A halting recovery for Indian sports
Sports has a hallowed place in our lives. Not as dogmatic as religion, it shows us the way to live. It teaches us nothing is impossible and to those who persevere on its path, glory awaits. For the rest of us, watching from the sidelines and designated as ‘fans’, sports inspires us to be a better version of ourselves. So, it is both depressing and frightening that something as uplifting as sports became a casualty to the corona virus. Like every other aspect of our lives, sports came to a grinding halt in the menacing shadows of the virus.
As we learn to live with the virus, most of these aspects of our lives are also slowly returning back to normalcy. However, sports continues to be in slumber in India. Which is befuddling, when you realize that we have reopened places of worship and shopping complexes, places which would typically see crowding & hence considered high-risk in the current context. Also India’s sports lockdown contrasts with the rest of the world, which is embracing sports, albeit with caution. The ongoing England-West Indies cricket test series provided a welcome relief from the multiple reruns of Indo-Pak cricket matches on TV. And it follows English Premier League, Formula 1, PGA, Rugby, etc. to name a few of the sporting events which have resumed in the last 2 months.
Behind this cryptic decision involving Indian sports are simple reasons:
Indian sports is not a financial powerhouse: Sports may be a big part of our popular culture and by extension our everyday lives, but when it comes to generating revenues, it still lags many other segments of the Indian economy. With an estimated revenue of $1 Bn, sports contributes < 0.05% to India’s GDP (~$3 Tn). An insignificant impact on the GDP means that sports continues to be lower on government’s priority.
Comparison with the US throws an interesting picture. In the US, sports generates $250 Bn, contributing 1% to the American economy. It isn’t surprising that there’s a rush to get sports out of comatose in the US (there are other factors at play, including the country’s casual attitude to this pandemic, but financial reasons would trump most of them).
Cash-rich cricket body not in a hurry: Cricket drives majority of sporting revenues in India, and can easily take up the leadership mantle to drag Indian sport out of the current dilemma, but it isn’t doing so, at least not yet. Currently BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) is tending to its top-most priority- IPL. IPL accounts for ~45% of Indian cricket revenue, but takes up less than 15% of the cricketing calendar. Simply put, an IPL tournament generates almost as much revenue as all other series or tournaments involving India put together, that too in less than a sixth of the time. So BCCI’s priorities are clear — to host IPL. While the regular Apr-May window of IPL was washed out due to the pandemic, there’s another chance for the event to go-ahead. The T20 World Cup scheduled in Sep-Nov’20 has high likelihood of being postponed due to the logistical challenge of managing a multi-nation event in the backdrop of the virus. ICC’s (International Cricket Council) loss could be BCCI’s gain. Call it a practical move or a wily one, a commercially-minded BCCI is less enthusiastic about starting any form of cricket till at least August. This ensures Indian players aren’t exposed to the pandemic risk which would otherwise hamper the chances of hosting IPL. It also forces ICC’s hand to announce the postponement of the T20 WC soon enough for BCCI to start preparing for the IPL. An absence of urgency on the Cricket body’s part doesn’t inspire confidence amongst other sporting bodies to raise their voice and make the government hear.
Lukewarm response of fans: Despite the rising interest in sports in recent times, India isn’t a sporting nation by any stretch of imagination. Most of us consume sports as a form of entertainment; very few indulge in the physical action ( one look at our physique is enough to confirm this). Coming to the most popular sport amongst them all, even when we say that we are a cricket-crazy nation, the craze is for cricket-as-a-source-of-entertainment just like it is for movies or politics. That’s why we haven’t heard fans screaming for live cricketing action, unlike the clamor to get schools and places of worships reopened.
Summary: A combination of financial insignificance of sports, inaction from the leading sporting bodies & fans’ indifference has meant that sports continues to be in a state of lockdown in India.
What’s next?
: As India witnesses a surge in virus cases, the argument to keep sports in freeze-mode stays relevant. Hence, we are unlikely to see any urgency to restart sports anytime soon.
A step behind, but we will follow: As the international calendar across sporting disciplines opens up between Aug and Sep, Indian athletes will need to participate in these tournaments to maintain their competitiveness and rankings, esp with Olympics slated for mid next year. India will closely keep an eye on these tournaments and will open up with a lag of 1–2 months. Sep-Oct is the likely timeframe when sporting action is likely to resume in India. A key announcement to watch out for in the next few days is from ICC (International Cricket Council), as this would decide the course that Indian Cricket will take in the next few months, which in turn will set the ball rolling for other sports in India.
Empty stands: International games, currently underway, are being played in front of empty stands or with minimum audience (10–25% capacity). Since ticketing isn’t a financial driver in Indian sports (accounting for just 5% of sporting revenues; broadcasting and advertising account for 95% of revenues), hosting sports events in empty stadiums is likely to be the new norm in the initial few months’ post resumption of sports.
If you are a sports fanatic, wait and watch is the mantra when it comes to Indian sports. In the interim, you will have to make do with reruns of India’s past glories.
Originally published @:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/halting-recovery-indian-sports-sumeet-sonkusare
