How to improve standard of domestic cricket in India?

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How to popularize Ranji trophy: Ideas beyond controversy, cheergirls and money More... Packed stands at Ranji: Ideas beyond controversy, cheergirls and money Ashish Magotra Nov 2, 2011 As the Ranji Trophy begins another season on Thursday, it cuts a figure of desolation, empty stands and irrelevance. And for a tournament that has played a huge role in the rise of cricket in the country, thatÃÔ a shame. The tournament started in 1934-35 and through the years, every Indian player has emerged from the system. If international cricket makes stars out of its players, then the Ranji Trophy is where the boys become men. So why doesnÃÕ it bring in the crowds? Why doesnÃÕ television cover it in a big way? Why doesnÃÕ the BCCI care? The apathy shown towards Ranji trophy is now starting to filter through to international cricket too and that is one reason why the BCCI needs to get people in the stands, watching cricket at every level loving the game, not just the stars. If the empty stands and the low TRPs seen during the Champions League Twenty20 and the ODI series against England are any indication, then India needs to overhaul its structure very soon. The apathy shown towards Ranji trophy is now starting to filter through to international cricket too and that is one reason why the BCCI needs to get people in the stands, watching cricket at every level loving the game, not just the stars. WeÃ×e already seen that hype can draw in spectators where normal logic cannot. The stands were full during IndiaÃÔ debut F1 race this despite a majority not following F1 on a regular basis. The same system has worked for the IPL and various other events in the country. Firstpost spoke to some advertising and marketing gurus to find out what can be done to revive the Ranji spirit and perhaps the game of cricket itself. Jagdeep Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director of Samsika: ItÃÔ an easy process if someone really wants to go about it. I mean this is where India gets all its players from. But it is just not being marketed and that mindset needs to change. Imagine a campaign with Kapil Dev saying Ū began the 1977?8 season claiming 8/38 in the first innings against Services. The next thing I knew, I received a call-up to the Indian team. Or even talking about his greatest Ranji moment: The win against Mumbai at the Wankhede stadium in the Ranji trophy finals in front of 25,000 fans in 1990-91. The thing is there are stories aplenty, there is nostalgia, there is controversy but no one really knows anything. That needs to change. Marketing of Ranji Trophy is the easiest thing but it can only be done if the BCCI truly cares. Do they? Melroy DÃÔouza, COO at Professional Management Group: The participation of international players is critical. The BCCI has to ensure that when these players are not picked for India, they are playing the Ranji Trophy. If Tendulkar plays in the tournament, it means that not only does he bring in the crowds but the youngsters also get a chance to learn from him. The old rivalries need to be played up as well. Why is it that people care about Mumbai Indians more than they care about MumbaiÃÔ Ranji Trophy? It boils down to the quality of players on the field. Prahlad Kakkar, one of IndiaÃÔ finest ad filmmakers: The thing is Ranji Trophy is never taken seriously. It has all the ingredients of a masala potboiler. It has history. It has legends. But we have to make people care. And for that to happen, we need to make it more exciting. Maybe we can have rules to ensure that a draw or a first innings lead doesnÃÕ count for anything. Maybe we can make it a three-day game. Maybe we can have 50-over innings. These are all just suggestions but nobody has the time for 4-day matches that are going nowhere and there is nothing wrong with experimentation. Good standards on the field with ensure that the game becomes worthy of creating a hype around. The way things are right now, so much depends on the toss. That needs to be taken out of the picture. The Ranji trophy has pedigree, the IPL has none. The BCCI should realise this. Prashant Singh, Director at Octagon, India: You have to change the format, you have to have sporting wickets which result in contests and you have to make it compulsory to play and perform in the Ranji trophy to get into the Indian team. No IPL, no other tournament should be taken into account by the selectors. But most importantly, we need to bring in the icons. All that may take time to do but one thing that the BCCI can do immediately without much ado or forming committees is throw the doors open to school children. Let them come watch and experience what it is to watch cricket in a stadium. Look at Ranji trophy as you would at a brand and try and capture your target audience young. The other thing that can be done is that there are lots of brands that cannot really afford to sponsor the Indian team or international matches. Offer those brands value for money if they invest in state teams. Tell them that these cricketers will be available to help market their products all year round. For a local company, that can be a big deal. The state associations need to be proactive as well. Are they really bothered by the empty stands? The BCCI should ensure that they are.

[BeautifulGame]

Prahlad Kakkar, one of IndiaÃÔ finest ad filmmakers: The thing is Ranji Trophy is never taken seriously. It has all the ingredients of a masala potboiler. It has history. It has legends. But we have to make people care. And for that to happen, we need to make it more exciting. Maybe we can have rules to ensure that a draw or a first innings lead doesnÃÕ count for anything. Maybe we can make it a three-day game. Maybe we can have 50-over innings. These are all just suggestions but nobody has the time for 4-day matches that are going nowhere and there is nothing wrong with experimentation. Good standards on the field with ensure that the game becomes worthy of creating a hype around. The way things are right now, so much depends on the toss. That needs to be taken out of the picture. The Ranji trophy has pedigree, the IPL has none. The BCCI should realise this.

Asking a add film maker how to improve Ranji trophy :banghead: Does he even know why Ranji trophy is played :facepalm:

[mani0993]

Asking a add film maker how to improve Ranji trophy :banghead: Does he even know why Ranji trophy is played :facepalm:

:haha: Well to answer the question, good cricketing conditions would definitely help Ranji matches. See the current pitch @ Mohali. It looks like a concrete pitch. The groundsmen are just making beautiful looking pitches for Int. matches. Why can't they do the same for FC matches ?

