Inside the surge in India's state cricket leagues

Good evening,

Last Saturday, the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 final in Barbados produced what can only be described as a “classic.” The last five overs came down to hunger, nerves, and stone-cold execution, and India’s pacemen — Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, and Hardik Pandya scripted a clutch performance for the ages. Not to forget Surya Kumar Yadav’s trophy-grabbing catch of David Miller, or Virat Kohli’s masterful 76 (RIP the strike rate debate!), which helped India’s push towards a respectable total.

As an aside, if you were at the Wankhede to witness the open bus parade last evening, I envy you for being there and hope you made it home safely. Do let me know your experience!

This also brings us to today’s story, where I take a closer look at the rapid proliferation of state T20 cricket leagues.

A day before India’s spectacular Bumrah-led heist at the Kensington Oval, the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata hosted two finals of its own, one of which was rain-hit. The inaugural edition of the Bengal Pro T20 league, a state franchise-based T20 tournament, was at its conclusion. While the men’s edition had joint winners in Sobisco Smashers Malda and Murshidabad Kings, the women’s edition saw the Kolkata Tigers prevail over the Murshidabad Kueens by 5 runs in a tense final. 

While the monsoon had its say in Kolkata, two state T20 leagues saw their finals the weekend prior. The Madhya Pradesh League (MPL), also one of the two MPLs we’ll encounter in this story, concluded its inaugural nine-day tournament in the newly-constructed Shrimant Madhavrao Scindia Stadium, 15 km off Gwalior. Gahunje (a village on the Mumbai-Pune expressway), the home of the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium, hosted the Maharashtra Premier League final, which saw an estimated crowd of 28000 to 30000, according to Ajinkya Joshi, its chief operating officer.

If that's not enough, as we publish this story, the third edition of the Andhra Premier League is in its initial stages, and the eighth edition of the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) is set to kick off this evening. The Delhi and Districts Cricket Association, the Kerala Cricket Association, and the Baroda Cricket Association are slated to launch their respective leagues in September. They won't be the last, especially given India’s vast, post-Lodha Committee expanse of domestic teams–34 in number. 

A big draw is the sheer dominance of cricket in terms of sports industry spending, contributing to a whopping 87% of the share in 2023, per a recent GroupM-ESP report. In terms of sponsorships alone, cricket grew by 32% year on year, accounting for over $700 million (Rs 5817 crore). So even if potential sponsors miss out on the big ticket events such as the Indian Premier League or international cricket hosted by the BCCI due to cost, they have an opportunity to reach similar, more local viewers via these state leagues. 

The pull

India’s first state T20 tournaments were hosted a year after the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). While Maharashtra and Karnataka pioneered the concept in the 2009/10 season, it was the TNPL which launched in 2016, that gave states the much-needed catalyst to build these IPL-style state-level leagues. That too happened because Star Sports, the BCCI’s official broadcaster at the time, needed inventory and content for a freshly launched Tamil channel. 

“The TNPL was born out of the need for Tamil content on Star. People were moving away from English, and in the South, the Hindi feed had little or no value. And Tamil, they realised, was a key ratings-puller in the IPL,” says Prasanna Kannan, CEO of the TNPL. “Even today, if you see the IPL, Tamil is the second highest language in rating and viewership, below Hindi and above English,” he adds. Unsurprisingly, Star bagged the television rights for the inaugural edition of the tournament and has been broadcasting every season since. 

While inventory is an important factor for a broadcaster, for state associations, it is growing the cricket ecosystem that is a major reason. Prasoon Kanmadikar, a governing council member of the recently concluded Madhya Pradesh League says, “We wanted to tick three key boxes: responses of franchises, quality of cricket, and crowds and viewership, and it went well.” The league also managed to attract investment from prominent local businesses such as Moira Sariya, Jagran Lake City University, and Swara Baby Products. Bigger corporations such as JK Cement and APL Apollo Pipes also participated. “The good part (about these franchises) was that they weren’t mere investors, but were also fully involved. One of our franchise owners was a cricketer himself,” adds Kanmadikar. 

