BCCI offer to help other Cricketing Boards by scheduling more bilateral contests

According to BCCI officials, the Indian Cricket team is scheduled to tour four countries in the span of the following 12 months. They will start with 6 limited overs fixtures in Sri Lanka, then they travel down under to play a 4 Test match series against Australia, which will be followed by a tour to Africa, […]
 
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BCCI offer to help other Cricketing Boards by scheduling more bilateral contests

According to BCCI officials, the Indian Cricket team is scheduled to tour four countries in the span of the following 12 months. They will start with 6 limited overs fixtures in Sri Lanka, then they travel down under to play a 4 Test match series against Australia, which will be followed by a tour to Africa, containing three limited-over matches in Zimbabwe and three T20Is in South Africa. These bilateral tours will take precedence over all else, including the T20 World Cup that is scheduled to be held in Australia in October, once international cricket resumes.

Therefore, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the richest body in world cricket, has come up with a plan to help countries facing losses due to the cancellation of cricket worldwide, although the idea is mostly dependent on when Cricket resumes.

The unnamed BCCI officials also said that the board has implemented an exercise to calculate just how much income each cricketing nation has lost during the pandemic. They added that BCCI secretary Jay Shah has promised solutions to FTP restructuring during an ICC meeting this week, which effectively means that India has vouched to play more bilateral matches against smaller teams once the pandemic ends — a move that will help generate revenue for their cricket boards.

Later this year, the new Future Tours Programme (FTP) for the years 2023-2031 will be finalised.

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BCCI offer to help other Cricketing Boards by scheduling more bilateral contests

Speaking about the tours over the next 12 months, one of the officials assured that, “India will look to honour each of those commitments, as soon as we can.”

Although the ICC has chosen to wait and watch before cancelling the T20 World Cup this year, the BCCI official raised a point about how the Australian Cricket Board will be able to schedule a World Cup with 8 venues available, when they are thinking of holding more than one of India’s Test matches in one venue.

He asked, “Is the ICC serious when it expects eight venues to be available to them for a World Cup in October? Will all governments permit outbound travel in a sixteen-nation world event? Cricket Australia is thinking of holding multiple Test matches in a single venue for India’s tour in December. How will they arrange eight venues for a World Cup?”

The official further went on to add, “While we know that India can’t possibly tour every other country in a short span of time, it is possible to add matches to the existing home calendar and help other member boards out by covering current losses. A part of the proceeds from extra matches held in India may be given to the visiting team. A part of the proceeds from extra matches held in India may be given to the visiting team.”

In the current eight-year FTP cycle, the ECB makes $139 million from the ICC, while each of Cricket Australia, Cricket South Africa, Pakistan Cricket Board, New Zealand Cricket, Sri Lanka Cricket, Cricket West Indies and Bangladesh Cricket Board make $128 million. Zimbabwe gets $94 million.

On the other hand, the BCCI is estimated to annually earn Rs 2500 crores from the IPL (Indian Premier League) itself and around Rs 950 crores from bilateral cricket in 2020-21. It earns Rs 380 crores ($405million for 8 years) yearly from its share of ICC revenue. Therefore, the T20 World Cup does not hold much priority for the BCCI, and neither does the Asia Cup.

Moreover, each of these cricket boards, including BCCI, stand to earn around Rs 60-90 crores from the T20 World Cup. BCCI makes Rs 60 crores for just one home match from its deal with broadcasters, Star Sports, which further reduces the priority of a T20 World Cup for them.

The IPL, if and when it happens, will also prove to be beneficial for the other cricket boards. Each board receives 20% of earnings of their players as a release fee. In the postponed 13th season of the IPL, overseas players are anticipated to make a total of about Rs 240 crores, which makes the earnings for the board equivalent to Rs. 48 crores. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) have also offered to co-host the IPL, to benefit from staging fees along with the profit attained from releasing their own players.