印度超级板球联赛

他是反派。

He's the villain.

鲁珀特从莫迪家族手中夺走了它。

Rupert stole it away from the Modi family.

从今往后，他就是我的死敌。

My sworn enemy from here onwards.

于是，一场持续十到十五年的旅程开始了——这不仅是拉利特对鲁珀特的终极复仇，更在无意中催生了有史以来最伟大的体育创业现象。

And thus begins a ten to fifteen year journey that is not just the ultimate revenge play by Lalit on Rupert, but accidentally along the way starts the biggest sports entrepreneurial story phenomenon that has ever existed.

没错。

Yep.

疯狂。

Crazy.

这场纷争中诞生了这一切。

Out of this feud.

我可以说，相较于我们做过的其他任何一期，这个故事的每一个元素都有完全不同的两个版本，而双方的领导者都坚定地维护着自己的版本。

And I will say more than any other episode that we've done, it seems like every element of this has two completely different sides to the story, both of which the leaders of that side dig in and maintain their side.

在我们研究的大多数公司中，通常会形成一种所谓的‘官方真相’，而这主要是由胜利者撰写的。

In most companies we study, there kinda becomes one canonical truth, and it's mostly written by the victors.

但在印度超级联赛的历史中，尤其是涉及拉利特·莫迪时，总是存在两种截然不同的故事版本，双方都寸步不让。

But in the history of the IPL, and especially with Lalit Modi, there's always two completely different stories representing how it went, and nobody ever gives an inch on either side of them.

他们只是说，哦，那全是谎言。

They just say, oh, that's all lies.

那从未发生过。

That never happened.

那种事根本不可能发生。

No way did that ever happen.

那完全没有任何真实性。

Zero truth to that.

因此，由于缺乏故事的交汇点，要厘清究竟发生了什么就变得有些困难。

And so it is a little bit difficult to tease out what actually did happen given there is no convergence of story.

没错。

Yep.

现在可能是时候谈谈印度商业环境的性质了，至少在当前这个时代。

And this is probably the right moment to say a word about the nature of doing business in India, at least at this point in time.

八十年代，九十年代初。

The eighties, early nineties.

我认为，印度商业环境常被委婉地称为一个低信任环境。

The euphemism, I believe, that the Indian business environment is referred to as a low trust environment.

这在印度是司空见惯的。

I is par for the course.

是的。

Yes.

如果你进行了投资，就应该非常谨慎、非常主动地监管它，确保你的利益得到保护。

If you make an investment, you should be babysitting it very carefully, very actively making sure that your interests are protected.

腐败盛行，回扣泛滥，尤其是在当前这个时代，外国公司在印度做生意完全是自担风险。

A lot of corruption, a lot of kickbacks, and particularly doing business in India as a foreign company at this point in time is at your own risk, shall we say.

我会说，‘腐败’、‘回扣’这些说法，是西方人或美国人描述这种情况的方式。

And I will say these phrases, corruption, kickbacks, that is a Westerner's way or an American way of describing it.

我认为另一种看待方式是，这些只是常态。

I think another way to look at it is just these are just the norms.

这就是做生意的方式。

This is the way you do business.

我不知道你原本期待什么。

I don't know what you expected.

完全正确。

Totally.

你们，迪士尼，你们，新闻集团，作为外国公司来到我们的国家，却想在这里按照你们自己的规则行事。

You, Disney, you, News Corp, you are foreign corporations coming into our country and trying to play by your own rules here.

不，不行。

Like, no.

这是印度。

This is India.

你们得遵守我们的规则。

You play by our rules.

所以归根结底，拉利特对新闻集团和星空频道，甚至对鲁珀特·默多克本人，都有着深仇大恨。

So the net of it is, Lalit's got this blood vendetta against not just News Corp and Star, but, like, Rupert Murdoch personally, specifically.

那么，怎样才能最痛击他呢？

And what's the way to hit him where it hurts the most?

那就是他在新闻集团棋盘上最重要的支柱——体育业务。

Well, it's the biggest piece on his chessboard pillar of News Corp.

体育正是拉利特认为本应属于他的东西。

It's sports, and it's what Lalit thinks is, like, his birthright.

他把职业化和电视转播体育引入了印度。

Like, he brought to India was professionalizing and televising sports.

他必须从鲁珀特手中夺走这一切。

He needs to take that away from Rupert.

那么，我们该怎么做呢？

So how are gonna do that?

那么，谁掌控着印度的板球？

Well, who controls cricket in India?

是印度板球控制委员会，简称BCCI。

It's the National Cricket Board, the BCCI.

所以拉利特认为，好吧。

So Lalit figures, okay.

我需要设法让自己进入BCCI董事会。

I need to engineer getting myself installed on the BCCI board.

但事实上，要成为BCCI董事会成员，首先你必须是某个邦板球协会的主席或董事会成员。

But turns out the way that you get to be on the board of the BCCI is first, you need to be either president of or just on the board of a state cricket association.

印度境内有各个邦。

So there's states within India.

因此在1999年，拉利特成功加入了印度一个较小的邦板球协会的董事会。

So in 1999, Lalit manages to join the board of one of the smaller Indian state cricket associations.

但结果并不顺利。

That ends up not working out.

然后在2003年，他成功被任命为拉贾斯坦邦董事会成员，并迅速策划了一场实质上的政变，于2004年2月当选为拉贾斯坦邦董事会主席。

And then in 2003, he manages to get appointed to the Rajasthan state board and then quickly engineers what basically amounts to a coup of the board and gets himself elected in 02/2004 as president of the Rajasthan board.

所以他现在有了通往BCCI的途径。

So now he's got a path to the BCCI.

他开始发起一场运动，声称BCCI在电视转播权的商业化上严重不足。

He starts waging a campaign that the BCCI is vastly under monetizing the television rights to international cricket.

请注意，当他还在ESPN时，曾亲自参与以低价购入这些转播权。

Mind you, he was, like, directly involved in buying them for cheap when he was back at ESPN.

但现在他却说：我知道这些权利有多值钱。

But now he's like, I know how valuable these are.

