BCCI set to incur losses of over USD 217 million after IPL 2021 postponement

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is set to lose over INR 2000 crore (US$ 217 million) of the broadcast and sponsorship money from the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021, which was indefinitely postponed on Tuesday owing to a rise in COVID-19 cases across teams.

The BCCI was forced to postpone the IPL 2021 after multiple cases of COVID-19 were reported among players and support staff from Ahmedabad and New Delhi in the last couple of days.

“We would be losing anything between Rs 2000 to Rs 2500 crore for the midway postponement of this season. I would say something in the range of Rs 2200 crore will be closer to accurate estimation,” a senior BCCI official told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

The 60-match T20 tournament was set to conclude on May 30 in Ahmedabad. However, the postponement came after 29 completed matches as the dreaded virus halts the T20 tournament.

The biggest deficit for the BCCI is the money from Star Sports – for the broadcast rights – of the tournament.

If the host broadcaster pays the amount on a per match basis then it would be around INR 1580 crore out of the INR 3270 crore for the full tournament.

If Star pays per match, then the amount for 29 matches would be Rs 1580 crore approximately out of what would have been Rs 3270 crore for a full tournament. This means a loss of Rs 1690 crore for the Board.

Similarly, the BCCI is likely to get less than the half amount agreed with mobile manufacturers VIVO – IPL’s title sponsors. Additionally, more sponsors like Unacademy, Dream11, CRed, Upstox, and Tata Motors, who pay in the range of Rs 120 crore each. Some subsidiary sponsors are also there.

“Slash all the payments by half or a bit less and you will be reaching a loss in the range of 2200 crore. The actual losses could be much more but this is a back of the hand calculation for the season,” the official said.

(With inputs from agencies)