Abhishek Bachchan is a Bollywood superstar and a canny investor in sports. He was in Dublin this week for the launch of the European T20 Premier Cricket League, and we had time to sit with him and find out a little more about his background and what he hopes to achieve for the sport of cricket here in Ireland and further afield.
SfB: Tell us first a little bit about yourself and your investment in sport.
AB: I’m a film actor. Back home in India, I’ve been acting for over 25 years now and have made close to 70 odd films. I come from a film family. Both my parents are actors, and my wife is an actor. It’s the family business, and India has the largest film industry in the world.
We produce over a thousand films a year in several different Indian languages. The biggest centre is based in Mumbai, where I’m from, so that’s my day job.
My passion is investing in sports. I own a team in an Indian sport called Kabaddi and a football team in the Indian Super League, which is the premier football league in India.
And the family owns a street premier league team as well. A cricket variant played with a tennis ball, gully cricket, as we call it. And, uh, here we are now in Dublin to make a start in the T20 revolution that we hope to bring to Europe with the European T20 League.
SfB: It looks like you’ve also brought success to sports investing.
AB: Yes, in Kabaddi and in football we have won the League title twice. And the street cricket team are the current champions. So yes, we’ve been very, very blessed.
SfB: Was sport something that was always very central to you? Growing up, obviously, in a movie family, Did you, perhaps, look for things outside of that world to take a little break away from it? From your early years, was sport always something that was very central to your being?
AB: Absolutely. I’ve been an avid sports fan, and, a desperate sportsman, so to speak, forever.
I spent a large part of my education in a British boarding school, so sports were an integral part of our daily lives.
I’ve always wanted to be involved in it. When I returned to India after my studies, I wanted to help India improve in some of the sporting ecosystems outside of cricket because I think cricket is something they’re very good at, and the infrastructure is brilliant.
That’s when I started working about 10 or 12 years ago in some of the smaller sports, trying to bring them more prominence. And we’ve been very lucky with that.
Then, the time came when I was prepared to take the big leap into the big time with cricket. And so here we are. Sports have been an integral part of my life.
SfB: It’s a significant change to move from being a team owner and playing within a league to investing in a tournament. Was there a pause for thought in your own mind as to whether that was the right thing for you? Or was a love of cricket strong enough to say, well, look, you know, this is the best way that I can actually invest in cricket from a tournament perspective?
AB: It was the latter. I felt it was the best way to involve myself in the world of cricket and to be able to make a difference in this area. I felt it would be more beneficial to invest in the league instead of just being a team owner.
SfB: I know Warren (Deutrom) beside you there has been a significant driver of this European League as well. How much scope do you think there is in terms of additional teams coming through and for Ireland developing into a nation which is going to perhaps in years to come challenge India at the very top level of the sport
WD: Shall I take that one, Rob? We set out our dream at the end of 2011 to be a test nation. And I know there are a lot of people who looked at that with some degree of scepticism.
But he fact is that having set out the task to achieve that by 2020, we achieved it by 2017. So I never believe in never.
We strongly believe that anything is possible. This is sports after all. And, um, who would have thought it would be possible that the Ireland team would be beating the All Blacks more frequently than they have lost to them in the last number of years. Anything is possible with talent, with will, with preparation, with efficiency, with desire and with passion.
I believe all of those apply equally well to what we are trying to do with this league.
If you have enough time, the right backing, and the talent—which I firmly believe this country supplies in spades—and if you marry that with the degree of expertise that we have with our friends Abhishek and his team, I am confident that this is going to be the success it deserves to be.
SfB: The Premier League and club cricket as such has been an enormous success in India. Attracting players in from around the world. Do you think has that helped the Indian national team?
Or is there a sense that perhaps something similar has happened in football, where the stronger club sides and franchise teams can sometimes just take a little bit away from the international scene?
Given the Indian national team’s current form and status, I think you could say it’s served it well.
The big difference is, if we’re using football as an example, football, say in England in the Premier League is played for, you know, a good nine months. There’s very little room, with only two or three dedicated international windows during the season.
I think it’s the opposite in India, where the national team actually plays the predominant amount of cricket in terms of quantity as opposed to the IPL, which is only played for three months.
SfB: For obvious reasons, hosting a European competition like this during the summer months makes an awful lot of sense. But do you feel that it will also have a powerful appeal across India and Pakistan and the other first class cricket nations?
AB: Yes, hopefully. It comes at a window where there’s no other cricket being played. So the ICC gave us this window so there’s no clash with any other cricket league.
We hope to put out a very exciting and competitive product. And we know that as pure cricket fans, you know, we’ve seen back home in India that not only do they watch, the Indian national team play or the IPL, they’re very happy to watch other leagues, you know, be it the ILT20 or be it the South African or the Caribbean leagues.
