With just around a month left before the 10th edition of the Indian Premier League begins, the country’s most lucrative sporting event has received a huge blow as there are huge apprehensions over the tournament being staged.
According to media reports, the state associations have not yet received the money from the BCCI which has thrown the upcoming edition of the tournament into trouble. The state associations get a grant of Rs 60 lakh per IPL match. Of this, Rs 30 lakh comes from the IPL franchisee while the remaining amount is paid by the BCCI. The staging associations use this amount to conduct the matches.
Previously, the state bodies used to receive an advance from the BCCI and received the rest of the money during the course of the tournament and later. However, the scenario has completely changed this year as the Supreme Court last year had prohibited the BCCI from disbursing money to state associations unless they adopted the Lodha Commission reforms.
“Every year around this time we receive the advance payment from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). But this has not happened till now. We need the money to start preparing for the tournament. It will be quite difficult to stage an event of this magnitude on our own if we do not get the advance soon,” a Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) source told Sportskeeda.
This is not the first time that any series or tournament is facing such a scenario. Previously, the Test, ODI and T20I series against New Zealand, England, Bangladesh and Australia were in jeopardy too as the state associations stated they did not have the money to conduct the matches. But fortunately, the Supreme Court sorted out the issue immediately by stating that money could be released to state associations specifically for hosting the matches.
However, nothing concrete has been heard on the IPL matter yet which has cast huge doubts over the tournament. The BCCI is still under turmoil after the Supreme Court removed the top brass of BCCI, including president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke earlier this year. The court then appointed a four-member committee, headed by former CAG Vinod Rai, to oversee the board but the situation inside the board is still far from being settled.
There was also a customary meeting of the IPL committee and staging associations held in Mumbai recently and the state bodies have reportedly warned the board that they would not be able to conduct the matches if they do not get the funds immediately.