The power of brand ‘Sanga’

CID is not an experience that Kumar Sangakkara deserves 

There are outstanding people that we come across in our lives but most of them have been late developers. The logic being that to be the best in the world requires 70% inborn traits whilst the rest of the 30% will require some gruelling training. But, Kumar Sangakkara is a different human being.

Sanga – consistent performer 

Studying at Trinity College Kandy, he was appointed the First XI Captain in 1996 and then went on to win the Trinity Lion Award for Cricket the same year. He became a Senior Prefect in 1996 and then went to win the highest award that a Trinitian can win as the “all round student in a year”.

The brilliance of Sangakkara was how he balanced leadership work and sports whilst securing the Best Results in the G.C.E. A/L in 1997. Then he became an Undergraduate of the University of Colombo – Law Faculty but took a daring move in his life to make Cricket his career. In 2011 he won the coveted Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World which sealed his talent in the sporting world.

Outstanding track record 

Apart from the above, Sangakkara has won a multitude of awards in his career, such as the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World In 2014; LG People’s Choice Award 2011, 2012; ICC ODI Player of the Year 2011; ICC Test Cricketer of the Year 2012; ICC Cricketer of the Year 2012; ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year 2013; ICC Test World XI 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012; and ICC ODI World XI 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015. Thereafter, in 2015 he won the Outstanding Achievement in Sports award at the Asian Awards and also the CEAT International Cricketer of the Year 2015. 

Back home, he became the ‘Sri Lankan of the year 2011’ beating all the other 20 million people in the country across all categories like business, politics and sports which carved out a special place in every Sri Lankan’s mind. Kumar Sangakkara then became the First Non-British President of MCC and the youngest member of the World Cricket Committee, a feat envied by many. 

Making a mark 

Whilst being outstanding in his profession, the time where he shook the policy makers of the country was when he conceptualised his thoughts about Sri Lankan Cricket at the MCC Cowdrey lecture – 2011. His true character of being a fearless leader was revealed to the world. Let me capture the essence of his oration. 

Brand SL Cricket

Sangakkara said the essence of brand cricket is the excitement and the strong connection it has with the fans which hinge on patriotism. This is exactly what we saw last week when the former minister of sports revealed that alleged fraud at the ‘World Cup Cricket Final’ that took Sangakkara marching to the CID, there was an uproar from the public that got the Minister to backtrack. In fact, some are speculating that the party he represents will be challenged this election due to the harm he did to the brand ‘Sanga’. This is the connection that this gent highlighted way back in 2011.

The second element highlighted by Sangakkara that made Sri Lanka Cricket very powerful is the advertising expenditure directed towards it in the wake of the country’s 1996 World Cup win. This includes not only the sponsorship money that the team attracts but also player endorsements of private sector brands. If all this is valued, Brand Sri Lanka Cricket will be worth way above the IPL brand value of $ 6 billion in my view, but sadly no one has attempted this challenge. 

But a point that needs to be understood from the essence of Sangakkara’s oration that he highlighted was that “The Brand Sri Lanka Cricket is created by the fans it attracts and the events with which it has been associate”. Hence, according to Sangakkara “most of its success must be attributed to the fans, whom we hardly hear about in the news”. He went on to state that the brand belongs to the people of the country. This means that the administrators must be accountable and responsible to Sri Lanka Cricket which has been created by the brand he said which was the very thing that was not honoured by the former minister sadly and highlighted many times on the sport administrators in the media. 

Deep dive

In my mind, if we do a deep dive the challenge for Brand Sri Lanka Cricket is to get a brand custodian who will calculate the brand value and understand the propositions that are wrapped around the brand. But sadly no one had been able to do this task for Sri Lanka given that people bent towards politicians are appointed leading to anarchy. 

If the leadership is strong a clear brand development plan can be drafted; one which will focus on the promotional side as well as sharpen the identity as it evolves in the changing fashion of the game – be it the five-day, one-day or 20-over game, said Sangakkara in the oration. But he cautioned that people must safeguard the brand from activity that will devalue it. Unfortunately, no one has even questioned as to why the Former Minister made this statement after a silence of nine years. 

This is the type of management science that Brand Sri Lanka Cricket requires was the highlight from Sangakkara’s oration. To my mind the speaker from The Cowdrey Lecture talked about the power of brand Sri Lanka Cricket and how that proposition can be built on. But unfortunately, due to an inconsistency of decision making at the Cricket abroad this has never been utilised for building the brand in Sri Lanka, developing new franchises and making Sri Lanka Cricket build brand Sri Lanka. 

