Bollywood stars, corporate czars and media moghuls can now boast of being the proud owners of India's talented cricketers, thanks to the auction-packed Indian Premier League.
Icon and marquee players became millionaires in a single day as Shah Rukh Khan, Vijay Mallya, Preity Zinta and Rupert Murdoch vied each other to buy cricketers to add lustre to their respective teams.
But what prompted these big shots to shell out huge sums of money? Is it because of their enthusiasm to make cricket the most popular in a country where people already live, drink and eat the game?
Only the gullible can swallow Vijay Mallya's post-auction rhetoric that his aim is not to mint money but try to improve the standard of the game at the domestic level. Shah Rukh Khan even went to the extent to say that he wanted to give a fillip to the game in India. "I wanted to make it viable profession for youngsters to earn a living," he told the media.
But, is it ground reality?
Everybody knows that current crop of Indian cricketers have bank balances that could put some first generation entrepreneurs to shame. They play international cricket round the year. They earn crores of rupees as appearance fees. They endorse a major chunk of Indian products. Some of them even own business houses.
Advertisement companies make a beeline to sign the Indian players. For, the advertisers know that cricketers can easily sell products in this country. Youngsters are not an exception to this phenomenon. A slew of contracts await even a beginner like Ishant Sharma, who has been the pick of the Indian players in the tour Down Under.
Plenty of avenues are avilable for the Indian cricketers now. They have to play their hearts out. Money and stardom follow them naturally.
So Indian cricketers do not need the mercy of Shah Rukhs and Mallyas to make them rich. They have done quite well for themselves without any corporate or showbiz help.
Icon and marquee players became millionaires in a single day as Shah Rukh Khan, Vijay Mallya, Preity Zinta and Rupert Murdoch vied each other to buy cricketers to add lustre to their respective teams.
But what prompted these big shots to shell out huge sums of money? Is it because of their enthusiasm to make cricket the most popular in a country where people already live, drink and eat the game?
Only the gullible can swallow Vijay Mallya's post-auction rhetoric that his aim is not to mint money but try to improve the standard of the game at the domestic level. Shah Rukh Khan even went to the extent to say that he wanted to give a fillip to the game in India. "I wanted to make it viable profession for youngsters to earn a living," he told the media.
But, is it ground reality?
Everybody knows that current crop of Indian cricketers have bank balances that could put some first generation entrepreneurs to shame. They play international cricket round the year. They earn crores of rupees as appearance fees. They endorse a major chunk of Indian products. Some of them even own business houses.
Advertisement companies make a beeline to sign the Indian players. For, the advertisers know that cricketers can easily sell products in this country. Youngsters are not an exception to this phenomenon. A slew of contracts await even a beginner like Ishant Sharma, who has been the pick of the Indian players in the tour Down Under.
Plenty of avenues are avilable for the Indian cricketers now. They have to play their hearts out. Money and stardom follow them naturally.
So Indian cricketers do not need the mercy of Shah Rukhs and Mallyas to make them rich. They have done quite well for themselves without any corporate or showbiz help.
Changing Times
There was a time when Indian cricketers toiled hard to make ends meet. The members of the Indian team that won historic tour of the West Indies in 1971 got a paltry Rs. 750 per match. When India beat New Zealand in a 1956 Test in four days, the players did not even get the allowance for the fifth day. Krish Srikkant recently revealed that he received about Rs.2 lakh in total for being part of the 1983 World Cup winning team - a feat that remains unparalled in India's cricketing history though Dhoni's daredevils did bring home the T-20 trophy last year.
Unfortunately, not too many advertisers, corporates or entertainment honchos cared about these poor cricketers at that time. Because, cricket was played a motley crowd of elite and the upper class. It was not a game played for the proleteriat.
But times have changed. Cricket became the much sought-after game - of the people, for the people and in recent times also by the people! Cricketers became the hottest commodities on the brand building circuit. The Board of Control for Cricket in India, which presides over the game, became the richest sports body in the country.
Now, industry wants to have its share of the booty too. How could they let the BCCI milk the cash cow without asking for their share?
And so we have business tycoons and celluloid superstars and glam dolls eyeing the moolah that the IPL offers. It offers a great business opportunity for them. They can sell the tickets, get advertisement revenues and even use the players to endorse their products.
After all, everyone's success has many fathers!
