The England and Wales Cricket Board plans to stage the Indian Premier League in a little over two weeks without any disruption to its domestic or international schedule. The ECB is confident that it can play all 59 matches of the IPL – scheduled to run from 10 April to May 24 – on major grounds without altering any fixtures that are already in place. The number of IPL matches will not be reduced.
However, no franchise would have a home base. The ECB is confident that it can measure up to one of its biggest challenges and pip its only realistic rivals, South Africa, to host the six-week Twenty20 tournament.
The ECB does not yet know how much it will be paid following India’s decision not to host the tournament because of security fees, and staging fees have yet to be agreed.
In the middle of this week it will meet IPL and Indian board officials to thrash out details and broadcasting rights will be at or near the top of the agenda. David Collier, the ECB’s chief executive, said last night: “We have had discussions in the last 36 hours. We shall be meeting the representatives of the Indian Premier League and the BCCI and shall be reporting back to the board at the back end of the week.
“An early decision has to be made as the tournament would be starting on April 10. We have already had discussions with Sky about our broadcasting contract with them and will be continuing those.”
English cricket officials reacted with scepticism last night, one leading domestic cricket official last night described the challenge bluntly as: “A logistical nightmare and unlikely to happen.”
The IPL would have to be shoe-horned into an already crowded season, which includes Test series against Australia and West Indies, a full programme of one-day internationals and the hosting of the ICC World Twenty20.
The competition would clash with the county programme as well as the two Test matches and the three ODIs against West Indies. It would also end just a few days before the launch of the ICC Twenty20 event in June.
There is also the prospect of upsetting Sky television, with whom the England and Wales Cricket Board have signed a four-year contract worth £300m.
Under the terms of the contract, Sky has the rights to any new competition – sanctioned by the ECB in either the domestic or international arenas. But the status of a competition organised by an overseas board and taking place in this country with the co-operation of the ECB is not clear. Sky’s pay TV rival Setanta holds the live rights to all 59 matches in the IPL under a five-year deal agreed last year.
Whatever, the contractual situation, the ECB would be reluctant to risk upsetting the rights partner with which it has forged a close partnership in response to criticism about the lack of terrestrial live coverage. It is Sky’s money that has enabled it to fund new investment in grass-roots cricket.
If the competition were to take place in the UK it would represent a coup for Setanta, the embattled broadcaster which is battling to restructure its business after it misjudged the recent auction for rights to live football in the English Premier League.
It is believed to have paid just £5m for the IPL rights and would benefit from the huge boost in profile the event would enjoy if it were held in England. The situation is further complicated because the second half of the IPL coincides with the series against the West Indies – broadcast by Sky.
Nigel Hilliard, the Essex chairman and an ECB board member, was another to take a downbeat approach to the series.
“The most important issue is security. Would an Indian operation be a target? We would have to talk to the government and the police.
“I don’t think the games would get a great following in England. Cricket is not a winter sport and April is winter as far as I’m concerned. But staging cricket matches would not be a problem – we do it all the time,” said Hilliard.
Source – guardian.co.uk
