betasam's Journal: More Indian Cricket and the SMS tide

The fourth consecutive one-day cricket match against Sri Lanka was also played well by the Indians at Pune despite the Sri Lankans recovering form and composure. The Indian strategy while bowling the last 10 overs (and quite some luck) saved them. The "supersub" batsman (Raina) did the last minute work with another fiery batsman supporting him, after what seemed like a falling pack of cards soon after the Captain made a "stupid mistake" (which he honestly admitted to in the presentation ceremony.) It was really nice to see Indian cricket being non-complacent so far. But the big question starts now, if India can hold down an improving Sri Lankan team in the next three matches of the series (after having won it) and play sport for sport's sake, that would be big. The new rules of Powerplay and Supersubs coupled with a few more subtle rule changes in One Day International Cricket has definitely made the game more interesting.

One more interesting statistic that got published in the newspapers is the revenue that has been generated by SMS contests. This has been on an average close to INR 55,000,000 (or 5.5 crores) per match. The commercial exploitation of sports as an entertainment medium has taken quite a turn with telecom networks profiting from it. A similar response has been with the "Kaun Banega Crorepati-2" (India's 'Who wants to be a Millionaire') equivalent. Fast Moving Retail, Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) has now proven itself as a powerful revenue generation source in developing nations such as India. This does bear similarities to an earlier surge in postcard traffic for TV/Media related contests. This surge which came unanticipated forced the Government to refuse subsidised postcards and provide an alternate pricing to cope up with volume and gained huge profits. The tide seems to be shifting in favor of SMS providers (primarily mobile telecom carrier) and they seem to have their commercial models set right. Future businesses may recognise and adopt the potential for low price, high volume, fast moving retail solutions in developing environments as mutually beneficial.