Slashing playoff purse not cost-cutting, says IPL chief

MUMBAI: The eight IPL franchises whose profits will be directly hit are not impressed with the costcutting measures taken by BCCI.

In a circular sent last week to the franchises, BCCI proposed reducing the ‘playoff standing fund’ by half, from ~50 crore. Effectively, IPL winners will get ~10 crore, having received ~20 crore last year. The runner-up will now receive ~6.25 crore (down from ~12.5 cr) and the third and the fourth placed teams will get ~4.375 cr each (~8.75 cr earlier).

The board maintains that it is only reversing some old decisions and scaling down costs. “It’s not cost-cutting. In 2013-14, to help the franchises, we had agreed to increase the money, but it was not part of the original contract,” IPL chairman Brijesh Patel told Hindustan Times on Wednesday.

A BCCI official clarified this would not affect the prize money players would make. “There are two components. One is the prize money that players get, which remains unaffected. Another is this fund, which we initiated for the franchises in 2013-14. Only that has been cut,” he said.

Patel said these are just prudent spending measures and should not be linked to economic slowdown. “In 2013, the franchises had requested saying they were not making money in IPL. So, BCCI thought we will also contribute so that player payments do not become an issue. Now, they are earning profits,” Patel said.

The other hit in earning that franchises will have to bear is the extra ~20 lakh per game they have to pay as staging fee to the home association. Now they’ll pay ~50 lakh per game. The BCCI will also pay the association ~50 lakh per game, up from ~30 lakh. The association would now get ~1 crore in all. The franchises are unhappy they were not kept in the loop. “None of these moves were discussed with us. We being stake-holders, BCCI should involve us before making these decisions,” a top franchise official said.

Some of them plan to write to BCCI. There has been no exchange of ideas between the franchises and this BCCI regime.

Earlier, in an IPL Governing Council meet, member Surinder Khanna had questioned retaining IMG’S ~33.5 crore annual contract for managing the league. However, it is learnt since their contract runs till 2022, they would continue. .