Franchise Owners: An Entitled Lot

A large swathe of print space has consumed the recent on field “conversation” between the Lucknow Super Giant’s owner Sanjiv Goenka and Suniel Shetty’s son in law. So why not add some more since all one is reading and writing about nowadays is two of India’s largest entertainment shows – the IPL and the Lok Sabha elections.

The concept of owning a sports team is relatively new in India, perhaps only since the 2008 IPL and hence the conduct of the owners is also evolving. They are carrying their conduct from their living room or the film-studio or the board room to the field of play. An evolution of sorts. Sadly, the owners are exhibiting a tasteless combination of entitlement, hubris, and crassness. This is not surprising since most belong to the film industry where morals and etiquettes are rare occurrences. Hence, we have an IPL franchise owner who while supporting a cricket team and encouraging kids to play the sport is also peddling Gutkha.

A cricket field or for that matter any field of play or court of play are sacred and the exclusive domain of the athlete. However, that sacredness has been thrown to the dogs with some owners carrying their living room sofa and lounging on the same, exhibiting some outlandish behaviour. They believe that owning a team has given them the moral right to do as they please. Sadly, most of them have never held a bat or ball; not that it is a pre-requisite to own a team but surely to exhibit civilized conduct is a pre-requisite. While the current tamasha was going on, I was playing a tournament for over 50-year-olds in Goa. During one of the games, I was pleasantly surprised when the umpires ticked off the mentor cum coach of my team who came carrying drinks with some instructions for us. The admonishment was not because of the instructions passed on but because he walked on to the field of play in a pair of shorts.

Sports has certain morals, etiquette, and dignity which the franchise owners in our country do not understand. For them it is merely a question of return on investment. I enjoyed Joy Bhattacharjya’s recent article in the Times of India where he has said; “The best regarded owners tend to hide their tensions from the team, let professionals run the sporting part of the business and are content to be ceremonial heads of that part of the business, leaving the executive decisions to the managers and coaches.” Have you ever seen the owners of any of the English Premier League team jump on to the field of play after the game. Or give instructions to the players or the coach. Yes, they could be expressing themselves behind closed doors. Seldom do they even participate when the cup is handed to the winning team. This is class; old school etiquette. There is respect and understanding of the game and its rules. They make sure that they do not cross any “boundary”.

This feeling of entitlement and brutishness among the IPL owners could also be because of the IPL’s auction process, a point elaborated by Joy in the same article. “The owners have been perceived to have a far more direct relationship with selection. Players are bid for and bought, sometimes for jaw dropping prices. And while professionals were definitely playing a part in the planning, many teams finally chose to go hard after a particular player on the whims of their owners”.

So, what is the solution? One cannot ban the film fraternity or others from owning a team since they are the ones with deep pockets. And they are the ones that get the required eyeballs and get the turnstiles turning. Perhaps a moral code of conduct needs to be read out to them by the league organisers. And any transgression along the way should be severely penalized. Also, a bit of self-introspection may help. But that is a utopian thought with the lot in question.