Asoke K. Laha
President & MD, Interra IT
Which is the biggest industry in the world? Many would say hydro carbon, electronics, IT, automobiles and the list goes on. I have a contrary view, many may share my view. What is that? I might vouch for sports as the largest industry in the world. It is happening and it will reach larger proportions in future.
Some of you may ask me how? Not long ago, many who had dabbled in sports died in penury. I know of footballers in my childhood, who had played for Mohan Began, East Bengal or Mohammedan Sporting Club retired from their active playing tenure with no financial benefits, to lead a very ordinary life taking up menial works.
I am inclined to give some kudos to my home state for professionalizing sports at a time even the cricket was only a passionate game without much money to back it. During the football seasons, the three major clubs –Mohan Began, East Bengal and Mohammedan- used to bid for football players. Some of them were auctioned for as high as Rs 10 lakh per season, an astronomical sum having regard to the fact that it had happened three decades or more ago.
Cricket was also not a money spinner till one-day games were innovated with business in mind. It was considered to be a rich man’s game, since the cricket players and fans had to be rich enough spare six days, including the rest day, for watching a test series. Now the landscape is completely changed. IPL is raking in billions of dollars. Players are auctioned for millions of dollars. Rights to telecast are fetching astronomical sums. Sponsorships are raking in mindboggling amounts both for the players and the organizers. Reams of stories are written about the players, their life styles, their girlfriends, marriage break-ups, scams they get involved and many more.
FIFA and Wimbledon are presently grabbing the headlines. Australian open and the recently concluded IPL had remained in the limelight for some time. Once the cricketing season starts, they will continue to engage the media. Let us look at FIFA World Cup recently played in Brazil. If you want to see the frenzy created by the tournament, you have to visit remotest parts of West Bengal and Kerala. You ask a street vendor there, he will give you a lesson or two on the strengths and weaknesses of each team along with who won the world cup since it was started. Spectators are thronging to the community TV sets in hordes to witness the matches and cheer their favourite teams and players.
We have looked at only football. There are other money spinners like cricket, tennis, wrestling etc., which records mind-boggling gross revenues. Games like hockey, badminton, baseball etc. are in for greater attention of the business and soon these games will generate more businesses. An IPL like set up is coming for football also by next year. Corporations like Reliance and sports icons like Sachin Tendulkar have bid for their own teams and more interest in the game is expected in the coming years.
Can business and sports go together? The purists among sports lovers detest even sponsorship. They often quote money corrupts the world of sports and the joy of participation dissipates and the winning by hook or crook take over on account of the lure of money. They attribute betting and scams, rigging the results etc. to lure of money. Bookies offer large amount of money to players and sports mangers to manipulate the results. IPL scams are still with us. In FIFA cup also the authorities are inquiring into the play between Cameron and Cost Rica for finding out whether the match was fixed.
Unlike in other careers and occupations, the active life of a player is limited; say five to ten years, with some honourable exceptions like Sachin Tendulkar. In yester years, some of the government departments like customs, railways, post and telegraph etc. were to hire the services of players. After their active life in the game or sports, they would be absorbed in other departments, which would not require much skill. Therefore, corporatization of sports has become imminent for the games to stay and the players and sportspersons to survive. The pertinent point is how much commercialization is tolerable. I have read a report that the sports and games put together can generate a business of more than two trillions in a year.
When a sport is getting corporatized and the same players are raking in tons of money, there are large contingents of players who go high and dry. Some people say that the game itself has suffered a great deal at the expense of corporatization. For instance, the football has deteriorated into a game of fouls and unfair play. What that has happened to Neymar of Brazil is a case in point. He was deliberately fouled to an extent that many people doubt whether he could return to his erstwhile form with the fracture on the vertebrae column. There was also a biting incident. Big money also brings in its wake scams and manipulations. IPL is a classic example.
Now many of you might ask me why I treated sports in this column, which is usually have a high dose on information technology. To them my answer is it is information technology that has brought the game, players and organizers into your drawing room. In my childhood, the only source of information about the games or sports was All India Radio and the running commentaries it used to have for important matches. Now sitting in your drawing room, millions of people are watching every player’s activities and what have you. Those who want to go further can go the net and download the details of the player. Also, the business dimension of sports is mainly triggered by the information technology. The share of sale of telecasting rights constitutes a major chunk of the income from the game, which in turn help the sports mangers to unitize them and sell as advertisement slots.
That way sports and information technology are intimately connected. Here also we have to draw a line. Our efforts should be balanced. We have to promote business but not at the expense of the interest in the game.
