IPL India Cricket Popularity in danger!

IPL India Cricket Popularity in danger!

                                           SSS Bala Chak

May-13-13

4:46 PM

Year	Rationale	Viewership	Rate	Media	Media	Rating
2011	First 16 games	TVR	4.00	Max
2012	First 16 games	TVR	3.65	Max		Declining
2012	Opening	TVR	1.8	Max
2013	Opening	TVR	1.2	Max	Six	Declining
2012	1st Week	TVR	3.9	Max	Six
2013	1st Week	TVR	3.8	Max	Six	Declining

TVR is a measure of audience volume based on no. of viewers and time spent  by viewers.

IPL, an Indian Cricket  Premier League started in 2008  And turned out to be a great success.

Where it was a great platform for entertainment for people, it also was a great place for media advertisement.

I remember old school days in 1970s when some of my friends decided to watch cricket test match in Gandhi Ground in Amritsar, Punjab. We were trying to rush to get the best seats. When we went inside, there were hardly any audience. There was no live coverage on TV at that time. Friend of mine used to had a small pocket transistor radio for listening to live commentary.

We were very disappointed to learn that nobody turn out to see the game. There was one thing interesting and that was live commentary and the commentator was lying on the air. He kept announcing that the stadium is jam packed with audience. I don't recall how many hours we spent there but it was the last time I went to that stadium for watching cricket match. Moreover I never liked the idea of 5 day test match. To me it was the most boring game but my friend Manoj from Green Avenue was very fond of it. Pocket radio was always stick to his ears all day after the school.

Then came in 1987 the Reliance World Cup 1987/88. I was a student at Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, Punjab and part time instructor at B.R.C. Institute in sector-19A. I really enjoyed one day international cricket matches after a long time. My interest rekindled in 1987 even though India could not make it to final.

That was the time when Kapil Dev, Navjot Singh Sidhu, K Srikkanth, RJ Shastri,     SM Gavaskar, Maninder Singh , M Azharuddin were in fore front. But SM Gavaskar, K Srikkanth and Navjot Singh Sidhu could not face the bowlers of England for long before the wickets. But I still enjoyed the game first time in my life.

After that I moved to Vancouver, Canada in 1990 and lost the touch of the game. Few years back when Premier League for professional players from all over the world was started, its popularity gained audience even in North America. In 2010 it started to be broadcasted on You Tube which was another big kick to the game. Since it is a professional game now, obviously the money attached to it is huge. Big corporations like to have such a platform to promote their businesses to general public.

No doubt just  in the fifth season, the estimated value of the game has risen to around US$3.00 Billion dollars. It is most entertaining game now in India because it is limited to max 20 overs and popular by its name T20. In 2012, Pepsi won the sponsorship rights with a bid of Rs. 396.8 crores. Amazingly high numbers we are talking here. And it has nine teams only at this time. In near future this game is going to get more popular  and main reason is that it is very entertaining and concludes the same day unlike in past 5 day test matches. Of course cricket loves like those 5 days test matches and will continue so but for ordinary people it is the entertainment that matters the most and not the technicalities.

People have various reasons to think why the television viewership is sliding down every year and here are the few comments below which were sourced from ESPNcricinfo.com:

• IPL is pure entertainment for viewers compared to test matches which are pure cricket.
• Commentary in Hindi which some Indian's see as been forced on them, definitely have effect on TVR ratings.
• Some has rationale of power cuts during games.
• Some feels since it was new concept everyone was hyped about it initial and now it is settling down.
• Some thinks too much cricket apart from IPL overkills it.
• Some have feeling that they prefer watching it over internet than TV.
• Some have strong feeling that video coverage is dropping in quality and commentary in Hindi is another drag. Having commentators that know the game also effects it.
• Some have opinion that other than TV there are other options to watch games like internet (you tube), mobile phones.
• Some seniors feel that who have time to watch game all day while they are at work.
• Some thinks that there are few good regional leagues in few states compared to all states in India and those rest of states may have less interest in cricket if there own regional team is not playing in the league.

All these reasons have validity  and definitely have impact on the sliding scale of popularity of the game.

Comparing to Canada and USA, where we have more than one leagues and definitely some fans are loyal to one game but still there are fans who love more than one game. For example we have Ice Hockey, Basketball, Football, Baseball which are most favourite leagues for most North Americans (Canadian and USA) and once one games season is over, fans switch over to the next.

But there is one thing for sure, people have the most hype and excitement when there home team is in the fore front. If there team is out from the league, they are disappointed and less like to show equal interest in the game as before.

Even though India may not have another league yet but there are way more channels for entertainment which keeps you occupy. It is not like before when people used to stop working on day of game and sit in front of TV to watch cricket only.

Moreover people have access to game through computer, laptop and mobile phones like apple iPhone and android phones and they have the liberty to watch it where ever they are rather than sitting on sofa to watch TV.

One thing is for sure that cricket is far more entertaining now but only for those who loves sports and especially cricket, people who used to watch cricket for pure entertainment only, most likely they are going to switch over to some other entertainment shows.