How MLB is taking cues from Japan, NBA and IPL to 'pitch' in growing Indian sports market

When bell rings in Indian schools, most kids run out of classrooms in a jiffy and form a huddle to have fun with fellow students over a game of cricket. And some 3,700 miles away in Japan, children share a similar emotion during breaks or right after y leave school. y share  same renaline rush. same enthusiasm too. Also with a bat and a ball. But for baseball.

It may t be a religion in island country, but Japanese are crazy about baseball. Mind you, y take immense pride in being one of world’s top baseball-crazy nations. Fairly similar to India's love for cricket. similarities are re for everyone to see.

Introduced over a century ago, baseball was a foreign sport in Japan. With barely any outside influence, country got hooked on to sport only via television. Like Major League Baseball (MLB), Japan introduced its own league in mid-90s called Japanese Baseball League (JBL) before establishment of a two-league format kwn as Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) in 1950.

“Baseball was on TV during primetime, so far would watch baseball, kids and wife would naturally have to sit re and watch baseball because that's all y h. That's only content y have. y don't have various platforms. We didn't have internet. We didn't have YouTube. We didn't have social media. And so everybody spends time toger, family spend time toger watching TV. On TV? It was baseball,” says Japan’s Ryo Takahashi, who hes business and commercial operations for MLB in India.

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MLB's 'First Pitch' in India

t too long ago, MLB celebrated its one-year anniversary in India. In 2019, league established its sixth international office, this time in Delhi. five or overseas MLB offices are in countries where baseball is hugely popular – Japan, Mexico, China and Dominican Republic. Over course of 12 months, MLB conducted baseball sessions in 320 schools across country, with Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru being ir first three target cities as part of its First Pitch program. " response was so good that kids wanted Takahashi and his team to come back next day," he says proudly.

During First Pitch program, MLB India helped kids understand basic rules and similarities with cricket. Football grounds were used to explain positioning and gameplay.  kids were provided baseballs, bats, helmets and gloves. “Despite constraints due to COVID-19 pandemic, biggest takeaway was relationships that we were able to build. Obviously, on business side, we were able to establish and continue to build on relationships with our partners that run MLB First Pitch program,” Takahashi says.

In return, workshops helped MLB understand  key points to consider before y plan to put a system in place for a long-term sporting project. With cricket being most popular sport in country, Indian kids do have an vant over ors around world. “Kids alrey kw how to swing ir bat, catch and throw ball. It is a unique vant. y alrey kw how to make a good catch or a good throw,” said David Palese, He of Baseball Development in India.

After all, baseball is t quite alien to Indians. A few of m kw about Craig Gillespie's Million Dollar Arm, where sports nt JB Bernstein selects two athletes from India – Dinesh Patel and Rinku Singh – out of 37,000 participants via a reality TV show and takes m to US. duo h absolutely kwledge about baseball, yet, months later, MLB's Pittsburgh Pirates signed both of m.

Unfortunately, y couldn't ruffle too many fears in top leagues. But movie hinted that India could be a fantastic market to tap into. It was time for MLB to act.

re won’t be a dramatic emergence of a superstar in sport just yet but Takahashi and his team are mindful of challenges Indians will face to reach top. He doesn’t feel bogged down by prospect of promoting a brand new sport in a cricket-obsessed nation. In fact, cricket could do MLB a huge favour. “We like to think that fact that cricket is king in this country is an vant for us. But by means are we trying to replicate what cricket is or means to this country or replace it by any means. Obviously, we can become as popular as cricket. We're doing something right," he explains.

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Far East Movement

Takahashi's vision is to first introduce sport by conducting fun sessions in schools. That's participation. n comes retention, to make sure kids play sport once a week via local competitions, followed by a robust brocast. "That les to development of elite level players around country. So, I think re's specific order or magical formula that works in every country. But our strategy of making sure that we have participants, content in live events parallel with each or works. And that's something that we can see in Japan.”

Let's even take China for example. MLB began investing in country in 2008 after understanding sports market. y targeted local schools, a strong TV and digital brocast setup and successfully got people hooked on to sport via marketing. Nearly 12 years later, re are seven Chinese players playing professional baseball under contract with MLB teams. number of baseball players in China increased from a few hundred thousand to close to 8 million in 2020.

“I've been introduced to a lot of state federation hes and people involved in each region. And you kw, getting our name out re and virtually starting that conversation of this is who we are; this is what we want to do. se are things that we're looking forward to doing in India on ground and n understanding what ir reality is, what you kw, what infrastructure y have, kind of players y have, -group level of play.”

Taking cues from Japan, NBA and or big leagues

Apart from TV push, re has always been an inspiring sports culture in Japan, which is slightly different from that in India and US. sport’s popularity received a massive boost when Japanese corporations began sponsoring professional teams. “What we were looking for is to really understand scheme of sports and how government is involved in sports. How do schools run sports programs? How do brocasters promote sports wher it's a new sport?”

