Show me the Money - - IPL

History has an uncanny ability to repeat itself again & again. Thirty years back there was history made by one Australian who is arguably one of the most influential figures in the history of the sport. In 1977 Mr. Kerry Packer launched the break away cricket competition “World Series Cricket” which almost brought International Cricket Council - ICC on its knees, Kerry Packer changed the way cricket was played.

Today again history is being made some 6000 miles away from down under in Bombay where the “Indian Premier League” is auctioning its player. The amount of money involved here is simply mind boggling.

Today all is rosy & fine for the BCCI as this league is backed by them but that was not the case some 9 months back when Subhash Chandra of the ESSEL group announced a rival league called the “Indian Cricket League”. This made the BCCI get up from its slumber & do something, it was time that this giant, entrenched in its bureaucratic & dictatorial style of working was kicked in its ass by someone.

BCCI got some good brains from the industry & walla it announced the Indian Premier League- IPL a similar format as that of the English Premier League Football. The IPL is in its nascent stage but it already looks like a winner all thanks to great marketing & an excellent business plan, even before it has started IPL has probably made more money than the ICC .The television rights, the teams etc have been bought for billions of dollars. It will be very interesting to see how it all shapes up for the IPL, it has already created a lot of noise ,hoopla, celebrity glitz etc, lets see how big a transformation does IPL bring to world cricket.

Today it is auctioning its players to the respective teams which it has got from all over the world & the players are selling for millions. I am not a cricket a cricket expert but can tell you one thing that if you have a great idea even if it is not yours but if you market it well you have a great thing going for you. This is the power of Marketing & mind you also Emerging India.

Today when IPL is auctioning its players I am reminded of the famous quote of Mr Kerry Packer in one of his negotiations for television rights, where he said :

"There is a little bit of the whore in all of us, gentlemen. What is your price?"