India and Pakistan being one country before 1947, where British Crown ruled this region from 1858 till the partition in 1947 and the people of both countries used to live together and share a lot of common interest. So, the concept of history of cricket in Pakistan and India referred to the time before partition where British’s brought this game to India in early 1700s and after that some cricket clubs in different communities started establishing.
In the today’s world of globalization; markets are following change and integration to acquire benefits to achieve desired economic outcomes but this globalization practice is divided into two stages , firstly around 1820, which was ‘unbundling’ of production and consumption where people used to produce more products than they consumed and the second stage occurred when the communication cost declined due to technological innovations so there is no doubt in the fact that, the innovation in the development of new business models and strategies are the new practices of this globalized world. Like other sectors, this international market of sports are also passing through the phase of transition and innovation to catch the high jumps of economic benefits.
If we look at the history of cricket, international cricket played worldwide in three different formats, one day, T20 (Twenty-20) and Test matches where T20 is the most recent, innovative and shortened form of cricket restricted to 20 overs. The concept of T20 was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board in 2003 which gains attention of audience so, several T20 leagues started after 2007 ICC World T20 tournament. Big Bash League, Indian Premier League, Pakistan Super League, Bangladesh Premier League, and Caribbean Premier League are well known and successful T20 Leagues where, Pakistan Super League (PSL) and Indian Premier League (IPL) are the most popular T20 cricket leagues in Asia having millions of viewers. The purpose of this shorter and faster format was introduced to grab more people to the game through such variations to develop the interest of the people so as expected, this format quickly made itself distinguished from traditional cricket and became the breath of fresh air for the fans towards these action-packed three-hour spectacles.
Economic impact of IPL
If we compare the two most popular leagues of Asia IPL and PSL than, IPL portrays a national level identity as it is governed by the Board of Cricket Control for India despite of the fact that teams are owned by private owners. Indian Premier League (IPL) is India’s franchise-based T20 cricket competition founded by the BCCI. This franchised based ownership venture was first for cricket and in just few years it was grown into the one of world sports. Since it was the new concept for cricket but within three years of its launch it reached distinguished height by valuation of $4.13 billion and now its 12,715 crore by selling just two teams. The average price tag of a team now stands at Rs 6,357 crore with a whopping 17-fold jump in just 13 years.
The IPL is very famous in the world of cricket and because of its financial rewards as it is advertised in a way to make it look bigger which shows how media created so much hype of this event and it was the important factor in making this league very successful and when the people saw the big names from film industry and some other tycoons of India are investing in this league it became the combination of power, passion and glamour as well.
This is not the end of the story, many channels are also making billions in few years. It is a fact that IPL does not need viewership outside the India necessarily because it has huge population of 1.5 billion people that provides an edge to the cricket league demographically. This business of cricket has offered a lot to other businesses in India as well, the number of mobile phone users has increased immensely and in 2011 there were 234 million subscribers, which provide Indian corporations and mobile phone services a huge benefit by offering cricket related services e.g. ringtones of their favorite team song and providing them facility of instant scoreboards via text messages etc.). This aspect of using technological services in such a huge population of India provides profitable outcomes to other corporations involved indirectly in this business. The Economist summed that, the IPL’s audience is mouth-watering. It is dominated by young, middle-class city-dwellers, who are among India’s most free spending consumers. Remarkably, around 45% of viewers are women. They are attracted not only to the IPL’s breathless sort of cricket but also to the glamour that attends it. Indian economy expanding by about 8% a year due to IPL, with a cable-television market growing at a similar clip and the players of IPL are earning massive amounts in India not just with the league itself but also by advertising and endorsements of different brands.
India and Pakistan have huge fan following of cricket and fans of both countries love their respective T20 leagues Indian Premier League and Pakistan Super League. They have been great rivals since the beginning in every confrontation in big matches of international cricket series.
Economic impact of PSL
Pakistan is a sport loving country. The country has millions of people. Pakistan is included in the list of those countries which have adopted this Twenty20 format of cricket and a huge crowd of 25000 people showed up for its very first domestic Twenty20 match in Lahore in 2005. The concept of introducing its domestic Twenty20 league was founded in 2008 but it officially started in 2015 with five region-based franchises representing each province of Pakistan.
The gap of making the idea and implanting this idea into reality took so long time because of lack of infrastructure, political instability, economic conditions and security reasons. There were a lot of hurdles that came in the way to organize such big event but eventually it happened and became a success since its beginning. The only thing which made the fans disappointed in the beginning was that it moved to UAE rather that happening in Pakistan and this was the need of the time not to host a big event with international players in Pakistan because of the security concerns. Introduction of Pakistan Super League (PSL) was golden opportunity not only for business and Cricket board of Pakistan but mostly for foreigner cricketers to win loyalty in a country that is usually known for supporting only their own race members. But now, Pakistan is successfully gains its reputation to host the event completely in Pakistan.
