Indian Premier League Research Articles

Indirect tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorships in the Indian Premier League 2020: Tobacco Industry's continuous presence in Indian cricket

BackgroundIndian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament - a shorter version of the sport which is played between assorted company-owned or individual owner teams - has grown immensely popular over the last decade. There is long history of tobacco advertisement, promotion and sponsorship (TAPS) in cricket. While direct and indirect TAPS is completely prohibited under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), 2003 the nexus between tobacco industry and cricket in India continues. We monitored any tobacco product and allied brand or surrogate advertisement, promotion, sponsorship (TAPS) or placement during every match played in the IPL-13 season in the year 2020. MethodsUsing an investigative approach, 60 match highlights during IPL-13 (during September 19 to November 10, 2020) were monitored for TAPS (both on-site i.e. sportswear and/or in stadia) shown on the official website (www.iplt20.com). All sponsors and advertisers were validated using brand names or logos from their respective official website. ResultsTwo IPL teams (Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore) were sponsored by major tobacco industry owned brands. Violations by a major smokeless tobacco company promoting their brand extension product i.e. Vimal Elaichi, on the official telecast websites (www.espncricinfo.com and www.cricbuzz.com) and television channels (www.Zeenews.india.com/Gujarati) was observed. Tobacco companies i.e. Kamla Pasand and ITC Limited were also listed as associate sponsors for the 2020 championship. ConclusionDespite comprehensive ban under India's tobacco control law (COTPA, 2003), sponsorship by tobacco industry was found widespread in IPL-13. Advertisement and logos of tobacco companies are persistent during the telecast and promotion of the IPL events, in clear violation of India's tobacco control legislation and Article 13 of WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) and its guidelines. Given that India and South Asia comprise the largest audience for televised cricket, strong exclusion criteria is needed by the international cricket authority and national cricket associations to ensure compliance with the national law and global good practice, making the cricketing world truly tobacco free.

IPL Data Analysis using Hadoop – Pig and Hive

Cricket is one of the most loved and favourite sport entertainments specially in India. The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a T20 cricket league tournament held in India every year where top players from all over the world take part. It is the most celebrated and attended cricket league in the world and ranks sixth among all sports leagues. Hadoop is an open source framework which is used to store and process bigdata. Here, we have analysed and interpreted various insights from the dataset of Indian Premier League using Pig and HIVE.

Analyzing the role of national culture on content creation and user engagement on Twitter: The case of Indian Premier League cricket franchises

The content generation strategy of a sports franchise determines whether the user engagement increases or decreases on social media platforms. Thus, the role of Chief Operating Officer (COO) is profound who generally decides and governs social media policies of the franchises. We show that the cultural differences between local-COO vis-à-vis foreign-COO-governed sports franchises reflect in their content generation strategy and are also associated with user engagement. We use Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory and extract relevant features from the tweets. Overall, the results show that user engagement is more when the content generation strategy is in alignment with fans’ national culture. The first contribution of our work is towards showing the incremental impact of power distance, individualism and collectivism on user engagement. The second contribution of our work is towards feature construction, feature selection and building authorship attribution classifiers to understand the content generation strategy. Prior literature shows that national culture impacts writing of online reviews. We investigate the role of national culture in social media content generation and user engagement and extend the literature. Our study is useful for organizations to understand the role of national culture in content generation and how it is related to user engagement.

Prediction of IPL matches using Machine Learning while tackling ambiguity in results

Background/Objectives: The IPL (Indian Premier League) is one of the most viewed cricket matches in the world. With a perpetual increase in the popularity and advertising associated with it, forecasting the IPL matches is becoming a need for the advertisers and the sponsors. This paper is centered on the implementation of machine learning to foretell the winner of an IPL match. Methods/Statistical analysis: The cricket in the T-20 format is highly unpredictable - many features contribute to the result of a cricket match, and each attribute feature has a weighted impact on the outcome of a game. In this paper, first, a meaningful dataset through data mining was defined; next, essential features using various methods like feature engineering and Analytic Hierarchy Process were derived. Besides, a key issue on data symmetry and the inability of models to handle it was identified, which extends to all types of classification models that compare two or more classes using similar features for both the classes. This concept in the paper is termed as model ambiguity that occurs due to the model’s asymmetric nature. Alongside, different machine learning classification algorithms like Naive Bayes, SVM, k- Nearest Neighbor, Random Forest, Logistic Regression, ExtraTreesClassifier, XGBoost were adopted to train the models for predicting the winner. Findings: As per the investigation, tree-based classifiers provided better results with the derived model. The highest accuracy of 60.043% with Random Forest, with a standard deviation of 6.3% and an ambiguity of 1.4%, was observed. Novelty/Applications: Apart from reporting a more accurate result, the derived model has also solved the problem of multicollinearity and identified the issue of data symmetry (termed as model ambiguity). It can be leveraged by brands, sponsors, and advertisers to keep up their marketing strategies. Keywords: The Indian Premier League; machine learning; analytic hierarchy process; winner prediction; IPL