我知道这些比赛吸引了多少观众。

I know how many eyeballs these are getting.

你们现在却只以每年10.15亿美元的价格出售它们。

And, like, you guys, now you're selling them for $1,015,000,000 dollars a year.

这些转播权每年价值数亿美元。

These are worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

对。

Right.

除了最新的宝莱坞电影系列，这就是印度民众真正关心的事情。

Other than the latest slate of Bollywood movies, this is what the Indian population cares about.

那我们为什么只从它身上赚了1000万到1500万美元？

So why are we making 10 to $15,000,000 on it?

是的。

Yeah.

在2004年，这种说法简直荒谬。

This is an outrageous claim in 2004.

但碰巧的是，这说法居然是对的。

It also just happens to be right.

但说出这样的话简直疯狂。

But saying something like this is crazy.

他是个黑马候选人，能够进来改革板球印度委员会，将这个准政府机构完全商业化。

He is a dark horse candidate to come in and reform the BCCI and fully commercialize this quasi governmental entity.

对。

Right.

这才是重要的事。

That is the important thing.

他们的职责不是赚最多的钱。

Their remit was not make the most money.

他们并不是以股东利益为导向的资本主义企业。

They were not acting as a capitalist enterprise with shareholders.

他们的目标是保护和推广板球运动，确保我们的国家队表现优异。

It was to preserve and promote the game of cricket to make sure that our national team is good.

没错。

Yep.

但大多数成员都来自工业家族，就像莫迪一样。

But most of the members are industrialists from the industrialist families, just like Modi.

你知道，他们的利益涉及迪士尼、新闻集团这些大型跨国公司。

You know, their interests are Disney, News Corp, these big multinational corporations.

我真的很想和你们所有人建立联系。

I would really like to have a relationship with you all.

哦，也许我们能一起做些事情。

Oh, maybe there's stuff we can do together.

也许我们应该在这些板球赛事上宣传我们公司的产品。

Maybe we we should advertise our company's products on these cricket events.

而且，哦，我们也可以认识你们，并在你们做的其他节目上做广告。

And, oh, maybe we can get to know you and advertise on other programming that you're doing.

所以，可以说，这里面充满了利益冲突。

So it's rife with conflicts of interest, shall we say.

而拉利特之所以没有这种利益冲突，

And the only reason that Lalit doesn't have this conflict of interest

是因为他被赶下了台。

because he got ousted.

他被赶下了台。

He's ousted.

没错。

Exactly.

而他的毕生使命就是在这里复仇。

And his life mission is to extract revenge here.

所以这场运动成功了。

So this campaign succeeds.

在2005年，他终于被任命为板球协会成员。

And in 2005, he finally gets appointed to the BCCI.

这太疯狂了。

And this is wild.

在短短两个月内，他彻底颠覆了一切。

Within a span of, like, two months, he completely upends everything.

他并不是板球协会的主席。

He's not the chairperson of the BCCI.

他只是一个新当选的董事会成员，属于五到七名董事中的一位。

He's just a newly elected board member, one of, you know, don't know, five or seven board members.

他一进来就像一辆推土机。

He comes in like a wrecking ball.

所以他做的第一件事就是去找球队的主要赞助商，也就是印度国家板球队的冠名赞助商。

So the first thing he does, he goes to the main sponsor of the team, like, title presenting sponsor of the Indian national cricket team.

我认为这个时候，赞助商标识可能已经出现在球衣上了。

I think at this point, probably already the logo is on the jersey.

作为冠名赞助商，这通常是你会得到的主要权益之一。

That's, like, one of the main things you're gonna get as the title sponsor.

而且此时此刻，你可能还会获得在

And maybe at this point in time, you're also getting the logo on

转播画面中的标识展示。

the broadcast.

但与今天的板球相比，商业化程度简直可怜。

But pathetically commercial versus cricket today.

让我给你介绍一下当时商业化到了什么程度。

Well, let me give you a sense of how commercial it is at the time.

所以当时的冠名赞助商是萨哈拉集团，这是另一个大型印度家族企业集团。

So the presenting team sponsor is the Sahara Group, which is another one of these big Indian family conglomerates.

你认为他们为这项赞助向BCCI支付了多少费用？

How much do you think they are paying the BCCI for this sponsorship?

我不知道。

I don't know.

一百万美元。

A million bucks.

每年十万美元。

$100,000 per year.

我觉得一百万太低了。

I thought a million was low.

哇。

Wow.

你等着瞧吧。

Well, just you wait.

一百万太低了。

A million is low.

请注意，当我们说板球是印度最大的运动时，其他一切都无关紧要，它几乎像宗教一样，占据了印度体育领域93%的关注度。

Mind you, when we've said that cricket is the biggest sport in India, nothing else matters, it borders on religion, it has 93% mindshare of sports in India.

我认为这个数据是通过观众观看时长计算出来的。

And I think that calculation is done by viewer hours.

是的。

Yeah.

如果你看所有被观看的体育项目，板球占据了人们关注时长的93%。

If you look at all sports watched, cricket is 93% of the hours people paid attention.

如果你看看美国的NFL美式足球，大概只有37%左右吧。

If you look at American football at the NFL in America, it's like, I don't know, 37% or something like that.

它还不到50%。

It is less than 50%.

在印度，板球的占比是93%。

Cricket in India is 93%.

是的。

Yeah.

这是一个单一运动的国家。

It's a one sport country.

而且碰巧的是，这个单一运动的国家拥有世界上最大人口之一，并且是世界上人口增长最快的国家。

And it happens to be a one sport country with one of the two largest populations in the world that is growing the fastest in the world.

中产阶级正在迅速扩张。

And the middle class is rapidly expanding.

所以，正如你所知，如果你是百事可乐或者

So, like, this is exactly as you know, if you're Pepsi or you're

塔塔公司或花费一千美元赞助。

Tata or thousand dollars to sponsor.

天哪。

Oh my god.

天哪。

Oh my god.

难以置信。

Unbelievable.

你现在可能会想，哦，好吧。

Now you might think, oh, okay.

