BCCI's cut down of IPL playoffs fund finds opposition in franchises

The eight franchises participating in the 13^th edition of the Indian Premier League wrote to the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) urging the world’s richest cricket board to reconsider its decision of slashing the prize amount the teams would get during the tournament.

IPL Chairman Brijesh Patel told Hindustan Times, “The franchises’ views will be put up before the IPL Governing Council that will meet soon. Then we will decide. But it’s unlikely that we can have any change.”

The move comes in view of the BCCI had on Wednesday (March 4) deciding to cut down the money for this year’s champions and the runners-up of the IPL to almost halve as part of its cost-cutting measures.

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In a circular sent to all IPL franchises, the BCCI had notified that instead of a whopping ₹20 crore, the IPL champion team will now receive ₹10 crore and the two losing qualifiers will now get ₹4.3 crore each in the glitzy event which gets underway on March 29.

“The financial rewards have been reworked as a part of the cost-cutting measures. The champions will get ₹10 crore instead of ₹20 crore. The runners-up will get ₹6.25 crore from earlier ₹12.5 crore,” a BCCI notification, in possession of PTI, read.

The franchises of the teams qualifying for the playoffs were being awarded from a ‘playoff standing fund’ of ₹50 crore. However, the top board decided to slash the amount and argued that the franchises are now self-sufficient.

“This fund was in place because the franchisees told us in 2013 that they were not making money in IPL. Now they are doing well. It’s just loss in profits (for them),” Patel told HT.

In the letter to BCCI, the franchises call the fund “a strong incentive for teams to continually improve the performance”, adding that they collectively believe rewinding that will be a step backward in the progress of the IPL.

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Another of the BCCI’s decision being challenged by the franchises is the idea of increasing the venue staging fee for teams from ₹30 lakh to ₹50 lakh, payable to the associations that stage the games.

“The associations bring about no improvement in stadium facilities and want more money,” an official from a franchise told HT.

Meanwhile, this opposition was also not considered by the board, to which Patel said, “It’s not just decided that the franchises have to pay the associations more, even BCCI is paying them more. The state unit’s expenses too have gone up.”

“It’s important for BCCI to respect the franchises as stakeholders and give them their due. We will be watching BCCI’s response closely,” a top franchise official said, hoping that their united decision will reflect their strength and the board’s top brass will consider reconsidering their previous held decisions.