The Indian Premier League, a three-year old condensed version of cricket that can be played two games a night, is making waves all over India this year. Cricket is India’s most popular sport, having been introduced over 150 years ago by the British rulers of the time. Last month two new IPL teams were sold at auction for a total of $703 million which is about what ll eight existing teams sold when the IPL was launched.
42 million viewers
Having sold the main broadcasting rights to the contest for 82 billion rupees, promoter Lalit Modi has hawked it widely—striking recent deals with Google, to broadcast IPL games on YouTube, and Britain’s ITV. According to Brand Finance, the IPL is worth over $4 billion today. According to TAM, India’s television-ratings agency, 42 million Indians watched the league’s opening game, in which the Kolkata Knight Riders, a team part-owned by filmstar Shah Rukh Khan, , faced the Deccan Chargers. In its inaugural season, the IPL took four games to accumulate 50 million viewers; this year it took only two. Sahara, a corporate conglomerate that is also a leading sponsor of India’s national cricket team, will pay $370 million for a team it will set up in the western city of Pune; Rendez Vous Sports, a consortium, will pay $333 million for a team in southern Kochi, in Kerala.
The IPL recently announced an increase in the salary cap for players to seven million dollars from five million. While former players are being critical about the money related to the Indian Premier League, and how it could lure current cricketers to the latest version of the Twenty20 game, the IPL has received support from Kapil Dev, former captain of the national team. The Indian cricket icon believes there is nothing wrong in money flowing into the game, but the players should get more.