Building of Brand Sri Lanka Cricket

An important point to note is that if we take a typical brand like Swadeshi Khomba soap for instance, the brand custodian can clearly mark out the values that brand must be wrapped in, for instance being herbal, natural protection from germs and having a heritage of germ protection in a home like the famous Khomba leaf put up in a home on the seventh day one gets chicken pox. So the essence of the brand is family protection the herbal way.

But in the case of Brand Sri Lanka Cricket, it’s the situations around it in the past regime that has resulted in the devaluing of the brand values on the name Sri Lanka Cricket with allegations of corruption, inefficiency In other words the uncontrollable variables including the political economy has affected the brand drastically. 

However, it must be said that with careful planning even a difficult situation, such as the case of Brand Sri Lanka Cricket, could have been managed provided there was strong leadership at that time. But the reality is that it never came into being, given the poor talent selected for administration and day-to-day running of Sri Lanka Cricket, which is what media is highlighting.

Cowdrey architecture

Let me put the MCC Cowdrey Lecture to a conceptualised theory by the works of Keller in the popular marketing theory ‘Customer-Based Brand Equity Pyramid’. Let me capture the essence of this idea.

1. Brand salience

Sangakkara said: “Cricket in Sri Lanka is no longer just a sport: it is a shared passion that is a source of fun and a force for unity. It is a treasured sport that occupies a celebrated place in our society. It is remarkable that in a very short period an alien game has become our national obsession, played and followed with almost fanatical passion and love.” 

I guess the new management post the election on 5 August must understand this and build a new direction for Sri Lanka Cricket with the legends like Mahela, Murali and Sangakkara in the system. 

2. Performance

The speaker said: “In 1981, Sri Lanka’s cricket suffered from an identity crisis as many were not aware how Sri Lankans played cricket.” He went on to say that before Sri Lanka’s World Cup success “the leadership of Arjuna during this period was critical to the emergence of Sri Lanka in the global arena”. Apparently, it was Arjuna who understood most clearly why we needed to break free from the shackles of our colonial past and forge a new identity, an identity forged exclusively from Sri Lankan values, an identity that fed from the passion, vibrancy and emotion of normal Sri Lankans.

“From Matara came Sanath, a man from a humble background with an immense talent that was raw and without direction or refinement,” voiced Sangakkara. A talented cricketer, under the guidance of Arjuna become one of the most destructive batting forces the game has ever known, however Sri Lanka failed to build another Sanath, he added.

“Murali came from the hills of Kandy from a more affluent background. Starting off as a fast bowler and later changing to spin, he was blessed with a natural deformity in his bowling arm allowing him to impart so much spin on the ball that it spun at unthinkable angles. He brought wrist spin to off-spin.” 

The speaker said about winning the World Cup: “The impact of that World Cup victory was enormous, both broadening the game’s grassroots as well as connecting all Sri Lankans with one shared passion. For the first time, children from outstations and government schools were allowed to make cricket their own.” However, structurally there was no development hence the game is suffering from a lack of good talent. 

Sangakkara said about the Lahore attack: “It is strange how clear your thinking is. I did not see my life flash by. There was no insane panic. ‘We are Sri Lankan,’ we thought to ourselves, ‘and we are tough and we will get through hardship and we will overcome this because our spirit is strong’. This is what the world saw in our interviews immediately after the attack. We were calm, collected and rational. Our emotions held true to our role as unofficial ambassadors.”

“I guess this is the same spirit we need to drive public sector responsibility,” Sangakkara voiced. Let’s see how the game will be managed post 5 August. 

3. Feelings

The speaker also said: “Our cricket embodied everything in our lives, our laughter and tears, our hospitality, our generosity, our music, our food and drink. It was normality and hope and inspiration in a war-ravaged island. In it was our culture and heritage, enriched by our myriad ethnicities and religions.”

On meeting a soldier after the Lahore attack, Sangakkara said: “That soldier looked me in the eye and replied: ‘It is okay if I die because it is my job and I am ready for it. But you are a hero and if you were to die it would be a great loss for our country.’” 

