The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCC) is foreseeing losses upto half a billion dollars if the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) doesn't take place in wake of the COVID-19 health crisis.
Originally due to start on March 29, the IPL 2020 is now indefinitely postponed because of the deadly outbreak, which has brought the world to a standstill.
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"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," board treasurer Arun Dhumal told AFP.
With no new window in sight at this stage, Dhumal admitted "we are not sure whether we will be able to have it this year."
"We will only be able to figure out the exact revenue loss once we are sure of how many games we have lost," he added.
The brand value of the IPL was estimated at $6.7 billion last year by the Duff and Phelps financial consultancy.
Indian broadcaster Star Sports in 2017 bagged the TV and streaming rights for the annual T20 event for five seasons upto 2022 for a whopping sum of $220 million.
The BCCI is in a significantly better financial position than any other cricket board in the world to deal with this phase. Hence, Dhumal, who took over his position late last year amid the Sourav Ganguly-led BCCI administrative regime, said pay cut for players is "the last thing that we would want to do at our end" to make-up for the losses suffered.
"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 (pay cut) will be the last thing on our agenda," he added.
In an informal update on India's tour of Sri Lanka in June, Dhumal said: "The safety and health of our cricketers is paramount and any shred of doubt, we (the BCCI) will not shy away from calling it off."
The major bone of contention, of course, is the marquee tour to Australia later in the year, featuring the T20 World Cup and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
"In case we are already there for the T20 World Cup then there is no question of quarantine because we will already have been there for a month or so," said Dhumal.
"Cricket Australia are also not in a position to come up with something concrete. A lot will depend on the government and the travel bans in place. Let's see how they go about it."
(Inputs from AFP)