They’re very happy to watch that. And that is a market. I think we’d be foolish not to tap into that market because those numbers are just huge. And if we have a competitive product, I’m very, very confident that people from the subcontinent will tune in. The added advantage that we have is actually our timing.
The times at which the matches will be played hit India’s prime time. As opposed to, say, the MLC or, you know, the Caribbean Premier League, which, if you want to see a live match, you’ll have to wake up very, very early in the morning or in the middle of the night.
With the European T20 Premier League, the wonderful thing is that the timings will be perfect for viewing in the subcontinent.
And that’s going to be a huge advantage.
SfB: The start date for the tournament is, is rapidly approaching. What’s what are the next steps in making sure that this lands with a real bang and a high level of success?
WD: The key elements now are making sure that the commercial side is locked off, which means we can’t release that information into the public domain.
As you know, when you’re negotiating, there are certain sensitivities. You don’t put those names out into the public domain, but that’s a very critical part now.
So, around the ownership of franchise teams, around sponsorship of the league itself, around the broadcaster components, to make sure all of those move in lockstep as quickly as possible.
We’ve got a small but hardworking dedicated team at Cricket Island, which is working together with the small team over in the Netherlands. In fact the Cricket Island team is actually over in the Netherlands. today, having discussions around logistics and hotels and, such details.
We are like the paddling feet beneath the gliding swan. And then as we move towards the end of April, early May, That’s when we’re going to start getting into the player side of things and starting to announce the player drafts, who’s going to be playing in various teams, etc.
But we’re currently having those conversations behind the scenes with nations. Abhishek referred to our official ICC sanction, which basically is about making sure that we have approval to engage with other cricket nations around the world. They can issue what are called NOCs, No Objection Certificates, which ensure or provide that overseas players can say this is a legitimate cricket, and this is an official part of the world cricketing ecosystem.
So, it’s all a bit dull, it’s all a bit specific, it’s all a bit detailed, but these are the things that we work on behind the scenes, and we’re also going to be bringing in some more dedicated staff over the coming weeks and months, whether it be tournament director, whether it be PR people, um, whether it be logistics people working very closely with the team from rules to make sure that we’re just one big team, and we will work well together.
There’s a, you know, there’s a four-month runway to this, which, um, when you’re in startup mode, you don’t want to throw millions of resources at it. You’ve got to do it in a very measured, sensible way. And so we’re balancing all that at the moment. We’re all working hard.
SfB: How big do you think this can be?
WD: So we are super ambitious. But in year one, as anyone knows, you are called sport for business. Rob, it’s not just about sports.
The business component must be observed, so you will need to prove the concept. We’ll do that this year, and then we can consider expansion in future years.
SfB: Are you a patient investor, Abhishek? Does that sound good to you in terms of this being spoken of in terms of a multi year investment on your part and a multi year runway to establishing this?
I’m a very patient investor because like I said, if my heart’s not in it, I don’t get involved in the first place.
This is something I genuinely believe in, and I know it sounds very PR driven, it’s really not. I mean, this is the kind of person I am.
I genuinely believe that we can make a huge difference and create a huge success with the EDPL. I wouldn’t be here In Dublin if not you know, I’m in the middle of filming a movie right now and I’ve put that aside and I’ve come here.
That’s the level of dedication I bring to the table. That’s the belief that I bring into, you know, what we’re trying to achieve over here. I’m also somebody who’s very optimistic in nature. And I say patient because I’m not going anywhere until I make sure that this is a success and I’m willing to do whatever it takes.
That’s, that’s what I bring to the table. That’s the attitude I bring to the table. And that’s what I demand of all the people that work with me, that look, you’re going to come up against adversity, you’re going to come up against a lot of roadblocks. Anything worth doing is never going to be easy. You have to have the will to make it happen.
And you have to be willing to stay invested emotionally and financially till you can turn it into something that you’re going to be proud of. So that’s what I’m here to do. That’s the only way I know how to do business.
SfB: That’s a great sentiment. And you’ve kind of beaten me to the final question as well was how your filming schedule was going to allow you to be in Dublin and Amsterdam for the first games?
AB: Yes, I’ve carved that out of my shooting schedule. So I will definitely be here for the tournament. Yes.
Further Reading for Sport for Business Members: European Premier League Cricket Gathering Momentum
SPORT FOR BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE
Creating opportunity to engage with fans and build out the sport beyond the national team will be challenging but also important. Ireland, the Netherlands and Scotland are driving this but it has the scope for greater expansion and the potential, perhaps of seeing global superstar playing here in years to come on a frequent sumer time basis.
WHAT’S UP NEXT?
The tournament will take place in July.
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