Revenue from IPL helps overall growth of the game, feels Rahul Dravid
Rahul Dravid has stated that the revenue that the IPL generates is extremely important for the overall growth of the game in the country, as it gets into the system at all levels. The former Indian skipper has also added that a bio-secure environment in domestic cricket is difficult to emulate.
After much deliberation and discussion, the BCCI went ahead with the planning of Indian Premier League, that will kick-start Indian players’ busy campaign for the foreseeable future. Once the league is over, the team will travel Down Under before hosting England, against whom India will play as many as 10 Test matches - home and away - in 2021.
However, there has been no clarity of sorts regarding the Indian domestic cricket calendar, with the reports claiming that the Syed Mushtaq Ali and Vijay Hazare Trophy are both all but gone. With no contract system to fall back on, the domestic players have been left in lurch and Rahul Dravid, the NCA director, thus stated that the IPL plays a vital role in putting things in place.
"I'm sure leagues like the IPL will be able to put in the kind of biosecure environments required, like what EPL, Bundesliga or what ECB did with the England-West Indies series. I'm sure every effort will be made to do that. Let's be honest. There is a lot of revenue that rides with tournaments like the IPL. I know if you're cynical about it, you can only look at the money that the big players make or maybe the franchises or BCCI make, but where does that money go? It goes down to state associations, in conducting Under-19 and Under-16 tournaments, so a lot of the revenue associated with the game,” Dravid said in a webinar hosted by Deccan Herald, reported ESPN Cricinfo.
"The fact of the matter is, none of the domestic sport actually generates any revenue. In fact, it costs a lot of money to hold. So if you want to give young boys and girls the opportunity to play, if you want to give them opportunities to express their talent, money has got to come from somewhere. The reality is, to conduct tournaments and develop high-class athletes, it costs money; there's a financial element involved.
"It's easy to say we're conducting [the IPL] it only because of the huge finances riding on it. I would like to think, without compromising on safety and ensuring all the SOPs are in place to conduct a safe and secure tournament, the money generated from the IPL filters all through our sport and helps fund junior and domestic cricket. That is why sporting organisations are keen to conduct these tournaments. They understand if we don't have that revenue, not only will that tournament suffer but the ripple effect will be felt all the way down."
When the pandemic struck India, the country was almost on the verge of completing the domestic season and among the senior men’s events, the Irani Cup had to be scrapped. However, things are dire in current situations and expecting the season to begin in October is too optimistic. Dravid feels that the delay will impact domestic cricket big-time.
"Hopefully if we're able to find a level of cure or vaccine even towards the end of the year, we'll be in a position to be able to complete, even if not the whole domestic season, but large parts of it. Obviously prioritising what that would be is important so that young boys and girls don't miss out on cricket for a year. We've been lucky so far [that the pandemic started in March towards the end of BCCI's domestic season], but come October, things might start getting stressful.
"A few international tournaments have been cancelled and repositioned, and people can always find time and place for that, but once October comes around, that's when I think it'll start hitting us more. The next domestic season, for a lot of our young domestic players - juniors, Under-16s, Under-19s and women cricketers - start in October. If we aren't able to get back to a level of normalcy from then - it could take longer - we'll see the real impact on our domestic cricket and grassroots cricket. This year is probably more important for someone in his final year of Under-19s, than say for someone who is 23-24."
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