The lucrative Indian Premier League could be about to get much bigger, with Australian players being told the tournament’s $US5 million salary cap could be abolished.Although some IPL franchises are already starting to struggle financially with low crowd numbers and their player’s bumper pay packets, others are apparently keen to splash even more cash to land the world’s best players.
Think Andrew Symonds $1.5 million-a-season deal was big? One Australian player has reportedly been told by Indian captain MS Dhoni that salaries could skyrocket to a staggering $15 million.Dhoni is currently the highest earning IPL star, with a contract worth $1.65 million.Australian and Chennai opener Matthew Hayden says he has heard the IPL player payments are only going to get bigger.“From what I have heard, some of the stuff this year could be just the tip of the iceberg,” Hayden said.
The removal of the salary cap would increase fears about what the IPL could do to international cricket, with many players already considering retiring early from representing their country in order to chase the big dollars on offer in India.There is currently no “IPL window” in the international cricket calendar, meaning the tournament will continue to clash with national team tours.Australia is about to begin its tour of the West Indies, and is set to tour South Africa and Pakistan during the IPL season next year.
MUMBAI: Some say catches win matches. But success in the business of cricket takes more than a T20 game. Nobody knows this better than Lalit Modi, the BCCI man who has successfully passed the initial hurdle of selling the Indian Premier League (IPL) to franchisees and sponsors.
The 5-plus TRPs that the first 12 matches got have given IPL and Mr Modi a leg up. But, the challenge now is to ensure unblinking eyeballs, match after match. Because media revenues, in the form of advertising, will play a key role in making the game profitable for franchisees.Globally, a franchisee of a similar game format earns revenues from three broad areas, media rights, sponsorships and gate receipts. But the business model for IPL franchisees, at least in the initial years, will have to depend on media revenues.
As such, selling tickets at stadiums isn’t going to fetch much. IPL is a two-month event while EPL runs for almost seven months. Even assuming the best scenario of all the matches running at full capacity in the stadiums, all the franchisees put together would sell three million tickets. As per the arrangement, 20% of these tickets should be given to IPL.At an average ticket price of Rs 500, the revenue generated would be Rs 120 crore for all the eight franchisees. Back of the envelope calculations show that gate revenues at best would be 15% of franchisees’ revenues unlike 35% for EPL franchisees.
In the initial years, outdoor stadium activity is going to be a no-profit-no-loss business. This leaves the revenues, and profitability, riding on the media revenues for the franchisees. BCCI has sold the global broadcast rights to Sony-WSG for $918 million for 10 years. ET contacted Sony Entertainment Television president Rohit Gupta to understand the intricacies of the contract. “This is confidential and we can’t reveal it,” he said.But Alchemy Share Brokers which spoke to franchisees have mentioned the details of the contract in its latest report. As per the report, Sony would pay $316 million for rights of broadcast for the first five years, which would be shared between franchisees and BCCI.
The franchisees have a share of 80% in the first year, which falls to 60% in the fifth year. After five years, as per the report, Sony will pay $608 million “if this format has been remunerative in the first five years”. That gives Sony the option to back out in case the TRPs, and ad revenues, fall.The contract also mentions that while in the first year, payouts are equal for franchisees, “TRPs would drive payouts from the second year”. Which means unpopular franchisees would have to be content with lesser share of the media revenue pie. Getting sponsors will depend on popularity of the event and each team.
IPL teams, like EPL clubs, can make money from merchandising and trading players. But then, all that takes years. EPL took 15 years to get to where it is today. Mr Modi probably knows it, as he struggles with his bleary eyes to keep the interest alive for IPL. After all, eyeballs, in any colour, matter in this business.
Today was a match between Bangalore Royal Challengers and Kings XI Punjab in the DLF – IPL. This was the 25th match of this league. Kings XI Punjab won the toss and decided to field first. They were given a target of 127 which was mearly a small target to achieve by Kings XI Punjab. Shaun Marsh and James Hopes opened the batting for Kings XI Punjab and took the score to 11 before James Hopes was caught by C White in the second over of the match. The score of the team was 81 for the loss of 2 wickets in 10 overs. The captain of the team Yuvraj singh was caught by D Patil, he scored just 1 run. Even the bowling part of Kings XI Punjab of today’s match was excellent, it looked like the luck was favoring them. Shaun Marsh was the top scorer for Kings XI Punjab and thus helped the team to win the match by 6 wickets
Match Notes Are :
Bangalore Royal Challengers innings
Bangalore Royal Challengers: 50 runs in 9.6 overs (64 balls), Extras 4
4th Wicket: 50 runs in 50 balls (V Kohli 22, R Dravid 26, Ex 2)
Bangalore Royal Challengers: 100 runs in 15.6 overs (101 balls), Extras 10
R Dravid: 50 off 44 balls (7 x 4)
Innings Break: Bangalore Royal Challengers – 126/10 in 19.2 overs (DW Steyn 1)
Kings XI Punjab innings
Kings XI Punjab: 50 runs in 5.3 overs (37 balls), Extras 9
2nd Wicket: 50 runs in 40 balls (SE Marsh 13, RR Sarwan 29, Ex 8)
Kings XI Punjab: 100 runs in 13.1 overs (85 balls), Extras 15
Today it was Rahul Dravid vs Yuvraj Singh as Royal Challengers were to compete with Kings XI Punjab.Kings XI won the toss and decided to field first.The decision of Yuvi proved very beneficial and the bowlers of Kings XI got the first break through on the 4th ball of the innings. Sreesanth gave double blow and got the second wicket on the 5th ball of the very first over.Royal Challengers were struggling at 1/2. Royal Challengers were not yet fully recovered and Kallis was also run out leaving the team at 15/3 in 3.3 overs. Virat Kohli and Dravid then took the score to 69 and then Kohli was out. Misbah was the next to go and Royal Challengers had lost 5 key players for just 98. Praveen Kumar got out without even bothering the score card and thus a total of 5 batsmen from Royal Challengers were out for a duck in today’s match. Full credit goes to the bowlers of Kings XI for making the Royal Challengers batsmen struggle to make runs. In the end it was the bowlers of Kings XI who bundled out the whole team for 126 in 19.2 overs.
In the 25th match of DLF – IPL, Royal Challengers will take on Kings XI Punjab. Both the teams are on a roll after winning the last match and Royal Challengers would go for a hunt to stop the winning streak of Kings XI and thus continue the win sequence which started a bit late for them. We hope to see a good match and lets see Dravid or Yuvraj who proves to be heavier for each other.
