'Cricket, cricket and more cricket' dominates the Indian sports scene. This was revealed in a joint study, the findings of which were released today by global market research company Synovate and its recently acquired subsidiary Blackstone Market Facts, on sports in India and people's attitudes towards sporting teams, heroes and brand endorsements.

Synovate's research included not just what India's favourite sport was, but also the response towards live sporting events, watching sport on television, the viewing of women's sport and India's sporting heroes.

When respondents in the study (carried out over two months) were queried on their favourite celebrities, answers showed an overall fascination with film stars (33 per cent) and cricketers (30 per cent). Individuals that attracted the greatest number of mentions were Sachin Tendulkar with 14 per cent naming him their favourite celebrity and Amitabh Bachchan with 13 per cent.

When asked how Indians spend their leisure time, a massive 86 per cent said they watch television. The next activity enjoyed is reading - but the count is only 40 per cent respondents. Listening to music (31 per cent), watching movies (27 per cent) and cooking (13 per cent) are also enjoyed, the survey reveals. (See graph below)

The survey made one interesting observation: only eight per cent of survey respondents listed outdoor sports as a leisure pursuit. One argument to this that Synovate puts up is that perhaps sport is too serious to be classified as mere leisure to Indians, because a later survey question found that 47 per cent of respondents play cricket at least once a week.

Who was asked, when?
The Synovate/Blackstone Market Facts survey was conducted in late October and early November 2003 through face-to-face interviews in households, following a structured questionnaire.

Precisely 1,007 respondents were interviewed from the North zone (Delhi, Lucknow), East zone (Kolkata), West zone (Mumbai, Ahmedabad) and South zone (Chennai, Hyderabad). The respondents were split into age groups 15-25, 26-35, 36-45 and 46-55 years and a ration of 60:40 male and female, the release specifies.

Synovate's global CEO Adrian Chedore endorsed the findings during his visit to Blackstone Market Facts' Mumbai and New Delhi offices and said, "Sport is a passion - people laugh, cry, cheer and jeer for their teams. This makes it big business as well. And there's no bigger sports business in India than cricket..." He said, "Not only is cricket the favourite game to watch on television (93 per cent), our survey also showed it's the favourite game to watch live (74 per cent) and the favourite game to play too (29 per cent currently play cricket)." Chedore said India's favourite overall celebrity is Sachin Tendulkar (14 per cent).

Most-often played game
The survey states that of all the sports played in India, cricket is the most popular. It shows that overall, 58 per cent of the survey respondents have played cricket and 29 per cent play on a regular basis.

While the love of cricket cuts across all demographics, the survey points out that it is played more by the younger generation - 55 per cent in the age group of 15-25 year and only 17 per cent in the age group of 36-45. 47 per cent play the sport at least once a week, and many of them manage to squeeze in up to three games a week.

In comparison, only 23 per cent respondent claimed to have played badminton at some stage in their life and 23 per cent had played football. 10 per cent male respondents said they play football regularly and seven per cent of the women surveyed currently play badminton.

Serious sports freaks?
The study also looked at sports club membership, health and exercise regimes and the watching of live events. The findings reveal that only 15 per cent had memberships to clubs.

Even of the regular cricket players, only 15 per cent seem to have a regular health and exercise regime. While 24 per cent of 15-25 year-olds said that they enjoyed an exercise regime, 15 per cent of 26-35 year-olds said they worked out in a gym and only 10 per cent of 36-45-year-olds and 12 per cent of 46-55 year-olds said they pursue a regular exercise programme.

Another point that was revealed was that only seven per cent Indian women engaged in a regular exercise plan, versus 21 per cent of Indian men.

However, when exercising did not seem one of the hot favourites of the Indian men and women, about 93 per cent of respondents said they watch cricket on the television, with four per cent watching football/soccer and only one per cent watching badminton, baseball, tennis and other Indian sports.

