BCCI will incur mammoth financial loss if IPL 2017 is cancelled

The Board of Control for Cricket in India may face the potential threat of bankruptcy if the ongoing battle between the Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) and the state associations continues and the latter decides not to stage IPL games.

“If they even think of touching the IPL, it’ll be a disaster. Consider this: Even for the sake of an argument, if the 2017 IPL is not held, BCCI will incur losses in excess of Rs 2500 crore. It’ll be bankrupt,” a BCCI official told Cricbuzz.

Each staging association is paid a sum of Rs. 60 lakh per IPL game. Of this, 30 lakhs come from the BCCI and the rest of it from the IPL franchise. This money is spent on the games, practice, floodlights, ground preparation, ground staff etc.

Since the past few years, the associations have been getting an advance from the BCCI and the remainder of the payment comes in through the course of the tournament and later. But things are different this time around. Supreme Court last year had stated that no BCCI funds are ought to be released to state associations unless they fell in line and adopted the Lodha Commission reforms.

The BCCI award function was boycotted by the state associations and that was an indication that the tussle was just widening between the Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators and the state associations. And if the battle continues to go like this and the state associations decides to not stage IPL games in 2017, the BCCI will go bankrupt.

It will be interesting to see what happens next. But fans in this 1 billion strong cricket crazy country shall be praying that such a disaster does not occur. IPL viewership in India is huge.

The tenth edition of the cash-rich T20 league is set to get underway on April 5.