A fresh dose of professionalism has transformed the IPL team into a winning unit
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are taking their new marketing campaign, ‘New Dawn, New Knights’ quite seriously. After a dismal performance in the first three seasons of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Shah Rukh Khan-owned team started turning around last season when it made it to the playoffs; and, in the fifth edition of the IPL, KKR seems to be nearing its peak – just a whisker away from the last four and a sure-fire candidate to emerge king of the T20 hill. (AND IT DID)
KKR was at No. 2 position with its win percentage going up from 53.33 in 2011 to 60—with a win against Mumbai Indians away from home being one of its biggest victories of the season. That’s on the field.
Away from the
floodlights, Venky Mysore, CEO & MD, says KKR is the first of the nine IPL
franchisees to have broken even and also posted a profit of Rs.14 crore in
fiscal 2012. By 2013, Mysore
says the team will wipe out its accumulated losses of over Rs.30 crore since 2008.
The journey from bottom-ofthe-heap to the champion began in 2011, when KKR appointed Mysore, a long-time insurance executive, to head the team and ‘corporatise’ it. “We knew right after the first season that we needed to corporatise things,” says Jay Mehta, co-owner of KKR, which was purchased for $75 million in 2008. “We’re not like some of the other teams who have deep pockets. It was really important for us to have (some management) controls in place. The strategy for KKR as a business is clear – we have to be profitable,” adds Mehta, a businessman with interests in cement.
Jeet Banerjee, director with the Kolkata-based sports management company Gameplan, reiterates this. “Six of the nine IPL teams have the backing of large corporate houses,” he says. “They can utilise the resources of the mother company if they want. KKR is a standalone team, and professionalising can only lead to better performances and more revenues.”
Mysore, KKR associates say, has brought some method in the madness. “We had to take some hard decisions,” says Mysore. For a side better known for its high-profile owners (Bollywood stars SRK and Juhi Chawla) and controversial decisions (like sacking skipper Sourav Ganguly) but not necessarily its hunger to win, a revamp was the only way. Mysore initiated an overhaul of the team and brought in mental skills coach Rudi Webster. On the business front, he reworked sponsorship deals, tapped into new revenue streams and new ways of increasing the fan base. But most importantly, Mysore pushed KKR to focus more on player selection. The team spends Rs. 10 crore—or almost a tenth of its revenues —on picking, grooming and managing talent, says the CEO.
It has a formidable scouting team, modelled on the BCCI’s Talent Research Development Wing. The scouts keep an eye on every kind of cricket possible, from Ranji to foreign tournaments. While talent spotting is integral to any IPL franchisee, Mysore says KKR has simply formalised the process.
Before the auctions for IPL 5, the support staff at KKR had to go through a “huge unlearning”; Mysore pushed them to think of a dream team in terms of positions and skills, not big names. “If you get attached to a name, you could falter at the auctions,” says Mysore. The backroom staff drew up a chart of skills (mainly based on conditions at Eden Gardens, where the team would play the maximum number of matches), and then tried to find names to fit each position.
“We analysed every player and put them into different buckets,” says Mysore. “It was a taxing job, but that’s what gave us the bench strength we have today.”
In the last two years, KKR has got players like James Pattinson, Shakib Al Hasan and Marchant de Lange practically at base price because nobody else knew about, or wanted, them. “This will eventually open up a new revenue stream for us,” says Mysore. “When the league starts to mature, trading of players will take place. We’re already getting calls for some of our players, but we don’t want to let anyone go right now,” says Mysore.
Mysore’s bible for the process was the book (and now film) ‘Moneyball,’ which recounts the first time a baseball team in the US was put together by statistical analysis over big names.
Since auctions are where the action is, Mysore contracted a Chennai company to give his selectors and support staff an “auction mindset”. They organised mock auctions, created simulations and built multiple ‘decision trees’, creating a cascade of choices (of line-up) around each player’s name.
Additionally, this year the team decided to spend their $2 million purse more judiciously. After splurging on marquee players like KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir ($2.4 million) and Yusuf Pathan ($2.1 million) last year, this time they invested in just three players: de Lange, Brendon McCullum again (for $900,000) and a complete nobody called Sunil Narine (for $700,000); at least two of them have proved to be match-winners.
KKR’s string of victories has already pushed up ticket sales, which brought in Rs. 25-30 crore in fiscal 20120. The 70,000-capacity Eden Gardens, the biggest stadium in the country, is running to packed houses during KKR matches. “We have seen an increase of about 25% in ticket sales since 2011, which was our best year,” says Mysore. “The way the team is going, by the end of the season, we would have touched a 30% increase.”
Since gate sales are one of several sources of revenue — the others being broadcast rights, sponsorships, merchandising and licensing — dynamic pricing of tickets is keeping the registers ringing.
“We adopted scientific ways to work out sponsorship deals as well,” says Mysore, “in the way we have priced them, the deliverables, and the brands we want to associate with.”
With the exception of anchor sponsor Nokia, which was retained, Mysore and his team created individual deals with about 20 new companies, among them Matrix, Reebok, DishTv, Spanco and Rose Valley. This has enabled KKR to charge almost 10% more for its properties, and exploit opportunities for advertising on jerseys, helmets and gear. Mysore also hired London-based company Repucom to identify new ways of brand building.
