The Board of Cricket Control in India’s (BCCI) decision to move Indian Premier League (IPL) out of India next year might cause a dent to the board’s coffers. On Thursday, senior BCCI officials said they are considering shifting the tenth edition overseas due to the series of legal battles the league has been embroiled in.
"The IPL governing council will be looking at the venues in India and abroad. We have to check the availability of the venues and prevailing conditions," Anurag Thakur, BCCI Secretary told media persons on Thursday.
IPL has been twice played outside India, both during assembly elections. In 2009, the league was moved for the entire duration to South Africa, while in 2014, it was shifted to the United Arab Emirates for the first 15 days.
The value of broadcast rights post-2017 will also be significantly less if the BCCI has to implement the Lodha Committee recommendations in its current form, news reports said.
It is also understood that current players, who get 26 percent of BCCI's annual income in their salaries may face a pay cut, so will the IPL franchises, which get a share of the revenue from the BCCI.
Four days back, Aniruddh Chaudhary, BCCI’s treasurer took to Twitter to announce it might be moved overseas.
The IPL has been rocked by one controversy after another from its inception year but during this edition, the spate of Public Interest Litigations (PIL) filed by various organisations has thrown the itinerary into disarray.
Already 12 IPL matches have been moved out of drought-hit Maharashtra on the Bombay High Court's directive after a PIL was filed claiming that a substantial quantity of water was being used in maintaining the various cricket stadiums in the state.
Actor and Punjab team’s co-owner Preity Zinta expressed her anguish to PTI recently, “Yes, it does affect the brand and it is unfair to the owners. It affects our business as every year there is some controversy or some rumours that come up. I believe at one level IPL has become a whipping boy for many.”
The country is reeling under a severe drought with Maharashtra being one of the worst hit states. In the second drought fatality in a span of two days, an 11-year-old boy died yesterday while fetching water from a well in drought-hit Beed district of Marathwada.
Sachin Gopinath Kedar of Veeda village in Kej tehsil was fetching water from a well, half-a-kilometre from his home, when he slipped and fell to his death, a police official said.
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