(This article originally appeared in Republica)
It is Twenty20 cricket like you have never seen before: non-existent crowds, no entertainment and unrecognizable teams. Welcome to Nepal's National T20 Cricket Tournament. At least they do have two sponsors - Pepsi and Standard Chartered.
A recent visit to Pulchowk Engineering College ground left this columnist perplexed at the lack of creativity of Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) in organizing Nepal´s premier T20 event. Was CAN's goal to generate or drive away interest from the sport they are supposed to be guardians of domestically?
It is easy to forgive smaller sports associations that are hardly exposed to their own sport at the international level for lacking imagination, but in a country that is flooded by Indian pop-culture and by extension of Indian Premier League (IPL) and Champions League (CL) T20 cricket, Nepal's cricket organizers must either be living in a cave or extremely apathetic to not even adopt a single marketing gimmick to lure fans or enhance media coverage of their event.
While Nepal might not be ready for skanky IPL style cheerleaders yet, how hard would it have been to invitea DJ, play some jock-rock, toss prizes to fans or pass out flags to spectators - all of which could have likely be done through the support of sponsors at no cost to the organizers.
A prominent cricket star, whose name I will withhold to save him the grief of having to explain himself to the authorities, commented that the T20 tournament was just a formality and expecting more from Nepal´s cricket administrators was naive.
Such comments are disheartening to hear, especially as Nepal sits on a cricket goldmine. As seen by the passionate packed crowds during the ACC T20 tournament recently held in Kathmandu, the fan interest is certainly there. Nepal is in a cricket-mad region, which it could potentially leverage in so many ways.
This is why CAN and its partners really need to start ramping up their marketing efforts so it can start attracting the revenues to take cricket in the country to the next level.
By accident or design cricket actually has severaladvantages in terms of marketability over football, which attracts the lion's share of corporate support in Nepal. For example, unlike football which primarily revolves around Kathmandu based clubs, Nepali cricket consists of teams from various regions of the country. If marketed properly, the whole concept of supporting your hometown team could really attract strong crowds. One could envision a scenario where transplants from places like Biratnagar, Pokhara and Nepalgunj congregate at TU Cricket Ground to not only cheer their local team but also reconnect with friends, family and neighbors from their hometown.
CAN's logo, a rhino head, also offers some great marketing opportunities. Media could be encouraged to use the nickname “Rhinos” when referring to Nepal's cricket team and “Colts” when talking about the juniors. There could be merchandising spin-offs and marketing campaigns with sponsors based on the whole Rhinos moniker.
The National T20 Cricket Tournament might be the best place to start, as the format of the competition lends itself well to commercialization and most sports enthusiasts in the country are very familiar with the IPL.
CAN should start by dropping the meaningless regional numbers next to the name of the teams, have each team play in consistent colors, play the famous T20 horn over a loud speaker and engage fans with prizes, flags, etc.
Add some flash. Give all the teams a nickname -Kanchanpur Kricketers, Pokhara Lakers, Kathmandu Kingz - be creative!
If all this is too taxing for CAN, then they would do well to consider outsourcing events such as their T20 tournament to an event management company and let them do all the heavy lifting. Another veteran cricket player I spoke with felt that would be far more realistic scenario, “CAN would be very positive to such a proposal but the event management company would have to approach CAN as CAN is certainly not going to approach them and there lies part of the problem,” he said with a sense of frustration.
So for the sake of Nepali cricket fans, if you are a marketing or event management company and want to tap into a goldmine - please contact CAN.
It is Twenty20 cricket like you have never seen before: non-existent crowds, no entertainment and unrecognizable teams. Welcome to Nepal's National T20 Cricket Tournament. At least they do have two sponsors - Pepsi and Standard Chartered.
A recent visit to Pulchowk Engineering College ground left this columnist perplexed at the lack of creativity of Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) in organizing Nepal´s premier T20 event. Was CAN's goal to generate or drive away interest from the sport they are supposed to be guardians of domestically?
It is easy to forgive smaller sports associations that are hardly exposed to their own sport at the international level for lacking imagination, but in a country that is flooded by Indian pop-culture and by extension of Indian Premier League (IPL) and Champions League (CL) T20 cricket, Nepal's cricket organizers must either be living in a cave or extremely apathetic to not even adopt a single marketing gimmick to lure fans or enhance media coverage of their event.
While Nepal might not be ready for skanky IPL style cheerleaders yet, how hard would it have been to invitea DJ, play some jock-rock, toss prizes to fans or pass out flags to spectators - all of which could have likely be done through the support of sponsors at no cost to the organizers.
A prominent cricket star, whose name I will withhold to save him the grief of having to explain himself to the authorities, commented that the T20 tournament was just a formality and expecting more from Nepal´s cricket administrators was naive.
Such comments are disheartening to hear, especially as Nepal sits on a cricket goldmine. As seen by the passionate packed crowds during the ACC T20 tournament recently held in Kathmandu, the fan interest is certainly there. Nepal is in a cricket-mad region, which it could potentially leverage in so many ways.
This is why CAN and its partners really need to start ramping up their marketing efforts so it can start attracting the revenues to take cricket in the country to the next level.
By accident or design cricket actually has severaladvantages in terms of marketability over football, which attracts the lion's share of corporate support in Nepal. For example, unlike football which primarily revolves around Kathmandu based clubs, Nepali cricket consists of teams from various regions of the country. If marketed properly, the whole concept of supporting your hometown team could really attract strong crowds. One could envision a scenario where transplants from places like Biratnagar, Pokhara and Nepalgunj congregate at TU Cricket Ground to not only cheer their local team but also reconnect with friends, family and neighbors from their hometown.
CAN's logo, a rhino head, also offers some great marketing opportunities. Media could be encouraged to use the nickname “Rhinos” when referring to Nepal's cricket team and “Colts” when talking about the juniors. There could be merchandising spin-offs and marketing campaigns with sponsors based on the whole Rhinos moniker.
The National T20 Cricket Tournament might be the best place to start, as the format of the competition lends itself well to commercialization and most sports enthusiasts in the country are very familiar with the IPL.
CAN should start by dropping the meaningless regional numbers next to the name of the teams, have each team play in consistent colors, play the famous T20 horn over a loud speaker and engage fans with prizes, flags, etc.
Add some flash. Give all the teams a nickname -Kanchanpur Kricketers, Pokhara Lakers, Kathmandu Kingz - be creative!
If all this is too taxing for CAN, then they would do well to consider outsourcing events such as their T20 tournament to an event management company and let them do all the heavy lifting. Another veteran cricket player I spoke with felt that would be far more realistic scenario, “CAN would be very positive to such a proposal but the event management company would have to approach CAN as CAN is certainly not going to approach them and there lies part of the problem,” he said with a sense of frustration.
So for the sake of Nepali cricket fans, if you are a marketing or event management company and want to tap into a goldmine - please contact CAN.
