Column | KCL could be just the tonic Kerala cricket needs

The setting up of the Indian Premier League (IPL) can be defined as a watershed moment in the history of sports in India. The combination of financial power of corporate India coupled with the reach of live telecast, with the unlimited opportunities for advertising, that brought the action in the cricket field straight to the drawing rooms proved to be a big hit. This formula was replicated successfully in other sports as well with similar professional leagues coming into existence in football, badminton, volleyball and kabaddi. This has not only increased the popularity of these sports disciplines, but also led to the players involved getting substantial financial benefits. These leagues also contributed to increasing the pool of top players available for representing the nation. This was on account of the efforts of scouts from the various franchisees taking part in these championships, who spared no efforts to move across the length and breadth of the country to identify new and hitherto undiscovered talent. 

One offshoot of this development is the setting up of smaller leagues of similar nature within individual states. This has come in a big way in cricket, where 19 bodies involved in conduct of the game at state/ union territory levels have started their own professional leagues. The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) is the trendsetter in this regard, starting a state-level T20 championship that is contested by eight franchisee teams. This league was launched in 2016 when Chennai Super Kings (CSK) was facing a two-year ban from the IPL. The highlight of this league was the participation of stars such as Ravichandran Ashwin, Danish Karthik and Murali Vijay in this championship. With the support of India Cements under N Srinivasan, former honcho of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), this league attained financial stability in a short span of time. Matches were held at venues outside Chennai, thus giving followers of the game in Coimbatore, Salem, Dindigul and Tirunelveli opportunities to watch the stars in action. Presently, Shriram Group is the title sponsor of this league and it boasts of a total prize money of Rs 3 crore, which is the highest in the country.  

Mumbai soon followed in the footsteps of the TNCA, setting up a T20 league for area falling under the Mumbai Cricket Association in 2018. But this was discontinued after the lockdown caused by COVID-19 pandemic. The two south Indian states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh started state-level T20 leagues on the same lines as the TNCA in 2022. Both these leagues have six franchisees with all matches held at a single venue - Visakhapatnam for Andhra and Bengaluru for Karnataka. Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan started similar leagues in the respective states in 2023. Six more states are following suit by starting their own T20 leagues in 2024.

One among the six states where a T20 league is scheduled to commence this year is Kerala. The 33 match championship christened Kerala Cricket League(KCL) will kick off at Greenfield stadium at Thiruvananthapuram on Monday (September 2). There are six city-based franchisees - Trivandrum Royals, Thrissur Titans, Kochi Blue Tigers, Kollam Sailors, Calicut Globstars and Alleppey Ripples. They have been bought by corporates and persons from the world of movies and entertainment. While the Kollam and Alleppey franchisees were sold for Rs 2.01 crore, the other four fetched Rs 2.5 crore each, thus ensuring that Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) receives a total of Rs 14.02 crore as franchise fee every year. Noted film actor Mohanlal is the brand ambassador of KCL. All matches will be telecast live by Star Sports channel and Fancode is the streaming partner.

The auction of players that took place in August at Thiruvananthapuram was conducted by Charu Sharma and organised on the same lines as IPL. The purse of each franchisee was capped at Rs 35 lakh. A total of 108 players were bought during the auction. Each team will also have an icon player who will be paid 10 per cent more than the highest paid member of the franchisee. The icon players for the various sides are Abdul Basith (Trivandrum Royals), Vishnu Vinod (Thrissur Titans), Basil Thampi (Kochi Blue Tigers), Sachin Baby (Kollam Sailors), Rohan S Kunnumal (Calicut Globstars) and Mohammed Azharuddeen (Alleppey Ripples). All-rounder M S Akhil, whose services were acquired by Trivandrum Royals, fetched the highest amount of Rs 7.4 lakh in the auction. Other players who fetched more than Rs 7 lakhs were Varun Nayanar (Thrissur Titans), Manu Krishnan (Kochi Blue Tigers) and Salman Nisar (Calicut Globstars). 

One highlight of this league is that this will see the active involvement of players of the yore as coaches of the various sides. Trivandrum Royals have a strong coaching unit led by the veteran P Balachandran and comprising S Manoj, Sony Cheruvathoor and Abhishek Mohan. Feroze V Rasheed and Sunil Oasis, former captains of the state side, are the coaches of Calicut and Thrissur franchisees respectively while S Sreesanth will don the hat of team mentor for Kollam Sailors. 

The KCA has also developed a revenue sharing model with the broadcasters for income earned through advertisements and sponsorships. Each match is estimated to have 2400 seconds of advertisement time. Half of the revenue earned from this (1200 seconds) will be shared between Star Sports and their broadcast partner. Out of the remaining 1200 seconds, the two participating teams will get revenue from 440 seconds each and that for the balance 320 seconds will go to the KCA.

The flurry of activity on this score in the month of August has generated a wave of excitement across Kerala, which will be witnessing an event of this nature for the first time. Though Kochi had a team in IPL (Kochi tuskers) for a couple of seasons, it did not elicit much enthusiasm from the followers of the sport in Kerala. However, this event promises to be different since all the franchisee owners are persons with roots in Kerala and share a passion for the game. The opportunity to witness local talent in action while seated in the comfort of the drawing room will be an added attraction for the fans here. 

The main reason for Kerala’s inability to move up the ladder in domestic cricket is lack of proper infrastructure for conduct of the game. It is only during the last two decades that matches started being played regularly on turf wickets in the state. Besides there does not exist tournaments of the likes of Times Shield in Mumbai or the TNCA league in Chennai, which are conducted regularly and can be accessed by players and clubs. There is also a shortage of employers and corporate sponsors, with the result that players from the state are often forced to look towards Chennai, both for work as well as for playing the game. The advent of the KCL and the financial bounty that it is set to provide the state cricket association should help the KCA to work towards improving the infrastructure and rectifying other deficiencies that plague the growth of the game. Further, this can also serve as a forerunner for similar leagues at the district-level as well as for having tournaments for schools and colleges, all of which will provide opportunities to up and coming players to showcase their talents and abilities. 

Incidentally, 2024 will also see the launch of a franchisee supported soccer league in Kerala titled  Super League Kerala (SLK). SLK will also witness six franchisees - Calicut FC, Kannur Warriors FC, Malappuram FC, Forca Kochi FC, Thiruvananthapuram Kombans FC and Thrissur Magic FC. Ownership of these franchisees have been purchased by an assortment of corporates, film and sports personalities and even members of the erstwhile royal families. All the above sides have foreign head coaches. Matches are scheduled to be held at four venues - Kochi, Kozhikode, Manjeri and Thiruvananthapuram in the inaugural year, after which they will be hosted by all the participating sides. This league is scheduled to kick off on Saturday (September 7).

With city-based franchise leagues in two of the most popular sports commencing in September, the sports lovers in Kerala are set in for a treat in the coming days. 

Best wishes to the KCL and SLK. 

May these ventures meet with success and lead to discovery of new and outstanding talent from this state.

(The author is a former international cricket umpire and a retired bureaucrat)