The IPL 2020 proved to be an immense success despite the problems of the Coronavirus pandemic. The tournament was shifted to UAE on short notice by the BCCI, after it had been postponed from its original date in March 2020.
Played at only three venues across UAE, the IPL 2020 saw record viewership given that it was behind the closed-door event. And now the focus has shifted towards next year’s tournament which the BCCI had announced will take place in April-May of 2021.
There have been reports of BCCI getting interests for the 9th franchise which are to be based out of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, or a city-based in Uttar Pradesh. Ahmedabad boasts of the largest cricket stadium in the world, the New Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera, while UP has the likes of Lucknow, Ekana, Kanpur, and other cities, which have hosted international cricket for ages.
Now it has been reported via Mumbai Mirror, that the two parties asking the BCCI to add new franchises are Adani Group in Ahmedabad and Sanjiv Goenka's RPSG Group. BCCI is hoping to add one more franchise atleast in IPL 2021 and these two parties are vying for ownership.
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Goenka Group has previously owned the Pune based Rising Pune Supergiant franchise in IPL 2016 and 2017, with the team reaching the finals in 2017 IPL.
The franchises have told the BCCI that it should first decide on where it wants to stage the next IPL. If it were to be in the UAE again, they would be better off adding the new team a year later as it would be difficult for the franchises to plan for the mega auction. With the same number of teams, the mega auction can also be deferred by a year.
The contention here is that in the event of a mega auction – which takes place every three years – the franchises will struggle to form teams given that the league will be held in the UAE in 2021 and in India in 2022 and 2023.
BCCI, on the other hand, is not worried about the venue, especially hosting the tournament in UAE on short notice in 2020. It will be testing the conditions during the England series at home in February-March, 2021, and taking a decision after that.
Meanwhile, the report also said that the Indian Premier League was likely a Rs 100 crore bonanza for UAE’s Emirates Cricket Board (ECB).
Those familiar with the way the league was conducted have revealed to Mirror that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) paid a whopping 14 million dollars to stage the tournament in Dubai, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi recently.
The amount according to sources was credible, given that BCCI recently increased the hosting fee for a franchise for each match from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 50 lakh – and the board was to match that amount, thus enabling a state association to earn Rs 1crore per game.
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Some IPL teams have contended that a hefty hosting fee in India would make sense given that the state associations provide practice facilities, security and would clean the ground after each game. “In the UAE, there were no crowds, security was not a concern and the franchises had to pay for practice facilities,” said a franchise official.
Besides the Rs 100 crore fee, the IPL also immensely added to the UAE business, with 14 five star hotels almost packed for three months. The IPL provided a windfall for UAE.
(Mumbai mirror inputs)
