The IPL is different. This nascent brand of wannabe cricket wants to develop a whole new paradigm of consumer acceptance altogether. The key proposition: build team-brand loyalty rather than just plain old national-brand or State-brand loyalty.

Is this model a likely success business model at hand?

Look keenly at soccer and the emergence of the mega-buck teams that represent a passion of their own. Are you an Arsenal fan? Or a Man-U maniac? And is the Manchester United much more of a movement than national football altogether? And what about the eyeballs that track the game? Do they follow team sport more than national soccer? And which one is a weekly passion? And which one attracts the biggest bucks?

The answer is blowing in the wind, my dear friends. Team soccer is bigger than it all. Team sport is more profitable than it all. More eyeballs, more frequent eyeballs, and indeed more eyeballs to monetise literally every week! More eyeballs and indeed every other body part of the fan to monetise, not only in playing season, but in slack time as well. Every ball, every T-shirt and every wrist band is an opportunity that packs money.

My definition of a brand: The brand is a thought. A thought that lives in people’s minds. Team Bangalore of Vijay Mallya is a thought. A thought that will live in every mind. This thought is not only about soccer. It is about more. It is about a city. It is about the passion that Bangalore evokes in every heart, body and soul that lives in Bangalore. Add to it the heart, body, soul and every other sundry body part that thinks positively of Bangalore but does not live there. To that extent, this team branding of cricket provides the opportunity to harvest the passion of every cricket enthusiast who lives in Bangalore.

The brand is today essentially consumed not by geographic clusters, not even by consumers who live in common and identified demographic clusters; the brand is today a psychographic reality. Never mind where you live, you will consume Team Bengaluru. The moment you consume the brand and enjoy a passion-link to it, you are saying it out loud that you live out there with your mind rather than your body. Team cricket provides for this key insight to be harvested.

Building this new paradigm of Team Cricket will take time. It will not happen overnight. But then cricket and its administrators have all the time on their hands. It is the early entrants to the game who will singe their hands and minds and pockets. They will then wait and build. Build with every season. Build with every marketing tool of viral connect there is to use.

In sum, let’s lump it if we do not like it. Team Brand cricket is here to stay. The moneys in it are just too big to ignore. Marketers and owners of teams will harvest passion for the game, passion for the city and indeed passion for the individual cricket star over a period of time. Give it six years time, and you will watch nothing else but a Big Sunday game of Bengaluru versus Jaipuru! Maybe even a Jaipuru versus a Mysooru game in the future! What say?

Hyderabad and Bangalore get spanking new airports. What impact does it have on these cities and their economies?

- Belur Ganesh, Bangalore.

Ganesh, I do believe the new Bengaluru International Airport provides for the city of Bengaluru, a visiting card. Just as the Hyderabad airport does to the city of Charminar. A visiting/calling card that proudly states the arrival of a happening city that has much to offer to India and the world at large.