Why football can never replace cricket in India

While no one can dispute the numbers and the warm welcome that the sport has received in India, it is a stretch to even assume that the beautiful game has the smallest chance of overtaking the gentleman's game. But cricket wasn't always the attention grabber that it has gone on to become now.

How cricket changed India's sports landscape

This is when a Kapil Dev-led team changed the dynamics of how sports were viewed in India. The 1983 World Cup win made India switch their allegiance from hockey and football which were on a decline to the sport that was giving them worldwide recognition. The is where the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) turned the tables completely. The 1980's saw the rise of televisions, and the BCCI successfully made cricketers household names by using the new medium to the best of their abilities. Once the hard work of the early 80's was done, the India-Pakistan rivalry took it to the next level. While most of the world considers football to be a religion, Indian cricketers achieved the status of gods in their country.

This led to a cause and effect cycle where Indians follow the cricket and play the sport from the age when they are able to hold a bat. Thus, when the talent pool increases, it is more likely that the quality of cricketers is at an elite level. Watching these players, a new generation of superstars are inspired and the wheel just keeps turning.

Supply and demand are the foundations on which modern economics is based on. There is a huge demand for cricket in the country and the supply is even higher. In terms of the business models, Indian sports mimics America - advertisements drive the business, and football again falls short because of its continuous game-play. This is why cricket holds the key to the Indian sports industry. There are opportunities for adverts after every wicket to go along with the breaks after every over. In the Indian Premier League (IPL), it would cost a brand Rs. 5.50 lakh to Rs. 5.75 lakh on a standard definition channel for a 10 seconds slot during a group match.

The world's biggest TV rights deal is between the FA and Sky and British Telecom for the Premier League. The deal is worth a whopping £5.136 billion for just the 2016/17 season. Sky, in turn, have a long-term sponsorship deal with Ford for a premium advertising slot at the halftime show as they cannot follow the usual business models to recover their money. Football in India cannot attract such deals as they don't have the pull that both the Premier League and the IPL possess in abundance.

Moreover, the concept of clubs in sport are relatively new in India, and due to its lack of international matches, football finds it hard to attract Indians to the sport. The recently concluded Kabaddi World Cup attracted 80 million viewers (I was one of them) in the first 18 matches on TV alone. National pride played a big part in getting people hooked to a sport that India have dominated since they invented it. A football season his built around the leagues across Europe, with a few international matches being played during the season itself.

T20 - the game changer

To an untrained eye of a cricket fan, it would not be a big deal that a player has hit the ball over a large distance to his team-mate. Conversely, a football fan with no knowledge of cricket would not care that Yuvraj Singh smashed a bowler for six big ones in a row.

If India wants both sports to succeed, fans from both sides have to let go of the elitist mentality that grips each sport. Instead to trying to discourage the other sport we should encourage children to play multiple sports so that they have an option at the end of the day. India would have never had an MS Dhoni if he hadn't been playing football as a kid. Similarly, Phil Neville would never had won six Premier League titles with Manchester United had he chosen to stick to cricket as a kid. The ball is in our court and the decisions we take now will end up determine where Indian football ends up in a quarter of a century.