15-day IPL window will be a major blow to the lucrative tournament

According to one of the recommendations by the Justice RM Lodha Committee, there has to be a minimum 15-day gap between the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) and any other event that takes place before or after it. The rule that applies in the case of both international and domestic events, has not gone down well with the stakeholders who are associated with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

The stakeholders may be involved with the BCCI in different ways such as by investing huge amounts of money or the board’s operational executives or the advertisers who invest a lot of money behind the Indian cricket broadcast. The Committee of Administrators (CoA) took up the matter of a 15-day window head and before the IPL once again in a meeting held on Thursday. Committee head Vinod Rai investigated the possibility of the recommendation.

According to Page 42, Volume 1, of the recently proposed constitution under the header ‘IPL’: “Cricket calendars also ought to keep this in mind, and the BCCI should ensure that at least 15 days gap should be provided between the IPL season and the national calendar. A testing and cramped cricketing year takes a substantial toll on a professional cricketer’s body and longevity, and it is the responsibility of the BCCI to take remedial measures immediately.”

As the recommendation suggests, the Indian players can give up on their IPL contracts to remain in the international circuit for a larger amount of time. This policy has been applied by many foreign cricketers. But the majority of the players are doing the exact opposite. that is they are compromising on their national careers to be part of the IPL.

What the sources said:

“It increases the number of day matches in IPL, which is a strict ‘no’ as far as the broadcasters are concerned. For the high value that broadcasters put in per match, a day game ends up cutting down revenues by close to 65%,” said sources close to the industry.

The 15-day window can be extremely harmful to the BCCI, says an executive. It will be like compressing the period over which the tournament takes place that will result in more day matches. “It is so harmful that it may have a serious effect on the bids,” says an industry executive.

“More the number of day matches, more the revenues take a hit. Whoever’s come up with this idea has clearly failed to understand the financial implications of it. You can’t be pursuing the dream of being a global sports property when you don’t have your basic mathematics in place,” he added.