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Twenty20 cricket was conceived in England in 2003 as a means of creating a short, lively form of the game which would be attractive to television audiences.
Following India’s victory at the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup last year, two rival Twenty20 leagues have been set up in India, which look set to take cricket to a whole new level of commercialism.
Australia’s exclusive agent for the Indian Premier League, former player Neil Maxwell, explained why these leagues were set up.
“The ICL, the Indian Cricket League, was established by a television network Zee TV as they were unable to secure the domestic broadcast rights (to Twenty20),” Mr Maxwell says.
“So they thought it was cheaper and more controllable if they just invented their own competition. Now this was a huge threat to Indian Cricket and they’ve reacted quite immediately through the creation of the Indian Premier League – the IPL. That is planned to be up and running on April 18 this year.”
Both leagues have fought to attract the world’s top players in an effort to win over audiences and investment from sponsors and advertisers. Now that cricket teams are set to become commercial ventures in themselves for the first time, huge sums of money are being invested in both leagues.
“The IPL are talking about 10 year television rights of $US1.2 billion, so that’s a huge injection of money into the game,” says Mr Maxwell.
“And for the first time we’re seeing the advent of corporate involvement through franchising, so therefore it becomes a viable investment option. And I think we’re going to see that companies, particularly in the sub-continent, want to play more and more of a role in the delivery of the product.”
The 10 year franchises for each of the eight IPL teams have recently been auctioned for a staggering $US723.6 million.
Australia's Lachlan Murdoch secured the Jaipur franchise for $US76 million, the lowest price paid for any of the teams.
As for the make up of the teams, each team will include up to four top international players with the rest made up of local players.
Australia’s Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds and Brett Lee are just a few of the cricketing superstars who have signed up to play this year, in what will amount to 14, three-hour games of cricket.
Neil Maxwell says the players will be well rewarded for their commitment.
“I make no bones about it, it’s definitely the commercial opportunity,” he says. “They’ll be remunerated anywhere between $US100,000 $250,000 as a base and then they’ll be auctioned to the various franchises once they’re named, and then it becomes a bidding process, so some players could earn significant money and others will just have to settle for the base that they’ve been offered.”
For those who believe that these new leagues, and Twenty20 cricket in general, is purely about the money; many cricket fans around the world, and in particularly those in India, would disagree.
“It’s very exciting!” says Mr Maxwell. “It’s wham bam thank you ma’am! It’s action packed! Coupled with the fact that there are 1.2 billion Indians who are extremely passionate about the game - and I’m talking extremely passionate.
“That provides a platform on which to really kick this game off. India won the inaugural World Cup of Twenty20 and India hasn’t won a cup for, you know, 10 years.
“So they’re over the moon at that fact and I think that that’s given the game the impetus to really fly in the sub-continent, which at the end of the day is the only place that it really needs to fly, from a commercial perspective.”
Following India’s victory at the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup last year, two rival Twenty20 leagues have been set up in India, which look set to take cricket to a whole new level of commercialism.
Australia’s exclusive agent for the Indian Premier League, former player Neil Maxwell, explained why these leagues were set up.
“The ICL, the Indian Cricket League, was established by a television network Zee TV as they were unable to secure the domestic broadcast rights (to Twenty20),” Mr Maxwell says.
“So they thought it was cheaper and more controllable if they just invented their own competition. Now this was a huge threat to Indian Cricket and they’ve reacted quite immediately through the creation of the Indian Premier League – the IPL. That is planned to be up and running on April 18 this year.”
Both leagues have fought to attract the world’s top players in an effort to win over audiences and investment from sponsors and advertisers. Now that cricket teams are set to become commercial ventures in themselves for the first time, huge sums of money are being invested in both leagues.
“The IPL are talking about 10 year television rights of $US1.2 billion, so that’s a huge injection of money into the game,” says Mr Maxwell.
“And for the first time we’re seeing the advent of corporate involvement through franchising, so therefore it becomes a viable investment option. And I think we’re going to see that companies, particularly in the sub-continent, want to play more and more of a role in the delivery of the product.”
The 10 year franchises for each of the eight IPL teams have recently been auctioned for a staggering $US723.6 million.
Australia's Lachlan Murdoch secured the Jaipur franchise for $US76 million, the lowest price paid for any of the teams.
As for the make up of the teams, each team will include up to four top international players with the rest made up of local players.
Australia’s Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds and Brett Lee are just a few of the cricketing superstars who have signed up to play this year, in what will amount to 14, three-hour games of cricket.
Neil Maxwell says the players will be well rewarded for their commitment.
“I make no bones about it, it’s definitely the commercial opportunity,” he says. “They’ll be remunerated anywhere between $US100,000 $250,000 as a base and then they’ll be auctioned to the various franchises once they’re named, and then it becomes a bidding process, so some players could earn significant money and others will just have to settle for the base that they’ve been offered.”
For those who believe that these new leagues, and Twenty20 cricket in general, is purely about the money; many cricket fans around the world, and in particularly those in India, would disagree.
“It’s very exciting!” says Mr Maxwell. “It’s wham bam thank you ma’am! It’s action packed! Coupled with the fact that there are 1.2 billion Indians who are extremely passionate about the game - and I’m talking extremely passionate.
“That provides a platform on which to really kick this game off. India won the inaugural World Cup of Twenty20 and India hasn’t won a cup for, you know, 10 years.
“So they’re over the moon at that fact and I think that that’s given the game the impetus to really fly in the sub-continent, which at the end of the day is the only place that it really needs to fly, from a commercial perspective.”