Governance in Indian cricket: Examining the Board of Control for Cricket in India through the good governance framework

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is one of the biggest, wealthiest and most influential sport governing bodies in the world. The BCCI has overseen traditional Test cricket in India since 1928. In 2008, the Indian cricket landscape shifted with the development of the Indian Premier League (IPL), a Tweny20 cricket league that has exploded in popularity since its launch. The BCCI also governs over the IPL, which generates extensive income and has raised the profile of Indian cricket around the world. However, recent controversies and corruption scandals have brought increasing scrutiny to the BCCI. In this study, the good governance framework from UK sport is applied to examine the BCCI. The good governance framework is used to examine five elements of the BCCI: structure, people, communication, standards and conduct, and policies and process. Through interviews with expert journalists and researchers (n = 6), it is clear that the BCCI needs to make significant reforms to better align with good governance principles. Namely, the BCCI must address concerns over transparency, accountability, managing conflicts of interests, structural problems and revise their policies and processes. On the other hand, participants applauded the BCCI’s contributions to enhancing cricket globally.

Indian premier league (IPL) match victory and sponsors' stock returns

This paper attempts to study the impact of Indian Premier League (IPL) match victories on the stock returns of the playing teams' major sponsors. We hand‐collect the events and sponsorship data for the years 2014–2017 and exploit the event study method for our analysis. We first compute the abnormal returns and then cross validate using the market model. Further, we estimate the cumulative abnormal returns to separately examine the impact of popularity matches. Our results suggest that the overall performance of a team throughout a whole season as well as unlikely wins or close‐finishes tends to have a favorable impact on the sponsors' stock returns.

Attachment points, team identification and sponsorship outcomes: evidence from the Indian Premier League

PurposeThis paper tests and validates a conceptual model linking the attachment points, team identification, attitude towards the team sponsors and the behavioural intentions in the context of Indian Premier League (IPL), while testing for the moderating effects of age and gender.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 1,053 participants through both online and offline survey and then analyzed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM).FindingsAttachment points influence the formation of team identification, which, in turn, affect the attitude towards the team sponsors. Attitude towards the team sponsors influence the behavioural intentions. Player attachment influences team identification the most. Age and gender have a moderating effect on the constructs of the study. Team identification in females is stronger because of attachment to sports, whereas males have stronger team identification based on player attachment. Males have a stronger intention to spread positive word of mouth (WOM) about sponsor products as compared to the female respondents. The younger age group of less than 21 years has more intention to spread positive WOM compared to the other age groups considered in the study.Practical implicationsThis study contributes towards sports sponsorship research and the paradigms of social identity and attachment theories. Moreover, it will also help the marketers (sponsors) in IPL to strategically market their brands.Originality/valueThis is the first study to investigate the impact of attachment points on sponsorship outcomes in the context of IPL. Further, it is also the first to investigate the purchase intentions and WOM for the team sponsors in IPL. The multi-group analysis results will provide insights into marketers to better understand IPL viewers' segments and their behaviour.

Consequences of Event-Sponsor Fit in Sport Sponsorship: Evidence from the Indian Premier League

This study investigates the sponsorship effectiveness in the context of the Indian Premier League (IPL). A conceptual model was developed with the event-sponsor fit as the independent variable and brand equity and purchase intention of the event sponsor as the dependent variables. Data were collected from 303 IPL fans using a questionnaire survey. Structural equation modelling was used. IBM SPSS 17 and AMOS 18 software were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing. The results showed that event-sponsor fit influences the attitude towards the sponsor and sponsorship as a whole. The attitudinal constructs influenced the brand equity and purchase intention of the sponsor brand. This is the first study that empirically tests the relationship between event-sponsor fit, attitudinal constructs, brand equity and purchase intention in the context of IPL. The findings of this study can help the brand marketers to make the best of the sponsorship deals.