The million dollar question is, why was Sangakkara taken to CID for a statement given his international stature? Why couldn’t the authorities understand the gaps in the law and how it cannot be taken forward before ruining one’s brand image?

4. Resonance

The speaker said: “A game that brings the nation to a standstill; a sport so powerful it is capable of transcending war and politics. This is the spirit of Sri Lanka’s cricket.” 

This is so true today, and it was only Rotary that used the likes of Dimuth Karunaratne and Angelo Matthews as ‘influencers’ to create awareness of the new normal on the COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka.

5. Judgement

Kumar Sangakkara said: “I will play my cricket for them. Their spirit is the true spirit of cricket. With me are all my people. I am Tamil, Sinhalese, Muslim and Burgher. I am a Buddhist, a Hindu, a follower of Islam and Christianity. I am today, and always, proudly Sri Lankan.”

Let’s see how this statement will be used to build unity in Sri Lanka post 5 August as soon as the world opens up for business post the pandemic. Sri Lanka has to move to a V-shaped recovery than the L-shape or U-shape that some speculate. Already research says that almost 40% Sri Lankans in the A SEC groups will lose their jobs in the next three months.

6. Imagery

The speaker said about Murali being no-balled in Australia: “No matter what critics say, the manner in which Arjuna and the team stood behind Murali made an entire nation proud. In that moment Sri Lanka adopted the cricketers simply as ‘our boys’ or ‘ape kollo’. Gone was the earlier detachment of the Sri Lankan cricket fan and in its place was a newfound love for those 15 men. They became our sons, our brothers. Sri Lankans stood with them and shared their trials and tribulations.” 

This are the words that denotes the power of brand Sanga and he must be used as a brand ambassador by the country, especially in the area of tourism. 

Brand hurt

Where brand Sri Lanka Cricket can get hurt, the speaker mentioned: “With the victory in 1996 came money and power to the board and players. Players from within the team itself became involved in power games within the board. Officials elected to power in this way in turn manipulated player loyalty to achieve their own ends. At times board politics would spill over into the team, causing rifts, ill-feeling and distrust.”

The speaker went to say: “The new administration needs to adopt the same values enshrined by the team over the years: integrity, transparency, commitment and discipline. Unless the administration is capable of becoming more professional, forward-thinking and transparent then we risk alienating the common man.”

The collective voice of senior cricketers getting together to protest on the construction of the $ 30 million new cricket stadium was a testimony of how Sri Lanka Cricket has matured. 

Product development

On the area of product development, the speaker said: “Although our school cricket structure is extremely strong, our club structure remains archaic. With players diluted among 20 clubs it does not enable the national coaching staff to easily identify and funnel talented players through for further development. The lack of competitiveness of the club tournament does not lend itself to producing hardened first class professionals. Various attempts to change this structure to condense and improve it have been resisted by the administration and the clubs concerned, the main reason for this being that any elected cricket board that offended these clubs runs the risk of losing their votes come election time.”

I guess, let’s see if changes are brought in given the policy insight provided by Sangakkara if someone has the energy to correct the status quo. 

Cricket for nation branding

The speaker on the importance of cricket for the country said: “I pray that people understand that it is cricket that has become engraved in our lives making it the heartbeat of the nation. A point to note is that in our cricket, we display a unique spirit, a spirit enriched by lessons learned from a history spanning over two-and-a-half millennia. In our cricket you see the character of our people, our history, culture and traditions, our laughter, our joy, our tears and regrets. It is rich in emotion and talent. My responsibility as a Sri Lankan cricketer is to further enrich this beautiful sport, to add to it and enhance it and to leave a richer legacy for other cricketers to follow.”

This was taken away when the CID summoned the top two legends of the game for questioning sadly. 

Next steps

The masterpiece of the MCC Cowdrey Lecture in my view was the first draft of brand Sri Lanka Cricket. With a proactive management team I feel that we have hope to develop a formal document but it require leadership. But the real challenge is when the ‘plan is brought to life by the management,’ which unfortunately has been a failure by successive governments. The only point to remember is that ‘Sanga is a powerful brand’ and he must be used by Sri Lanka Cricket to develop the game. 

(The writer is an award-winning marketer and business personality in Sri Lanka. He heads an Artificial Intelligence company for Sri Lanka, Maldives and Pakistan. He is a former Chairman – Sri Lanka Export Development Board and Sri Lanka Tourism and served the United Nations (UNOPS).]