Lets Make Cricket our National Sport.
A Billion Dollar Indian Cricket. India’s most valuable company, Reliance Industries Ltd, successfully bid $111.9 million for the Mumbai team, the Indian board announced after bids for franchises were opened.United Breweries Ltd, owned by Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya, who last year bought into Formula One team Spyker and renamed it Force India, snapped up Bangalore for $111.6 million.The base price for owing a team for 10 years was set at $50 million. The inaugural event will be held in April.The league, expected to feature many of the game’s top players, is an effort to counter an unofficial Indian Twenty20 league which began late last year.”I’m delighted that UB group has got it,” Mallya “United Spirits will now use this as an active promotional platform for all our brands,” added Mallya, who lost the Mumbai bid to Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance.Eleven companies — some a consortium of individuals — were in the race to own teams from a choice of 12 cities where the franchises would be based.Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan was part of the consortium that clinched Kolkata for $75.09 million, while infrastructure company GMR Holdings won the Delhi franchise for $84 million.Mohali went for $76 million to a syndicate that included Bollywood actress Preity Zinta while media group Deccan Chronicle won Hyderabad for $107.01 million.MONEY-SPINNER”To date we have made $1.749 billion,” board vice-president Lalit Modi told a news conference. “We are looking to build on it going forward.”The companies will pay 10 percent of the bid price to the board every year, a board official said.Organisers announced last week they had secured a 10-year rights contract worth more than $1 billion for the league. Television rights were worth $918 million, with another $100 million for the league’s promotion.India Cements won the Chennai franchise for $91 million while Jaipur was snapped up for $67 million by UK-based company Emerging Media.The 44-day IPL starts on April. 18 and will feature eight franchises with 16-man squads in its inaugural season.Teams will play home and away games leading up to a grand final. The first year will feature 59 matches played in late afternoon for prime-time television.India, where cricketers are feted like pop stars, has the largest global cricket audience and multi-million-dollar sponsorship deals.The IPL has the patronage of the International Cricket Council , the sport’s governing body, and is intended to be part of a soccer-style Champions League, involving teams from several countries.
Now
Everything is Fine and justified but what about others Sports. for example
Hockey,Football,kabaddi,Archery,kayaking,basketball,handball,athletics,long jump,pole vault,throwing and many more.
what about them?
can’t they also be commercialised like cricket?
can’t they also get same recognition like cricket?
can’t they also get same popularity like cricket?
can’t they also get the same honour and spirit like cricket?
can’t they also get the same respect like cricketers get?
can’t they also get the same price and money like cricketers?
now as per reports SRK said he will also promote gilli danda after success of IPL 20/20. I appriciate his thoughts and efforts but still I would like to ask why so late SRK? can’t Big Bollywood Stars and Industry Tycoons Like Ambani and UB group Chairmen Vijay mallya has the guts to donate atleast few lakhs on rest of the sports to motivate the rest of the sports players.
later when Indian hockey team wins the Asia Cup Last year ,A leading state-owned bank in India has announced that it will pay half a million rupees ($12,500)(compare with IPL Payments to IPL Cricketers) to each member of India’s world beating hockey team. The payments follows complaints by members of the team that their retention of hockey’s Asia Cup has been ignored by many in the country. The team’s coach complained that in contrast, India’s Twenty20 cricket winners received large cash payments.The President of the Indian Hockey Federation, KPS Gill, told the BBC later in 2007 “As far as the government and politicians are concerned they only know one sport - cricket. “It’s a pity. But cricket gives the giver a lot of publicity. That’s why all these politicians are doling out cash awards to the cricket players.” There was saturation media coverage of the cricket win, but only sparse coverage of the hockey triumph, even though hockey is India’s national sport.
if you have the answers kindly post on this big issue.
