Ahead of the fourth season (starting on 9 January) of the Women’s Premier League, Gujarat Giants hosted a press event in Mumbai.

At the event, along with the jersey reveal, a panel consisting of Ashleigh Gardner (team captain); Renuka Singh Thakur (fast bowler who joined the team from RCB); Michael Klinger, head coach, Gujarat Giants, and Sanjay Adesara, chief business officer, Adani Sportsline, discussed plans for this season’s tournament.

On the sidelines of this event, we caught up with Adesera to learn more about how the team is growing, the importance of the entire sporting ecosystem the group is aiming to create, and the impact of the recent ODI World Cup win on brands investing in women’s cricket.

Edited excerpts:

You have been with the group since 2008. While Adani Sportsline formally launched only in 2017, could you share how sports in India have grown over these years?

The group’s philosophy is about growing and building the nation. Sport is an extension of this philosophy. In 2017, we started the sports venture, with a venture into Kabbadi (with the Gujarat Giants). We also launched the Ahmedabad Marathon in the same year. Sports definitely help building the nation, and we wanted to contribute in that growth for the society.

Unlike other groups, you began with the venture in Kabaddi and then moved to cricket with your two teams, Gujarat Giants and Gulf Giants (ILT20). When you look at the Indian sports fan now, are they looking at options outside of cricket?

Currently, in India, almost 90% of the sports viewership and consumption comes from cricket. But other sports are also growing. If one looks at a sport like chess, it’s garnering interest from metros and tier two and three towns as well.

Winning medals in the Olympics has helped as well, especially with shooting. Neeraj (Chopra) winning the Gold in Tokyo has made javelin and Olympic sports popular.

There is an overall journey for Bharat, and sports are on the rise.

If one looks at the metros, the country is at around USD 3,000 per capita income, and touching close to USD 4,000 in the next year and a half. Sports, luxury, and lifestyle will benefit.

In fact, event experiences are on the rise. Any international big artist wants to come to India and participate in or host an event. That’s the proof of the growth of the country.

In terms of sports, cricket will always be the leader, but the pie will tilt towards other sports where there is a huge headroom possible.

Given your different portfolio of teams, how are your brand partners for kabaddi different from the cricket teams?

Sponsor interest is always there in sport. The beauty of our country is that there is something exciting for everyone.

To give an example of the WPL, earlier brands that wanted to reach out to women invested in it. Now, in the last couple of years, the lens through which a brand or media planner looks at it has changed.

And the ODI World Cup win would have boosted it further?

Yes. And with the T20 Women’s World Cup also scheduled for later this year, our squad deserves that (winning the cup), and that will increase it further.

Coming to your earlier question about other sports – yes, there are enough and more brands with interest, and that’s also on the rise.

Those who have budgets to partner with cricket and other sports will be there across the funnel. Others pick a sport or geography based on their target group. One can reach the entire country through partnering with a sport.

Has this benefitted the Gujarat Giants with more brand partnerships for this WPL?

It has benefitted across the board and not just for our team. It is an eventual and natural outcome. The last season saw more commercial interest already. Winning the World Cup was the cherry on the cake.

The first half of the year is full of cricket – we have the WPL, men’s ODI series between India and New Zealand, the Men’s T20 World Cup, the IPL, and then the Women’s T20 World Cup, among other tournaments. Any chance of cricketing fatigue setting in for the fan?

Not really. There are multiple screens. So viewership could change from larger screens to small screens. Or we can see the rise of multi-screen viewership rise but I don’t think we can see any rise in fatigue in terms of viewership or sponsorship.

For the group, what is next in the sporting sphere?

We want to focus on the upcoming WPL season and then evaluate other opportunities.

Catch an interaction with Renuka Singh Thakur from Gujarat Giants, who was part of the World Cup winning squad in the February issue of Manifest which can be pre-ordered here. 

There are also subscription plans:

For a one-year subscription, use the below link. 

We also have a six-month subscription. Get it here. 

For any subscription-related queries email aaryan@manifest-media.in.