Cricket South Africa faces financial challenges, but the game itself does not need to suffer.
Even if the organization were to collapse, millions of cricket fans would continue enjoying the sport at various levels, including school competitions and club tournaments.
However, CSA must achieve financial stability to ensure the thriving of cricket across all levels. This will naturally improve our grassroots, school system, club cricket scene, domestic leagues, and beyond, benefiting both cricket development and marketability.
Unfortunately, the opposite trend is currently occurring. Poor management at the top in the past has resulted in a lack of available funds from CSA, hindering the necessary distribution of resources across various levels of cricket.
All levels of cricket are struggling, with funding identified as the primary threat.
A clear solution to this predicament is a successful national team. If the Proteas Men and Women win major tournaments, they become instantly marketable, potentially resolving numerous issues. Presently, betting and alcohol companies appear to be the only sponsors willing to take such risks.
Wouldn’t it be remarkable to see cricket-focused companies sponsoring the national side someday?
Currently, we are clinging to hope — hope that the Proteas can begin winning ICC events, and hope that SA20 generates enough revenue to address CSA’s financial challenges.
However, we don’t need to rely solely on hope. Let’s flip the script and work from the bottom up.
Marketing has evolved significantly, with the digital realm offering unprecedented opportunities. While traditional methods remain relevant, not every cricket business requires mass exposure to succeed.
Despite CSA’s financial turmoil, there are still countless individuals engaged in the game, providing a market to reach. However, small and medium enterprises within the cricket industry struggle to afford conventional advertising channels.
You might argue that social media has changed the game. True, but it’s also saturated, requiring substantial effort and investment to stand out.
You need to build your social media accounts with thousands of followers and start creating content regularly to keep your audience engaged. You then must hope that a piece of your content goes viral to get the required attention and engagement to make your investment of time spent worth it.
Or you can pay to reach that audience, but you still need to create content that’s engaging to reduce advertising costs and make your investment worthwhile. If you are running a full-time business creating content will take an excessive amount of time away from your daily duties needed to run your business.
You could also pay a digital marketing agency to do all this for you but this won’t come cheap and it might take them months for them to build an audience that you can market to immediately.
You could also join Cricket Fanatics Magazine’s Business Corner to discover how to market effectively and affordably to a cricket audience.
There are options beyond traditional mass media advertising, incessant posting on social media and expensive marketing agencies.
Whatever road you choose, cricket-related businesses have to succeed for cricket in South Africa to thrive at all levels.
It can happen, if we choose strategies and systems that work for cricket-related businesses.