These leagues also promise additional opportunities (and income) for players to impress potential recruiters—be it their state T20 or team or IPL franchises, especially with the growing scouting infrastructure that these teams have invested in. “At a players level, it is about giving opportunities to our state players who could perhaps tomorrow go and play for IPL teams,” says Kannan of TNPL. Depending on the systems these leagues use (drafts or auctions), players stand to earn a significantly higher sum than they would in typical state-level tournaments. The Kerala Cricket Association, for instance, has pegged a base price of Rs 1 lakh for its upcoming league. Madhya Pradesh opted for a draft system where its marquee player (often an Indian international or IPL player) received Rs 1 lakh for the tournament.

While that is a no-brainer, the real opportunity, to quote him, lies elsewhere: taking the game to other venues beyond Chennai (or traditional cricket centres). “These places (such as Dindigul, Tirunelveli, Salem) have been starved of live events, let alone sports except for Coimbatore. It also allows us to expand our infrastructure,” he adds. The TNPL uses what is commonly referred to as a “caravan model”, where different venues host matches, before the league reaches Chennai for the last leg, including the final.

Ditto for Gwalior. The city’s government-built Captain Roop Singh Stadium hosted its last international match in 2010 when Sachin Tendulkar scored an unbeaten 200. The Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA), led by current Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in 2011, announced a new 30,000-seater stadium on the city’s outskirts. The MPL was held entirely in the newly inaugurated venue. His son, Mahanaaryaman Scindia, also an MPCA member, spearheaded the tournament as the chairman of the governing council.

The cricket-starved Gwalior turned up in the thousands. To quote Kanmadikar, the first day saw crowds of around 14,000, while the rest of the tournament had an average of 11,000-12,000 per game. “During the final, the stadium was full and after we closed the gates, over 10,000 people were waiting outside,” he adds.

That also meant braving the heat, with peak temperatures in Central India soaring to highs of 47 degrees. “What amazed us was that people came in busloads from nearby districts such as Shivpuri. They’d never witnessed this kind of entertainment before. Fireworks, DMX shows in the closing ceremony. It’s what people expect after what they see in the IPL.” 

The economics

In a typical IPL-style cricket league, the interested parties pay a franchise fee—either fixed or by auction, which directly accounts for revenue for the state association. 

For instance, when the TNPL auctioned its franchises, it set a base price of Rs 1.25 crore for 10 years, before selling the rights to eight teams for Rs 33.51 crore. Since 2021, the league stopped collecting franchise fees, and while also cancelling the disbursement of revenue earned via the central pool. Now, it is looking to gate receipts and ticketing for revenue generation, also a sign of a “matured product.” The Madhya Pradesh League, however, opted for a fixed franchise fee of Rs 1.5 crore. And unlike other leagues, where franchises typically bear the player fees and logistics, the MPL decided to bear those costs. “Our idea was to not commercialise it. Our focus has been to build a cricket-centric product,” says Kanmadikar of the MPL.

Sponsorship is the other key revenue generator both at a franchise level and league level. These leagues have typically attracted real-money gaming brands, including those that offer betting via surrogate means such as sporting equipment or “news websites”. At least three leagues have some of these websites as partners, while some franchises in these leagues have onboarded them as official jersey partners. “There is no policy or ban yet, although the BCCI may enforce it in one year,” says a senior official in a state association. “If given a chance, we would like to completely avoid it. But if everyone is doing it, why should we miss out?” says another official from a state association.

Expenditure typically involves production costs, technology costs (DRS etc), broadcasting, and other services. Unlike the TNPL, where the broadcaster is paying the league, the newer leagues are going the other way around–paying broadcasters to feature it, while also aiding with other services such as marketing. FanCode, the Dream11-backed streaming platform, is a dominant player in the space, with leagues such as TNPL, Sher-e-Punjab T20 League, and the Andhra Premier League among its portfolio. JioCinema was the other broadcaster this year, airing the Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and the Bengal leagues over the last month.

Yannick Colaco, the co-founder of FanCode says, “Regional leagues have been around for some time. It’s just that now domestic boards have become more structured and have the resources, so the organisation has significantly improved,” he says. 