你刚刚告诉我，这项运动目前类似于奥运会的形式。

Well, you just told me that this sport is sort of in the model of the Olympics right now.

这是国际性比赛。

It's international competition.

也许他们并没有打那么多比赛。

Maybe they're not playing that much.

你知道，这支队伍每年只在夏天打两周吗？

You know, is this team only playing for two weeks in the summer?

也许可供销售的资源没那么多。

Maybe there's just not that much inventory.

不。

No.

他们每年要进行105天的比赛，而且全部在全国电视上播出。

They're playing a hundred and five days of competition per year, all nationally televised.

更不用说，其中有一天是他们对阵巴基斯坦队的时候，甚至可能不止一天，整个国家都会暂停下来关注这场比赛。

And not to mention, one of those days is when they play Pakistan or more than one of those days, and the whole country stops to pay attention on that day.

仅这一场比赛，你就会觉得价值数百万美元。

That game alone, you would think, would be millions of dollars.

你说‘天’。

You say day.

目前，板球有两种形式。

At this point in time, there are two forms of cricket.

有一种是一日国际赛。

There are one day internationals.

这种板球的新潮版本是什么时候出现的？大概是七八十年代吧？

Which is the new fancy version of cricket that came about, what, in the seventies, eighties?

七八十年代。

Seventies, eighties.

这主要是为了促成锦标赛的举办。

And that really was to enable tournaments to happen.

所以，你可以一天内打完一场比赛。

So, like, you can play a match in one day.

一整天都得耗在这上面。

Takes all day.

这些比赛要持续八个小时。

These are eight hour games.

所以就是一整天。

So it's all day.

全国的目光都聚焦在这上面。

The country's eyes are glued on this.

另一种板球形式，传统的板球形式，是测试赛。

The other form of cricket, the classical form of cricket, is test cricket.

测试赛，一场比赛要持续五天。

Test cricket, a match lasts five days.

所以，一日制国际赛就是为了让不同队伍之间能进行循环赛而发明的。

So one day internationals were invented so that you could have kind of a round robin tournament with different teams.

否则，你不可能举办一个有10个国家参加的锦标赛，而每场比赛都要花五天时间。

Otherwise, there's no way you can have a 10 country tournament where every match takes five days.

对。

Right.

氛围很不一样，这么说吧。

The vibes are very different, shall we say.

你知道测试赛为什么叫‘测试’吗？

The, Test cricket is very do you know why it's called Test, by the way?

我认为这是因为它是对球队实力和意志的考验。

I believe it's because it's a test of the strength, will, you know, the team.

特别是为了检验英格兰队的实力。

And in particular, to test the English team.

当板球最初被带到其他英联邦国家时，这些队伍就可以前来与英格兰队较量。

When they first brought cricket out to the rest of the Commonwealth, it was that those teams could then come and test against the English team.

当他们来到卢尔德时

When they came to Lourdes

卢尔德是英格兰神圣的板球场。

Lourdes is the hallowed cricket ground in England.

是的。

Yes.

进行这种五天的深思熟虑、安静、策略性的比赛，氛围就像高尔夫球一样，尽管你玩的东西看起来像棒球。

To play this five day thoughtful, quiet, strategic the vibe is like golf even though you're playing something that looks like baseball.

完全正确。

Totally.

我得说点个人经历。

I have to bring in some personal history here.

我是四分之一英国人。

So I am a quarter British.

我天生就对板球有好感。

I'm genetically predisposed to, you know, already be into cricket.

但当我成长的时候，我的祖母是英国人。

But when I was growing up, my so my grandmother was British.

大概每隔一个夏天，我都会去英格兰米德兰兹的乡村，待上两到四周，拜访我祖母的家人。

Probably every other summer, I would go spend two, three, four weeks with my family in the Midlands, in the countryside in England, visiting my grandmother's family.

你知道的，小时候他们会说，夏天在英格兰电视上播什么？

And, you know, as a little kid, they're like, what would be on TV in the summertime in England?

就是这场测试赛板球。

It was this test cricket.

于是我长大了。

And so I grew up.

尽管我在家打棒球，也热爱棒球，但在夏天去英格兰时，我会打开电视。

Even though I played baseball and I love baseball at home, in the summers, when I would go to England, I'd turn on the TV.

我会观看这场测试赛板球。

I'd watch this test cricket.

哇，这太酷了。

Like, oh, this is super cool.

但没错，就像你说的，本。

But, yes, exactly like you say, Ben.

这是绅士运动中的绅士运动。

This is the gentleman's game of gentleman's games.

你打的时候，会穿着一件白色的V领针织毛衣。

You play it in, like, a white V neck cable knit sweater.

没错。

Right.

顺便说一下，这是在盛夏时节进行的。

In the middle of the summer, by the way.

是的。

Yes.

而且奖励方式也很有趣。

And the incentives are all funny too.

这并不是为了击出那些巨大的本垒打。

It's not about swinging these big home runs.

你的目标基本上是打出平直的安打，让球保持在地面，确保你能一次得一分，而不是六分。

Your goal is basically to hit little line drives and keep it on the ground and make sure that you're able to score one run at a time, not six runs.

在五天的时间里，你有充足的时间让策略逐步展开，因此你并不像现代板球那样试图每球都最大化利用。

You have a lot of time over the course of five days to let your strategy play out, and so you're not trying to make the absolute most use of every ball bold the way that you are in modern versions of cricket.

为了让你对此有所体会，测试赛，我认为一日国际赛也是如此，比赛有四种可能的结果。

To give you a little sense of this, test cricket, and I believe One Day Internationals as well, there are four possible outcomes of the game.

你可以赢。

You can win.

你可以输。

You can lose.

你可以平局。

You can tie.

等等。

Wait.

那第四种是什么？

So what's the fourth?

第四种结果是平局。

The fourth outcome is a draw.

这和平局有什么不同？

Which is different than a tie?

平局是指比赛结束时双方比分相同，这种情况几乎从不发生，因为比赛至少要进行八个小时，甚至长达五天。

A tie is if the score is tied at the end of the match, which almost never happens because you're playing for at least eight hours, if not five days.

