When good times roll in...

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Strikes are a company’s worst nightmare. Look after your people in bad times & they’ll return the favour when the tide reverses

All the Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi addicts heaved a sigh of relief when on 19th November the industry workers called off their strike. Federation of Western Cine Employees (FWICE) had called for the strike demanding higher wages, better work conditions, and more. As a result, TV channels were forced to begin repeat telecasts of various shows. Of course, not everyone heaved a sigh of relief. Some wished that the strike would go on forever, as they had just about started sharing some family time. And then TV was back! Whatever the feelings – a strike is not one of the best things to happen. It hurts everyone – workers, company and customers. Yet, incidences of strikes and lockouts abound in corporate history.

Paradise Found, Paradise Lost

If there is one place where many dream of working, it’s in a Ferrari factory. It’s ‘Paradise Found’ for many when they get recruited by Ferrari. The ‘Great Place to Work Institute’ named Ferrari as the Best Place to work in Europe 2007. The company worked hard to win this accolade. It built the ‘Maranello Village’ and revitalised all facilities in and around the factory and spent close to €200 million. However, just because you spend your day at the ‘Maranello’ crafting F430s, 599s and your heart swells with pride as you hear the engines roar and watch the beauty come to life, doesn’t means all’s well. It was in 2007 itself (the year Ferrari was voted the best place to work in Europe), that Ferrari workers went on a strike! ‘Paradise Lost’ for the management probably! The reason for the strike was unusual. The workers felt unhappy with the fact that the quality of Ferraris was declining since Fiat was trying to make too many of them, and it was not possible to maintain the necessary quality standards. Of course, among other things, the workers also wanted higher bonuses. But this was a strike with a difference. It had a unique style. The workers would only strike on Saturdays and that too not all of them at one time! Their aim was not to disrupt production, but to just slow it down a bit and make the management see their point of view.

Even Japanese workers had a similar style. A strike in a Japanese shoe factory saw workers making shoes for the left foot only. They never stopped work, but only after the management understood their point of view and solved the problem did they start making the right foot shoe. The best part was that it was a win-win deal. No production hours or man-hours were lost and worker’s demands were fulfilled. However, strikes like these happen only when there is “passion” in workers; and when they take pride in the company they work for. It is only then that they strike not to hurt but to be heard!

It’s a ‘lose-lose’ option

Not all strikes are compassionate though. Most are destructive in nature and cause a lot of loss. Look at Boeing. It ended a scorching 58 day strike in November this year, causing a lot of delays, resulting in losses for the company. The 58 day machinists strike is not the first one that Boeing experienced. In fact, Boeing has been plagued with rocky labour relations. In 1948, workers went on a 140 day strike, again in 1995 for 69 days and in 2005 for 24 days. The most recent strike resulted in Boeing failing to deliver more than two dozen planes on schedule. According to analysts the strike might have cost the company a loss of $110 million a day. When strikes happen in such giant organisations, it not just causes a loss to the company but to the country as well. The Boeing strike harmed US exports too. The strike, which started on Sept. 6th, saw Boeing’s third quarter profits drop by 38 percent. Boeing is now seriously contemplating moving out of Seattle and settling in southern states where unions are weak and ‘right-to-work’ laws are not so rigid. Something similar happened in Detroit when a lot of automakers moved out due to troubled labour relations. And then again in India, when Tatas moved out of West Bengal. Not surprising then, that West Bengal has the highest amount of production related losses due to strikes. In 2006, India as a whole lost 13.75 million man-days and Rs.181 crore.

Dysfunctional unions have always created havoc in the past, as they are doing now. According to some, it’s the unions that have been responsible for the downfall of Detroit by increasing the cost of labour that has resulted in massive outsourcing and offshoring of jobs. With the global economy wilting under pangs of recession, strikes seem to be getting more rampant. In Germany, 8,000 workers participated in strikes at 17 companies. Germany’s largest union IG Metall launched a series of coordinated strikes – fighting for wage increase. Similarly in 2007 a wave of unprecedented strikes swept Egypt. The ‘shut off’ button was pressed for the first time in 50 years at the Shebin–Al-Kom Spinning Weaving Company (SSWC) just before the company changed ownership and became the property of the Indian company, Indo Rama.