This also means that most of them are profitable from year one, especially with franchise fees and the glut of sponsors that come in. “If these guys are looking to see if there’s an ROI in it, then the objective might be wrong. I would prefer them to use this as an opportunity to raise money for the game, improve their visibility, and increase their following,” says a person aware of how state leagues operate.

This is also where marketing–finding the right audience with affiliation, and great storytelling is where it boils down to, especially in the age of growing digital cricket consumption. The Maharashtra Premier League claimed to have 6 crore in digital viewership across the season. “The approach to market these leagues is quite different from something like the IPL because the target audience is primarily local. For example, a TNPL will be more popular in Tamil Nadu and the Southern states, so our marketing activities are more targeted towards that region,” adds Colaco.

The scramble

As a lay viewer, one can't help but feel that these leagues are crammed, one after the other. But there is a reason for it. The BCCI, in 2018, announced strict rules and regulations regarding the conduct of these leagues. While they had to adhere to the Board’s protocols, it also defined two small windows for these tournaments to protect its most coveted assets: the IPL and the Indian domestic season.

The rules said that these tournaments could only be held 15 days after the conclusion of the IPL and before September 14. This, unsurprisingly coincides with the Indian monsoon season, which impacts certain associations such as Mumbai, and some venues in Karnataka such as Hubli and Belgaum. The other, more narrow window, comes after the end of February, and up to 15 days before the start of the IPL (typically in April), which would be 3 weeks of March. This year, Saurashtra played its league during the second window.

“It's a blessing for us that we don't get rain in July in Tamil Nadu. There could be passing showers in Salem and Coimbatore because of the monsoon in Kerala, but that is all they are: passing showers,” says Kannan. Similarly, the MCA put in a special request this time around to commence the tournament, keeping the monsoons in mind. It is also the reason it prefers playing all its games in one venue. “While it is cost-effective, the drainage facilities at the MCA Stadium are excellent, because it is sand-based,” says Joshi, the MCA COO.

The weather is also why these associations are guarding against a hurried expansion of the tournament, either by franchises or number of matches, despite the monetary benefits of the same. “The weather is a factor. So we have to be realistic while also giving our advertisers and sponsors the value for their money,” says the first senior official quoted in the story. 

⚡ Quick Singles

⚽💰👩: Disney CEO Bob Iger and his wife Willow Bay will invest $50 million to take majority control of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) club Angel City FC. Iger and Bay’s investment will effectively value the club at $300 million, making the Los Angeles-based club the most valued women's sports franchise in the world. Following their purchase, Iger and Bay will replace Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian as the club’s controlling shareholder.

🏀🏆 💵: The majority owners of the NBA team Boston Celtics will reportedly sell their shares by late 2024 or early 2025, a month after their franchise won the NBA Championship. The Celtics’ ownership group, led by Wyc Grousbeck, could expect to earn upwards of $4.7 billion, a number that Forbes values the franchise at. Grousbeck, however, will remain governor until 2028, while his managing partner Steve Pagliuca intends to be a part of the bidding process. The duo purchased the Celtics for $360 million in 2002. 

🔴⚽💰: Erik Ten Hag will remain Manchester United’s manager till the 2026 season. Ten Hag’s position was a subject of constant speculation following a less-than-desirable season that saw the club finishing eighth in the 2023-24 Premier League season. Club legend Ruud van Nistelrooy, per reports, is also close to returning to the club as part of Ten Hag’s backroom staff, even as he elicits interest from Burnley over a managerial vacancy.

👟✔️📉: Sportswear giant Nike’s shares fell by 20% last Friday, erasing about $27 billion in market value after the company’s revenue slumped. The fall was Nike’s biggest fall since 2011. Nike’s struggles have been pegged to worsening demand and an increase in competition from running-focused startups such as On and Hoka.

📖 Weekend Reads

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You can reach out to me at [email protected] with any feedback (good, bad, or ugly), tips, and ideas. I take my mailbag seriously, and would love to hear from you! You can also connect with me on X (@venkatananth) and LinkedIn. Thanks for reading, and see you again next Friday!