IPL franchises miffed over levy of additional staging fees

MUMBAI: The eight franchises of the Indian Premier League (IPL) have decided to write a letter to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) expressing reservations over the governing body’s unilateral decisions that will impact their earnings.

The BCCI reduced the ‘playoff standing fund’ of ~50 crore to be distributed to the top four teams of the IPL 2020 by half. Also, the franchises would have to additionally pay ~20 lakh per-match as venue staging fees to the state associations.

Speaking to Hindustan Times, IPL chairman Brijesh Patel said these financial calls would only amount to ‘loss on profit’ for the franchises. But it has not gone down well with the franchises.

“The least they can do is to involve us in discussions before taking such decisions and sending across emails,” a leading franchise official said.

“It’s all right to say that ‘it’s just ~20 lakh per match’. But for seven matches of the season, it amounts to ~1.4 crore. It’s the BCCI, which is earning more than ~2000 crores from the IPL, but the franchises are not even earning a fraction of that,” he added.

The problem, says another top boss of a franchise, is that the new BCCI regime is sending a wrong message that they are least concerned about the stakeholders. “Isn’t the BCCI getting too highhanded? Are they not, choosing a path of conflict, in the name of saving money? That’s the problem. We lost for the first ten years of IPL. They are forcing the franchises to come together and take a stand,” he said.

But the franchises are wary of inviting the wrath of the BCCI, and hence none of the top officials agreed to come on record. In 2019, a few franchises had come together for an informal meeting in England to explore ways of forming a union that would force the board to open a conversation window with them. The meeting did not bear any fruit.

This time, however, even those franchises which did not attend the England meet are willing to write to the BCCI. “No one wants to play a rebel at this stage. All said and done, these are elected BCCI office-bearers, and they would be running the show,” a third franchise official said.

“They may choose to justify the new costs that we would have to bear in the name of cost-cutting by calling it sundries but don’t forget, we have made all our budget allocations for this season. The additional cost would not hurt as much now, but tomorrow they might take another highhanded decision, if no one speaks now,” he added.

Almost all franchises agreed on one point, that the additional venue staging cost to be paid to the state associations is not justified. “Money is being given to the associations despite the fact that they don’t take any steps to improve the facilities at the stadiums. This move is to keep state units happy, in exchange of votes. All we get from associations is demand for more free tickets,” said a franchise head.

When presented with the BCCI’s argument that the costcutting isn’t affecting the players, a franchise official countered. “We are also for protecting player-interest. Isn’t it the franchises who pay the players in IPL? The salary cap for players has gone up from what was ~20 crore to ~85 crore. That cost is to be borne by the franchises,” said another official.