MUMBAI: It’s disadvantage Mumbai Indians. Even before the Indian Premier League’s (IPL’s) first season draws to a close, all indicators seem to suggest that Mukesh Ambani’s Mumbai Indians could be a write-off as far as the first year goes. Whether on or off the field, the Mumbai franchise has been unable to make its mark in its debut year.
With Harbhajan Singh banned for 11 matches—which means he will sit out the rest of the IPL season—Mumbai Indians have lost one of their best players. Sachin Tendulkar, who’s injured, has not played at all. The franchise owners are now scouting for another player to replace Harbhajan. Bhajji, who was bought for $850,000, will now only be entitled to a fee for just two matches. This essentially means Mumbai Indians will get $758,572 back into their kitty of $5 million to purchase another player.
Sachin, the icon player for the franchise who has not played a single match owing to his injury, has proven to be one of the biggest liabilities for the team. As the icon player, Sachin will be paid 15% more than Sanath Jayasuriya (the highest paid player in the Mumbai team), which stands at $11,21,250. Despite Sachin’s non-performance, the team owners will have to make the full payment, which is a net loss for the franchise.
With not a single victory at hand, the Mumbai Indians are not exactly shining, and the Bhajji-Sree Santh spat has only made things worse.Indiawin Sports director Kaushik Roy told ET: “The first season has essentially been (a) learning (experience). From next year, we will be better equipped and will know how to price matches, how to structure our teams and get more out of our partnerships. This time, we were undecided until the last minute whether we should ensure that Reliance Industries gets the maximum mileage or whether one should look at partnerships. We did not want to sell out cheap and would have done better if we had started out earlier.”
Mr Roy added that they were also choosy about which partners they would associate with, since “we cannot be seen having associations with parties that we are not comfortable with”. Mumbai Indians only managed one founding sponsor in MasterCard.
That’s not all, Mumbai roped in Hrithik Roshan as its brand ambassador. According to sources, the deal is close to Rs 4-5 crore. There has been no significant rub-off from that association either.
“Financially, the franchise seems to have overspent. Apart from two players out, Mumbai has also paid a lot for its brand ambassador and not managed to leverage it, which is a bit surprising. It has clearly re-strategise for the next season,” said an official close to the dealings of the Mumbai franchise.Mr Ambani paid $111.9 million for the franchise, making it the most expensive IPL team. The only saving grace for Mumbai has been its packed stadiums. However, ticket sales alone will not do the trick.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com
