In another sense, cricket has ceased to be a game as well. This is the sense of corporate involvement in the game and the pure fact is that cricket today is a big business. The BCCI has emerged a very rich body, and the IPL is yet another big property being cobbled together for the revamped version of the game. A revamped version that competes for the 90-minute attention span that has proven a big hit with soccer and such other team sport in Western markets.

In many ways, five-day cricket is a lazy man’s game. One-day cricket is the game of a less lazy man as well. Twenty-20 cricket is the game of the fast-paced new-generation of consumers and viewers of team sport. There is just no space and scope for laziness in this game.

IPL space is frenetic space. This is instant cricket. This is cricket with less patience. No patience, even. In such an environment bickering and tiffs are going to be common in the early years of the game.

Corporate names such as Vijay Mallya, Mukesh Ambani and a whole host of others have parked their money in the game. In addition to this we have a fair representation of Bollywood with Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta in tow. This is an admixture of corporate and Bollywood ownership of a sport that is cricket. There is bound to be turmoil, if nothing more.

Corporate management styles differ from sport management styles. Further, actors such as Shah Rukh Khan manage their businesses in a proprietorial style that is different. There are, therefore, a total of three management styles impinging on one another. One is sports management style, another is corporate management style and the third is Bollywood management style. When the three meet, they seldom concur.

You will, therefore, have clashes. A Vijay Mallya will want to pin the blame in true corporate style. A Charu Sharma might have to pay for it, just as a Rahul Dravid might have to. A Shah Rukh Khan might want more than one leader for his team, which just might irritate a pure sport captain such as Saurav Ganguly.

Expect a lot more of action in this space as different management styles clash in the frenetic space of instant cricket that is Twenty-20. This is just the beginning. Watch the fun unfold.

Marketing as a process encourages wasteful expenditure. Should we not have controls on this space as a space that promotes wastage in a basic-want led economy like India?

- Manu Goswami, Kolkata

Manu, you are right when you say marketing as a process encourages wasteful expenditure.