This post was originally planned before the IPL final. The IPL final went fine as expected but minutes after the final, the news began to emerge that Lalit Modi has been suspended. As I write these words there are confirmations coming in that he has been served a show cause notice and a suspension letter. No matter what the fate of Lalit Modi from here onwards, this blog makes a sincere attempt to mention what he has given to the world of cricket in general and the ‘technology’ part of it in particular.
My first recollections of Lalit Kumar Modi were in the days when ICL began to emerge as a cricket league and BCCI directly felt threatened from it. To counter ICL, BCCI came up with the idea of IPL. I was always unaware why Modi was originally made the commissioner but generally it appeared as if it was his idea. Unconfirmed sources do tell us that he originally came up with the idea of league cricket in India way before the ICL came into being. Once the ICL threat settled in, BCCI started to look at ways to counter it and Modi’s idea was picked up. Since it was his idea, he was made the commissioner.
When IPL started back in 2008, cricket was a game merely watched on the TV. There were these sites like cricinfo and cricbuzz but it wasn’t a trend with the masses. Generally one would switch to a website when in office or when a certain match was missed. Credit must go to Modi and his team here, the way he changed things. It started off in 2008, then bettered in 2009 and in 2010 the ipl website launched delivered the best cricketing experience on web ever with a real ‘awe factor’.
I am not sure if it was Modi or some of his team members, but since he was leading the show, I have no hesitation in giving him the credit for revolutionizing the way cricket is being watched on the web. In 2010, IPL stuck deals with Google and aired the experience over YouTube. At times even YouTube fell short of the bandwidth required to manage such a huge audience. It is unknown how much was earned but the idea of serving ads on YouTube for the free broadcast is something only Modi and his team could think of in all those years. I recall visiting the ICC site during the world cup of 2007 and I could hardly find the world cup schedule. It was hidden somewhere ‘aloof and miserable’ and had to be downloaded as a pdf document. Even ICL had a useful website in their first season but they simply neglected it in the second and couldn’t really match up with IPL’s antics on the web.
As a commissioner of the hugely popular tournament, Modi adapted to the growing trends in the world of technology. Even the fact that it was his twitter account that created this controversy that led to his suspension, is something a technology lover like me would easily settle for. For me, it has always been good to watch the way he has carried the IPL image on the internet using social media and the IPL website. Also in 2010, Modi and his team tried a whole lot of new ideas including showing the final live at Lords in 3D and showing the matches ‘ad-free’ in cinemas. Some of these might not have been that effective but nevertheless some fresh ideas were much needed to modernize the way the game of cricket is being viewed.
One thing that I must not miss out while mentioning Modi’s services in bringing the technology revolution to cricket is the mobile front. For all focus of administrators of various tournaments before him, was on the TV rights, he almost gave birth to mobile rights in cricket. IPL second season saw releases of mobile content, live mobile streaming, mobile wap site with community features as well as a mobile application branded for IPL. Then in the third season in 2010, IPL kept up with the mobile tradition and this time also catching in on the Iphone fever with an IPhone app.
Many would argue if I should attribute the above credits to Modi. But I do have a reason for it. I have personally been involved in sports administration for a while and have had a chance to meet different cricket organizers around the world. Being a technology person as well, I have always tried to tempt these guys into bringing technology into the game; however, the responses have never been satisfactory. It’s always about following the same old trend and being cautious while experimenting. Also their lack of understanding of technology is one huge factor, things don’t move along. Watching the IPL creates new properties on the web, wap and mobile, I have always had a feeling that this is very much due to the ‘Lalit Modi factor’. This is something we can get from a progressive individual like him and not from the ‘regular administrators’ who would use their PA to type emails and it would take a day to teach them how to ‘tweet’ from their mobile. Let’s hope that even if he doesn’t survive the current battle, the trends set by him are at least continued by the successor, if not bettered.
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