The richest body in world cricket, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), reportedly has a plan to help other cricket boards in times of COVID-19 crisis that has led to heavy financial woes in absence of game.
BCCI officials who didn’t wish to be named told Hindustan Times about the exercise that’s being mapped to evaluate how much income each cricketing nation has lost during the pandemic.
In a meeting with ICC this week, BCCI secretary Jay Shah has promised solutions to FTP restructuring, HT reported. This means that India coule play more bilateral matches against smaller teams once the pandemic ends — a move that will help generate revenue for their cricket boards.
Inarguably, the ICC has remained heavily dependent on the BCCI for revenue.
Team India is scheduled to tour four countries — Sri Lanka, Australia, Zimbabwe and South — over the next twelve months, and it looks ‘to honour each of those commitments’.
— T20 WC, an impossible task —
Even though the ICC is yet to take a call on the fate of T20 WC in Australia later this year, the BCCI official told HT the chances of event going ahead are slim.
“Is the ICC serious when it expects eight venues to be available to them for a World Cup in October? Will all governments permit outbound travel in a sixteen-nation world event?” he asked. “Cricket Australia is thinking of holding multiple Test matches in a single venue for India’s tour in December. How will they arrange eight venues for a World Cup?”
Whether the WC goes on or not, hardly matters for BCCI. Reportedly, the Indian board is estimated to annually earn Rs 2500 crore from the IPL and around Rs 950 crores from bilateral cricket in 2020-21. It earns Rs 380 crores ($405million for 8 years) yearly from its share of ICC revenue.
Playing cricket against India, for any country, helps make huge money.
“While we know that India can’t possibly tour every other country in a short span of time, it is possible to add matches to the existing home calendar and help other member boards out by covering current losses,” the BCCI official said. “A part of the proceeds from extra matches held in India may be given to the visiting team.” When other countries host India, they usually make much more money from media and other rights than when they host other teams. “A Part of the proceeds from extra matches held in India may be given to the visiting team,” he said.