The American-isation of Cricket

By Gulu Ezekiel

The American-isation of Indian cricket continues apace with the latest IPL innovation of ‘strategy break’ or ‘tactical time-outs’ of five minutes at the end of 10 overs in each innings.
IPL czar Lalit Modi--he of the glib tongue—has of course denied that it is anything to do with squeezing out more ad revenue from the telecast of the matches. According to Modi it is in fact a ploy to hasten the games which in its inaugural season last year regularly ran over time, despite fines imposed on the teams!
Indian cricket fans who have for long had to live with the first and last ball of every over being lopped over due to ads spilling over into match time should understand the rational for this, warped though it may appear.
With telecast fees going through the roof in recent years, the host broadcaster is forced to play spoilsport to the viewers in a desperate bid to at least break even. And that extra one commercial squeezed through every over can make all the difference between profit and loss.
Television has long played kingmaker in sports in the United States. That is one major reason why soccer has never taken off in the US—there are no breaks in play where ads can be telecast.
Both in the NBA (National Basketball Association) and NFL (National Football League), the rhythm of play is interrupted by time-outs for commercial reasons alone. And basketball was broken up into four quarters so the TV channels could extract maximum revenue from their captive audiences.
The IPL landed a bonanza last year when they got Sony to pay $1.026 billion over 10 years. But apparently even that obscene amount was not enough and after plenty of arm-twisting and a high-profile court case, the fee was bumped up even further.
Meanwhile, as fees and costs spiral, it is the viewer who will pay the price.

www.sportshero.com (13/4/09)