Charity through Indian Premier League | Buy Gifts Online
Delhi, India - May 22, 2008

To an outsider it appears that the raw capitalism as practiced in the US is tempered by a sense of civic participation through voluntary involvement, which includes philanthropy/charity. One of the manifestations of this that I observed during the 1980s is that TV sports channels like the CBS, NBC, ABC, ESPN et al, while carrying college games (NCAA Basketball, Football, Baseball etc.), offer Most Valuable Player Award at the end of the game and as college athletes are barred from accepting benefits (becomes a tool in the hands of the established sports powers for recruiting high school standouts) on account of such awards, the same are routed to a designated charity in the name of the selected player. The player gets to keep his/her sense of pride in having helped a charity, no matter the way it came about. And, in the social context obtained in the US, this is nothing to sneeze at.

Why the above short thesis on sports awards to college athletes in the US when the title blares professional sports in the India, especially the current craze, the IPL? I am wondering whether IPL can start something similar. In IPL, by my reckoning (could be wrong, but only marginally) there are 59 matches, and three performers in different categories are identified in each of these matches. There is a significant (may not look significant when seen against the contract values of a few of them, but let us leave it at that) monetary award, Rs. 100,000, accompanying each of these 177 awards (these may lead to cascading contractual benefits to the player, we do not know). So, we are talking about a total of Rs. 18 million to the players.

Now, imagine what even 10% of this Rs. 18 million will sound to the various charities operating in India. Such a donation will be most welcome by them (for first class plane fare for the top bosses to jet around perhaps, but let us not discuss that). This is what I am proposing. Either the sponsors can add a separate 10% tithe to the prize money they offer (may have to tweak their business models a bit to boost back the IRR to acceptable levels) or the players can take a cut of the same 10%,  to be donated to deserving charities. There will be an element of CSR for the sponsors and for the players, it will be one of giving back to society, even if at one remove as it may be when the sponsors foot the additional cost.

I will be the first to admit that the devil is in the details, of working out how to identify the deserving charities, what will be the mode of payment (a steady trickle or a lump sum payment), how to monitor  etc. But, devising an acceptable scheme cannot be that difficult.

What are the benefits and to whom, of this “wealth” transfer? To the donee charities, of course. IPL may institute monitoring procedures and may even stipulate the type of expenses the donations may go to cover. For the sponsors, the benefits are in the good image the public will harbor that at least some the “ill gotten” gains are directed towards good causes (this reason is one of those Andrew Carnegie cited while establishing his philanthropic foundation). For the players, it is again the projected image of a caring individual in the minds of the game’s audience. It is iffy for the spectators – will they be happy that a part of their money is going to worthy causes or sad that it has not come back to them? We cannot say. But, with the players having to give up a portion of their “earnings”, at least the “jealousy” factor may be mildly moderated. To the society as a whole, the concept of charity gets enlarged. All said and in my perspective, it does not look a bad arrangement.

IPL copied the concept of cheerleading from professional sports in the US and now I am offering a counterbalance – copy some do-gooding from the amateurs.

By Raghuram Ekambaram

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