From cricket to Centre Court: How Wimbledon plans on wooing India

Time of India

19 hours ago

Carlos Alcaraz of Spain celebrates Wimbledon 2024 title (Photo by)
New Delhi:
Virat Kohli
, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik and Sachin Tendulkar have been regular figures at the All Club Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), which organises the
Wimbledon
Championships. Kohli and Tendulkar sat next to each other in 2015. 'Master Blaster' Tendulkar chatted with eight-time Wimbledon champion
Roger Federer
last year. Rohit Sharma's photo on Wimbledon's Instagram generated 4.5 million likes - their most engaged post EVER!
The presence of Indian cricketers at SW19 is part of the iconic tournament's attempt at expanding its presence.
As per AELTC Chief Executive Sally Bolton, India and US are two markets that they're targeting to further the historic brand.
"Cricket is much loved and certainly king for Indian audiences. So rather than trying to compete with that, I think it's about trying to find interesting ways to collaborate. Both sports are rich in heritage. England and India Test matches are happening now. So I think there's interesting ways to be able to bring that to life for audiences, so that they might want to come and watch it as well," said Brendan Dinen, the Head of Marketing at Wimbledon, in a chat with TimesofIndia.com.
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"So we are working with an Indian social media influencer who will get the day of a lifetime. They will be taken to Lord's during the Test match on 10th July. And we'll then bring them into the grounds of the Championships in the afternoon to document and bring to life for their audience, what is clearly a day of a lifetime for any sports fan.
"Similarly, we worked really closely with our broadcast partner, Star Sports who created a tennis-cricket crossover trailer for us that ran in the IPL.
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So I think there's lots of ways to be able to collaborate as sports properties, and bring that to life for the audience."
Wimbledon, despite being one of the most prestigious tennis tournaments, acknowledges there's potential to still do better and go bigger. The grass court major had 60-70 million engagements last year ranging from broadcast to social media. With over a billion potentially holding interest in the Championships, the scope for growth is huge, with significant "headroom" being identified in India and its young population.
Carlos Alcaraz of Spain serves during a practice session prior to The Championships Wimbledon 2025 at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (Photo by)
"Younger audiences and audiences of the future are crucial to us. It's clear in the activity that we focus on and our content strategy, whether that's for Instagram, YouTube and the sort of content we create," clarified Dinen.
"So ensuring that we can have the content and different parts of the Championships, with tennis at the centre of that approach - whether that's through social media platforms or working with influencers and content creators - to be able to look to be able to engage those audiences.
"India is a sport loving country. Obviously, cricket is king, but Wimbledon is also a broad mainstream event. So there's certainly an opportunity to engage wider audiences, not just younger audiences, but those are really integral and important to our plans."
Poll
Do you believe that collaborations between cricket and tennis can attract more audiences?
Yes, definitely!
No, it's unlikely.
To build a deeper connection with the Indian audience, organisers wish to hold events in India, but the timing of the monsoon season doesn't help. To circumvent that, AELTC are working with PVR INOX to take the finals to large screen theaters.
Another attempt at grabbing headlines and tapping on to the social media presence of some of
Indian cricket
's giants like Kohli (274 million followers), Tendulkar (50.8 million), Rohit (44.1 million) comes by inviting them to the Royal Box which is littered with celebrities and royalty. So far, no concrete plans are in place as the Indian cricket team tours England for the five-match Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, but that could change very quickly.
As Wimbledon abides by many of its traditions - the all whites, the strawberry and cream, the Pimm's - it tries to move into the new era by embracing technology where it can. Alongside the historic move of ditching line judges after 147 years, its social media team is lapping up Artificial Intelligence (AI), in coordination with IBM, on its app and website.
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During live matches, the 'Match Chat' assistant can answer fans' questions.
It will allow the spectators to engage using either pre-written prompts or their own questions. The AI tool will provide immediate responses and match analysis.
"We continue to embrace technology, and it sits at the heart of the balance between heritage and innovation. And in terms of things like Virtual Reality, we work on areas such as gaming. We've brought experiences to life in places like Roblox. So we absolutely want to make sure we bring the brand and the Championships to life in new and interesting ways," stated Dinen.
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