Turnaround Management of a Franchisee of Indian Premier League (IPL) with specific reference to Leadership and Group Dynamics with a case study of Deccan Chargers Thesis submitted to the Padmashree Dr. D.Y.Patil University, Department of Business Management in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In BUSINESS MANAGEMENT Submitted by: V. Shankar (Enrolment No: 10161003) Research Guide: Dr. R. Gopal Director and Head of the Department, Padmashree Dr. D. Y. Patil University, Navi Mumbai CBD Belapur, Navi Mumbai – 400 614. February, 2014 i Turnaround Management of a Franchisee of Indian Premier League (IPL) with specific reference to Leadership and Group Dynamics with a case study of Deccan Chargers ii DECLARATION I hereby declare that the thesis titled “Turnaround Management of a Franchisee of Indian Premier League (IPL) with specific reference to Leadership and Group Dynamics with a case study of Deccan Chargers” submitted for the award of Doctor of philosophy in Business Management at Padmashree Dr. D.Y.Patil University, Department of Business Management is my original work and the Dissertation has not formed the basis for the award of any degree, associate ship, fellowship or any other similar titles. The material borrowed from other sources and incorporated in the thesis has been duly acknowledged. I understand that I myself could be held responsible and accountable for plagiarism, if any, detected later on. The research papers published based on the research conducted out of and in the course of the study are based on the study and not borrowed from other sources. Place: Navi Mumbai Date: Signature of Guide Signature of Head of Dept Signature of Student iii CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the thesis entitled “Turnaround Management of a Franchisee of Indian Premier League (IPL) with specific reference to Leadership and Group Dynamics with a case study of Deccan Chargers” submitted by Mr. V. Shankar is a bonafide research work for the award of the Doctor of Philosophy in Business Management at the Padmashree Dr. D. Y. Patil University Department of Business Management in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Business Management and that the thesis has not formed the basis for the award previously of any degree, diploma, associate ship, fellowship or any other similar title of any University or Institution. Also it is certified that the thesis represents an independent work on the part of the candidate. Place: Navi Mumbai Date: Signature of the Head of Signature of the Guide the Department iv Acknowledgement It has been an exciting journey from the time I took the reins of Deccan Chargers as its Chairman and from „Chumps‟ made them, the „Champs‟. The turnaround in the performance of Deccan Chargers was based on all the general principles that are generally applied to reverse the sickness of a company. However, in the case of sporty business, the challenges are of a different nature. As soon as IPL-2 was over, I decided to document my experience and strategies. Several books were brought out by me capturing in print the transition of Deccan Chargers from „Under dogs’ to „Roaring Bulls’ (logo of Deccan Chargers). 1. Beyond Runs and Wickets 2. Its‟ just not cricket 3. Chairman‟s choice – Vol. I & II A study of these books triggered several inquisitive minds for a deeper understanding of the turnaround strategy. Dr. Ramamirtham Gopal, my mentor and guide exhorted me to engage in a more detailed research with IPL as focus and Deccan Charges as case study. It was his consistent support and motivation that propelled me to register for PhD in Business Management under him on 30th November, 2010. I am eternally indebted to him for the care and concern with which he addressed my needs and the issues referred to him. He was too generous to ignore my limitations and worked on my strengths. Mr. Sanket Ashinkar and Mr. Sushant Bawdekar of the Department of Business Management of the University, second year students were of considerable help v in data collection. I was assisted in market survey administered through a structured questionnaire by Ms. Dipti Hulawane and Ms. Insha Amir Khan of the SIES College of Management Studies. Prof. Nishi Kaul and Dr. Ela Goyal, Business Management teachers were extremely supportive in interpretations and statistical analysis. Dr. A. K. Sen Gupta, Director, SIES College of Management Studies critically appraised the thesis at my instance and guided me to undertake studies in related areas to strengthen the project. I am thankful to the Padmashree Dr.D.Y. Patil University for accepting me as a doctoral student. This is possibly the only university in Western India, nay the country with deep and abiding commitment to Sports. Its state of arts sports stadium is a manifestation of that commitment. It is to the credit of the university management to have provided