[Rightarmfast]

Its simple to make it popular. Must make it mandatory for all the Indian players to participate. Have international level pitches, speed guns installed. And a better media coverage. And perhaps a few verbal banters between the players before the match would make it interesting...Cheerleaders are not required. When you have good players, good quality players, cheap tricks are not required..

[rkt.india]

First thing first...First Class cricket is not popular anywhere in the world. No one go and watch FC cricket anywhere in the world. I don't understand why they want to people to come and see those matches. FC cricket is a foundation for international cricket and we need to ensure that our FC has good quality so that good quality players can come out of this. We need to ensure basic elements are right. People watching FC will not improve it in itself.

[Yoda-esque]

Asking a add film maker how to improve Ranji trophy :banghead: Does he even know why Ranji trophy is played :facepalm:

That too an ad maker that made Mallya's ads :giggle:

[Rightarmfast]

First thing first...First Class cricket is not popular anywhere in the world. No one go and watch FC cricket anywhere in the world. I don't understand why they want to people to come and see those matches. FC cricket is a foundation for international cricket and we need to ensure that our FC has good quality so that good quality players can come out of this. We need to ensure basic elements are right. People watching FC will not improve it in itself.

Boss, there are definite ways to make it popular. Bring it to smaller towns. Places like Patna and smaller places where people are hungry for cricket but get nothing. I bet crowd will come and it will be a good revival of domestic cricket. PLus ofcoruse the previous points I have made..

[ganeshran]

Better bowler friendly pitches are certainly the order of the day. Both seamer friendly wickets and turners should be encouraged.

[Pagalpanti]

I don't get why they wanna increase viewership for Ranji trophy? It won't help the players, they should rather concentrate on making sporting wickets and not roads. No wonder we have so many batsmen averaging almost 60 but none of them good enough to be in the Indian team.

[Rightarmfast]

Bring Sreesanth and Harbhajan Singh playing against each other in Patna. And have a verbal between the 2 before the match. You will be surprised how much crowd and media attention that will attract. Bloody BCCI cant even think of such proven tricks ???

[Tiger80]

Introduce regionalism .raj Thackerey should give speech that Marathi manoos team should not loose to Bihar :two_thumbs_up:

[Rightarmfast]

Thats a good way to kill cricket in India Tiger80 !

[rkt.india]

Boss' date=' there are definite ways to make it popular. Bring it to smaller towns. Places like Patna and smaller places where people are hungry for cricket but get nothing. I bet crowd will come and it will be a good revival of domestic cricket. PLus ofcoruse the previous points I have made..[/quote'] But we do not need to make First class cricket popular. Populating does not help in creating quality. BCCI needs to ensure that they do basic things right in FC cricket, like pitches, good grounds, etc.

[asterix]

If people are not getting motivated to watch long days of batsmen scoring tons of runs while bowlers toil hard, best thing is to use cement pitches..The matches will end quickly and thus motivating public to go and watch the matches and not waste their time for 5 days..

[Trundler27]

Few suggestions: - The team with the most season wide attendance at home games should get 1 extra point - The spectators should be allowed to interact with a few players from each team at the end of the day's play - The team that wins most home games gets 1 extra home game the following season (the same incentive should be given to the team with the most away wins, ie, option for 1 extra home game in the next season) - Maybe introduce a mandatory quota of 1 or 2 local under 22 players for each team (hopefully this should encourage teams to look for genuine talent) I can keep going on and on but I know that the administrators don't care about any of this and don't think along these lines. So my suggestions are mainly for discussion.

[bulbul]

Very difficult...even Test matches slowly losing interest.. Only if matches played outside Main centers people come and watch..even that may not be sustainable... No ammount of gimmicks will help.. one wild gimmick is reduce days to 3 , play only on Friday and weekends and on good pitches.. Need to be a system where Wins matter most...

[vayuu1]

Instead of bowler friendly pitches we need sporting tracks ,cheaper tickets ,improve stadium facilities.

[Silva]

Forget all that. Just make it so theirs more financial rewards for winning and more punishments for loosing. Right now the clubs don't really worry that much about winning because I don't think theirs much at stake in the games and that leads to a lot of dull low intensity matches that people are bored by. the higher intensity the matches the more people will watch. And as a result the domestic teams have to invest more in finding talent because their lively hoods are at stake. We have the IPL but I don't thinks teams loose much financially regardless of how poorly they play. And they did nothing to help our T20 team so I wouldn't bring the IPL approach to ranji trophy unless you want to destory the ranji trophy. A smarter thing to do is to take that IPL money and give rewards to teams that win and teams that don't get regulated. This would automatically lead to domestic team investing that money into coaching staff and Talent finders so they continue to get that reward money.the increase of talent in domestic teams will lead to higher revenus from attendance and endorsments ect which lead to the more money for those teams to find talented players. So to sum it up Just add more incentive for teams to win! The domestic teams will take care of the rest on their own. It isn't that complicated.

[MCcricket]

Let school kids get passes to watch games, during lunch hour interact in some manner,quality pitches, incentives based on performance , for the players and board, foreign player participation, more professional approach to cricket admin at the state level. Good scheduling where players get enough rest, marketing, media, let state team get their names , choose logos, let there be more franchise based structure, let the states , cities be proud of their team , let the teams hold events, interact with people.

[Rightarmfast]

But we do not need to make First class cricket popular. Populating does not help in creating quality. BCCI needs to ensure that they do basic things right in FC cricket' date=' like pitches, good grounds, etc.[/quote'] I agree with you there..Still making it popular would give extra incentives for local players to perform better and will improve the competition.