousy and, imagine Umesh Yadav and Gowtham. Umesh at Rs 1 crore and Gowtham at 9.25 crores and Shah Rukh Khan at 4.5 crores.

Umesh has played for India and the other two are uncapped but get almost 10 and 5 times what poor Umesh Yadav gets.

And Vihari gets s to play at a maximum 4-5 test matches in a year and we expect Umesh and Vihari to spill blood while a young Shah Rukh Khan gets 4.5 crores. This is a lopsided way of judging players and their calibre.

Sincerely hope that Gowtham and Shah Rukh Khan perform and perform at their best. The one shining example of a player coming through the IPL ranks to the national team is that of Natarajan who went from SRH to play in all three formats for the Indian cricket team.

And the life of the highest-paid players is a life of misery. The sword of Damocles hangs on the head that too in this edition of IPL. They better perform at the highest level or their teams will throw them to the wolves, release them and their value goes down!

All eyes will be on Maxwell, Morris, and Jamieson. Sometimes the weight of expectations might be a load too much to bear!

Bava, many times "I scratch your back you scratch my back" also exists. Sachin Tendulkar is a vital clog in the Mumbai Indians team and is very close to the Reliance group. Thus it was not at all surprising that Arjun Tendulkar gets picked for the base price of Rs 20 lakhs.

Most probably he will be the net bowler, and if at the end of the season, the team is comfortably placed at the table, might even get to play a match even though Mumbai Indians have a star-studded team.

Manya Nagaraja: Raju, ( known in our circle), excellent write-up. Made an interesting reading. Some were unknown.

Anil Ramesh: Manya Nagaraja, thank you bava.

When Silence is not only Golden - It is everything, Ask Gillette, KLM and Sunshine Hospitals

What was Gillette thinking about? The advertisement of Gillette is in plain words Jingoistic. It is playing to the most basic sentiments of the people. Most of us understand that cricket is just a game. We also realize that cricket is not war and yes we enjoy winning and winning against Pakistan is Sone-Pe-suhaga. But that is where the buck stops or should stop.

Playing and wining against Pakistan is not winning a war with our neighbors. Nor it is a   war against the Muslims of Pakistan or to that matter Muslims of any county including India. That is why the Gillette advertisement is cheesy and so much off the mark.

The advertisement too seems to be made in a hurry. The stubble is green in color. Why green? Does green mean Pakistan? And prey why green (the usage of green is not an accident). Green is the predominant color in the flag of Pakistan. So Gillette wants Indian Cricket team to “Wipe, them clean”. As if taking the dirty stubble off.

And what does Gillette want to achieve. That too only for a cricket match. Is it not thinking about the millions if not crores of Indian consumers that it is antagonizing apart from the millions and crores of Pakistani and other country citizens? Gillette needs to think many times before biting this genre silver bullet. This is one bullet that could back fire, hurt and injure the shooter – Gillette itself. 

What started out as a lark went horribly wrong. The world is tuned to FIFA world cup and Dutch Airlines thought that they would cash in. And cash in they did - After the match between Netherland and Mexico (which Mexico lost) they sent out a twitter feed. The twitter feed had a picture of an Airport departure sign under the heading 'Adios Amigo'. And next to the word departure was an image of a man with a mustache wearing a sombrero (Mexican hat).

The twitter went viral and Mexicans hated it. A Mexican actor promised that he would never fly Dutch airlines. And rubbing salt into the wound he told his 2 million followers to do the same. Seeing the alarming negative reaction the post was pulled off the net half an hour later. 

The issue became prickly and later in the night KLM issued a formal apology. The lesson is very clear. Do not indulge in something that is sensitive and where by celebrating only with one set of people you would hurt the sentiments of the other set and as a company you want to be in the good books of both sets of the people.

What is Sunshine thinking? It is a corporate hospital. It would need the patronage of people from all parts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. By supporting the division are they not antagonizing the vast majority of Andhra people living in Hyderabad? They might win the confidence of the Telangana people, but are they not losing the trust of the Andhra clientele. 

As far as I am concerned it is was a absolutely zero sum game.  Sunshine hospital has to realize it is better to be silent rather than to put up advertisements that are controversial. It is better to be safe than to be sorry. 

As if to make amends Sunshine put up another advertisement. The advertisement says 'one moon for Andhra Pradesh' (Chandrababu Naidu the chief Minister) 'one moon for Telangana' (K. Chandrasekhara Rao). Chandrudu in Telugu means moon. The advertisement goes on to say ‘one sun for Hyderabad’ that is Sunshine Hospital. 

