CoA shoots down Mumbai Indians' plan to promote IPL in United States
The Committee of Administrators (CoA) have disapproved the Mumbai Indians’ proposal of hosting some pre-season games in the United States so as to promote IPL in the US. However, the decision triggered a negative reaction among some BCCI officials who criticised the CoA decision openly.
In the light of the recent developments of the European football clubs targeting the Asian market to promote their game with pre-season friendly, defending champions Mumbai Indians have sought BCCI and CoA permission to run some of their own in the United States to tap into the market. However, that has been denied by the CoA, which subsequently brought a lot of criticism from few of the BCCI officials.
"Since MI participate in a BCCI tournament, they must take written permission if they are looking at any such move. Mumbai Indians' idea was to promote brand IPL and the game in the US and also to develop a new market for the game. The team would have headed to the US and also play a few games with local teams so as to attract cricket lovers in the region and get them up close and personal with their favourite stars,” a BCCI official told IANS.
The official has also revealed that the Reliance-owned franchise was also ready to share the money earned through gate receipts and sponsorship deals and even asked the CoA to provide the window as per their suitability. However, the committee didn’t relent.
"In fact, MI was also keen to share any revenue earned in the process. The IPL clause says that if you as a franchise play outside of the tournament, any revenue earned is to be shared. MI had no problem with that as the idea was to take the game to more homes and increase the fan base. MI even asked the CoA to provide the window as per their suitability.
"MI even asked the CoA to provide the window as per their suitability. Playing local matches would popularise the sport as we all know that cricket is not followed much there and also, there are many Indians there and the franchise wanted to go and experiment and see how they can give back to the game," the source added.
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