Chennai Super Kings to venture into other sports, South African league

“It is not only cricket but other sporting fields. Wherever we can make a mark with the CSK culture, we will certainly be looking at them,” said KS Viswanathan, CEO of CSK (Illustration: Suneesh K/Moneycontrol)

Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK) plans to establish its brand in other sports and simultaneously consolidate its position in cricket by venturing into the proposed South African league.

“It is not only cricket but other sporting fields. Wherever we can make a mark with the CSK culture, we will certainly be looking at them,” KS Viswanathan, CEO of CSK, told Moneycontrol.

Most sports like kabaddi, badminton and the like have already taken the franchise route, he said. Kho-Kho, one of the oldest outdoor sports in India, is not lagging behind. “Everything will be done based on a firm business plan. If it is worth doing, we will certainly be interested,” Viswanathan said.

Nothing “stops us from putting up our ideas to the top management,” he said, adding that the top management would have the final say.

Viswanathan confirmed that CSK is indeed keen to own a cricket team in South Africa, where the sport’s governing body is planning to organise a cricket league of its own on the lines of IPL. “We really want to get into cricket leagues in other countries,” he said.

Cricket South Africa (CSA)’s proposal for competitive bids has elicited quite a lot of interest across the globe, Viswanathan said.

“Most of the countries have gone into the franchise model. England, too, has now a 100-ball franchise league. Everything is moving into a T-20 format,” he said. “The expectation is that T-20 will be the order of the day. We too think it will be a good investment if we are able to get into it,” he added.

According to Viswanathan, owning a franchise in other leagues would help CSK hunt talent for the team. In terms of the price cap for players, CSA’s proposed league is above the ones fixed by other country’s leagues but less than that of IPL.

Viswanathan said whether CSK would venture into overseas cricket leagues on its own or would start a separate vehicle to do would be worked out depending on assorted factors. He suggested that valuation was the prime reason for the IPL franchises to venture into overseas leagues.

“When we began the IPL journey, we paid around $91 million for 10 years (around Rs 360 crore at the rate of Rs 40 a dollar). The two latest entrants to the IPL teams have paid over Rs 12,500 crore,” he said.

CSK is the only IPL cricket franchisee whose shares are on offer in the unlisted market. Its enterprise value (EV) is reckoned to be over Rs 7,200 crore. It reported a lower profit of Rs 40.26 crore for the year ended March 31, 2021, down from Rs 50.33 crore in 2019-20. It reported revenue of Rs 253.69 crore for the year, down from Rs 356.53 crore in the preceding year.

In early 2015, the board of India Cements (ICL) cleared the transfer of IPL franchise rights of Chennai Super Kings to its wholly owned subsidiary, Chennai Super Kings Cricket. While doing so, it also approved a reorganisation plan for the newly formed subsidiary. Under the revamp, ICL’s 97,054 shareholders were given shares of CSK Cricket for free in proportion to the shares they currently hold in the company.

Stating that CSK could not wish away critical financial numbers, Viswanathan said the company had roped in the services of Sundar Raman (former chief operating officer of IPL) to scout for business opportunities. “We can’t ignore the financial numbers. That is why we are going into other areas,” he said.

CSK, he said, had set up Super Kings Academy cricket coaching centres for both boys and girls. It has centres in Chennai and Salem. CSK, according to him, is also setting up a high performance centre with a raft of state-of-the-art practice facilities. The high performance centre is coming up on a sprawling plot owned by it along OMR express highway in Chennai.

“The Super Kings Academy is aimed at spreading cricket at gross-root level and conducting talent management programmes,” he said. The Academy has decided to conduct 'Super 7', a tennis ball cricket tournament for corporate entities.