The Board of Control for Cricket in India seems to be tightening the purse strings in the backdrop of the economic slowdown in the country as it has decided to halve the play-off standing fund from Rs 50 crore to Rs 25 crore and increase the hosting fee for franchisees by Rs 20 lakh. BCCI also wants the foreign players fee to be paid to their respective national associations to be cut from 20% to 10%, media reports said on Wednesday.
Mumbai Mirror reported that BCCI has sent a mail to the franchisees last Friday informing them about the change without giving any reason.
“The play-off standing fund for 2020 will be as follows: final winner Rs 10 crore; runner-up (loser of the final) Rs 6.25 crore); 3rd place team (loser of qualifier 2 play-off match) Rs 4.375 crore; and 4th place team (loser of the eliminator play-off match) Rs 4.375 crore,” the mail said.
The four teams previously shared Rs 50 crore among themselves in the following way: Rs 25 crore for the champions, Rs 12.5 crore for the runners up, and Rs 6.25 crore each for the other two. The IPL prize money of Rs 50 crore, which is paid above this money, remains unchanged and is shared among the players depending on the team’s final position, the newspaper reported.
The mail also informed the franchisees that the hosting fee to be paid to associations have been increased from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 50 lakh.
The franchisees haven’t objected to the decision but felt that BCCI could have at least consulted with them instead of taking a unilateral decision.
“Such things could have been told to us at a meeting. But there was no such meeting of the owners and they simply increased some fees and reduced others,” an official from a team based in South India was quoted as saying by the paper.
Board may not pay for foreign players
Meanwhile, the Times of India reported that the Board also wants to reduce the foreign players release fee to 10% and wants the IPL franchisees to bear that financial burden.
The percentage of player’s fee payable to cricket boards was changed from 10% to 20% in 2017 by the Committee of Administrators, with BCCI paying half of the amount while the rest was paid by the franchise.
When the IPL was launched in 2008, the 10% fee was to be paid by the franchisees but BCCI decided to take the financial burden after a few seasons as the IPL teams were still not generating enough revenue.
But BCCI secretary Jay Shah now feels that with the new broadcast contract all the franchisees are making enough profit to pay the 10% amount and there is no need for the board to spend money from their coffers.
“The general prevailing idea is that the franchises are making money now. So, why should the BCCI pay? It is the teams that want 100% availability. So, they need to bear the cost,” the newspaper quoted a source in the know as saying.
“The total purse to be spent on players available for a franchise is Rs 85 crore. That amount alone across players from all eight franchises – be it national or overseas – swells up to around Rs 680 crore. Now, if we take just the overseas players into account at even 30% of that salary, it roughly works out to around Rs 200 crore. IPL – BCCI and franchises put together – is paying 20% of that to other boards. Why? Who took this decision?,” the source added.
BCCI has also put travel restrictions on its senior staff members who would now have to fly economy if the travel time is less than eight hours instead of the three hours rule in the past.
