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ICC World Cup 2011- Money Talk

The 10th edition of the ICC cricket world cup 2011 is finally underwayand the event has generated tremendous excitement and hype. TheWC 2011 is being held in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka- threecricket crazy countries.

India with its population of more than 1 billion plus cricket lovers

forms the financial powerhouse of the sport. The tournament is oftenviewed as a perfect platform for many of the big brands to reach outto their consumers. The WC of 2007 proved catastrophic with India'searly exit from the tournament. The rest of the tournament witnesseda huge dip in viewer ship and sponsorship revenues.

Here is a look at the business side of the world cup that gives a goodindication of the corporate philosophy of some of the biggest brandswe know and efforts they go through to make themselves visible. Italso gives an interesting insight into the administrative aspect of thegame.

Prize MoneyThe cricket world cup has evolved ever since it was first played in 1979when West Indies was the first team to have won it. Clive Lloyd's team

pocketed 4000 pounds for winning the inaugural event and then tookhome another 10000 pounds when they won it again four years later.

Since then the prize money has always been rapidly increasing - anindication of the popularity and commercial potential of the ODIformat.

The winning team of the 43 day event who will be crowned Championsat the Whankede stadium in Mumbai on April 2, 2011 are set to pocketa cool 3.25 million dollars with even the losing team winning asubstantial amount of 1.5 million dollars in prize money.

The two losing semi-finalists will be able to take home 500,000 dollarseach, while teams that are knocked out in the quarter-final stage willget 250,000 dollars each. Apart from that an additional 30,000 dollarswill be awarded to the winners of each first round match.

If the team that has been crowned champion manages to win all theirpreliminary 6 group games then they stand to pocket an additional180,000 dollars. And all this prize money does not include the share of

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the profits the ICC will be giving to all the 14 participating teams fromits joint revenue pool.Official SponsorsThe ad, sponsor and telecast rights have their own tale to tell. HyundaiMotor India Limited (HMIL) will be the first official car partner of ICCWC from 2011 to 2015.

As part of the agreement ICC officials, players and VIP guests will useHyundai cars for official transportation for the entire duration of theICC Cricket World Cup 2011 and the contract extends till 2015.

In addition to the World Cup, Hyundai will also be transport partnersfor the Women's World Cup and the T20 championship.

The on-ground sponsors of ICC World Cup - Reliance Communications,LG, PepsiCo, Reebok, Hero Honda, Emirates, Yahoo, Castrol andMoney Gram have together paid an estimated Rs. 1200 crore for in-stadium advertising.

Since so much of cricket is viewed on television, the game is closelylinked with advertising and ad revenue. And in terms of sponsorships,eight brands have come on board as partnering or associate sponsors.

Sony India, Hero Honda and Vodafone who have each shelled out Rs.55 crore for the rights of on-air joint presenting sponsors for the worldcup. In addition to that associate sponsors Nokia, Pepsi, Maruti Suzuki,Philips India and Airtel Digital TV have all paid Rs. 35 crore each.

Telecast Rights

ESPN Software India has been acknowledged as the official carrier andbroadcaster for the tournament. It has signed an 8 yr deal with ICCthat includes World Cup, one T20 series and one Championship Leagueeach year.

The deal is valued at about $1.1 billion and the network which includesESPN, STAR Sports and STAR Cricket, will telecast all 49 matches ofthe ICC World Cup 2011.

ESPN-STAR Sports will take this tournament to more than 181territories around the world.

ESPN has already said to have signed up brands in the likes of HUL,Spicejet, Perfetti, Samsung, Indigo, Yamaha for ads on its website.

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The current World Cup has so far attracted more than $150 million inadvertising revenue, which is fifty percent more than what was madein 2007 when India and Pakistan lost out very early.

Hence one can imagine the revenues, if India made it to the final.

ESPN has already reserved inventory, this considering if Indiamanages to reach the final.

In that case the ad rates could touch an unprecedented Rs. 24 lakh fora 10-second spot.