a conducive environment for research in sports related fields. Being the first doctoral thesis in sports business turnaround, I received the wholesome support of all concerned in the completion of this thesis in due time. To the visionary Dr. D. Y. Patil, Hon‟ble Governor of Bihar, I dedicate this academic effort. Place: Navi Mumbai Date: Signature of the Student vi PREFACE Sports, like business is a dynamic activity. The game like products and services would have to keep pace with the needs of time to avoid obsolescence. Innovation is the key to sustain continued interest of all stakeholders in the game. Several games have lost their steam while not fulfilling the demands of the generations. „One day cricket‟ (60 over game initially later reduced to 50 overs) was touted as one of the most significant innovation in sports to support a fledging test cricket. With people‟s interest waning on any form of a game that takes a long time, 20 over cricket made its advent with a bang. India adopted the same as “Indian Premier League‟ (IPL) in 2008. It was a run away success „attracting huge crowds in the stadium and high TRPs in the Television screen viewing‟. Revenues exploded catching the attention of all. The cocktail of cricket and business „Cricketainment‟ scripted a new record in sports. I have been an avid fan of this game and invariably watched all major international events. IPL – 1 kindled enough interest to be glued to the TV screen to watch all fast paced matches. One such match was between Rajasthan Royals and Deccan Chargers which Deccan Chargers gifted away due to lack of leadership, lack of sustained enthusiasm of the players and lack of strategy and death overs management. It struck me then that all principles of management can be effectively applied in IPL, for that matter in all shorter version sports. Deccan Chargers continued IPL – 1 without much success and was rightly vii placed at the bottom of the league table. Providence brought me to lead Deccan Chargers as its Chairman from IPL – 2. I applied a whole lot of management principles for a turnaround of Deccan Chargers and was successful in make them the winner of IPL – 2 in South Africa in 2009. I documented my actions in three books. Beyond Runs and Wickets Its‟ Just not Cricket Chairman‟s Choice – Vol. I & II IPL – 3 continued with the same vigor, intensity and strategy and Deccan Chargers reached the semi-finals missing the final berth by a bad outing in the semi-finals which they could have easily won. This reinforced my belief that Leadership, Group dynamics, strategy and incentivisation have singularly an important role to play in the success in any match in addition to the art of playing. The Art and Science of the game, with little documentation on the scientific aspects of sports management and turnaround prompted me to study further and list the hypothesis in a structured format on an identified stratified sample of former players, game enthusiasts and others interested in cricket. The fruit of these efforts is the present research thesis on “Turnaround Management of a Franchisee of Indian Premier League (IPL) With specific reference to Leadership and Group Dynamics with a case study of Deccan Chargers” viii Every effort has been made, in this untested waters, to swim against the current of minimal literature, absence of archival records and absence of cricket centric research to test every proposition carefully and reach meaning for conclusion that form part of the recommendation. My Alma Mater, the Department of Business, Padmashree D. Y. Patil University and its Director Dr. R. Gopal, are the inspiration to sprout the seed that I had sown in studying this subject. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter No. Title Page No. Cover Page i Title ii Declaration iii Certificate iv Acknowledgement v Preface vii Table of Contents x List of Tables xii List of Figures xxii List of Abbreviations xxiii Executive Summary xxiv Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 2 Review of Literature 24 Chapter 3 Objectives and Research Methodology 71 Chapter 4 IPL Overview 84 Chapter 5 Data Analysis 120 Chapter 6 Case Study on Deccan Chargers 173 Chapter 7 Conclusions 205 Chapter 8 Recommendations 213 x Chapter 9 Annexure 218 xi LIST OF TABLES Table Table title Pg. No No. 1.1 Salaries of Sports Stars 3 1.2 IPL Teams in 2009 15 1.3 IPL Earnings 16 1.4 Franchisee Cost vs. Earnings 16 1.5 IPL – 1 (2007) – Point Summary 19 1.6 IPL – 1 (2007) –Details 19 1.7 IPL – 1 (2007) – Strike rates 20 1.8 Deccan Chargers comparative performance in IPL-1 and IPL – 20 2 1.9 IPL Season – 2 (2009) 21 1.10 IPL Season – 3 (2010) 21 1.11 IPL Season – 4 (2011) 21 1.12 IPL Season – 5 (2012) 22 1.13 IPL Season – 6 (2013) 22 2.1 Directive versus participative transformational leadership 45 2.2 List of opponents and the matches lost/won by Deccan 60 Chargers in season I.