Indian Premier League 2022: An IPL of many firsts

Ravindra Jadeja is leading the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) this year. CSK will play the inaugural match of IPL 2022 against the Kolkata Knight Riders later today. (Image: Twitter/IPL, BCCI)

Ahead of its 15th season, the Indian Premier League (IPL) finds itself at another inflection point. The league, cricket’s crowning glory in terms of finances, has been through some challenges before, including spot-fixing cases and a ban on teams, but having survived the storms, the ever-evolving IPL is up for some more changes.

The number of teams this season is up to 10 from eight, with many first-time captains such as Ravindra Jadeja (Chennai Super Kings, or CSK), Faf du Plessis (Royal Challengers Bangalore, or RCB), Mayank Agarwal (for the rebranded Punjab Kings) and Hardik Pandya (Gujarat Titans). 

M.S. Dhoni has decided to give up captaincy of CSK after serving as the league’s longest standing captain, from season one. His decision, just days before the team’s first match against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), came as a surprise to many. But Dhoni has done this before, giving up one role after another at periodic intervals, which leads to a flood of attention and a barrage of tributes, all of which point to what a splendid captain and player he is.

All matches this season will be played in and around Mumbai, which perhaps gives an unfair advantage to one home team, but makes it easier for the players who would have to travel less. Though, it can be argued that bus journeys between Wankhede, Brabourne in south Mumbai, DY Patil in Nerul and Pune’s MCA stadiums would be more tiring than flying to Hyderabad or Chennai, given that road traffic is back to pre-Covid levels.

While the franchises battle it out on the field, backroom conflab that decides many salaries will be on the media rights for the next five seasons of the IPL. Numbers being discussed hover around the Rs50,000 crore mark, a quantum leap from the around Rs 16,347 crore Star India paid for a five-year deal in 2017—which in turn was double the Rs 8,200 crore Sony Pictures Networks paid for 10 years in 2008. 

“This time, media rights will see an inflation—not due to broadcast, but due to telco and 5G. While broadcast is important for amplification, value will come from 5G players,” says Raghav Anand, EY segment leader, digital media and convergence (Africa, India and Middle East).

While advertisement rates will go through a normal inflation, “the real money will come, for example, when the IPL is available on a 5G Sim. Money from the 5G data is a different business case than just advertising,” adds Anand. 

While connected television and broadband will drive the roughly Rs25,000 crore that will come from ad sales, another Rs20,000 crore-odd will come from 5G broadband, according to a media expert. As of now, there is little concern on how this money is to be recovered.

“Our association (with the IPL) kicked off in 2015, and this is the eighth year,” says Arnab Banerjee, chief operating officer, CEAT. “Our association in IPL has elevated the brand’s stature, opened newer channels and increased the level of awareness of our target group. We are positively disposed towards a long-term association.”

The reason why the IPL seems to be at a crossroad is this convergence of new technology with a 15-year-old league. Sponsors and associate sponsors this year—of the league and the teams—include a host of tech companies and fantasy sport platforms like Byju’s, Cred, Unacademy and Dream11, which have been involved with the sport for some time. But additionally, there are new-age ones, like Ather Energy, NFT-gaming company FanCraze, wearable tech FanPlay, EV charging network Bolt, consumer internet company Glance, software firm TeamViewer and electric vehicle One Moto, among others.

“There are a lot of new sponsors that have come into the IPL this season and has been a mix of both traditional and new-age brands,” says Nikhil Bardia, head of sponsorship sales and talent for RISE Worldwide. “The brand ecosystem has also expanded with EV, auto-tech, fin-tech, FMCG and new-age brands from within the traditional sectors as well. First-time sponsors that RISE has partnered with this IPL include Cars24, Ather, slice, Capri Global, One Finance, Meesho, Bombay Shaving Company among others.” RISE consults with the IPL and all teams on sponsorship partnerships.

I don’t think player cost or advertising cost can sustain that (a longer season or more teams) at this moment.

- Raghav Anand, EY segment leader, digital media and convergence (Africa, India and Middle East)

Similarly, the companies that might be interested in throwing their hat in the ring for media rights would be some besides the television-OTT bigwigs—Reliance-Viacom18-Voot, Disney-Star Sports-Hotstar, Sony-Zee-SonyLIV—like Amazon, Netflix, Comcast, Facebook and YouTube, according to media reports.

Since IPL soaks up about 85 percent of all advertising money in sport, a legitimate question is towards its future and what it entails for other sports?

Sports broadcasting, which is largely between Star and Sony so far, will no longer be a duopoly. Whoever does not get the IPL in the future, will have to run their channels with other sporting disciplines, which may benefit these sports. 

Would the IPL, like European football leagues, be played for three-quarters of the year and have more teams? The Premier League, for example, has 20 teams.

“We are excited about the new extended format that IPL has and are also waiting to understand what additional positive changes this brings in,” adds Banerjee over email. “There is media inflation. However, as long as the association generates value, we would be looking forward to partner in IPL.”

Bardia adds over an email, “The IPL has expanded this season and that has added incremental revenue to the IPL ecosystem. In India, we have a year-long cricket season. The IPL plays its role as the biggest impact property but that doesn’t restrict brands to commit to multiyear long associations, with the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India), talent or franchises. There are year-round opportunities for brands to scale themselves.”

Test cricket already has a foot in the grave, with audiences interested only in a few teams, in a few countries. The last memorable Test series India played was in Australia in end-2020, early-2021. The current series between Pakistan and Australia is symptomatic of the format’s problem, with two Tests drawn and the run of play being as fascinating as watching grass grow. One-day Internationals are getting increasingly pointless, with teams following a fixed format of speed-slow-speed that drives audiences further towards the shortest format. Besides, several cricketers, particularly from the Caribbean, would rather play T20 leagues all over than focus on international or bilateral series that pays little and requires a lot of effort.

But the all-season IPL is still some years away, because, as Raghav Anand says, “I don’t think player cost or advertising cost can sustain that (a longer season or more teams) at this moment.” 

As 10 teams gear up to play a total of 70 league games over the next two months, with much at stake for players including getting selected into the Indian team and vying for captaincy roles, the biggest thing in the world of cricket will look to spread its wings further.

Also read: IPL 2022 | CSK vs KKR: Can CSK Continue To Dominate Without Dhoni’s Leadership?