Former IPL boss Lalit Modi forecasts huge sums of money in the league for players in future

Lalit Modi also predicted that ICC will become obsolete.

Lalit Modi said that IPL is here to stay

Lalit Modi, the brain behind the Indian Premier League (IPL), has forecast that players might earn up to $ 1mn per match in future. He also said that the traditional program of matches between countries might disappear altogether.

"The IPL is here to stay," Modi told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper in an interview published Thursday. "It will be the dominant sporting league in the world."

At present, there is a team salary cap, with the likes of England all-rounder Ben Stokes earning $1.95 million per season from the Rajasthan Royals. Modi believes that if that $12 million cap is relaxed, leading IPL players could earn as much as English Premier League footballers and even NFL stars.

"You will see players making $1-$2m a game," said Modi. "It will happen sooner rather than later. In a free market, the person with the deepest pockets will win. The players will gravitate towards who pays the biggest salary."

Lalit Modi also predicted the extinction of country vs country matches and also the demise of ICC.

"Today international cricket does not matter," he said. "It is of zero value to the Indian fan. Tomorrow you will see bilateral cricket disappear," Modi added. "Big series will happen once every three or four years like the World Cup.

About ICC, Modi said, “The ICC will become an irrelevant body. It will be full of fat lugs who have no power. They can scream and shout now and in the future they will threaten to throw India out if they try to expand the IPL but India has the power to stand on its own feet...They have a domestic league that it is going to be 20-times the size of international cricket."

"I think there is a window for Test cricket and a World Test championship will survive if all nations get together and make it a proper tournament. But it has to be a championship. If the ICC does not do it I see no reason why the IPL would not do it instead as a knockout IPL Test championship," Modi wrote about Test cricket.

(With AFP inputs)

 
 

By Jatin Sharma - 20 Apr, 2018

    Share Via