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From
Tehelka Magazine, Vol 9, Issue 02, Dated 14 Jan 2012 |
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Is this a Huge League of Faith?
Boxing and other sports are following the IPL model, but are they being too optimistic, asks Sunaina Kumar
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Million Dollar Baby Moolah magic
Photos: Tushar Mane |
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LIGHTWEIGHT BOXER Siddharth Varma enters the ring escorted by two cheerleaders dressed in shiny micro shorts, as the catchy anthem Dhishoom plays in the background. The crowd of 1,000-odd people gathered on a Friday evening at Inorbit Mall in suburban Mumbai is electrified. Most of them are not familiar with the 27-year-old boxer from Pune who belongs to the newlyformed boxing league franchise Mumbai Fighters. But that does not stop them from cheering wildly. After all, they are here for their share of fun on a Friday evening, and have given the week’s movie release or shopping a miss to watch a boxing match instead. In the words of Vidya Balan in The Dirty Picture, they are here for “entertainment, entertainment and entertainment.”
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Million Dollar Baby Moolah magic, International exposure and world-class facilities make boxing leagues the current favourites of sportspersons and spectators alike |
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Will the boxing match deliver on the promise of entertainment at the end of two hours?
Varma’s opponent Eric Fowler belongs to LA Matadors, the US team of World Series of Boxing (WSB), the global boxing league that Mumbai Fighters is part of. Siddharth surprises his opponent with a flurry of short, explosive punches. Soon the crowd is chanting, “Go Siddu go!” He is a bit of a showman, and responds by waving and gyrating to the music at the end of each bout.
By the fifth and last bout, the fight has turned deadly serious, as Fowler puts up stiff resistance. Siddharth manages to win 3-0. When the match ends, he finds himself surrounded by fans, signing autographs and posing for pictures.
A hero is born.
A day before the match, at the press meet, he narrated his life story.
The son of a dairy owner, Siddharth gave up studying after Class VIII and held temporary jobs as a newspaper vendor and an office boy. He started boxing when he was 13 years old, even as his younger brother, Anand, struggled with his daily wages to sponsor Siddharth’s coaching and equipment.
“It has been a very hard journey. I would collect money from my brother to buy proteins and vitamins, T-shirts and shorts, shoes for Rs 100 at Chor Bazaar.” A Maharashtra state champion in 1999, 2002 and 2003, Siddharth, who works as a pointsman (a railway switch operator) at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, had decided to give up on boxing this year to concentrate on his job, when he heard of the boxing league. “My boxing career would have been nothing but a pipe dream,” he says, upbeat and confident as he plans to devote the next five years of his life to the sport, and finally being able to repay his brother.
With four Indian boxers headed to the London Olympics and more expected to qualify in the next round, it was only a matter of time before corporates woke up to the success story brewing on the sidelines of cricket frenzy in the country.
Venky’s Mumbai Fighters is India’s first private boxing league franchise. TransStadia, the sports development company that owns the Indian franchise has reportedly invested over $1 million in player selection. The matches are broadcast live on ESPN Star Sports. The packaging is complete with cheerleaders, a DJ spinning funky music, and an anthem composed by indie band Agnee.
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With four Indian boxers headed to the Olympics, it was only a matter of time before corporates woke up to the success story on the sidelines of cricket |
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Some of India’s brightest nationallevel boxing stars have already signed up — lightweight boxer Akhil Kumar (AIBA World Cup 2008 bronze medallist and quarter- finalist at 2008 Beijing Olympics), his cousin Jitender Kumar (Commonwealth Games 2006 bronze) and Diwakar Prasad (Senior National 2004, 2009, bronze).
PK Muralidharan Raja, General Secretary of Indian Amateur Boxing Federation, seems confident the league will raise the profile of the sport in the country, and be a shot-in-the-arm for boxers who will benefit financially and also get exposure to international coaching and facilities. It is an opportunity not only for fringe players like Siddharth Varma, but even top-rung names.
Akhil Kumar mentions both financial security and the promotion of boxing as incentives for joining.
The franchise has been modelled on the Indian Premier League recipe of “sportainment”.
It is no flash in the pan, however. As IPL enters its fifth season, the super-successful formula is being adapted to fit both mass and niche sports in India — boxing, hockey, motor racing, soccer, wrestling, badminton and volleyball. Already, there is talk about IBL (Indian Boxing League), a four-city boxing franchise, promoted by Percept Profile, expected to be off the ground after the London Olympics.
