BCCI and IPL staging units to meet on March 30 in Delhi

The Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators have fixed a meeting with staging associations of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the national capital on March 30. This is because BCCI wants to sign the tripartite agreement with the staging associations and IPL franchises, with most of them taking funds from the board to host games on the respective turfs.

As per the agreement, the IPL franchise has to make a payment of Rs 30 lakh per match to the host association. BCCI, after that, releases Rs 30 lakh per game to the association in the time limit of one month of the previous game that was held at their venue.

However, there is utter confusion this time around. Confusion is that the BCCi is barred by last October’s Supreme Court order from releasing funds to state bodies unless they adopt the Lodha committee’s reforms. This caused anxiety among all the associations, keen to get the payment sorted right away.

Meanwhile, in their second status report to the Supreme Court, the administrators said that the Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) have an excess of Rs 250 crore in their account but still want funds from the board to host home games for Gujarat Lions. Furthermore, the administrators pointed out that Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) had asked for funds to organise the fourth India vs Australia Test starting March 25 despite having an excess of Rs 65 crore in their account.

Amidst all that, one thing is clear that the tenth edition of the Indian Premier League will take place as scheduled, and the staging associations will not have a choice to back out. This was confirmed yesterday by the head of the COA, Vinod Rai who said that there is nothing stopping the IPL from taking place this year, and the schedule will also remain the same.