Lalit Modi, the founder of the Indian Premier League, welcomed the report of a USD 5 billion by Saudi Arabia in the IPL. Reports have suggested that the Saudis are interested in partnering with the BCCI and investing huge money into the IPL to take it to the next level.
According to a Bloomberg report, Saudi Arabis’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s advisors have approached officials from the Indian government and the IPL which would see the league’s valuation skyrocket to $30 billion, as they hope to make IPL a holding company.
It remains to be seen whether BCCI is ready to give up full control of the IPL in lieu of such a huge amount of money being pumped into the already richest and most valuable cricket T20 league in the world.
On the other hand, Lalit Modi said that this investment can help IPL develop a football league-style format with 20 teams competing all year round. He also opined that the ODI format should be scrapped and Test cricket reduced to four days instead of five.
“I see 50-over (ODIs) going completely. I see no relevance to it. It’s there for the sake of being there. There’s only relevance to the Test. A four-day Test, not even a five-day Test – a day/night Test because people don’t have the luxury from morning to evening,” Modi told RevSportz.
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He added that BCCI has not contacted him for 15 years, but if he was a stake holder, he'd welcome the reported investment offer from Saudi.
“And the 2020 format. I don’t have an inside view of the BCCI. They haven’t spoken to me in 15 years. I am not privy to that but if I was there, I would be thinking of a second secondary-tier league with ownership coming in again, at the second level out there.
Not at the valuation of billion dollars but at the valuation of 50 million, 100 million dollars which was the valuation of IPL in year one. There can be up to 20 teams, coming in from the secondary league and two teams are related up and two teams are relegated down will make it extremely competitive, extremely valuable to the players and make a new game altogether,” Modi stated further.
According to a report from D&P India Advisory Services, the IPL ecosystem value has risen from Rs 87,000 crore to Rs 92,500 crore which is an increase of nearly 6.3 per cent. Previously an 8-team affair, the addition of two new franchises two years ago has further helped the league’s viewership.