Sports result prediction using data mining techniques in comparison with base line model

Sports prediction is one of the recent growing areas of interest entailing good prediction accuracy. Coaches require models in order to assess their players, analyse opponent teams and formulate winning strategies. Generation of comprehensive statistical data in sports has enabled data mining (DM) techniques to be applied to it in order to extract underlying predictive information. In this paper, an approach based on data mining is proposed for result prediction in sports. The work includes pre-processing of data, feature extraction, attribute selection and application of DM algorithms as a learning strategy. To validate our proposed model, a case study concerning prediction of the results of Indian Premier League (IPL) matches is illustrated. The constructed models are based on the performance of teams in past matches, player performance indices, opposition team information and external factors, and therefore, relevant features are engineered to indicate the same. The best prediction accuracy was found to be 70.58%.

Predicting the Outcome of a T20 Cricket Game Based on the Players’ Abilities to Perform Under Pressure

With the advent of the Twenty20 format in cricket, the game has become more competitive. The number of nail-biting finishes that go to the last over has also increased as a result. As the game goes to the last over, the match result is mostly dependent on the effectiveness of batsmen at the crease and the player who is bowling the last over. This gave rise to an interesting idea for predicting the game result before the start of the final over based on the capabilities of the batsmen and the bowler. We used data from the first eight Indian Premier League (IPL) seasons as the training data, and from the last two IPL seasons as the test data. We trained and tested our model using Random Forest, Support Vector Machine (SVM) and k-nearest neighbors algorithms, and obtained the best accuracy using the SVM (89.36%).

The backlift techniques of cricketers in the Indian Premier League: batting implications for the shorter format

Cricket batting is a complex movement which can be broken down into a number of components such as the grip, stance, initial movement, backlift, downswing and followthrough. The batting backlift technique (BBT) is an important component of the overall batting technique, when the batsman lifts the bat in preparation for the downswing when impact is made with the ball. Research has demonstrated that the BBT appears to be a key contributing factor to successful batsmanship. For the purpose of this study, video footage of players from the Indian Premier League (IPL) season was analysed (n = 30). This was used to identify the type of BBT employed by the batsmen at the moment the bowler released the ball. The number of players using a lateral batting backlift technique (LBBT) (n = 27) was significantly greater than those using a straight batting backlift technique (SBBT) (χ2 = 19.2, df = 1, p < 0.001). The results showed that 90% of the top performing IPL batsmen during the 2016 season did not adopt the traditionally taught SBBT. Instead, they adopted a more looped action in which the movement of the bat at the moment the bowler released the ball was in the direction of the slips (i.e.: the fielders positioned at an angle behind the batsmen). From this study, it can be postulated that a LBBT is a key contributing factor for batting success, at least in the shorter version of the game, as represented by T20 cricket. It is suggested that in order to score at a rapid rate, as required in T20 games, a LBBT is more effective for batsmen (particularly for presenting an open face of the bat), whereas a SBBT, which is a more a defensive action, may be more suitable for use in the more extended Test match version of the game.

Editorial

Editorial

An Empirical Study to Analyse Indian Cricketers’ Career Progression in View of Current Cricket Explosion

Sports career is brief and sport career transition (SCT) is a well-researched topic to see how players deal with it. Cricket is the most popular sport in India and the game is evolving thick and fast. Cricket has become an all season sport barring rainy and snowy conditions. Plethora of options are now available to the players which includes test cricket, one day international (ODI), twenty 20 international (T20I), Indian Premier League (IPL) and similar franchise-based leagues on T20 and T10 along with first-class domestic cricket. With this deluge in cricket, it is pertinent to study career progression of cricketers. IPL, despite a brand value of US$6.3 billion, is often criticized for bringing players into limelight too soon, paving way for playing test matches and fading even sooner into oblivion being unable to cope with volume and variety of cricket. The present article analyses Indian cricketers’ career progression pattern using hierarchical clustering analysis, and it also investigates if cricketers are graduating faster from domestic to test cricket using two-sample t-test.

