Pyjama Cricket 2.0

Pyjama cricket, the pejorative used by purists to describe the limited overs version when it was born about 30 years ago, now has a new form—Twenty20.

It is early days yet, and most countries have still played only a handful of matches, but going by the (initial) public response to the ongoing World Cup of cricket’s newest avatar, it’s already a hit. And there’s more in store.

The Zee TV-promoted Indian Cricket League has thrown a challenge that the Indian establishment, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has met head on, with the announcement of an “official” Indian Professional League and a global Twenty20 championship modelled on the UEFA Cup and American professional baseball.

These two tournaments promise to institutionalise the corporatisation—and some will say Americanisation— of cricket that has been evolving in incremental doses ever since the late Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer launched his World Series Cricket in the late ’70s.

The first sketch released by BCCI says teams will be owned by franchisees who will be allowed to list them on the stock markets and that clubs will be allowed to “buy” and “sell” cricketers, a la international football clubs.

Innovations like American-style cheerleaders (how Indian crowds will react to skimpily clad women prancing around remains a matter of conjecture) and the short duration (3 hours) make it a marketer’s dream. And most importantly, from the latter’s point of view, the absence of “national” squads takes the opportunity cost of a fancied team being ousted (as happened to India in the 2007 ODI World Cup) out of the equation.

Some purists are already cringing at this so-called “crass” commercialisation of what was, at least according to cricket mythology, a “gentleman’s game”. But their numbers are small and will, without doubt, wither further as Twenty20 gains in popularity.

There could be another major benefit. This new form of the game, with its sideshows and showmanship, can make cricket truly global by taking it into countries and markets that have so far shown a distinct lack of enthusiasm for the game. The US, where people seem to enjoy short, intense slugfests, Continental Europe, China and Japan are all markets where Twenty20 can be marketed with success.

If it does, India, as the financial epicentre of this, and, indeed, all, forms of cricket, will have found another “soft” export. The potential spin-offs: Indian companies can help, and ride, the efforts of the Twenty20 marketers in new, previously under-penetrated markets.

Yes, the new form of cricket definitely looks a winner from all perspectives.