By Qaiser Mohammad Ali, IANS
New Delhi : Each association hosting the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 matches will receive at least Rs.80 million per year besides other revenues for providing their grounds and facilities.
Besides this, each association will receive a minimum of Rs.100,000 on each match day for providing assistance to the team franchise owners, a source in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said. Each ground will host a maximum of seven matches.
“The BCCI/IPL will be giving Rs.80 million to the match hosting associations and Rs.100,000 on every match day, as per a letter the host associations have received from the board. The associations that are not hosting IPL matches will also get some money but the figure has not been finalised,” the source told IANS.
IPL Chief Operations Officer Sundar Raman confirmed the match venues would get a certain amount for letting out their grounds.
“The associations will be getting money but I am not allowed to give out the exact figure. I can only say that this amount will be uniform for all match hosting associations,” Raman told IANS.
“The figure of Rs.80 million is the minimum figure. It could increase and a final decision on this will be taken at the IPL governing council meeting in Mumbai Thursday, when the eight franchise owners and all the match-hosting associations will also be present,” he said.
The host associations will also receive 20 percent tickets for each match. But the details of how these tickets will be eventually distributed will also be finalised at the meeting, to be held at BCCI headquarters Thursday.
Members of the Cricket Association of Bengal have already objected to the mode of ticket distribution and sharing of revenue for matches to be played at the Eden Gardens.
One common bone of contention is that the capacity of the grounds hosting IPL matches varies.
A formal agreement between the BCCI/IPL and the host associations is to be signed at Thursday’s meeting, as per the agenda distributed to all IPL stakeholders and host associations.
Associations are currently in the dark as to what facilities they will have to provide to the franchise owners during the first IPL season starting April 18, specifically on match days.
“There are several issues, like who is responsible for providing security during matches and who will handle media accreditation, that need urgent resolution so that we can start work,” said an official of a match-hosting association.
“We are expecting all these issues will be thrashed out at Thursday’s meeting, for which a long agenda has been listed.”
The meeting will also decide if all eight teams or only their captains should be asked to be present at the tournament opening ceremony at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore April 18, besides finalising the other details of the ceremony that is expected to be glitzy.
Amongst the other items to be finalised are the television production company and the production process, the IPL schedule, the final franchisee agreements, the commercial agreements, television commentators, player-related issues, franchisee-related issues, the official photographer and policy for photograph syndication for image rights.
The IPL Twenty20 tournament is a brainchild of BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi, who is also its chairman and commissioner. IPL has the support and backing of the International Cricket Council as well as boards of the 10 Test-playing countries.
The competing teams are the Mumbai Indians, Bangalore Royal Challengers, Kolkata Knight Riders, Kings of Punjab (Mohali), Rajasthan Royals (Jaipur), Hyderabad Deccan Chargers, Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Daredevils.
The teams will play 59 matches, mostly on weekends, for a total prize money of $3 million. Mumbai will host the semi-finals May 29 and 30 as well as the final June 1.