How Riches Of IPL Came To Dominate Cricket Market

Chetan Narula looks at the growth of the world’s premier T20 competition and analyses how it has become a self-financing behemoth that bestrides the game.

Back in December, at the 2019 players’ auctions, Yuvraj Singh went unsold in the first round. Even at his ‘low’ base price of around £90,000, no franchise fancied him. It wasn’t surprising – for at least the last two years, Singh has come across as a spent force.

Then, something surprising happened when unsold players were called in for a final bidding round. As Singh’s name was called out again, Mumbai Indians put up their paddle. It was the only bid and they bought him on the cheap, well, in IPL terms.

That last phrase is mighty important. In any other global T20 league, £90,000 is a lot of money. You can buy a useful all-rounder who features for a majority of the season and impacts on a couple of games. In comparison, Singh has featured in four matches in 2019 (all in the first half of this season), scoring 98 runs with a highest of 53.

Mumbai Indians are a rich franchise, with a huge squad, a plethora of coaching staff, and can throw ‘loose change’ around. But it underlines the IPL’s spending power, incomparable to any other league.

Sample this. In September 2017, Star India (earlier part of Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Asia and now owned by Walt Disney Asia Pacific) paid almost £2bn for broadcasting five years of IPL. The deal jetted the league to a level similar to the NBA and Major League Baseball (MLB). In cricketing terms, too, it was monstrous, unlike any seen previously. .

Fox paid £920m for six years of Big Bash League (2018), while GTV paid £62m for Bangladesh Premier League (2017). Pakistan Super League’s broadcast rights were valued at £35m (2016).