New Delhi, June 4 -- In June 2022, the Board of Control for Cricket in India was preparingto auction the media rights to the Indian Premier League, andexpectations in Mumbai were stratospheric. Bankers and broadcasters were bracing for a bruising bidding war, and the BCCI itself was counting on one company above all to push prices higher: Amazon.com Inc.

Executives who favoured the dealargued that cricket, one of India's most potent cultural and commercial properties, would cast a halo over the Amazon brand and further the company's ambitionof becoming the biggest e-commerce operation in the world's most populous nation.Then hours before the auction, Amazon pulled out, ceding the rights to Walt Disney Co. and Reliance Industries Ltd.

Th...