The survey also shows that when it comes to live sporting events, 74 per cent of respondents love to watch cricket live, with 19 per cent watching no live sports and three per cent watching football live. Only 18 per cent claimed to have attended a live sporting event in the three months prior to the late October study, although this could be attributed to a lack of live international cricket games during that period.

Star value
The survey points out that the most admired Indian cricketer of all time, according to 64 per cent respondents was Sachin Tendulkar. The next was Kapil Dev (10 per cent) and then Saurav Ganguly (four per cent). Most people said they admired Tendulkar because he was a good batsman, he makes good runs, generally plays well and is dependable. About 22 per cent maintained that Tendulkar is the all-time-favourite because he is simply the 'best cricketer'. (See statistics below)

Among the most admired international cricketer - across Australia, West Indies, Sri Lanka and South Africa - Ricky Ponting (Australia) got 14 per cent votes, Steve Waugh (Australia) got 12 per cent, Brian Lara (West Indies) got nine per cent, Sanath Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka) got eight per cent, Adam Gilchrist (Australia) got six per cent, Wasim Akram (Pakistan) got four per cent, Jonty Rhodes (South Africa) got three per cent and Vivian Richards (West Indies) got two per cent votes.

Four per cent admit to admiring the feared Pakistani left-hander, Wasim Akram. However, the international team with the least support was of course Pakistan too. 64 per cent of respondents maintained that they would least like to see Pakistan win an international cricket game, followed by 12 per cent hoping Bangladesh does not win, four per cent Kenya and three per cent would like to see a team other than Australia win.

Interestingly, England and New Zealand are cricketing nations that received negligible mentions in either the 'love' or 'hate' categories by Indians.

Sporting women
The survey findings reveals that in many countries, women's sport seems to suffer mostly from a lack of viewership on television and lack of sponsorship money. However, in India, there is a willingness to watch women's sports and this is possibly an opportunity for marketers to tap into a more niche audience, the release points out.

Presumably when the cricket is not on the television, 62 per cent of respondents are more than happy to watch women's sports. Of these, 64 per cent watch women's tennis, followed by 19 per cent who watch women's badminton.

While tennis generates the most interest across women's sports, the opportunities for marketers to target the public via sport have a more even spread in this category, the survey suggests.

Celebs as brands
Marketers often pay huge money for sportspeople to endorse their brands. The Synovate survey tried to find out if sportspersons work as brands.

The survey asked respondents if brand purchase would be influenced by a favourite celebrity endorsing a product and nearly half the respondents (47 per cent) replied they would be more likely to then buy a 'celeb brand'.

The Synovate survey found that celebrity endorsement was most likely to work with teenagers and students. It was also skewed towards the west zone of India - perhaps a 'rub off' effect from the strong Bollywood presence in Mumbai, the survey revealed.

The survey found that the following sports celebrities were associated with particular brand names in the minds of Indian consumers: Kapil Dev for Kinetic according to 75 per cent respondents and Sachin Tendulkar for Pepsi according to 90 per cent. The rest were filmstars like Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Madhuri Dixit and Aishwarya Rai. (See table).

Blackstone Market Facts' MD Alok Shanker said that their Synovate sports' survey was of prime importance to marketers who need to know which celebrities to choose for a brand's target audience, as well as the demographics this strategy works with.

"Marketers in India face quite a challenge. There are only two clear areas for celebrity brand endorsement - cricket and Bollywood. In addition, this kind of endorsement or sponsorship marketing is still developing in India and brand managers are just beginning to understand how to associate products and services with the right spokespeople," Shanker says.

He continues, "Our survey found that celebrity endorsement was most likely to work with teenagers and students. While cricket is obviously a national obsession in India, our survey also turned up some quirky details and some areas that marketers could target in the future."

Chedore's visit to Mumbai and New Delhi and the Synovate sports survey are both part of the launch celebrations for the rebranded company across India. Synovate acquired Blackstone Market Facts in September 2003. Blackstone Market Facts is now part of Synovate and will officially rebrand as Synovate India on 1 February 2004.