The BCCI has finally decided to stage the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) 14th season remainder in the UAE as if this year’s edition isn’t completed, the board was estimated to incur losses of around Rs 2,500 crore.
BCCI was all set to lose the amount of the broadcast and sponsorship money designated for the 14th season.
The Indian cricket board was forced to postpone the ongoing IPL edition as multiple cases of COVID-19 emerged from Ahmedabad and New Delhi, which were hosting the second leg.
Earlier, the 60-match tournament, which was slated to be held in 52 days, was supposed to end on May 30 in Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi stadium however, just 24 days was possible with 29 completed games before it was postponed.
Significantly, BCCI was expected to suffer a major loss of income which it receives from official broadcaster Star Sports, which has a five-year contract worth Rs 16,347 crore which is ₹3269.4 crore per year.
As per contract, the per match valuation comes to approximately Rs 54.5 crore and if Star would have paid per match, then the amount for 29 matches would be Rs 1580 crore approximately out of what would have been ₹3270 crore for a full tournament.
So, it meant a loss of Rs 1690 crore for the BCCI.
Meanwhile, mobile manufacturers VIVO, the tournament’s title sponsors, pays Rs 440 crore per season and the Indian cricket board was likely to get less than half of that amount because of the suspension of the 14th season.
Same was be the case with the associate sponsors and subsidiary sponsors as well.
Earlier, BCCI chief Sourav Ganguly had also accepted that the board would lose a major amount of revenue if the postponed IPL 2021 season isn’t completed.
“If we fail to complete the IPL, the loss will be close to INR 2500 crore (USD 340 million approximately). That is going by early estimates,” Ganguly had told The Telegraph.
As a result, the BCCI was working on a war basis to find a suitable window for the remainder and finally on Saturday, it announced to stage the remaining games of this year’s edition in the UAE, which had earlier hosted the entire season of 2020.
“The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Saturday announced to complete the remaining matches of VIVO Indian Premier League 2021 season in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E) considering the monsoon season in India in the months of September-October this year,” said a statement from the Indian Cricket Board on Saturday.
“The decision was taken at a Special General Meeting (SGM) held virtually, where members unanimously agreed to resume IPL,” the statement added.