In June 2003 at The Rose Bowl in Hampshire, England, the very first game of Twenty20 cricket was played between the two English county teams Hampshire and Sussex. Rather anti-climactically, the first ball was a wide. But the bowler quickly ran back to his mark to bowl again displaying a sense of urgency seldom seen in this most parochial of sports.
The inventor, former English Cricket Board (ECB) Marketing Manager Stuart Robertson had been instructed by his employer to research ways in which cricket could be made more accessible. Market research had shown that people felt excluded by the longer versions of cricket because of the time required to complete a game. Something was required that people could watch after school or work with their family and friends that would only last a few hours.
Twenty20 ticked all the boxes and became a big success. Four years later the ICC held the inaugural T20 World Cup in South Africa and the money started rolling in.
The winners of that first World Cup, India had largely ignored T20 cricket up until that point. But as the legions of fanatical Indian cricket lovers celebrated, plans were underway for what is now one of the most watched sporting events on the planet - the Indian Premier League (IPL)
There is quite rightly, a sense of national pride in India associated with the IPL. This tournament alone will go along way to redefining the game of cricket.
T20 is very much a game for the modern ‘want it now’ generation and has many purists worried. Test Cricket - the very rock upon which cricket was built - the ultimate ‘test’ of not just individual cricketing skills but of inner strength and character is on the wane.
After a very successful - albeit forced foray into a foreign market (the second season of IPL was held in South Africa this year because of security concerns in India), the entrepreneurs behind the IPL are eyeing up further expansion. This time - in America. America is not seen as a traditional cricketing nation but the prospect of a second season of IPL to be played in the US during the summer has become a very real possibility.
With the number of sub-continent and Caribbean expats in the US it is estimated that there are 15 to 20 million cricket fans in America. With a potential audience of more than double that figure it makes America the second biggest cricket market - for Twenty20 - outside of India.
The real challenge lies in how to sell Twenty20 to your average American who may have never seen the game before. The skeptics will wonder how on earth cricket can be a success in America when its main sporting rival, baseball, is so popular.
The Chairman of the IPL, Lalit Modi - points to many interesting statistics when eyeing expansion into the US. In the IPL for instance, 70% of the audience attending matches had never been to a game of cricket before. Out of that 70%, 80% of these people went to 2 or more games. Modi is confident and rightly so.
It may surprise some to learn that America does have a cricketing history. In fact, the first ever game of International cricket was played between the US and Canada in 1844. The match was held in New York and was watched by more than 10,000 spectators.
There are currently no professional cricket leagues or teams in the US however, but interestingly, the game is played extensively at grass roots level. The next step is there to be taken and the canny marketers behind the IPL are ready to pounce.
There are other cricketing frontiers that the International Cricket Council (ICC) is eyeing for expansion. The most notable country on the hit list is China. - A fledging cricketing nation in every sense of the word who has set itself the target of participating in the 2019 World Cup. If China falls in love with cricket it is quite conceivable that they could become a cricketing super-power the equal of India in 20 or 30 years from now.
The game of cricket, once the most English and exclusive of games is now well on the way to becoming entrenched in the global sporting consciousness along side sports such as football and to a lesser degree rugby. The reach and appeal of the IPL is testament to the cultural and economic growth of India. The spiritual home of cricket may well be Lords in London. But the future of the game most definitely lies elsewhere.
Thanks to Twenty20, the game of cricket is on the up. The modern game is being shaped by the masses of IPL fans in India and by the players who can now command huge salaries like never before. The game is no longer being run by a group of pipe smoking, walking stick wielding, old school tie wearing fuddy-duddies. Cricket is going global.

by AndrewBurns on Sunday, 28 June 2009 at 05:53 UAE time.

Found on guardian.co.uk:

Manchester United have been rated the eighth most valuable sports brand in the world in a new study which for the first time has assessed the comparative worths of 200 brands across the sporting spectrum.

Brands from the United States head the list compiled by SportsPro magazine, with the National Football League's value of $4.5bn (£2.75bn) ranking it No1, ahead of Major League Baseball ($3.936bn), and the National Basketball Association ($2.344bn).

United are valued at $1.495bn, three places and £200m behind the Fifa World Cup, worth $1.7bn.

