THE BUSINESS OF CRICKET

The Business of Cricket: The Story of Sports Marketing in India. HOW SPORTS MARKETING HAS BOWLED US OVER Sports marketing is all-pervasive today – no matter where you look, there is no escaping a Dhoni, a Tendulkar or a Sehwag. It wasn’t always like this. There was a time when sportspersons got fame from sport, but not the money commensurate with that fame. Then Sunil Gavaskar, India’s first batsman-entrepreneur, came along, and in his wake followed Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar. Helped by television and competing multinational brands vying to expand their market in a liberalizing India, sports marketing, which in India is synonymous with cricket, exploded. The culmination of this process was the Indian Premier League (IPL), a brilliant marketing concept that was a win-win for players, sponsors, media and viewers alike. This book, written by two sports enthusiasts who are also ace sports marketers with a combined international experience of forty years in marketing, takes us on an engaging and informative journey through the highs and lows of sports marketing in India. Along the way, the authors explain what constitutes good sports marketing, how the market can be expanded, what the prospects are for sports other than cricket, and why the sports fan needs to be better treated. An incisive, heartfelt book that will appeal to sports fans, marketers, advertisers as well as administrators.