New Delhi, Aug 20 (PTI) The European T20 Premier League is not looking to compete with football or other established sports for audience attention but aims to carve out its own space in the continent’s sporting landscape, league co-owner Abhishek Bachchan said ahead of its inaugural season.
The ETPL, which gets underway later this month, will be played across the Netherlands and Ireland in its maiden season, with Voorburg hosting the opening leg before the tournament moves to Malahide in Dublin.
Bachchan, who has been involved in sports ownership across different disciplines, believes Europe presents an exciting and largely untapped market for cricket and said the league has the potential to contribute to the sport’s growth in the continent.
“To be blunt, I wouldn’t be sitting in front of you if I didn’t think that there was potential and I didn’t see a market over there,” Bachchan told PTI in an interview.
“It’s an exciting new market for us. There is huge potential in Europe to follow cricket, not just with the traditional already playing cricket nations in Europe. I think that it’s the dawn of a new horizon for a sport in Europe and I have immense confidence that in time to come Europe is going to have a very, very healthy cricketing market.” With football deeply entrenched in European sporting culture, Bachchan was asked how the ETPL plans to attract fans who already have a wide choice of sporting competitions.
The Bollywood actor, however, rejected the idea that cricket needed to “win over” fans from other sports.
“I’m not somebody who likes to compare apples and oranges. I don’t like this word of winning people over or convincing somebody to leave another sport and come here,” he said.
“Please support as many sports as you want. I’m an ardent sports fan. I support several different sports and different teams across different leagues. There’s more than enough room for everyone.” The ETPL’s immediate objective, Bachchan said, is to develop a loyal following rather than chase numbers or attempt to overshadow established sporting competitions.
“We’d be very happy just to start with a healthy small batch of ardent, loyal and passionate fans and you build from there,” he said.
“The quest is not to outshine anybody else. The quest is to make a place for yourself under the sun in the cricketing firmament in Europe.” The league has chosen the Netherlands and Ireland for its first season, with the opening leg set to be staged at Voorburg before the action shifts to Malahide in Dublin.
Bachchan said the decision to begin in the Netherlands was influenced by the country’s involvement as a partner, the presence of two teams and the growing interest in cricket there.
“Two of our teams are from there. And we thought that it would be a nice place to kick it off with the kind of interest that Netherlands has been garnering in the cricketing world,” he said.
He also underlined the importance of infrastructure in building a sustainable sporting ecosystem, expressing satisfaction with the facilities available in both countries.
“I’m a firm believer that infrastructure is the bedrock of any sport,” Bachchan said.
“We’re very happy with the infrastructure that’s been provided to us in the Netherlands and in Ireland. There’s obviously room to grow, which will happen in subsequent seasons, but we’re very, very happy with the support that the local boards have given us and with the existing infrastructure already.” Bachchan, who has previously been associated with sports ownership, said his biggest lesson from those experiences was the importance of emotional involvement.
“Bring emotion. It’s not just a business transaction. Be emotionally involved and most importantly emotionally invested,” he said.
“If you’re emotionally invested, it justifies all the other hard work.” And when the first ball of the tournament is finally bowled, Bachchan’s thoughts will not be on the business side of the league but on an auspicious beginning.
“What’s going to be going through my mind when the first ball is bowled is going to be the Ganesh Aarti actually. I’m going to be singing that and the Hanuman Chalisa. That’s what I say for an auspicious beginning of anything new,” he said. PTI HN HN AH AH
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