"It's About Business And Not Cricket": Former Pakistan Captain On IPL Media Rights

The Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights for the 2023-27 cycle created a lot of hype recently as it was sold for over Rs 48,000 crore. At the IPL media rights e-auction Disney Star retained the TV telecast rights with a bid price of Rs 23,575 crore. Reliance's Viacom18, won the rights for package C with a Rs 3,258 crore winning bid. As a result of this, Viacom, who also won the rights for Package B with a pay out of Rs 20,500 crore (Rs 50 crore per match for 410 matches), ended up paying Rs 23,758 crore for the entire bouquet of digital rights. The Package D, which included rights for the Rest of the world, was won for a bid of Rs 1058 crore.

In the end it was the BCCI that laughed its way to the bank, raking in a total sum of Rs 48,390 crore for the packages A, B, C and D.

However, former Pakistan cricket team captain Rashid Latif has made some strong observations on the IPL media rights.

"It's about business and not cricket. This is not ideal situation. If we have to give money, then many people earn money. This is not about quality at all, it is business totally," Rashid Latif said in a discussion on YouTube channel Caught Behind.

"Call Indians and ask them for how many hours did they watch the matches (in IPL). This is business. I have said nothing else. Give whatever name you might, value of the product etc. This is business. We have to see how much it sustains."

The franchise cricket league is currently a 10-team affair and there are talks that it might be a 94-match affair in the coming times. BCCI secretary Jay Shah reacted to the development after the e-auction of the media rights.

"That is an aspect we have worked upon. Let me inform you that from the next ICC FTP calendar, IPL will have an official two-and-a-half month window so that all the top international cricketers can participate. We have had discussions with various boards as well as the ICC," Shah told news agency PTI.

With IPL likely to get a bigger window, it might mean that the international calendar might be squeezed further. Former Pakistan cricket team captain Shahid Afridi reacted to the news recently.

"It's all about the market. It's about the economy. Your biggest market is India. What they say, it will be done that way and it will happen that way," Shahid Afridi said on a show titled 'Game Set Match'on SAMAATV's YouTube channel.