Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
The biggest buzz revolving around the Indian cricket, perhaps even more than the on-field battle between India and South Africa in the five-match T20I series, has been the IPL Media Rights e-auction. The process finally came to a close on Tuesday when it was officially announced by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that Star India will retain the broadcast rights of the tournament for the next five years.
However, the Indian cricket board also welcomed new partners in Viacom 18 and Times Internet. In a tweet from BCCI Secretary Jay Shah, he formally declared the total valuation from the sale to be worth INR 48,390 crore. One may wonder how will the board now distribute such a huge amount among its stakeholders.
Half of the total sum is set to be divided equally between the eight old franchises. This means barring the new entrants - the Lucknow Super Giants and Gujarat Titans, who will have to wait for their share, the eight pre-existing teams will roughly get INR 3,000 crore each. The other half of the amount is set to be shared between players as well as the state associations.
A report in the Indian Express claims that 26 per cent of the other half is shared between domestic players as well as the capped Indian players.
4 per cent is kept for staff salaries with the remainder of the 70 per cent of the second half being pocketed by the state associations. Upon doing the math one arrives at an estimated figure of over INR 6000 crore to be shared among the players while almost INR 17,000 crore will be bagged by the state associations.