The headline success story is the fledgling Indian Premier League which despite being two seasons old is rated only a place and £100m less valuable than the World Cup, the flagship property of the planet's most popular sport.

The Premier League, though, was not considered in the analysis. "The EPL and some other leagues did not make the list because they are owned by the clubs and are effectively revenue distribution entities not properties," said Tom Rubython, the editor-in-chief of SportsPro.

"As in the case of the EPL shares are returned on a team's relegation and handed over to the promoted teams. Effectively they are like a mutual – ie, an old-fashioned building society. The EPL is obviously valuable but not in a monetary sense, which is why the top teams in Europe will eventually form their own league they can actually own.

"Conversely the NFL – and all the other leagues in the table – is a permanent league with no promotion or relegation."

While the $1.55bn-valued Ferrari is the top-ranked team, a place ahead of United, the Premier League champions are ahead of formula one ($1.45bn), which is ninth, the $1.1bn Champions League (13th), and Real Madrid, worth $1.073bn in 14th place.

Arsenal is the next highest English club in 21st, with a value of $910m, six places above Liverpool ($801m). Chelsea's $634m pushes into 55th.

Blog found on TechCrunch:

Yahoo Is Now Resorting To Selling Killer Domain Names On The Cheap
by MG Siegler on June 17, 2009

No sooner do we finish writing up Yahoo deadpooling yet another project, Gallery, do we get a tip that Yahoo apparently has another money saving/making plan: Selling off domains it owns. That’s exactly what it has done with contests.com, which sold during a live auction last night.

What’s really odd though (aside from an Internet giant actually selling a domain rather than buying one), is the price at which it sold. Contests.com is a killer domain name. People like my mother love nothing more than going online and searching for contests to enter to win stuff. But what’s crazy is that Yahoo sold it for only $380,000.

Let’s put that in some perspective. In February, Toys.com sold for $5.1 million in auction. Sure, that’s a better domain, but not over 10 times better. And a few weeks ago, Candy.com sold for $3 million.

How Yahoo failed to secure even a million for the name is beyond me. Just poor luck in the auction? This guy, who apparently left right before the auction started last night is flabbergasted as well.

I just really would like to know why Yahoo would even sell it in the first place? I know times are tough at Yahoo but is $380K really going to help much in the long run? No. Hell, it’d probably be better to keep the domain and just put a load of ads on it, perhaps even Google ads. Or, I don’t know, run some Yahoo contests on it. People on the web love that stuff, I hear.

Matthew Hayden, enjoying huge success in the Indian Premier League, which reaches its climax in South Africa this weekend, has called on the game's governing body to take note of the success of Twenty20 cricket and make future international programmes reflect this.

...

Read the whole "guardian.co.uk" article HERE.

Check it out here and don't forget Mother's Day is Sunday, May 10th.

The IPL will now finally take place in SA after IPL chairman Lalit Modi met CSA chief Gerald Majola at an undisclosed venue to discuss the possibility of hosting the second edition of the Twenty20 event here. They both attended a joint press conference and the salient points of the press conference are here as follows...

Please continue reading here.

Chicago (IL) - Ever wonder what the oldest registered .com domain is on the Internet? After all, they haven't always existed. In fact, it was just 24 years ago this month that the oldest domain was registered. It was www.symbolics.com, owned by the Symbolics, Inc. company who, back in the day, was a leading software development firm with software projects designed back in the 1980s which appear very much like modern software designs seen today. For example, they had developed a fully object-oriented operating system called Genera, which today still exists as Open Genera, for Alpha CPUs. Their domain was registered on March 15, 1985 -- when the Internet was brand new.

Read the whole "TG Daily" article HERE.

Toy retailer ToysRUs has paid $5.1m (£3.6m) for the Toys.com domain name.

The amount has surprised onlookers and hints at a deeper commitment to online retailing for the toy giant.

It is believed to be the biggest payout for a domain this year but has some way to go to beat the $14m paid for sex.com in 2007 or the $9.5m paid for porn.com.UK domain name seller Sedo said it had seen prices halved for .co.uk domain names since the economic downturn started to take hold.

Brand kudos
But, said Sedo's business development manager Nora Nanayakkara, more small- to medium-sized businesses are buying domains.
"Sales have tripled as businesses see the value in having a presence online," she said.
"In the case of ToysRUs it could be that they are thinking of rebranding or increasing its online presence," she said.
"Toys.com is going to put them in the top search ranking and is likely to give them kudos in terms of brand recognition," she added.

