The multinationals are spending big on advertising for the US-based forthcoming cricket game between India and Pakistan, taking advantage of the South Asian Diaspora’s purchasing power.
Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York City is where these two countries will meet at this year’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup on June 9. This stadium was built in three months with modular stands borrowed from the Formula 1 Grand Prix arena of Las Vegas. Also, it is the first time ever that such a tournament to be held in the United States though there will be matches in some Caribbean nations.
This was also a match of significance because on Thursday Pakistan suffered a shock defeat by United States which gave them their biggest boost as hosts playing their debut world cup and ranked 18th globally behind Nepal and UAE.
If you want to advertise during an India game that lasts only for ten seconds, you have to part with approximately 2 million rupees on average”, he said. In contrast, an ad during Super Bowl costs about $6.5million (for half a minute), £400,000/$511,000 per 30 seconds for UK advertising during football World Cup in 2022.
These include companies like Emirates Group, Saudi Aramco and Coca-Cola Co. which are sponsoring this month-long tournament by multinational firms. Besides that scheduling games for televised broadcast has been done so that they can achieve peak viewership audiences within South Asian countries; an example is the India-Pakistan match which will take place at around Sunday’s morning hours at New York (10:30 am) when it will be evening back home at India.
During last year’s Cricket World Cup held in India, a slot of just ten seconds was quoted as going for approximately INR 3 million. According to Chandrashekar Mantha who is a partner with Deloitte India, higher prices compared to T20 World Cup signify more feverish outlook toward the sport when played in India. Besides, some of the advertising budget would have been used up as part of Indian Premier League, which had ended two weeks prior.
The game’s governing body, International Cricket Council (ICC), is seeking to attract a broader global audience to the sport before it becomes an Olympic medal event in Los Angeles 2028. The US already has a ready-built fan base for cricket through its large Diaspora from cricket-playing countries in South Asia and Indians working in tech who have helped to strengthen the support base.
According to Sundar Pichai, Chief Executive Officer of Alphabet Inc., “It is exciting to see my favorite game growing globally”, X on June 2 as he prepared for the beginning of this tournament.
In addition, technology captains such as Microsoft Corp.’s Satya Nadella and Adobe Inc.’s Shantanu Narayen plus former WhatsApp executive Neeraj Arora have an investment in Major League Cricket, which is played same shorter format like that of T20 franchise. The first match was held last year at Texas.
Indians are among the richest ethnic groups in America with median earnings standing at about $120k per year.
The tournament has so far been a disappointing one, with teams playing in empty stadia. The wicket at Nassau County was also criticised by South African and Indian players as not being suitable for T20 format.
However, Ayaz Memon, a journalist and commentator who has followed the sport for many years said that “the Super 8 is where the real action begins.” This is when stronger teams start to play against each other in the tournament.
According to ICC tickets were oversubscribed 200 times indicating how much interest was there on India versus Pakistan match. If he can get his hands on game tickets Nadella told Bloomberg TV he will attend it.
“The group chats went crazy” when the tickets went on sale, said Debarghya Das, a San Francisco-based 31-year-old venture capitalist. “Everyone was talking about it. Nobody I knew got it from that lottery.”
For example, Das says a ticket could cost anywhere between $6 and $25 but on secondary market they are going for as high as $3,500.
Rohail Asad moved to the US eight years ago but will be watching the game at home as he couldn’t acquire a single ticket.
“Asad is an Indian while all my friends are Indians,” Rohail said. “It should be fun.”
