IPL 2020: Slashing playoff purse not cost-cutting, says Chairman Brijesh Patel
The eight IPL franchises whose profits will be directly hit are not impressed with the cost-cutting measures taken by BCCI in the league. But the board maintains that it is only reversing some old decisions and scaling down costs. “It’s not cost-cutting. In 2013-14, to help the franchises, we had agreed to increase the money, but it was not part of the original contract,” IPL chairman Brijesh Patel told Hindustan Times on Wednesday.
In a circular sent last week to the franchises, BCCI proposed reducing the ‘playoff standing fund’ by half, from R50 crore. Effectively, IPL winners will get R10 crore, having received R20 crore last year. The runner-up will now receive R6.25 crore (down from R12.5 crore) and the third and the fourth placed teams will get R 4.375 crore each (R8.75 crore earlier).
A BCCI official clarified this would not affect the prize money players would make. “There are two components. One is the prize money that players get, which remains unaffected. Another is this fund, which we initiated for the franchises in 2013-14. Only that has been cut,” he said.
Defending the BCCI move, Patel said these are just prudent spending measures and should not be linked to economic slowdown. “In 2013, the franchises had requested saying they were not making money in IPL. So, BCCI thought we will also contribute so that player payments do not become an issue. Now, they are earning profits. It’s just loss in profit,” Patel said.
The other hit in earning that franchises will have to bear is the extra R20 lakh they have to pay as staging fee to the home association per game. The association would get R50 crore in all. The BCCI would also be paying the association R50 lakh, from R30 lakh earlier.
“The staging associations’ costs have gone up. Even BCCI is paying them more. For an international match, the association costs go over R1.5 crore. Here, they would now get R1 crore,” a BCCI official said.
The franchises are unhappy they are not kept in the loop. “None of these moves were discussed with us. We being stake-holders, BCCI should involve us before making these decisions,” a top franchise official said.
Some of them plan to write to BCCI. There has been no exchange of ideas, meet-and-greet between the franchises and this BCCI regime. “That’s been an old problem with BCCI, which leads to bad optics,” an insider said.
Earlier, in an IPL Governing Council meet, member and former India stumper Surinder Khanna had questioned retaining IMG’s R33.5 crore annual contract for managing the league. However, it is learnt since their contract runs till 2022, they would continue. A top official justified the decision to do away with the IPL opening ceremony, terming it ‘wasteful expenditure’.
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