你知道，这里的得分通常是几百分，所以双方比分完全相同的可能性非常非常低。

You know, the scores are in the hundreds here, so the odds that they're gonna be tied are very, very low.

我明白了。

I see.

平局是指一方在比赛规定时间内未能完成他们的击球局。

A draw happens when one team is not able to finish their innings in the time of the match.

所以，如果你到了一天结束的时候，比如太阳下山了。

So if you get to the end of the day, like, oh, sun goes down.

该吃晚饭了，而你们队的击球手还没有全部出局。

It's time for dinner, and all of your batsmen have not yet gotten out in your innings.

哦，好吧，那时你可能领先，也可能落后，都无所谓。

Oh, well, then you could be behind, ahead, whatever.

就是，没完成而已。

Like, oh, just didn't finish.

就像DNF一样。

It's like a DNF.

未完成。

Did not finish.

什么？

What?

就是平局。

Just a draw.

所以当你处于劣势时，就会出现这种奇怪的策略，你试图拖长比赛时间。

And so then you have this funny strategy where you're trying to drag the game out if you're losing.

如果你处于落后状态，并且是在测试赛的第二局击球，或者你在第二局击球且落后时。

If you're behind and you're batting second or in a test match in your second innings, if you're batting second and you're behind.

对。

Yeah.

你只是在试图拖慢比赛。

You're just trying to draw the game out.

太神奇了。

Amazing.

好吧。

Alright.

所以我们要告别七十年代的测试板球世界了。

So we're gonna leave the world of test cricket behind in the seventies.

如今仍然有很多测试板球比赛在进行。

There's a lot of test cricket still played today.

但哦，是的。

But Oh, yeah.

这仍然是个大事。

It's still a big thing.

对于这些大型国际赛事，比如世界杯，等等。

For these big international tournaments, the World Cup, all that.

这就是单日国际赛，也就是ODI赛制。

That's one day internationals, this ODI format.

所有这些精彩而有趣的旁支内容，只是为了说明这里有大量的商机。

All of this amazing and delicious sidebar is just to point out that there's a lot of inventory here.

印度国家队每年要打105天的比赛，而萨哈拉集团每年只需支付10万美元，就能在他们的白色针织外套上印上自己的标志。

The Indian national team is playing a hundred and five days per year, and the Sahara group is getting their logo on their white cable knit vests for a $100,000 a year.

我认为单日国际赛确实促使球员们开始穿着更运动化的服装。

I think One Day International is they actually did start wearing more athletic clothing.

没错。

That's right.

那就是

That's

正确的。

correct.

那可不是白色毛衣。

That's not the white sweaters.

确实如此。

Indeed.

所以，拉利特，2005年他终于进入板球联合会后，第一件事就是去找萨哈拉，说价格要涨了。

So Lalit, here now in 2005 when he finally gets on the BCCI, first thing he does is he goes to Sahara, and he says, the price is going up.

现在每场比赛一天的费用是100万美元，本，正如你所说。

It is now $1,000,000, Ben, as you were saying, per day of competition.

所以你将从每年花费10万美元增加到每年花费1.05亿美元。

So you are gonna go from spending $100,000 a year to spending $105,000,000 per year.

而且，顺便说一句，如果你不想这么做，也没关系。

And, oh, by the way, if you don't wanna do that, that's fine.

我很高兴你选择不做。

I'm happy for you not to do that.

那我就把这个拿出来拍卖，看看谁愿意出这个价。

I'm then gonna go put this out to auction, and we'll see who is willing to pay that.

哇。

Wow.

为了让你了解这里潜藏的价值有多大，我认为这根本不会进入拍卖环节。

To give you a sense of just how much latent value there is here, I don't think it goes to auction.

我认为萨哈拉会直接说，好吧。

I think Sahara just says, okay.

是的。

Yeah.

他们非常清楚，即使在这个价格下，这仍然是一个非常好的交易。

They're very aware that this is a very good deal even at this price.

我的意思是，如果你想触达印度全国，只有两种方式：宝莱坞和板球。

I mean, if you wanna reach the nation of India, there are two ways to do it, Bollywood and cricket.

就这两种。

That's it.

没错。

Yep.

所以当2005年出现这种巨大的价格飙升时，我相信这是正确的，一夜之间，这成为了全球任何运动中最高价值的球衣标志赞助协议。

So when this massive escalation happens in 2005, I believe this is correct, overnight, this becomes the highest paid jersey logo deal of any sport on the entire planet.

哦，有意思。

Oh, interesting.

所以，基本上，从原本根本不具商业价值，一跃成为全球最大的单个标志赞助商。

So, basically, not even commercial to now the single largest logo sponsorship in the world.

那么，为什么拉利特现在突然能够榨取如此巨额的、破纪录的赞助费用，而之前这根本毫无商业价值呢？

And now why is Lalit able to all of a sudden extract this huge record breaking amount of value for this sponsorship, whereas before it was really not even commercial?

我们之前提到过，但推动这一切的，正是印度中产阶级的崛起。

We alluded to it before, but the rise of the Indian middle class is what's driving everything here.

我看到的一个数据是，在九十年代初，我们故事刚开始的时候，拉利特刚开始参与，迪士尼和星空频道进入印度市场。

So one stat I saw was that in the early nineties, when we started our story a little bit ago, Lalit was first getting involved, Disney and Star were entering the Indian market.

当时印度只有大约200万户家庭的可支配收入达到1万美元或以上。

There were only about 2,000,000 households in India that had a disposable income of $10,000 or greater.

哇。

Wow.

而到了现在，拉利特加入板球协会并彻底颠覆这些交易时，这个数字已经增长了十倍。

By the time here we are now that Lalit gets on the BCCI and is wrecking all these deals, it's 10 x that.

所以，现在印度大约有两千万到三千万户家庭，按这个标准至少属于中产阶级。

So there's, call it, twenty, thirty million households now in India that are, by that definition, at least middle class.