Starting this month, the Indian Racing League or the i1 Super Series promoted by Machdar Motorsports will get underway. With nine city-based teams, i1 is laden with glamour with team owners like Shah Rukh Khan (Mumbai), Nagarjuna (Hyderabad), Yuvraj Singh (Chandigarh), Sourav Ganguly (Kolkata) and with Sachin Tendulkar as brand ambassador.
VICKY CHANDOK, President of the Federation of the Motorsports Clubs of India, says that the racing league will bring about a significant change in the mindsets of people as they will be exposed to top-notch racing in India, leading to a revolution in motorsports in the country. February will see the launch of the hockey league World Series Hockey (WSH) by Nimbus Sports. The eight-city franchise, with a pool of 200 players, has drawn top names from Indian and international hockey and is expected to resuscitate the fortunes of the game.
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League of extraordinary sportsmen Adrian d’Souza, Brent Livermore and others from World Series Hockey |
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Yannick Colaco, COO of Nimbus Sports, says: “There is no aspiration attached to hockey today. But, we feel that WSH can create the right buzz and environment for hockey players to become stars.” The buzz is palpable. WSH looks poised to be the one serious contender to challenge the supremacy of the IPL. Nimbus Sports is reportedly spending over Rs 100 crore on the league.
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Sceptics say that to build affinity, the league will have to make stars out of the players and give the audience someone they can hero worship |
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Viren Rasquinha, former hockey captain (who has been running Olympic Gold Quest, an organisation that aims to scout for sports talent in the country who can go on to win Olympic gold medals) makes his comeback with the Mumbai team, Mumbai Warriors. He says that the fees offered by the league was difficult to resist.
“WSH will be a world-class event and the players are getting paid better than ever before. It is an important step for the future of the sport, both in terms of popularising it and encouraging young talent.” The league has taken into account the emotional attachment to the sport which harks back to India’s glory days. February will see more action as the Premier League Soccer, a new soccer league from West Bengal, with six franchises from the state, is expected to kick off as well. The league has roped in top former footballers like Robert Pires of France and Jaun Pablo Surin of Argentina as icon players. The new soccer league will be competing with I-League, the 14-club football league, which has been in existence since 2007, but failed to click largely because of poor marketing.
This sudden breakout of sports leagues is hardly a random occurrence. Marketers often refer to the sub-25 age group of audience in the country, which is looking to invest a huge amount of emotional equity into sports. This ready audience associates with cricket, and because of cricket’s TINA factor, turns to English Premier League, F1 and NBA.
So, how best to access this huge base of potential followers?
This is where the IPL comes in and paves the way for other leagues. When it started out, the big question posed by the IPL was if people would support a sports team founded on city-based loyalty?
The answer was a resounding yes. For brands wanting to tap into a young consumer base, it makes perfect sense to reach out to a captive audience through citybased affiliations.
Not all leagues are guaranteed success.
And not everyone is a believer.
For instance, Yannick Colaco of World Series Hockey says, “League has become a hype word. Outside of cricket, hockey and football, there are no other mass sports in India."
The predecessor of World Series Hockey (WSH) is the Premier Hockey League, the first sports league in India, which started in 2005 and went kaput in 2008. The Indian Tennis League promoted by the All India Tennis Association with five city-based teams was announced with much fanfare in 2010 but failed to launch.
The Indian Wrestling League with six franchise teams, supported by the Wrestling Federation of India and promoted by Kolkata-based Leisure Sports Management (which had earlier organised the Premier Hockey League) has been postponed from February until after the London Olympics.
“People make the mistake of thinking that they can create national following for niche sports like boxing or racing. These leagues can at best be niche leagues,” says Colaco.
On the other hand, it’s unfair to compare these with the scale of IPL, he points out. “But, they do increase the value of the sport.”
There are several elements that go into creating a successful league. The challenge faced by the new leagues is far greater than that faced by IPL, as India continues to be a one-sport nation.
Besides heavy investment in a worldclass event, the challenge is to create a fan base and to monetise that fan base. The entertainment component is a must to survive.
Says Jitender Joshi, CEO of Sportz- Consult, a sports consulting company: “There is a huge opportunity in India to create niche leagues, but the fanbase for the sport has to be identified and the marketing should be focussed on that segment. To build affinity, the league will have to create stars out of the players, and give the audience someone they can hero worship, a Sachin Tendulkar from the boxing world.”
The biggest sources of revenue for a successful league are television rights, on-ground ticket sales and merchandise, all of which IPL has managed to score on perfectly.
There is a popular sporting maxim — all sports for all people. Maybe India is finally ready to embrace it.
Sunaina Kumar is a Special Correspondent with Tehelka.com.
sunaina@tehelka.com
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