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The premier league syndrome

Almost every other cricketing nation has tried to ape the IPL formula of generating multi-million dollar profits, with the Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL) being the latest. The question is whether SLPL will fly or will it fizzle out without the BCCI?s support?

?Money, it?s a crime. Share it fairly ? But don?t take a piece of my pie?..Money, so they say, it?s the root of all evil today?.? ?Money, Pink Floyd

IT?S UNLIKELY that many in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) headquarters would have heard these trailblazing lyrics from Pink Floyd?s epic 1973 album, The Dark Side of the Moon. This despite the fact that the first half of those lyrics might easily have been co-written, alongside Roger Waters, by the powers that be of the most influential and affluent cricket board on the planet.

It?s not by chance after all that the BCCI today can boast of being counted among the wealthiest of sporting institutions the world over. And it?s certainly not a case of providence or destiny that the Indian Premier League (IPL), the beloved brainchild of the board, has been such a runaway hit from all aspects. To the extent that almost every other cricketing nation has tried to ape the IPL formula of generating multi-million dollar profits in the most glamorous of fashions?not always with similar results?even by England, where the revolutionary format was conceptualised to start with.

What has rarely been highlighted, however, has been the massive yet inconspicuous influence that the BCCI has had on the outcome of the many ?Premier Leagues? and similar pretenders that have tried to benefit from the IPL legacy. The Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL) kicked off in R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Saturday. We are presently in the 10th year of the post-T20 era. A decade in which the entire stratosphere of cricket has transformed drastically. The SLPL will be the seventh franchise-based T20 tournament to emerge since the IPL burst into universal consciousness back in 2008.

It?s not surprising that the Sri Lankan board, just like the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) before it, is confident of replicating the prosperous revenue model that has sustained the IPL for five dazzling seasons. But it?ll once again have to make do without any support from its prominent neighbours, putting its potential success in great doubt.

The SLPL, in fact, has already been postponed by a year, with the BCCI having thrown a spanner in its works in 2011 by withholding permission for Indian players to be part of the event. And this year, despite Sri Lanka Cricket?s (SLC) efforts to assuage the Indian board by promising to protect its players? financial interests, N Srinivasan and Co remained obstinate in their refusal.

Following the IPL revenue model might be one thing, but the fact remains that the serious sponsors in the cricketing world lie entwined with the Indian players?as was proven by the high number of them in the Forbes Richest Cricketers? List recently. Where Indian cricket goes, promoters follow. The money follows. Without them around, a cricket Premier League would have to function with its most prominent limb cut off. The BCCI has attracted immense criticism for not allowing its players to compete in other worldwide T20 tournaments. Like a top board official revealed recently, the reasons for it are self-explanatory.

?If we allow our players to go then it will mean letting others eating into our revenue pool. Why would we want to do that? It?s a revenue model that we?ve created after all,? he said. And SLC does not have to look too far to understand the mighty pitfalls of rushing into hosting a tournament of this nature. The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), the BCB believed, would cash in on the IPL frenzy. But following just its inaugural edition, the tournament has already been mired in a number of controversies?be it match-fixing, lack of sponsorship or almost all their foreign players still waiting to be paid the full amount of their contracted sums.

The franchises, who staggeringly did not even sign a deal with the BPL governing council before the tournament began, are now all under the scanner of the National Board of Revenue with regards to taxes. Sponsors have either withdrawn support or decided to simply stay away. Following just one season, during which many overseas players even threatened to boycott crucial matches, the BPL now is left in the pits . Speaking of controversy, even the malicious shadow of Lalit Modi hovered over the SLPL during its early days, with the defaced former IPL chairman being linked with it.

This is not to say that the IPL has always gotten a clean-chit for its magnificent revenue structure. Or that its formula is bereft of loopholes. Numerous PILs have been filed against the tax exemptions allocated to the BCCI and the IPL franchises. Here too, money talks the loudest. The smaller franchises, read Punjab and Rajasthan, have struggled to sustain themselves, while the Sahara Pune Warriors were allowed to muscle the BCCI into making compromises for their benefit. The biggest dilemma facing the SLPL is whether SLC, which hadn?t paid their own contracted players since the 2011 World Cup and whose three major venues had to be handed over to the military, now has generated enough bank balance to ensure a clean passage for its T20 extravaganza.

SLC though have played one amazing card. With the Indian stars out of bounds, they have attracted Indian conglomerates to invest in the franchises. Six out of seven SLPL franchises were bought by Indian-origin companies though at prices close to 2% of what the IPL ones were purchased at. Besides, Mahindra & Mahindra is the title sponsor of the tournament. The SLPL might just get a fair bite at its share of the pie after all.

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First published on: 12-08-2012 at 03:09 IST
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