In all the above cases, the workers never once felt that they were wrong. In Egypt, the workers went on strike after 50 years because they were loyal, good and committed people who were wronged. In Germany, the union IG Metall said its wage hike was justified because the company’s profits increased 220 percent between 2004 and 2007, while wages effectively increased by only 8.7 percent. Workers at Boeing felt they had made Boeing the company it is today and had every right to be a part of its future. They simply wanted their share of the extraordinary success that this company had achieved over the past several years. The moral of the story seems to be – share your success fairly with the workers and during failure, chances are they will stand by you. When workers are wronged they go to any extent. When 35,000 workers at nearly a dozen textile, cement and poultry farms in Egypt went on strike, people were confused. For this was a nation where strikes were illegal and even the smallest public protest is squelched with police truncheons.

Modern Day Strikes

In the past, strikes had always been bloody and scary. One of the bloodiest strikes in Australian history was nick- named the “Battle of Rothbury” when on a cold December day in 1930, police opened fire on locked-out miners at the Rothbury colliery. A 15-year-old boy survived and this witness of the bloodiest event in national industrial history penned down his thoughts at the age of 92 in a book called Lockout. He gave a detailed account of the conflict and the betrayal felt by workers.

Today, memberships of unions are falling. The economic downturn has reduced the bargaining power of many unions. Yet, workers are becoming smart and finding innovative, effective and quick ways to get their rights.

When some members were fired by the Toronto postal station the workers were angry. Instead of striking, they decided to lock-out their boss. After a lot of TV news coverage, the firings were eventually stopped for some time and the boss removed to another position.

Teachers in New York joined hands with the organisation Living Wage Coalition (LWC) and organised a large number of public events – rallies, marches, vigils, et al, where teachers got a chance to describe their problems at work. After 18 months of community pressure, the teachers won raises of nearly 50%.

In San Francisco, companies guarantee deliveries in under an hour. This urgent-delivery market also has strikes, which last for a few hours. The San Francisco Bike Messenger Association (SFBMA) just makes members park their bikes for a few hours until their demands are met! In 1995, Oregon’s farmworker union used rolling strikes to increase their wages by 20%.

Just before the strawberry season began, they started to publicise about the upcoming strike. To prevent loss of crop and money, some growers raised the wages before the strike started. The State saw its first wage gain in a decade. If employers are smart, then workers are getting smarter and more intelligent. There is no solution to strikes – it’s only prevention. Managers need to understand that suppressed complaints are like a volcano. Don’t wait for it to erupt, it could be too late. When asked how to handle strikes, Professor Hadley said that CEOs should not train people to become “leaders of money” rather “leaders of men.” The bottom line: There is indeed no short cut to avoiding strikes. If your employees feel that they are well taken care of, they will take care of you too. In case of strikes, the old adage rings true: “Prevention is better than cure.” Especially during these tough times – be just and fair to your people during the downturn and they will repay you with their blood, sweat and loyalty, allowing you to reap rewards when good times roll in.

SANTA CLAUSE IS FOR REAL

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The world’s richest are setting new benchmarks of ‘giving’. It not only makes them a good samaritan but also adds to their bottomlines at the same time. Meet philanthrocapitalists...

On a trip to France, millionaire Jervis Pendelton sees an 18- year-old school girl in an orphanage. He is mesmerised by her, and decides to sponsor her college education in England. However, there are two conditions attached to it. First, Jerusha (the girl) should never be told who her benefactor is and second, she must write him a letter every month, to which she should not expect any reply. Jerusha catches a glimpse of the shadow of Pendelton and jokingly calls him “Daddy Long-legs.” After three years, he goes to visit her at a dance, not telling her who he is. They fall in love; but she is confused and knows not what to do. She turns to her only friend “Daddy Long Legs” for help and writes to him about her problem. As expected, after all twists and turns, she finally marries him and they live happily ever after. Pendelton was the secret benefactor of the very popular 1912 book (and movie too) “Daddy Long-Legs” by an American writer Jean Webstar. But in real life too, there are a whole lot of anonymous donors who have been trying to change society and our world.

