Cricket Fever builds up in India !

Almost all TV channels are discussing India's chances in the World Cup. Just now I saw a tape of the 1983 Final which India won !

Indians are thinking " Will History repeat itself ? ". Will Sachin, when he quits the World Cup for ever, be able to hold aloft the Golden Cup ? People like Sreekanth thinks it is possible ! With so many spinners in the side - Aswin, Bajji, Chawla, Yuvraj, Sehwag, Pathan, Sachin & Raina - and on the Indian spin tracks, many feel that this is possible !

Anyway, it is Cricket Fiesta in India. There will be 49 matches, 29 in India. Add 74 more IPL matches, it is a great 103 world class matches in India, before one billion TV audience ! Great business for the advertisers, satellite channels, airlines, hotels and players ! Win Win !

One ten second spot TV ad is priced at 5 lakhs and it can be more in the premium matches like semifinals and finals.

The brand value of IPL is around 4.2 billion USD and will be more in the years to come.

In the 1970s, there was no money in cricket. I remember India's ace spinner, B Chandrasekhar, appealing to the public for funds for a polio operation.

As far as Indian cricket is concerned, the turnaround came in 1983, when she won the Cup against heavy odds ( 100 to 1 ). I still remember Henry Bloefeld commentating " India has created the biggest upset in world sport, she has won the Prudential World Cup". India was down in hockey and never qualified for football !

The popularity of cricket grew by leaps and bounds, after 1983. Unlike the hundreds of satellite channels available now, there was only one TV channel, Doordarshan, then which was in its infancy. Once TV penetration grew ( there are about 134 million TV households in India & 81 million Net households ), the popularity of cricket also grew. Gone were the days, when cricket was the monopoly of princes ! Boys in the streets played the game.

Another turnaround was the 1987 World Cup, which was held in India. The MNCs saw that cricket has a huge audience in India and anything advertised will be seen by millions of cricket crazy Indians ! American companies like Coke and Pepsi are not interested in Cricket. Nor the Koreans ! 300 crores was invested in the 1987 World Cup and then the mega bucks began to flow to cricket. Along with the MNCs, Indian corporates also joined the bandwagon. The 1987 Cup was known as the Reliance Cup.

Players got good emoluments, when IPL began in earnest. There are 4 two million dollar players in IPL IV. ( Gambhir, Uthappa, R Sharma & Y Pathan ).

Today 70% of world cricket is monopolised by India and Cricket India is the richest body. Well, these are the factors which has made Cricket India powerful.