BCCI Officials Celebrating Champions League T20: Indian Fans Lamenting for Champions Trophy

Many cricket fans in India are very unhappy that their team suffered an early exit from Champions Trophy 2009. They are very sad because in June 2009, India suffered similar fate in ICC T20 World Cup 2009 (India was out from Super 8). These two events were organized by ICC and they are much more important than IPL or IPL Champions League T20. So, obviously, millions of fans are unhappy with the way things are going with their national cricket team. However, I don’t think that BCCI officials are unhappy at all. The players could get some much needed rest ahead of Champions League thanks to the early exit of Indian team in Champions Trophy.

I am sure that BCCI officials are smart and not too much sentimental like the millions of ordinary people who are too much obsessed with international cricket. Instead, they know that it is IPL and Champions League that would generate money for BCCI. The fans don’t want to understand this matter and attendance is poor in the stadiums today and yesterday.

Live Mint reported:

The first match of the Champions League cricket tournament scored an average television rating point (TRP) of 0.9% on ESPN Star Sports channel on 8 October, according to Audience Measurement and Analytics Ltd.

TRPs are the percentage of viewers watching a particular programme at a certain time.

Although the tournament still has 25 days to go, experts believe the poor start reflects flailing viewership response towards big-ticket cricket events on TV, with the exception of the Indian Premier League (IPL) that started on 18 April with 3.6% TRPs and averaged 3.4% for the tournament.

ESPN Star Sports has spent heavily for promoting the event and it was really annoying at times to see heavy promotion during Champions Trophy matches. India is going to play against Australia in an ODI series later this month. The fans are perhaps more interested about that one than what is going on right now organized by BCCI.

The emotional and sentimental Indian cricket fans are also waiting eagerly for ICC 2010 Twenty20 World Cup that would take place after few months (May 2009). Indian fans are surely hoping that their team does not again get out from Super eight in that event. BCCI officials are perhaps more concerned on keeping the interest of TV audience for IPL matches that would take place before the start of Twenty20 World Cup 2010.

It seems to me that football or soccer fans in Argentina now have almost similar mental condition like Indian cricket fans. Tomorrow, their national team is playing against Peru and if they lose the match then they will be on the verge of elimination from reaching to the finals of World Cup 2010. Anyway, you can find information about live telecast of the match in this entry: Argentina vs Peru Live Telecast in Which TV Channels?

Anyway, as I was telling, BCCI officials are celebrating about Champions League T20 2009 and they are perhaps very happy to see good revenue coming. The cricket fans of India are lamenting over the poor performance of their team this year in intentional level.