Day 299 - 25th August 2011

Today was again one of those days when I considered myself extremely lucky to be a part of this institute. Had 3 sessions on sports marketing in the morning, the topic discussed was sponsorship - what drives it and what are the kind of options available for potential sponsors. There was also a case study that was discussed in class which dealt with ethical issues when it came to the sponsorship of a sports tournament. But that wasn't exactly the high point of the day. As a part of the sports marketing course one of the guest lecturers who agreed to come on campus was Sundar Raman, CEO of the IPL! The prof had anticipated that a lot of people would be interested in hearing him speak so this was positioned as an MLS so that everyone had an opportunity to attend it. I had spoken to the prof the previous day and asked him if it would be ok if I went to receive Mr. Raman at the airport and he had no problems with it. It was a great opportunity to interact with him during the drive from the airport to campus. Picked his brains on the business of sport, he wanted to know more about the course and he even suggested names of people from the industry who could come as guest faculty. Once we reached campus, he said that he hadn't had his lunch, so we decided to head to Chota. If a year back somebody told me that I would be discussing cricket with the CEO of the IPL over Aloo Parathas at Chota, I would have taken offence for playing with my emotions! The topics of discussion ranged from whether he really expected bid values for the 9th and 10th franchises to exceed those of the first 8 put together to how the IPL has changed the experience for fans who for once can actually watch a game comfortably in a stadium. He also went on to speak about how they put up the 2009 edition in 15 days in South Africa, they couldnt have done it without the all out support of the local authorities. In his words, "On 24th March when it was decided that the IPL wouldn't happen in India, I boarded flight to South Africa with one pair of jeans and a t-shirt and then I returned to India after 3 months!" He's not just about the business, the amazing part is how he remembers the result of every game that has been played in the IPL so far with the key performers in those games.

The MLS was scheduled at 630 in the evening and the audi was packed by 615, something that is unheard at this place! His talk was about the evolution of the IPL and the various marketing activities undertaken by them. He showed ads from each of the seasons and what they tried to communicate every season. The obvious question about the IPL having a negative effect on players while playing for India was also asked to which he drew a comparison between English football, the EPL and other leagues. There are 383 matches played between August and May every year and on an average every player runs close to about 15 km every game, nobody complains bout fatigue out there was his reply! He gave a couple of cricketing insights which were truly amazing through which he tried to explain why the IPL has actually improved the way players approach the game. The first one was from the final of the 2010 edition of the IPL, MI were cruising against CSK when there was a sudden batting collapse. Everybody expected Sachin to send in Pollard to finish it off, but for some strange reason he was pushed down the order. This was actually a battle of who blinked first going on between Sachin and Dhoni. Both of them knew that Pollard wouldn't be able to play Muralitharan who at that point of time still had 2 overs left, Sachin wanted to play out Murali and let Pollard loose on the fast bowlers and Dhoni kept holding him back. Eventually Pollard came to bat in the 17th over, with 50 odd runs to be scored in 18 deliveries, people thought that it was bad captaincy on the part of Tendulkar to have sent him in so late, but very few people know about the mind games being played between the captains on the field. Pollard went on to smash 20 odd runs of one over of Bollinger who until then was unplayable and then there seemed to be a match on our hands. In the next over when Albie Morkel came on to bowl, Dhoni had a brief discussion with him following which Morkel decided to bowl from around the wicket with Mathew Hayden standing literally in line withe stumps inside the circle at a fine long on position if ever there was a fielding position like that. The very next ball Pollard hit the ball straight to Hayden and MI's dream of an IPL were brought to an abrupt end. They had realised that when Pollard hits, he hits it dead straight. Such strategies were never used before and it was an exhilarating experience to watch such tactical prowess on display. It truly went on to show that captains and bowlers have cracked the format. The second instance was from the final of 2011 cricket world cup. People think Dhoni just decided to promote himself ahead of Yuvraj in a moment of inspiration and for no particular reason. However there was a very sound reason behind this move -at that point of time India were 130 odd for 3 around the 25 over mark and Muralitharan had 5 overs left. Dhoni and Murali have played a lot of cricket together for CSK and whenever Yuvraj came out to bat Murali would tell Dhoni to give him the ball, all he needed were 5 deliveries to get Yuvraj out. Dhoni knew that and had Yuvraj gotten out early that would have put extra pressure on the rest of the batsmen. Dhoni promoted himself up the order to play out Murali, so that by the time Yuvraj came out to bat he had to face only the quick bowlers, bread and butter for him. The rest of his talk left the audience spell bound and before we knew it, two and a half hours had passed by!

Post the MLS, dinner was in the mess during which a couple of committees on campus wanted to interact with him. Post dinner went to Chota for a cuppa of Chai where the cricket related discussions continued, this time it was about how the franchises dealt with the ownership of teams. A company like Reliance for example, is never used to losing and how the sport has taught them to cope up with it. I could go on ranting more out here, but I am pretty sure blogspot has a word limit per post. Ended the day on that note, a truly memorable experience. The fact that there is an AFM end term tomorrow evening is yet to sink in, will deal with it tomorrow morning, dont want to ruin this high by calculating net present value and reading about the financial implications of M&As!