[Part 2] How India Hosted the World Cup in 1987

This is the story of the time when India wanted to host a World Cup without a single penny in it’s pocket.

The time when we hustled & hosted an entire World Cup through sheer grit.

The 1987 World Cup was to be jointly hosted & held in India & Pakistan. We wanted to show the world what we are capable of. But we needed 30 crores to finance this World Cup, and the BCCI didn’t have a single rupee.

Yeah. Not a single rupee.

Errr…. pause, you should have ideally read the previous story of “Why India wanted to host the World Cup”, If not, you should read that first here, before you get to this one.

Anyway, let me give you a very, very quick recap.

In 1983, when India made it to the finals of the Cricket World Cup, the BCCI president asked for 2 tickets for the Union Education Minister, who was in England at the time, but the English cricket board blatantly refused, even though the box seats were left empty since the high & mighty of English cricket didn’t want to watch a final where England weren’t playing.

And this insult felt like a slap in the face to the BCCI president, thus starting a series of events that led to India pulling off a miraculous coup, along with Pakistan & other Asian cricket boards, to move the World Cup out of England for the very 1st time.

In a bid to host the World Cup, India promised 4-5 times the money that England was offering to other countries so that they would vote in favour of them.

At the time, that money was guaranteed by Dhirubhai Ambani through Indira Gandhi’s mediation. But, by the time India actually won the ICC elections, Indira Gandhi had been unfortunately assassinated, and Rajiv Gandhi did not share the same rapport with Ambani’s.

And more importantly, in order to secure political support, Rajiv Gandhi appointed V.P. Singh as the Finance Minister.

One of the first things VP Singh did as the Finance Minister was to order the Income Tax Department to go after the Ambanis.

What followed was an all-out war between the 2 sides.

So there was absolutely no way that the Ambani's were going to sponsor this World Cup, and the search was ON for a new sponsor.

There were multiple hurdles that came to the forefront of BCCI. Here are a few key ones:

Firstly, the ‘Guarantee Money’ that the BCCI had promised to provide to all the countries participating in the World Cup.

Secondly, the money that BCCI needed to cover the logistics like Accommodation, Travel, & Security.

Lastly, the money needed to overhaul the entire broadcasting infrastructure.

The total amount needed to host the World Cup was around ~ Rs 30 crores. This was to be shared between India and Pakistan, with India covering ⅔^rd of the cost.

That is Rs 20 crores. And BCCI was running helter-skelter to manage these funds.

At this point in time, BCCI didn't have much funds of their own. So logically, a part of it would come from direct sponsorship and the other part from the royalty it would receive from broadcasting the matches.

But this royalty money would be paid after the World Cup was over.

And the BCCI had been given a deadline of December 1984 to pay the guarantee money of Rs 4 crores, which was to be paid in the form of pounds.

At the time, India was a restricted market, which meant that we did not have a huge foreign reserve, so the government would be very uneasy about covering it.

In short, a foreign investor was needed who could pay in pounds.

Any sponsor that gives money has the expectation of increased sales over time. But in a not-so-developed country like India, with severely restricted foreign market access, the chances of having a return on their investment were close to nil.

So, the BCCI had to convince people to give them their money with no hopes of ever getting it back. They tried reaching out to Coca-Cola, Rothmans, Grindlays Bank, Kodak, Gillette, Mitsubishi, etc.

In fact, anybody that could be approached was approached. In desperation, we even reached out to Indian businesses, and all that the BCCI managed together from all of them was just Rs 38 lakhs—When the total amount required for the guarantee money was Rs 4 Crores!

With the deadline fast approaching, BCCI President Salve went to meet Rajiv Gandhi & explain the situation.

Now, understand the situation Rajiv Gandhi was in: He had just lost his mother. He had been pushed onto the political centre stage. His own party members were scoffing at his inexperience.

Things that Indira Gandhi used to do with an iron fist, Rajiv Gandhi had to do with an open hand.

And then there comes Salve, asking for 1.8 million pounds.

The only option left with Rajiv Gandhi at the time was to dig into the foreign reserve, which is generally seen as the last resort in case of a financial crisis or times of war.

In a country where people stand in lines for hours on the trot just for basic necessities like rations, here was a PM who was thinking about taking money out of the foreign reserve for just a game.

Mind you, all of these decisions were taken within the first 6 months of his Prime Ministerial position.

At best, it could be a gamble with absolutely no benefits for him. At worst, it could be political suicide. And Rajiv Gandhi decided to roll the dice.

His reasoning was simple: “If we couldn't pay the guarantee money, India would be humiliated on the world stage”, and also, with the recent World Cup win, cricket itself was a source of pride for Indians, so even if it was a risk, it was a risk well worth taking.

Henceforth, the Indian government paid off that 1.8 Million Pounds, hoping that the BCCI will eventually find a sponsor, but before they could even go & search for sponsors, a new trouble emerged…

Doordarshan was refusing to pay royalties to the BCCI. This royalty would amount to about Rs 6 crores. This was a huge chunk of money that BCCI desperately needed, but Doordarshan had thrown their hands up in the air.

