Celebrate Architecture: Redefining Corporate Cricket

“If you are not playing at least one sport in your life, you definitely have given up one of your interests.” – Ar. Sackthi Muthu

We all are very well aware of the scale at which corporate sport events take place, especially in the cities of Mumbai & Delhi. There are corporates, mix corporates and even open tournaments of big budgets happening all the time. The main purpose of this, as we all know is to have some activities for the sports lovers outside their office lives.

Now let’s narrow it down to a specific set of industry and see if the concept works. As a matter of fact it does, big time. Celebrate Architecture, a brand now synonymous with the industry works with a vision to connect people within the similar industry, via organizing various recreational activities such as sports, arts, culture etc.

CricketGraph had an exclusive chat with Ar. Sackthi Muthu, Founder & President of the concept and now a brand named Celebrate Architecture. He shared with us the story behind this concept, the vision, the challenges, and the way forward.

How it all started?

It all started at the time when the city of Mumbai was down with recession, six years back. A 4 day tennis ball event consisting of 8 teams was organized and it garnered such a response that by the time the second edition was organized, the number of teams doubled up to 16, the duration increased and teams had their own jerseys apart from other things.

Seeing the development, we started expanding with similar people from the industry such as builders, contractors, suppliers etc. were also invited and after 6 years, 8 seasons of the tournament have been completed successfully.

Challenges

We did not face much challenge in the Initial years mainly due to the lower scale of the event. But as we grew and turned more professional, the teams increased and consequently the budget. Therefore sponsorship was a major issue. It still is. As we are catering to a specific industry, the numbers are not that high for the potential sponsors to be interested for the event. The brand value is definitely increasing so we are confident. This will be the single biggest challenge whenever a similar concept will be applied in some other industry.

The second challenge is the entry of new players in this market. As the teams are same in the industry it poses a threat to the team participation as they have to choose which one benefits them the most.

Ground availability and cost is another important matter which affects the cost.

Participation & Response

People from different companies have shown a lot of interest in participating in the event. Generally the players range anywhere between 25-35 years of age but we do encourage people beyond that category to play. We helped form a new team for a person who was past 50 but was eager to play. It’s more about pride now than anything else. All teams should also have a female player with a compulsion to bowl at least one over. So technically we have playing 12 instead of playing 11.

The brand is strong but probably not popular enough. Also it is not possible for everyone to play as there is limited number of teams. That’s why we started other activities such as soccer, bowling etc. so that sooner or later everyone gets to participate in some activity.

Future Plans

Currently the tournament is played in a 10 overs format. We would like to increase it to a 20 overs format. Also the duration of the event will increase so we will have to meet the challenges regarding costs for the same. We also plan to expand the brand geographically to Delhi and Bangalore whichever is feasible.

Cricket in Hong Kong

Cricket is very organized in Hong Kong. There is no restriction whatsoever with respect to age, or the level of game you have. You love the game, you play it.

Click here to view the previous editions of Celebrate Architecture Cricket Tournaments.

Kindly send us your feedback and suggestions to info@cricketgraph.com

Article By

Sumanyu Jain

Regional Manager & Editor @CricketGraph