Cricket Investments

Cricket Investments

Once upon a time there was a gentleman’s game called cricket. A game was played as a game. Nobody knew that it would drive men crazy just with a bat and a ball. The game now gains international recognition much more than Olympics and players are paid heavily. Indians especially are glued to the television and each Indian is capable of commenting on the players like selectors so much so that they have debates in schools, colleges, interviews and offices and cricket debate has become one of the favorite tools to evaluate a candidate’s performance in selected areas.

You call it a wasted time or entertainment, the public is crazy about cricket and will do anything to watch international series. Why is cricket an attractive sport? To answer this question, I sat a day long thinking to find an answer.

I compared various sports and concluded that performance in any game depends on how a sportsman performs under stress and under various restrictions. Apart from this, I found diversity in the game such as 20/20 matches, Test Matches, County Matches, Regional, National and local matches. I also found that when I was a kid, I used to play half pitch cricket matches with loose and wild restrictions and found the entire crowd enjoying the game.

New media are emerging out to capture their market share through cricket. For a 50 over match, there is 150 hours of commentary on different channels in different languages and women are also now entering the media industry by commenting on the players irrespective of them knowing the game. Past players have come to limelight and have become promoters of the big game. Well, cricket has a big responsibility now as it has now become an industry by itself. There is plenty of opportunity for new players, coaches, investors, advertisers and there will be more to the game itslf in terms of the way it is played.

By calling players as icons, as brand ambassadors, models, actors, the players have caught everybody’s attention. Popular businessmen like Ambani and heartthrob like Sharukh are primary investors in the game. It is no mere a sport but a sport business. Beware; no businessman invests without a return on Investments. There will be many tournaments and many coaching centers to bring best players to this sport business and people will surely make a twin career out of this – One as a cricketer, another as an actor. Advertisers will be quick to book slots for their promotional activities and the news channels will become so fanatic that they will blubber a small event and thereby alarm the investors of their investments.

The rules will change and cricket is a player exchange market where you can buy Sachin and Sehvag and Sell Rahul. The game will be played as in Hollywood style and non performers will be sold at low price. Let’s see if it is a bull or a bear market with new series coming.

Cricket is no more a game.

Happy cricketing!

Gururaj