再往前看到现在，这个数字又增加了十倍以上。

Fast forward to today, it's another 10 x plus that number.

你知道吗？

You know?

印度有近四亿到五亿人口的家庭达到了这种消费水平。

There's 400 close to 500,000,000 people, households in India that have that level of spending.

实际上还要更多。

It's actually even more.

有五亿五千万人属于印度的中产阶级。

It's 550,000,000 people who are a part of India's middle class.

不过，这个中产阶级的定义与美国的中产阶级不同。

Now that middle class is defined differently than the American middle class.

年收入在七千到四万五千美元之间，但这确实能让你有个概念。

It's 7,000 to $45,000 in annual income, but that really gives you a sense.

你说在九十年代初，有两百万人年收入超过一万美元，而现在有五亿多人年收入超过七千美元。

You said that in the early nineties, there were 2,000,000 people that made more than 10 k, and now half a billion people make more than 7 k.

是的。

Yeah.

这些数字相当接近。

Those numbers are pretty close.

所以我们从两百万人增长到了五亿多。

So we went from 2,000,000 to 500 plus million.

这表明中产阶级在那里以难以置信的速度迅速崛起。

That is an emergence of a middle class in unbelievably rapid succession there.

我认为关于印度，需要记住的是，当你提到人口的百分比时，

And I think the thing to keep in mind about India is anytime you're saying a percent of the population,

你仍然在谈论大量的人口。

you're still talking about a large number of people.

没错。

Right.

人数的绝对数量非常庞大。

The absolute amount of people is huge.

如今印度的中产阶级占人口的31%，但31%的印度人口比整个美国的人口还多。

The middle class in India today is 31% of the population, but 31% of India is more than all of America.

对。

Right.

是的。

Yeah.

你刚才说有五亿五千万人。

You just said it was 550,000,000 people.

是的。

Yes.

我的意思是，就此打住。

I mean, full stop.

暂停。

Pause.

让这个信息好好消化一下。

Let this sink in.

根据这个定义，印度的中产阶级，尽管如此，其收入水平足以让他们消费消费品，规模已经超过整个美国。

The middle class in India per this definition, but still, like, that is enough annual income that you can spend it on consumer goods, is bigger than all of America.

这就是正在发生的事情。

That's what's going on here.

另一个数据，我们不妨直接开始真正地 contextualize 这场转变。

Another stat, we may as well just start really contextualizing the shift here.

印度政府表示，从2015年到现在，已有2.5亿人摆脱了贫困。

The Indian government says that 250,000,000 people have been lifted out of poverty between 2015 and today.

他们让相当于整个美国人口的成年人摆脱了贫困，是的。

They lifted an entire America's worth of adults out of poverty Yeah.

在印度。

In India.

突然之间开始购买百事可乐、手机和移动数据套餐。

To all of a sudden buying Pepsi, buying cell phones, buying mobile data plans.

对。

Right.

买，哦，我不知道，耐克和锐步。

Buying, oh, I don't know, Nikes and Reeboks.

拉利在完成这笔萨哈拉交易后下一步做了什么？

So what's the next thing that Lalit does after this Sahara deal?

这时候还没有装备赞助商。

There's no gear sponsor.

此时此刻，球队还没有球衣赞助商。

There's no kit sponsor for the team at this point in time.

我认为一些板球运动员之前曾与耐克、锐步之类的公司签过一些非常便宜的早期合约。

I think some of the individual cricketers had had some super cheap early deals with, you know, Nike or Reebok or whatever.

拉利去找了三家大公司：耐克、阿迪达斯、锐步，说：嘿。

Lalit goes to the three big companies, Nike, Adidas, Reebok, and says, hey.

我正在为球衣供应商、装备供应商进行公开竞标，其中‘球衣’是英国人对运动装备的叫法。

I'm putting out for bid for auction being the kit provider, the gear provider, kit being the British term for athletic gear.

或者自行车。

Or cycling.

或者自行车。

Or cycling.

是的。

Yes.

向印度国家队。

To the Indian national team.

而且，没错，如果你想赢得这个合同，我预期每年至少五千万美元。

And, yeah, if you wanna win this, I'm expecting minimum $50,000,000 a year.

只是随便提个数字。

Just to float a number.

于是耐克以每年5200万美元中标。

So Nike comes in and wins at $52,000,000 a year.

哦，顺便说一下，由于拉利特知道这三家鞋业公司会竞标，他为此搞了一场媒体盛事。

Oh, and by the way, since Lalit knows that there's gonna be competitive bidding between these three shoe companies, he makes a media event out of it.

所以他让他们把投标都密封在信封里提交。

So he has them all submit their bids in, like, sealed envelopes.

他举办了一场新闻发布会，在媒体面前当众拆开信封，搞得像一场大戏。

He has a whole press conference, opens the envelopes in front of the media, makes it a whole circus.

这就像勒布朗做决定一样。

It's like LeBron's the decision.

这规模太大了。

So this is enormous.

拉利特刚上任板球协会董事会两个月，就找到了一笔每年1.5亿美元的收入。

Lalit, he's two months in to his tenure on the BCCI board, and he just found a 150,000,000 a year.

而在此之前，赞助根本微不足道。

Whereas previously, sponsorships were nothing.

他们当时靠电视转播权每年大约赚10亿美元。

They were making, call it, $1,015,000,000 dollars a year in TV rights.

他仅仅通过一项价值远低于电视转播权的业务，就把收入提升了十倍。

He just 10 x that from something that's worth far less than the TV rights.

是的。

Yep.

于是他安排了一次与鲁珀特·默多克的私人会面，当时默多克的VSTAR公司拥有印度国际板球的所有电视转播权。

So then he sets up a personal meeting with Rupert Murdoch, who, at this point in time, VSTAR, has all the TV rights to Indian International Cricket.

好了，各位听众。

Alright, listeners.

我们下一个赞助商是节目的新朋友——Rippling。

Our next sponsor is a new friend of the show, Rippling.

我先直接引用他们的投资者信函，因为我觉得这封信非常出色，能清晰说明问题。

I'm just gonna start by quoting their investor letter because I think it is excellent and clarifying.

