Page 327 - IPL 2

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LALIT MODI
So, you go to South Africa, you’ve got CSA, the stadiums and the schedule of matches. But now you have to worry about filling those
large stadiums.
My thought was, how do we connect everything? The majority of the creative agencies were not able to guarantee us with any kind of
media campaign that would get us more than 10 – 15 % occupancies in any of the stadiums. That didn’t work for us, we needed 90% +
occupancy. So the agencies prepared and came out with a campaign and a budget, the budget was the budget for a large company like
MTN or Vodacom, for the entire month. Even with that kind of expenditure, which is quite large, they could only guarantee 10 to 15 %
people to come and visit and buy tickets from us.
So it was already the 2nd of April, we still didn’t have our campaign, the big agencies could not do it so we hired small agencies, we
gave them the directions, the direction was that the “Heat is On – Whose side are you on?” and we placed the players images in front
and the team logo so the images of the players were known to the people around.
We decided that we needed to be in everybody’s face. We called the agencies again and said we want to buy every other spot on the
television, every other sport on radio, we want to be on every other billboard across the country, we want to be everywhere and
anywhere across the country. We also thought about the local culture: they love music, they love rock bands, so what we did is changed
the format of all our games and in the pre games there would be a live concert. The whole atmosphere in the grounds was given a
carnival feel, so we had music bands, we had snake charmers, people blowing fire, Indian food. The idea was to bring the flavour of India
to the grounds for each match. To kick start this we went to Helen Zille who was the mayor of Cape Town and requested her to listen
to our idea. We wanted to close part of the city down to do a carnival to identify our teams with the population and actually roll down
floats into the city with all the players and the stars on it and see whether she would approve. Surprisingly she agreed and we came up
with a date just a few days before the tournament.
It was huge; they were packing the streets, weren’t they?
Yes they were, but when we were getting ready in the morning, our spotters told us there were no crowds so it was worrisome, but
in the mean time we had done a great job with the radio. We hired Francois Pienaar who was the former South African rugby captain.
He’s an icon, and also an old friend. I asked Francois whether he would be a part of our team along with Etienne de Villiers who was the
former Chairman of Walt Disney Company but a South African and at that present time, the Chairman of BBC to move to South Africa
and help us with the campaign and also to open the doors and also to identify how to connect with the South African people. People
poured in at the end of the tournament we had 90 % sale of tickets, 70% of the people had never been to a stadium and so it opened with
a big blast with the carnival.
You must’ve had some doubts though ?
I had my doubts, but I’m the last one who actually ever shows that because there is a lot riding on me. With the media following you so
closely you need to keep a positive outlook because if they sense anything amiss, it becomes breaking news, it goes negative.
There was a lot of talk about it happening in England and in the last minute it swung in favor of South Africa. How?
We got to South Africa and we saw that the cricket authorities were right behind us, the government was right behind us and from my
perspective it was almost a bullet in the hand and we knew it was possible there. We did not have much time and we knew we had to
get going straight away.
It was an administrative miracle to pull it off in 20 days in South Africa, you think luck was on your side too ?
Yes in our side luck played a big part in this, I think what was more important was the fact that we had a good team, we had done
our exercise in terms of movement of teams from one city to another city, we had an eight city format in India, we had a little bit
understanding of what we had to do in terms of movements, in terms of the overall paper plan, whether city A in India or city A in South
Africa. Scheduling and logistics is always the biggest challenge and once we knew how the movement needed to work then it became a
little easier for us to try and just replicate what we had done in India. Tougher thing was that we had to get the whole country rallied
in15 days because the campaign broke out on the 4th and the first game was on the 18th. Till then nobody had heard about us and by
the time we left everybody in South Africa knew who we were and what we had done.
316 THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN
And now you have people like all over the globe pandering for the IPL to come to them now because I know people in England were
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extremely upset that it happened in South Africa and not in England so I guess that must be in all cricket playing nations?
That is but at the end of the day for us what was the most important was the weather, we could not take a chance and we looked at the
weather patterns in England and in South Africa, a lot of the team owners wanted us to go to England because they have a big connect
with England, with their families touring to England all the time and they have a lot of their friends and family there and England’s like
a second home to them and they would have been more comfortable in England, but from the tournaments perspective and from the
overall look of what we wanted, though we were just getting into winter in South Africa, the grounds were still dry and the chances of
rain was negligible though 2 games did get affected in Cape Town so that’s why we did our scheduling, so we played the tournament
primarily in Cape Town early and got a lot of the games of the Cape Town out and then moved then to the seven other cities.
Spectator experience enhancement is quite a big on your agenda, isn’t it?
It’s a big thing on agenda, it’s not something that happens and changes overnight but you will see brand new stadiums coming up
everywhere. We are always improving on a day-to-day basis and we are spending the money to do so. Hundreds of millions of dollars are
being spent on stadiums. Wankhede’s renovating; there is a brand new stadium in Pune coming up; Chennai is fully renovating; Kolkata
is fully renovating. Hyderabad is just upgraded, but unfortunately we are not playing any matches in season 3. Bangalore is going in for
a total refurb, D.Y. Patil is again modifying and going forward. Dharamshala has put in new lights and put in new corporate hospitality
boxes this year, so all around a lot of work has gone in and a lot of work is going to continue to go on in the years to come.
So 2012, that IPL will end your term as Commissioner. What happens to the League? You are after all, the father of the league in a way.
(laughs) It’s not going to be orphaned; I think we have a great talent in the BCCI and we have got some great people out here. The Board
will have a succession plan without doubt and at the end of the day my job is to ensure in the next three years we build a robust system,
a foolproof system, something that will be able to manage and go on it’s own and that’s the legacy I need to leave behind. I need to
build a strong team and we are doing that.
How do you foresee the IPL in 10 years from now, do you think it’s going to be more than just these 45 days, its going to be more windows
in the year, more teams playing?
I think the tournament will be probably about 50 to 55 days in a year, in the years to come and then we will see shorter version of the
tournament we have played around the world, there will be a lots of exhibitions matches been played all throughout the year. I think
the teams will have a year round calendar sooner than later.
You’ve also been getting all these awards as most innovative Business Leader, the business in fact has got one of the most innovative
businesses not just in Sport but across the board…..
We heard about it a few days ago that we have been nominated as the 22nd Most Innovative company in the world across all product
categories and number two in the area of Sports. I think we have a long way to go, we still have 21 ahead, 21 to beat, but good to know
that we are innovating and people enjoy the innovation and its being recognized and I think its great for my team, we have a small
team, you know we have 4 full time employees.
That’s the shocking bit, that it’s such a huge business, I mean you are talking 4 billion dollars and the core team is surprisingly small.
It’s good, we have good people, top people, we hire thousands of people who are temporary but are the best in the world, they
understand what we do. We hire the same people year after year from around the world, who have done major events where it’s the
US Open, the Wimbledon, you know the rugby world cups, football world cups, we hire the best people and our objective is to bring in
best practice into the tournament and that’s what we do.
Is this going to be your life’s work or you think you still have one more brainchild to come out with which could also be one of the most
“ innovative businesses in the world? “
You have to wait and watch for that (smiles).