Indian Premier League on its way down?

In case you have not heard, DLF have decided not to renew their partnership with BCCI regarding the title sponsorship of the Indian Premier League (IPL). They now are the third sponsor that has pulled the plug on a sponsorship deal with BCCI in the last year or so, after Airtel and Nokia, two giants in the telecom industry, pulled out of their deals as title sponsors of the Champions League T20. It begs the question: Is the Indian premier league on its way down?

The numbers on the surface without a deeper diagnosis seem to suggest yes. According to TAM sports, a division of TAM research, the ratings for this year’s IPL were 3.45, compared to 3.51 last year. What must really concern BCCI is the fact that in 2010, this figure stood at 5.51. Sponsors come where there is public, i.e., where they can showcase their product, and these declining numbers could well have played their part.

Or there could be deeper reasons; this season of IPL saw a lot of controversies brought up, first when Royal Challengers Bangalore player Luke Pomersbach was involved in an alleged molestation case of an American national, which in turn brought up a lot of negative publicity. The other incident was when Kolkata Knight Riders owner Shahrukh Khan was fined for being involved in fracas with security at Wankhade Stadium in Mumbai. If that was not enough, Wayne Parnell and Rahul Sharma tested positive for drugs after they were detained at a party in Mumbai.

In the previous four years too there have been controversies galore, with the slap gate incident, the moving of the tournament to South Africa because of elections, and the case of Kochi Tuskers where no one knew who owned the club, eventually leading to the disqualification of the franchisee. Not to mention the sordid ousting of the previous IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi. In addition to all this, we keep hearing that owners are willing to sell their stake in the franchise, which does not help the product either. The pathetic performance by team India in England and Australia along with news of conflicts within the team would not helped one little bit as well. Believe it or no, these are the things that get to people.

Other sports are coming up in India and may represent a much better value for marketers. I notice Airtel sponsoring football for kids to be taken to Manchester United academy, and DLF already involved with golf and tennis by sponsoring the Masters and being one of the sponsors of Davis Cup.

I am a big fan of the game and think T20 is great and could one day be an Olympic sport. However, I just feel that cricket had taken a back seat in the IPL, and the tournament has not progressed as it should have from when it initially started in 2008. I just feel that the BCCI need to put their foot down to bring back the focus solely on the game. I am sure the golden goose will lay again. After all it’s a religion in here.