Article Glocalization, consumption, and cricket: The Indian Premier League Habibul Haque Khondker Zayed University, UAE Roland Robertson University of Aberdeen, UK; University of Pittsburgh, USA Abstract With India’s robust, neo-liberal economic growth and the growing buying power of the Indian consumers, cricket, a popular sport in India, too, has been transformed. Indian Premier League is a short-format, high-value cricket league that features major inter- national cricket stars who come to India to join one of the eight franchised teams that take part in this competitive tournament. Using the sociological framework of glocaliza- tion, this article argues that the intersection of the global economic forces and the local culture that celebrates cricket has created a glocal space for its performance, and with the mediation of communication technology, it has widened the viewership globally. Infused with Indian money, motifs, and meanings, a new spectacle of consumption is on offer. The emergent consumer culture has transformed the game itself, adding a showbiz quality to it. Through the analysis of Indian Premier League cricket, this article sheds light on the consequences of cultural globalization, at once homogenizing and heterogenizing, an essential characteristic of glocalization. Keywords Consumerism, cricket, glocalization, Indian Premier League, neo-liberalism Introduction The center of gravity – ‘‘epicenter,’’ in the words of Gupta (2010) – of the cricketing world has clearly moved to India. This tectonic shift has been underwritten by both the vast cricket-loving crowds and the new wealth and consumer society that have Journal of Consumer Culture 2018, Vol. 18(2) 279–297 ! The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1469540517747094 journals.sagepub.com/home/joc Corresponding author: Habibul Haque Khondker, Zayed University, Khalifa City, Abu Dhabi 144534, UAE. Email: habibul.khondker@zu.ac.ae