Rippling的一个核心洞察是，大多数商业系统都包含大量关于员工的信息。

Rippling's one underlying insight is that most business systems are full of information about employees.

大家都知道HR系统确实如此，但我们也知道，这远远超出了人力资源部门的范围。

Everyone knows that's true for HR systems, but we know that is true beyond the HR department as well.

我们认为，员工数据并不仅仅是人力资源部门的专属领域。

We think employee data isn't just the domain of the HR department.

这是商业软件的基本构建模块，尤其适用于HR以外的广泛商业软件。

It's the fundamental primitive of business software, including and most especially for business software well outside of HR.

这是一个绝佳的论点陈述。

That is a great thesis statement.

Rippling正是如此，它是一个基于完全不同于其他产品的架构构建的全球人力资源、IT和财务统一平台。

And Rippling is exactly that, a unified platform for global HR, IT, and finance built on a totally different architecture than anything else.

这就是员工图谱。

It's the employee graph.

大多数一体化的人力资源系统实际上并不是一开始就一体化的。

Most all in one HR systems didn't actually start as all in one.

它们最初只是薪酬供应商，后来才附加了新产品或通过收购整合。

They started as payroll vendors, then bolted on new products or acquisitions.

在底层，它们是多个孤立工具用脆弱的集成方式勉强拼凑在一起的杂烩。

Under the hood, they're a patchwork of siloed tools duct taped together with brittle integrations.

每次发生任何变化时，你都不得不手动更新五个不同的系统，或遵循一个二十步的检查清单。

Anytime something changes, you're stuck manually updating five different systems or working through a 20 step checklist.

Rippling 从第一天起就以员工图谱为核心构建了整个系统。

Rippling instead built their system from day one as the employee graph.

它是一个实时的、关于你整个员工队伍的知识图谱。

It's a real time knowledge graph of your entire workforce.

每位员工、职位、权限、设备、应用、地点和薪酬计划都完全同步，集中在一个地方。

Every employee, role, permission, device, app, location, and compensation plan, totally in sync and all in one place.

因此，如果莎拉获得晋升并从纽约搬到加利福尼亚，Rippling 会自动更新她的薪资税务、开通新的应用权限、寄送新笔记本电脑、发放新的公司信用卡，并指派必要的管理者培训。

So if Sarah gets promoted and moves to California from New York, Rippling updates her payroll taxes, provisions her new app permissions, ships her a new laptop, issues a new corporate credit card, assigns required manager training, all automatically.

你可以获得三十多个原生系统，涵盖人力资源、IT、财务、全球薪资、设备管理、公司信用卡、账单支付，可整体使用或按需选择。

You get 30 plus native systems out of the HR, IT, finance, global payroll, device management, corporate cards, bill pay, altogether or a la carte.

因此，原本需要在四个不同工具和三个部门之间来回流转的工作流程——如入职、晋升、权限管理、支出审批——现在都能在一个地方自动完成。

So workflows that normally bounce across four different tools and three departments, onboarding promotions, access management, spend approvals, they all just happen in one place automatically.

这就是为什么 Rippling 的客户可以用同样的团队支持两倍数量的员工，也正因为如此，他们在 G2、TrustRadius 和 Gartner 上被评为排名第一的人力资本管理套件。

That's why rippling customers can support twice the number of employees with the same team and why they're the number one rated human capital management suite on g two, TrustRadius, and Gartner.

如果你、你的公司或你投资组合中的公司希望以员工为中心，用一个统一的平台来运行业务核心，请访问 rippling.com/acquired，并告知他们是 Ben 和 David 推荐的，或者直接点击节目说明中的链接。

So if you, your company, or your portfolio companies wanna run the backbone of your business on one unified platform with people at the center, head to rippling.com/acquired and tell them that Ben and David sent you, or just click the link in the show notes.

好的，大卫。

Okay, David.

所以鲁珀特·默多克又出现了。

So Rupert Murdoch, back entering the picture.

洛莱特可能觉得这真是一个完整的循环。

Well, Lollett probably thinks here that it's coming full circle.

我们才刚刚开始。

We're only just getting started.

他安排了一次与鲁珀特·默多克的私人会面，并将会面定在了一个轻松的周五下午茶时间。

He sets up a personal meeting with Rupert Murdoch, and he sets the meeting for a friendly Friday afternoon tea.

真是非常英式。

How very cricket.

请记住，此时此刻，我认为星空频道每年为这些转播权支付10.15亿美元。

And remember, at this point, I think Star is paying $1,015,000,000 dollars a year for these TV rights.

洛莱特走进去，坐下后说：默多克先生，我通知您，您的合同现在立即终止。

Lollett walks in, sits down, and says, mister Murdoch, I am informing you that your contract is terminated right now.

我们将重新招标合同，欢迎您提交投标。

We are going to rebid the contract, and you are welcome to submit a bid.

我们规定，四年期的最低投标价为5亿美元。

We are mandating that the minimum bid is $500,000,000 for four years.

默多克几乎把嘴里的茶都喷出来了。

And Murdoch, like, basically spits his tea out.

他简直说：

He's like,

你疯了。

you're crazy.

什么？

That's what?

是当前价值的十倍？

10 x the current value?

完全没错。

Totally.

所以，显然他对此感到被冒犯。

So, obviously, he's offended by that.

但他会问，你是谁？为什么你觉得这会成功？

But he's like, who are you, and why do you think this is gonna work?

记住，Star 和 ESPN 已经合并了。

Remember, Star and ESPN had merged.

在印度没有其他体育频道。

There's no other sports channels in India.

在印度也没有其他体育赛事。

There's no other sports in India.

鲁珀特会说，谁会来竞标这个？

Rupert's like, who's gonna bid on this?

你们这里全是空话。

You're all hot air here.

这根本不可能成功。

There's no way that this is gonna work.

我是唯一的选项。

I'm the only game in town.

你本质上是在勒索我，而且还要撕毁我和BCCI的合同。

You're basically trying to extort me and, oh, yeah, rip up my contract that I have with the BCCI.