Despite a high-profile team of players and support staff, KKR has consciously tried to keep its operating costs low. KKR has the smallest squad of all the franchisees, with just 20 players, as against the 30-odd of the others. If KKR has an Achilles’ heel, it could well be their owner SRK, got embroiled in a bust-up with security officials at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. “KKR has tremendous potential as a club, but they are over-dependent on their brand ambassador who is a lightning rod for sponsors and endorsements,” says Unni Krishnan, MD of Brand Finance, the London-based brand valuation consultancy that had, in the very first season, declared KKR as the most valuable IPL franchisee, at $42.1 million.
“They need to get rid of that crutch and start focusing on other important issues.”
The journey from bottom-ofthe-heap to the champion began in 2011, when KKR appointed Mysore, a long-time insurance executive, to head the team and ‘corporatise’ it. “We knew right after the first season that we needed to corporatise things,” says Jay Mehta, co-owner of KKR, which was purchased for $75 million in 2008. “We’re not like some of the other teams who have deep pockets. It was really important for us to have (some management) controls in place. The strategy for KKR as a business is clear – we have to be profitable,” adds Mehta, a businessman with interests in cement.
Jeet Banerjee, director with the Kolkata-based sports management company Gameplan, reiterates this. “Six of the nine IPL teams have the backing of large corporate houses,” he says. “They can utilise the resources of the mother company if they want. KKR is a standalone team, and professionalising can only lead to better performances and more revenues.”
Mysore, KKR associates say, has brought some method in the madness. “We had to take some hard decisions,” says Mysore. For a side better known for its high-profile owners (Bollywood stars SRK and Juhi Chawla) and controversial decisions (like sacking skipper Sourav Ganguly) but not necessarily its hunger to win, a revamp was the only way. Mysore initiated an overhaul of the team and brought in mental skills coach Rudi Webster. On the business front, he reworked sponsorship deals, tapped into new revenue streams and new ways of increasing the fan base. But most importantly, Mysore pushed KKR to focus more on player selection. The team spends Rs. 10 crore—or almost a tenth of its revenues —on picking, grooming and managing talent, says the CEO.
It has a formidable scouting team, modelled on the BCCI’s Talent Research Development Wing. The scouts keep an eye on every kind of cricket possible, from Ranji to foreign tournaments. While talent spotting is integral to any IPL franchisee, Mysore says KKR has simply formalised the process.
Before the auctions for IPL 5, the support staff at KKR had to go through a “huge unlearning”; Mysore pushed them to think of a dream team in terms of positions and skills, not big names. “If you get attached to a name, you could falter at the auctions,” says Mysore. The backroom staff drew up a chart of skills (mainly based on conditions at Eden Gardens, where the team would play the maximum number of matches), and then tried to find names to fit each position.
“We analysed every player and put them into different buckets,” says Mysore. “It was a taxing job, but that’s what gave us the bench strength we have today.”
In the last two years, KKR has got players like James Pattinson, Shakib Al Hasan and Marchant de Lange practically at base price because nobody else knew about, or wanted, them. “This will eventually open up a new revenue stream for us,” says Mysore. “When the league starts to mature, trading of players will take place. We’re already getting calls for some of our players, but we don’t want to let anyone go right now,” says Mysore.
Mysore’s bible for the process was the book (and now film) ‘Moneyball,’ which recounts the first time a baseball team in the US was put together by statistical analysis over big names.
Since auctions are where the action is, Mysore contracted a Chennai company to give his selectors and support staff an “auction mindset”. They organised mock auctions, created simulations and built multiple ‘decision trees’, creating a cascade of choices (of line-up) around each player’s name.
Additionally, this year the team decided to spend their $2 million purse more judiciously. After splurging on marquee players like KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir ($2.4 million) and Yusuf Pathan ($2.1 million) last year, this time they invested in just three players: de Lange, Brendon McCullum again (for $900,000) and a complete nobody called Sunil Narine (for $700,000); at least two of them have proved to be match-winners.
KKR’s string of victories has already pushed up ticket sales, which brought in Rs. 25-30 crore in fiscal 20120. The 70,000-capacity Eden Gardens, the biggest stadium in the country, is running to packed houses during KKR matches. “We have seen an increase of about 25% in ticket sales since 2011, which was our best year,” says Mysore. “The way the team is going, by the end of the season, we would have touched a 30% increase.”
Since gate sales are one of several sources of revenue — the others being broadcast rights, sponsorships, merchandising and licensing — dynamic pricing of tickets is keeping the registers ringing.
“We adopted scientific ways to work out sponsorship deals as well,” says Mysore, “in the way we have priced them, the deliverables, and the brands we want to associate with.”
With the exception of anchor sponsor Nokia, which was retained, Mysore and his team created individual deals with about 20 new companies, among them Matrix, Reebok, DishTv, Spanco and Rose Valley. This has enabled KKR to charge almost 10% more for its properties, and exploit opportunities for advertising on jerseys, helmets and gear. Mysore also hired London-based company Repucom to identify new ways of brand building.
Despite a high-profile team of players and support staff, KKR has consciously tried to keep its operating costs low. KKR has the smallest squad of all the franchisees, with just 20 players, as against the 30-odd of the others. If KKR has an Achilles’ heel, it could well be their owner SRK, got embroiled in a bust-up with security officials at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. “KKR has tremendous potential as a club, but they are over-dependent on their brand ambassador who is a lightning rod for sponsors and endorsements,” says Unni Krishnan, MD of Brand Finance, the London-based brand valuation consultancy that had, in the very first season, declared KKR as the most valuable IPL franchisee, at $42.1 million.
“They need to get rid of that crutch and start focusing on other important issues.”
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nice cricket blog news
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