 "India and Pakistan had faced off thrice in 2022, with two of those meetings coming in the Asia Cup and once in the T20 World Cup in Australia. Reuters")
The India vs Pakistan T20 World Cup 2024 clash in New York could help the broadcasters make some big money. The match will be held at the Nassau County International Stadium on Sunday (9 June) and it’s expected to be a full house. The India-Pakistan clash becomes even more important just because the Men in Green are coming on the back of a Super Over defeat to co-hosts United States of America in Dallas on Thursday.
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The Babar Azam-led unit will thus be expected to pull up their socks and give it their level best against the Men in Blue come Sunday.
USA topping Group A with four points also does not help Pakistan’s case, and a defeat to India could further dampen their Super Eight hopes. So, it’s all to play for on Sunday.
There’s been a lot of talking points leading up to the contest, both on and off the field. Tickets are being sold at Rs 8.40 lakh per seat , with prices varying on the kind of lounge at the stadium. Then there’s the promotions of the game for broadcast, with global companies spending extravagantly on advertising.
$48,000 for 10 seconds of ad slots
According to a report in Bloomberg, the advertising slots for the India-Pakistan match could fetch a whopping $48,000 for 10 seconds of an ad slot. That translates to Rs 4 million in Indian currency. “The India-Pakistan game always commands a premium,” said Santosh N, a managing director at D&P Advisory, a company that offers sports valuation services.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsHe also added that a 10-second ad slot for India games would sell for Rs 2 million on average. In comparison, the Super Bowl reportedly fetched $6.5 million for 30 seconds, whereas for UK advertisers during the FIFA World Cup, the amount was around £400,000 for 30 seconds, which is $511,000.
The estimated cost for a 10-second ad slot during the 2023 ODI World Cup that was held in India was Rs 3 million.
Coca-Cola, Saudi Aramco and the Emirates Group are some of the biggest multinational firms who are sponsoring the one-month showpiece event of cricket. The matches have been scheduled in such a way that they cater to the prime-time hours in the Indian sub-continent and South Asian countries.
The India-Pakistan match in New York will begin on Sunday at 10.30 am local time, during which it will be 8 pm IST in India.
Wider global outreach
Wider global outreach is another factor when it comes to big games like India-Pakistan. The International Cricket Council is attempting to grab the attention of the global audience ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, where cricket is set to be included.
Thanks to top Indian-origin executives in technology companies like Google and the popularity of the sport among South Asian communities, there is a considerable fan base for cricket in the United States.
“Exciting to see my favourite sport growing globally,” Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc, had posted on X on 2 June, before the tournament started.
In addition, the introduction of the Major League Cricket tournament played an important role. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen and Neeraj Arora, a former executive of WhatsApp, have heavily invested in the MLC, which began in 2023.
Huge demand for tickets
According to a release by the ICC in February, the public ballots witnessed a huge demand for tickets, with the India-Pakistan fixture alone being oversubscribed more than 200 times.
“The group chats went crazy”, Debarghya Das, a venture capitalist from San Francisco told Bloomberg. Everyone was talking about it. Nobody I knew got it from that lottery,” he added.
Satya Nadella, meanwhile, told Bloomberg that he would attend the match if he gets the tickets.
Tickets that are usually sold between $6 (Rs 501) to $25 (Rs 2,088), are being sold for up to $3,500 (Rs 2,92, 377) in the second market, Debarghya Das added.
Rohail Asad, a software engineer, who had shifted to the US eight years back, said that he would be watching the match from the comforts of his home after he was unable to get tickets. “They are all Indians and I am Pakistani. It should be exciting”, he told Bloomberg.