你才上岗两个月。

You're two months into the job.

滚吧。

Like, get lost.

对。

Right.

你需要我。

You need me.

你需要我。

You need me.

没错。

Yeah.

但当然，洛莱特对此早有计划。

But, of course, Lollett has a plan for this.

他将重施故技，就像当年对付ESPN那样。

He's gonna do just what he did back with ESPN in the first place back in the day.

设立一个新的网络来竞标这些转播权并不难。

It's not that hard to set up a new network to come in and bid on these rights.

顺便说一句，如今这些权利的价值显然、确凿且无可争议地比当年高多了。

And by the way, it is now clearly, demonstrably, and provably so much more valuable than back in the day.

我们现在已经进入印度电视普及的第十五个年头了，这么说吧。

We're now fifteen years into the television penetration of India, shall we say.

市面上有大量其他的广播公司和有线电视频道。

There are tons of other broadcasters and cable channels out there.

只不过它们不是体育频道而已。

They're just not sports channels.

那么，什么是体育频道呢？

Well, what's a sports channel?

这只是一个营销术语。

That's just a marketing term.

它只是一个频道。

It's just a channel.

你再增加一个频道。

You add another channel.

你可以打造ABC体育、NBC体育、CBS体育、福克斯体育。

You make ABC Sports, NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Fox Sports.

任何人都可以做到这一点。

Anybody can do this.

所以拉利特去找了印度第二大广播公司索尼。

So Lalit goes to Sony, who's the number two broadcaster in India.

他去找了英国的天空电视台，说：嘿。

He goes to Sky from The UK and says, hey.

你们想进入印度市场吗？

You wanna enter India?

他最终找到了一家名为Nimbus的印度娱乐公司，这家公司是一家广播公司，但没有体育频道。

And he ultimately goes to an Indian entertainment company called Nimbus, which was a broadcaster, but also didn't have a sports channel.

他对所有这些人说，这些转播权现在可以获取了。

And he says to all of them, these rights are now available.

四年最低出价为五亿。

Minimum bid is 500,000,000 for four years.

这对你们来说将非常有利可图。

This is going to be very profitable for you.

设立一个体育频道非常简单。

It's very easy to set up a sports network.

我已经做过了。

I've already done it.

我会帮你们完成。

I will help you do it.

欢迎你们参与竞标。

You are welcome to bid.

Nimbus最终以6.2亿美元的报价赢得了为期四年的竞标。

Nimbus ends up winning the auction with a $620,000,000 bid for four years.

哇。

Wow.

他们建立了Nimbus体育频道。

They set up the Nimbus Sports Channel.

我认为，它很快成为了印度排名第一的体育频道。

It, I believe, quickly becomes the number one sports channel in India.

我的意思是，别无选择。

I mean, there's nothing else.

只要你拥有板球，你就是印度排名第一的体育频道，而Star和鲁珀特则被冷落了。

Like, if you got cricket, you're the number one sports channel in India, and Star and Rupert are out in the cold.

哇。

Wow.

所以洛莱特确实让BCCI成为了一个经济巨头，而在此之前，他们几乎没有实质性收入。

So Lollett really did make the BCCI an economic powerhouse where they really didn't have material revenue before.

现在突然间，他们每年有数亿美元的收入，大约两亿来自电视和赞助？

And now suddenly, they have hundreds of millions of dollars coming in, what, 200,000,000 a year ish between TV and sponsorships?

没错。

Yep.

他们有来自赞助的1.5亿美元，还有。

They've got a 150,000,000 from sponsorships, and then they've got yeah.

那是什么？

What's that?

这来自2500万。

25 from this.

对。

Yeah.

还有来自转播的1.5亿美元。

And then another 150,000,000 from broadcast.

对。

Yeah.

所以每年有数亿美元。

So hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

难以置信。

Unbelievable.

完全难以置信。

Totally unbelievable.

还有更多的潜在变现空间。

With more potential to monetize beyond that.

我的意思是，他从两个赞助商那里获得了1.5亿美元。

I mean, he got a 150,000,000 from two sponsorships.

在这里你可以拥有超过两个赞助商。

You can have more than two sponsors here.

是的。

Yeah.

他彻底商业化了板球理事会。

He completely commercialized the BCCI.

变革性的。

Transformative.

你知道，当他后来被逐出板球协会时，伴随着大量争议和我们稍后会谈到的种种问题，人们指控他自我交易，做了一堆这样的事。

You know, he would say, when he later gets kicked out of the BCCI, and there's tons of controversy and everything we'll get into later, people are accusing him of self dealing, doing all these things.

他说：我从零开始，为印度板球、板球协会、政府以及所有参与的球员创造了数十亿美元的价值。

He's like, I created billions of dollars of value for cricket in India, the BCCI, the government, all the players involved from nothing.

他完全正确。

And he's absolutely right.

没错。

Yep.

绝对正确。

Absolutely right.

顺便说一下，他把鲁珀特·默多克完全排除在外了。

And by the way, he shut Rupert Brodak out of all of it.

所以我们现在就在这里。

So here we are now.

他赢了。

He's won.

他报了仇。

He's extracted his revenge.

他掌控了印度板球。

He's taken over Indian cricket.

他创造了全球板球运动中规模最大的资金池。

He's created the single biggest pool of money anywhere around the globe in cricket as a sport.

我的意思是，我们这里谈论的金额远远超过英格兰、澳大利亚、西印度群岛、斯里兰卡、新西兰等其他板球国家。

I mean, this is way more money that we're talking about here than England or Australia or The West Indies or Sri Lanka, New Zealand, you know, the other cricket playing nations.

英格兰和澳大利亚是大的媒体市场，但规模没这么大。

England and Australia are big media markets, but they're not this big.

从人口基数来看，其他国家根本无法与印度相比。

Well, on a sheer population basis, they just can't come anywhere near India.

完全正确。

Totally.

而且我们还不到2005年年底。

And we're not even at the end of 2005 yet.

