Televisation of Cricket In India

 

During the 1990s Cricket was a popular sport in India but the economic standards were quite low. The main source of income for any cricketing body comes mainly through Broadcasting and advertising. 

BCCI in the 1990s had to pay Doordarshan to broadcast the matches in India. There was no private entity like Star or Sony those days. DD had to buy good quality cameras which they did not have at the initial stages for which they demanded BCCI 5 lakhs. But what we see now is different. BCCI in return earns a huge sum from the broadcasters in return.

Jagmohan Dalmiya.

He was the one who took the initiative to give broadcasting rights to private entities through bidding. This decision could be recognized as one of the main reasons for BCCI to be one the richest board among all the cricketing nations. 

This decision in the long run proved to be more beneficial to the players. While they were better paid, they were also more visible, which led them to get good endorsement opportunities.

The decision taken by Dalmiya at that time has reaped high rewards for the next generation of players like Kohli and Dhoni. Star India the current broadcast rights holder shelled out 4600 crores over 2012-2018. This number increases even more for the IPL.

When he became the president of the ICC, he helped the organization grow from $37000 to $11 million at the end of his tenure.

 Mark Mascarenhas.

Not many remember the company Worldtel which created ripples after bagging the rights for the 1996 World Cup. Mark was the one who took this decision. But many at that time considered this decision to be very risky but Mark was the one who took this decision which turned out to be a great one.

Apart from this, he brought world-renowned cricket players to the commentary setup which played a bigger role for many to watch matches. Along with this when DD was finding it difficult to buy cameras he deployed an 18 camera set up across the stadium.

Not only did he televise cricket he also made Tendulkar the richest cricketer at that time. At a time when Tendulkar was valued at around 6 lakhs, Mark increased that number to a whopping 25crores through endorsements.

Due to a road accident, he died aged 48. But had he been in the era of T20 cricket which we are seeing now this man would have taken this sport to a greater level than we see in present. 

These two gentlemen have taken cricket in India to greater heights which at that time no one would have thought of.