IPL cancellation could lead to INR 2,000 crore revenue loss for BCCI

Even as the fate of the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) hangs by a thread, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) could end up incurring a loss of INR 2,000 crore if the tournament gets called-off. The massive coronavirus pandemic over the last few months first led to the start of the IPL being postponed from March 29 to April 15.

But now with the 21-day lockdown in India until April 14, a final call on the tournament is yet to be taken. The world’s richest cricket board is also contemplating a truncated season or pushing it to latter half of 2020. To mitigate the loss of INR 2,000 crore for the BCCI, the players could face pay-cuts to some extent.

BCCI allocates 26 per cent revenue for players

“Obviously if the organisation takes a financial hit, the salaries of the employees get affected as well. The pay cuts are a possibility,” a BCCI official was quoted as saying by the Mumbai Mirror on Wednesday, April 8.

As per reports, the BCCI generally has 26 per cent of its revenue to the players. While 13 per cent of them is allocated to the international stars, the rest is distributed among the junior and domestic cricketers.

It has also been learned that the BCCI annually allocates 70 crores to the domestic cricketers and 150 crores for the international stars. If the IPL gets scrapped, and the BCCI incurs heavy losses, then the “international players’ income will exceed their entitled share in the board income.”

In case the IPL gets pruned, then the players will be bracing for losses from two aspects- central contracts plus pay cuts in IPL deals with their respective franchises. Among the cricketers, Indian skipper Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Rohit Sharma have A+ contracts with a salary of INR 7 crore. Head coach Ravi Shastri gets Rs 9 crore annually.

In the meantime, loads of suggestions have flooded in regarding the ways to host the 2020 IPL. Even as many reckon that the tournament should take place within closed doors, a few believe that the tournament can take place without the foreign players.