MUMBAI: The office-bearers of the BCCI and the chairman of the Indian Premier League (IPL) governing council will get into a virtual meeting with franchise owners on Saturday to discuss and share thoughts on two very important decisions to be taken very soon.
A) If the IPL’s 15th edition cannot be held in India for reasons specifically related to Covid, which overseas destination should the league be shifted to?
B) To provide the franchise owners an update on the upcoming IPL media rights tender, that will have a profound impact on the financials of the league over the next five years starting 2023.
Only the franchise owners have been invited on the call.
IPL in India or South Africa?
The BCCI is of the view that, as far as possible, IPL-2022 should and will be held in India. However, if it must be shifted for some unforeseen reason, it cannot go back to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The overseas destination that’s likely to be set aside is South Africa. Sri Lanka too is out of discussions. The 2009 edition of the IPL was played in South Africa, and it had turned out to be a grand success in just the second year of the league taking birth.
“The Board has paid Emirates Cricket fees to the tune of Rs 150 crore (Rs 100 cr for 2020 edition of the IPL & Rs 50 crore for the 2021 edition) to host the tournament there. The Board is certainly not keen on spending that kind of money again and will therefore look at options,” say those tracking developments.
Moreover, with two new teams coming in, the IPL has expanded to 10 franchises, and therefore the number of matches too will increase. “There are only three grounds in the UAE, so the wear and tear will be all the more. Secondly, look at a venue like Sharjah – it was so predictable last season, based on the toss. There has to be some freshness to the way things go about,” they add.
However, it does not mean the BCCI is firm on shifting the league. “It may not happen at all. South Africa is merely the BCCI’s Plan-B,” sources say. Their Plan-A is to host the tournament in India – between Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Pune and the knockouts in Ahmedabad – if air-travel must be avoided or made as minimal as possible.
“And as of now, Plan-A stands,” they add.
Saturday’s meeting with team owners is to exchange ideas and arrive at the best possible solutions that can be kept ready. “The final call can be taken around the second week of February and there’ll be enough time to move bag-and-baggage, if necessary,” say those in the know.
Plan-B has to be looked at now, and not later, because if the entire ecosystem has no choice left but to pack their bags and travel, booking of flights and hotels cannot be a last-minute affair.
Media rights
The Board is planning a gigantic exercise to float a tender for sale of IPL’s next five-year media rights starting 2023. For this purpose, the BCCI has brought global financial consultants KPMG on board and the latter is helping draw a blueprint on how the process must play out.
BCCI has two top priorities heading into this exercise. A) Ensure that transparency remains the keyword at all times; B) Ensure the Board earns top-dollar from the sale of rights.
In 2017, the IPL rights were sold to Star India (now part of the Disney umbrella) for Rs 16,347 crore in a closed bid.
However, just the way the bilateral rights were sold the same year through an e-auction process, the BCCI is considering if the same mechanism can be used to sell the IPL rights this time. “There is a general opinion that e-auction is the right way to go – not to say that closed bids don’t guarantee transparency – because it can help in pushing up the bid value,” say those tracking financials.
Deriving top-dollar is key for the BCCI, as has been the case each time the cricket has gone about with any similar exercise in the past.
For this purpose, the Board has been trying to determine how it should go about with the bucketing of the rights and the timeframe that needs to be put in place, before the process gets underway tentatively in the third week of February.
“All these aspects will be shared with the franchise owners”, who are 50% stakeholders in the IPL. The meeting is more a meet and greet, a general discussion and sharing of ideas, along with the fact that “BCCI and franchise owners haven’t really met in a very long time”.
A) If the IPL’s 15th edition cannot be held in India for reasons specifically related to Covid, which overseas destination should the league be shifted to?
B) To provide the franchise owners an update on the upcoming IPL media rights tender, that will have a profound impact on the financials of the league over the next five years starting 2023.
Only the franchise owners have been invited on the call.
IPL in India or South Africa?
The BCCI is of the view that, as far as possible, IPL-2022 should and will be held in India. However, if it must be shifted for some unforeseen reason, it cannot go back to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The overseas destination that’s likely to be set aside is South Africa. Sri Lanka too is out of discussions. The 2009 edition of the IPL was played in South Africa, and it had turned out to be a grand success in just the second year of the league taking birth.
“The Board has paid Emirates Cricket fees to the tune of Rs 150 crore (Rs 100 cr for 2020 edition of the IPL & Rs 50 crore for the 2021 edition) to host the tournament there. The Board is certainly not keen on spending that kind of money again and will therefore look at options,” say those tracking developments.
Moreover, with two new teams coming in, the IPL has expanded to 10 franchises, and therefore the number of matches too will increase. “There are only three grounds in the UAE, so the wear and tear will be all the more. Secondly, look at a venue like Sharjah – it was so predictable last season, based on the toss. There has to be some freshness to the way things go about,” they add.
However, it does not mean the BCCI is firm on shifting the league. “It may not happen at all. South Africa is merely the BCCI’s Plan-B,” sources say. Their Plan-A is to host the tournament in India – between Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Pune and the knockouts in Ahmedabad – if air-travel must be avoided or made as minimal as possible.
“And as of now, Plan-A stands,” they add.
Saturday’s meeting with team owners is to exchange ideas and arrive at the best possible solutions that can be kept ready. “The final call can be taken around the second week of February and there’ll be enough time to move bag-and-baggage, if necessary,” say those in the know.
Plan-B has to be looked at now, and not later, because if the entire ecosystem has no choice left but to pack their bags and travel, booking of flights and hotels cannot be a last-minute affair.
Media rights
The Board is planning a gigantic exercise to float a tender for sale of IPL’s next five-year media rights starting 2023. For this purpose, the BCCI has brought global financial consultants KPMG on board and the latter is helping draw a blueprint on how the process must play out.
BCCI has two top priorities heading into this exercise. A) Ensure that transparency remains the keyword at all times; B) Ensure the Board earns top-dollar from the sale of rights.
In 2017, the IPL rights were sold to Star India (now part of the Disney umbrella) for Rs 16,347 crore in a closed bid.
However, just the way the bilateral rights were sold the same year through an e-auction process, the BCCI is considering if the same mechanism can be used to sell the IPL rights this time. “There is a general opinion that e-auction is the right way to go – not to say that closed bids don’t guarantee transparency – because it can help in pushing up the bid value,” say those tracking financials.
Deriving top-dollar is key for the BCCI, as has been the case each time the cricket has gone about with any similar exercise in the past.
For this purpose, the Board has been trying to determine how it should go about with the bucketing of the rights and the timeframe that needs to be put in place, before the process gets underway tentatively in the third week of February.
“All these aspects will be shared with the franchise owners”, who are 50% stakeholders in the IPL. The meeting is more a meet and greet, a general discussion and sharing of ideas, along with the fact that “BCCI and franchise owners haven’t really met in a very long time”.
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