Nation of leagues

Sport in India can be broadly divided into two eras, it would seem. Before the Indian Premier League, and after the slambang show. It may be hard to believe but it was in hockey that India’s first professional city-based league was established. The inaugural edition of the Premier Hockey League in 2005 saw five teams from Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jalandhar and Mumbai in action. Foreign players were brought in but the league was only semi-professional.

The Indian Hockey Federation owned all the teams, controlled every aspect of the league from the selection of players to their distribution across teams. The idea of setting up a hockey league was the brainchild of ESPN, and the sports channel needed the support of the Indian Hockey Federation. After the initial euphoria, the Premier Hockey League petered out, its demise hastened by a sting operation on the IHL and India being thrown out of the 2008 Olympic Games.
The Indian Cricket League was formed in 2007 right after India’s disastrous performance in the World Cup in the Caribbean. The rebel league to the BCCI created a buzz, and the cricket board struck back in 2008 to form the Indian Premier League. To be sure, the ICL was bedevilled by problems of payments
And IPL is rewriting sports history as we know it, not just in India but across the cricket-playing world. The sixth edition of the $6 million Champions League T20 — which kicks off in Hyderabad on September 19 — shows that it is a model that works.

In India, the success of the IPL has spawned leagues in hockey, badminton, kabaddi and football. From an avowed one-sport country a few years ago, India now professes love for a variety of sports. Thanks to cricket, players in other sports are getting money, which they could only dream of earlier, world-class TV coverage and unheard-of media attention. Who would have thought kabaddi would take centre stage on TV before the ProLeague? The way the predominantly rural sport was packaged in the month-long league was an eye-opener. Rakesh Kumar was bought by the Patna franchise for Rs 12.80 lakh, possibly more than a career-long take from prize money for one of India’s top kabaddi players.

Rakesh wouldn’t have dreamed that kabaddi matches would be telecast live by an international sports broadcaster in prime time. The presence of Bollywood stars during matches was a shot in the arm for the ProKabaddi League, which shattered many myths about the sport. According to Jaipur Pink Panthers coach K. Baskaran, owner Abhishek Bachchan’s involvement with the team was total. Now Abhishek is talking of starting a women’s league in kabaddi.

Badminton, riding on the success of Pullela Gopichand and his stable of stars, Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu, apart from a clutch of international players, is on the lookout for suitable dates for the second edition of its professional league. Something that the muscular IPL does not have to worry about. That the first edition of the Indian Badminton League went off smoothly — notwithstanding headline-grabbing off-the-court drama over payments — was an indication that India could well become the headquarters of leagues in sports other than cricket. The Indian Super League in football, scheduled to start from October 12, has created quite a buzz, even though it won’t yet be seeing top international players in action.

Indian players have also been earning decent money in the I-League, the inter-club competition run by the national football federation, but the media attention and TV coverage they would get from the ISL would be infinitely better. For a sport like football in India, any publicity is good publicity because it has been meandering on the fringes for many years and ranked in the 120s in the world. David Trezeguet and Alessandro del Piero may not be spring chicken but they had been household names in the football world in their prime. Indian youngsters would lap up the opportunity to rub shoulders with the former big boys of football.

Players in other sports yearn for a league similar to the IPL that would get them a fraction of the money cricketers are getting. Hockey India, which replaced the IHF as the national body after India’s failure to qualify for the 2008 Olympics, set up a league on the lines of the IPL in association with Star Sports a couple of years ago. Once again a rebel league started by the IHF acted as a trigger. As hockey is still a semi-professional sport in Europe, the Hockey India League quickly established itself as the most lucrative club competition in the world. After two editions, some existential questions have cropped up. Two teams — Mumbai Magicians and Ranchi Rhinos — have pulled out. Financial difficulties are said to have forced the two teams to take the drastic action. It’s a cautionary tale for all non-cricket leagues.

Nowadays it appears to be easier to start a league than sustain it. Associations in other sports aren’t remotely as professional as the cricket body. They are used to riding on someone else’s shoulders. The common thread that unites all new leagues is they are all dependent on a TV channel to run the show. There is no clarity yet on how they are going to break even. Unless leagues have a sustainable revenue model, it’s difficult to see them thrive in the long run. Hockey India League could end up being a flash in the pan if it can’t guarantee money for franchises. Companies are not charities to promote sports without expecting anything in return.

According to Uday Shankar, CEO of Star India, no sport can be promoted by conducting a league for a fortnight or a month. “What the association does in the remaining 50 weeks of the year is important for the growth of a sport,” he has said. The Star group owns leagues in hockey, badminton, kabaddi and football. The ProKabaddi League caught the fancy of many. According to Star India, the viewership figures for the kabaddi league were higher than for the Fifa World Cup in the first week.

The Indian Super League, football’s attempt to grab eyeballs, is a costly gamble by IMG and Reliance. Unlike hockey and kabaddi, the ISL has to compete with the likes of the EPL and La Liga to garner attention. Indian football has virtually no big names and the marquee international players signed so far don’t set the pulse racing. Most importantly, almost all nations have a football league and India need a monumental effort to succeed in the crowded schedule. Top hockey players in the world grace the Hockey India league as the money they get here tops European leagues. Football, though, can’t hope to attract the best. Above all, how the clubs will recover the money they are spending is a million dollar question.