Domestic cricket fails to get ad support

Domestic cricket continues to be a poor cousin of its international peer.

Although the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has made huge money through sponsorships for international cricket matches played in India, domestic cricket has failed to evoke any response.

This is the first attempt by the BCCI to start bidding for playground and title sponsorship for domestic cricket matches.

There were no bids for domestic cricket even as the deadline for both domestic and international cricket matches ended on August 27. However, for international matches to be played in India, the board received a bid worth Rs 173.25 crore from the World Sport Group.

The BCCI decided to wait for another week expecting some sponsors to come forward. But there has not been any response, say BCCI executives. "BCCI would probably go back to taking care of the domestic cricket matches on its own, as it has done so far," said Ratnakar Shetty, BCCI chief administrative officer.

"The fact that that domestic matches are now being telecast on several channels had prompted the BCCI to consider the possibility of getting sponsors," added Shetty.

There are up to 72 days of domestic cricket played in a year compared to 40-45 days of international cricket played on Indian soil every year. Advertising of television commercials during international cricket matches itself is estimated to be around Rs 550 crore, according to advertising industry experts, while the total amount spend on cricket including player sponsorships, telecast rights and so on are expected to be in the range of Rs 1,200 crore every year.

The lack of sponsors in Indian domestic cricket could also spell bad news for the recently established parallel cricket tournament, Indian Cricket League, as the ICL players are mostly local cricketers.

Advertisers, however, say that the interest by sponsors was lacklustre because of the high rates. The floor price for a year's worth of domestic matches was Rs 15 crore. This price, too is considered too high for domestic cricket, which hardly has any viewership either on ground or on television, according to sports marketing agencies.

According to Venugopal Dhoot, chairman and managing director, Videocon Industries said, "Domestic cricket is hardly aired on television. Even if it is, how many people actually watch it? How many even watch it at the cricket grounds? It does not make sense to sponsor domestic cricket at this point."

Says the chief executive of one of the leading sports marketing agencies in India, "Right now only Doordarshan is telecasting the matches. With NEO Sports coming into the picture, we'll have to see how the domestic matches are packaged, whether any analysis is added and most importantly, whether the match-timings are improved. Currently, the matches are played only during the day, an inconvenient time for office goers. And viewership is definitely a problem. While there might be 30,000 to 40,000 spectators flocking to a stadium to watch an international match, for domestic matches, there are hardly a 100 spectators."

Another analyst adds that while there is no dearth of viewers for Indian cricketers playing in international matches, these same people playing domestic cricket fail to attract viewers.

The Indian Cricket League is expected to fare better than the BCCI in this aspect as it has a healthy mix of international players too and it could also leverage the dual network of Ten Sports and Zee Sports to increase telecasting frequency "" something that attracts sponsors.