Cricket Freakonomics!

I am depressed and disillusioned with Cricket!! (Atleast temporarily)
But, this article is not an outcome of that feeling!
On the first day of the world cup, i was wondering at the graphics on the ground, which were Pepsi, LG, Hutch and Hero Honda.
Now, Pepsi and LG are international brands, but Hero Honda is an Indian brand (though they have some part of their money coming in from exports) and Hutch is also an Indian brand (it is called something else in other countries)
So, atleast half the sponsorships for world cup are coming in due to India and Indians.
Now that India is almost out of the cup, (unless Leverock decides to give Ekalavya Gurudakshina to Sachin) what's the fate of all these companies which put up crores???
And what about Set Max which has bid an obscene amount to buy the rights for the telecast and sold airtime at even more absurd prices?? (3.5 Lacs for a 30 sec slot- apparently)
Will Mandira Bedi be enough to bring people to watch the rest of the World cup???
Not only that, a report says that Various Indian companies, which have hitched on to the World cup bandwagon to promote their sales by giving various offers, tie-ups and co-brandings stand to lose over 2000 CRORES due to India's not qualifying to the next round!!
Crazy kiya re!
Cricket is such a big money spinner with us that it makes / breaks destinies of companies associated / disassociated with it!
We've known for a long time that the ICC makes approximately half of it's money from Indian Cricket and associated sponsors and that the BCCI is the richest sporting board in the world by far!
Now, will this world cup loss make any big difference to that statistic?? probably no, but the companies which are making BCCI and ICC so rich are definitely going to take a huge beating!
And not only in India. In various countries where there's a good sized Ex-pat population, Cricket rules!!
Look at the teams in the world cup and we'll see that almost all countries playing have atleast one Indian in it's ranks!
Now, coming back to economics, when will the effect of this loss wear off on the market conditions of the companies which relied so heavily on Indian cricket??
Looking at the positive side, EA Sports has launched Cricket 2007 and is in the process of launching World Cup 2007 too.
Now, I'm sure all Indian fans ( and Pakistanis and Bermudans and Kenyans and Zimbabweans and Scottish and ...) will make the game a huge hit (and make India win the cup in their PC)!
So, someone stands to make money! (other than the bookies)
Atleast it is some sadistic solace that Pakistan has come home before we did!! :)
To the World cup in 2011.
Hope more companies put in more of their monies and make it more exciting!