In the US, domain name prices have remained stable, according to Ron Jackson, editor of the Domain Name Journal. He said that the average .com domain was selling for $2,688 (£1,904) in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared to $2,788 (£1,976) for the same period in 2007.

Selling online
For many online, it is a way to buck the downturn, he thinks.
"The severe recession is forcing businesses to look for the most cost effective, efficient way they can possibly operate and for many that means establishing or reinforcing a web presence," he said.
"This is especially true of brick and mortar retailers. There is much less overhead involved in selling toys for example online than through hundreds of cash-draining big box retail stores."
The Toys.com auction, which took place last week, saw a series of bidders for the domain. But as the price hit $3m (£2.1m), only two were left - ToysRUs and National A-1 Advertising.
The domain had previously been up for auction and went to a company called Faculty Lounge for $1.25m (£886,000).

The Indian Premier League, which has emerged as a hot media property and redefined the concept of sports in India, is likely to continue its upbeat streak, despite the recessionary trends.
Industry experts at the FICCI Frames 2009, which saw a large gathering of media and entertainment industry players, feel that the forthcoming second edition of the T20 event will attract advertisers and media buyers at the same pace.
Echoing the industry’s sentiments, the annual FICCI-KPMG report on the industry said, “Gauging by industry reaction, IPL is expected to continue as a prime driver in the media and entertainment industry for the coming year.”

Read the whole "Business Line" article HERE.

CNN reports:

England's Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff have become the highest-priced players in the Indian Premier League after being bought for $1.55 million each.

Friday's auction saw the world's richest Twenty20 league's eight teams bidding to take on 17 players from a list of 42.

Batting star Pietersen and all-rounder Flintoff, both former England captains, easily exceeded their reserve prices of $1.35 million and $950,000 respectively.

Pietersen was picked up by the league's bottom side -- the Bangalore Royal Challengers -- while Flintoff is headed for the third-rated Chennai Super Kings.

Both will only receive half of their massive fees in their first year because of being available for only three of the six weeks of the tournament.

Pietersen, who with Flintoff is playing a Test match in Jamaica against West Indies, was stunned by the price he fetched.

"It's an unbelievable amount of money and I can't wait to get out there," he told Press Association.

The Challengers' owner, billionaire Vijay Mallya, told the IPL's official Web site that he had always been keen on Pietersen.

"He would be a superb addition to the team. We had a list of players before the auction and KP [Pietersen] topped that list. We needed to strengthen our batting and I was prepared to pay more for him.

"It is a worthwhile investment and ensures the balance that we wanted in our team," Mallya said.

Flintoff said he wanted to concentrate on the Test series before turning his mind to the IPL.

"I am very pleased. However, I am here playing a Test match, so my mind is full of that and the IPL is in six weeks' time.

"It's not been in the back of my mind on tour, I just regard it as a massive bonus."

A third former England captain, Paul Collingwood, sold for $275,000, just above his reserve price of $250,000.

England's Test stars have been given a three-week window to appear in the tournament which takes place from April 10 to May 29.

They did not take part in the inaugural competition last year because of a clash with the early summer Test series against New Zealand.

Players given an IPL contract are paid on a pro-rata basis.

South Africa's JP Duminy amd the Australian fast bowler Shaun Tait also attracted keen interest in the sale.

The Mumbai Indians picked Duminy up for $950,000 -- $650,000 more than his reserve price -- and Tait went to the Rajasthan Royals for $375,000.

The huge salaries underline the commercial success of the Indian Premier League which was launched to huge fanfare last year, but has raised fears among traditional cricket supporters that it could undermine the status of Test cricket.

The Economic Times reports:

The next IPL Twenty20 extravaganza may unfold at Lord's as well. The tournament, which had a smashing debut earlier this year, is expected to be split with five weeks of action in India and three weeks in UK where it is expected to draw in sub-continental diaspora as well as English fans. The IPL proposal has been discussed with the English board which has evinced keen interest in the possibility of staging a part of the competition that was won last time by Jaipur Royals.

The competition is scheduled for April-May and the player auction for the second season will be held in February next year.

