RAJESH WARRIER

Monopoly
Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Read this article in TOI and thought of sharing it out here with you guys. Though we all know the after effects, I thought let me clarify some points here. Put some details that you might not have thought about - so here goes some analysis. Impact of the big IF looming over the sub-continent.

For starters, you'd know that last week was a happening week in the cricketing world. Two teams, India and Pakistan lost their group matches making life difficult for them. On tops, PAK coach Bob Woolmer passed away the very night their team lost to Ireland. What're the impacts -

ESPN has bought telecast rights of ICC events for the next 8 years; For the recovery of more than 80 per cent of the $1.1 billion spent, ESPN is banking on the cricket craze in the Indian subcontinent.

If India is knocked out in the group stages of the WC, not a single advertiser will henceforth have the courage to invest money in buying advertising slots early. And if advertising rates don’t hit the roof, chances are ESPN will be unable to recover even half the money invested.

The bottomline: if India loses on March 23 to Sri Lanka, the ICC might even face its worst financial crisis in the long run.

If India crashes out at group stage, advertisers’ interest in the tournament is certain to nosedive. Chances are some of the organizers might well drown themselves for fear of bankruptcy in the Caribbean sea. In fact, the World Cup faces the risk of being touted a financial disaster when it is hardly a week old.

Some of the West Indian islands are likely to suffer huge losses if India fails to qualify. The tourism industry, which is the primary source of revenue in many of these islands, is banking on the fact that Indian supporters will make the World Cup a success.

Of all the packages sold by official travel agents, Indian fans have bought 60 per cent of them. And if Dravid and his men lose to Sri Lanka, chances are more than 80 per cent of these fans will try and cancel trips.

Looks like the world's gonna end if the match on Friday doesn't turn out to be a +ve one for the men in blue. Why go through all this pain? Why not win against SL and end all these "question marks". Gauging from what happened last week, it doesn't look that simple, that easy.

Labels: BCCI, Caribbean, Cricket, Dravid, ICC, India, Pakistan, Srilanka, World-Cup

Posted by Rajesh @ 8:14 PM; PERMALINK,

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8 Shouts:

At March 22, 2007 12:00 PM, RPM said...: New domain! Congratulations!
At March 22, 2007 8:13 PM, Rajesh said...: @ usc trojan - Thanks :)
At March 23, 2007 8:22 PM, D for Dawn said...: I HATE cricket and would be so happy to see the boys go down. Call me a sadist coz I know what grief that would bring to the average Indian. :P
At March 23, 2007 11:00 PM, Rajesh said...: @ d for dawn - hating cricket is one thing. Hating a 'team' is something else, I think you're mixing things here ;-)
At March 24, 2007 10:18 AM, D for Dawn said...: @rajesh - No, I do not hate the boys! :O Is just that I think it is a waste of time considering the fact that the average Indian forgets everything else and ends up sitting at home and watching the cricket instead of being at work. Or even if you are at work, the live scores websites are always open and you end up discussing only cricket. Liking a game is something, but making it a religion is something else. That is what I hate.
At March 24, 2007 5:35 PM, Rajesh said...: @ d for dawn - Cricket is a passion back at home I know, I too hate the monopoly [;)]. But then in Europe its Soccer (we do have fanatics out there too). In this part of the world its, Football, Baseball and NBA - people start discussing each and every game, every play @ work out here ;-).

Its a religion out here too but its on a lesser scale.
At March 25, 2007 5:09 PM, Mosilager said...: aaah well so now bd has kicked us out of the WC. productivity in india will definitely go up
At March 25, 2007 7:40 PM, Rajesh said...: @ mosilager - at least we hope so. It can't get any worse right ? ;)