KOLKATA:
Jagmohan Dalmiya
was known to have used his marketing acumen to promote
cricket
in a way no one had done before.
Sourav Ganguly may have gone one better in a bid to draw the crowd back to Test cricket by presenting it in a manner that makes it extremely appealing visually.
The first pink-ball Test match on Indian soil, which got under way at the
Eden Gardens
on Friday, is not just a game, but a marketing masterstroke. "Fans love it, so do the sponsors," a marketing expert said while analysing the effects of the pink-ball Test.
"Not just fans, but corporate bodies too were losing interest in Test cricket," he said. "Particularly against a weak opponent (Bangladesh), getting the corporate bodies and the public interested would have been a herculean task."
An injection of a shock-and-awe element was the need of the hour. That came wrapped in pink, and immediately, curiosity peaked. This curiosity is what drives the markets, the expert said. "Look at the interest the first edition of Pro Kabaddi League generated," he said.
"Who would have thought a sport like kabaddi would get so much viewership. It was the curiosity factor that drew so many eyeballs to the league. Once again, it is this curiosity that has shifted the cricket world's focus to Eden Gardens."
In a refreshing and rare sight, the stadium was packed to capacity on the first day of a Test match - that, too, on a week day. The opposition, weak or strong, doesn't matter here. The pink ball is the trump card and everything was woven around it. Had Australia been the opponents, the demand for tickets would most likely have been for all five days. In this case, tickets for first three days are most sought after.