Kaustuvmoni Das
(kdas5349@gmail.com)
The Indian Premier League (IPL) has always been a special sports extravaganza for millions of cricket fans across the globe. Since its inception in 2008, it has tapped a massive pool of cricket talents from small cities of India. As the Emirates Cricket Board is ready to host the remaining matches of the 13th edition of IPL from 19th September to 15th October, 2021, and with that the windows of opportunities have been again open to many players to gear up themselves for the ICC 2021 Men's T20 World Cup to be held in UAE from 17th October to 14th November, 2021.
It has no doubt that the IPL gives a stage to many domestic players to take their game to the international level, and it's always been introducing many emerging players to the world cricket fraternity. If we look at it from India's point of view, then we can easily gauge the opportunities provided by the IPL to young talents from the nook and corner of India to display their cricketing skills. The Indian national team has also been able to find many promising players through IPL, and to name a few like Rohit Sharma, Axar Patel, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, Devdutt Padikkal etc.
The cash-rich league is a breeding ground for youngsters, and Indian national selectors have always been closely monitoring the players' performance to take them in the national side. Recent sensations Ishan Kishan and Varun Chakravarthy, who made the cut to the 2021 ICC Men's World Cup Squad, are the outcome of magic and maturity exhibited by both cricketers in betting and bowling respectively in the IPL 2020 and 2021 games.
Keeping aside the opportunities gained by the budding cricketers, this sports league has an immense contribution and impact in the Indian economy too. The second most popular professional sports league after the NBA has a brand value of INR 475 billion. The biggest testimony that is sufficient for proving IPL to be one of the fastest growing sports league in the world is the "Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)-the administrator of IPL" earning value from the IPL. The IPL 2020 earning value stands at INR 4,000 crore, and the IPL 2021 earn revenue estimated at around INR 3,500 crore. If we look at its impact in the Indian economy, then we can be able to see its contributions in many indicators like- 1) Contribution to the India's GDP pie, 2) Promote sports tourism, 3) Employment generation, 4) Surge in Hotel & Restaurant Business, and 5) Substantial Tax contribution.
The IPL contributes more than INR 11 billion to India's GDP in its 60 days of tournament that is held each year. At the same time, it is significantly promoting Indian culture through sports tourism. In every IPL season, the Indian travel and tourism revenue increase by 30% due to the visit of foreign nationals for supporting overseas players representing different franchises. The league has been generating large scale part-time and full-time job opportunities through various companies and other stakeholders that lead to an enormous economic development in the country. Moreover, during the period of two months, the sports carnival accumulates a large chunk of visitors to Hotel and Restaurants that surge the profits in this sector every year. But, in the last two seasons due to Covid-19, this sector does not get much traffic from the IPL. The most importantly, from this league, the government is directly benefited through its payment in terms of tax. Around INR 3,500 crore taxes have been paid by the BCCI to the government since the beginning of IPL.
At a time when the Government of India has been encouraging and supporting startups through its various subsidy schemes and in this connection also, IPL has a commendable contribution in the growth path of many Indian startup companies. Indian startups have always been pounced upon the opportunity to advertise in the IPL, which has a viewership of 400 million. IPL is one of the biggest business platform for many startups like Dream11, MPL, BYJU's, Paytm, CRED, Swiggy, Groww etc. It became a boon for many startups of India as it witnessed three-fold profits in their online business during the IPL timeline.
Other professional sports leagues of India, namely Indian Super League, Pro Kabaddi league, Pro Wrestling League, Hockey India League, Pro volleyball etc., are struggling to survive due to the lack of proper support from federation and franchises. All these sports leagues need to learn from the IPL business model for flourishing growth.
The IPL has definitely redefined the definition of the professional-sports-league and became a benchmark for every other sports of the country. It has uplifted the moral and maturities of domestic cricket players. Hopefully, in the coming days, IPL will be an umbrella of opportunity for more promising cricketers as well as for new startups and extend help to Atmanirbhar Bharat.