Legendary India spinner Anil Kumble says in this content-driven age, most of the modern-day cricketers are not averse to the idea of letting everyone know what’s going on in their ‘space’ while Matthew Hayden reckons that a player’s brand has become as powerful as that of an administrator or a broadcaster. The former India captain also agreed with the former Australia cricketer that players, who would earlier not agree to have a camera in their dressing room, will now be happy to hold the mic and discuss team strategies.
They spoke during a panel discussion titled “Live, Immersive & Digital Experience: How Sports Leagues are Driving Innovation” during the WAVES Summit on Saturday.
“Most of the innovations that have come in cricket have been broadcast-driven, whether it was the speed gun at the start to what it is now,” Kumble said.
“The primary stakeholder, who is the player, has always been reluctant to use any of these innovative methods but times are changing. If you look back at 2008 to what it is now, even from a broadcast perspective, innovations that have come through in the IPL itself, in cricket itself, has been massive,” he said.
Kumble agreed that almost everyone is trying to become a brand and in the process is creating content, be it on the field during matches or on various social media platforms.
“That’s the change we’ve seen over the last few years thanks to social media. I like to use that word because content is something that everyone’s creating. As a young player or an established one, you’re letting everyone into your own life.
“What is going on, people are showcasing that. What is the personality that you have, people are showcasing that so they’re not averse to cameras coming in.
“It was not easy for us to get a camera in, even after a victory, when there were questions about, ‘can we come into the dressing room to celebrate along with you?’ We would say, ‘Hey, just back off. This is our space’. But things have changed now,” he added. Hayden said a player’s brand can get as strong as a cricket board or a broadcaster since the sportsman himself can be his own broadcaster.
“Need and struggle are the key ingredients to the cycle of change. If I can address the need for a start, as a broadcaster now of almost two decades, it is to get a deeper involvement and connection to our viewers. The only way that you can do that is to have a bag of tools that are resources in production,” he said.
“If that’s actually a metric, (with Vaibhav) Suryavanshi, we have just seen this genius that’s arrived at our beautiful game and he’s now put into the landscape, challenged all young Indians to beat 35 balls to a hundred.” “The struggle is between now brands of the game that are playing. So in other words, let’s take Suryavanshi, probably our best example, because he’s likely to have two-and-a-half decades within the sport.
“His brand is actually now as powerful as the cricket administration, and as powerful as any broadcaster position, because he now can and will become his own broadcaster.” Kumble said players and coaches are happy discussing team strategies now and they do not want to let go of the opportunities.
“People want a mic in hand where they’re actually addressing the team about strategy, about giving them a pep talk. All that has changed because of the content. Even as an audience, people are watching the sport, they also have a second device going in front of them,” he said.
“So when all of this is here, the player doesn’t want to let go of those opportunities and commercialisation is not now restricted to only the standard sort of structured elements, right?.” “It’s a lot more different and the IP is far more immersive and far broader, so to speak, from a player’s perspective. All of them are aware and that’s something that’s going to change.” Kumble said Artificial Intelligence is going to hasten the innovations in the game like never before.
“With AI coming in, whatever we’ve seen as innovation over the last 25 years will be very different two years from now.” Hayden said there is no room for innovation without the struggle.
“Once you start giving that information away, then it becomes something which can be used and does get used against you. So there is that struggle that must be there. But without the struggle, you don’t have the innovation, because you don’t also have that desire to change.
“Sports as old as cricket, they really do battle with that. But now the power of the brands is starting to emerge, and the actual new players themselves can categorically own their own space outside of the forums of sport,” he added.
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