He is about 76 years old, wears a $15 watch, a pair of $9 spectacles and dresses very simply (almost shabbily). There’s nothing extraordinary about this man, except that he lavishes hundreds of millions of dollars on universities, hospitals and the likes, but won’t allow even a small plaque identifying him as a donor. A lot of you reading this piece might have sometime or the other dropped into a Duty Free store at airports for some last minute shopping before catching a flight home. The man I am talking about is the one who started DFS (Duty Free Shoppers), and made pots of money. Well, that may not be noteworthy, as a lot of people have made a lot of money with ingenious ideas. However, what’s awe-inspiring about this man is the fact that he gave it all away without letting anyone know about it. Chuck Feeney set up a foundation, and even declined to name it after him, and gave all his earnings to it. He called it “The Atlantic Philanthropies” and registered it in Bermuda just so that he could avoid US disclosure laws. The book titled The Billionaire Who Wasn’t: How Chuck Feeney Secretly Made and Gave Away a Fortune tells about this man’s vision, mission and his greatness. Recently he instructed his board to pay out every penny of his foundation by 2016 so that when he dies, he knows that every penny he ever earned had been put to good use.

The new face of giving

Chuck Feeney donated secretly, but today a whole lot of rich and powerful people are realising the power of giving. Capitalism is metamorphing into a new form. It’s now hip to be a philanthrocapitalist. If capitalism meant only the fittest could survive, then philanthrocapitalism makes the system work even in favour of the weak and less advantaged.

From the richest man in the world, to the second richest, everybody is giving. Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Jeff Skoll, Bill Clinton are doing their bit to change the world and make it a happy place. Today, it’s not good enough to just be a successful entrepreneur, you need to become a socially conscious entrepreneur too, to be called completely successful. ‘Giving’ is not a new phenomena in the business world. In 1889 Andrew Carnegie wrote: “The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.” Not surprising then, that the world’s two richest men, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have formed one of the biggest philanthropic foundations globally. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is worth 40 times the annual budget of the World Health Organisation. It is so powerful and huge that The Economist dubbed this phenomena as “Billanthrophy”. The man has changed the world’s perception and attitude towards giving. Warren Buffett had always been a wise and careful investor and now after joining hands with Bill Gates he has shown how to use business principles while doing philanthropy too! He says joining hands with Gates saved him the trouble of making sure his money was being used productively – Gates would ensure that for him. Buffett has handed out the task of managing his funds to managers. He has truly managed to turn philanthropy into a value investment.

The business of giving

“Giving” is actually a good business strategy. When you give people the power to earn their livelihood you actually increase the market size. After all only when they earn do they buy and slowly the whole market size grows. Everytime you give, you contribute toward creating new markets and increasing existing ones. According to Buffett, if you contribute toward (say) increasing life expectancies, it means you give people more time to increase their wealth and consume more! It’s finally simple common sense. Every businessman wants to increase his market share and this is one way of doing it. Slow yes, but sure!

Not just individuals, nations too need to give. In March 1997 a joint poll by The Washington Post, Harvard University and Kaiser Family Foundation asked Americans which area did they think the government spent the highest in – medicare, military or social security? The response was most surprising. Over 64% believed that it was “foreign-aid.” They thought 20% of the budget went toward foreign-aid and America was the most generous nation. The truth is far more shocking. The United States contributes a meager 0.16% of its Gross National Income and ranks second-to-last in giving (Italy being last). No wonder someone correctly labeled them as the world’s-most-generous-misers. When you have the ability to give maximum, you should use it, for that gives you the ability to truly make a difference in today’s world. For many rich entrepreneurs (and even others), retirement has now taken a new meaning. While working, they changed the business world and after retirement, they are changing the world as a whole. Bono, the singer with his “RED” campaign, Bill Gates with his “Creative Capitalism” are all doing their bit. George Kaiser’s family fled from the Nazis in Germany and today his foundation helps fight child poverty and serves as a benefactor to over 5,000 Jewish people. Michael Dell started with $1,000 at age 19, created a $20 billion empire by 40 and gave away more than $1.2 billion toward education and child development. J. K. Rowling has a yearly budget of £5.1 million to help children and single parent families. Oprah Winfrey gives $50 million to educate women and families; Paul Newman, the Hollywood actor with the most beautiful blue eyes has donated over $90 million to charity. Yes people are giving, but each of us should give, for in simple business terms too, it’s worth it and the old adage does ring true – when you give you receive satisfaction, recognition, reputation, goodwill and above all, in the long run, a bigger market!

Give by choice or get by chance or snatch!

