Cricket needs to learn from hockey, or lose to F1 and football

It’s time for the Board of Cricket in India to worry – and for all the stakeholders in Indian cricket, be they brands or broadcasters. There are other sports that Indians are embracing – and demonstrating their preference for by paying for the pleasure of watching. “A day before the fifth and final India-England one-dayer is to be played in Kolkata tomorrow, only 5,758 tickets have been sold,” reports the Indian Express . Now consider this: “7th October, 2011 will be etched forever in the history books of Indian football, as this was the day when a top division football team from England played a football match on Indian soil. History was created when Blackburn Rovers Football Club locked horns against I-league side Pune FC at Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune, which is also the home ground of the Pune side. The ‘Red Lizards’, as they are popularly known as among their faithful, flaunt a healthy fan following in the region, but it would not be surprising to state that since the club’s inception in 2007, it was probably the first time when all the 36,000 seats in the multipurpose stadia were jam packed. The Blue and Whites were in town,” says The Hard Tackle   More on football in India. “The world’s highest rated player, Messi showed his class from the outset, as he spearheaded the moves exhibiting brilliant distribution, much to the joy of the 80,000-odd spectators at the globe’s second biggest stadium by capacity,” reported Daiji World . [caption id=“attachment_116599” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“A one-day international between England and India sells just 5,758 tickets -Reuters”] [/caption] Moving from football to Formula 1, the numbers are even more telling.“The private Jaypee group, which has spent $US400 million ($385 million) to build the new state-of-the-art Buddh International circuit and bring the event to India, said it was still hopeful of selling the remaining tickets for this weekend’s race. “We have sold close to 80,000 tickets which is pretty encouraging considering that it’s the first F1 race ever in the country,” a Jaypee spokesman said,” reported The Herald Sun So to put it all in perspective, a one-day international between England and India sells just 5,758 tickets; a friendly football tie between the English premier Leagues bottom placed team and an Indian team sells all 36,000 tickets, another friendly tie which features Lionel Messi sells 80,000 tickets;  as does an F1 race. Admittedly, it is easier to sell tickets for sporting events that come once in a blue moon or even once a year – but it’s the long term impact that should worry Cricket. International quality sports are being sampled by Indians – and what should worry Cricket is the danger that the sampling could convert the faithful. High quality international football is available live on television through the year, and the F1 over 19 weekends. To illustrate the danger, a Liverpool fan, for example, gets to see almost 40 matches a year, live. F1, unlike football, is a two-day spectator event, with the qualifying session being a viewership opportunity as well. With the 19 races, that’s 38 days for F1 to occupy the attention of a fan. The danger to Cricket is primarily that, if the fans migrate, so will the brand money that covets them. Thankfully, there’s a case study that Cricket could learn from: Hockey. To begin with, it was named the national sport of the country – and it was also the sport that India excelled at, at the International level. The Indian men’s hockey team is the most successful hockey team in the Olympics, having won 8 gold, 1 silver, and 2 bronze medals. But hockey is also the sport where India failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics – and is unlikely to qualify for the London 2012 Games. The team’s poor performance in the past three decades can be attributed to many reasons, but, for the moment, take a look at the impact. “Unlike cricket, there is good reason why corporates are not queuing up to sponsor hockey. Though hockey is our national game, over the years it has lost much of its shine. The reason for the fall in the popularity of hockey over the past few decades is a complex story. In a nutshell, the precipitous decline of hockey since 1980 when India last won an Olympic gold medal has to do with mismanagement of the game, a poor showing in international tournaments and the attendant rise in cricket’s popularity. If there’s not much interest in hockey anymore, what can be done? Cricket is mismanaged too, but money has come to it because there’s public interest in the game. The same cannot be said for hockey,” says The Times of India . “Money has come to it because of there’s public interest in the game.” And the money will disappear from cricket in the same manner as it deserted hockey if the public loses interest to another sport.