The IPL governing body is expected to consider the proposal for two venues when it meets on January 3 and even though the schedule and revenue model need to be finalised, the scheme is expected to go through.

It's likely that the tournament will kick off in India and then move to the UK for three weeks before it returns to India for the final matches.

"IPL will become more of an international event and other cricket boards are also likely to be supportive. Indian interests will be safeguarded in the revenue model and the game will benefit overall," said well-placed sources.

What organisers have to look at is whether the scheduling clashes with major fixtures in England or India.

The eight-week IPL window is any way inked into India's cricket calender and any hitches are expected to be resolved with technical teams already carrying out a survey of facilities in England.

Given that IPL drew in top talent from across the cricketing world, adding an England leg will make the event even more high profile.

English cricketers missed out in the first edition of the game as their board held them to domestic commitments. With IPL's impressive revenues being shared and the event being played at home, the English board could reconsider its objections.

From the Guardian's '21st Century Sport': A year on:

Twenty20: Auctions, helicopters and India's big win

In September 2007, India's victory over Pakistan in the final of the first World Twenty20, played in Johannesburg, drew a worldwide TV audience of more than 400 million. India had caught the Twenty20 bug and this was the catalyst for the Indian Premier League, launched last spring. The IPL has changed world cricket for ever.

'Cricket is a religion in our country,' said Lalit Modi, who dreamed up the IPL with a senior executive from IMG, the sports marketing group. Modi sold the TV rights, for a league in which not a ball had been bowled, for $1.026bn. He lured India's richest men and Bollywood's A-list to the IPL player auction, one of the strangest events of the year. Franchise owners spent $35m in eight hours of bidding. The first tournament ended in June, but its aftershocks are still being felt as cricket governing bodies around the world race to create new properties to take to market. The second World Twenty20 is in England next June and the unloved ICC Champions Trophy will become another 20-over competition in the West Indies in 2010.

ESPN Star, the Asian pay-TV broadcaster, paid nearly $1bn for rights to the Twenty20 Champions League, a new competition for first-class sides rather than countries, though that has been postponed because of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Most of the money goes to India, Australia and South Africa, with England picking up scraps. The deal puts further pressure on English cricket. The Indians have the economic power – and they are using it – to change the cricket calendar.

England will almost certainly have to move or give up their May Test matches, releasing their best players to the IPL, and have pinned all their Twenty20 hopes on a new domestic competition (due in 2010) and their deal with the Texan billionaire, Sir Allen Stanford, to play T20 in Antigua. There was outrage when Stanford promoted that five-year deal by landing a helicopter at Lord's and showing off $20m in $50 bills in a Perspex box – an event that matched the IPL auction for novelty value. Money talks. The biggest winners are India and all the players who get IPL contracts. To many cricket followers the biggest loser is the game itself, with Test cricket under threat.

Plus • Half of England's players say they would retire from international cricket if it was the only way of clearing the way to play in the IPL. • The ECB talk of hosting 'foreign' Test matches at Lord's. Pakistan and Australia have both discussed the idea.• Pakistan move all home one-day games to Dubai for three years from 2009.

It was the late Estée Lauder who, in the midst of rough economic times, said: “When things are bad, if a woman has a little perfume and a new lipstick, she feels like a queen.” And it was by knowing a thing or two about how women felt that Estée Lauder became very rich. Grim though things are, it's encouraging to know that somewhere is buzzing and, you've guessed it, it's the perfume counters that are reporting booming business....

The world wide web has encouraged a new breed of what American Elle called “perfume fanatics, supersniffers who... seek out esoteric notes, celebrate superior dry downs, host sniffing parties and swap samples of their latest discoveries”.

Read the whole Times Online article HERE.

UPI reports:

Market researchers said online shopping perked up dramatically on Cyber Monday, the digital deal-making day that is the Internet's answer to Black Friday.

Web monitor Akamai Technologies said a record 6.7 million visitors per minute clicked on approximately 280 Internet retail sites by 3 p.m. Monday, up from last year's 4.6 million visitors per minute tally, the newspaper said.

"Things are better than expected," said David Fry, whose company operates online retail sites for major retail chains. Traffic was up 30 percent to 60 percent and revenue up 10 percent to 20 percent compared with a year ago, he said.

If you are not sure what 'Cyber Monday' is, click HERE.