Comparison of the money involved in the IPL and PSL

India and Pakistan fans love their respective domestic T20 leagues the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and cannot keep themselves away from the comparison. While the IPL is a decade old, the third season of the PSL kicked off on February 22 and thus there is a huge distinction between both the tournaments. The two boards BCCI and PCB are on completely different sides of the financial table as well.

The players’ eagerness and reluctance to feature in either of the tournaments is a testament in itself. IPL enjoys the status of the most popular and cash-rich T20 league in the world that features almost all the top international cricketers from around the world. PSL is trying its best to strengthen the foothold and convince players to travel to Pakistan for a few matches in the season. However, keeping everything else aside we decided to equate the two leagues in terms of pure financial numbers. Here we analyse the kind of money that is involved in the IPL and the PSL in a bid to understand who stands where.

1. Franchise cost

The eight teams had collectively paid the BCCI a sum of $723.5 million as the franchise fees in 2008 to acquire rights for the respective city-based teams. Very recently when the board needed replacement teams for Chennai Super Kings and RR, they brought in two new franchises Rising Pune Supergiant and Gujarat Lions who paid INR 16 crore and 10 crore respectively for the two years 2016 and 2017.

In 2016, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) sold the rights of the first five teams for $90.45 million in 2015. Ahead of the third edition in 2018, they sold the Multan Sultan franchise for eight years at $41.6 million.

2. Auction purse

In the IPL 2018 auction, the eight franchises had a purse of INR 80 crore each to buy and retain the players they wish to feature in the team for this season.

The PCB, on the other hand, allowed the franchises a cap of approximately INR 7.76 crore for the players draft ($1.2 million).

3. Title Sponsors

Chinese Smartphone company Vivo acquired the title sponsorship rights of the IPL in 2016 for the next five years shelling $439.8 million (INR 2,199 crore).

Habib Bank Limited (HBL) bought the PSL sponsorship rights for three years at $64.7 million i.e $6.6 million a year.

4. Media Rights

After the first decade of the IPL, the Indian board put up the broadcast and digital media rights for auction and Star India bagged the five-year deal with the highest bid of INR 16,347 crore ($2.5 billion).

The Pakistan Super League, on the other hand, managed to sell the rights for domestic and international broadcast for $15 million.

5. Champions Prize Money

In the 2018 season of the IPL, the league has set aside $9 million to be distributed among the eight teams as prize money. The champion will take a fat cheque of $4 million.

PSL for the season three will reward the champion team with $1 million whereas the overall prize money on offer is $3.5 million.

6. Highest Paid Player

Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli was retained by the team for INR 17 crore ($2.63 million) that ensured he was the highest paid player for the 2018 season of the IPL. In the auction, Rajasthan Royals bid INR 12.5 crore for England all-rounder Ben Stokes.

The best-paid player in the PSL season 3 is former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum. He was signed by the Lahore Qalandars for $.558 million.

7. Profits

Ahead of the 11th season of the IPL, BCCI declared that they had operational surplus worth INR 2017 crore in their bank ($31.2 million).

After the second season of the PSL, PCB stated that they made surplus worth $1 million.