A sunshine hospital is being too clever for its own sake. First it supports the division and then it tries to appease the Andhra Pradesh clientele with another advertisement. It is just trying to be safe. This way I think they would have lost the confidence of both the clientele; Andhra Pradesh with the first advertisement and Telangana with the second one. It is caught between a rock and a hard place. Time Sunshine Hospital does focus groups interviews to avoid such controversial advertisement campaigns.

Super success story of the Sachin Digigraph campaign by BCCI.

Sachin Tendulkar the great Indian Cricketer has retired. He has left a quarter century of fond memories. His retirement swept India into a wave of sadness and nostalgia.

BCCI (Board of Control of Cricket in India) came out with a very innovative plan to bid  Sachin a fond farewell. It joined hands with Digigraph.me and Twitter to launch the “Thank you Sachin Campaign”. It was a very simple campaign (come to think of it, it is always the simplest of things that produce the most dramatic results). Fans of Sachin have to simply send a message saying “ThankYou Sachin” from their Twitter handle and they would instantaneously receive a Digigraph from Sachin Tendulkar. A Digigraph is a Digital Autograph. The Digital  autograph image of Sachin would contain the name of the recipient and would have a personal message from Sachin himself.

This campaign proved to be a super success. The cricket crazy fans of Sachin lapped up the offer. In all 35 digigraphs were on offer and many enthusiasts started collecting all the 35 digigraphs of the master blaster. Yes it is true that the digigraphs are digital have no intrinsic value but might become valuable in let’s say in thirty years’ time!

To ensure that this social media exercise grabs maximum eyeballs, Twitter had send out mails to users informing them of the end of the activity today. “Own a piece of history,” the mail reads. “Tweet to get a personalized photo from Sachin!”

Post Tendulkar’s final match, Rishi Jaitly for Twitter India announced that the campaign had generated a whopping 3 million tweets and counting. The digigraph themselves had been viewed 4 million times. Most importantly, a thank you message came from Tendulkar himself, acknowledging the campaign becoming the most retweeted tweet in India, with the current counter standing at 16,888 RTs and 11,389 favourites.

Great Campaign BCCI, Twitter and Digigraph. Suddenly Twitter is in big news. Many like me were very weary of this very intrusive media. But this campaign forced me on board and I am told many like me opened twitter accounts just to get their “Piece of History”. 

A  lesson to the Indian corporates who have had or still are using Sachin as a brand ambassador. Why is that they did not do similar activities like BCCI? After all BCCI is registered as a nonprofit making organization! It was sad to see that no newspaper (of the ones that I bought) had a special section on Sachin except Eenadu (a telugu dally), the day after Sachin finally retired. It was not that they were caught napping. The match ended at 1130 hours on Saturday and they had a lead time of nearly 12 hours. No wonder the print media is taking a beating from the Electronic media.

The corporates also missed a chance in tieing up with history. Why can’t Boost – the energy Drink, a long time sponsor of Sachin give away autographed bats of Sachin. This would generate enormous amount of good will and would increase the sale too. And why not.  It is payback time. The corporates who made money and increased their market share have to give something back to the fans who finally are responsible for the success of any brand and products. 

Some things to chew upon, Corporate India!

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It is all about Money - Honey - "The peculiar case of Kumar Sangakkara"

 CLT20 cricket 2013 is about to be kicked off. A dozen of the world’s best Twenty20 cricketers were in high confusion after being named by more than one squad.

CLT20 regulations state that when a player elects to play for their ‘away’ team, that team must pay the ‘home’ team $150,000 compensation per player. A ‘home’ team is classified as a team from the country a player is eligible to represent in international cricket. This payment is applicable for 10 of the 12 players that were eligible for more than one team. The following is the list of cricketers who chose their IPL club over their home clubs except Sangakkara.  

Dwayne Bravo            Trinidad & Tobago        /           Chennai Super Kings*

Kevon Cooper             Trinidad & Tobago       /           Rajasthan Royals*  

Nathan Coulter-Nile   Perth Scorchers             /           Mumbai Indians*

Faf du Plesses             Titans/Chennai             /           Super Kings*

Mike Hussey               Perth Scorchers            /           Chennai Super Kings*

Mitchell Johnson         Brisbane Heat              /           Mumbai Indians*  

Albie Morkel               Titans                           /           Chennai Super Kings*  

Chris Morris                Highveld Lions            /           Chennai Super Kings*  

Thisara Perera              Brisbane Heat              /           Sunrisers Hyderabad*

Kieron Pollard             Trinidad & Tobago      /           Mumbai Indians*

Kumar Sangakkara      Sunrisers Hyderabad   /           Kandurata Maroons*

 Shane Watson            Brisbane Heat             /           Rajasthan Royals*

Kumar Sangakkara was very unhappy the way his issue was dealt with. He was miffed about his loyalty being questioned

He said he is ultimately happy to represent his home province, but was perturbed by the manner in which the board publicly framed his situation, which he does not believe ever entailed a question of country loyalty. Sangakkara will lose $140,000 from his IPL salary as a result of his decision.

