The Hindu Business Line : World Cup fails to excite India Inc

Bangalore March 14 The men in blue have failed to excite the men in grey. The country's favourite game is yet to generate a frenzy amongst employees and corporates. Corporate event management companies are disappointed at the lukewarm response from IT/ITeS companies here towards hosting cricket-related events at workplaces. "A few enquiries for basic events like conducting lunch-hour games and changing the décor in the cafeteria have come in, but it's nothing like the frenzy expected," says Mr Darshan M., Director, Crossover, a Bangalore-based event management company. He says the World Cup football last year saw far more activity in companies "which is missing now". Crossover had worked with employees in about 30-odd locations last year organising larger-than-life events like creating mini playgrounds, contests and games for employees, with some of them spending about Rs 2 lakh per event. "So far, we have received about 10 enquiries for cricket-based events," he says.

Mr Utpal Mangaonkar, Senior Event Manager, Wizcraft Entertainment, says, "at present we are not doing much for the World Cup cricket". However, he expects better `response' from companies after a few warm-up matches and "if India manages to get into the last eight matches". Mr Mangaonkar agrees that the football frenzy last year was far higher than that generated by cricket now.

The lack of excitement over cricket amongst employees is because cricket is viewed as family entertainment and employees would like to go home and watch matches with their families, while football has to be watched with the "boys". Match timings (starting 7.30 p.m. and continuing into early hours in the morning) also hinder such bonhomie events, says Mr Mangaonkar. "Though none of the companies have planned anything now, if there's an India-Pak match in the finals, then we sure expect to organise some events," he says.