Sometime life does try to strike a balance. It creates a millionaire by chance. The ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ who through sheer luck becomes one (by wining the show Kaun Banega Crorepati) – Yes, this is the story of a movie about to be released for the general audience. And going by reviews it seems to have plucked at the heartstrings of many with its story of a young boy Jamal, living in the slums of Mumbai, who goes on to win the show and is about to become a crorepati. But then, he’s suddenly suspected of cheating. What happens next? Well, you need to watch the film for that. But going by the response, the world sure loves a slumdog millionaire story, in the same way possibly that they love the Robinhood story, who steals from the rich & gives to the poor. Whether he is for real or just a legend; whether someone will actually become a millionaire on TV or not, we don’t know. But yes, if you don’t give enough, a Robin Hood comes along or someone receives by chance. And when you give by choice you do more good. Like this professional blackjack player in Las Vegas who in August this year made an offer to help a family in financial need by using his gambling skills to win a fortune in a casino. You could register at robinhood702.com and hope you are selected or you could wait for someone like Larry Stewart, the millionaire who used to roam the streets in December giving money to people who needed and was often referred to as the Secret Santa Clause. Christmas is round the corner and it’s a season of giving. So give like all these people. Give for hope, for humanity and let our children believe that Santa Clause is really for real!

Fashion

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If you thought the fashion world was just about ramp shows, anorexic models and tell-all movies, you’re obviously a jurassic-era relic; fashion rocks for business like nobody’s business!!!

‘The Devil Wears Prada’ was a delightful novel and an interesting film to watch too. It was the story of a young woman, a naive graduate who is hired to work as the second assistant to the powerful editor of a fashion magazine called Runway. The editor, Miranda Priestly (played by Meryl Streep), is ruthless, merciless and tough-as-nails. The young girl, Andrea Sachs (played by Ann Hathaway), does what it takes to please her boss. She changes her lifestyle, dressing style, loses weight, changes her attitude, her behaviour... everything! Till, in the end, she realises that life is made up of choices and she can choose a different life too. It’s widely reported that the book (and later the movie) was a thinly veiled true life story of Anna Wintour, the Editor-in-Chief of Vogue and was written by her former personal assistant at Vogue, Lauren Weisberger. This is not the first time that a character in a movie is based on her. In Ugly Betty and Prêt-à-Porter (a 1994 film), there were characters based on her. Some even claim that Johnny Depp’s look in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory were based on Anna Wintour!

The woman is powerful. She brought back Vogue from near obscurity to the helm of the fashion world. She is today as much an institution as the magazine itself. She creates and cripples trends. She is the most powerful face of fashion. When she wears a particular designer’s clothes, it means something. When her magazine features a designer’s collection, it catapults them into the limelight. She is powerful, influential and revered. While the rest of the industry suffers in a weak newsstand market, Wintor’s Vogue enjoyed an upswing of single copy sales, rising 4.6 percent in 2007. Her magazine has a circulation of 1.3 million; and in 2006, under her, the Vogue family of magazines generated $500 million in advertising revenues. If you need to learn about the business of fashion, you need to just watch Ms. Wintour. She maybe a devil... She may or may not wear Prada... But she knows the world of fashion and controls it within her well-manicured hands; and in today’s time, it’s important to understand this business.

It’s time to dress-up for business

Fashion is big business today. Fashion has become global and every country is using this opportunity to unleash its creativity and its unique cultural aspects. China is using fashion to show to the world that it’s not just a source of cheap labour. Fashion is now the new way to relate to and compete with other countries. The best way of showcasing fashion of a country is through a ‘Fashion Week’. A fairly exhaustive survey revealed that there are today about 152 Fashion Weeks being held all over the world, from Pakistan to Milan, from Fiji to Liberia. It’s always some or the other Fashion Week somewhere in the world.

There’s more to fashion weeks than lissome models, skin shows, wardrobe malfunctions and anorexia. It’s a place for some serious business too. Wills, the main sponsor for the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion (WLIF) has seen that its sales have grown by 30 percent after its association with the event. After being associated with the event, it introduced a designer line in its stores, which now accounts for 15% of its sales.

In India, everyone knows that two things will always work – cricket and films; but today, it’s become very, very expensive to be associated with either of them. The third option, which is not yet so expensive, is fashion. So, last year when Nokia had to launch its new mobile phone called the Prism collection, it did so with a show by designer Rocky S. Nokia’s GPS enabled N82 handset was launched in association with Wallpaper, the iconic international design, fashion and lifestyle magazine. The campaign featured Wallpaper fashion editors equipped with the new handset and sharing their experience of what it’s like to be in the fashion capitals at show time.

