But this is perhaps the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) way of ensuring that Zee Chairman Subhash Chandra’s rival Indian Cricket League (ICL) does not run away with too many eyeballs when it launches in October. The BCCI’s shrill opposition of the ICL is not surprising. It has much at stake. It earned $612 million from Nimbus for broadcast rights for all matches in India till 2010. All of this and much of the Rs 2,500-crore annual spend around cricket is linked to international cricket.

By opening a new front the ICL has threatened the BCCI monopoly on the sport and hopes to redefine how this Rs 2,500-crore pie is spent. "Today, domestic cricket hardly draws audiences," says Himanshu Mody, Business Head of ICL. "But if we can market it well, I don’t see why we can’t draw viewers. We have to create that connect in the consumers’ minds. This has not been tried so far," he adds.

To begin with, ICL will make a play for the Rs 600-crore worth of television advertising around

"If we market domestic cricket well, I don’t see why we can’t draw viewers" - Himanshu Mody, Business Head of Indian Cricket League

cricket matches. Hardly any of this goes into domestic cricket. But to lure the advertiser into domestic cricket, ICL first has to whip up viewer interest in its upcoming domestic Twenty20 tournaments. "I would invest on a media property based on the TRPs it generates," says Lloyd Mathias, Director, Marketing of Motorola India. "We will watch how the league performs in October," he adds.

ICL hopes to woo advertisers with cost-effective alternatives. As things stand, a 10-second ad spot during a one-day international can cost anywhere between Rs 1.5 and Rs 2 lakh. But ICL could offer a much cheaper package. Since the league would have control over the team, ground rights and on-air rights, it claims to offer a fairly priced deal to the advertiser, which would almost be 3/4th of the price for the BCCI tournaments.

"The advertiser has to go to different vendors to make its on-ground and on-air deals. We will offer a combined and a more flexible package," says Mody. Advertisers could also be lured with the opportunity to maximise their return on investment if they enter early and lock in air-time at initial rates. Advertisers are interested but are also wary. "There will be hype when it takes off," says Sandip Tiwari, Head of Brand Management at LG Electronics. "But will it be able to sustain in the long run is what needs to be looked at," he adds. Initially, a big chunk of ICL’s revenues will come from advertising. But ICL is keen on other revenue streams. For example, teams will initially be owned by the league, but could be sold to corporates later. The new owners then could buy players and fix their wages.

Interestingly, the Zee group plans to invite other broadcasters to bid for its properties. Zee also plans to blend more entertainment into a game of cricket. Mody is planning to build an entertainment ecosystem around ICL, complete with on-ground entertainment with song and dance performances and food courts. With its competencies in the entertainment space, Zee Group hopes to create a new formula to make domestic cricket more popular.

Though advertisers and media planners appreciate innovations, they would ultimately want to count the eyeballs the league attracts. This would depend on the quality of the players and their cricket. Last month, the Zee Group paraded a list of over 50 players. Among it were international players like Lance Klusener and Inzamam-ul-Haq, Indian cricketers like Dinesh Mongia, Reetinder Singh Sodhi and young Ambati Rayudu.

Opinion is divided here. "If a player such as Brian Lara is part of a team, it is bound to attract advertisers’ interest," says CD Mitra, President of Optimum Media Solutions. "If Lara is part of a team, the advertiser has to be smart enough to encash his presence in the team," adds Mahesh Ranka, General Manager of Starcom Relay.

But critics like Sambit Bal, Editor of CricInfo, feel ICL has got the player mix wrong. "Inzamam-ul-Haq, for instance, is better known as a test player, so how can he fit into a 20:20 team," he asks. "The ICL hasn’t managed to get the cream of the talent, but a bunch of disgruntled players."

BCCI is fighting ICL tooth and nail with the coveted India cap as its trump card. It has stated that an ICL player cannot play for the national team. BCCI will also erect other entry barriers—availability of stadium for instance. Mody brushes these aside. "The West Bengal Sports Minister has already offered us the Eden Gardens, while the Union Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad, has also offered us the railway grounds," he says.

Come October, advertisers will be busy counting the turnouts in the stadium and the eyeballs staring at television screens. What it may lack from player performances, ICL will hope to make up with the might of its marketing machinery.