Novel Performance Metrics to Evaluate the Duel Between a Batsman and a Bowler

In the current system of cricket, the most commonly used measures to evaluate players’ performance are batting and bowling averages, strike rate and economy rate. While these measures are easy to compute and understand, they fail to reflect a complete picture of the players’ performance as they do not consider the context of the match. Various factors, such as balls faced and left, wickets remaining, the skill level of the opponent, etc., are not being considered while evaluating the players’ performance. In addition, these conventional measures fail to compare a batsman’s performance against that of a bowler or vice versa. The objective of this article is to arrive at a measure that will better explain the performance of the players while incorporating some of the factors as stated above. In this article, we use strike rate for the batsman and economy rate for the bowler to arrive at a common scale for ratings. Furthermore, we use the concept of Elo ratings in order to evaluate the duel between a batsman and a bowler. Based on the developed methodology, we evaluate the duels between the players in the Indian Premier League 2018 finals.

Indian Premier League – Cricket, Entertainment or Business?

The Indian Premier League has changed the mindset of the people towards cricket. It is considered as one of the most sought after extravaganza which is a combination of entertainment, nailbiting cricket, world-famous cricketers, corporate houses, and Bollywood stars with a massive global viewership. Many corporate houses have considered IPL as the best platform to market their products and services. This paper starts with a brief outline of the history of IPL followed by measuring the influence of demographic variables on cricket and IPL watching preference of the respondents. It also tries to understand the influence of advertisements aired during IPL on viewers' purchase behaviour. The paper compares the opinions of Mumbai and Bangalore viewers. The paper used the combination of literature review and multiple-choice based questionnaire to understand the use of advertisements during IPL and the perception of respondents about the marquee event. The paper will help organizations to understand the general preference of the audience towards cricket and brands endorsed. The findings reveal that brands have to innovate better to capture the attention of the audience watching through television during breaks. The research will help future researchers to take variables into consideration for more detailed study which will pave way for interesting observations which can be used by companies for brand development.

Measuring Customer Discrimination: Evidence From the Professional Cricket League in India

This article examines customer discrimination considering a unique data set from the most popular sports industry in India, that is, cricket. Relying on Playing XI vote in the Indian Premier League, we analyze whether supporters have different personal preferences toward players based on their location of origin and religion. In contrast to the often-heated rhetoric surrounding discrimination and previous literature, we overall do not find any discrimination in voting. We instead find a positive preference for popular foreign players. Our results further suggest that if we examine discrimination by controlling for proxy productivity characteristics, it may produce bias results.

Indian Premier League – Effect of Distance Travelled by Teams during Group Stages on their Home and Away Wins

Indian Premier League – Effect of Distance Travelled by Teams during Group Stages on their Home and Away Wins

Consequences of event-sponsor fit in sport sponsorship: evidence from the Indian Premier League

This study investigates the sponsorship effectiveness in the context of the Indian Premier League (IPL). A conceptual model was developed with the event-sponsor fit as the independent variable and brand equity and purchase intention of the event sponsor as the dependent variables. Data were collected from 303 IPL fans using a questionnaire survey. Structural equation modelling was used. IBM SPSS 17 and AMOS 18 software were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing. The results showed that event-sponsor fit influences the attitude towards the sponsor and sponsorship as a whole. The attitudinal constructs influenced the brand equity and purchase intention of the sponsor brand. This is the first study that empirically tests the relationship between event-sponsor fit, attitudinal constructs, brand equity and purchase intention in the context of IPL. The findings of this study can help the brand marketers to make the best of the sponsorship deals.

Setting final target score in T-20 cricket match by the team batting first

The purpose of this paper is to develop a deterministic model for setting the target in T-20 Cricket by the team batting first. Mathematical tools were used in model development. Recursive function and secondary data statistics of T-20 cash rich cricket tournament Indian Premier League (IPL) such as runs scored in different stages, fall wickets in different stages, and type of pitch are used in developing the model. This model was tested at 120 matches held IPL 2016 and 2017. This model had been proved effective by comparing with the models developed earlier. This model can be a useful tool to the stakeholders like coach and captain of the team for adopting better strategy at any stage of the match. For future research, this model can be useful in framing a regulation work by policy makers at both national and international cricket board by deriving the target score during interruptions.

The Business of Indian Premier League and the Impact of Chennai Super Kings as a Franchise on it

The Business of Indian Premier League and the Impact of Chennai Super Kings as a Franchise on it