Pakistani news channel ‘Dunya News’ showed that cricket comes home was trending fifth number in worldwide trends. After this, some observers were still in doubt if international cricket has returned for good or not but at that moment it was the reason of happiness for cricket starving nation where stadiums are over flowing. The same thing happened in 2017, when the final match of Pakistan Super League was played in Pakistan rather than in UAE, then twitter went crazy with the same trend when cricket fans used the same hashtag i.e. cricket comes home to express their feelings (Dawn 2017). Cricket fans also used the microblogging websites with the same trend #CricketComesHome in recent PSL season in 2019, when some matches were played in the biggest city of Pakistan i.e. Karachi.
The market value of PSL in 2017 was up to US$300 million and has grown many folds.
It is a well-known fact that IPL is the topmost priority-based T20 tournament all around the globe where every other league tends to set the benchmark based upon the success of the IPL so. In order to look more attracting and appealing to this new society of consumers and young target market, PSL cricket has to transform itself into other several commodities that could be consumed by the target consumers in terms of consumer market.
If the cricket is discussed in context of product and market then the spectators of the sport are consumer of the game and watching a cricket match is equivalent to buying the concepts and ideas of the new kind of the cricket i.e. products, brands, glamour, etc. The leagues like IPL and PSL has become a product that has its own brand value apart from the international cricket and such big leagues are more famous than some international cricket events, because of the target market and interest of consumers in different markets. These leagues are also creating hype and increasing its worth in market by introducing legends of the cricket, who used to be the biggest names in cricket before their retirement. By putting them in commentary box, has provided a value in the marketing of the game i.e. from describing the game to hyping product and brand value with their experiences of the game and compare of the new players and old players along with the new and old format of the cricket. Now it has come so far in terms of being slow and long game to faster and shorter format, but still the previous formats of cricket i.e. test matches and One day international events are organized and watched by many people.
The Indian Premier League is mainly providing the direct benefit to the players, owners of franchises and Board of Cricket Control in India, but it is providing a lot of benefits to other corporations as well in many ways, because this factor of recognition of their own players has become an identity so, there is a need to learn from them. There are two factors that are determined by the sport which affect the sport in all ways i.e. market and state. Market has started growing immensely by introducing these leagues while state is the main governing body of cricket in these countries despite of the fact teams are owned by private owners.
Growth comparison of both leagues
If we compare the brand value then, IPL is one of the richest leagues in the world of sports not just in cricket and it much bigger and more glamorous than the PSL. The audience and fan following is also major factor for the success of both leagues. It is a fact that PSL is much smaller as compared to the IPL if we see the facts and figures along with the number of matches happening within these leagues.
In Pakistan Super League there are much low numbers played at stadium while in Indian Premier League there are much high numbers. The size and population are a major factor to compare these two leagues. But if it is compared on the grounds of success, growth and popularity, then it would be interesting to see two leagues of different sizes but with more or less the same growth and success rate according to the perspective of institutional level and from the perspective of social identity. Both leagues are major opportunities of investment from the perspective of investors, media, fans and sponsors. It is also a fact that PSL despite of being new and smaller than IPL which is established and bigger league of cricket, can be compared because it has created a huge impact and build credibility within shorter period of time. As, this league is not as big as Indian premier league, but it has shown great potential by having successful editions each year. If the success of PSL is measured in terms of profits than 46 owners of the franchises might have been losing some money, but they can see the future potential by investing in this game. A former official of PSL Salman Sarwar said in his statement that, ‘there is great potential for sports leagues industry in Pakistan as there are about 70 million people who have propensity to spend on such leagues.
In the end, it is concluded that, these leagues have shown the new ways to market the cricket, because this game was losing its charm from the fans and almost a decade ago young fans were not seemed interested in this game. These domestic leagues not only proved themselves a great source of revenue but also grabbed more fans, provided investment opportunities directly or indirectly to many businesses. These domestic leagues not just have changed the traditional cricket at some extent but have been more profitable for the economy of their countries and International cricket as well so, up-gradation of the sport affects the state, fans, players, economy and various other aspects as well and sports also need to adapt the change according to the change of market and interest of fans. It is important for the survival of all sports, not just for cricket, to develop the interest of fans through different changes.
Being stuck to the traditional and customs of sport or society can be harmful for the survival of the game. So, there is a continuous need to upgrade in the sports in order to be an institution which is flexible enough to grab more fans over the period of time rather than decking the number of fans. This is also important aspect for the business point of view, in order to increase the worth of sport, it is important to be innovative and adapt the change without hurting the traditions.
It can also be identified that, cricket is more important than the cricketers and fans of the cricket so, fairness in the game must be adopted as a mandate for both the leagues where positive competition will bring more beauty and monetary benefits not only to the associated persons but to the state as well
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