Report | Franchises to write to BCCI expressing dissent over additional per-match charges

With the 2020 edition of the world’s most lucrative cricket tournament around the corner, some of the decisions to add to the financial burden has not gone down well with the franchises. IPL chairman Brijesh Patel tagged these expenses as ‘loss on profit’ while speaking to the Hindustan Times, but franchise officials are not pleased that they were not involved in the decision-making. 

“The least they can do is to involve us in discussions before taking such decisions and sending across emails. It’s all right to say that ‘it’s just R20 lakh per match’. But for seven matches of the season, it amounts to R1.4 crore. It’s the BCCI, which is earning more than R2000 crores from the IPL, but the franchises are not even earning a fraction of that,” a leading franchise official said.

While other top bosses pointed out that these decisions make it seem like the new BCCI regime is least concerned about the stakeholders. 

“Isn’t the BCCI getting too high-handed? Are they not, choosing a path of conflict, in the name of saving money? That’s the problem. We lost for the first ten years of IPL. They are forcing the franchises to come together and take a stand,” an official said.

Wary of inviting the wrath of the BCCI, none of the officials agreed to come on record. Last year, a few franchises had come together for an informal meeting in England to explore the option of forming a union to open a conversation window with them. This time, however, all franchises are on board with writing the letter of dissent, particularly with regard to the extra staging fees. 

“Money is being given to the associations despite the fact that they don’t take any steps to improve the facilities at the stadiums. This move is basically to keep state units happy, in exchange for votes. All we get from associations is demand for more free tickets,” one franchise head said.