这家伙是个强人。

This guy is a force.

但正如你所料，他并不完全满足。

But as you might expect, he's not quite satisfied.

令人震惊。

Shocking.

如果我们从收购公司整个历史中研究过这些角色，就会发现他们永远不满足。

If we've learned anything studying all these characters over the entire arc of acquired's history, they're never satisfied.

完全正确。

Totally.

我必须假设，他在考虑这支队伍将进行的105天竞技比赛。

He's I gotta assume, thinking about this hundred and five days of competitive play that the team is playing.

你知道，那就是105场板球比赛。

You know, that's a 105 cricket matches.

这库存量不多。

That's not a lot of inventory.

一方面，这已经很多了，但你这里只谈到了一支球队。

On the one hand, it's a lot, but it's only one team that you're talking about here.

打105场比赛，NFL打多少场呢，我想是——

Playing a 105 matches, the NFL plays, what, I think,

285场比赛，包括季后赛。

285 games, including the postseason.

这超过了两倍，而这是世界上资源最稀缺的体育媒体。

So more than double that, and that's the scarcest sports media in the world.

是的。

Yes.

而且

And

NFL之所以只打这么少的比赛，唯一原因就是球员的身体根本承受不了更多了。

the only reason that the NFL plays that few games is because the bodies of the players just can't take anymore.

他们会散架的。

They would fall apart.

对。

Right.

美国职业棒球大联盟，每个赛季要打将近2500场比赛。

Major League Baseball, almost 2,500 games are played per season.

是的。

Yes.

成千上万场比赛。

Thousands of games.

板球不像美式足球。

Cricket is not like American football.

这项运动的设计就是连续打五天。

This sport was designed to be played five days in a row.

是的。

Yes.

板球运动员的身体并没有垮掉。

The cricketers' bodies are not falling apart.

这里还有很多潜力可以挖掘。

There is a lot more juice to squeeze here.

因此，毫无疑问，真正毫无疑问的是，这绝对不是一个有争议的陈述：有史以来最出色、最成功的体育商业计划——印度超级联赛，这是一个由拉利特按照NFL、英格兰超级联赛和NBA的最佳元素打造的印度国内城市制板球联赛。

So thus sparks unquestionably, truly unquestionably, this is in zero way a controversial statement, The most brilliant, most successful sports entrepreneurial business plan of all time, the Indian Premier League, a domestic city based cricket league in India that Lalit is gonna set up in the model of the very best elements of the NFL, of the English Premier League, of the NBA.

国际板球。

Of international cricket.

没错。

Yep.

国际板球。

Of international cricket.

利用BCCI对板球的控制权所拥有的资源。

Leveraging the assets that they have with the BCCI's control over cricket.

我的意思是，这种事在其他我们所比较的体育项目中是根本不存在的。

I mean, this is something that is not emergent in any of these other sports we're comparing to.

在美国，没有像板球联合会这样的足球管理机构。

There's no BCCI for football in The US.

没有人告诉NFL他们能做什么、不能做什么。

There's nobody telling the NFL what they can and can't do.

板球联合会掌控着球员的合同、他们的收入、决定他们可以或不可以参加哪些联赛，以及负责媒体版权交易。

The BCCI is the one who controls the players' contracts with how much they make, who decides what leagues they can play in or can't play in, who cuts media rights deals.

所有这些都由这个组织掌控。

This is all happening by this organization

这个组织现在实际上由拉利特控制。

Organization that Lalit now de facto controls.

这并不是联赛本身。

That is not the league.

它是任何联赛或有组织比赛的上级机构。

It's a parent to any league or organized play.

所以你提到，印度超级联赛可以从其他优秀的联赛中学到这些东西，但他们拥有一个其他任何体育联赛都不具备的资产——即板球联合会的控制权。

And so you mentioned that with the Indian Premier League, they get to learn all this stuff from the other great leagues, but they have this asset, this structural advantage that no other sports league in the world has, which is the BCCI control.

当然。

Absolutely.

他们也在其他联赛之外进行创新。

They innovate beyond the other leagues too.

是的。

Yeah.

完全正确。

Totally.

对我来说，这并不是一个有争议的说法。

To me, this is not a controversial statement.

从结构上看，印度超级联赛比NFL更完善。

The IPL is better set up structurally than the NFL.

它是世界上最为完美的体育联赛。

It is the most perfect sports league that exists.

好吧。

Alright.

所以所以

So So

他是怎么做到的？

how does he do it?

是的。

Yes.

那是什么？

What is it?

你告诉我这是有史以来最棒的事情。

You're telling me it's the most amazing thing ever.

证明给我看。

Prove it.

除了拉利特发现印度国内存在一个库存机会，可以在国际球队进行的105场比赛之外进一步推广板球，此时在板球界也恰好存在一个完美的机会，那就是整个运动本身正在经历一场重大变革。

So besides Lalit seeing that there's a inventory opportunity to expand cricket in India here beyond the 105 of competition that the international team is playing, there's also the perfect opportunity at this moment within the cricketing world, which is that the whole game itself is undergoing a major revolution.

英格兰刚刚推出了一种全新的板球赛制。

England had just introduced a brand new version of the game.

到目前为止，职业比赛中只有两种板球赛制。

Up until this point, there are only two versions of cricket that were played professionally.

一种是五天的测试赛，那种穿着针织毛衣、充满绅士风度的比赛，我们之前提到过；另一种是持续八小时的单日赛，用于国际赛事和比赛。

There's the test match cricket, the five day gentlemanly event with the cable knit sweaters that we talked about, and then there's the one day eight hour matches that are for international tournaments and competitions.

单日国际赛。

One day internationals.

没错。

Yep.

在英国本土，板球基本上正逐渐成为一项衰落的运动。

Back home in England, cricket was basically starting to become a dying sport.

这个发明了板球的国家，曾经是这项运动和整个产业中一切神圣事物的发源地。

The nation that invented the game that was the home of everything sacred in this sport, in this industry.

空荡荡的体育场。

Empty stadiums.

我的意思是，真的空无一人。

I mean, truly empty.