ICC World Cup 2011- Money Talk

The 10th edition of the ICC cricket world cup 2011 is finally underway and the event has generated tremendous excitement and hype. The WC 2011 is being held in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka- three cricket crazy countries.

India with its population of more than 1 billion plus cricket lovers forms the financial powerhouse of the sport. The tournament is often viewed as a perfect platform for many of the big brands to reach out to their consumers. The WC of 2007 proved catastrophic with India's early exit from the tournament. The rest of the tournament witnessed a huge dip in viewer ship and sponsorship revenues.

Here is a look at the business side of the world cup that gives a good indication of the corporate philosophy of some of the biggest brands we know and efforts they go through to make themselves visible. It also gives an interesting insight into the administrative aspect of the game.



Prize Money

The cricket world cup has evolved ever since it was first played in 1979 when West Indies was the first team to have won it. Clive Lloyd's team pocketed 4000 pounds for winning the inaugural event and then took home another 10000 pounds when they won it again four years later. Since then the prize money has always been rapidly increasing - an indication of the popularity and commercial potential of the ODI format.

The winning team of the 43 day event who will be crowned Champions at the Whankede stadium in Mumbai on April 2, 2011 are set to pocket a cool 3.25 million dollars with even the losing team winning a  substantial amount of 1.5 million dollars in prize money.

The two losing semi-finalists will be able to take home 500,000 dollars each, while teams that are knocked out in the quarter-final stage will get 250,000 dollars each. Apart from that an additional 30,000 dollars will be awarded to the winners of each first round match. If the team that has been crowned champion manages to win all their preliminary 6 group games then they stand to pocket an additional 180,000 dollars. And all this prize money does not include the share of the profits the ICC will be giving to all the 14 participating teams from its joint revenue pool.