It’s no more the elite fashion crowd that’s associated with fashion and fashion weeks. The New York Fashion Week this time saw the likes of OfficeMax, Blackberry, & Google as sponsors and front row guests at the shows. If, till recently, those were influential editors like Anna Wintors who decided the course of events, today they share the limelight with financial executives, investors and bankers, who play a big role in shaping up brands.

Fashion Weeks are big business for not just the fashion houses and fashion magazines but also for their organisers. IMG was started years ago by McCormack as a sports management company and he soon become the most powerful man in sports. Today, his company is one of the global leaders in the management and production of fashion weeks. It owns and operates most of the world’s important fashion events – from Lakme Fashion Week (of Mumbai) to Mercedes-Benz Fashion week (of New York & L.A).

In 2006, IMG bought the Australian Fashion Week too for $2 million and also entered into a $1.25 million five-year partnership with Australia’s Ministry for Tourism, Sports and Recreation. It’s no more just designers who are shaping the world of fashion, but some serious business people, and even the governments of certain countries.

Corporatisation of fashion

The world over and in India too, the fashion fraternity is realising that it cannot do without the active participation of corporates. So, FDCI (Fashion Design Council of India) has increased the space devoted to Business Centres and given them more than 100 stalls in the Fashion Week. It’s also helping in designer-corporate tie-ups. Fashion Weeks provide an opportunity to attract venture capitalist to the fashion industry. Without this, growth is not possible. After all, fashion is not just about skimpy clothes and glamour models. It needs professionalism. Plain talent can take you a certain distance, but well-managed talent is what makes one successful.

So, today Rohit Bal etc. have professionals running their companies. While in the west, big fashion companies are listed on stock exchanges too. According to KPMG, the designer-wear fashion industry in India is estimated to grow to Rs.10 billion by 2010. Indian fashion industry is miniscule compared to international standards but it has a strong potential for growth. Corporates should find ways to derive mileage from this industry.

As you watch in awe the stunning Kangana Raut in Madhur Bhandarkar’s latest film Fashion and as you smile and cry with Priyanka Chopra and realise how cold, harsh and ruthless this world is, don’t forget this is one industry whose glamour has the world glued to it. When you plan your next marketing campaign, see how you can associate with and profit from this magical world of fashion.

44 days that shook the world of cricket

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When push comes to shove and the jaw meets the glove, what wins is what sells – a ruthlessly honest commentary on why IPL rocked... and ICL shocked!

20th February 2008! 78 of the world’s best cricketers passed under the gavel of Richard Madley, an English auctioneer. It was a day that changed cricket forever. According to a BBC correspondent, the day was more frantic than the day Britain decided to go to war in Iraq. Eight teams were created and eight owners emerged in whose hands now laid the future of cricket. As for the cricketers, they earned a dream job. Consider Mahendra Singh Dhoni; he earned £7,50,000! Not bad for 44 days of work. Yes, when IPL (Indian Premier League) was launched a few months back, no one realised that history was once again being created. A similar thing had happened years ago in 1977 in Australia. The Australian media magnate Kerry Packer introduced the world to a different kind of cricket. He replaced the revered white cricket clothing with coloured ones. Test series were replaced with ODIs (One Day International). Cricket’s ruling body mocked at it and called it “pyjama” cricket – but this new form of day-night cricket, played under lights and with coloured clothing, became the biggest hit and one of the most successful forms of the game.

There’s more to cricket than cricket

Kerry Packer was refused the rights to an exclusive television coverage. And his grudge resulted in the new break-away ODI cricket. Subhash Chandra of Zee Network tried to do something similar last year when he introduced the Indian Cricket League. “Where dreams can come alive” was the way ICL promoted itself. Kapil Dev was the face of the campaign, its brand ambassador. ICL stood for recognising individual talent. It was a place where a journey from a village to a cricket stadium was possible and Kapil Dev suited the role best, and the punch line was ‘sapne manzil tak’. However, its glory was short lived for the “sapne” of ICL could not reach their “manzil” as it had to face the might of IPL, the “manoranjan ka baap”. Yes, that was the title of the 75 second commercial that was made to launch IPL; and ICL found itself clean-bowled even before it started.

