IPL: Timing is wrong

Cricketers across the globe shocked to know that Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked by a group of militants in Pakistan. Every cricket nation started saying this is the reason why we have not sent our teams to play in Pakistan and Sri Lanka is foolish to send its team. As many people as many views expressed on the issue. Net result; is Indian sub-continent secure enough to organised sports events? The immediate impact, negative, will be on India, which is going to host Commonwealth Games and IPL T20 tournament in near future.

Players from all cricketing nations are keen to be part of IPL due to lucrative money involved in the tournament. After Sri Lankan incident money may not lure them. Ponting and Clarke from Australia already withdrew from this year’s tournament scheduled in April. New Zealand all-rounder Jacob Oram said no amount of money would persuade him to put his life in danger. Immediately after the 26/11 many players expressed apprehensions about security. Attack on Sri Lankan team has doubled their fears. Even Indian government is not confident in providing proper security in the wake of General Elections. Home minister P Chidambaram already indicated his helplessness and requested BCCI to postpone the IPL tournament for later date.

But BCCI is not willing to change the dates, understandably, with big money involved. Just through broadcasting rights from various agencies BCCI will gather roughly $1.75billion. World Sports Group (WSG) that secured global media rights has promised IPL about $350 million for the first five years and a little over $550 million for the following five years for media rights. Ad revenue is distributed among IPL (40%), franchises (54%) and remaining 6% prize money. If the tournament does not kick off as planned it will be a huge loss for BCCI.

Moreover the franchise owners like Reliance Industries that invested $11million on Mumbai franchise and Sharukh Khan’s Red Chillies $7.5million on Kolkata in the first year and others have to face hefty losses, if the tournament fails to attract foreign players. Spectators come to T20 matches to watch players like Symonds, Gilchrist, Hussey, Muralitharan, Flintoff and others. It they are not seen playing, then the ticket sales which could be around $1.5 to $2million will suffer. It is already known fact that teams are expected to lose about $30 to $40million over the first five years before making breakeven. Any changes in the existing format will incur huge losses for the franchise owners.

Money that few franchise owners pouring in IPL teams is as follows:
Ø Vijay Mallya - US $111.6 million, for the Bangalore team.
Ø Shah Rukh Khan - US $75.09 million, for the Kolkata team.
Ø GMR Holdings - US $84 million, for the Delhi team.
Ø Mukesh Ambani - US $111.9 million, for the Mumbai team.
Ø India Cements - US $91 million, for the Chennai team.
Ø Deccan Chronicle - US $107.01 million, for the Hyderabad team.
Ø Emerging Media - US $67 million, for the Jaipur team.
Ø Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia - US $76, for the Mohali team.

In the first season except one or two every franchise made losses. Mumbai Indians incurred Rs 16crore loss; Bangalore Royal challengers –Rs 43crore, Hyderabad Deccan Chargers – Rs 18cr, Chennai Super Kings – Rs 0.2cr, Delhi Daredevils – Rs 6.6cr, Punjab Kings – Rs 2.4cr. At the profit side are only Kolkata Kinght Riders – Rs 13crore and Rajasthan Royals - Rs 6crore.

With its initial success BCCI is thinking big for the second season. But BCCI involved in controversies with every board has multiplied its problems. Every Cricket Board expressed anger over the lucrative money that is forcing players to prefer IPL than play in their national sides. Similarly its deadlock with ICL has already ruined some of the player’s career the classic example could be Shane Bond from New Zealand.

In the current situation if the matches get postponed to later date many international players miss IPL matches as they have to play for the national teams. April and May have traditionally been off-season in most countries except England and the Caribbean, that is the reason why BCCI has chosen that time. But with ongoing disturbances the timing has become wrong. Added to the woes are the terrorist attacks. While 88 percent of foreign IPL contracted players, reported they wanted better security and 83 per cent wished for assessments made by independent security experts, the IPL is yet to respond. Not to forget the December Mumbai attacks caused the abandonment of the Champions League Twenty20 tournament.

It’s a war between money and terrorism or should we simply say security concern. How many are willing to come is the million dollar question. Australia’s Shane Watson who plays for Rajasthan Royals don’t see any threat however he demands assurance from BCCI that everything will go well. If general elections are not around then the situation might have been slightly better. Under such a chaos let us wait and see does money rules all fears or not!