Tenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

For a better part of a century cricket has been strictly limited in its scope, played mainly by the commonwealth countries, i.e. the states which were used to be colonies of British Empire. Even today the International Cricket Council (I.C.C.) has only 10 full time member nations as compared to some popular sports like Soccer having a true global reach. However, recent years have seen a major shift in the popularity and branding of the game with the advent of franchise based cricket leagues all over the world. It primarily triggered with the inception of Indian Premier League transforming cricket into a prime-time entertainment product. Despite its meteoric rise cricket is yet to be fully consumed in major European and American markets. In this paper we explore how the growth of economy in major cricket playing nations, particularly India attaining the centre stage in cricketing world has geared to expanding the brand association and viewer base of the sport, reviving the lost popularity through advent of franchise based T-20 leagues, helping to transform cricket globally into a “consumable commodity” (Chattopadhyay, 2014). In this paper we present a detailed study of the social media activities and digital innovations related to franchise cricket leagues, to understand the major drivers in its popularity, growth and the gap to be filled to create a stable viewer base in major European and American countries. We discuss the implications of our findings in gearing strategic partnerships between major companies and franchise-based sporting leagues in broader terms.