Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) General Secretary Jay Shah has said the board spends the revenue generated from the Indian Premier League (IPL) in improving the grassroots infrastructure and domestic Indian cricket.
“At BCCI, the growth of the game is of paramount importance and our entire focus will be on making cricket better, making the lives of cricketers better and building better infrastructure for everyone to play the beautiful game. The revenue generated from the IPL goes back into the game to firm up our grassroots infrastructure and domestic cricket,” Shah was quoted as saying by The Times of India on Wednesday.
With the IPL media rights to go on sale in the coming days, the Indian board is expecting a windfall for the 2023-27 cycle and commenting on it, Shah said: “Doing our best to acquire the justified value that a brand like IPL warrants is definitely on top of my mind. At the same time, we will also maintain complete transparency and that is one of the reasons why the media rights will be awarded through an e-auction.”
“We are in the closing stages of our discussions to finalise the dates to float the tender and we will come out with the ITT over the next few days. As per the standard guidelines, we will complete the process within 45-60 days once the tender is released,” he added.
The BCCI secretary also spoke on the challenges the board faced in successfully conducting IPL amidst the Covid-19 pandemic and said that due to collective determination the last editions were a success.
“Given the circumstances we were in, the challenge just got amplified. But through collective determination and resolve we made it possible. I have mentioned this several times in the past that India will always be IPL’s home. And that’s what we wanted to do in 2021 with all necessary precautions in place, but despite our best efforts, there were some positive cases detected inside the bubble and we had to pause,” he expalined.
“We put the health and safety of our stakeholders right at the top. Many thought the league was over, but we remained focused and had faith in our processes,” Shah added.
Notably, the upcoming IPL season will begin on March 26 and will be played in a bio-secure environment at a single hub to avoid air travel, considered as a major threat for the spread of COVID-19 infection, thereby affecting the players and tournament.
While 55 matches are scheduled to be held in Mumbai, the remaining 15 games will be staged in Pune while the playoffs’ venues haven’t been decided yet. Is most likley that the Narendra Modi Stadium in Motera, Ahmedabad will stage the playoffs however, no official announcement has been made yet.
In the upcoming season, the 10 teams have been divided into two groups. While Group A comprises of Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants, Group B includes Chennai Super Kings, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Punjab Kings and Gujarat Titans.
From this year onwards, the lucrative league will be a ten-team affair following the addition of the two new teams – Ahmedabad and Lucknow and will have a total of 74 games.