by dkeviv

Created on: March 05, 2010

Cricket, known as the "Gentleman's game" has its origin from England. A game that was once played by the "Elites", is now a game of the "Mass". In India almost 95% of the men in age group of 5-40 would have played the game in their childhood and still following it. In Pakistan and Sri Lanka, it is the most watched and played game.

The first county club was started in Sussex in 1839 The first official League for Cricket was the "County Championship" formed in 1890 in England. During the initial years the most common played format of the Cricket was of five days and called as the "Test Cricket" and became the standard format by late 19th century. Playing for a county was prestigious, than economical. The player received a decent compensation but the main value out of the county Cricket was the prestige associated with the county Cricket. This also catered well to the elite class of England.

New Market Strategy:

As the English empire expanded since 16th century until 19th century, the game spread to other countries and now being played and followed by lot more people in other countries like India, Australia and Pakistan than in England.

Product Awareness:

The first marketing move was made in early 20th century, to use the nationalism of the countries to increase the popularity of game by playing against different countries. During this phase the awareness of the game as a product was increased.

New Segment - Product Width Extension Strategy:

As the British Empire spread to the Indian subcontinent, the profile of the audience for Cricket changed drastically. After the fall of the British Empire, the previous colonies adopted the game and was played by common men. With the five day format, Cricket was still not popular among the mass who had little time of pleasures. With the absence of the elitism in these countries, there was a need for a new format so that both the elites of England and the mass of the developing nations could be satisfied. In 1963,  a second marketing move was made, by creating a new format called "Limited Overs Cricket" to decrease the total time of the game. It soon gained popularity and became "One-day Cricket" that we have now. In One-day Cricket, each team would play only 50 overs unlike test matches where the teams would play for five days and two innings without a limit on the number of overs.

Even though it was not a orchestrated marketing move by an institution. It came out of a need, to satisfy a new market segment. With the advent

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