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SUNDAR RAMAN

How many times in a day do you speak with Lalit?
It should be how many minutes in a hour, time doesn’t exist to us as a dimension, we have a lot of engaging and interactive sessions,
essentially an update on situations and particularly when it comes to tricky things which involve multiple boards who we need to
deal with, involving the ICC and the impact that the IPL is having on cricket. In our kind of sporting model, time is of essence and deci-
sions need to be made very fast and thankfully with Lalit’s kind of impatience, you will get the answers faster than the question, so
that helps.

What was the fi rst thing that ran through your mind when you realized that you had to move?
(Pauses) That long pause was the fi rst thought that came to my mind. It was blank. It was absolutely blank. You know the truth is that
if we had over thought it we wouldn’t have got it done. There is a time to think, there is a time to do and this was the time of just do-
ing. To be fair, we had already worked out activations in terms of back up plans of taking it the IPL to the UK, or to South Africa.

There was a huge media circus that happened when all this talk of shifting the IPL etc began. We noticed that there was this silence
from the IPL. There must have been people trying to drag you into the issue?
Honestly, we didn’t think it was a political issue. The internal thinking for us was “Guys, lets be real, no other nation in the world goes
to the polls with 700 million people trying to vote.” We well understood that, but, honestly, we owed IPL to the Indian public and we
wanted to ensure that we made every effort to keep the tournament in India and We believed it was possible. There was a debate,
which happens when two parties have differing opinions, and it provides great meat for the media. I believe that you cannot discount
the magnitude of the task in front of the election commission and the home ministry. They know best the deployment of forces re-
quired. We didn’t remain silent because we wanted to make a statement or because we believed we were right, it was none of those,
it was purely because we understood the issues. See, we did not take IPL out of India to prove a point to anyone, we took IPL out of
India to prove a point to ourselves. To prove we can could do an event and we don’t didn’t need to disappoint the Indian public.

There’s been a lot of talk in the recent months, a lot of media coverage and debate if IPL destroying other forms of cricket?
Is it? I don’t think so, what do you think?
I certainly don’t, but there is a lot of money that has come in. So it’s understandable that it becomes a talking point.
I do understand, but I don’t agree. There is nothing like over commercialization, market pays a value that is right for the product. We
also have to understand to be relevant to a consumer or to a fan, we should move with the times to understand what the consumer
wants, sometimes the consumer says I am willing to pay my 500 rupees to go and watch a game of 3 hours after my offi ce hours I love
it. How else do you get tomorrow’s fans. Today, thanks to IPL and thanks to our own ability to monetize, players fi nd comfort in the
fact that there is an earning opportunity.

The IPL is has given created an opportunity for a million dreams to come alive. Till recently you had 15 to 20 people who played cricket
for the country at the highest level. The IPL has opened up a stage where we had have over 100 domestic players, tested and un-
tested, playing cricket at a highly competitive level. They’re being coached by the best of coaches in the world, playing under Sachin
Tendulkar or M. S. Dhoni or Adam Gilchrist. Playing to packed houses. Not only do they become stronger temperamentally but they
also get a sense of the big stage and above all people believe they can make a career out of cricket today.

If they are good they get paid and I think there’s absolutely nothing wrong in that, if you look at it camaraderie is increased between
teams and players of different nationalities. The IPL brings in a fresh set of the skills amongst players.

The question that people are asking that has the IPL killed test cricket: no, not by a mile. I believe that it has brought test cricket to
such a level of aura that you know to play test cricket you should have serious talent, you should have outstanding temperament and
thus test cricket will remain the pinnacle of cricket.

sundar raman
Since the IPL was so successful in South Africa, can fans in other places around the world also expect see some live IPL action?
We have created the Champions League in partnership with South Africa and Australia. That’s the tournament that will travel to the “
rest of the world. It’s intended to be the world cup of domestic cricket for T20.

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