James Sutherland - Cricket Australia Chief, cast doubt over the sustainability of the Indian Premier League today, saying that the tournament and the franchisees are already facing financial pressure - reports Herald Sun from Australia.
Large crowds and worldwide television audiences have ushered in the first week of the inaugural Twenty20 competition, but Sutherland claimed owners of the eight franchises were already questioning how they would get returns on their multi-million dollar investments.
“It’s all very well to have a whole lot of hype around a competition … (but) in order for it to be sustainable it needs to have its own virtual cycle that keeps all the parties happy,” Sutherland told Sydney radio 2KY.
“`It’s nice to pay the players well and get big money from television rights and sponsorships but, ultimately, you’ve got to provide a return for the owners or, in this case, the franchises.
“As I understand it, the franchisees are starting to ask questions already.
“As we know, they’re giving away a lot of tickets to these matches and there’s arguably promotional costs to try to build crowd interest.
“But gee, it’s going to be a long six weeks for the franchisees if they struggle to sell tickets.
“I think in Hyderabad for the first game they only had a third of the ground full.”
The eight franchises sold for between $70 million and $120 million in the team auction in January.
On top of that, each team has shelled out millions for their playing roster with the likes of Indian one-day skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni drawing almost $1.6 million and Australian Andrew Symonds $1.4 million at the player auction.
Asked did he believe the IPL was already under financial pressure, Sutherland said: “It would have to be.
“You look at the number (cost) for the franchises, somewhere between 70 million and 100 million (dollars) and they pay the players on top of that, explain it to me how they get their return.”
Australians have dominated the first week of the IPL with Matthew Hayden, who smashed 81 off 46 balls in leading Chennai to a six-run win over Mumbai, becoming the fourth Australian to be named man of the match in eight matches.
But Hayden and the rest of Australia’s Test squad have only a week left to play in this year’s competition before being called home for a week-long camp ahead of their tour of the West Indies.
Australia’s re-scheduled tour of Pakistan will also clash with the IPL next year, with Sutherland adamant there was no way of finding a window in the crowded international schedule for the tournament.
‘There’s absolutely no possibility of a window that compromises the future tours program and our international commitment,” Sutherland said.
“It’s just simply there was no other window, no alternative.
“We had long and challenging meetings with Pakistan trying to get them to understand we’ve got a very busy schedule coming up and the only window available to us was the ones that we announced.”
- AAP
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