What marketers can learn from Pro Kabaddi and women’s cricket

In the year that introduces Lions Sport to the creative community, Raahil Chopra, founder and editor at India’s Manifest, explains why ‘Consumer passion does not automatically translate into commercial opportunity’. Local and international contexts, culture, history – and even religion – are all factors that should also be considered

If this article were being read in India, the following statement would be almost irrelevant: ‘In a country full of religious beliefs, there’s one that brings it together – cricket.’

Ever since the landmark 1983 Men’s ODI World Cup win, cricket has dominated the mind space of the entire country, and, unsurprisingly, brands followed.

The number of sports channels being rolled out on either side of the millennium increased. The English Premier League (or Barclays Premier League as it was known then), the Spanish La Liga, the UEFA Champions League, and the FIFA World Cup gained prominence.

Thanks to clever merchandising by the likes of Nike and Adidas, and cleverer distribution of the first copy jerseys by some Thailand warehousers, the youth of India was wearing Manchester United, Arsenal, and Real Madrid (David Beckham 23) jerseys.

This led experts to believe that football is the next big thing in India, and got marketers interested in spending money on the game, in the belief that the millennials and Gen Z would be ditching cricket for football.

But that was a false dawn.

The Premier League continued to gain prominence, but soon, La Liga and Serie A, two of the prominent European leagues, would be without a television broadcast partner in the country.

Two decades later, FIFA struggled to gain a broadcaster in India for the biggest tournament in the world – the Men’s World Cup. Zee Entertainment Enterprises stepped in and secured rights for the tournament, albeit at close to 30% of what FIFA claimed to have wanted.

So, what went wrong?

For years, administrators and broadcasters confused fandom with participation. Indians supported Manchester United, Liverpool, Barcelona and Real Madrid, but very few could name the captain of the Indian national team or identify clubs competing in the domestic league.

The launch of the Indian Super League (ISL) in 2014 was supposed to change that.

Backed by corporate money, celebrity owners and significant broadcaster support, the ISL was positioned as football’s answer to the Indian Premier League. Stadiums filled up during the opening seasons, international stars arrived towards the end of their careers, and marketers finally had a domestic football property they could associate with.

The challenge was that football is not cricket.

Cricket fandom in India is built around decades of shared memories, heroes and victories. Football attempted to manufacture that emotional connection in a matter of years. While the ISL improved infrastructure, increased visibility and brought professionalism to several clubs, it struggled to build a sustainable ecosystem beneath the top layer.

Grassroots development remained inconsistent, youth pathways were fragmented, and the national team's performances failed to create the moments required to convert casual viewers into lifelong supporters.

The result was a widening gap between watching football and investing in football.

A generation continued waking up at midnight to watch the Premier League while showing considerably less interest in domestic competitions. The sport grew culturally, but not commercially at the scale many expected.

Meanwhile, something unexpected was happening elsewhere.

Rather than becoming a cricket-versus-football story, India’s sporting landscape was quietly becoming more diverse.

The IPL demonstrated that Indian audiences were willing to engage with sports as entertainment properties. Administrators across multiple disciplines took note.

The most successful example has undoubtedly been kabaddi.

For decades, kabaddi was viewed as a rural sport with limited commercial appeal. Yet the launch of the Pro Kabaddi League transformed its fortunes almost overnight. By packaging the sport for television, introducing player auctions, improving production quality and creating identifiable franchises, kabaddi became one of India's most watched sporting properties.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71O0TuHoiO0

What made the league particularly remarkable was that it did not rely on imported stars or global fandom. It celebrated a sport that was inherently Indian.

Unlike football, which competed with established European competitions, kabaddi owned its category. Fans did not have a superior international alternative competing for their attention every weekend. Brands noticed.

The league delivered strong television audiences, regional engagement and family viewership. For advertisers seeking scale beyond cricket, kabaddi suddenly became a viable proposition.

The success of Pro Kabaddi also challenged a long-standing assumption within Indian marketing circles: that international sports automatically carried more value than domestic ones.

The growth of women’s cricket

Another major shift has come from women’s cricket.

