Desperate to keep a bulk of the IPl matches in India, the BCCI on Friday decided to wait till the announcement of the dates of general elections before finalising the venues of the Twenty20 mega-event, a part of which will have to be held abroad due to security issues.
The BCCI’s working committee met here on Friday to discuss the matter days after the Home Ministry made it clear that it would not be able to provide security for the event due to the elections set for April-May. “A final decision on IPl venues will be taken after getting the schedule of general elections,” BCCI President N Srinivasan said after the meeting here.
“If necessary, part of the matches would be played abroad. IPl chairman Ranjib Biswal has informed that South Africa, Bangladesh and UAE have expressed interest to host the matches,” he told reporters. The elections are set to clash with the IPl window, which has been kept from April 9 to June 3. The Working Committee, however, has devised a strategy by which they can at least hold a substantial part of the seventh edition of IPl in India as per the wishes of the franchises if the counting of votes in the general elections end by May 15.
As per the discussions at the meeting, the IPl will only be held in South Africa if the T20 event is organised there in its entirety. Or else, Bangladesh or United Arab Emirates will hold three to five rounds till the end of the entire election process. “The members are of the opinion that it will be held in South Africa only if the entire election process with the countings and everything is not completed till the end of May. It will not be partly held in South Africa,” a senior working committee member preferring anonymity said on Friday. He also said that BCCI is keeping its fingers crossed and hoping that the counting finishes by May 15.
“Our vice-president Rajeev Shukla informed the committee that election dates will be announced by March 5. If the entire electoral process ends by May 15, then we can have the first few rounds in UAE and Bangladesh, which also won’t be a logistical nightmare,” the senior official added. “Post May 15, as the government would be able to provide security, the tournament will come back to India. We can’t make our stakeholders angry. The franchises, the principal sponsors including the title sponsors want it to be held in India”, the official said.
“So we are going to try and organize for the maximum number of matches in India. We can’t deny the franchises from getting their share of gate sales and initiate brand activation procedure,” he concluded. Board to earn $600 million between 2015-23 The structural overhaul of the International Cricket Council is all set to trigger a financial windfall for the already rich BCCI which is likely to earn an estimated $600 million in the next eight years, Board Secretary Sanjay Patel has revealed.
“According to my estimate, within this period (2015 to 2023) of eight years we (BCCI) will get around $600 million,” BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel told a local news channel on Thursday. Patel was here in connection with the BCCI Working Committee meeting in the city today. Incidentally, during this 2015-23 period, India would be a permanent member of the three major committees of the ICC. On the substantial increase in the BCCI’s revenue sharing with the ICC, he said, “Since past so many years BCCI has become one of the biggest contributors towards ICC’s earnings.”
BCCI is contributing about 68 per cent of the revenue and getting only four per cent in return, he said. “I am pleased to announce instead of four per cent share, BCCI will now get 21 per cent. During 2015-23, BCCI’s expected gross revenue will be close to 2.75 to three billion dollars,” he said.