What the EPL-mad English can learn from us

I had imagined that only Aussies are bad losers. It seems the English want to snatch that honour. Witness the misdirected wrath of the British media and football fans against the Pune-based poultry giant Venky’s. Scorn and contempt are being heaped upon the owners of Blackburn Rovers for the team’s relegation from the EPL.

 

Is this a partisan British media’s campaign to discredit, discourage and debar Indian corporates (read Indians)? For the record, Indian Lakshmi Mittal, the UK’s richest man, has a stake in QPR. For long, Anil Ambani has been rumoured to be keen to buy Newcastle.

 

English media emanate a stink of an unstated, implied suggestion that Indian companies are not fit for sports forays. Oh, that slumdog nation which seldom wins any Olympic gold medal -- what do they know of sports? An Indian wants to own an EPL team? What cheek! See, we told you, didn’t we, that Rovers would suffer under those bloody Indians?

 

Hello, ‘hiya, are you alright’? Return of the Olympics to London does not mean resurrection of the Raj. By the way, the English don’t own too many EPL teams, do they? And Tatas rescued both Corus and Jaguar. Welcome to the 21^st century, the age of IPL.

 

For a reality check and to learn some lessons on owning and nurturing sports clubs, enlivening a sports league, displaying grace in defeat and stoically lumping on-field and off-field losses, come to Mumbai please.

 

Here, you will find an IPL cricket team called Mumbai Indians, owned by Mukesh Ambani. Other wealthy individuals, celebrities and corporates own other IPL teams. Make no mistake, the IPL is as cosmopolitan as the EPL – players, coaches, trainers, managers, umpires, officials and spectators are from all over the world, not just India. Billions of dollars have been invested. More than a billion cricket connoisseurs across the globe track the tournament every year. Fierce loyalties mark supporters of each team. Although there is no EPL-type relegation, no team wants to finish near or at the bottom of the table. Everyone wants to win. Brand equity, prestige and other such things are at stake. Only one team wins every year. Unfancied, star-deficient Rajasthan and Deccan won the first two IPLs. Star-heavy Mumbai Indians are yet to win.

 

Life goes on. Fans, owners and media seldom lose their sanity merely because one team could not perform to expectations or unrealistic wishes. No one blames teams’ owners.

 

Which is why the English overreaction to Rovers’ relegation is as amusing, almost juvenile, as their castigation of Venky’s is facile. It is not as if Rovers would have won the EPL if, instead of Venky’s, some Arab sheikh or Russian magnate had owned the team. Rovers were relegated in the past too, when Venky’s was not the owner. Face it -- Rovers are no Man City, Man U, Arsenal or Chelsea.

 

If anything, the English should be grateful that a magnanimous multinational from Maharashtra courageously decided to fund a lowly team at considerable risk to its own Venky’s brand. And it gave full autonomy to managers and executives. Zero interference and 100% funding. How is Venky’s to blame if players don’t perform and executives screw up? The edgy English must calm down and realise that a solution is right there in the Riversiders’ Latin motto Arte et labore (‘by skill and hard work’).

 

Evidently, the British media has mixed up two issues: Rovers’ miserable on-field performance and the business, financial and administrative aspects of the club.

What’s Venky’s crime anyway? Venky’s is accused of reneging on its promise to hire expensive stars. If only big money and a few stars could transform a team into champions overnight. Ask Chelsea about the £50-million Torres, or Barca about Messi (allegedly the greatest footballer ever), or Real about Beckham, or Mumbai Indians about Tendulkar. Well, Brazil produces genius-like footballers just like that all the time. No big money there. So, at most, Venky’s can be criticised for not making vigorous talent-scouting around the world.

Another accusation is indifference to the team’s woes, even mismanagement. More often than not, owner-investors adopt a hands-off approach, as far as day-to-day nitty-gritty goes. They hire professionals for the jobs concerned. Venky’s did no different.

Well, any owner of a sports team would first make a cost-benefit analysis. They would eye returns on investment, in the form of larger crowds, higher revenues from tickets, merchandising, branding, enhanced perception of the corporate brand, prestige, so on.  Altruism, emotion and philanthropic motives may be optional or incidental to the enterprise.

If the cost demanded does not promise the returns that the owner requires, or if the promised returns are not what the owners are looking for, then it’s a no-brainer that the investment sought would not materialise.

Given the stink raised by the British media, it’s possible that Venky’s might still pull out of Rovers, if they perceive Championship benefits as not the same as EPL’s visibility and attention-grabbing power. Do all these baiters-of-Venky’s-turned-backers-of-Rovers have an alternative? In these times of global economic crises, it’s not as if countless investors with bagfuls of dollars are queuing up to buy Rovers. So, wouldn’t it make eminent sense to just shut up and allow Venky’s to take stock, to encourage them to reaffirm their commitment to the future of Rovers?

If Man U had been figuring at the table top so consistently, it’s not just because of the undeniable substratum in Sir Alex Ferguson. Players have been performing too. It’s a fallacy that every man has his price. There is only one Sir Alex, and he wouldn’t move from Old Trafford to Ewood even if you offer him a billion pounds and then some. But I am digressing.

Every team goes through cycles. Rovers themselves have. The English would do well to watch Fire in Babylon, a brilliant sports documentary (produced by a fellow Brit, by the way) about the golden period of West Indies cricket. Such a mighty team has come unstuck and stayed that way for decades now. Cricket World Cup winner India is now in the pits.  It happens all the time in sport. Take it easy – it’s just a sport.

Get philosophical. Come to India, the land of yoga. Visit Mumbai. Learn how life goes on even when Mumbai Indians lose day in and day out, and sometimes fail to qualify for the Champions League. And then, suddenly, Mumbai Indians go on to win, not the IPL, but something higher. Arte et labore (‘by skill and hard work’).