New Delhi: Archery’s rising star Rishabh Yadav had never shot in such an electric atmosphere before — taking aim amidst dhol beats under floodlights and a vibrant background. Neither had the seasoned Deepika Kumari, Tokyo Olympics champion Mete Gazoz, or reigning women’s compound world champion Andrea Becerra.
It was a new experience for some of India’s finest archers and promising talents, and top stars who competed in the inaugural Archery Premier League at the Yamuna Sports Complex here.
The format itself was innovative, bringing recurve and compound archery together for the first time, making for an engaging 10-day tournament.
The Capital is also hosting the Pro Kabaddi League at the Thyagraj Stadium. The Delhi leg of PKL will be followed by the playoffs and grand finale of its 12th season here.
The second part of the year is the season of leagues in India, and this year, Olympic sports like archery and shooting have joined the fray. While the Shooting League of India has been pushed to early next year, excitement remains high for a new competition in one of India’s most successful sports.
Yet, federations know that launching a franchise league is one thing, sustaining it is another. What worked for cricket’s IPL may not work for other sports considering its massive fan base and financial clout India enjoys.
That’s not the case with others. Similar ambition might spell trouble. A sustainable model for a consistent run remains a major challenge for non-cricket leagues. Take the relaunched Hockey India League (HIL), which was revived after almost eight years but is grappling with financial instability, getting top internationals and player salaries.
New leagues like APL, therefore, will need to carve their own space and build a model that can work in the long run.
The Archery Association of India has high hopes in its model. Its main objective is to promote the sport and provide Indian archers exposure and top competition. The APL from October 2-12 featured six teams and a total of 48 archers, including 12 internationals. The unique format has recurve and compound archers in mixed teams, shooting at 70m and 50m respectively.
“Our objective is to promote archery. We want our archers to shoot shoulder to shoulder with the best of the world so that they get the confidence and do well at the Olympics. We also want to showcase the sport of archery and that’s why we created this format, and World Archery was very excited,” Anil Kamineni, APL chairman, told HT.
“We’ve been thinking of this league for 17 years. We did market research, spoke to the owners of many leagues and took their feedback. One of the things they said was try and keep the threshold low. So, we have kept the franchise fee very low, we wanted it to be reasonable for them to come in.”
The APL franchise fee was as low as ₹1.75 crore. Foreign archers drew a top salary of $10,000, the same amount (in Indian currency) Indians in the world top 10 received. Depending on their rankings, Indians are drawing ₹9-6 lakh per season. To get the world’s top archers, AAI worked closely with World Archery, ensuring that they are able to organise the league in a suitable window in the international calendar.
“What we are getting, we are investing back in conducting the league. We are also ensuring that each team gets some prize money,” he says.
Though AAI ensured TV coverage by paying for it, it also did live streaming through WA, making it accessible to fans.
AAI knows it will have to keep evolving to keep the league going. It can perhaps learn from PKL — one of the few non-cricket leagues to enjoy a successful run. PKL commissioner Anupam Goswami reveals his success mantra.
“The league as a business construct for modern sport is still a young concept in India. There are four legs to doing a league, especially in an emerging sports economy. The most important thing is you must have a very strong fan orientation and sensitivity. A sports league has to exist only for the fans. PKL has been able to have that. It helped that there was such a strong broadcaster and media partner,” says Goswami.
“Then you must have the best talent for your sport. If you see some of the overseas talent on display, like raider Ali Samadi who plays for Jaipur, even Indian players are very impressed. Third, of course, is the financial structure, which allows you to be sustainable. It has to allow and encourage teams to make adequate investments required for top quality talent. So, your player recruitment, player onboarding, contracting and player salaries have to be very, very well thought out. You have to be very strong, but can’t be rash.
“You have to bring in all the other surrounding elements, especially coaching and officiating, and for that, you have to have great governance.”
PKL’s growth can be gauged by the auction statistics from this season. From a modest team salary purse of ₹60 lakh and a highest individual purchase of ₹12.8 lakh in the first season, the auction for PKL 12 saw 10 players cross the ₹1 crore mark for the first time. The total expenditure stood at ₹37.90 crore. Iranian defender Mohammadreza Shadloui Chiyaneh was bought by Gujarat Giants for a whopping ₹2.23 crore. The base salary for New Young Player (NYP) – category D – is ₹9 lakh.
“It is a fair, entry level salary for any occupation in India. They are getting it for a season as a regular employee for four months. The highest salary drawn by an NYP (Anil Mohan) playing their first season is ₹78 lakh. The league allows entry level players to compare well with other occupations because then the next generation of players will like to join,” says Goswami.
