First, let’s congratulate the winners – Mumbai Indians, for their incredible victory in this season of Indian Premier League (Vivo IPL T20) tournament. For the runners-up Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) it was indeed an unlucky miss with just one run! We are all going to miss those nail biting moments we got used to watching during the playoffs and the line up to the finals. Over the years IPL as established itself as the most attended cricket league in the world and ranks 6th among all sports league and contributing to India’s GDP through direct and indirect economic outputs. Did you know that IPL is a major income generator for skilled professionals who work in organized and unorganized sectors? Let’s get to know more about the Teams behind the Team.
Positive Impact of IPL on the organized and unorganized sectors
We all have our favourite teams and players and we want to see them win. While we do this as spectators and cricket fans, there are hundreds of other team members who deserve our appreciation, they work as organized and unorganized teams. We don’t get to see them in front, but they slog day and night to make IPL happen. The success of each cricketer is dependent on dedicated coaches, physiotherapists, dieticians, masseurs and a huge network of skilled people who support them on and off the ground. These include maintenance of Sports Facilities like the Stadium, the ground the sports equipment, Sports Administration and Management, Event Management, Sports Broadcasting, Marketing, Analytics, Planning, Risk Management and so on… Alongside the organized teams, there are hundreds who operate as small businesses, selling accessories and all the fun-stuff to make the stadium experience an enjoyable one. They could be selling the flags, or caps, hair bands, wrist bands, placards or other interesting things. Then, we have the beverage and snack vendors who are attached to the stadium or nearby places.
Recognizing the team behind the teams, their skills and specializations
Not only in IPL, but in other sports tournaments as well, we rarely get an idea of how many skilled and super-skilled professional work with the athlete – a wrestler, a badminton player, a cricket or a footballer – for each one, there’s an entourage of specialists who work with them to get the best of the players. The coach and the physio are supported by other teams who are adeptly skilled in performing jobs like maintaining the sports equipment, facilitating the work out sessions, preparing the right food or ensuring that the players get to reach the stadium on time for their practice or play.
Appreciate the non-technical teams that support, coach and mentor relentlessly
A champion undergoes a lot of training, coaching and rigorous fitness regime as decided by the experts and super specialists. Their super-specialized skills address the individual requirement of each player and guide and encourage them overcome the limitations through behavioural skills, effective communication, leadership and counselling as needed. The non-technical skills as essential as technical for every team player or a captain.
The positive impact of IPL and similar tournaments for education, seasonal jobs and business opportunities
We need more tournaments like IPL. We should have them in smaller towns as well, we need them in different sports besides the popular leagues in Cricket, Badminton, Football or Kabbadi. Besides cultivating a sports culture, there’s tremendous scope to provide right training and skilling for various job roles.
- The spirit of competition and the live experience of watching a sport on the ground or in the stadium is sure to create an excitement among kids and youth to play a sport and excel in the chosen sport. When there’s more participation, we may get to see better infrastructure and facilities for playing different games in schools, colleges and residential communities.
- Popular tournaments create jobs and business opportunities for small vendors who depend on seasonal income. The vendors get to employ people to meet the seasonal demand and help them earn decent incomes. This could trigger off more entrepreneurial ventures in supporting sports and sports lovers.
- Mega events like IPL T20 have great scope to promote tourism as well. Tourism and Hospitality gets a boost besides, allied industries like Graphics, Animation, Analytics that need specialised skills to support live television broadcasts and online media like the websites.
Let’s widen the scope of tournaments like IPL to include appreciation for the skilled workforce who form the backbone of the sports and allied industry. They deserve a standing ovation for being there for the champions.
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