A lot has been made about the ‘greedy’ BCCI asking for more revenue, however people seem to be missing a fundamental point.
How is it that a nation of 1.2 billion gets nearly the same wealth as smaller countries with populations of 4.5 million (New Zealand), 6 million (West Indies) and 13 million (Zimbabwe), despite generating the bulk of the wealth?
(Whether you believe they generate 80% or 60-65%, that’s still the majority of the money).
BCCI, as per some pie charts floated in some print media, are on course to make $450 million in eight years – or $57 million USD per year.
New Zealand meanwhile are stated to make 9 million for a population of 4.5 million.
On a per capita basis, cricket in India is much poorer than places like NZ.
Many people fail to realise that India have 27 Ranji (first-class) teams. In total, there are about 5000 people in cricket’s main ecosystem in India.
Inflation in India (and many emerging economies) stands at nearly 10%. The salaries of Ranji players have increased 400% since 2008.
Not to mention these 27 teams leave huge swathes of India’s population with no access to major cricketing infra.
The majority of Australia’s population are within a 50km radius of a major cricket stadium and academy which has hosted international cricket. The same cannot be said for India.
By my own estimates, the BCCI needs about 40 affiliates under it in order to cover most of the country and about 120 stadiums in total.
States like Uttar Pradesh have a population of 200 million and only one first-class team. Its impossible for a bright cricketer brought up in parts of the country to actually play first-class cricket, let alone international cricket.
There are 20 stadiums under construction at the moment. Last time Australia toured, Ranchi was a new venue where they played the ODIs. It’s a fantastic stadium. So many times the BCCI has to build roads and other infrastructure as its lacking. This increases the costs of building stadiums manifold.
The bottom line is the overheads of the BCCI are huge compared to the smaller countries.
A case can probably made for Pakistan and Bangladesh – being populous countries – getting more, especially as in these countries inflation is a killer.
BCCI need all the income they can get to spread the game to all parts of the country.
As somebody who has travelled through India, the BCCI needs to make up for that infrastructure gap.
I hate BCCI President N Srinivasan, but that’s one thing I cannot fault him for – infrastructure building has being the cornerstone of his presidency.
It will yield dividends in years to come as more and more men and women participate from all around the country.
Already we can see the monopoly of the Mumbai cricket team sending players to India has been broken. India is producing cricketers, like MS Dhoni, from tier two towns.
The second major point is there has been a lot of misconception with regards to pie charts.
The assumption is that rights will be sold for 2.5 billion.
Now considering the GDP growth of India in the last eight years, especially on a purchase parity basis (PPP), it would be naive to suggest they would only sell for 2.5 billion.
The number quoted in the draft is 3.5 billion for the next eight years. That is a significant figure which seems to have been left out of the debate.
If the rights for the next eight year cycle go for 3.5 billion USD (as I expect them to), then every member will be better off on a nominal/absolute basis.
Nobody will lose money and an absolute gain suits countries like WI, New Zealand and Zimbabwe perfectly.
The least we can do is wait for the rights to be bid for. With the Champions Trophy being restored, they will be close to 3.5 billion as opposed to 2.5 quoted in most of the foreign media.
Before people accuse me of being a ‘BCCI fanboy’, I don’t support their:
(A) Stance on the DRS.
(B) Scheduling; India are playing non stop players are not machines, especially meaningless ODIs like the Asia cup.
(C) Bullying of Haroon Lorgat and others.
(D) Srinivasan and his support of the Chennai Super Kings plague within the Indian team.
(E) Their corruption in general
(F) Handling of Indian women’s cricket.
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