Honestly, even Doordarshan wasn’t at fault here. Amongst the things that BCCI had promised ICC while securing the hosting rights was a clause where BCCI would upgrade their broadcasting infrastructure. Something that would cost about Rs 30 crores. All of which would have to be paid by Doordarshan. Now, maybe DD could earn it back or maybe they could not, but one thing was sure, they couldn't pay those additional Rs 6 crores to BCCI.

So here was BCCI, at risk of not being able to broadcast World Cup matches to their own country.

At this point in time, BCCI was still short of Rs 20 crores with no clear solution in sight. It felt like a moment straight out of a thrilling underdog sports movie, where the odds seemed insurmountable.

But in true spirited fashion, we tapped into our legendary Indian skill of 'Jugaad', showcasing that when the game is on the line, ingenuity becomes our MVP! 🪄🤹🏽

First of all, even though we had no money, it had to be kept a secret because the moment the word got out, England would redouble its efforts to stop us from hosting the World Cup.

Hence, rather than waiting for a magical sponsor to appear, BCCI dipped into its meagre funds to get the ball rolling. Experts from the BBC and MCC who had experience conducting the World Cup were pulled in, & the game was ON!

Glorious plans were made with nothing substantial on the ground. There was a lot of smoke, but no fire beneath it!

Frankly, the little bit of spark that was causing the smoke was not from the BCCI but because of the Congress government.

In the next few years, Rajiv Gandhi and VP Singh’s relation continued to sour, & it had finally reached it’s breaking point.

VP Singh had been transferred to the Defence ministry, and the moment it happened, NKP Salve made a quick call to Dhirubhai Ambani and asked, ”Are you interested?”

Dhirubhai Ambani said “Yes”. But this time with one condition.

He wanted to sit next to the Prime Minister during an exhibition match between India and Pakistan that was going to be held just before the World Cup.

Rajiv Gandhi agreed, and the deal was ON.

Ambani first paid off the 4 crores to the Indian government. Then payed another 1.5 crores for the title sponsorship and named Anil Ambani as the organiser from Reliance's side.

Anil Ambani, in his first interview as the sponsor, when asked "What are the plans for the World Cup?",

He replied,

The shocked interviewer reverted back, saying, “ It’s the thing that you are sponsoring”

Anil Ambani replied:

Normally sponsors pay money with the hopes of increasing sales, but Ambani had just one goal in mind, “Brand Recognition”.

He wanted people in India and around the world to know of a brand called Reliance.

So, the Ambanis went at it ‘like a groundhog digging'; anything that could be renamed was renamed!

Even the name of the organising committee was changed from "India-Pakistan Joint Organisation Committee" to “Reliance Cup Organisation Committee”.

With one part of the equation handled, Salve again approached Rajiv Gandhi for the other issue with Doordarshan, & through his mediation, a new compromise was reached. Doordarshan would bear all production costs, but they would not pay any royalty to the BCCI. In return, they had to share their ad revenue with them. BCCI on the other hand would get full control of all the in-ground advertisements.

The moment this compromise was reached, Ambani bought the rights to all the in-ground advertisements for all of India's stadiums for a staggering Rs 2.6 crores!

Furthermore, there were talks that Reliance would pay from its own pockets for infrastructure to increase all the advertising spaces inside the stadium.

Not stopping there, Reliance outbids everyone to earn the rights as the official supplier. Following this, all the other brands, like Fuji, Canon, Bata, Seiko, and VIP, were all made suppliers of the Reliance Cup. With Reliance itself becoming the official fabric supplier.

Seeing this increased branding & one-sided monopoly of Reliance, many companies were enraged & complained to Salve, who simply responded, “Where were all of you when we needed money?”.

While money was being squeezed out from every foreseeable corner, it still wasn’t enough.

Specifically, BCCI still needed money to cover players accommodations.

While the hunt was on for some cheaper accommodation, Reliance, egged on by Salve, officially declared that it would cover the entire cost of accommodations.

Now you can ask —Why ? How does Reliance benefit here?

After all they didn’t own any extensive hotel chains in India, which meant that they would have to bear the entire cost of accommodations.

Now here are some facts on why Reliance did this:

• All the 5-star hotels that were arranged by Reliance had extensive hotel networks in the home countries of those foreign teams.

• Furthermore, Ambani funded a 6-part Netflix style TV series on Doordarshan, calling it “Reliance World Cup Cricket 1987”.

• In this series, they showed behind-the-scenes preparations for the World Cup of the teams, including interviews of those foreign teams in their hotels.

• Due to the promise of this worldwide publicity, these hotels didn’t charge money.

And with this final obstacle dealt with, The Road was Clear…

India was finally ready to host the World Cup. As matches proceeded, the throne was taken over from England. A new concept of a closing ceremony was introduced & broadcasted, for which Reliance had paid an additional Rs 55 lakh.

Even though India didn’t win that World Cup, we had won something much more important. We had won the right to speak, right at the top of the food chain!

The whole world had witnessed India pulling off a coup, performing a miracle by arranging multiple crores, and then latching on to the throne—never to let go again.

The new India had arrived.

And all of this just because someone at the English board didn’t provide 2 additional tickets to the World Cup final.

References: 1, 2

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