Cricket is the lifeline of Indians. There is hardly any other nation where the game generates such frenzy, such hype. If Kerry Packer changed the game, then IPL took it to dizzying heights. In India, cricket is not just a game, it’s a form of entertainment and IPL has shown what you can do with cricket. If reality shows are a big hit with audiences in India, then IPL showed how cricket was the “baap” of all reality shows. Cricket today is one of the ‘buzziest’ properties on television and IPL tops that chart. Not just did they have sponsors lined up, but they were ready to go to any length to derive the maximum mileage from the event. So not just did they indulge in high-voltage brand building exercises, they were also ready to pay more than Rs.7 crores to Sony Entertainment Television (SET) to prevent their rivals from advertising during the matches. Remember in the 1996 World Cup, though Coca-Cola was the official sponsor, it was Pepsi that stole the limelight with its cheeky “Nothing Official About It” campaign. This time around, advertisers didn’t want to be “ambushed” and used the “roadblock” strategy to keep competition at bay.

So Vodafone Essar Ltd. and Hyundai Motors India signed deals that gave them “exclusivity” and kept their competitors out. Vodafone was the presenting sponsor and this way, it ensured its biggest rival Airtel remained away.

When a product is packaged well and is guaranteed to grab eyeballs, marketers can do wonders with it. IPL was a marketer’s delight while ICL – though the first to enter the market of Twenty 20 – faded in comparison. Not surprising that though both formats IPL and ICL were/are similar, IPL scored more. A Twenty-20 format is shorter, more action packed; and IPL marketed it like a blockbuster movie. So every evening people had something exciting to look forward to. Not just the cricketers and the audience, but advertisers and ad agencies too benefited a lot from these games. BCCI, Sony and the eight teams together spent about Rs.160 crores on promoting IPL. The ad agencies had a field day! Not just the WSG, the sports marketing company that holds the global rights for IPL has committed to spending around Rs.450 crores on promoting the IPL brand over the next 10 years.

IPL was a case of a product packaged and marketed well. It had glitz-and-glamour with the top Bollywood stars and corporate honchos stepping in as owners of the six teams. It had high-decible advertisements. It had the world’s best cricket players playing. Not surprising then that ad rates escalated from Rs.2 Lakh per 10 seconds to Rs.10 Lakh for the semi-finals and finals of the matches. Not just this, according to “aMap” ratings, IPL managed an average television rating (TVR) of 4-5 while the TVRs of the small box’s popular K-serials – Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki and Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi – are 5 and 5.5. In fact, the first IPL match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Bangalore Royal Challengers registered a TVR of 8.75 in Mumbai! Why not... It had Shahrukh rooting for his team, surrounded by the big Bollywood stars who came to support Shahrukh. The event was more Star-studded than a Filmfare Awards night probably, not to forget the cheerleaders! India had never seen anything like this before and lapped up every iota of the event.

With IPL, the advertising industry got another major contributor to its total advertising pie - a total net addition of Rs.300 crores.

ICL could not keep up with Shahrukh’s wits and Preity Zinta’s dimpled smiles and hugs for Yuvraj and her team’s players! It tried to work up the same magic with Rakhi Sawant, but could not generate the same excitement. Its 10 second spots this time reportedly went for as low as Rs.60,000-70,000. And its TVR had an average of 0.3. Its ad punchline, “Cricket hain meri life” was unable to hold the interest of the viewers for long. Somehow, ICL could not garner the charm of IPL. Today, IPL is looked at as ‘Premium Property’, while ICL is a ‘Budget Buy’. Somewhere, the packaging failed for ICL.

The good, the bad, the ugly

It’s said that the BCCI showed its ugly side when ICL was launched. Till then, it was a monopoly, and with ICL, its position was threatened, so it showed its might. It issued guidelines warning players that anyone who joined ICL would be banned for life. It refused ICL to use any grounds used by it to play the matches. Too top it, ICL decided to telecast its matches (of season 1) on Zee Sports, which had hardly any reach and advertisers didn’t like it; so ICL landed up with no cricketers, no stadiums and no advertisers.

You may say BCCI played dirty, but as it is said, everything is fair in love and war. After all, to IPL’s Rs.160 crores ad budget, ICL had Rs.20 crores; to IPL’s 78 international players, ICL had just 10; to IPL’s Shahrukh and Preity Inc., ICL had Rakhi Sawant & Co. Who would win - you decide. Fair or unfair, BCCI has pulled it off and made a big brand out of IPL. In the end, it’s the thing that sells which wins and IPL has given us those exciting 44 days that shook the world of cricket forever!