IPL's Winning Mix of Sport and Cinema

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Only days before the Indian Premier League is set to begin its month-long second season in South Africa, a different sort of cricket tournament concluded at Columbia Business School. Last night, Cluster C's Team 11 nabbed the winning spot in Case Competition 2009.

Sponsored by the Dean’s Office, the Chazen Institute, the Samberg Institute and Columbia Case Works, the event was Columbia Business School’s first ever case competition. The winning team was awarded a check for $2,400.

This term’s case, The Launch of the Indian Premier League, followed Lalit Modi as he endeavored to build a domestic cricket league in India. The league plays a new form of the game that lasts about three hours and which is more compatible with television. The league’s eight teams are based in Indian cities in a model similar to American professional sport leagues.

“Almost no one gave the new cricket league a chance when it was first conceived,” says case author Professor Rajeev Kohli about how he became interested in the story. “But not only was it successful, it became a phenomenon around the world. The case centers around why that is so.”

Kohli says there are three keys to IPL’s success:

1. The players: “There was great clarity in Modi’s mind that the first issue was the players. He created the right incentives for them so [joining the IPL] would be financially lucrative for every top player in the world.”
2. Securing broadcast rates: “The payment structure was based on a long-term (10 year) contracts with clauses for ratings. The broadcasters had the right incentives to take risks and to make the product right for a prime-time audience in a country where most households have a single televisions set.”
3. Glitter factor: “Once the [Bollywood] stars showed interest, the league became a very glamorous mix of cinema and sport. Suddenly all the industrialists said, ‘We want in, too.’”

“By providing the right incentives, structuring the broadcast rates and bringing in glamour, and attracting women and children into the audience, Modi was able to create demand,” explains Kohli.

How will this season’s South Africa location affect the league’s success? The IPL had to move the 2009 tournament out of India due to ongoing security concerns surrounding national elections.

“It is a disappointment, but in balance it is the best thing that could be done at this time and keeps the players safe,” says Kohli. “My hunch is that they won’t be much affected because it is a media event, and South Africa also has many cricket fans.”

Photo credit: SJ Jagadeesh



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