Imports to test franchisees’ brand-building skills

As Dhoni, Karthick, the Sharmas, Uthappa shed city loyalties, challenge for teams will be to establish emotional connect with  fans

MUMBAI: Dinesh Karthick, the only cricketing star from Tamil Nadu, will have to get used to the Delhi chill. Mumbai’s Rohit Sharma must quickly acquire a taste for Hyderabadi biriyani. Zaheer Khan will head for Bangalore and MS Dhoni will pick up some Tamil. The colour of money has wiped out the lines of regionalism, as no city team franchise emerged unscathed after Wednesday’s auction.

Franchisees, as they expected, have seen their local stars being snapped up by other cities, as permutations and combinations, a budget cap of $5million and team balance came into play. Now, they have to more or less work with the regional flavours they have bought, and the next few days will see a focus on brand-building and, more importantly, the creation of a team identity.

The Delhi Daredevils managed to pouch eight of the nine players they had wanted by the end of the auction. They bought Gautam Gambhir for $725,000 but Kolkata walked away with Ishant Sharma for an astronomical $950,000.

A day after the auction, GMR-IPL CEO Yogesh Shetty, who already has his finger in the Formula One and Cricket Australia marketing pies, said that it was vital that a team belongs to the people. “We need to create the connectivity between the players and the spectators. This is where creativity comes in and that is the real excitement,” Shetty told DNA. “We have two players from Delhi, including Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, and they will add the local flavour. The team’s identity can be built around the other players too,” Shetty said.

Ravi Krishnan, the former managing director of IMG India, knows a thing or two about sports branding. Krishnan is now the vice-president of Emerging Media, the Jaipur franchisee. “The brand will be the team,” Krishnan told DNA. Jaipur picked up Shane Warne for $450,000 and believes that the champion leg-spinner has enough goodwill for the franchisee to create a team identity around him.

“We have the players we wanted. Warne is someone who brought a sea-change to the way Hampshire played their cricket when he was leading the county side. He has the most impressive record and is someone all players will look up to. Our strategy is unique and will be effective,” Krishnan added.

Down south, Chennai Super Kings have T20 World Cup winning skipper MS Dhoni in their ranks, but couldn’t afford Tamil Nadu wicketkeeper batsman Dinesh Karthick who came up for auction late in the day. “Ideally we would have liked to pick up Karthick too, but we didn’t have enough money to go all out for him. It would have been great to have three or four local star players in the team, but we have only Karthick who is playing for India,” VB Chandrasekhar, the former selector who bid for the franchise said.

However, Chandrasekhar said he believes that someone like Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralithran, who has married a girl from the city and remains hugely popular in Tamil Nadu, will be a crowd favourite. “In the likes of Dhoni, Matthew Hayden, Jacob Oram and the rest we have the right kind of players to win games and make the franchise marketable,” Chandrasekhar said. “Ultimately people will come to see the big stars play good cricket and that will surely draw the crowds,” he added.