Sangakkara had previously said that he had no choice but to honour his contract with Sunrisers, but the Champions League organizers have since said that it is down to players to choose.  He will forfeit 20% of his IPL salary, or $140,000, if he does play for Kandurata instead of Sunrisers Hyderabad, and Sri Lankan Cricket would also miss out on a $150,000 payment that Hyderabad would have to make if Sangakkara did not play for the team from his own country.

This is what Kumar Sangakkara said “There's been a statement made that SLC was willing to lose $150,000 by getting me to play for Kandurata. I think the true picture is that I incurred a considerable financial loss out of my salary, and the board incurs a financial loss of $150,000 out of approximately $1.5 million that they will earn through the Champions League, via player commissions of 10% on each players' contract, plus the half a million dollars the Champions League pays for franchise participation. I think there is little or no comparison in the amounts lost. None of the board members or anyone else loses individually, but the player suffers.

The real matter is not the financial penalty, but the issue of principle. This is not a country versus money issue, but it was created to be so, and I as a player was left alone to be caught in the middle of it".

SLC confirmed that they would not be able to fully compensate Sangakkara for his lost salary if he does choose Kandurata, but it may not be only money that motivates the decision.  It would surely be an unpopular move if he were to choose the Indian side over his local team, with the IPL not always the most popular tournament in Sri Lanka, especially after this year’s contracts dispute and the controversy around Tamil Nadu’s ban on Sri Lankan players.

Finally Sangakkara has to play for his home town over his IPL’s Sunrisers. I have no doubt that Sanga would have preferred Sunrisers over his home team but for the political sentiment and the unpopular sentiment that IPL seems to have generated in Sri Lanka. 

Cricket advertisements that caught the eye (part – IV)

Ear plugs: The ear plugs that Hansie Cronje the South African cricket captain used for the first time in 1999 cricket world cup created quite a storm. They were not allowed. Now a days it is quite common to see earplugs being used by players in the 2020 cricket. If earphones are more used, the game could become more competitive and could provide the marketers of cellphone companies the golden opportunity to jump onto the bandwagon of effective cricket advertising.

Walkie-Talkie: The walkie talkies that the umpires use to communicate with the third umpire have been ignored by many companies and by advertisers. In tense situations the viewers focus on the umpire. In those crucial minutes the eyes would be on the walkie talkies. A golden opportunity for companies like Motorola to get their name etched in the minds of the consumer.

ICICI Prudential - Safe hands:  ICICI_Prudential did the safe hands campaign. The catches taken are shown as ICICI safe hand catches. The message is very clear if you insure with ICICI Prudential your life is in safe hands.

Electrolux - Electrifying highlights: The highlights at the end of the telecast are sponsored by Electrolux, an electrical company. The message needs no further explanation.

Britannia - 50:50: A brilliant campaign. This is done by Britannia 50:50. A biscuit that is 50% sweet and 50% salty. Whenever there is a third umpire decision pending Britannia 50:50 would appear on the screen. The decision could go either way. The batsman could be out or he could be safe. There can never be no closer association with the product than the third umpire decision. This is remarkable for a product whose USP is neither sweet nor salty. Very clever indeed.

TIMEX Superstats:  This was done in Doordarshan. DD as Doordarshan is popularly called was sponsoring a programme that gave out pre and post match analysis on its sports channel. The analysis included statistics given by an expert. These statistics were a delight for the numerical loving and data crunching cricket fans. Thus is was not a surprise that TIMEX a company that is known for precision watches was the sponsor and the programme was called TIMEX Supersats.

MRF – Sachin’s Bat: The best association of any product is that of Sachin Tendulkar and MRF. The broad blade of Sachin Tendulkar has the logo of MRF on its backside. This association immensely benefited MRF. The money that was paid initially was rumored to be a pittance but MRF struck with Sachin and became synonymous with Sachin.

Sachin is long lasting so is MRF, The runs made by Sachin are the most by any World cricketer, so are the miles on the road that are travelled by MRF tyres. The base line says it all. The tyre with muscle. Brilliant work, MRF take a bow.

Energizer – runout: Runouts happen when there is a misunderstanding between the two batsmen and one is run out. As the run out batsman is dejectedly walking away the Energizer battery advertisement would appear on the screen. The batsman needed more energy to make his ground. Energizer battery a battery that runs for ever.