The visibility dividend: How associate cricket changed the economics of the game
For decades, cricket's margins existed in silence. Then visibility became a commodity that could be manufactured, and everything changed.
For decades, teams like Namibia, Nepal, and the Netherlands played outside cricket’s largest broadcast markets, with little coverage and few sponsors.
On Tuesday, Flipkart showed how much that had changed. The Walmart-owned Indian e-commerce giant released an advertisement explaining why it had become the official sponsor of the Namibian cricket team.
By placing its yellow logo on the jerseys of a team playing in the same group as India and Pakistan, Flipkart bought access to Indian television audiences. It secured a prominent place on every Namibian cricketer's jersey for a fraction of the cost of sponsoring India, giving it access to hundreds of millions of viewers during prime time.
When Namibia took the field on Thursday evening, Flipkart’s logo appeared throughout the broadcast.
Flipkart’s deal reflects a wider change in associate cricket. Digital coverage and guaranteed broadcasts now allow smaller teams to attract sponsors before they achieve sustained success on the field.
“In terms of sheer narrative and storytelling in sport, associate cricket is second to none,” says Edward Fitzgibbon, who spent years at the International Cricket Council (ICC) building associate structures before sponsors arrived. “Unlike full-member cricket, which can sometimes operate without context (read: bilaterals), in associate cricket, every game matters,” he tells The State of Play.
