The TRP ratings are reportedly encouraging and all appears hunky dory. The cocktail remained unchanged - a heady mix of business and Bollywood.Ĭutting-edge coverage from Star Sports saw hitherto low-profile sports such as kabaddi, football and hockey challenging cricket for prime-time attention. The business of sport was buzzing like never before, forcing the administrators of other sports like hockey, kabaddi and football to sit up, take notice and emulate the success. Spectators flocked to the venues and the IPL turned even mediocre cricketers into household names. On offer was an entertainment package of cricket, song and dance that proved a roaring success in the very first season. The business and cinema world was roped in to lend glamour and money, and attract the youth. The cricket board scrambled to counter it by launching the Indian Premier League (IPL). Every cricketer looked to earn a spot in the ICL and the authorities smelled the threat instantly. The country’s first major private sporting league saw players, many of them unsung and unknown, signing fruitful contracts. Long after retirement, Dev, again with an eye on the market, created the Indian Cricket League (ICL), setting off a sporting revolution of sorts when the league’s first ball was bowled. Cricketers signed up sponsors and shared the spoils with the board.
“I was only looking to make my future financially steady,” Dev said.
He was the first to use a logo on sports equipment, in defiance of the administration, alongside other stalwarts like Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri. Kapil Dev also blazed a trail for Indian sportsmen inking lucrative commercial contracts. India won the match and the World Cup, propelling cricket to new heights on home soil. If cricket is big in India, I would credit it to the catch Kapil Dev took at Lord’s in June 1983 to dismiss the marauding West Indian great Viv Richards. The trouble is that their association with sport is purely commercial. They have to be, having invested in the teams and players in the franchise-based ownership. Meanwhile, the brewing new sporting culture attempts to grab the attention and loyalty of the country’s youth through private leagues. The difference is huge, not to mention the disparity in facilities.
Even Kazakhstan, with a population smaller than Kerala’s, claimed 28. India emerged with 11 gold medals, two of them in kabaddi, behind China’s staggering 151, Korea’s 79 and Japan’s 47. The recent Asian Games at Incheon gave us a realistic assessment of Indian sport. But these are clearly far-fetched and misplaced notions. Private leagues have mushroomed in recent times, promising India a place in the FIFA World Cup or the opportunity to host a tennis event on the scale of a Grand Slam. In a country that loves to play cricket in every available space - parks, streets and fields - sports merchants are increasingly peddling football, tennis and hockey dreams.
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