Heavy Hitters

Karnataka Premier League is drawing big money. What’s the game?

You know something’s up when you see a gathering of netas, film stars, real estate barons and even a reformed underworld don. What’s up in Bangalore is interest in T20 cricket, and this motley crew had gathered for a no-holds-barred auction to grab a team for the upcoming Karnataka Premier League (KPL), an Indian Premier League (IPL) clone dreamt up by the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA).

The eight winners walked away with five-year team franchises after paying a whopping Rs 35 crore. The top three teams were bought by realtors that spent nearly Rs 17 crore among themselves. The Bangalore Urban team was bought for Rs 7.2 crore by Brigade Developers; the Bangalore Rural franchise was bagged by Melmont Constructions, a Puravankara group company, for Rs 5.5 crore; and the Mangalore team was snapped up by coastal builder Fizza Developers for a little over Rs 4.2 crore.

Then, there is Mantri Developers throwing in Rs 7.7 crore to play main sponsor. The live telecast rights have been sold to a regional channel owned by the Sun TV Group.

According to Srikanta Datta Narasimharaja Wadiyar, a scion of the Mysore royal family who now heads the KSCA, “We are thrilled that we are the first in the country to start such a tournament.” Brijesh Patel, KSCA’s honorary secretary, is also thrilled to bits with the mega deals. “We had held a T20 tourney much before the BCCI fell for the idea,” he says.

All this, despite stiff opposition from former Test captain Anil Kumble and ‘Mysore Express’ Javagal Srinath, who lament the crass commercialisation of cricket. “What is the KPL about? What is the point of the whole exercise? The KSCA could organise the KPL with BCCI annual grants. In its current form, it would allow a backdoor entry into the KSCA for people not passionate about cricket,” Kumble fumed in a recent media interview.

KPL’s detractors claim that the tournament is being used by a cabal of dodgy realtors, faded cine stars and other has-beens as a way to grab the limelight and make political moves. Among the failed bidders was former Union minister and Kannada actor CH Ambarish, who offered Rs 2.5 crore for the Mysore team along with Nice, which is building the controversial Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project.

Ravi Ramu, a finance maven who’s had stints with KPMG, Infosys and Mphasis BFL, and now a director with Puravankara, tells Open that Provident Bangalore, the Bangalore Rural franchise his company bought for Rs 5.5 crore, is a good investment. “Our primary interest is sport and is linked to the branding of our affordable homes concept from Provident, a group company,” he says, “Both sport and branding work in tandem. As we are ready to roll out several affordable housing projects in Bangalore and other cities, we were keen to own a team.”

Nandish Reddy, a Bangalore city BJP MLA, successfully bid for the Gulbarga team along with a consortium. To be called Bijapur Bulls, the team colours were introduced at a glitzy show recently. How will money be made? It’s mysterious. Unlike the IPL, KSCA has ruled out sharing any revenue from TV deals with team owners. Instead, Frontiers Group, led by TV presenter Charu Sharma, which is promoting the event in association with KSCA, has said teams would get free air time for their spots.

The winner gets Rs 8 lakh and runner-up will take home Rs 4 lakh. That’s not even chump change by IPL’s standards. But then, KPL seems to be about giving Bangalore’s builders the flurry of publicity they need just as the local real estate sector grows hot, what with the city’s metro project reshaping land usage patterns along with the rest of the urbanscape.

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