For years, women’s sport in India lived on the margins of media coverage. Performances were acknowledged during major tournaments but rarely translated into sustained commercial investment.

That began to change following India's run to the final of the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup in 2017.

The tournament introduced players such as Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana to mainstream audiences. More importantly, it demonstrated that there was a genuine appetite for women’s cricket among viewers.

Subsequent performances at global tournaments strengthened that momentum.

The launch of the Women's Premier League (WPL) in 2023 accelerated the process further. Franchise valuations, media rights deals and sponsorship commitments sent a clear signal that women’s cricket was no longer being treated as a corporate social responsibility exercise.

It was a commercial property.

Attendance figures, broadcast audiences and digital engagement have consistently exceeded many early expectations. Brands that once viewed women's sport as a niche opportunity now see it as a long-term investment.

And the World Cup win in 2025 was the icing on the cake.

The significance extends beyond cricket.

Every successful women's sporting property makes it easier for sponsors to support female athletes in badminton, athletics, wrestling, boxing and other disciplines. Visibility creates familiarity, and familiarity creates commercial confidence.

Olympic sports

The last two decades have also produced a steady stream of Indian sporting heroes outside cricket.

The achievements of athletes such as Abhinav Bindra, Neeraj Chopra, PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Mirabai Chanu and Nikhat Zareen have expanded the definition of sporting success in India.

Each Olympic medal, world championship and international title has chipped away at cricket's monopoly on attention, and football’s promised growth.

The impact is particularly visible among younger audiences.

Unlike previous generations, Gen Z sports fans are exposed to highlights, documentaries and athlete content across multiple digital platforms. They do not require a television broadcaster to introduce them to a sport.

A viral Olympic performance can generate millions of views within hours. An athlete's Instagram following can become as valuable as traditional media coverage.

For brands, this has created an entirely new sponsorship ecosystem. Instead of placing all their investment behind one cricket property, marketers can now build portfolios across athletes, leagues and sporting disciplines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vBl7awp8Gc

The broadcaster's dilemma

This diversification creates both opportunities and challenges.

Cricket remains dominant. It continues to attract the largest audiences, command the highest sponsorship rates and deliver the greatest consistency.

However, broadcasters increasingly face the challenge of balancing scale with variety.

The economics of acquiring premium international rights have become more complicated. 

Football rights, in particular, have become difficult to monetise in markets where audience growth has plateaued.

At the same time, emerging sports often offer lower acquisition costs and stronger opportunities for advertiser integration.

This explains why leagues such as Pro Kabaddi, women's cricket and even selected Olympic events have become increasingly attractive properties.

The conversation is no longer about finding the next cricket. It never should have been in India.

The country is big enough to build multiple successful sporting ecosystems that can coexist alongside cricket.

Marketers’ takeaways

For marketers, the lesson from the past two decades is straightforward. Consumer passion does not automatically translate into commercial opportunity.

Football's journey in India demonstrates that popularity alone is not enough. Millions may watch a sport, but unless that interest is connected to local heroes, domestic competitions and cultural relevance, monetisation remains difficult.

Kabaddi succeeded because it belonged to India.

Women's cricket succeeded because it offered fresh narratives within a familiar sporting framework.

Olympic sports gained momentum because athletes delivered unforgettable moments on the global stage.

The future of sports marketing in India will therefore be less about replacing cricket and more about complementing it.

Cricket will remain the centrepiece of the ecosystem for the foreseeable future. The scale advantage is simply too large.

But the country's sporting identity is becoming broader than it has ever been. A generation ago, a sports sponsor effectively meant a cricket sponsor.

Today, brands can invest in kabaddi, women's cricket, badminton, athletics, football, esports, marathon running or individual athletes, each offering distinct audiences and engagement opportunities. That is perhaps the most significant change of all.

And while cricket remains the religion, the congregation is becoming increasingly diverse. While we saw the head of digital for the International Cricket Council at the Sports Beach last year, there’s been no cricket represent at the festival. It’s time to change that. 

And it won’t be a surprise if the first cricketer to set foot at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity will be a women’s cricketer from India.