Over last few months, Takahashi h conversations with franchise-based leagues in India –  IPL, PKL, PBL, UTT and ISL – to find out how y captured attention of entire nation. In this case, PKL’s content planning and marketing strategy stood out. “ Pro Kabdi League became so big because it h such a good partnership with ir brocast partner and it became so popular because it was put out re in a way that was attractive to new fan. That may t be a sports fan but someone who was looking for new content. Talking to our brocast partners and sports bodies here in different leagues has been fruitful.”

y are also taking cues from or Asian countries and have taken significant steps with Amateur Baseball Federation of India (ABFI) and or state federations for clarity of infrastructure, government support and technical level of players. Harish Kumar, General Secretary of ABFI says, “MLB has been involved with different forms of grassroots development work in India since 2003. Over years, we have h numerous visits by MLB coaches in India who have conducted many sessions across country. We have discussed various initiatives that shall be implemented soon. We have a lot of potential in India and opportunities like this will help baseball players and coaches to improve mselves”.

Even here, brocast, curiosity and participation hold key to MLB's strategic approach. curiosity among fans played an integral role in grual growth of Premier League, NBA, PKL, PBL and ors. According to research by Brand Finance, Indian football fans have a higher awareness of Premier League and Championship than or major European leagues.

Indian Super League (ISL) has been experiencing its fair share of success in terms of fan engment. To top this, India reportedly h over 2 lakh people playing online Fantasy Premier League (FPL) game during 2019-20 season. In June 2019, Star Sports were awarded exclusive rights for all Premier League matches, secured for ar three seasons through 2022.

Meanwhile, in October last year, NBA held two pre-season games in Mumbai for first time. Interestingly, India never hosted an international sports league's pre-season game before this.  long-term goal has always been to facilitate Indian representation at elite level. A classic example would be how NBA was successful in capturing  Chinese sports market with former Houston Rockets star Yao Ming. 

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Cut to 2020 and  NBA's growth in India so far is an ode to time, effort and resources it has invested in country. country boasts of multiple offices spre across cities since first office opened in Mumbai nine years ago. NBA Acemy India provides necessary training and scholarships. trainees at acemy participate in tournaments, regular camps and try-outs in US and or countries.

It is important to te that y have been backed by brocaster Sony Pictures Networks India to expand NBA’s base. Just three years ago, fans were introduced to Hindi commentary to catch viewers' attention.  2018-19 NBA season reportedly registered over 90 million viewers in India. In 2017, NBA introduced two-time NBA champion Kevin Durant to country.

Though Indian athletes are yet to break into se top leagues, both Premier League and NBA have stamped ir authority on Indian sports market.

A game of attention span

re is more to content than just sports. India is also developing its appetite for many forms of content. “Cricket has helped decision of coming into Indian market, but I think India has an appetite for sports and entertainment. number of cell phones and Wi-Fi connections prove that. re is a high demand for TV shows on Netflix and Amazon Prime.  number of pro sports leagues are lined up for fans to consume," says Takahashi, who confirmed that MLB will brocast live games in India starting this year.

While it's a progressive move, is re scope of any traction in India? re are sceptics and roblocks for MLB because of perceived American nature of sport. So, is re a plan in place to brocast current season?

MLB has a partnership with brocaster Star Sports and FanCode – India’s first multi-sport aggregator platform by Dream Sports. Live matches will soon hit television screens in India. re could be weekly shows to eng with fans and help m understand nuances of game. But Takahashi states that live games are t necessarily answer to increasing baseball popularity as cricket fans are w shying away from long Test matches.

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“ attention span of younger generation is coming down as y are drawn to small snacking content,” he opines. “body wants to watch five, six-day games anymore. You can say same thing about baseball and any or content. We want to watch 30 different things within 20 minutes. So we have to apt way we produce our content and put it onto our platforms. re's re are many ways to introduce baseball."
 

It is also important to te that inquisitiveness of people was key to popularity of sport in Japan. Such was impact that 61 Japanese-born players have entered MLB till w. Nine players are currently playing regular season in US. 

“I think we could learn from process that Japan took in developing game and one was raising that awareness. It was increasing that participation number. So, if we make sure that re are opportunities for kids to participate in game and get familiarised with it via TV, digital platforms and social media, we could get people to throw a baseball for first time or swing a baseball with a baseball bat for first time.”

That does t seem to be a distant dream for Indian kids as MLB plans to host ar Million Dollar Arm contest to identify and nurture hidden talents. Takahashi is confident that Indians will fall in love with baseball despite distraction posed by predominant leagues.

"But if Japan and China can do it, India has potential to be bigger," Takahashi concludes. It's a big swing, some would say a million-dollar one. But such is nature of game. 

(Im courtesy: AP and Twitter)