MUMBAI: Unprecedented in our life time, the havoc that the break out of Covid-19 caused has actually left, among other sectors, the sports industry in absolute chaos.
As sports, and cricket – from an India perspective – seeks to limp back to normalcy in the coming months, there’s much to worry about as the game’s economy depends on a shamble. Few comprehend the sport’s international and local economics from a bird’s eye view like Sundar Raman
The former ceo of the Indian Premier League( IPL) – who dealt with the T20 home because inception and was one of the senior working hands at the International Cricket Council( ICC) – is keeping a close watch on how things have been spiralling out. Raman has actually been dealing with a white paper that looks into cricket’s present crisis, the stress of the coming months and the possible cures the industry could take a look at in the short and long term. He shared those views specifically with TOI.
If there was an argument in between T20 World Cup or IPL, he reasons out why it ought to be IPL as no sport can afford monetary turmoil presently. In Raman’s view, it’s a case of a yearly property alone generating close to 40%of cricket’s global income versus an international property that has the convenience of being rescheduled to a later stage.
IPL alone, he says, ensures US$100 m in players’ salaries every year (Rs 85 cr per franchise increased by 8). That represents broadcast earnings of a minimum of 3 to four member-boards of the ICC put together, highlighting what’s at stake for players financially on a global scale where I