IPL Cancellation Likely To Cost Indian Cricket A Lot

As the entire world has brought the world into a standstill due to the global pandemic novel coronavirus, every sport events have either canceled or postponed across the globe. This also included the cash-rich Indian Premier League and because of its cancellation, Indian cricket likely to cost more than half a billion dollars, but cutting players' salaries were not considered yet, according to a top official.

The 13th edition of IPL was earlier scheduled to begin from March 29 but later it was postponed to April 15. However, the cancellation of the IPL this year would mean a huge financial loss as well. Like other countries, India too is worried about the return of competitive cricket, but they have to follow government rules too.

"The BCCI is looking at a big revenue loss. In case the IPL does not take place, the loss would be close to 40 billion rupees ($530 million), or even more," said Board of Control for Cricket in India treasurer Arun Dhumal. "We are not sure whether we will be able to have it this year."

Already the ODI series against South Africa in March has already been canceled but it is the IPL, which generates the huge BCCI revenue and is likely to be worth over $11 billion a year to the Indian economy too.

"We will only be able to figure out the exact revenue loss once we are sure of how many games we have lost," said Dhumal.

Moreover, the IPL brand value was estimated at $6.7 billion last year, and Indian broadcaster Star Sports has also paid more than $220 million for five years of TV rights up to 2022 as well. But it was expected to targeting $400 million of revenue in 2020 alone.

But Arun Dhumal, who joined the BCCI last year along with the president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah, also revealed that they have hoped to avoid pay cuts for players.

"That would be the last thing that we would want to do at our end," said Dhumal. "That is why we are working (on) how much is the loss finally we have to pay. So once we are able to assess that then we might consider it, but it will be the last thing on our agenda."